Marlins designate veteran reliever for assignment

The Marlins announced that right-hander Matt Andriese has been designated for assignment. Calvin Faucher has been called up from Triple-A Jacksonville to take his fellow right’s spot on the 26-man roster.

Signed to a minor league deal during the offseason, Andriese had that contract selected on April 4, resulting in his first taste of MLB action since the 2021 campaign. Andriese had a 5.40 ERA over five innings and three appearances with Miami, eating some innings in a mop-up capacity while also allowing two homers in this brief sample size.

The home run ball was often an issue for Andriese during his seven-year run in the bigs from 2015-21, as he had a 14.5 percent homer rate over 509 innings with five different clubs.  

Andriese’s 2022 campaign was spent in Japan with the Yomiuri Giants, and he returned to North America last season on a minor league deal with the Dodgers, posting a 6.05 ERA across 93 2/3 innings for Triple-A Oklahoma City without ever getting a call-up.

Should Andriese clear waivers, Miami could opt to keep him around at Triple-A as bullpen depth, even if his lack of minor league options makes him an imperfect candidate to be shuffled back and forth between the majors and minors.  

Andriese can also refuse an outright assignment to Triple-A to become a free agent, as he has previously been outrighted off a 40-man roster earlier in his career.  

Given his rather long path back to the Show, it seems possible that Andriese might prefer the relative stability of remaining in the Marlins organization rather than again testing the open market.