The Royals announced a series of roster moves this morning. The club has reinstated left-hander Ryan Yarbrough from the 60-day injured list and recalled infielder Samad Taylor from Triple-A Omaha. Yarbrough is slated to start this afternoon’s game against the Guardians. In corresponding moves, left-hander Amir Garrett has been designated for assignment while outfielder Edward Olivares was placed on the 10-day IL (retroactive to July 8) with a mild left oblique strain.
It will be Yarbrough’s first start since he was struck in the face by a line drive off the bat of A’s first baseman Ryan Noda back in May. In all, Yarbrough missed just over two months with the resulting injuries. It had been a difficult start to the season for Yarbrough even before he suffered the injury. The 31-year-old lefty owns a 6.15 ERA, 28% worse than league average, with a 5.19 FIP in 26 1/3 innings of work for the Royals this season across ten appearances (three starts). For now, Yarbrough is ticketed for a return to the rotation, but the lefty has swung between the rotation and the bullpen all throughout his career, with 75 of his 137 career appearances in the big league coming in relief.
Taylor, meanwhile, made his big league debut with the Royals earlier this season. Across 38 plate appearances in the majors, Taylor owns a .133/.270/.133 slash line. His performance has been much better across 308 plate appearances with Omaha as he’s slashed .306/.412/.460. Taylor figures to join a bench mix in Kansas City that currently includes infielder Matt Duffy and outfielder Dairon Blanco. He’ll replace Olivares on the roster, who has slashed .242/.296/.410 in the club while mostly playing left field for the club.
Garrett’s Royals tenure comes to an end a season and a half after the club acquired him from the Reds in a deal that sent left-hander Mike Minor to Cincinnati. Garrett’s time in Kansas City was fraught with struggles. In 2022, the lefty posted a 4.96 ERA that was 18% worse than league average. While his 3.40 FIP was solid, Garrett saw his strikeout rate dip from 28.4% the previous year down to 25% while his walk rate crept up from 13.5% to a more untenable 16.3% during the 2022 campaign. The results have been better in 2023, with a 3.33 ERA in 24 1/3 innings, but Garrett’s issues with the free pass have gotten even worse as his walk rate has reached a whopping 17.9% this season.
Going forward, the Royals will have a week to trade, waive, or release Garrett. While it’s doubtful Garrett would bring back much in trade, it’s possible some clubs would have sufficient interest in acquiring the 31-year-old lefty and seeing if they can iron out his control problems that they would be willing to take on the remaining half of Garrett’s $2.65MM salary this season.
Interesting walk rate vs ERA… maybe worth a shot at AAA for the Rangers
Avoid if winning matters. Unless you are looking to win the draft. Then by all means, go for him.
Back to Cincy
Yep. They need another lefty in the bullpen.
It’s amazing how we root for the same team and are on opposite sides of every opinion. I really liked this guy when he came up but he is an absolute cancer.
Please no.
I get that the walks are scary but why is a team like the Royals DFAing an actual major leaguer who has been putting up good results this year.
I assumed they were gonna trade him anyway, & I guess they still can. Maybe by going the DFA route it made the roster move easier? I dunno.
But doesn’t DFAing him reduce KC’s leverage in a trade? They have to put him through waivers or trade him, so unless a bidding war starts he could be had for next to nothing. If KC thinks he has real trade value, why would they need to force other teams’ hands to get a deal together?
I’ve always been confused about why teams DFA to induce a trade when it seems like it would have such an obviously negative effect on your leverage in the subsequent negotiations.
If other teams figure correctly that you are going to DFA a player then your leverage has already been compromised. At least with a DFA the royals can take advantage of more than one team claiming him and possibly work out a deal with one of them.
Ah, I see. Sort of a last-ditch effort to spark a bidding war on a sunk asset. Thanks for the insight. I’m surprised Garrett’s stock has fallen that far, but his peripherals are terrible and KC’s front office always underwhelms in trades.
It does seem weird. I’m thinking this might force another teams hand into making a trade now instead of the deadline?
Maybe there’s already a deal underway
> why […] DFAing an actual major leaguer
Roster crunch. Somebody had to go for Yarbrough and they picked him. Teams are not all good at what they do so that could explain why the Royals are where they are.
Roster crunch? The Royals are horrible, almost historically so, and their roster is littered with worse players than Garrett.
FIP 5.59 (career 4.92)
WHIP 1.726 (career 1.439)
I don’t think he’s as good as anyone here thinks he is. He’s due for some regression. They got rid of the right guy.
I don’t think he’s good either but citing a “roster crunch” on an awful team with very few bright spots seems odd to me.
I think there are two topics:
(1) what the Royals did here.
(2) what the Royals should do.
I was only trying to explain what the Royals did with Amir. It is supposed to sound odd. They have very odd ways of choosing what players to keep on their roster.
I put this:
“Teams are not all good at what they do so that could explain why the Royals are where they are.”
DFA of Amir is one of many steps they should make.
C’mon Pirates!
Honestly why not? Bullpen has its ups and downs and he’d fit right in with this staff the way they issue walks
LOL! He tried to fight the entire bench when on the Reds, so I doubt that even in Pittsburgh that’s still not water under the bridge. But who knows?
Is this the guy that charged the Pirates’ dugout only to be tackled and dropkicked before even landing a punch or am I thinking if Ramon Laureano? Either way both are punks and are bad for the game. Good riddance
Naming someone a punk without knowing the whole story is jumping to conclusions but the twitter society is fond of that.
Being so quick to judge, my guess is you would have charged the dugout too, as would a lot of people here.
On the other hand, you hear a lot of crap on the field, even stuff that wouldn’t be said in actual society, and you shouldn’t let them get into your head or act like it bothers you, because it will get worse, and it did.
You’re really going to try and defend a pitcher for charging a dugout and trying to injured players?
He must be a defense attorney. We had a lot of those in CLE when Joey Belle was throwing balls at fans, chasing down kids in his neighborhood, etc. Whoever it is, we’re to assume he’s not a bad guy, just misunderstood.
Go up to Harlem, start throwing around the N word, and let me know how that works out for you.
I’d assume you’d try and justify a pitcher throwing a 100 MPH fastball at a batter’s head, too
“Being so quick to judge, my guess is you would have charged the dugout too, as would a lot of people here.”
You can watch the sequence here (via Jomboy if you’re into that sort of thing)
m.youtube.com/watch?v=iU-ESpiwV4o
imo, Garrett and Puig are probably the only people in baseball who would have charged the dugout like that. It’s not a common or reasonable response like you’re suggesting. Dude was just mad he came in acting like a tough guy and then got immediately shelled.
Fun note about that game as mentioned in the video is that Puig was traded away right before the fight yet was still on the field and took a major part in it.
Tommy Pham would like to join the group
And throws drinks on fans.
The best thing the Pirates ever did was fire Clint Hurdle’s ass and stop their stupid bean ball wars.
Wait…..Reds were involved with pirates and cardinals during that time. Common link was the Reds.
Dusty Baker gets credit for being “old school” but his pitchers threw at players on multiple teams.
Anyone remember Cutch taking 100mph between the shoulder blades from Chapman and just getting up like the Boss that he is??
Walk a mile in his shoes. Or, just walk everyone you face. Same difference.
Javy Baez will be quite sad to hear this.
Amir Garrett gets traded to the Tigers.
AJ knows how to handle head cases.
With Alexander out for the year, the Tigers could use a lefty in the pen. If it lights a fire under Baez, even better.
Maybe something going on between him and the team that isn’t public knowledge? I know he’s had negative interactions in the past
Team: Throw strikes!
Amir: Nahh…
If this guy wasn’t a complete maniac he really could of been something.
Amir shadow of his former self.
Lol, he’s exactly who he’s always been. High walk, high strikeout, volatile arm. Always a flawed player.
Garret’s a hot head and a bum.
So the Royals are telling Garrett to take a walk, after he decided to “take a walk on the wild side.”
Dooo…do.do, do.do..do-do-do-do, doo.do.do
As much as this initially screams reds because they need a lefty and the familiarity, it’s an ez no. He’d mess with team chemistry way too much.
Odd move. Teammates seemed to like him in Kansas City.
What a joke of an organization!
Hope he goes to the NL East so we can finally see Schwarbs kick his @$$
Word on the street in Bridgeport Chicago is that he will be traded to the whitesox for Grandahl.
Now he can get back to his true love, punching obese old men.
The Mets always need bullpen guys
Why DFA this guy while keeping someone like Wittgren on the roster? Dude is worse in every category including age? Been a big time royals fan since late 90’s but, seems like royals can’t get there stuff together
Giving up on good relievers for no reason aka abreu to Yankees, Will Smith and matt strahm few years ago and meanwhile they keep terrible relievers.
“Meanwhile” belongs at the start of the sentence, not in the middle of it, set off by commas.