The Guardians and right-hander Vince Velasquez are in agreement on a minor league deal, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. The CAA Sports client also receive an invite to major league camp.
Velasquez, 33 in June, missed the entire 2024 season. He was with the Pirates in 2023 but required surgery on the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow that summer. Per Pirates director of sports medicine Todd Tomczyk, as relayed by Justice delos Santos of MLB.com, it wasn’t a full Tommy John surgery. It was some sort of hybrid between a between a reconstruction and a repair of the ligament. Velasquez had undergone Tommy John surgery as a prospect back in 2010.
At the time of that procedure in June of 2023, the Pirates put a timeline of roughly 11 to 12 months on the righty’s return. He hit free agency going into 2024 and theoretically could have returned late in the year but never signed anywhere. Presumably, Velasquez is either recovered now or hoping to be healthy for a decent amount of the 2025 season. The Guardians will bring him into camp and get a close-up look at him, without going so far as to commit a roster spot.
Prior to this injury odyssey, the righty has shown some flashes of being a capable back-end rotation guy or swingman. From 2015 to 2023, he tossed 763 2/3 innings over 191 games, including 144 starts. He has allowed 4.88 earned runs per nine while striking out 24.9% of batters faced and giving out walks at a 9.3% clip.
The Guardians have plenty of question marks in their rotation, apart from Tanner Bibee being locked into one spot. Ben Lively had a 3.81 ERA last year but with a tepid 18.7% strikeout rate. He seemed to get some luck from a .265 batting average on balls in play and 78.4% strand rate, which is why his 4.66 FIP and 4.58 SIERA were higher than his ERA. Pitchers like Triston McKenzie, Luis Ortiz and Slade Cecconi have had up-and-down careers. Gavin Williams was injured for a decent chunk of 2024 and only made 16 starts with a 4.86 ERA.
Given the uncertainty in that group, adding some veteran non-roster depth makes plenty of sense. The Guards already signed Kolby Allard this week and now Velasquez adds another arm into the rotation competition.
He was very consistent before he went down. Nice bargain buy for Cleveland on the bounce back.
Firstly, great profile picture. Also to keep the motif, perhaps Vince won’t have to carry that weight in 2025.
Thanks big fan of bebop. Highly recommend Monster on your next watch. It’s beautiful.
Mr Vincent Vega!
VV pitched very well for the Pirates in 2023 and I wondered where he has been as I had hoped that they would give him another chance.
He was either very good or very bad with the Phillies.
They also jerked him between starting and relieving but he was never consistent enough to be trusted as a starting pitcher.
I wish him the best of luck with the Guardians.
The Phillies gave Vince Velasquez plenty of opportunity during his six seasons with the team. He was almost exclusively a starter for the vast majority of his time there, with the exception of 2019.
He seems to be a great teammate and he had a good arm. I remember him pitching a complete game, 16-strikeout shutout against the Padres in 2016, and I thought he was going to be a star. He could never put it all together for the Phillies.
I remember watching that game. He looked legit and the talk was all about his spin rate. I always thought that his fastball packed life and it became very hittable. I’m glad he’s still getting work because he seemed a good guy.
I don’t hate this pick up. VV definitely fits the mold of what Cleveland has done with forgotten injured pitchers.
CLE has had some luck shopping at the junk yard for starters, so this may work out. I love Carrasco, but I’m glad they resisted bringing him back after last year’s unexpected full length swan song. Not sure another year of Carl Willis holding together a rag tag rotation with duct tape and clamps will produce the same results as last year, but we’ll see.
Where are you at with this one Mo? I’m sure the DeWitt’s would have ponied up for this.
No better moment for VV than that frozen rope he threw from the outfield
This dude could be a closer IMHO if he comes back healthy. Incredible athlete but probably best used as a two pitch guy with gas
I hope VV does well. But he’s never closing games. Never had a WHIP below 1.200 and he’s just under 96 MPH on his fastball. He’d just be to risky as far as runners allowed and just doesn’t have an overpowering pitch necessary to close games.
A+
I assume they had him throw in front of Carl Willis before they signed him?
Great signing!
Oh? How do you know he can even throw a ball to home plate? Nowhere does it say anyone from the Guardians have watched him throw since his surgery. Great signing? A wee bit premature.