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Giants Outright Miguel Yajure

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The Giants passed right-hander Miguel Yajure through outright waivers unclaimed and have assigned him to Triple-A Sacramento, tweets Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area. That removes him from the 40-man roster and opens a spot for right-hander Ross Stripling, whose two-year deal has been officially announced by the Giants.

San Francisco claimed Yajure off waivers from the Pirates just 11 days ago, and they’ll now be able to stash the 6’1″, 215-pound righty in the upper minors as a depth piece for either the rotation or the bullpen. The 24-year-old righty, originally signed as an amateur by the Yankees, went to Pittsburgh alongside Roansy Contreras as part of the package that sent Jameson Taillon from the Pirates to the Yankees.

Yajure has spent time in the Majors in each of the past three seasons but has yet to find much success, logging a 7.58 ERA in 46 1/3 MLB frames to date. Command has been a considerable obstacle, as he’s walked 13% of his opponents and been tagged for an average of 1.94 home runs per nine innings pitched. That said, Yajure isn’t all that far removed from ranking as one of the better pitching prospects in both the Yankees’ and Pirates’ systems, and he enjoyed a strong Triple-A showing with Pittsburgh in 2021 when he logged 43 2/3 innings of 3.09 ERA ball with a 23% strikeout rate and 7.5% walk rate.

Elbow and forearm injuries limited Yajure to just nine starts during that otherwise solid 2021 showing in Triple-A, however, and he returned with struggles not only in the big leagues but in Triple-A this past season as well (6.09 ERA in 54 2/3 innings). Now that he’s successfully been passed through waivers, Yajure can focus on getting healthy and rounding back into form with an organization that has developed a knack for maximizing output from its pitchers. The Giants are exceptionally deep in rotation options, with Logan Webb, Alex Wood, Alex Cobb, Anthony DeSclafani, Jakob Junis and newcomers Stripling and Sean Manaea, so at this point, Yajure is likelier to be viewed as bullpen depth than starting depth.

Rockies Sign Pierce Johnson

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The Rockies added an arm and a local product to their bullpen Tuesday, announcing the signing of free-agent righty Pierce Johnson to a one-year deal. The contract reportedly comes with a $5MM guarantee for Johnson, a client of John Boggs & Associates. He can earn an additional $750K of incentives. It’s a nice guarantee for a pitcher coming off an injury-plagued season, though the Rockies perhaps needed to make an aggressive offer in order to persuade the righty to spend his home games at Coors Field, even if Johnson is a Denver native.

Johnson, 31, once ranked among the sport’s top pitching prospects with the Cubs, who originally drafted him with the No. 43 overall pick in 2012, but he didn’t establish himself in Chicago or in San Francisco after being plucked off waivers by the Giants in 2018. An impressive strikeout rate in Triple-A might’ve helped him garner some attention overseas, however, and Johnson parlayed a dominant one-year stop with the Hanshin Tigers of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball in 2019 into a three-year run with the Padres.

In 2020-21, after signing a two-year deal that contained a 2022 club option, Johnson was a reliable member of the San Diego bullpen. Through 78 2/3 frames, he pitched to a 3.09 ERA with an excellent 32.1% strikeout rate — albeit against an 11.1% walk rate that resided well north of the league average.

The Padres picked up their $3MM option on the heels of that strong showing, but the 2022 season brought an unwelcome change of fortune, as Johnson was sidelined for much of the season due to a forearm injury. When healthy enough to pitch, Johnson totaled just 14 1/3 innings of 5.02 ERA ball; his 32.8% strikeout rate and 12.5% walk rate were at least loosely in line with his 2020-21 levels, but Johnson was plagued by a sky-high .382 average on balls in play. Whether because of the forearm injury or something else, Johnson’s fastball — which averaged 96.3 mph in 2020 — sat at a diminished 94.7 mph in 2022.

Rough as the 2022 season was for Johnson, that 3.09 ERA from 2020-21 — paired with a 13.9% swinging-strike rate and elite spin rate on his curveball — surely garnered interest from multiple clubs. He’ll end up pitching for his hometown Rockies, joining a bullpen that lost Carlos Estevez to the Angels and will likely also see veteran Alex Colome sign elsewhere. While Daniel Bard is entrenched as manager Bud Black’s closer, Johnson has an opportunity to take the lead in a largely unsettled setup corps if he can return to form.

Beyond Bard and Johnson, the Colorado bullpen has righty Dinelson Lamet and lefty Brent Suter as veteran options but is otherwise lacking in experience. Lucas Gilbreath has shown some potential in two big league seasons, but outside of injured Tyler Kinley (who’s recovering from Tommy John surgery), the Rockies don’t have another reliever with even a full year of Major League experience on the 40-man roster.

With Johnson now on board, the Rockies’ projected payroll bumps up to nearly $163MM, per Roster Resource. That puts them nearly $20MM past their franchise-record Opening Day payroll of $145MM, set back in 2019. The extent to which Colorado can continue spending, with payroll already at that level, remains unclear, though in addition to another bullpen arm, the Rox could still use help in center field, in the rotation and at catcher.

Thomas Harding of MLB.com first reported the two sides were in agreement on a one-year deal (via Twitter). The New York Post’s Joel Sherman reported the terms of the contract.

Red Sox Sign Kenley Jansen

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Dec. 13: The Sox have made it official, announcing the signing. Infielder Hoy Park was designated for assignment in a corresponding move.

Dec. 7, 11:03am: Jansen will be paid an even $16MM in each season of the contract, per Alex Speier of the Boston Globe.

9:35am: The Red Sox are in agreement on a two-year, $32MM contract with free-agent right-hander Kenley Jansen, reports ESPN’s Jeff Passan (Twitter link). The Wasserman client becomes the third free-agent reliever to sign in Boston this winter, joining righty Chris Martin and lefty Joely Rodriguez in what’s becoming a rapidly overhauled bullpen.

"<strongChange was necessary in the Boston ’pen, however, as Red Sox relievers logged the fifth-worst ERA in baseball (4.59) and ninth-worst FIP (4.13) — due in no small part to combining for the fifth-highest walk rate of any relief corps in MLB. The ninth inning, in particular, was a revolving door for the Sox in 2022. Nine different relievers recorded saves, and righties John Schreiber, Tanner Houck and Matt Barnes finished the season in a three-way tie for the team lead, at eight apiece.

Jansen, nine saves away from 400 in his illustrious career, should bring some much-needed stability to the situation. The 35-year-old’s velocity is down a couple miles per hour from its 2014 peak, but he’s managed to find plenty of success even as his deadly cutter has faded from an average of nearly 95 mph to a 92.2 mph average with the Braves in 2022.

It was just a one-year stay in Atlanta for Jansen, who’d spent the prior 12 seasons of his big league career with the Dodgers, but the results were strong. Jansen saved 41 games and pitched to a 3.38 ERA with even better secondary marks: a 32.7% strikeout rate, an 8.5% walk rate and a 2.76 SIERA, to name a few. That walk rate, in particular, marked a pronounced rebound from an uncharacteristic spike to 12.9% in 2021, which now looks more like an anomaly than the start of a worrying trend.

Jansen’s 2022 season wasn’t without its red flags. Last season’s 11.4% swinging-strike rate was a career-low by a full two percentage points and clocked in 3.9 percentage points south of his 15.3% career mark. He also required a stint on the injured list due to an irregular heartbeat for the fourth time in his career. Jansen has had a pair of cardiac ablation procedures in hopes of finally putting the heart issues behind him. While it seems he’s not entirely clear of the longstanding issue, it’s also encouraging that he returned in the minimum 15 days this time around.

The 2022 season marked Jansen’s 13th season in the Majors, all of which have resulted in an ERA of 3.71 or lower (including nine sub-3.00 campaigns and four sub-2.00 seasons). Despite the brief absence due to his heartbeat issue, the otherwise-durable Jansen topped 60 innings in nine of the past ten full, 162-game seasons. It’s fair to say that he’s gone from virtually unbeatable in his 20s to “merely” excellent in his 30s, but Jansen still possesses a 3.08 ERA in 292 innings since turning 30.

A deepened relief corps with newly signed veterans allows the Red Sox to more confidently give some key young arms a look in the rotation. Garrett Whitlock has oscillated between starting and relieving, but the organization plans to use him as a starter in 2023, GM Brian O’Halloran said earlier in the offseason. Fellow righty Tanner Houck could also get a look in the rotation, O’Halloran added, though no formal decision has been announced on that front. In all likelihood, his role will depend on the manner in which the Sox are able to either bolster the starting rotation and/or further deepen the bullpen.

The Red Sox paid the luxury tax by a narrow margin in 2023, but with the potential departures of Xander Bogaerts, J.D. Martinez, Nathan Eovaldi, Michael Wacha, Rich Hill and Matt Strahm (who’s reportedly nearing a deal with the Phillies), Boston’s current luxury projection is nearly $60MM shy of the first-tier tax threshold — even including the salaries of newcomers Jansen, Martin and Rodriguez. Boston had more money coming off the books than nearly any team in the sport this winter, and as things stand, they’re more than $70MM from their franchise record for Opening Day payroll.

In that respect, the deluge of near-misses the Sox have had in free agency thus far are extra discouraging. The Red Sox made a three-year offer to Jose Abreu before he signed in Houston, for instance, and they reportedly believed they were close to a three-year, $40MM deal with righty Zach Eflin before he the Florida native the same contract with his home-state Rays. Boston has also reportedly made offers to Andrew Heaney and Tommy Kahnle before they agreed to deals with the Rangers and Yankees, respectively, and the Sox had talks with the Brewers about Kolten Wong before he was traded to the Mariners.

Frustrating as it must be for both the front office and fan base to see so many pursuits come up empty-handed, the Sox are still sporting as much financial firepower as any team on the market. Bringing Jansen into the fold gives the Sox a strong end-of-the-game presence, as he can join Martin and Schreiber in handling high-leverage spots next season. There’s still work to be done in the rotation and in the lineup, and Boston continues to pursue a reunion with Bogaerts as well as a possible extension with third baseman Rafael Devers. Jansen checks one notable item off chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom’s to-do list, but expect plenty of additional activity from the Sox as they look to leverage their considerable financial resources.

Giants Sign Ross Stripling

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1:05pm: The Giants announced the signing.

11:58am: The Giants have agreed to a two-year, $25MM contract with free-agent righty Ross Stripling, reports ESPN’s Jeff Passan (Twitter link). Stripling, a client of Excel Sports Management, will be able to opt out of the contract after the 2023 season. It’s the exact same set of terms the Giants used to reel in lefty Sean Manaea earlier this week.

The contract contains a $5MM signing bonus that’ll be paid out in equal $2.5MM installments — one in 2023 and one in 2024, per Joel Sherman of the New York Post (Twitter link). Stripling will also earn a $7.5MM salary this coming season before deciding whether to opt out of a $12.5MM salary for the 2024 campaign.

Stripling, 33, is surely a familiar face for Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, whose time as Dodgers general manager overlapped with Stripling’s time in Los Angeles. The veteran righty has served as a swingman for much of his time in the Majors, often functioning as a sixth starter with the Dodgers or with the Blue Jays, who acquired him at the 2020 trade deadline.

The 2022 season, however, saw Stripling step into a full-time rotation role when the Jays lost lefty Hyun Jin Ryu to Tommy John surgery. Stripling proved to be a godsend, making 24 starts and pitching to a 2.92 ERA in 123 1/3 innings out of the rotation. That’s an average of just over five frames per start, but Stripling’s results were nothing short of excellent.

In Stripling, the Giants will add a versatile arm who’s had success in multiple roles. He won’t overpower many hitters with a fastball that averaged just 91.9 mph, but Stripling offsets a below-average 20.7% strikeout rate with a solid 43.8% grounder rate and some of the best command in the Majors. This past season’s 3.7% walk rate was the third-lowest mark of any pitcher to throw at least 100 innings in 2022, and his 11% swinging-strike rate and 37.9% opponents’ chase rate at least suggest that there’s some strikeout upside even with the pedestrian velocity.

It bears mentioning that from 2020-21, Stripling logged an unsightly 5.14 ERA and 5.52 FIP in 150 2/3 innings between the Dodgers and Jays, due in no small part to a mammoth average of 2.2 homers per nine innings pitched. However, the long ball hasn’t been a prominent source of trouble for him outside those two seasons, and he registered a career-best 0.8 homer per nine frames this past season. Aside from that two-year rough patch, Stripling carries a sub-4.00 ERA in his other five MLB campaigns.

For the Giants, Stripling adds even more depth to an already strong group of potential starters. He joins the aforementioned Manaea as a complement to ace Logan Webb, lefty Alex Wood and righties Alex Cobb and Anthony DeSclafani. The Giants also enjoyed a nice rebound from swingman Jakob Junis in 2022, giving them at least seven rotation options on the big league roster.

It’s fair to wonder whether the addition of Stripling more formally removes the Giants from the bidding on free-agent ace Carlos Rodon, who opted out of the second year of his contract in San Francisco and has reportedly been seeking a deal of at least six to seven years in length this winter. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reported yesterday that the Giants remained in pursuit of Rodon even after agreeing to terms with Manaea, but Stripling further crowds the pitching staff.

Regardless of whether Rodon remains in the cards, the forthcoming additions of Manaea and Stripling position the Giants well in the event of injuries arising elsewhere on the starting staff. That’s critical for the Giants, given the health track records of several of their in-house options. DeSclafani tossed only 19 innings in 2022 due to a tendon injury in his ankle that ultimately required surgery. Wood and Cobb worked a mostly full slate of starts last year, but Cobb pitched just 158 innings from 2019-21 and Wood logged only 48 1/3 innings from 2019-20 due to shoulder and neck woes. Even Webb, who worked a team-high 192 1/3 innings in 2022, missed a few weeks in 2021 due to a shoulder strain.

After bringing Stripling into the fold, the Giants are up to a projected $157.6MM payroll for the upcoming season and a luxury-tax ledger just north of $180MM, per Roster Resource. They’re still more than $40MM south of their franchise-record $200.5MM Opening Day payroll and more than $50MM shy of the $233MM luxury-tax barrier. That type of payroll space sets the stage for another marquee addition, should the Giants find a deal to their liking. They’ve already added Manaea, Stripling and Mitch Haniger, in addition to retaining Joc Pederson on a qualifying offer, but the Giants have been linked to Rodon and are one of the primary suitors for free-agent shortstop Carlos Correa, so the Stripling pact surely isn’t their final move of the offseason.

Nationals Claim A.J. Alexy, Designate Lucius Fox

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The Nationals have claimed right-hander A.J. Alexy from the Rangers, per announcements from both teams. Alexy had been designated for assignment by the Rangers last week. The Nats designated shortstop Lucius Fox for assignment in a corresponding move.

Alexy, 25 in April, was a Dodgers draftee who came to the Rangers via the Yu Darvish trade in 2017. He subsequently moved his way up the minor league ranks, but missed much of 2019 due to injury and didn’t pitch at all in 2020 due to the pandemic wiping out the minors that year. Regardless, the Rangers liked him enough to add him to their 40-man roster prior to the Rule 5 draft in late 2020.

He got back on track with a nice season in 2021, splitting his time between Double-A and Triple-A. Over 65 innings on the farm in 10 starts and six relief appearances, he had a 1.66 ERA, 29.8% strikeout rate and 10.6% walk rate. That was enough to get him a promotion to the big leagues late in the year. In 2022, Alexy made four MLB appearances but was lit up for ERA of 11.57 in that small sample. He tossed 96 innings in Triple-A but posted a 5.91 ERA with a 23.6% strikeout rate and 12.8% walk rate.

The Rangers relied on many youngsters for their pitching staff in 2022 but are going in a different direction for 2023, acquiring Jake Odorizzi before signing both Jacob deGrom and Andrew Heaney. Those moves pushed Alexy down the depth chart and off the roster, with his DFA coming when they announced the Heaney signing.

For the Nats, they are deep in rebuild mode and can take fliers on young players like Alexy. He still has one option year remaining and has shown some quality results in the past. They can keep him in the minors in 2023 and see if he takes a step forward in his age-25 season.

Fox, 25, was a high profile international signing of the Giants out of the Bahamas back in July of 2015, earning a $6MM bonus. Prospect evaluators considered him a gifted infielder with a distinct lack of power. That latter point has certainly proven to be true as Fox has never hit more than five home runs in any season since then. The Giants traded him to the Rays in the Evan Longoria deal but Tampa later flipped him to the Royals for Brett Phillips. He then went to the Orioles and Nationals on waiver claims. He made his MLB debut in 2022 but hit just .080/.115/.080 in 28 trips to the plate. In 216 minor league plate appearances, he hit .241/.321/.352 for a wRC+ of 81. The Nats will now have a week to trade him or pass him through waivers. He’s now out of options, meaning any team that acquires him would have to keep him on their active roster or else designate him for assignment again.

Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors tweeted news of the Alexy claim prior to the official announcement.

Royals To Sign Jakson Reetz To Minor League Deal

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The Royals are signing catcher Jakson Reetz to a minor league deal, according to Robert Murray of FanSided. He will get an invite to Spring Training.

Reetz, 27 in January, got a brief major league debut in 2021, making two plate appearances over two games with the Nationals. That’s the extent of his big league experience thus far. He was designated for assignment in September and eventually signed a minor league deal with the Brewers.

His 2022 got off to a great start, as he hit 22 home runs in 64 Double-A games, getting bumped up to Triple-A and adding three more long balls. In August, the Brewers added him to their 40-man roster to prevent him from triggering an opt-out, but they kept him down on the farm on optional assignment. Though the club liked him enough to try to retain him, he got squeezed off the roster two weeks later. Reetz signed a minor league deal with the Royals in August and hit well as the season was winding down. In 21 games, he added another five home runs to bring his season total to 30. Between the different teams, he hit .264/.359/.575 for a wRC+ of 141.

Reetz was generally considered a glove-first catcher as a prospect, so to see him suddenly have a power outburst is certainly an encouraging development. The Royals already got a look at him as the 2022 season was winding down and liked him enough to bring him back for catching depth. The club has Salvador Perez entrenched as their everyday backstop, which has moved prospect MJ Melendez into an unknown role where he occasionally catches but also plays the outfield to keep his bat in the lineup. The only other catcher on the 40-man roster is Freddy Fermín, who has just three games of MLB experience. Reetz and Fermín could potentially battle for a spot as a third/backup catcher on the active roster, alongside any other depth options the club adds between now and Opening Day.

Twins, Patrick Murphy Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Twins are in agreement with right-hander Patrick Murphy on a minor league contract, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post (on Twitter). Presumably, the 27-year-old will get a chance to compete for a big league job in Spring Training.

Murphy has suited up at the highest level in each of the past three seasons. Originally a third-round selection of the Blue Jays in 2013, he spent parts of eight years in the Toronto system. Murphy was generally regarded as a solid prospect, but he battled myriad injury concerns in the minors that delayed his push up the ladder. He finally reached the majors during the abbreviated 2020 season, working six innings of relief across four appearances.

Toronto shuttled him on and off the active roster for most of 2021, eventually designating him for assignment in August. He landed with the Nationals via waivers, making 17 appearances with Washington down the stretch. Murphy held his roster spot over the winter and pitched six more times this past April before the Nats took him off the 40-man roster. He went unclaimed this time around, spending the remainder of the year with Triple-A Rochester before electing minor league free agency at season’s end.

Over his three MLB seasons, Murphy has tallied 39 2/3 innings of 4.76 ERA ball. He has a below-average 20.3% strikeout rate and an elevated 10.7% walk percentage. He’s averaged north of 96 MPH on his fastball but hasn’t missed many bats at the big league level. Murphy did punch out a solid 26.1% of opponents with a lofty 50% grounder rate over 63 frames in Triple-A this year, although he still walked just under 12% of batters faced.

While Murphy has some experience as a starter in the minors, he’s worked primarily as a multi-inning reliever for the past three seasons. That’s the role he’s expected to play in Minnesota, where he’ll compete for a spot in Rocco Baldelli’s bullpen. He’s out of minor league option years, so if he does crack the MLB roster at any point, he’ll have to remain in the majors or again be designated for assignment.

Cubs, Ben DeLuzio Agree To MInor League Deal

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The Cubs are in agreement with outfielder Ben DeLuzio on a minor league contract, reports Robert Murray of FanSided (Twitter link). The Ball Players Agency client receives an invite to big league Spring Training.

DeLuzio has spent six seasons in the minor leagues since going undrafted in 2016. After five-plus years in the Diamondbacks system, he moved to the St. Louis organization last winter in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 draft. The right-handed hitter had a solid season with Triple-A Memphis, putting up a .277/.353/.429 line with a personal-best nine home runs across 408 plate appearances. He stole 30 bases in 36 attempts while playing almost exclusively center field, and that speed and defense profile made him a viable September call-up.

The Cards selected him onto the 40-man roster for the season’s final month. He played in 22 games, mostly as a late-game defensive replacement. DeLuzio worked 65 innings in center field and picked up 25 plate appearances, collecting three hits and walks apiece. St. Louis carried him on their Wild Card series roster and plugged him in both games off the bench. At the end of the year, the Cards non-tendered him and sent him back to free agency.

Now 28, DeLuzio has a bit of MLB experience under his belt. He’ll get a chance to compete for a big league job in Spring Training after his solid Triple-A showing. The Cubs signed Cody Bellinger to play center field, with Ian Happ and Seiya Suzuki manning the corners. Utilityman Christopher Morel could factor into the outfield mix as well, while DeLuzio will battle Nelson Velázquez and any other non-roster invitees for a bench spot.

Marlins Showing Interest In Alex Reyes

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The Marlins have checked in with the representatives for free agent reliever Alex Reyes, report Craig Mish and Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. The former All-Star closer is coming off a season lost to shoulder surgery.

Reyes has had an unfortunate number of injuries over the course of his career. One of the sport’s top pitching prospects during his days in the Cardinals system, he debuted in the big leagues with 46 innings of 1.57 ERA ball in 2016. That’d be almost the entirety of his major league work for a while, though, as he underwent Tommy John surgery the ensuing offseason. That cost him all of the 2017 campaign. Rehab from the TJ procedure and a subsequent lat strain limited him to just one MLB appearance in 2018, and he pitched only four times at the highest level in ’19 while struggling in the minors in his attempt to return to form.

St. Louis shuttled him on and off the active roster throughout the abbreviated 2020 season, but he finally carved out a full year in 2021. Working exclusively in relief, the righty tossed 72 1/3 innings with a 3.24 ERA. He carried a 1.52 mark while holding opponents to a .154/.307/.210 line in the first half to secure the aforementioned trip to the Midsummer Classic. The stretch run was a disaster, though, as he was tagged for a 5.52 ERA across 31 frames. Reyes’ strikeout and walk numbers were roughly the same in both halves, but he became increasingly homer-prone towards year’s end. That carried over into the playoffs, where Reyes surrendered a walk-off homer to Chris Taylor in the final National League Wild Card game.

While it wasn’t clear at the time, that looks as if it’ll be Reyes’ final pitch in a Cardinals uniform. St. Louis flirted with the idea of moving him to the rotation last offseason, but those plans were scuttled when he felt renewed soreness in his shoulder. He underwent surgery in May and St. Louis non-tendered him at the end of the season rather than pay an arbitration salary projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz at $2.85MM.

That’s at least partially motivated by the fact that Reyes isn’t expected to be ready for Opening Day, as Jackson and Mish point out. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote last month the 28-year-old was targeting a return to game action by May, suggesting he’s still a few weeks behind the typical pitcher’s schedule as he builds back arm strength.

Despite the delayed timetable, it’s understandable other teams would consider rolling the dice on his upside. The Blue Jays and Dodgers have also been linked to Reyes at points this offseason. Reyes struck out 30% of opponents while averaging around 97 MPH on his fastball in 2021, and hitters came up empty more than half the time they offered at his mid-80s slider. A sky-high 16.4% walk rate was cause for some trepidation even before his latest lost season, but there’s no doubt a fully healthy Reyes boasts an electric arsenal. He also saved 29 games in 2021, suggesting he’s capable of taking on a ninth-inning role if entrusted with that responsibility.

Miami had a slightly below-average bullpen in 2022, finishing 22nd in ERA (4.15) and 13th in strikeout percentage (24%). Anthony Bass, their top reliever, was dealt to the Blue Jays midseason, while they flipped Jeff Brigham to the Mets at year’s end. Steven Okert, Richard Bleier and Tanner Scott are on hand as left-handed options, but the depth from the right side is lacking behind Dylan Floro. Adding a power righty arm makes some sense, and new manager Skip Schumaker has some familiarity with Reyes after spending this past season as the Cards bench coach.

Rays Designate J.P. Feyereisen For Assignment, Expect To Trade Him

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10:40am: At the press conference to introduce Eflin, general manager Peter Bendix said the Rays fully expect to find a trade partner for Feyereisen (Twitter link via Topkin).

9:58am: The Rays have designated right-hander J.P. Feyereisen for assignment in order to open a spot on then roster for right-hander Zach Eflin, whose previously reported three-year deal is now official.

While Feyereisen’s DFA might raise some eyebrows, given a sensational 2022 season in which he pitched 24 1/3 shutout innings for Tampa Bay with a 25-to-5 K/BB ratio, the decision comes less than a week after the right-hander required surgery to repair the labrum and rotator cuff in his ailing right shoulder. Feyereisen won’t throw a ball for at least four months and is expected to be shelved well into the 2023 season. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets that Feyereisen isn’t expected back until late August.

Prior to the 2022 season, Feyereisen had enjoyed success in the upper minors but displayed more red flags in the big leagues. A 2.73 ERA in 56 innings between the Brewers and the Rays in 2021 was clearly encouraging, but Feyereisen walked a whopping 14.1% of his opponents that season, making that output appear unsustainable. The Rays, however, managed to sharpen his command in 2022, as he fanned 29.1% of hitters against a tidy 5.8% walk rate. His career walk rate of 12% is still concerning, particularly when coupled with the recent shoulder operation, but Feyereisen clearly has the makings of a solid late-game reliever if he can sustain his improved 2022 command.

The Rays, of course, could have opted to keep Feyereisen on the 40-man roster and place him on the 60-day injured list when Spring Training commences — there’s no injured list in the offseason — but they’re in somewhat of a bind, given that Feyereisen is just one of several players ticketed for the 60-day IL when camp begins. Both Shane Baz and Andrew Kittredge figure to require placement on the 60-day IL themselves, as each is recovering from Tommy John surgery. Waiting until Spring Training to make those moves would’ve effectively left the Rays working with a 37-man roster throughout the offseason.

Even with Feyereisen’s recent surgery, there’s a strong chance today’s DFA will spell the end of his time with the Rays. He has only two-plus years of MLB service time, meaning an acquiring team could control the 29-year-old righty for another four seasons. Even if he’ll miss a considerable portion of the 2023 season, there’s plenty of appeal in adding an arm of Feyereisen’s caliber, whether via a small trade or waiver claim, knowing he can be reasonably expected to be healthy for the 2024-26 seasons. The Rays clearly didn’t feel they had the luxury of rostering three immediate 60-day IL placements for the remainder of the offseason, but other clubs with greater flexibility won’t have such pressing concerns.

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