Arizona Diamondbacks designate Allen Webster for assignment
The Arizona Diamondbacks have designated pitcher Allen Webster for assignment, according to the Arizona Republic’s Nick Piecoro. The move helps make space for multiple new additions to the team’s 40-man roster, including Gabby Guerrero, Jake Barrett and Matt Koch.
Webster came to Arizona last winter along with Rubby De La Rosa, Raymel Flores in a trade that sent Wade Miley to the Boston Red Sox. While De La Rosa showed signs of promise out of the D’Backs rotation, Webster struggled to a 5.81 ERA in five starts and nine total appearances.
Once considered a quality pitching prospect in the Dodgers farm system, Webster could still garner the attention of plenty of teams looking to add pitching depth. The 25-year-old still has six years of club control remaining, including two that will pay him pre-arbitration salary.
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Any team that does add Webster will look to fix his control issues. Despite striking out just 4.9 batters per nine innings as season ago, Webster walked an atrocious 5.8 batters per nine, the highest total in his three big-league seasons. If he can lower that number significantly, a team like the Mariners, Athletics or Padres could look to add the pitch-to-contract righty as a buy-low candidate, though that’s just my speculation.