The Marlins have signed right-hander Mychal Givens to a minor league contract, MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola reports (X link). The deal will become official when Givens passes a physical, and the veteran reliever will receive an invite to Miami’s big league spring camp.
2023 was essentially a lost season for Givens, who was limited to only four big league innings over six appearances with the Orioles, and 15 more frames in the minors. The righty battled knee inflammation at the start of the season, and then quickly had to go on the injured list again due to inflammation in his throwing shoulder. Baltimore opted to designate Givens for assignment and ultimately release him in August when Givens was activated from the 60-day IL.
It wasn’t much a return on what was a $5MM investment for the O’s last winter, between a $3MM salary and then a $2MM buyout on the Orioles’ end of a mutual option. That said, the logic behind the signing was quite sound, as Givens has generally been a very solid reliever over his nine big league seasons. Givens has a 3.47 ERA over 461 2/3 innings with five different teams, mostly the Orioles in his prior stint with the club from 2015-20.
Walks have been a consistent problem for Givens throughout his career, and his 12.1% career homer rate is on the high side (if inflated by a couple of particularly rough years in 2019-20 in terms of keeping the ball in the yard). On the plus side, Givens has posted consistently above-average strikeout rates, and his signature four-seamer has plenty of spin. The velocity of that fastball, however, has dropped from 94.8mph in 2021 to 93.5mph in 2022, and then to just 91.5mph last year though obviously in a very small sample size.
Assuming the 33-year-old is back to full health, Givens has some quality upside as a non-roster invite to Miami’s camp. Since A.J. Puk is now slated to join the rotation, Steven Okert was traded to the Twins, and Dylan Floro and David Robertson both left in free agency, the Marlins’ projected bullpen is lacking in experience behind Tanner Scott and JT Chargois. Yonny Chirinos and Matt Andriese are also in camp on minor league deals, though might be utilized as swingmen rather than as true relievers.