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Dany Jimenez

Athletics Sign Dany Jimenez

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The A’s have agreed to a minor league contract with right-hander Dany Jiménez, reports Martín Gallegos of MLB.com (Twitter link). It’s unclear whether he’ll receive an invitation to big league Spring Training.

Jiménez was a part of the Oakland organization last offseason as well. The A’s selected him out of the Blue Jays’ system in the Rule 5 draft. He didn’t stick on the roster, though, as Oakland returned him to the Jays in mid-March. Jiménez spent the entire 2021 season with Toronto’s Triple-A affiliate, tossing 44 2/3 innings of 2.22 ERA ball there but never getting a major league look despite the Jays’ persistent bullpen troubles.

The 27-year-old punched out an incredible 39% of batters faced in the minors, the highest strikeout percentage among the 207 Triple-A East pitchers with 40+ frames. But Jiménez also struggled to throw strikes, issuing free passes at a huge 13.4% clip. Those control issues no doubt played into the Jays’ decision to keep him in the minors all season.

At the conclusion of the season, Jiménez elected minor league free agency. That set the stage for him to land back with the A’s, where he’ll try to get back to the big league level for the first time in two years. His major league experience to date consists of two relief appearances with the 2020 Giants, who’d selected him in the Rule 5 draft over the 2019-20 offseason but also returned him to Toronto rather than keep him in the majors all year.

Players Recently Electing Free Agency

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With the regular season over, a series of players are closing in on free agency. The highest-profile will be available as major league free agents, those with six-plus years of MLB service time not under contract with a team. But there will be dozens of players in the coming weeks who qualify for minor league free agency and more quietly reach the open market as well.

Players can qualify for minor league free agency in a few ways. The most notable of these include: players with 3+ years of MLB service time who have been outrighted off their teams’ 40-man rosters this season, players who have been outrighted off a 40-man roster multiple times in their careers, and unsigned players not on a 40-man roster who have spent parts of at least seven seasons on a minor league roster or injured list.

Many of these players won’t officially reach free agency until the start of the offseason, but some were let go by their teams a few weeks early once the regular season concluded. Each of the following players has elected minor league free agency within the past week, according to the MLB.com and Triple-A transactions trackers:

Athletics Return Rule 5 Pick Dany Jimenez To Blue Jays

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The Athletics announced that they have returned Rule 5 Draft pick Dany Jimenez to the Blue Jays. The A’s also reinstated fellow right-hander Frankie Montas from the COVID-19 injured list.

Jimenez, who turned 27 in December, was a Rule 5 pick in back-to-back offseasons (the Giants took him in 2019), but he has seen little major league action thus far. He pitched 1 1/3 innings with the Giants across two appearances last year. The Double-A level is the highest Jimenez has climbed in the minors, and he logged an excellent 1.87 ERA while averaging more than 12 strikeouts per nine in 33 2/3 innings there in 2019.

Now that he’s back with the Jays, Jimenez will report to major league camp as a non-roster invitee, Scott Mitchell of TSN tweets.

Giants Designate Jandel Gustave For Assignment

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Prior to today’s game, the Giants designated right-handed reliever Jandel Gustave for assignment, per Maria Guardado of MLB.com (Twitter link). The move cleared roster space for the addition of fellow right-hander Andrew Triggs, whose contract was selected. Additionally, Rule V draftee Dany Jiménez cleared waivers and was returned to the Blue Jays organization after being designated earlier in the week, per Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle (Twitter link).

The hard-throwing Gustave was once a relief prospect of note in the Astros’ system, but his most extensive MLB action came last season with the Giants. He tossed 24.1 innings of 2.96 ERA ball, but mediocre strikeout (14.1%) and walk (9.1%) rates suggested that strong run prevention was unlikely to continue. He hadn’t been on the Giants’ active roster this season.

Triggs got off to an inauspicious start to his SF tenure this afternoon, allowing three runs on three walks while recording just one out in a loss to the Rangers. Nevertheless, the 31-year-old once looked like a solid back-end starter, flashing solid strikeout and ground ball tendencies across the bay with the A’s between 2016 and 2018.

Jiménez’s time as a Giant comes to an end after just two appearances (in which he walked three of eight batters faced). The 26-year-old returns to the Toronto organization, where he needn’t occupy a 40-man roster spot.

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