The Red Sox announced Wednesday that right-hander Jake Faria went unclaimed on outright waivers and has been assigned to Triple-A Worcester. Faria’s contract was selected over the weekend when the Sox needed a fresh arm, but he didn’t get into a game before being designated for assignment on Monday morning. He’s been outrighted in the past and will thus have the option of rejecting the assignment in favor of free agency if he chooses.
The 29-year-old Faria hasn’t appeared in the Majors since 2021, when he tossed 32 2/3 innings of 5.53 ERA ball with the Diamondbacks. He spent the 2022 season with the Twins’ Triple-A affiliate but was hit hard in 43 1/3 innings, and his 2023 start in Worcester hasn’t gone any better. In five frames, Faria has more earned runs and walks (six apiece) than he does strikeouts (five).
Faria had a strong debut season with the Rays back in 2017, when he appeared in 16 games (14 starts) and tossed 86 2/3 innings of 3.43 ERA ball. The former tenth-round pick fanned 23.5% of his opponents that season against a solid 8.7% walk rate and looked like he’d be a valuable member of Tampa Bay’s staff for the foreseeable future.
Things didn’t pan out that way, however. Faria’s sophomore season with the Rays resulted in 65 innings of 5.40 ERA ball, as his strikeout, walk and home-run rates all trended in negative directions. The Rays traded him to the Brewers in exchange for Jesus Aguilar at the 2019 trade deadline in a move that worked out better for Tampa Bay but didn’t pay huge dividends for either party. (The Rays placed Aguilar on waivers after the season and lost him to the Marlins.)
Overall, in 116 2/3 frames since that impressive debut, Faria carries a 5.65 ERA with a middling 19% strikeout rate and a bloated 10.9% walk rate. He posted sharp Triple-A results earlier in his career, but more recent struggles there have bumped his lifetime Triple-A earned run average to 4.59 in a total of 308 innings.