The Royals announced their Triple-A Omaha roster this morning, which includes veteran right-hander Daniel Mengden. He spent the 2022 campaign in the organization but elected minor league free agency at season’s end after being removed from the 40-man roster. He’s now back on a new minor league pact, which was just agreed upon two days ago, per the Royals’ transaction log at MLB.com.
Mengden, 30, pitched in five games for Kansas City last year, allowing four earned runs on ten hits and one walk with eight strikeouts in seven innings overall. That was his first big league work since 2020, as he spent the 2021 campaign pitching for the Kia Tigers of the Korea Baseball Organization.
From 2016-20, Mengden was a regular on the Athletics’ pitching staff, tallying 302 2/3 frames of 4.64 ERA ball between 49 starts and 26 relief appearances. He’s punched out a below-average 17.5% of his opponents in 309 2/3 career innings but also boasts a solid 7.8% walk rate. Mengden generally sits just over 92 mph with his four-seamer and complements the pitch with a cutter, curveball and changeup. He posted a 5.20 ERA in 109 innings with Kansas City’s Triple-A affiliate in 2022 but has a career 3.79 ERA at that level and was effective in his lone KBO season in ’21 (3.60 ERA, 20.7% strikeout rate, 7% walk rate in 120 innings).
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