The Marlins’ revamping of their bullpen continues as spring training approaches
The Miami Marlins continue to fortify their bullpen.
As first reported Saturday night by ESPN’s Jesse Rogers, the Marlins are signing right-handed relief pitcher Brandon Kintzler to a one-year deal that includes an option for the 2021 season.
The Marlins have not formally announced the signing and will need to make room on their 40-man roster once the deal becomes official.
Kintzler, 35 and a 10-year MLB veteran, has a career 3.37 ERA in 424 1/3 innings over 430 career games. He has 299 career strikeouts against 110 walks. He had a 2.68 ERA in 62 games for the Chicago Cubs in 2019, giving up 17 earned runs while striking out 48 batters against 13 walks over 57 innings.
The 6-0, 194-pound righty also has 49 career saves during his time with the Milwaukee Brewers (2010-2015), Minnesota Twins (2016-2017), Washington Nationals (2017-2018) and Cubs (2018-2019) and will likely be a candidate for late-inning duties out of the bullpen.
He was an All-Star in 2017, a year in which he recorded a career-best 29 saves.
Kintzler will be the fourth new reliever on the Marlins’ 40-man roster this offseason heading into spring training, joining Yimi Garcia (free agent signing), Sterling Sharp (Rule 5 draft) and Stephen Tarpley (trade with Yankees).
He also signals the latest step in the Marlins’ plan to revitalize a bullpen that struggled down the stretch in a 2019 season that saw the Marlins finish with a National League-worst 57-105 record.
The collective 4.97 ERA from Marlins relievers was the fifth-worst in MLB last season. They were also the fifth worst in strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.11), save percentage (55.1) and wild pitches (39) while having a 1.45 walks and hits per innings pitched that ranked in the bottom 10 of the league.
The Marlins since July have waived, designated for assignment or traded six of their primary 11 relief pitchers from last season: Brice, Sergio Romo, Wei-Yin Chen, Tyler Kinley, Nick Anderson and Tayron Guerrero.
The survivors of the bullpen purge, so far, that appeared in at least 20 games for Miami: Jarlin Garcia, Adam Conley, Ryne Stanek, Jeff Brigham and Jose Quijada. Drew Steckenrider, who missed most of 2019 with right elbow inflammation, is still around, too. So are Jose Urena and Elieser Hernandez, who both started and came out of the bullpen in 2019.
This story was originally published January 26, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
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