The Diamondbacks have signed right-hander Dan Straily to a minor league deal, as officially announced by the Triple-A Reno Aces. Straily’s deal includes an invitation to Arizona’s big league spring camp.
A veteran of eight MLB seasons, Straily last pitched in the Show in 2019, when he allowed 22 home runs over 47 2/3 innings with the Orioles en route to an ungainly 9.82 ERA. Straily opted for a notable change of scenery and joined the Korean Baseball Organization’s Lotte Giants for both the 2020 and 2021 seasons, with an impressive 3.22 ERA and 24.75% strikeout rate over 360 1/3 innings.
Straily took part in a chat with MLBTR’s readers back on December 14, and noted that a return to the majors was on his mind: “I have said since day one that I want to finish my career in the MLB where my son can watch me pitch.” Since Straily is only 33 years old, there’s plenty of time left for a second act in his Major League history, provided that Straily can build on his success in the KBO League.
Beyond just the change in competition in South Korea, Straily also said that he and the Giants’ coaching staff used pitching technology to work on his pitches and upgrade both his changeup and fastball, in particular. These changes have apparently caught the eye of the D’Backs, and for the no-risk cost of a minors deal and camp invite, Arizona can get a closer look at Straily (whenever Spring Training actually opens) to see if he can contribute to the active roster.
While the rotation was one of many things that went south for the 110-loss Diamondbacks in 2021, the club can at least go into next season with a provisional starting four in place — Zac Gallen, Madison Bumgarner, Merrill Kelly, Luke Weaver figure to be Arizona’s top choices at the moment. Pitchers like Tyler Gilbert, Taylor Widener, Humberto Mejia, Humberto Castellanos and Caleb Smith could all be competing for that fifth spot or for bullpen roles, with Straily now adding some veteran depth to what is overall a pretty young and inexperienced group (except for Smith). Injuries or trades could open up further opportunities in the rotation, as Kelly in particular could be a trade chip as he enters the final year of his contract.
Straily has a solid track record in his recent big league past, posting a 4.03 ERA over 495 1/3 innings with the Reds and Marlins from 2016-18. Prior to that nightmare of a season in Baltimore, Straily had seemingly established himself as at least a solid innings-eater, if a pitcher prone to allowing home runs. While Chase Field has a reputation for being a homer-friendly ballpark, that reputation may be a bit outdated, considering that fewer homers have been hit at the ballpark since the D’Backs began storing baseballs in a humidor prior to the 2018 season. Over the last three years, Chase Field has actually allowed a below-average number of home runs, as per Statcast.
Atta boy! He got that MLBtr live chat bump
I was hoping he would get signed after that chat. I think he was the very first MLBTR player chatter, right? He started a new trend and even Chipper Jones followed in his footsteps.
Every time I read about players playing baseball in South Korea I always wonder what the baseball scene is like in North Korea. Would any players actually go there to play? I know a bunch of WWE stars went to do a huge show in North Korea in front of a stadium of about 200,000 people. Maybe other athletes would, too? I think that stadium actually has the record for largest capacity in the world.
I think you are talking about Saudi Arabia because WWW has been there plenty of times.
WWE*
It was WCW back in 94 I think, they did an episode on dark side of the ring about that show. Muhammad Ali even went with them. Think it was a cross promotion with AJPW
Wooooooooo!!! -Ric Flair
It was WCW back in 94 I think, they did an episode on dark side of the ring about that show. Muhammad Ali even went with them. Think it was a cross promotion with AJPW
It was New Japan, not all Japan wrestling.
There is no baseball scene in North Korea, anything that has to do with America is seen as the enemy over there. Baseball is considered America’s pastime.
Those poor people can’t even wear jeans, and have only a few government approved haircuts to get among things, so baseball isn’t a priority there.
Yeah. I saw about those government approved haircuts. Pretty crazy. The guy in charge doesn’t have a government approved haircut, though. I think there is one similar to him that people can choose but he doesn’t want anyone to have one exactly like him.
I saw it on Dark Side of the Ring, too. One of my favorite shows. I forgot it was WCW. I went to a big wrestling event when I was a kid once but I wasn’t a huge fan. The show really got me into it, though. I think one of the worst things wrestling ever did was try and cover up the fact that there were gimmicks and that it was essentially choreographed. I didn’t like it when I was a kid because I knew it was set up and a lot of the other kids thought it was genuine. Once they admit it, though… You start to look at the stuff they actually have to do for real and you appreciate it more. The dialogue may be somewhat written and they practice to try and not hurt each other but what they do is still extremely hard. I couldn’t do it. People also get seriously hurt all the time and even at the top level guys have passed away in the ring.
The most interesting stuff is the background stories of a lot of the wrestlers involved. Some of those guys lead absolutely insane lives and I find all of it very interesting. I don’t think many people go from not being pro-wrestling fans as a kid to being one as an adult but I am one of the few. I don’t really care about the new wrestlers, though. I like the guys from the 80’s to the early 2000’s.
Dan got a lot of new fans by doing the MLBTR chat. Congrats. Not sure Arizona is a prime destination to go to rebuild his value, as he’s now in a hitters park facing high powered offenses in the toughest division in baseball. I’m surprised his agent couldn’t have worked a 1 yr MLB deal to be the #4/#5 with a number of teams after the lockout: Texas, Oakland, Pittsburgh, Washington and Minnesota, to name a few. Perhaps with the lockout, he felt the need to get something done now instead of holding out for a better deal/opp. Surely, there’s got to be some sort of a handshake deal: “You’ll be in the rotation on opening day as long as you don’t blow chunks or blow out your arm in spring training (whenever that will be).”
I kind of wonder that myself. Was the minor league contract just to secure his services ahead of everyone else as a means of circumventing the signing freeze?
D’backs have an interesting rotation in the making
@Trog – While the NL West has 3 excellent teams, I wouldn’t call it the toughest division in baseball with both Arizona and Colorado in it. Plus SD finished below .500 in 2021 even though they had a ton of talent.
Last year, the AL East was by far the toughest division in baseball. The top 3 teams made the playoffs (TB, BOS, NYY) and TOR missed the playoffs by 1 game. Sure they all had BAL to beat up on but BAL lost fewer games than ARI last year and the Orioles are team finally on its way up.
I don’t see this changing much in 2022. All 4 AL East teams should be competing for a playoff spot again. It will take SD playing up to their ability and a massive improvement by either Colorado or Arizona or a major downturn by BOS, NYY or TOR for the NL West to take over the title of “toughest division in baseball.”
The Journeyman adds another stop! Looking forward to watching his success, which I know he will have.
You have to wonder how the changes to the LF wall will impact HRs allowed in Camden Yards this season. Straily was there when Camden allowed the 2nd or 3rd most HRs in baseball (2019). Let’s hope the progress he made in Korea carries over to MLB, he’s one of the good guys in baseball and very easy to root for.
welcome back
Congrats Dan! Know you are perusing the comments. Ha.
CC: Paul Cobbe
With all due respect, but Arizona might be a good choice since it might be a bit easier to make the 26-man roster there. I wish him the best of luck, even more so since I enjoyed the chat.
Gruß,
BSHH
Aww man come play for the twins and you’re guaranteed a spot opening day
Dan, we’ll be following you closely this year. Blessings on you.
Would’ve been nice to see how he would’ve fared on competitive teams.
With a 4.94 xFIP and 5.05 FIP vs. 4.54 ERA he’s quite lucky. Won’t make it.
Don’t like this signing, as a Dbacks fan. 17 of the Dback’s Top 30 prospects have ETAs to the majors of 2021-2022, and 8 of those 17 are pitchers! The Dbacks have plenty of young talent in the immediate system. They need to let those youngsters develop. Only purpose I can see is to trade Straily before the deadline.
There’s no such thing as a bad minor league contract. Even with all of those prospects on the cusp none are likely to start the season with the D’backs and if Straily pitches well, along with Bumgarner and Kelly and maybe Weaver it gives the Diamondbacks more trade chips to continue to add to the system
22 HR allowed in 47.2 innings? That is just insane. But I like Straily’s chances given the number of pitching disasters the Orioles had that suddenly blossomed or at least performed competently after getting away.
It’s like scraping out the edges of your yogurt cup trying to get any last bit left, but I think it’s all gone.