Right-hander Pedro Avila is heading back to the open market. Per Tim Stebbins of MLB.com, the righty was informed he would not be making the Opening Day roster with the Guards and was granted his release, perhaps indicating he had some kind of opt-out in his deal.
Avila, now 29, has 146 1/3 big league innings under his belt. Most of that action was out of the Padres’ bullpen but he was flipped to Cleveland a couple of years ago. At the end of the 2024 season, he had a 3.51 earned run average in his career. His 10.6% walk rate was a bit on the high side but he struck out 23.8% of batters faced and induced grounders on 49.2% of balls in play. He tossed four scoreless innings for the Guards in the 2024 postseason.
Despite those pretty decent numbers, Avila was nudged off Cleveland’s roster in the 2024-25 offseason. He then signed with the Yakult Swallows of Nippon Professional Baseball and got stretched out in Japan. He tossed 82 1/3 innings over 15 appearances with a 4.04 ERA. His 17.8% strikeout rate and 43.9% ground ball rate were both a few ticks lower than his MLB work but his walk rate dropped to 8.7%.
Avila returned to the Guards this winter via a minor league deal. He made six appearances in Cactus League action, logging 8 1/3 innings, allowing three earned runs via ten hits and a walk while striking out four.
The Cleveland bullpen has Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis and Shawn Armstrong projected for three leverage roles. Matt Festa and Connor Brogdon seem likely to get spots and both are out of options. Erik Sabrowski and Tim Herrin are optionable but are the top two left-handed options. Peyton Pallette is a Rule 5 pick and can’t be sent down if the Guards plan to hang onto him.
The Guards evidently didn’t want to squeeze Avila in there, so he’s been cut loose. He’ll now have a chance to suss out opportunities with other clubs as Opening Day looms next week. There should be a decent amount of roster shuffling as teams make their final roster decisions. Some players will trigger opt-outs or end up on waivers, which will lead to a few transactions.
Photo courtesy of Jordan Johnson, Imagn Images
