Breaking: Guardians top man sign a blockbuster deal with the giants.
Righty Wes Parsons was released by the Guardians, per the team’s MLB.com transaction log. Following their designation of him for assignment last Friday, Cleveland had a week to either trade him or place him on waivers. In a minor trade with the Giants, Cleveland acquired Spencer Howard, and that was the equivalent move to make room on the 40-man roster.
Parsons himself was acquired by Cleveland in a DFA trade. A few weeks into the season, the Blue Jays removed him from their roster and sent him to the Guardians in exchange for international signing bonus space. Cleveland tried to stockpile rotation and/or long relief depth using a handful of these maneuvers. Parsons threw just twice in April, so he didn’t really have a big impact. The 31-year-old recorded five strikeouts in four shutout innings pitched.
Parsons was retained by Cleveland on an optional assignment to Columbus, Triple-A. In 12 appearances, he pitched 25 2/3 innings, five of them as a starter. Parsons struck out a stellar 29.3% of opponents en route to a 4.21 ERA. However, he walked an unacceptable 17.1% of hitters he faced, continuing his trend of struggling to throw strikes at the Triple-A level for the second straight season. Parsons last pitched for Columbus on June 12 and has been on the temporarily inactive list for about a month.
