The Marlins released Carlos Marmol a week or so ago after he posted an 8.10 ERA and walked ten guys in 13 innings while losing three games across 15 appearances. Now someone else has taken a chance on him: the Reds, who Jon Heyman reports have signed Marmol to a minor league deal.
Marmol is just 31, but his downward trajectory has been steep. His control stinks so badly that, in order to be effective, he basically has to throw the ball by everyone and rack up the strikeouts. He still does that well by most guys’ standards, but not at the level he needs to be doing it. His yearly strikeouts per nine innings have dropped from 16.0 to 12.0 to 11.7 to 10.8 to 9.5 since 2010.
No risk here for Cincinnati, but little chance of reward either.