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Kent Emanuel

34 Players Elect Free Agency

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As the offseason nears, a number of players elect minor league free agency each week. These players are separate from six-year MLB free agents, who’ll reach the open market five days after the conclusion of the World Series. Eligible minor leaguers can begin electing free agency as soon as the regular season wraps up. These players were all outrighted off a team’s 40-man roster during the year and have the requisite service time and/or multiple career outrights necessary to reach free agency since they weren’t added back to teams’ rosters.

Electing free agency is the anticipated outcome for these players. There’ll surely be more to test the market in the coming weeks. We’ll offer periodic updates at MLBTR. These transactions are all reflected on the MiLB.com log.

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Infielders

Outfielders

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Pitchers

Marlins Outright Ali Sanchez, Kent Emanuel

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Marlins catcher Ali Sanchez and left-hander Kent Emanuel both went unclaimed on waivers following their recent DFAs and have been assigned outright to Triple-A Jacksonville, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. Both players can reject the assignment in favor of free agency if they choose, as is their right as players who’ve been previously outrighted in their careers.

Sanchez, 27, appeared in 31 games with the Fish and tallied 96 plate appearances. It was his third season with at least some big league action and by far the most playing time he’s received in the majors to date. Miami picked him up in a cash deal with the Cubs after Sanchez hit .240/.338/.388 in 41 games with Chicago’s Triple-A affiliate, but the journeyman backstop only managed a .167/.211/.190 batting line during his brief run with the Marlins.

While Sanchez hasn’t hit in 110 big league plate appearances, he’s played in parts of five Triple-A seasons and owns a lifetime .270/.344/.400 batting line at that level. As far as catchers go, that’s solid production, particularly given his massive 40% caught-stealing rate and typically above-average framing marks in Triple-A (via Baseball Prospectus). Even if Sanchez accepts his assignment to Jacksonville, he can become a minor league free agent at season’s end. He should draw plenty of interest as a depth option on a minor league deal this winter, given his defensive skills and offensive track record at the Triple-A level.

Emanuel, 32, has now been designated for assignment and outrighted to Jacksonville a stunning five times this season by the Marlins. He’s pitched 17 2/3 innings in the majors and yielded a 6.62 ERA over his five stints with Miami this season. He’s had similar results in Jacksonville, recording a 6.15 ERA, 19.2% strikeout rate and 5.8% walk rate in 45 1/3 innings.

Some may wonder why Emanuel continues to stick with the Marlins organization, but the two parties clearly have a good relationship and understanding as to how he’ll be utilized. And while a massive slate of five DFAs in a single season doesn’t exactly sound appealing, Emanuel is a journeyman lefty who has picked up 46 days of major league service time and pay this season. That’s $183K on top of his minor league earnings this season.

It’s not exactly uncommon to see minor league veterans in this type of up-and-down role willing to ride the DFA/outright carousel, knowing full well that they’ll be at or near the top of the list the next time the club needs a short-term fresh arm. The Marlins used lefty Devin Smeltzer in a similar role last year, and we’ve seen other teams like the Guardians (Anthony Gose) and Yankees (Ryan Weber, David Hale) adopt the approach over the years.

Marlins Claim Anthony Veneziano, Designate Three Players For Assignment

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The Marlins announced a huge batch of transactions today, including the previously reported claim of right-hander Lake Bachar. They also claimed left-hander Anthony Veneziano off waivers from the Royals. They also reinstated left-hander Josh Simpson from the 60-day injured list and optioned him to Triple-A Jacksonville. To open 40-man roster spots for those three, they designated catcher Alí Sánchez, left-hander Kent Emanuel and right-hander Emmanuel Ramírez for assignment. Sánchez and Ramírez were on the active roster, so those two spots will be taken by infielder Xavier Edwards, who has been reinstated from the 10-day IL, and right-hander Anthony Maldonado, who has been recalled from Triple-A Jacksonville.

Veneziano was just designated for assignment on September 1, which happened to be his 27th birthday. He has a minimal big league track record, having tossed 2 1/3 innings with the Royals last year and another two innings this year.

The Marlins are likely interested in his pre-2024 track record, as it hasn’t been the lefty’s best season. He has tossed 90 innings at the Triple-A level this year with a 4.80 earned run average, 19.3% strikeout rate and 10.7% walk rate. But in 2023, he had a 3.55 ERA in his 132 minor league innings, striking out 23% of batters faced while limiting walks to an 8.7% clip.

Baseball America ranked him the #5 prospect in the Royals’ system coming into 2024. The results haven’t been as impressive this year but it’s understandable that the Marlins would still have hope of getting him back on track. He will still have two option years remaining after the current campaign, so they can get a close-up look at him in the minors and see if there’s a path towards better results in the long term.

Sánchez, 27, was added to the club’s roster in June and got into 31 games for the Fish. Unfortunately, he hit just .167/.211/.190 in his 96 plate appearances. He has generally performed well at the Triple-A level but without bringing it up to the majors. He has hit .276/.348/.409 at Triple-A from 2021 to the present, leading to a 97 wRC+ in a sample of just under 1,000 plate appearances. But he has a career line of .175/.221/.216 in the majors and is out of options.

Emanuel, 32, has been on and off the Marlins’ roster all year. He signed a minor league deal with the club in the winter and this is now the fifth time he’s been designated for assignment. Each time has seen him clear waivers, get outrighted to Triple-A Jacksonville and later have his contract selected again. Given that pattern, it wouldn’t be a shock to see it all play out once more. Around those transactions, he has a 6.62 ERA in 17 2/3 major league innings and a 6.15 ERA in 45 1/3 Triple-A innings.

Ramírez, 30, was first selected to the club’s roster back in April and has appeared in 15 big league games, the first of his career. He has a 6.97 ERA in those, though his peripherals are closer to average. He has a 22.8% strikeout rate, 8.7% walk rate and 40% ground ball rate on the year. His 54% strand rate is on the unlucky side, which is why his 4.63 FIP and 3.85 SIERA are far apart from his ERA. He also has a 3.76 ERA in 40 2/3 Triple-A innings this year.

All three of Sánchez, Emanuel and Ramírez will have to be placed on waivers in the coming days since the trade deadline has passed. Since it’s now September, they won’t be postseason eligible with any club that puts in a claim.

Marlins Designate Kyle Tyler For Assignment

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The Marlins announced Friday that they’ve designated right-hander Kyle Tyler for assignment. His spot on the roster will go to lefty Kent Emanuel, whose contract has again been selected from Triple-A Jacksonville. Miami also optioned righties Darren McCaughan and Emmanuel Ramirez to Jacksonville and added recent waiver claims Brett de Geus and John McMillon to the active roster. Isaac Azout of Fish On First reported earlier today that McMillon, de Geus and Emanuel would be joining the Marlins’ big league roster.

Tyler, 27, has pitched 31 2/3 innings for the Fish this season and limped to a 5.40 ERA. His 17.6% strikeout rate is nearly five percentage points shy of average, and he’s walked an unpalatable 12.7% of his opponents as well. It’s the third season of big league experience for Tyler, a 17th-round pick of the Angels back in 2018. He’s also suited up more briefly for both the Halos and Padres. In 48 career innings, he has a 4.31 ERA, 15.9% strikeout rate and 12% walk rate. The right-hander sits in the low 90s with a four-seamer and cutter, and he also works in a roughly 82 mph slider and 77 mph curveball to round out his arsenal.

While Tyler hasn’t pitched well in the big leagues, he sports a decent Triple-A track record and has been doing his best work at that level in 2024. He’s tossed 50 innings with Jacksonville and logged a 3.06 earned run average with a 21.6% strikeout rate and 10.3% walk rate. The Oklahoma native is in the second of three minor league option years and has experience working as both a starter and reliever. He’s been starting recently for the Marlins and is stretched out to the point where he tossed 84 pitches in his last outing and has recently climbed as high as 94 pitches. A team seeking rotation depth could place a claim. The Marlins will place him on outright waivers or release him by next week.

As for Emanuel, this will be the fifth time Miami has selected the left-hander’s contract in 2024 alone. He’s been designated for assignment and outrighted a remarkable four times already this season but has accepted the assignment to Jacksonville each time.

Emanuel signed a minor league deal over the winter and in four previous stints this season has combined to allow seven earned runs in 9 1/3 innings. He’s struggled in Triple-A as well, working to a 6.15 ERA in 45 1/3 innings. Given the Marlins’ prior usage of the lefty, it could very well be another brief stay on the roster. It’s probably not the way he’d have preferred to go about it, but Emanuel has picked up more than three weeks of big league service time and big league pay this year while ping-ponging back and forth between Jacksonville and Miami.

Outright Assignments: Kuhnel, Emanuel

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Rounding up some recent outright assignments….

  • The Brewers outrighted Joel Kuhnel to Triple-A Nashville, as per the right-hander’s MLB.com profile page.  Kuhnel was designated for assignment earlier this week, and for the second time this month, he has been outrighted off a team’s 40-man roster.  The Blue Jays previously outrighted Kuhnel, and he opted for free agency and a subsequent minor league deal with Milwaukee.  It isn’t yet known if he’ll choose free agency again over accepting this outright assignment, or if Kuhnel perhaps wants some stability after already being part of three different organizations in the last two months.  A veteran of five big league seasons, Kuhnel’s 2024 resume consists of two innings in a single appearances with the Astros at the MLB level, and a 2.52 ERA over 25 Triple-A relief innings.
  • The Marlins have outrighted left-hander Kent Emanuel to Triple-A Jacksonville, according to his MLB.com profile page.  This is the fourth time Emanuel has been DFA’ed and then outrighted to the Marlins’ top affiliate in the last three months, and it seems likely that he’ll again accept his outright rather than test the free agent market.  Amidst the flurry of contract selections and outrights, Emanuel has posted a 6.75 ERA over 9 1/3 relief innings for Miami, which represents his first MLB action since 17 2/3 innings with the Astros in his 2021 debut season.  Emanuel also has a 6.60 ERA in 30 Triple-A innings this season, but despite these rough results, he’ll probably continue in his role as bullpen depth and a perpetual 26th or 27th man on the roster.

Marlins Select Valente Bellozo

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TODAY: The Marlins have selected Valente Bellozo from Triple-A Jacksonville, the team announced. In a corresponding move, left-hander Kent Emanuel has been designated for assignment. Emanuel will likely clear waivers and be sent outright to Jacksonville. He has already accepted multiple outright assignments to Triple-A this season.

JUNE 25: The Marlins will select the contract of right-hander Valente Bellozo before tomorrow’s game with the Royals, reports Craig Mish of SportsGrid (X link). He’ll take the ball opposite Brady Singer in the series finale. Miami will need to open a spot on the 40-man roster.

It’ll be the major league debut for Bellozo, a 24-year-old native of Mexico. He signed with the Astros as an amateur free agent back in 2017. Bellozo pitched through Double-A in the Houston farm system. The Astros dealt him to Miami for depth infielder Jacob Amaya in April. Bellozo has split his time with the Fish between the top two minor league levels.

The 5’10” hurler hasn’t had great numbers this season. Bellozo has allowed a 5.02 ERA in 52 innings between Double-A Pensacola and Triple-A Jacksonville. He has decent strikeout and walk numbers, punching out more than a quarter of batters faced against a tidy 6.7% walk percentage. Home runs have been an issue since he was promoted to Triple-A, though. Bellozo has given up seven longballs in 20 2/3 frames with Jacksonville.

Bellozo has never gotten much prospect fanfare. Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs gave him a brief mention on his write-up of the Miami system earlier this month, crediting him with a solid changeup but few other weapons. The Fish have needed to dig into their rotation depth this season after being pummeled by injury.

They placed Jesús Luzardo and Braxton Garrett on the shelf last week. That duo joins Eury Pérez, Sandy Alcantara, Edward Cabrera, Ryan Weathers and Sixto Sánchez on the injured list. Trevor Rogers has been the lone consistent presence. Bellozo will be the 14th starting pitcher they’ve used over the course of the year as they’ve cycled through depth arms.

Marlins Place Braxton Garrett On 15-Day Injured List With Forearm Flexor Strain

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The Marlins announced several roster moves this morning, headlined by the club placing left-hander Braxton Garrett on the 15-Day injured list with a left forearm flexor strain. The club also optioned right-hander Shaun Anderson to Triple-A. Taking Garrett and Anderson’s spots on the club’s active roster will be right-hander Kyle Tyler and left-hander Kent Emanuel, both of whom had their contracts selected. Left-hander Jesus Luzardo and right-hander Edward Cabrera were both transferred to the 60-day injured list to clear space for the duo on the 40-man roster.

Garrett’s placement on the injured list isn’t necessarily a surprise, as the club had already scratched him from today’s start due to elbow soreness yesterday. With that being said, the diagnosis of a forearm flexor strain is a concerning one that suggests Garrett could be in for a lengthy absence, though details about his exact timeline are not yet available. For Marlins fans, it surely brings to mind September of last year, when the Marlins provided the same diagnosis for right-hander Sandy Alcantara before the ace ultimately required Tommy John surgery.

Fortunately, not all forearm strains require such drastic treatment. Nationals right-hander Josiah Gray suffered a similarly-termed strain back in April that ultimately proved to be purely muscular without damage to the UCL. Gray is currently on a rehab assignment and could factor into the Nationals’ pitching plans prior to the All Star break, roughly three months after the initial injury. A similar timeline could see Cabrera return sometime in September, prior to the end of the 2024 campaign.

Regardless of when Cabrera winds up being able to return to the club, however, the Marlins figure to be in a bit of a pickle as they look to piece together their rotation mix. Miami currently has seven starters on the injured list, leaving them with lefty Trevor Rogers, righty Roddery Munoz, and righty Yonny Chirinos as their only three established starting pitchers. That trio will be joined by Tyler, who is slated to start today’s game against the Mariners. A 20th-round pick by the Angels in the 2018 draft, the righty has made eight multi-inning relief appearances in the big leagues since he first made his MLB debut back in 2021, though he’s never started a game at the big league level.

He’s pitched fairly well in his limited opportunities in the majors with a 2.45 ERA and 4.36 FIP in 18 1/3 innings of work. That includes a single appearance with the Marlins earlier this year where he allowed one run in two frames where he allowed one hit and no walks with one strikeout. It’s unclear if Tyler will continue to pitch as part of the club’s rotation after today or if this is a spot start for the 27-year-old. Also joining Tyler on the active roster is the lefty Emanuel, who has been shuttling between the 40-man roster and the minor leagues all throughout the 2024 campaign for the Marlins. In 8 1/3 innings of work for the club this year across four appearances, Emanuel has struggled to a 7.56 ERA with an 8.19 FIP. Nonetheless, the southpaw will provide the club with a multi-inning option out of the bullpen who could piggyback with the right-handed Tyler if necessary this afternoon.

As for Luzardo and Cabrerea, the 60-day IL placements come as a mild surprise for both players. In Luzardo’s case, the lefty was placed on the IL just yesterday with a lumbar stress reaction, and manager Skip Schumaker suggested that injury typically has a 4-6 week timeline. Now that Luzardo is out for at least the next two months, it’s safe to say the Marlins believe he’ll be out for longer than that general timeline. He’ll first be eligible to return from the shelf in late August. Cabrera’s placement also somewhat surprising given the fact that he’s already built up to the 50-pitch range on a rehab assignment, though given the fact that the righty would be eligible to be activated from the shelf in just two weeks it could be a purely procedural transaction.

Marlins Outright Kent Emanuel

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TODAY: The Marlins have outrighted Emanuel to Triple-A after he cleared waivers, as per Emanuel’s MLB.com profile page.  There isn’t yet any word as to whether or not Emanuel has accepted the assignment.

JUNE 19: The Marlins announced Wednesday morning that left-hander Kent Emanuel has been designated for assignment. His spot on the roster will go to right-hander Yonny Chirinos, whose previously announced promotion to the big league roster is now official. Chirinos will start today’s game for the Fish.

Emanuel, 32, was selected to the Marlins’ big league roster for a second time this season over the weekend. He tossed 2 1/3 shutout innings across two appearances during this most recent stint. The former Astros, Phillies and Pirates farmhand made two more appearances with Miami back in April and was hit hard. Overall, he’s surrendered seven earned runs in 8 1/3 major league innings this season. That’s a far cry from the 2.55 ERA he notched in a 17 2/3-inning big league debut with the 2021 Astros (the team that originally selected him in the third round of the 2013 draft).

Things haven’t gone much better for Emanuel in Triple-A Jacksonville. He’s made nine appearances, four of them starts, and totaled 30 innings of 6.60 ERA ball. The 6’4″ UNC product has fanned 19% of his opponents against a tidy 5.8% walk rate in that time. It’s the sixth season in which Emanuel has logged time at the Triple-A level. Overall, he owns a 5.18 ERA, a 20% strikeout rate and a 6.1% walk rate in 391 frames there.

Within the next week, Emanuel will either be traded, placed on outright waivers or released. He’s been outrighted in the past, so if he goes unclaimed on waivers he’d have the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency.

Marlins Select Kent Emanuel

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The Marlins announced earlier this afternoon that they’ve selected the contract of left-hander Kent Emanuel. Right-hander Shaun Anderson was optioned in a corresponding move. Emmanuel will take the 40-man roster spot of right-hander Burch Smith, who was designated for assignment yesterday.

The 32-year-old Emanuel was a third-round pick by the Astros back in 2013 and eventually worked his way up to the big leagues with the club in 2021, when he posted a strong 2.55 ERA across ten multi-inning relief appearances. Despite those solid top-level numbers, Emanuel struck out just 19.1% of batters faced and allowed four home runs in 17 2/3 innings of work. Those lackluster peripherals led the Astros to place Emanuel on waivers that November, where he was eventually claimed by the Phillies. Emanuel spent the 2022 season in the Phillies’s minor league system but was limited to just 13 starts by injury. After being outrighted off the roster in Philadelphia that offseason, Emanuel signed with Pittsburgh on a minor league deal and struggled in a swing role. He pitched to a 6.19 ERA in 20 appearances (13 starts) at the Triple-A level before returning to free agency, where he eventually found a minor league deal with the Marlins ahead of the 2024 campaign.

Since then, he’s been selected to the roster in Miami multiple times; today’s selection is actually his third of the season. In both of his previous stints with the big league club, the Marlins have turned to Emanuel as a multi-inning relief option for a single appearance before removing him from the roster. He’s struggled in both of his appearances this year, allowing eight runs (seven earned) in six innings of work while striking out four and walking three. Emanuel has struggled similarly at the Triple-A level this year as well, with a 6.60 ERA in nine appearances split between the rotation and bullpen. It seems likely Emanuel is once again ticketed for multi-inning relief with the Marlins, though it remains to be seen if his third stay in the big leagues with Miami will last longer than the last two.

Making room for Emanuel on the active roster is Anderson. The 29-year-old was only up with the big league Marlins for one day, as he allowed seven runs on ten hits in two innings of work in a start against the Nationals yesterday. Anderson, who was acquired from the Rangers in a cash deal at the end of May, is making his return to the big leagues this season after making 14 starts for the KIA Tigers of the Korea Baseball Organization last year. Prior to last night’s blow up start in Washington, Anderson had made two appearances for the Rangers. He allowed two runs on six hits and a walk while striking out three over 3 1/3 innings of work during his time with Texas, and figures to head back to the minors to act as optionable depth for the Marlins going forward.

Marlins Outright Kent Emanuel

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The Marlins have sent left-hander Kent Emanuel outright to Triple-A Jacksonville, per his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment on the weekend. He has the right to elect free agency but is listed on the Jumbo Shrimp roster and already accepted an assignment earlier this year, perhaps suggesting he has accepted this one as well.

Emanuel, 32 in June, signed a minor league deal with the Fish in February. Though the season is barely a month old, the club has twice selected him to the roster, designated him for assignment and sent him through waivers unclaimed.

In each case, he made one appearance of three innings before getting bumped off the roster. He allowed a combined seven earned runs in those two outings, leaving him with an unsightly 10.50 ERA for the year so far. As one would expect, his Triple-A work has been better. Around those transactions, he has tossed seven innings over three appearances with a 1.29 ERA. He struck out 11 opponents in that time without issuing a walk.

It’s probably unrealistic to expect that kind of performance to continue. Going back to the start of 2021, his minor league work has resulted in a more pedestrian 4.55 ERA over 150 1/3 innings with a 21.9% strikeout rate. However, he was previously working as a starter and has gradually spent more time in the bullpen, so perhaps there’s another gear for him to unlock by pitching in shorter outings.

Though the Marlins bumped him off the roster, they are likely happy to keep Emanuel around. Their early season struggles have led to them continually cycling various arms through the fringes of their roster and they may need to call on Emanuel again. Their poor record also points them towards a potential deadline selloff this summer, which could increase the need for depth arms to step up later in the year.

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