The Marlins announced Monday that they’ve selected the contract of lefty Kent Emanuel from Triple-A Jacksonville. Right-hander Vladimir Gutierrez, who was just selected to the big league roster prior to Sunday’s game, was designated for assignment to open a roster spot.
It’s a quick turnaround for Gutierrez, who returned to the majors Sunday for the first time in two years after undergoing Tommy John surgery as a member of the Reds. He tossed four innings of long relief and was tagged for three runs on three hits and a pair of walks with four strikeouts. He’d been called up with Miami needing some length in the bullpen following a grueling first three games of the season for the relief corps, and while the right-hander filled the role that was asked, he’ll be removed from the 40-man roster to get another fresh arm up for today’s game. Gutierrez wouldn’t have been available for a couple days after that workload yesterday.
Gutierrez, 28, was a high-profile prospect out of Cuba who signed for a $4.75MM bonus (plus a 100% tax on that sum) with the Reds back in 2016. He wound up pitching just 150 2/3 innings between 2021-22 in Cincinnati, logging a 5.44 ERA with worse-than-average strikeout and walk rates of 17.3% and 10.4%, respectively. As a prospect, he was touted as having a solid heater with a potentially plus slate of secondary offerings (curve, slider, changeup) — but he’s yet to find much consistency in the majors. The Marlins will have a week to trade Gutierrez, attempt to pass him through outright waivers, or release him.
Emanuel, 31, has 17 2/3 big league innings under his belt, all of which came with the 2021 Astros. Houston selected him out of UNC in the third round of the 2013 draft. The 6’4″ lefty impressed in his first MLB cup of coffee, posting a 2.55 ERA with a 19.1% strikeout rate, a 5.9% walk rate and a sizable 50% grounder rate. A UCL injury led to surgery in the summer of 2021. He didn’t require a full Tommy John procedure but had an internal brace surgery that wiped out the rest of that ’21 season.
Because he had the less invasive UCL operation, Emanuel was back on the mound for 58 1/3 minor league innings in 2022. He pitched well (2.64 ERA, 52-to-8 K/BB ratio) but didn’t get a look in the big leagues. He spent the 2023 season in the Pirates organization and posted solid K-BB marks but an ugly 6.12 ERA, working primarily as a starter, due in part to a sky-high .370 average on balls in play and some uncharacteristic susceptibility to home runs (1.39 HR/9, 18.1% HR/FB ratio).
As with Gutierrez, Emanuel will give the Marlins some more length in the ’pen — and as with Gutierrez, it could be a short stay on the MLB roster for him if he pitches multiple innings and the Fish want to get another rested arm into the bullpen.
The 8.2 IP Kent Emanuel game will always be legendary
It could be because the ball Rowdy Tellez hit off of Gutierrez hasn’t actually landed yet.
That was a short stay. Hope he got his meal money.
How do players like this get paid? Is there a per-diem calculation of mLB minimums? Does he get paid while in DFA period, since he can’t “work” elsewhere?
He’s paid the prorated portion of his salary (presumably league-minimum or perhaps a bit more in a nod to the service time he’s previously accrued) for his time on the MLB roster and every day he’s in DFA limbo. With this year’s $740K league minimum, a day of service time pays just under $4,000.
Thanks very much for answering
So, that could be 8x@4K, or about $32K for one four inning appearance. It seems both ridiculous and fair at the same time.
There should be a rule against this type of stuff. I understand why a team would want to use him and send him down because then they have a fresh arm for the next game. I get that part. But it’s unfair to the player that he only gets paid for 1 game when relievers only pitch every 2 or 3 games they don’t pitch everyday. So while he is resting up for his next appearance he doesn’t get big league pay that’s unfair to the player.
This is video game baseball nonsense! I understand its a business but this is utter crap judging someone off of 3 innings of work. Its playing with people lives.
Just like they did Declan Cronin dirty just to call this dude up just to dfa him the next day. The Marlins are throwing any and every pitcher they have out there.
Hmmmm…I wonder how many guys would be disappointed with getting to spend a day in MLB and make about $4,000 for a day of work.
Since the Marlins lefty relievers, Nardi and Scott, haven’t been effective, why not try another guy? It isn’t like they don’t have enough lefties on their roster, and one of them is a reliever that was just converted to a starter.