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Connor Sadzeck

Pirates Sign Connor Sadzeck To Minor League Deal

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The Pirates announced today that three right-handers have been added to their camp as non-roster invitees, indicating they have signed minor league deals with the club. Two of them, Wily Peralta and Brent Honeywell Jr., were previously reported. The third was for Connor Sadzeck, a client of Frontline.

Sadzeck, 32, spent the 2023 season in the Twins’ organization after signing a minor league deal with that club. He tossed 35 innings over 25 Triple-A appearances, allowing 5.40 earned runs per nine frames. His 24.6% strikeout rate was quite strong but his 15.2% walk rate was untenably high.

That has generally been the recipe with the righty, who features a four-seamer and sinker that each have mid-to-high 90s velocity, as well as a slider in the high 80s and the occasional changeup. But as is often the case for pitchers with that kind of power arsenal, control is an ongoing concern.

He has 36 innings of scattered major league experience, having pitched for the Rangers, Mariners and Brewers dating back to his 2018 debut. He has walked 16.4% of major league hitters he has faced, though the baseball gods have helped him keep them from scoring. He has a 2.75 ERA in that small sample of big league work, thanks in part to a .245 batting average on balls in play and 84.3% strand rate. His larger Triple-A résumé now consists of 166 2/3 innings over four separate campaigns. He has a ERA of 4.00 in that time, striking out 25.6% of batters faced but also giving free passes to 12.1% of them.

For the Pirates, there’s no risk in bringing him into camp to get a close-up look at the stuff, while seeing if he can better harness his arsenal throughout the year. All clubs need depth arms throughout the season and the Bucs may be likelier than some others to reach into their minor leagues. They have David Bednar and Aroldis Chapman set to be the high-leverage arms in their bullpen but things are a bit flimsy beyond that as Ryan Borucki is the only other reliever on the roster with more than two years of service time. Guys like Colin Holderman, Dauri Moreta, Carmen Mlodzinski and José Hernández have some intriguing numbers but are still fairly light on experience.

To add some non-roster depth, the club has signed guys like Peralta, Honeywell and Sadzeck, as well as Ben Heller and Ryder Ryan. If Sadzeck is added to the roster at any point, he is out of options but has just over a year of service time.

Twins Sign Three Pitchers To Minor League Contracts

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The Twins have inked right-hander Connor Sadzeck and left-handers Tyler Webb and Sean Nolin to minor league deals, as per the team’s MLB.com transactions page.  It wasn’t specified if any of the deals contained invitations to Minnesota’s big league Spring Training camp.

Sadzeck is the only member of the trio who pitched in the majors in 2022, albeit in cup-of-coffee fashion — Sadzeck tossed three innings over two games with the Brewers last season.  The righty spent much of the season at the Triple-A level, with an impressive 2.20 ERA and 27.86% strikeout rate over 49 combined innings with the Brewers’ and Nationals’ top affiliates.  Perhaps most importantly, Sadzeck’s walk rate was a palatable 9.95%, which represents an improvement over the control problems that plagued him in his last few seasons in the majors and minors.

Prior to 2022, Sadzeck’s MLB experience consisted of 9 1/3 innings with the Rangers in 2018 and 23 2/3 innings with the Mariners in 2019, with the latter season cut short by elbow problems.  His 2.18 ERA over those 33 frames was perhaps a little lucky considering his elevated walk rate, though Sadzeck’s high velocity and ability to miss bats was enough to catch the eye of the White Sox, Brewers, and Nationals over the last two seasons.

Webb returns to affiliated baseball after posting a 2.93 ERA, 28.81% strikeout rate, and 5.5% walk rate over 55 1/3 innings with the independent Long Island Ducks in 2022.  It was a nice rebound for the southpaw after a very rough 2021, as Webb had more walks (19) than strikeouts (14) while posting a garish 13.22 ERA over 16 1/3 innings with the Cardinals.  More control problems followed Webb to Triple-A (a 14.33% walk rate and a 5.82 ERA over 21 2/3 innings with Louisville) after St. Louis outrighted him off its 40-man roster, and Webb chose to become a free agent after the season.

It wasn’t long ago that Webb seemed to be establishing himself as a fixture in the St. Louis bullpen, as he posted strong numbers after being claimed off waivers from the Padres in June 2018.  Over his first 92 innings with the Cardinals from 2018-20, Webb had a 3.03 ERA, though his secondary metrics were much less flattering.  Never much of a strikeout pitcher at the MLB level, Webb had limited the damage with strong hard-hit ball rates, but his big spike in walks (and a .362 BABIP) contributed to his brutal 2021 numbers.

Nolin had a 4.39 ERA over 26 2/3 innings with the Nationals in 2021, which represents his only MLB action since the 2015 season.  Injuries sidelined him entirely for the 2016-17 seasons, and Nolin has since bounced around the minors, indy leagues (Nolin also pitched for the Long Island Ducks in 2019), and international leagues.  The left-hander spent the 2020 season in Nippon Professional Baseball, and after returning to North America to pitch in the Nationals organization, Nolin headed back overseas for a one-year stint with the KBO League’s Kia Tigers.  Nolin had a strong 2.47 ERA in 124 frames with the South Korean club, but the Tigers moved on from pursuing another contract with Nolin for 2023.

Nationals, Connor Sadzeck Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Nationals are signing reliever Connor Sadzeck to a minor league contract, reports Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post (on Twitter). The right-hander elected free agency after being outrighted off the Brewers roster last week.

Sadzeck got into just two games with the Brew Crew, allowing three runs in as many innings. That marked his first major league action in three years, as he’d last suited up at the MLB level with the Mariners in 2019. Sadzeck, who also pitched for the Rangers the season before landing in Seattle, has a 2.75 ERA through 36 big league innings. That hasn’t been supported by his peripherals, through, as he’s struck out a below-average 21.8% of batters faced against a huge 16.4% walk rate.

Despite the lack of recent big league experience, Sadzeck has been flat out dominant in Triple-A this year. The 30-year-old signed a minor league deal with Milwaukee over the winter and made 24 appearances at Triple-A Nashville. He threw 28 innings of 0.96 ERA ball, fanning 30.7% of opponents with a more palatable (though slightly elevated) 10.5% walk percentage.

During his brief big league stint in Milwaukee, Sadzeck averaged 95.1 MPH on his fastball. That’s a bit below the 96-97 MPH range in which he worked during his earlier major league action, but he still brings a plenty live arm. Washington’s bullpen has a 4.23 ERA and a 12.6 point strikeout/walk rate differential on the year, each of which are bottom ten figures leaguewide. There should be an opportunity for Sadzeck to earn a spot for the stretch run if he continues to pitch well with their highest affiliate in Rochester.

Connor Sadzeck Elects Free Agency

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TODAY: Sadzeck has elected to become a free agent, Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports (Twitter link).  The right-hander had cleared waivers and been outrighted to the Brewers’ Triple-A affiliate.

JULY 25: The Brewers announced Monday that they’ve designated righty Connor Sadzeck for assignment and recalled pitching prospect Ethan Small from Triple-A Nashville in his place. Small will likely get the nod to start Tuesday’s game, which had been listed as a “TBD” by the Brewers.

Sadzeck, 30, appeared in two games with the Brewers and yielded three runs in three innings of relief work prior to today’s DFA. He posted big numbers in Nashville, logging a 0.86 ERA and 30.7% strikeout rate against a 10.5% walk rate in 28 innings, but his once 97.1 mph heater averaged a diminished 94.9 mph in his limited work with Milwaukee. Sadzeck has long been an intriguing arm thanks to his velocity and ability to miss bats, but control issues and injuries have continually plagued him throughout his professional career. The Brewers will have a week to trade him, release him or attempt to pass him through outright waivers.

Small, the No. 28 overall pick back in 2019, will make just his second career start if and when he takes the ball tomorrow. He was tagged for three runs through 2 2/3 innings in his MLB debut earlier this season but has recorded a strong 3.34 ERA and 26.4% strikeout rate in 72 2/3 Triple-A innings this year. Command has been the big knock on Small for much of his professional career, and this year’s 13% walk rate in Triple-A hasn’t allayed those concerns. However, Small still profiles as a potential fourth starter, with scouting reports at Baseball America, FanGraphs and MLB.com praising his solid fastball and plus changeup.

Brewers Select Connor Sadzeck, Option Keston Hiura

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The Brewers announced Wednesday that they’ve selected the contract of righty Connor Sadzeck from Triple-A Nashville. Infielder Keston Hiura has been optioned to Nashville to open a spot on the active roster. Milwaukee already had an open 40-man spot after designating Chi Chi Gonzalez for assignment last night.

A promising prospect with the Rangers earlier in his career, the now-30-year-old Sadzeck hasn’t appeared in the big leagues since 2019. Injuries, including Tommy John surgery early in his minor league career and a flexor mass issue back in 2019, have slowed the right-hander and kept him off the mound for significant portions of his career.

When healthy, Sadzeck is a legitimately intriguing arm who boasts a triple-digit heater, impressive strikeout abilities and, as is often the case for flamethrowers like this, some problematic command issues. He’s pitched just 33 Major League innings and boasts a 2.18 ERA but a concerning 17.4% walk rate in that time. Sadzeck is currently sporting an outstanding 0.86 ERA and 30.7% strikeout rate in 28 Triple-A innings, however, and this year’s 10.5% walk rate is more manageable than several of his prior seasons.

Hiura, meanwhile, has gone from former first-round pick and potential building block to a defensively limited slugger who’s regularly optioned by the Brewers. He’s hitting .238/.354/.451 this season — solid overall production — but has also yet to rectify the alarming strikeout issues that have plagued him throughout his career. Hiura has fanned in a sky-high 43.8% of his plate appearances this season, making even that modest .238 average unsustainable. (He’s currently benefitting from a .412 BABIP.)

That said, the decision to option Hiura couldn’t have been an easy one. He’s been on a tear at the plate over his past 12 games, batting .324/.435/.595 with three long balls and a double in that time. For now, Hiura will return to Nashville and continue working to improve his bat-to-ball skills and overall plate discipline. In all likelihood, he’ll get another big league look (or multiple looks) between now and season’s end.

Brewers Sign Connor Sadzeck

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The Brewers signed reliever Connor Sadzeck to a minor league contract last week (h/t to Chris Hilburn-Trenkle of Baseball America). The 29-year-old has been assigned to Triple-A Nashville, where he made his first appearance last Friday.

Sadzeck was once one of the more promising pitching prospects in the Rangers organization, where he made his big league debut in 2018. Texas traded the right-hander to the Mariners the following year, where he pitched fairly well but wound up ending that season on the injured list with elbow trouble. Between the two clubs, Sadzeck posted a 2.18 ERA over 33 innings but walked a highly alarming 17.1% of batters faced.

Signed to a minors deal by the White Sox over the winter, Sadzeck spent most of this year with their top affiliate in Charlotte. Over 27 2/3 frames, he pitched to a 5.86 ERA while continuing to struggle with his control, doling out free passes at a 15.5% clip. Chicago released him shortly after the trade deadline. During his big league action, Sadzeck worked in the mid-high 90’s, so the Brewers took a no-risk flier on a live arm to serve as high minors bullpen depth.

White Sox Announce Series Of Minor League Deals

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The White Sox announced the additions of fourteen players on minor league contracts with MLB spring training invitations this week. Among the signees not previously-reported are infielder Matt Reynolds; right-handers Ryan Burr, Tayron Guerrero, Alex McRae, Connor Sadzeck and Mike Wright; and left-handers Jacob Lindgren and Kodi Medeiros.

Reynolds and McRae have the most recent MLB experience of this contingent, having played in the big leagues last season. Reynolds appeared in three games for the Royals. Also a former Met and National, the right-handed hitter has compiled a .212/.282/.323 slash line across 251 plate appearances in parts of four seasons. McRae tossed a pair of scoreless relief appearances for Chicago in 2020. The right-hander has a 7.50 ERA/5.64 SIERA in 36 MLB innings with the Pirates and White Sox over the last three years.

Burr, Guerrero and Sadzeck are all righty relievers who last pitched in the majors in 2019. Each brings a power arm and has flashed some bat-missing ability (Guerrero and Sadzeck especially), but all three have been plagued by control problems. Wright was a swing option early in his career with the Orioles and can serve as a potential rotation or long relief depth piece for the Sox. He spent last season with the NC Dinos of the Korea Baseball Organization, where he started 29 games and posted a 4.68 ERA with below-average strikeout (17.9%) and walk (9.1%) rates. Nevertheless, Wright managed to pitch 157.2 innings last season, perhaps giving him a leg up from a durability perspective on pitchers who spent last year in the United States, where a shorter season led to drastically curtailed innings totals.

Lindgren and Medeiros were both well-regarded prospects at one point whose careers have since been sidetracked. Lindgren has been through a series of injuries and hasn’t pitched in the majors since 2015, although he’s still only entering his age-28 season. Medeiros, once a top fifteen overall draft pick by the Brewers, has never consistently performed in the minors and has yet to play in the big leagues.

Mariners Outright Ryon Healy, Connor Sadzeck, Chasen Bradford

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The Mariners outrighted three players today, per a club announcement. Corner infielder Ryon Healy is the most notable name departing the 40-man. He’s joined by righty relievers Chasen Bradford and Connor Sadzeck.

All three of these players finished their seasons on the 60-day injured list. They’d have required 40-man roster space all offseason had it not been for today’s decision.

Healy is dealing with quite significant health problems, including a diagnosis of spinal stenosis and ensuing hip surgery. It’s not clear at this point whether and when the 27-year-old will be able to resume his career. Healy projected to earn $2.5MM via arbitration, a hefty sum given the uncertainty. He’ll have the right to elect free agency by virtue of his MLB service time.

Bradford underwent Tommy John surgery two months ago, making it hard to imagine he’ll be much of a factor in 2020. The 30-year-old was a solid performer in his first two MLB campaigns but doesn’t carry the peripherals of a dominant relief pitcher.

There’s quite a bit more potential upside for Sadzeck, a live-armed 28-year-old who rewarded the M’s for taking a shot on him. He allowed just seven earned runs in 23 2/3 frames, racking up 27 strikeouts against 15 walks, before going down with flexor mass issues. He seemed like a potential find for the Seattle organization, but the club evidently decided that the arm issues and Sadzeck’s longstanding control problems were too great to tie up a roster spot on him all winter.

Mariners Notes: Healy, Gordon, Crawford, Sadzeck

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Seattle sent outfielder Mitch Haniger to the 10-day IL on Friday with a rather unfortunate injury, making him the latest notable Mariner to land on the shelf. Here are updates on a few others, courtesy of Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times (Twitter links: 1, 2, 3)…

  • Infielder Ryon Healy had been nearing a rehab assignment, but that’s now on hold after he suffered a setback in his recovery from lower back inflammation. He’ll undergo further tests to determine the severity. Healy, who headed to the IL on May 21, has come up in trade rumors during his absence. Although, neither this setback nor the numbers he has posted over the past couple seasons will do his value any favors. Since a strong rookie showing with the Athletics in 2016, Healy has slashed an unspectacular .252/.290/.436 (96 wRC+) with 56 home runs in 1,316 plate appearances between Oakland and Seattle.
  • Second baseman Dee Gordon, another trade candidate, went to the IL the same day as Healy with a right wrist contusion. But unlike Healy, Gordon actually is progressing toward a return. The 31-year-old speedster started a rehab assignment with Triple-A Tacoma on Friday. He could return to the majors as early as Tuesday, per Divish. Gordon continued his light-hitting ways before his IL stint, as he batted .281/.310/.369 (85 wRC+) in 173 PA, though he did swat three homers (one fewer than he put up 2018) and steal 12 bases on 14 attempts.
  • Fellow banged-up middle infielder J.P. Crawford will begin his own own rehab assignment at the Single-A level on Tuesday. Crawford, down since May 29 with a sprained left ankle, may be back in the bigs by June 14. The offseason trade acquisition showed well in Tacoma at the beginning of the year, leading the Mariners to promote him May 10 and demote then-starting shortstop Tim Beckham to the bench. It looked as if Beckham would temporarily get his old job back when Crawford suffered his injury, but the lion’s share of playing time has gone to Dylan Moore instead. As someone who started 2019 in excellent fashion before seeing his production fall off a cliff, Beckham’s a microcosm of his team. He could also wind up on the move by the July 31 trade deadline.
  • The Mariners put reliever Connor Sadzeck on the IL on Tuesday with a right flexor mass, which doesn’t seem to be healing properly. Sadzeck “felt discomfort in his elbow” while playing catch, according to Divish, who adds the 27-year-old will undergo an MRI.

Mariners Notes: Sadzeck, Gordon, Healy, Crawford

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The Mariners sent reliever Connor Sadzeck to the 10-day injured list Tuesday with a flexor mass in his right elbow, per Greg Johns of MLB.com. Sadzeck will be out “at least a couple weeks,” Johns writes. His roster spot went to right-hander Andrew Moore, whom they recalled from Double-A Arkansas. Moore started the Mariners’ game against the Astros on Tuesday.

The injury to Sadzeck will deprive free-falling Seattle and its shaky bullpen of one of most utilized options for the time being. The 27-year-old Sadzeck joined the Mariners in an April 1 trade with the division-rival Rangers, who acquired righty Grant Anderson in return. Sadzeck has produced good bottom-line results in 23 2/3 innings since then, thanks in part to a 96 mph four-seamer and a 94 mph sinker. He has pitched to a 2.66 ERA with 10.27 K/9 and a 46 percent groundball rate, though a bloated BB/9 (5.7) and a 4.66 FIP do curb enthusiasm about Sadzeck’s performance.

In better injury-related news for the Mariners, infielders Dee Gordon, Ryon Healy and J.P. Crawford are all nearing rehab assignments, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times suggests. Gordon (right wrist contusion) and Healy (lower back inflammation) have each been on the IL since May 21, while Crawford went down less than a week ago on account of a left ankle sprain.

With transaction-happy general manager Jerry Dipoto at the helm, Gordon and Healy could be trade chips when they return to health. Both players have managed uninspiring production since they arrived in Seattle heading into the 2018 season, though, and likely wouldn’t bring back much in a deal.

Gordon and Healy may not be long-term building blocks for the Mariners, but the hope is Crawford will emerge as one. Acquired from the Phillies in a blockbuster trade last December, the formerly elite shortstop prospect got off to a nice start with his new organization before landing on the IL. Crawford, 24, hit well with Triple-A Tacoma and then began his M’s tenure by batting .279/.343.426 (112 wRC+) in 67 plate appearances between his promotion on May 10 and his IL placement on the 29th.

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