Daniel Norris has cleared waivers, and the Guardians have outrighted the veteran left-hander off their 40-man roster. Cleveland designated Norris for project earlier this week.
The following step is for Norris to resolve whether or not or to not settle for the outright project, since he has the choice of as an alternative changing into a free agent. It was lower than two weeks in the past that Norris took that very path after one other outright project, however he then shortly re-signed with Cleveland on a brand new minor league deal. Since initially signing with the Guardians again in March, Norris has been DFA’ed and outrighted on three completely different events.
Amidst all these transactions, Norris has made seven appearances with the Guards, posting a 5.68 ERA over 12 innings. A lot of the harm got here final Monday, when Norris was charged with 4 earned runs over two innings of aid work within the Guardians’ 10-6 loss to the Twins. Norris issued extra walks (12) than strikeouts (11) over his 12 frames, and he additionally has a ten.8% stroll fee over 53 innings with Triple-A Columbus this season.
Whereas the small pattern dimension of Norris’ MLB work is perhaps an evidence for the spike in stroll fee, his management has been a bit extra of a problem over the earlier two seasons as nicely — a 7.8% stroll fee over Norris’ first 454 profession innings from 2014-20 shot as much as an 11.8% whole in 115 2/3 innings in 2021-22. Between the walks and residential run issues, Norris’ transition to principally aid pitching hasn’t been too profitable, as he has a 5.68 ERA for the reason that begin of the 2021 season.
The Guardians’ pitching depth chart has gotten extra crowded with all their current waiver claims, which might result in Norris testing free company once more if he thinks alternatives is perhaps scarce on the Guards’ large league roster. If Norris chooses to simply accept the outright project, he’ll present extra depth on the minor league stage and can in all probability nonetheless be one of many first arms in line for a call-up ought to a necessity come up in Cleveland’s bullpen.
