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Chris Muller

White Sox Sign Chris Muller To Minor League Contract

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The White Sox signed righty Chris Muller to a minor league deal over the weekend, according to an announcement from their Triple-A team. He’s been assigned to their top affiliate in Charlotte.

Muller, 27, has yet to make his big league debut. He received his first major league call from the Rays in May but was optioned back out without making an appearance. After he suffered an injury in Triple-A, Tampa Bay released him. The Rays brought him back on a minor league pact but released him again last week.

A former 17th round pick, Muller is strictly a bullpen option. He’s worked 20 innings across 16 appearances with the Rays’ top minor league club this season, posting a 4.95 ERA. His 24.4% strikeout rate was solid, but he walked a lofty 12.2% of batters faced. It was a similar story the year before, when Muller fanned 28.1% of opponents against a 12.7% walk percentage en route to a 4.91 ERA in 58 2/3 Triple-A frames.

Chicago traded away a number of relievers at the deadline, leading to MLB calls for the likes of Declan Cronin, Bryan Shaw, Edgar Navarro and Lane Ramsey. That thinned the Triple-A depth, making it a fairly sensible landing spot for Muller to look for his initial MLB appearance.

Rays Re-Sign Chris Muller To Minor League Deal

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The Rays announced last week they’ve re-signed reliever Chris Muller to a minor league contract. According to the transactions log at MLB.com, he was assigned to the team’s Florida complex.

Muller is back with the only organization for which he’s ever played. The Rays took him in the 17th round of the 2017 draft. He spent six years in the minor league system and earned his initial MLB call last month. Unfortunately, the club didn’t get him into a game before designating him for assignment a couple weeks later.

Tampa Bay released Muller after his DFA. While it’d seem counterintuitive to release a player just to re-sign him within a few weeks, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times explained the decision earlier this month. According to Topkin, Muller had suffered an elbow injury before his DFA. MLB rules prohibit teams from placing an injured player on outright waivers. Once the Rays took Muller off the 40-man roster, they had to either trade him or release him.

That proves largely immaterial, since the 27-year-old agreed to return to the organization after hitting free agency. He’ll go to the complex to build back into game shape and presumably will head back to Triple-A Durham at some point. Muller had tossed 20 innings for the Bulls earlier this year, posting a 4.95 ERA with a solid 24.2% strikeout rate but a lofty 12.2% walk percentage.

Rays Release Chris Muller

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The Rays announced that right-hander Chris Muller has been placed on release waivers.  Muller was designated for assignment yesterday, and appears to have quickly cleared the DFA waiver process.

Tampa Bay added Muller to its 40-man roster on May 12 when the 27-year-old received his first call-up to the big leagues, though he didn’t officially appear in a game before he was optioned back to Triple-A a few days later.  Now, the Rays have moved on completely from a player they initially selected as a 17th-round pick in the 2017 draft.  Muller has spent his whole pro career in the Rays’ farm system, apart from a brief stint in independent ball during the canceled 2020 minor league season.

Working as a reliever in all but two of his 133 career games in the minors, Muller has consistently produced a lot of strikeouts (29.8% career K%) but also a lot of free passes (12.25% walk rate) in 180 1/3 career innings.  His control problems have worsened as he has risen up the minor league ladder, contributing to his 4.92 ERA over 78 2/3 career frames at Triple-A.  Muller has pitched only at Triple-A Durham over the last two seasons, and his most recent outing saw him surrender four runs over two innings on May 19 against the Nashville Sounds.

Rays Select Joe LaSorsa

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May 28: The Rays announced the selection of LaSorsa. They’ve designated Chris Muller for assignment and optioned Trevor Kelley to Triple-A.

May 27: The Rays will select the contract of left-hander Joe LaSorsa prior to Sunday’s game with the Dodgers, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter links).  LaSorsa was scratched from his scheduled start tonight with Triple-A Durham and now looks to be on the verge of his MLB debut.

Since LaSorsa isn’t on the 40-man roster, the Rays will have to make at least one corresponding move to fit the southpaw onto the active 26-man roster.  Topkin speculates that Trevor Kelley might be optioned to Triple-A after throwing two innings in today’s game with Los Angeles, so LaSorsa would represent a fresh arm for Tampa’s bullpen.

An 18th-round pick for the Rays in the 2019 draft, LaSorsa has a 2.87 ERA over 203 2/3 career innings in the minors.  That includes a 3.86 ERA over 21 innings with Durham this season, with LaSorsa starting three of his nine games in his first taste of Triple-A ball.  His 8.4% walk rate and especially his low 13.7% strikeout rate don’t stand out, and neither Baseball America or MLB Pipeline rank the left-hander amongst Tampa Bay’s top 30 prospects.

That said, LaSorsa has better peripheral numbers in past minor league seasons, and his ability to eat multiple innings and dominate left-handed batters has clearly caught the Rays’ attention.  As Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen put it in a preseason look at Tampa Bay’s farm system, LaSorsa’s fastball “only sits 84-86 but [he] commands the hell out of a plus slider and is nice LOOGY depth.”

The Rays have been rolling this season despite a relatively underwhelming performance from their bullpen, which sits in the bottom half of the league in several major statistical categories.  While LaSorsa may not be the absolute answer to the Rays’ bullpen needs, the team’s enviable amount of minor league pitching depth gives them plenty of options as they shuffle arms and try to find the right reliever mix.

Rays Select Chris Muller

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The Rays announced they’ve selected reliever Chris Muller onto the major league roster. He’ll take the active and 40-man spots of Drew Rasmussen, who was placed on the 60-day injured list with a flexor strain.

Muller, 27, entered the professional ranks six years ago. Tampa Bay selected him in the 17th round of the 2017 draft out of UT San Antonio. The Dallas native has worked almost exclusively out of the bullpen for his entire career. He’s spent some time on the injured list but showed an impressive enough arsenal that Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs named him the #46 prospect in a deep Tampa Bay system over the winter. Longenhagen praised his mid-90s fastball and a slider and split that both can miss bats but expressed concerns about his strike-throwing.

The 6’5″ hurler went unselected in last year’s Rule 5 draft. He was assigned to Triple-A Durham to open 2023 and has made 14 appearances there. Over 17 innings, he’s allowed nine runs (seven earned) with 19 strikeouts and ten walks. Muller worked 58 2/3 frames of 4.91 ERA ball in Triple-A last season; he’s up to a 4.64 ERA with an intriguing 27.6% strikeout rate but elevated 12.9% walk percentage at the top minor league level.

Muller adds an arm with some swing-and-miss capability to Kevin Cash’s bullpen. He’ll be in his first of three minor league option years, so the Rays can freely bounce him between Tampa and Durham for the extended future if he hangs onto his 40-man roster spot.

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