Free agent right-hander Jake Odorizzi is wholesome and searching for a deal, per Jon Morosi of MLB.com. The righty reportedly threw off a mound in entrance of evaluators representing a few third of the golf equipment within the league. The Twins have been one membership that have been there watching, per Darren Wolfson of SKOR North, although their curiosity degree is unclear.
Odorizzi, 34 subsequent month, is coming off a wholly missed season. He was traded from Atlanta to Texas on the finish of the 2022 marketing campaign after triggering a participant choice. Atlanta agreed to pay down $10MM of the $12.5MM wage on that participant choice, leaving Texas to pay simply $2.5MM. However that cash ended up wasted, as Odorizzi handled some arm fatigue in Spring Coaching and finally required a season-ending arthroscopic process on his proper shoulder.
His presents will undoubtedly be restricted after that misplaced season and shoulder damage, nevertheless it might additionally current a buy-low alternative for golf equipment if any of them are inspired by his well being. Odorizzi has spent a few years within the massive leagues as a stable mid-rotation man, having made 241 appearances since his 2012 debut, 237 of these being begins. His 1,253 1/3 innings have seen him enable 3.99 earned runs per 9, putting out 22.2% of batters confronted whereas strolling 8.1%.
Varied golf equipment across the league are working with tighter budgets this winter resulting from uncertainty relating to the printed income state of affairs, with a kind of being the Twins. They opened final yr with a payroll of $153MM, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, however are reportedly attempting to get that all the way down to the $125-140MM vary for this yr’s opener.
They’re presently at $124MM, per Roster Useful resource, however with a clearly diminished rotation. Sonny Grey, Kenta Maeda and Tyler Mahle all reached free company and signed with different golf equipment. Chris Paddack returned from his Tommy John surgical procedure absence late final yr and will make up for these losses considerably and the Twins acquired Anthony DeSclafani from the Mariners, however the total group is clearly much less inspiring than it was a yr in the past. Reporting from earlier immediately advised that the membership remains to be wanting so as to add to their beginning combine.
The Twins clearly know and like Odorizzi, as he pitched for them from 2018 to 2020. In the event that they really feel he can get again to the place he was throughout that point, a low-cost flier would make loads of sense. The Twins have been only one membership current to observe Odorizzi throw and there are many others who might be a match.
The Padres have additionally been slashing payroll and have misplaced Blake Snell, Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha, Wealthy Hill and Nick Martínez to free company. Snell remains to be on the market however the membership’s tight funds makes it unlikely they’ll get him again or signal some other massive title. The Rays have a payroll that’s set to be a franchise document they usually might use some extra pitching. Just like the Twins, they’re aware of Odorizzi from a earlier stint, as he was with Tampa from 2013 to 2017. Nearly any membership might use an additional little bit of pitching depth and Spring Coaching at all times results in accidents that can solely exacerbate these wants.
The massive query will naturally be Odorizzi’s well being. Past the current shoulder process and lengthy layoff, he’s had different points. In 2021, he went on the injured listing resulting from a proper pronator muscle pressure and a few proper foot soreness, whereas the 2022 season noticed him miss time resulting from decrease left leg discomfort. He topped out simply over 100 innings in each of these campaigns. Due to these accidents and the pandemic, he hasn’t had something near a full starter’s workload since 2019. However he was pretty regular previous to that, tossing between 140 and 190 innings in six straight years from 2014 to 2019. His ERA completed between 3.35 and 4.49 in every of these campaigns.