Cleveland signs righty Brad Peacock to minors deal

Cleveland signing right-hander Brad Peacock to a minor league contract, reports Mandy Bell of MLB.com. The 33-year-old spent the 2013-20 seasons with the Astros.

Peacock was quite often a valuable swing man in Houston. He started 21 of his 34 appearances with the Astros’ 2017 World Series-winning club, pitching to a 3.00 ERA/3.76 SIERA. Despite that quality performance, Peacock found himself squeezed out of a loaded rotation the following season. He was equally effective in a relief role, working to a 3.46 ERA/2.40 SIERA across 65 frames in 2018. Peacock returned to starting in 2019, where he was again productive.

Unfortunately, Peacock’s 2020 season was almost entirely derailed by injury. He made only three relief appearances due to soreness in his throwing shoulder. Ultimately, he required arthroscopic surgery last October and spent the entire offseason recuperating. Peacock returned to health in April, but his market remained quiet until he threw a showcase in front of interested teams earlier this week.

Evidently, Cleveland’s brass was impressed enough with his form to add him to the organization. Cleveland has been reeling from a series of injuries to its top trio of starting pitchers. Each of Shane Bieber, Zach Plesac and Aaron Civale are on the injured list at the moment. That’s left Cleveland with an unproven, generally underwhelming starting staff. At 41-31, Cleveland is nevertheless only two games back of the White Sox in the American League Central. The team is trying to hang in contention while weathering the injuries to its top starters.

Given that outlook at the big league level, it seems Peacock has a good chance to pitch his way back into a big league rotation relatively quickly. (The Cleveland bullpen is in much better shape health-wise and has been the strength of the team all year.) Presumably, Peacock will report to Triple-A Columbus and build up into game shape as a potential starting option for Cleveland in the coming weeks.