Diamondbacks Sign Erich Uelmen To Minor League Deal
The Diamondbacks have signed right-hander Erich Uelmen to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He’s been assigned to the Complex League for now but will presumably report to a higher affiliate after getting some work in.
Uelmen, now 28, was drafted by the Cubs and was a starter on his way up the minor league ladder. He didn’t have much success in that role as he reached the higher levels, so the Cubs moved him to the bullpen at Triple-A. The initial results were encouraging, as Uelmen finished 2022 with an earned run average of 2.79 in 42 innings at the top minor league level. His 12.8% walk rate was on the high side but he punched out 29.1% of batters faced and also got grounders on 55.3% of balls in play.
The Cubs also gave Uelmen his major league debut that year, as he pitched 27 innings for them that year. He had a passable 4.67 ERA in that time with a subpar 17.2% strikeout rate, average-ish 9.8% walk rate and decent 47.6% ground ball rate.
Late in 2022, the Cubs re-signed Drew Smyly and bumped Uelmen off the roster. He was then traded to the Phillies for cash but had a challenging season with his new club. He only tossed one inning in the majors and just 17 2/3 in the minors, spending a significant amount of time on the IL. He had a 4.08 ERA in that limited minor league action before getting recalled in late September and placed on the major league 60-day IL with a right flexor strain when the Phils needed to open a roster spot.
Uelmen was outrighted by the Phils at the end of the season and remained unsigned until signing with the Snakes. He’ll presumably undergo something of a delayed Spring Training for a little while before moving into a depth position for the Diamondbacks. The relief corps in Arizona hasn’t been strong this year, with a collective 4.38 ERA that comes in 23rd out of the 30 clubs. If Uelmen can earn a roster spot, he has two option years remaining and has less than a year of service time.
Phillies Outright Michael Plassmeyer, Erich Uelmen
The Phillies have sent Michael Plassmeyer and Erich Uelmen outright to Triple-A Lehigh Valley, the team announced. Presumably, both pitchers will soon elect minor league free agency.
Plassmeyer bounced from the Mariners to the Rays to the Giants before landing in Philadelphia in June 2022. The southpaw got off to a strong start in the organization, pitching to a 2.83 ERA in his first 11 starts at Triple-A. That was enough to earn him his first call to the show, where he threw 1 1/3 scoreless in his big league debut. However, Plassmeyer ultimately only made just appearances for the Phillies over the past two seasons, largely serving as rotation and bullpen depth at Triple-A. The 2024 season will be his age-27 campaign.
Uelmen, for his part, made just one appearance for the Phillies in 2023 after coming over from the Cubs in an offseason trade. While he made 25 appearances for the big league club in Chicago last year, he posted a 4.67 ERA and -0.2 FanGraphs WAR in 27 innings of long relief. In other words, he didn’t make a particularly strong first impression in his rookie campaign. Not too surprisingly, he spent almost all of the 2023 season at Triple-A. He turns 28 next May.
Phillies Select Michael Plassmeyer
The Phillies announced this evening that the club had selected the contract of left-hander Michael Plassmeyer. In corresponding moves, the club recalled right-hander Erich Uelmen before placing him on the 60-day IL with a right flexor strain and optioned right-hander Luis Ortiz.
Plassmeyer, 25, made his MLB debut with the Phillies last year. The southpaw posted a 3.68 ERA and 3.38 FIP over two long relief appearances, racking up seven strikeouts in 7 1/3 innings of work. He’s been pitching at the minor league level for Philadelphia since then, and sports a 4.64 ERA in 75 2/3 innings of work across 19 appearances (17 starts) at the High-A and Triple-A levels. Plassmeyer figures to give the Phillies volume out of the bullpen for the second game of today’s doubleheader, should it be necessary.
To make room for Plassmeyer on the 40-man roster, the club recalled Uelmen to Triple-A before immediately placing him on the 60-day IL. Uelmen appeared in just one inning for the Phillies previously this season, allowing four runs on three hits and two walks while striking out just one. The righty posted a 4.08 ERA in 17 2/3 innings of work across three levels of the minor leagues this season, and made just three appearances June 4 due to injuries.
Meanwhile, the 28-year-old Ortiz makes room for Plassmeyer on the active roster. Ortiz was called up just earlier today for the first half of the doubleheader, during which he struck out two over a scoreless inning of work. Entering today, Ortiz owned a 3.50 ERA and 3.25 FIP in 18 innings of work with the Phillies since being claimed off waivers from the Giants this past offseason.
Phillies Acquire Erich Uelmen, Designate Vinny Nittoli
The Phillies have acquired right-hander Erich Uelmen from the Cubs in exchange for cash and opened a spot on the roster by designating fellow right-hander Vinny Nittoli for assignment, per a team announcement. Uelmen was designated for assignment by the Cubs when they finalized their deal to re-sign southpaw Drew Smyly.
Uelmen, 26, made his big league debut with the Cubs in 2022, pitching to a 4.67 ERA with a 17.2% strikeout rate against a 9.8% walk rate in 27 innings. He averaged 93.8 mph on his heater, generally kept the ball in the yard (1.00 HR/9) and posted an above-average 47.6% ground-ball rate in that time.
That marked the continuation of a solid showing in Triple-A, where Uelmen tossed 42 innings with a 2.79 ERA and a huge 55.3% ground-ball rate. He also fanned 29.1% of his opponents in Triple-A, but Uelmen’s 12.8% walk rate clearly left plenty to be desired. He has a full slate of three minor league option years remaining, and he was dominant against fellow right-handers in 2022, limiting them to a .206/.282/.326 output.
Lefties had more success at .234/.390/.318, but if he can rein in his command, Uelmen could be a serviceable option against hitters from both sides of the plate. That’s easier said than done, of course, and Uelmen has walked 11.2% of the batters he’s faced in Double-A, Triple-A and the Majors combined.
Nittoli, 32, reached the Majors for the first time in 2021 when he tossed one inning for the Mariners. It was a tiny sample but a notable one for the former 25th-round pick, as it capped off an eight-year grind to the big league level. He split the 2022 season between the Yankees, Blue Jays and Phillies organizations, with Toronto flipping him to Philadelphia in an August swap. The Phils selected Nittoli to the Majors when rosters expanded on Sept. 1 and got a pair of scoreless innings out of him during his brief time with the big league squad.
Nittoli posted a 3.81 ERA in 52 innings between the Triple-A affiliates for the Yankees, Jays and Phillies in 2022, whiffing 30.8% of his opponents against a tidy 6.7% walk rate. He still has a minor league option year remaining, and the Phillies will now have a week to trade him or place him on outright waivers.
Cubs Sign Drew Smyly To Two-Year Deal
Dec 24: The Cubs have officially announced the signing of Smyly. To make room on the 40-man roster, pitcher Erich Uelmen has been designated for assignment, according to Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times.
Dec 22, 8:01pm: The deal also allows Smyly to opt out at the end of next season, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com (Twitter link). Smyly will have to weigh a return trip to free agency against the $11MM remaining on the contract next offseason.
7:52pm: The Cubs are bringing back Drew Smyly, agreeing with the free agent starter on a two-year deal. It’s reportedly a $19MM guarantee for the Frontline client. Smyly will make successive salaries of $8MM and $8.5MM, and the contract contains at least a $2.5MM buyout on a $10MM mutual option for the 2025 campaign.
Smyly returns after spending the 2022 season in Chicago. It was technically his second stint as a Cub, as he’d previously been a member of the organization in 2018. He spent that entire season rehabbing from a previous Tommy John surgery, though, and the Cubs dealt him to the Rangers over the 2018-19 offseason. After three years elsewhere, he returned to Chicago last winter on a $5.25MM guarantee.
The left-hander had a decent showing in 2022, working to a 3.47 ERA through 22 starts. He lost a month in the middle of the year to a left oblique strain but otherwise stayed healthy and absorbed 106 1/3 innings. He struck out a career-worst 20.4% of opponents but only walked 5.8% of batters faced. Smyly held opponents to a meager 86.7 MPH average exit velocity and induced swinging strikes on a solid 12.4% of his offerings. That quality per-pitch swinging strike rate could portend a future uptick in strikeouts. Smyly has punched out 23.2% of opponents over the course of his career, although he’s seen his lowest marks in the last two years.
Smyly doesn’t have eye-popping velocity, and his below-average ground-ball numbers have contributed to home run troubles in prior years. The longball wasn’t much of an issue this past season, though. He absolutely stifled left-handed opponents to the tune of a .191/.277/.326 line with two homers allowed through 101 plate appearances. Righties gave him some more trouble, taking him deep 14 times and posting a .258/.301/.448 mark in 346 trips to the dish.
The 33-year-old has had some injury troubles throughout his career, including the aforementioned Tommy John procedure. He’s spent time on the injured list each year since 2016, failing to reach 130 innings in any of the past six seasons. Smyly is not a prototypical innings eater, but he’s pitched to a decent 3.96 ERA in 259 1/3 frames going back to the start of 2020.
That solid rate production clearly appeals to president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer and his front office. Smyly finished the 2022 season strong and earned a multi-year deal as a result, with the guarantee narrowly topping the $17MM contract Jordan Lyles received from the Royals this week. The starting pitching market generally has been quite strong, and Smyly continues that trend with a $9.5MM average annual value to slot at the back of the Chicago rotation.
The Cubs signed Jameson Taillon to a four-year deal earlier in the offseason. He’ll join Marcus Stroman, Justin Steele and presumably Smyly as locks for the season-opening starting staff. Kyle Hendricks figures to have a rotation job whenever he’s healthy, although his status is somewhat up in the air after his 2022 season was cut short by a shoulder issue. Players like Keegan Thompson, Hayden Wesneski, Caleb Kilian and Adrian Sampson could be in the mix throughout the season as depth options. Thompson held his own over 17 starts this past season, while Wesneski and Kilian are among the better pitching prospects in the Chicago organization.
Tacking on Smyly’s $8MM salary to the 2023 payroll ledger brings the team’s projected payroll around $179MM, as calculated by Roster Resource. They’re now around $107MM in guarantees for the ’24 campaign. Chicago isn’t quite back to the $200MM+ range they reached towards the end of the last decade, but they’re notably past the $140MM – 150MM range of the last two seasons. The deal adds $9.5MM to the club’s luxury tax ledger in both 2023-24; they’re now up to approximately $213MM in CBT spending for next season, $20MM shy of the $233MM base threshold.
Jesse Rogers of ESPN first reported the Cubs and Smyly were closing in on a deal. Robert Murray of FanSided reported the Cubs and Smyly had agreed to a two-year, $19MM contract and specified the financial breakdown.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Cubs Designate Daniel Norris, Select Erich Uelmen
July 23: Daniel Norris has been granted his unconditional release, per Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune (via Twitter). The veteran southpaw is now free to sign with any team.
July 17: The Cubs announced to reporters, including Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune, that they have selected the contract of right-hander Erich Uelmen. Lefty Daniel Norris has been designated for assignment in a corresponding move.
Norris, 29, was considered one of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball during his time with the Blue Jays. Baseball America ranked him one of the top 100 prospects in the sport in 2012 and again in 2015. He moved to Detroit as part of the package that resulted in David Price going to Toronto, with the Tigers surely hoping that Norris could be a building block in their rotation for years to come.
Unfortunately, Norris couldn’t make the best of the opportunity, registering an ERA north of 5.00 in both 2017 and 2018, followed by a 4.49 in 2019. A move to the bullpen in 2020 seemed to unlock a new gear for him, however, as he put up a 3.25 ERA with a 24.1% strikeout rate, 6% walk rate and 55.7% ground ball rate. The next year, his ERA shot up to 5.89 as a Tiger, though his peripherals were still encouraging enough for the Brewers to take a shot on him, acquiring him in a deadline deal. Things went in the wrong direction, though, as his ERA as a Brewer was 6.64, eventually getting left of the club’s postseason roster.
The rebuilding Cubs took a flier on him for this year, surely hoping that he could right the ship enough to turn himself into a trade candidate. But 2022 has been yet another setback for the southpaw, as he has a 6.90 ERA as a Cub. His 32.1% strikeout rate on the season is very encouraging, but it’s come with a 15.7% walk rate, almost double the 8.3% league average. The Cubs will now have one week to trade him, pass him through waivers or release him. As a veteran with more than five years of MLB service time, Norris can reject an outright assignment without forfeiting any salary.
Uelmen, 26, was a fourth round pick of the Cubs in 2017. He was primarily a starter on his way up but switched to a full-time bullpen role upon reaching Triple-A. His first taste of action with the Iowa Cubs didn’t go so well last year, but he’s having an excellent showing here in 2022, working in a multi-inning role. Through 42 frames in 28 games, he has a 2.79 ERA, 55.3% ground ball rate and 29.1% strikeout rate, though the walk rate is high at 12.8%. He’ll now get a shot to see if he can translate any of that into the big leagues, making his MLB debut as soon as he gets into a game.