The Marlins announced this morning that they have claimed left-hander Eric Jokisch off waivers from the Cubs and optioned him to Triple-A New Orleans. In order to clear a spot for Jokisch on the 40-man roster, the Marlins have designated right-hander Scott McGough for assignment.
Jokisch, 26, was the Cubs’ 11th-round pick back in 2010 and made a brief appearance in the Majors in 2014, tallying 14 1/3 innings with a 1.88 ERA and a 10-to-4 K/BB ratio. Baseball America rated Jokisch as Chicago’s No. 22 prospect following that 2014 campaign, though he fell off that list this past offseason following a 4.37 ERA with 5.0 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9 in 70 Triple-A innings. The Marlins currently have veterans Craig Breslow and Chris Narveson as the left-handed options in manager Don Mattingly’s bullpen, as workhorse lefty Mike Dunn is battling a forearm issue and recently suffered a setback. Jokisch gives the club another option on the 40-man roster should the need for more left-handed relief arise.
As for McGough, the 26-year-old debuted with the Marlins last season but yielded seven runs in 6 2/3 innings of work. Miami originally acquired him alongside right-hander Nathan Eovaldi in the 2012 trade that sent Hanley Ramirez and Randy Choate to the Dodgers. McGough missed the 2014 season due to Tommy John surgery and returned to the mound last season, working to a combined 1.93 ERA across Class-A Advanced, Double-A and Triple-A in the minors. He averaged 5.3 K/9 against 3.9 BB/9 in that time to go along with a 50.75 percent ground-ball rate, via MLBfarm.com.
