The D-backs and veteran righty Tyler Chatwood are in agreement on a minor league contract, per team’s transaction log at MLB.com. Chatwood, an Excel Sports client, signed his deal yesterday and got right to work, tossing an inning for the organization’s Rookie-level affiliate in the Arizona Complex League.
Presumably, that’ll be a short stay at that level for Chatwood as he builds up arm strength. The right-hander was with the Pirates organization earlier this year but was released in mid-June and hasn’t pitched since. Once he has a few innings under his belt, he’ll likely move up to Triple-A Reno.
Chatwood, 33, pitched ten minor league innings with Pittsburgh earlier this season but walked more batters (eight) than he struck out in that short time. A veteran with a decade-long big league career under his belt, he’s pitched to a 4.45 ERA in 878 2/3 innings at the MLB level, punching out 17.2% of his opponents against a 12% walk rate and 53.9% ground-ball rate. He hasn’t pitched in the Majors since 2021, however, and he’s posted an ERA north of 5.00 in three of his past four big league seasons. From 2018-21, Chatwood worked to a combined 4.83 ERA and walked a massive 15.6% of his opponents.
While the recent track record is shaky, Chatwood averaged 96 mph on his heater from 2019-21, has a long history of inducing grounders at a high rate and upped his strikeout rate considerably in his last two big league seasons (27.3%). The D-backs shuffled their bullpen mix at the deadline, acquiring Paul Sewald but also sending veteran Andrew Chafin to the Brewers in a trade for younger righty Peter Strzelecki. Chatwood will add another fresh face to the depth chart, though there’s obviously no guarantee of him ever pitching with the big league club. He’ll need to pitch his way up to the Majors, but there’s little harm in the Diamondbacks taking a chance on a hard-throwing veteran in this manner.
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