Amid the flurry of trades prior to this evening’s deadline, the Marlins claimed right-hander Jesus Tinoco off waivers from the Cubs. Tinoco was recently designated for assignment by Chicago following their acquisition of right-hander Nate Pearson from the Blue Jays. A corresponding move was not necessary as Miami’s numerous trades today left several spots available on the club’s 40-man and active rosters.
Tinoco, 29, made his big league debut with the Rockies back in 2019. This is actually the righty’s second stint in a Marlins uniform as he pitched five scoreless innings for the club during the shortened 2020 season when they shocked the baseball world by sneaking into the expanded playoffs despite a -41 run differential. Overall, the right-hander has posted a decent 4.35 ERA ERA in 80 2/3 innings of work in parts of five seasons in the big leagues, though his solid 109 ERA+ for his career is belied by a bloated 6.58 FIP caused by rough peripheral numbers. During his time in the majors, the righty has struck out just 18.2% of batters faced while walking 13.4%. That 4.8 K-BB% is the 12th-worst figure among all MLB pitchers with at least 80 innings of work since the start of the 2019 campaign.
Brutal as those results have been, there was at least some reason for optimism about Tinoco’s future entering the year. The right-hander departed affiliated ball last year for a one-year sojourn in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, and he posted an impressive 3.08 ERA in 64 1/3 innings of work overseas. While his strikeout rate remained below 20%, he cut his walk rate to a more palatable 9.2% that earned him another shot in affiliated ball. He signed with Texas on a minor league deal entering the year and has struggled in the majors but posted decent numbers in the minors across the Rangers, Royals, and Cubs organizations this year. His 5.79 ERA in 14 innings of work in the majors is well below par, but his 3.86 ERA in 28 Triple-A innings, most of which were pitched in the offense-inflated environment of the Pacific Coast League, offer some reason for optimism.
For the Marlins, Tinoco provides the club an arm who is immediately available to fill out a pitching staff that lost Trevor Rogers, Tanner Scott, Bryan Hoeing, and Huascar Brazoban in trades today. It’s difficult to project just how the club’s bullpen mix figures to shake out after such a major shakeup, although it seems safe to expect Tinoco to be used primarily in the middle innings given his lackluster track record at the big league level so far. As for the Cubs, the club appears to be fairly deep in bullpen options even after parting ways with Tinoco and shipping out both Mark Leiter Jr. and Hunter Bigge in deals this week. Julian Merryweather, Hector Neris, and Tyson Miller figure to get the bulk of high leverage opportunities, while Pearson figures to join youngsters like Porter Hodge and Ethan Roberts in handling the middle innings.
