Cubs Designate Anthony Kay For Assignment
The Cubs announced Friday that left-hander Anthony Kay has been designated for assignment in order to clear a spot on the 40-man roster for first baseman/outfielder Trey Mancini, whose previously reported two-year, $14MM deal is now official. The 27-year-old Kay’s stay in the organization could prove quite brief, as he was only claimed off waivers from the Blue Jays back on Dec. 23.
Kay, whom the Mets originally drafted with the No. 31 overall pick back in 2016, made his way from New York to Toronto by way of the Marcus Stroman trade and has spent parts of four seasons in the Majors with the Jays. He’s struggled in each, compiling a 5.48 ERA with a solid 23.6% strikeout rate but a bloated 11.6% walk rate in that time. Home runs have been a bit of an issue, as he’s yielded 1.27 long balls per nine frames, but he’s also been plagued by a bloated .340 average on balls in play that points to at least some degree of poor fortune. That appears especially true, given that Kay has yielded just an 87.5 mph average exit velocity and a 34.8% hard-hit rate in his career — both comfortably better than the league-average marks over the past few years.
Interestingly, it’s been fellow lefties who’ve tormented Kay to this point in his big league career. Same-handed opponents have crushed Kay to the tune of a .319/.398/638 batting line in 108 career plate appearances, while righties have hit him at a .251/.352/.390 clip. That line from right-handers is still concerning, particularly the OBP aspect, but if Kay were able to shut down lefties like so many other southpaws, he could yet develop into a serviceable bullpen option.
Kay has averaged better than 94 mph on his fastball over the past two seasons and has consistently generated above-average spin on the pitch — but opponents have still batted .301/.409/.526 against it in his career. He’s gotten far better results with his curveball (.186/.239/.326), which was perhaps part of his appeal to the Cubs in the first place.
Kay has one minor league option year remaining and was once a fairly well-regarded pitching prospect, so it’s possible another team will look to bring him into the fold via the waiver wire. The Cubs will have a week to trade him or pass him through outright waivers. If he goes unclaimed, he’ll remain with the organization and likely head to spring training as a non-roster invitee.
Cubs Outright Mark Leiter Jr.
Cubs right-hander Mark Leiter Jr. has gone unclaimed on outright waivers, tweets Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune. He’d been designated for assignment last week once Chicago finalized their one-year deal with Eric Hosmer.
Leiter, 32 in March, signed a minor league contract with Chicago last offseason. He cracked the big league roster by the second week of the season. Leiter held his spot on the 40-man all year and bounced a few times between Wrigleyville and Triple-A Iowa. Working primarily as a long relief option in the majors, he tossed 67 2/3 frames through 35 outings (including four starts). Leiter put together a decent 3.99 ERA with better than average strikeout and ground-ball marks (25.9% and 48.9%, respectively).
Despite that generally solid work, he was squeezed off the roster this winter. That’s presumably a result of some skepticism around the league that Leiter could maintain his 2022 form, as he carried a 5.53 ERA in 114 career major league innings headed into last year. He didn’t appear at the highest level at all between 2019-21 thanks to an intervening Tommy John surgery.
Leiter was previously outrighted by the Blue Jays back during the 2018-19 offseason. Clearing waivers a second time in his career gives him the right to elect minor league free agency instead of accepting an assignment to Iowa. The Cubs haven’t yet announced whether he’ll do so.
Mariners Sign Tommy La Stella, Designate Justus Sheffield
The Mariners announced that they have signed infielder Tommy La Stella to a one-year deal. To create room on the 40-man roster, left-hander Justus Sheffield was designated for assignment.
La Stella, who turns 34 later this month, has some strong seasons on his track record but is coming off a rough patch. From 2016 to 2020, he walked in 9.6% of his trips to the plate and struck out in just 10.6% of them. He only hit 29 home runs over those five years but produced a batting line of .282/.358/.435. That production amounted to a wRC+ of 114, indicating he was 14% better than league average.
He parlayed that strong run of play into a three-year, $18.75MM contract with the Giants going into 2021. Unfortunately, things started going poorly for La Stella as soon as the ink dried on that deal. He only got into 76 games in 2021 due to various ailments and hit just .250/.308/.405 for a wRC+ of 93. He underwent achilles surgery in October, which was originally reported as occurring on his left achilles but was reported almost a year later to have been on both of them, per Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic.
Things got even worse in 2022, as injuries limited him to just 60 games on the season and he spent most of those as a designated hitter. He only took the field for 76 innings all year, getting brief amounts of time at first, second and third base. He hit just .239/.282/.350 for a wRC+ of 78. Though there was still one year left on his contract, the Giants cut bait and released him.
That makes this essentially a no-risk move for the Mariners, since the Giants are on the hook for the $11.5MM that’s still owed to La Stella. The M’s will pay him the prorated league minimum for any time he’s on the roster, with that amount being subtracted from San Francisco’s tab.
Though La Stella hardly took the field last year, he’s played more second base than anywhere else in his career. The Mariners were looking bolster their middle infield this offseason and already did so by trading for Kolten Wong. If the club views La Stella as a viable defender, he potentially gives them some extra cover there while adding a left-handed bat into their position player mix. Some of the clubs most obvious designated hitter candidates are right-handed, such as Teoscar Hernández and AJ Pollock. La Stella hits from the left side and has traditional platoon splits, having produced a 105 wRC+ against righties but just an 87 against lefties.
Though there’s no real financial cost for the M’s, they are paying the price of potentially losing Sheffield, who turns 27 in May. He was a first round selection of Cleveland in 2014 but was twice traded in headline-grabbing deals. He went to the Yankees in 2016 as part of the Andrew Miller trade and then went to Seattle in the 2018 James Paxton deal, frequently appearing on top prospect lists in that time as well.
Unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to live up to that pedigree thus far. He’s pitched 186 innings over the past five seasons but has just a 5.47 ERA to show for it. He’s gotten grounders at a healthy 49.5% clip but his 18.2% strikeout rate and 10.6% walk rate are both worse than league average. He hasn’t been faring much better in the minors either. He made 24 starts for Triple-A Tacoma last year and posted a 6.99 ERA in that time. The Rainiers play in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League but his rate stats were all fairly similar to his big league work and advanced metrics were only slightly kinder, such as a 6.27 FIP and 5.64 xFIP.
It seems those poor results have been enough to push him off Seattle’s roster. They will now have one week to trade him or pass him through waivers. He still has one option year remaining and just over two years of service, which could make him appealing to a club that thinks he can recapture the form that made him such a touted prospect.
Giants, Ronald Guzman Agree To Minor League Deal
The Giants have agreed to a minor league contract with free-agent first baseman Ronald Guzman, as first indicated on the transaction log at MiLB.com.
Guzman, 28, was considered one of the top prospects in the Rangers organization before making his Major League debut in 2018, but he’s yet to produce much in the Majors, slashing .225/.302/.411 with a 29.2% strikeout rate against an 8.8% walk rate in 832 trips to the plate. He spent the 2022 season with the Yankees organization, mostly playing with their Triple-A affiliate, where he slashed .255/.344/.478 (116 wRC+) in 105 games and 373 plate appearances. Guzman did receive a brief look late in the 2022 campaign as the Yanks dealt with injuries, but he logged just six trips to the plate in three games and went hitless along the way.
The depth chart in San Francisco has several players ahead of Guzman at first base, including LaMonte Wade Jr. and J.D. Davis, who could share time at the position in platoon fashion early in the 2023 season. Veteran utilityman Wilmer Flores is no stranger to the position either, having logged 1627 innings at first base, including 482 frames across the past two seasons. They’ll likely be the primary options at the position. Austin Slater could be more of an emergency option as well, given his 203 career innings at first, but he’s played exclusively in the outfield dating back to the 2020 campaign.
The Giants were lacking in first base depth in the upper minors, however, and Guzman will give them an experienced player with a track record of solid production in Triple-A. He’s spent parts of five seasons at the minor leagues’ top level, tallying 1150 total plate appearances and posting a solid .280/.360/.449 batting line with a 21.1% strikeout rate, an even 10% walk rate, 34 home runs, 61 doubles and four triples along the way.
Adam Warren Announces Retirement
Right-hander Adam Warren confirmed to Bryan Hoch of MLB.com yesterday that he’s retired as a player after spending parts of eight seasons in the Majors (Twitter link, with video, to Hoch’s interview with Warren). Warren, who was making an appearance at Yankees Fantasy Camp, told Hoch that he’s been enjoying time with his family but also misses being around the game and would be open to “maybe getting into some kind of coaching” role in the future.
“There’s no more attempt to come back or anything like that,” Warren replied upon being asked if he’s formally put an end to his playing career. “I’m happy with it. I had a great career — didn’t really leave anything out there, so no regrets. Totally happy with it.”
Originally signed by the Yankees as a fourth-round pick out of UNC back in 2009, Warren made his big league debut as a 23-year-old in 2012 — a spot start that proved to be his lone MLB appearance that season. He made the Opening Day roster the following year, however, and quickly established himself as a pivotal swingman providing quality, multi-inning relief out of then-manager Joe Girardi’s bullpen. Warren’s official rookie season resulted in 77 innings of 3.39 ERA ball; he made two starts, finished 11 games and picked up his first Major League win, save and hold along the way, foreshadowing the jack-of-all-trades approach to pitching that he’d embody throughout his career.
Warren worked as a setup man for the Yankees in 2014, tallying 23 holds and saving three games while pitching to a sharp 2.97 ERA in 78 2/3 innings. He stepped into the rotation for part of the 2015 season and did so almost seamlessly, starting 17 games (plus another 26 relief appearances) and working to a 3.29 ERA over the life of a career-high 131 2/3 frames. His early Yankees work caught the attention of the Cubs, who acquired him that offseason in a trade that sent Starlin Castro to the Bronx.
Warren’s time with the Cubs in 2016 went poorly and proved to be short-lived, as he was knocked around for a 5.91 ERA. As the trade deadline approached, the Cubs, then hoping to bolster the roster for a World Series push (an endeavor that ultimately proved successful) quickly traded Warren … back to the Yankees, as one of four players in a package that shipped Aroldis Chapman to Chicago. Warren almost immediately righted the ship in his return to the Bronx, and he went on to have strong performances with the Yankees in both 2017 and 2018 before being traded to the Mariners, where he had a nice finish to his 2018 campaign.
Upon reaching free agency, Warren signed with the Padres, but his time in San Diego was marred by injury. After just 25 appearances, the right-hander landed on the injured list with an arm issue that ultimately proved to be a ligament tear in his pitching elbow. He underwent Tommy John surgery that year, rehabbed in 2020 and eventually made his way back to the mound for a third stint with the Yankees organization — this time with their Triple-A affiliate in 2021.
Though Warren posted solid results in Scranton that season — 3.59 ERA in 57 2/3 innings — he didn’t receive a call to the big leagues. Warren told Hoch that “the velocity never came back like I wanted it to.” That season proved to be the final chapter in his playing career, as Warren didn’t suit up for the 2022 campaign and now, at 35 years old, doesn’t appear to be contemplating a comeback.
Warren’s career draws to an official close with a 3.53 ERA, a 20.9% strikeout rate, an 8.3% walk rate, a 30-24 record, 57 holds and six saves over the course of 492 1/3 innings. He pitched for four different big league clubs, but fans will surely remember him as a versatile, quietly excellent member of the Yankees’ pitching staff who found success in just about every role asked of him. Baseball-Reference pegs his career earnings at approximately $11.5MM, and if Warren indeed plans to pursue potential coaching opportunities, there’ll surely be chances for him to add to that tally in the next phase of his career.
Yankee fans will want to check out the entire clip of Hoch’s chat with Warren, as he talks briefly about his favorite moments in pinstripes and notes that with so many great teammates over the years, “it’s just nice to be remembered” by fans with whom he interacts. That humble mentality undersells the right-hander’s importance to the Yankees’ staff during his run with the club, and it seems quite safe to say that their fans in particular will have plenty of fond memories Warren’s time in the Bronx. Best wishes to Warren and his family in whatever’s next, and congratulations on a very fine career.
Marlins Designate Daniel Castano For Assignment
The Marlins have designated left-hander Daniel Castano for assignment, tweets Daniel Alvarez Montes of El Extra Base (Twitter link). Castano’s spot on the roster will go to right-hander Johnny Cueto, whose previously reported one-year, $8.5MM contract has now been made official. Cueto was formally introduced this morning at Miami’s loanDepot Park.
Castano, 28, was one of four players the Marlins acquired in the heist that sent Marcell Ozuna to St. Louis, coming to Miami alongside Sandy Alcantara, Zac Gallen (since traded for Jazz Chisholm Jr.) and Magneuris Sierra. The left-hander has appeared in each of the past three seasons with the Marlins, logging a combined 3.89 ERA in 85 2/3 innings of work.
That solid ERA, however, has been accompanied by a 12% strikeout rate that ranks as the lowest of any pitcher in baseball dating back to 2020 (min. 80 innings). Castano has partially offset that lack of missed bats with a better-than-average 7.5% walk rate, a solid 44.7% ground-ball rate and a repeated knack for avoiding hard contact; his career 87.6 mph exit velocity, 7% barrel rate, 35.9% hard-hit rate (all as measured by Statcast) are each better than those of the average MLB hurler. Still, fielding-independent metrics like FIP (4.86) and SIERA (5.28) are more bearish on the left-hander than his more rudimentary ERA.
Castano’s 12.8% strikeout rate in the big leagues this past season was right in line with his career mark, but that’s a bit odd to see, given that he also overhauled his pitch mix and experienced a sharp uptick in strikeouts in Triple-A. Castano moved away from his four-seamer and sinker in favor of a cutter that he tossed at a hefty 41% clip. In Triple-A, the shift in his repertoire perhaps contributed to a career-best 26.4% strikeout rate. That wasn’t necessarily in a tiny sample, either; Castano’s 34 Triple-A frames were almost an exact match for his 35 2/3 Major League innings. It stands to reason, then, that even if Castano won’t see his MLB strikeout rate climb to quite those same heights, there’s perhaps reason to believe there’s more bat-missing ability in the tank than he’s shown in the Majors just yet.
Unfortunately for Castano, injuries robbed him of the chance to display more of that new-look cutter down the stretch. Castano landed on the shelf with a concussion in late July after being struck in the head by a 104 mph liner, and while he was working his back from that frightening scene, the Marlins discovered a small tear in his shoulder. He didn’t require surgery but also did not pitch again in 2022.
The Marlins will now have a week to trade Castano or attempt to pass him through outright waivers. He’s out of minor league options, so any team that acquires him will need to carry him on the roster or else try to pass Castano through waivers themselves. That said, he’s a lefty with a starter’s pedigree and some success in the upper minors, solid command and weak contact rates in the big leagues, and a somewhat intriguing new pitch that he began to lean on this past season. He can also be controlled for five more seasons. It’s certainly feasible that a pitching-needy club could place a claim or work out a small trade to acquire Castano.
Orioles Sign Reed Garrett To Minor League Deal
The Orioles announced Thursday that they’ve signed right-handed reliever Reed Garrett to a minor league contract. He’ll likely vie for a roster spot in big league camp this spring.
Garrett, 30, was with the Nationals organization in 2022, pitching 9 1/3 innings at the big league level and another 47 1/3 frames of Triple-A ball. He yielded an unsightly seven runs on 13 hits and eight walks during that brief Major League cup of coffee, but Garrett was quite good with the Nats’ Triple-A club, notching a 3.04 ERA with a 27% strikeout rate, 9.2% walk rate and 47.4% ground-ball rate.
Back in 2018, Garrett was the fifth pick in the Rule 5 Draft, going from the Rangers organization to the Tigers, where he’d make his MLB debut the following season. He tossed 15 1/3 frames with Detroit but struggled with his command and the long ball in that time, yielding 14 runs before being designated for assignment and returned to Texas.
Those brief looks in 2019 and 2022 are Garrett’s only big league experience to date, and they’ve resulted in a combined 7.66 ERA with more walks (21) than strikeouts (16) over the life of 24 2/3 innings. Obviously, those results don’t generate much cause for optimism, but Garrett has had success both in Triple-A (3.87 ERA in parts of three seasons) and during a two-year run with the Seibu Lions of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball (3.46 ERA in 106 2/3 frames). Between that success and Garrett’s intriguing fastball (96 mph average with above-average spin), the O’s saw enough to give the righty a chance to pitch his way into their bullpen plans during the upcoming 2023 season.
Red Sox, Raimel Tapia Agree To Minor League Deal
The Red Sox are in agreement with Raimel Tapia, as the free agent outfielder himself first indicated on Instagram. It’s a minor league deal for Tapia, tweets Jon Heyman of the New York Post. He’ll be invited to the major league side of Sox camp and can make $2 million with some additional performance bonuses if he cracks the MLB roster, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com. Tapia is repped by Dream One Sports Group.
Tapia, 29 next month, joins the third organization of his professional career. The speedster first signed with the Rockies as an amateur from the Dominican Republic over the 2010-11 international period. A few years later, Tapia emerged as one of the sport’s more promising prospects. Evaluators praised his athleticism and bat-to-ball skills and suggested he could develop into a prototypical top-of-the-lineup sparkplug for Colorado.
The left-handed hitter got to the majors in 2016 but saw sporadic action for his first three seasons. He finally landed everyday playing time during the 2019 campaign and was a lineup regular for the next three years. Tapia indeed showed quality contact skills and speed at the MLB level, though he never consistently produced offensively. He owns a very aggressive approach and doesn’t have significant power, leading to an overall profile that’s heavily reliant on singles falling into play.
Tapia hit .280/.325/.395 in a little more than 1400 trips to the plate through the end of the 2021 season. Last spring, Colorado dealt Tapia to the Blue Jays for Randal Grichuk. The move balanced each club’s respective lineup, but neither player performed at a high level in 2022. Tapia posted a .265/.292/.380 line with seven home runs through 433 plate appearances, keeping his strikeouts at a modest 18.7% clip but drawing free passes less than 4% of the time he came to the plate. At season’s end, the Jays non-tendered him rather than retain him via arbitration on a salary that was projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz at $5.2MM.
Over the course of his career, Tapia has suited up at all three outfield positions. The vast majority of his work has come in left field, where public metrics have pegged him as a roughly average defender. Tapia has rated reasonably well in a little over 400 career innings in center but never got much run there in deference to Charlie Blackmon and George Springer, respectively.
The Red Sox have looked to stockpile up-the-middle options in the wake of Xander Bogaerts‘ free agent departure and Trevor Story‘s injury. The free agent center field market is extremely thin at this stage of the offseason, leaving teams to sort through imperfect defensive fits or glove-first depth players. Boston agreed to a one-year deal with Adam Duvall yesterday, adding a right-handed bat to the mix. Tapia joins Jarren Duran as a left-handed option in the center field mix, though he’ll need to earn his way onto the roster with a strong spring showing.
Twins Sign Chris Paddack To Extension
On Wednesday evening, the Twins announced a three-year contract with right-hander Chris Paddack. The deal covers his final two seasons of arbitration eligibility and buys out what would’ve been his first free agent season in 2025. Paddack reportedly receives a $2.5MM salary for the coming season. He’ll be guaranteed $2.525MM in 2024 and $7.5MM during the ’25 campaign. The Boras Corporation client would earn an additional $500K for reaching both 140 and 150 innings in 2025, with another $750K available at the 160 and 170-inning thresholds.
Paddack, who turned 27 earlier this month, was acquired by the Twins last April in a deal with the Padres that also saw Taylor Rogers and Emilio Pagan change uniforms. Unfortunately for the Twins, Paddack managed just 22 1/3 innings with the club before he landed on the injured list with an elbow issue. Paddack later underwent Tommy John surgery in May, with August 2023 as the reported target for his return to big league play.
Paddack was an instant success in his 2019 debut season with the Padres, posting a 3.33 ERA (126 ERA+) with a 3.95 FIP across 26 starts and racked up 153 strikeouts in just 140 2/3 innings of work. The shortened 2020 season saw him struggle mightily, however, as his ERA ballooned to 4.73 (89 ERA+) and his FIP similarly rose to 5.02 across 59 innings. One factor in this was his ghastly HR/FB rate of 25.0%, nearly double his 14.6% rate from 2019.
His home run rate returned to normal in 2021, but Paddack continued to struggle. In 108 1/3 innings in 2021, Paddack posted an ERA of 5.07 (77 ERA+), the worst of his career. Paddack’s 3.72 FIP in 2021 indicates that there may have been some bad luck built into those results, but there was reason for concern nonetheless: his strikeout rate had plummeted. After striking out 9.8 batters per 9 in his debut 2019 season, that rate dipped to 8.8 in 2020 and then dipped again in 2021, all the way down to 8.2, good for a strikeout rate in just the 35th percentile that year.
Of course, it should be noted that Paddack struggled with injuries throughout the 2021 season, which certainly could have impacted his performance. Paddack spent over two months on the injured list in 2021 across three separate IL stints, suggesting he may not have been fully healthy even when he was on the mound that season. Between his youth and injury history, there’s reason to believe Paddack could return to a form more in line with his 2019 debut once he’s fully healthy, an outcome the Twins are betting on with this deal.
In extending Paddack, the Twins provide the right-hander with some security during his rehab process and return to the pitcher’s mound, while buying themselves an extra year of team control for a pitcher with substantial upside. Should Paddack return to the mound late in the season, he will join a somewhat full rotation mix that currently includes Sonny Gray, Tyler Mahle, Joe Ryan, Kenta Maeda, and Bailey Ober. With that being said, Gray, Mahle, and Maeda are all set to hit the free agent market following the 2023, leaving Paddack as a likely key cog in Minnesota’s 2024 rotation.
With four years of service time, Paddack was set to be eligible for arbitration both this offseason and next, with MLBTR contributor Matt Schwartz having projected him for $2.4MM during this round of arbitration. With this deal, Paddack forgoes a potential raise through the arbitration process next year in addition to a year of free agency, though he is still set hit the market at age 30 following the 2025 campaign. A cost-controlled starter like Paddack is a huge boon to Minnesota’s payroll flexibility going forward- while their projected payroll for the 2024 season is just $65MM per RosterResource (prior to the inclusion of arb-eligible players on the roster), the Twins are, as previously mentioned, set to lose three members of their rotation this offseason, potentially in addition to two starting outfielders in Joey Gallo and Max Kepler. While youngsters like Alex Kirilloff and Trevor Larnach could step up in the outfield, it seems almost certain that the Twins will have to supplement their core in free agency next year. Cost certainty with Paddack could help them be more aggressive in making those additions and maximizing the early years of Carlos Correa‘s new six-year deal with the club.
Matt Braun of Twins Daily was first to report the Twins and Paddack had agreed to a three-year contract. Dan Hayes of the Athletic was first with the $12.5MM guarantee. Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported the salary breakdown. The Associated Press was first with the specifics of the incentives.
Rays Sign Heath Hembree, Ben Heller, Zack Burdi To Minor League Deals
The Rays have signed three righties to minor league deals, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Heath Hembree, Ben Heller and Zack Burdi will all receive invitations to major league Spring Training.
Hembree, 34, is easily the most experienced of the bunch. He’s appeared in each of the past 10 major league seasons, getting into 357 games over his career thus far. He had some really good years for the Red Sox from 2014 to 2019 but has gone into journeyman mode over the past few campaigns, suiting up for the Sox, Phillies, Mets, Reds, Pirates and Dodgers since the start of 2020.
Last year, Hembree made 26 appearances between the Bucs and Dodgers but registered a 7.36 ERA in that time. He posted matching 15.9% strikeout and walk rates, with both of those figures worse than league average. It was a disappointing season but he’s not far removed from a 2021 campaign where he struck out 34.2% of batters faced against a 9.9% walk rate. A 59% strand rate pushed his ERA up to 5.59 that year with advanced metrics feeling he deserved much better, such as a 3.15 xERA, 4.34 FIP and 3.11 SIERA.
Heller, 31, appeared in 31 major league games from 2016 to 2020, all of those with the Yankees. He has a career 2.59 ERA over those years, though that’s surely depressed by an unsustainable 98.4% strand rate. He struck out 21.7% of batters faced in that time, walking 10.9% of them and got grounders on 40.9% of balls in play. He spent some time last year with the Twins on a minor league deal, throwing 8 2/3 innings with a 9.35 ERA.
Burdi, 28 in March, was a first round selection of the White Sox in the 2016 draft. Unfortunately, injuries have taken a toll on his progress thus far, including 2017 Tommy John surgery. He eventually made 15 appearances over 2020 and 2021, throwing a combined 17 1/3 innings. Unfortunately, he posted a 7.79 ERA in that time with a 20.9% strikeout rate, 9.3% walk rate and 34.5% ground ball rate. He signed a minor league deal with the Nats for 2022 but was only healthy enough to throw 13 innings down on the farm, though he did post a 1.38 ERA in that small sample.
All three players will provide the Rays with some non-roster pitching depth and try to earn their way back to the majors. If either Burdi or Heller make their way onto the roster, they each still have one option year remaining, potentially giving Tampa some roster flexibility. Burdi has less than a year of service time and could be retained for future seasons cheaply, while Heller is over the three-year mark and would qualify for arbitration if holding onto a spot at season’s end. Hembree, however, is over six years of service and would qualify for free agency.