The Marlins have returned right-hander Nic Enright to the Guardians, per Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase. Enright had been selected by the Marlins from the Guardians in the Rule 5 draft but was designated for assignment on Monday. Today’s transaction indicates he cleared waivers in recent days. The Guardians will not have to add him to their 40-man roster.
Enright, 26, was a 20th round selection of Cleveland in the 2019 draft. He got a brief professional debut in rookie ball that year before the minor leagues were wiped out by the pandemic in 2020. He then split his 2021 between High-A and Double-A, tossing 58 relief innings between those two levels with a 3.41 ERA. He struck out 38.4% of batters faced while walking just 5.7%. Last year was split between Double-A and Triple-A, as Enright finished the season with a combined 2.88 ERA at those two levels, striking out 33.7% of opponents against a 5.4% walk rate.
The Marlins decided it was worth taking a shot on him and nabbed him in the Rule 5 draft in December. Shortly after that, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, relaying the news himself in February. He began the season on the 15-day injured list and was transferred to the 60-day version in early April. He began a rehab assignment about a month ago but it seems the Marlins weren’t going to be able to find room for him on their roster.
Any of the other clubs in the league could have claimed him off waivers, but doing so would have meant following the standard Rule 5 guidelines, meaning they would not have been able to send Enright to the minors. It seems none of them were willing to do so, allowing the Guardians to welcome him back to their organization as non-roster bullpen depth. He will presumably head to Triple-A Columbus and continue working towards his major league debut.
Unfortunate for Enright. Absolutely no space on that Cleveland team even with their injuries to pitchers.
I think he can still earn a spot if the opportunity comes up. Herrin would likely be next up since he’s already on the 40-man roster, but Enright has been really solid in the upper minors before so I wouldn’t rule him out.
If they need someone from Columbus, it likely comes down to Touki Touissant, Michael Kelly, and Caleb Baragar. But they were all signed to minor league deals over the winter and Touki is the only one who’s shown decent control this year.
Hopefully Touki has turned a corner. He has a career over 5.00 in MLB so far which doesn’t translate to much success. It does appear that he’s doing ok in AAA this year though.
I’m intrigued by the idea of Touki in the bullpen. Maybe that’s a better role for him long term but he’s been good there this year
Braves had him there, he was okay but not worth the spot. Hopefully he’ll find major league success but hitters just seem to nail his stuff.
@michael
Good point. I didn’t realize that most of the 40 man guys are hurt or on the mlb roster. Not much turnover going to happen without an injury though. Pretty set bullpen if healthy,
I wonder if Quantrill goes to the pen when one of the starters is back. It’d be real hard to demote Bibee or Allen.
Quantril likely to the IL with a shoulder issue tomorrow as CLE activates Civale.
McKenzie announced to start on Sunday so that requires a 40 man & 26 man roster move
Cody Morris currently on rehab assignment (about 3 weeks away). He would also need 40 man & 26 man roster move
I’d imagine Morris gets optioned when he’s back so that probably takes care of the 26-man roster move there. For McKenzie, it would have to be Gaddis going down.
For the 40-man, I’d probably DFA Tena and Plesac, but maybe they’d move Battenfield to the 60 day IL if his injury is bad enough.
The Marlins talked so much about him…
Bullpen’s luck is also starting to turn, so definitely nice when you lose some organizational depth with a guy who misses some bats…