Veteran righty Chris Paddack elected free agency after being outrighted by the Reds, according to the MLB.com transaction tracker. Cincinnati designated him for assignment on Monday.
This is the second time Paddack has gotten through waivers this year. The first came after he was released by the Marlins in mid-May, an uncommonly quick turnaround for a major league free agent pickup from the previous offseason. It was an inevitability that he’d clear waivers that time, as a claiming team would otherwise have taken his $4MM salary off Miami’s books.
The Reds waited until he cleared, then signed him to a major league contract at the league minimum. Paddack took the ball six times for Cincinnati, starting three appearances before moving to the bullpen. He posted a 6.04 ERA through 22 1/3 innings. That was a little better than his early-season performance with Miami, as he’d given up nearly eight earned runs per nine innings for the Fish.
Paddack has a combined 6.96 ERA over 53 frames on the season. He’s still throwing strikes but has a modest 15.7% strikeout percentage and gave up too many home runs in Miami. It has been the same general profile for a few seasons. Paddack had an excellent rookie season with the Padres in 2019 but hasn’t been the same since battling injuries (most notably Tommy John surgery) in the intervening few years. He still has a quality changeup, but opponents have pummeled his fastball and he has never had great breaking stuff.
Any team could have claimed Paddack for the league minimum this time around. The Marlins are on the hook for the remainder of the salary either way because he already cleared release waivers after the first DFA. It seems no one was willing to plug Paddack directly onto the MLB roster. He may be limited to a minor league deal in this trip to the market.
