The Red Sox announced Wednesday that right-hander Jake Faria went unclaimed on outright waivers and has been assigned to Triple-A Worcester. Faria’s contract was selected over the weekend when the Sox needed a fresh arm, but he didn’t get into a game before being designated for assignment on Monday morning. He’s been outrighted in the past and will thus have the option of rejecting the assignment in favor of free agency if he chooses.
The 29-year-old Faria hasn’t appeared in the Majors since 2021, when he tossed 32 2/3 innings of 5.53 ERA ball with the Diamondbacks. He spent the 2022 season with the Twins’ Triple-A affiliate but was hit hard in 43 1/3 innings, and his 2023 start in Worcester hasn’t gone any better. In five frames, Faria has more earned runs and walks (six apiece) than he does strikeouts (five).
Faria had a strong debut season with the Rays back in 2017, when he appeared in 16 games (14 starts) and tossed 86 2/3 innings of 3.43 ERA ball. The former tenth-round pick fanned 23.5% of his opponents that season against a solid 8.7% walk rate and looked like he’d be a valuable member of Tampa Bay’s staff for the foreseeable future.
Things didn’t pan out that way, however. Faria’s sophomore season with the Rays resulted in 65 innings of 5.40 ERA ball, as his strikeout, walk and home-run rates all trended in negative directions. The Rays traded him to the Brewers in exchange for Jesus Aguilar at the 2019 trade deadline in a move that worked out better for Tampa Bay but didn’t pay huge dividends for either party. (The Rays placed Aguilar on waivers after the season and lost him to the Marlins.)
Overall, in 116 2/3 frames since that impressive debut, Faria carries a 5.65 ERA with a middling 19% strikeout rate and a bloated 10.9% walk rate. He posted sharp Triple-A results earlier in his career, but more recent struggles there have bumped his lifetime Triple-A earned run average to 4.59 in a total of 308 innings.
Wow! Just like I said. Everyone was saying it would take “two weeks” for this to get done. If you go back, I said “2 days” and got no love. Its only 2 Days because he wasnt given his ‘outright release’.
But the initial moves with him did give the “Chaim Bloom Haters” club something to post idiotic rants about for a few days.
Do people not understand Bloom works for ownership and as soon as he does something they dont like he and his front office will be gone.? Case in point look at what just happened to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Ownership ia happy with Bloom for now.
It was basically
‘bringing up a reliever for a one day emergency backup, then sending him back down’.
Only when its the Red Sox does it become a
‘conspiracy of unfathomable evil and stupidity that necessitates rule changes’.
Funny times. 29 other teams can promote their best prospect and get 20 comments. Faria was up one day just in case we needed someone in a blowout. Just signing him yielded 140 comments.
And, FWIW, it was the same with Meneses, Politi, Darwinzon, etc. Some posters had no idea who these guys were, until we let them go, and then came the requisite comments.
That’s not how it works junkie ownership doesn’t have the time or desire to micromanage the small stuff