The Guardians announced today that they have acquired right-hander Darren McCaughan from the Marlins. The latter club, who designated the righty for assignment on the weekend, receive cash considerations in return. The Guards optioned McCaughan to Triple-A Columbus and transferred Gavin Williams to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man roster spot.
McCaughan, 28, spent his entire career with the Mariners until he was designated for assignment in February. He was traded to the Marlins for cash and was sent to Triple-A Jacksonville to start the year. He made five starts there with poor results, posting a 6.14 earned run average despite average-ish peripherals. He struck out 22.2% of batters faced with an 8.1% walk rate, but with a .338 batting average on balls in play and 52.8% strand rate.
The Marlins called him up to the big leagues last week. In Saturday’s game against Oakland, Trevor Rogers allowed eight earned runs in 2 1/3 innings. McCaughan came in for some long relief, throwing 4 2/3 but also allowing eight earned runs on the way to a 20-4 loss. McCaughan was designated for assignment the next day.
The Guardians are undoubtedly interested in McCaughan based on his work in previous seasons. From 2021 to 2023, he tossed 408 2/3 innings for Triple-A Tacoma, in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. He had a 4.98 ERA in that time as well as a 21.4% strikeout rate and 6% walk rate.
Cleveland has less pitching depth than other recent seasons. Shane Bieber required Tommy John surgery while Williams has been on the IL all year due to elbow soreness. Their rotation currently consists of three youngsters in Triston McKenzie, Logan Allen and Tanner Bibee, as well as two veterans in Carlos Carrasco and Ben Lively. McKenzie hardly pitched last year due to a sprain of his UCL and is currently getting by with diminished stuff. Allen has a 6.41 ERA on the year, Bibee 4.91 and Carrasco 5.67. Lively is down at 2.08 in only four starts. He was at 5.38 last year with the Reds, his first MLB action since 2019.
Despite the lackluster results from the rotation, the club is 24-13 and leading the American League Central. To help keep things afloat, they have been actively trying to bolster the starting depth. They acquired Zak Kent from the Rangers on Opening Day and later grabbed Wes Parsons from the Blue Jays, sending international bonus pool space away in both cases. With the acquisition of McCaughan, they have now added three optionable starters to their system in the past two months.
As for Williams, as mentioned, he’s been on the injured list all season due to elbow soreness. This transfer is backdated to his initial IL placement, meaning he’s ineligible return until late May. He recently resumed a throwing program but will need to build up a full starter’s workload and isn’t going to be ready in the next month or so regardless.
Fire sale in Miami! Except, this time, it’s with Quadruple-A players and they didn’t win any championships.
Guards will fix him
Boy, McCoughan is a fixer upper if there ever was one. Guardians seem to have a penchant for ineffective RHPs so far this year. I’d like to think they can fix them in AAA, but all these guys have been hit hard and often. I wouldn’t be surprised if CLE is first in line when TOR throws in the towel on Alek Manoah.
I can appreciate that they’re at least being proactive about adding depth though. I doubt that McCaughan or Kent or anyone else will end up being much of a solution, but for now there isn’t really anything better available anyway. Might as well take a cheap flyer on some guys.
My guess is that they’re trying to catch lightning in a bottle with another starter and that they’d trade for one at the deadline if they’re still playing this well and still have a glaring need there.
I think the Guardians new manager knows this guy pretty well, from his time with Seattle last season.
Even though they’re in first place in the AL Central, it’s almost embarrassing to be a Guardians fan.
Why?
And yet they jettisoned Cal Quantrill over a measly $6 million, got zilch in return, and traded Civale for a kid who, if he squeezes the bat any harder, will turn the handle into sawdust.
Nothing against Civale but I think Cleveland would do that trade again. Getting a potential impact bat in the upper minors for a middle of the rotation starter with durability issues.
I am still scratching my head about Quant.. both that the Guardians cut ties with him and that no team wanted to trade for him.
Yeah I agree. They’d do the Civale trade again. I liked Civale but he was on a hot streak at the time and his track record is more of a decent mid to backend starter than anything close to a front end starter. Pitching depth is always important, but a guy who they think can be an impact bat seems more important than a good but not great starter who’s had injury problems in the past.
Quantrill made a little sense because he always outpitched his peripherals and they probably figured he’d bottom out at some point, but $6 million doesn’t get you much in today’s game so having a little extra pitching depth was probably worth the price. Maybe they really like Kody Huff but they DFAed him before the Rockies made that offer so they probably didn’t know he was even available at the time anyway.
Desperately need depth starters, not just in Cleveland but also in AAA, where the Columbus bullpen is getting overtaxed because of weak starters. Even if they never use these guys in Cleveland, they will certainly need some of those relievers, and they will need them to be fresh.
Should be noted that Kent, mentioned in the article, is also down with an injury at the moment. As is Hunter Stanley, Daniel Espino, and Joey Cantillo who were all supposed to help in Columbus. It doesn’t help that Xzavion Curry, who is being put back in a starting role despite pretty much proving last year he’s better off as a swing guy, is struggling a ton in Columbus.
The only starters who have respectable ERA numbers in Columbus are Wes Parsons (who has relieved more than he’s started), and Ben Lively (who has been promoted).
Cleveland’s front office only guide is salary. The ‘pitching factory’ is shut down like so many other factories in NE Ohio. The Quantrill giveaway trade for ANOTHER middle infielder who doesn’t hit keeps popping up. Nice to get Manzardo, HA, a LH 1B who can’t play 1B. Civale was the other healthy, functional starter they had.. The front office is way overrated. They got ANOTHER middle infielder in that trade. They quit at trade deadline last year then tried to sell the deal. They are pathetic.
Um, the Marlins got money for this guy?
Considering how bad he is, how much money did they get? Gas money?