Completing the rare trade that would appear to benefit both parties, the Miami Marlins acquired Aaron Crow from the Kansas City Royals on Friday for Brian Flynn and Reid Redman.
Miami will add the hard-throwing Crow to their bullpen with the hope that some of his issues this past season were just an aberration. Over his four seasons with the Royals, Crow has thrown 233 innings with a 3.43 ERA, 1.322 WHIP, and 8.0 K/9. His 4.12 ERA and 10 home runs allowed this past season marked career highs, while his strikeout rate plummeted to 5.2 K/9. Those struggles coupled with the continued emergence of other options left some wondering if the Royals might end up non-tendering Crow in the next week.
He’s projected to earn $2 million this coming season and he’ll have two more seasons of arbitration eligibility remaining. The team’s re-signing of Jason Frasor earlier in the day made Crow expendable.
Flynn, 24, has considerably less experience under his belt, having thrown just 25 IP in short stints over the past two seasons. The left-hander has a stronger track record in the minor leagues than he’s shown with the Marlins and will give the Royals another southpaw option for their bullpen.
More from Call to the Pen
- Philadelphia Phillies, ready for a stretch run, bomb St. Louis Cardinals
- Philadelphia Phillies: The 4 players on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore
- Boston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ comment
- Analyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen
- 2023 MLB postseason likely to have a strange look without Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals
The Marlins had originally acquired Flynn from the Detroit Tigers in 2012 along with Rob Brantly and Jacob Turner in exchange for Anibal Sanchez and Omar Infante.
Redman posted a 2.04 ERA and 1.005 WHIP in 61.2 IP this past season split between High-A and Double-A. He’s 26, however, so the right-hander is considerably older than most of his competition so the numbers are somewhat inflated.