Carlos Carrasco was in attendance this evening as Venezuelan countryman Salvador Perez was honored as MLB’s Roberto Clemente Award winner. Carrasco told reporters that he has begun his offseason training regimen and hopes to pitch for two more seasons (X link via Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com).
The veteran right-hander turns 38 in March. Pitching two more seasons would take him near his 40th birthday. Carrasco elected minor league free agency after the Guardians were eliminated from the AL Championship Series. He’d have gotten to the open market five days after the conclusion of the World Series anyhow since he has well over six years of MLB service.
Carrasco is almost certainly looking at a minor league deal for the second straight offseason. The longtime Cleveland hurler rejoined the organization on a non-roster contract in January. He broke camp and locked in a $2MM base salary. Carrasco held a rotation spot for the majority of the season, making 21 starts and tossing 103 2/3 innings. That was enough to land him third on the team in workload, though his results weren’t impressive. Carrasco allowed 5.64 earned runs per nine with a middling 19.9% strikeout percentage. The Guardians ran him through outright waivers in September.
That marks consecutive subpar showings for the 15-year veteran. Carrasco also scuffled during his third and final season as a member of the Mets. Opponents tagged him for a 6.80 ERA over 90 innings in 2023. He owns a 6.18 ERA across 41 starts over the last two seasons. Carrasco still throws strikes and gets ground-balls at decent rates, but declining velocity has cost him whiffs and led to trouble keeping the ball in the park.
I am shocked that I do not recognize Carlos Carrasco’s name. Been in the bigs since 2009, and over 100 wins.
I am a 40 year old Padres fan. He has played most of his career with the Indians/Guardians, and I can’t say that I follow the AL Central.
Truth
His careeer may be closing, but Carrasco is an amazing guy and I wish him a long healthy life
espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/27157792/fighting-cancer-c…
I am rooting for him to be able to pitch 2 more years even if he has to be a spot starter or reliever. A Cancer survivor I hope he has many quality years to live with his family and friends. Peace Out.
If Bryan Shaw can do it, he certainly can.
… poorly. There, I finished the headline.
Seems like a Pirates major league signing next year… woo…
Actually, more like a Pirates minor league signing with an invitation to Spring Training. Barring injury, the projected Pirates rotation for next year looks pretty good, better than most teams’. Oh, we’re you trying to be snide or funny?
No 🙂
Great guy who doesn’t know when he is done. I admire the effort, it isn’t easy giving up what you love but an ERA over 6 over 41 starts coupled with declining velocity and whiff rates it’s time. His mind doesn’t want to quit which is why he should look into coaching, but the results say otherwise. Maybe he could do his last 2 years he wants to play in the Mexican league.
Well he’s not going to be qualified to step into any other profession and make $1MM a year doing it. I understand why he’s going to keep going on.
He’ll do well in the Mexican or Caribbean league
Carlos Carrasco, before his health challenges, was one of the most consistent and overlooked pitchers in baseball. If not for pitching on the same staff as Corey Kluber, he would be far better known.
For five years 2014-18, he had an ERA of 3.27 and FIP 3.01….and 21 fWAR….and his numbers over those five years varied very little by year.
Over those five years his fWAR ranked seventh in MLB, behind only…
Sherzer
Kershaw
Kluber
Sale
DeGrom
Verlander
Yeah he plans on pitching 2 more years. But does anybody else?
No reason for Cleveland not to give him another minor league deal
He hasn’t just been bad the past two seasons, he’s been awful. I get the concept of loving to play the game, but at some point it’s time to say good-bye. 1973 Willie Mays, 1975 Harmon Killebrew and Bob Gibson and 1977 Brooks Robinson would agree.
Add Mickey Mantle to that list. Mantle expressed regret over playing too long as it lowered his lifetime BA below .300.
Mantle would’ve regretted it much more had he not played final season. That last yr he barely staved off Mays on the All Time HR list and passed Foxx and Williams to walk away briefly holding the #2 All Time spot behind Ruth. Not to mention he got to have a farewell tour.
As for Mays he initially did not want to play the last season with the Mets. He was told to “write his own check”. He then was upset after that season when it was time to walk away. His teammates were upset as well, many talked of all they learned having him around. He also got to play on World Series for his final 2 games.
So this notion that they’d agree is false.
Red Sox will sign him to a MiL contract and he’ll become the 2025 Opening Day starter.
And he will pitch well in April, get injured, require TJ surgery,
Sox will be on the hook for his salary.
Rinse, recycle, repeat (Or something like that).
I think it could happen but they aren’t spending a lot for him. It would be a low risk contract, so you’re half right
cookie the goat for the yankees as he sucked on the mets, helping to make the yankees the superior ny team
What!!!??? Why???!!!
Have arm, will travel. If someone’s gonna pay em sure keep playing.
The next Red Sox resurrection project