Guardians to acquire right-hander from Padres

The Guardians are acquiring right-hander Pedro Avila from the Padres, reports Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase. San Diego had designated Avila for assignment last week.

Avila has had a tough start to the 2024 campaign. The Venezuelan-born pitcher has allowed eight runs in as many innings over his first four appearances. Avila has fanned nine but issued six walks and tossed three wild pitches. 

Inconsistent command has been an issue throughout the 27-year-old’s big league tenure. Avila has walked nearly 12% of batters faced over his 71 2/3 career innings.

While he has yet to find sustained success, Avila has shown the ability to miss bats at the highest level. He has punched out nearly a quarter of opponents in his career behind a solid 11.7% swinging strike rate. 

Avila’s fastball velocity is more solid than standout (typically 93-94 MPH), but his changeup has been a reliably excellent swing-and-miss offering.

Avila has come out of the bullpen for 14 of his 22 major league outings. He’s been a starter in the minors, although his recent rotation work was not effective. 

He was tagged for an unsightly 8.57 ERA over 19 appearances, 15 of them starts, in the Pacific Coast League last season. That pushed his career Triple-A earned run average to 5.59 in 190 innings. Avila has a solid 23.2% strikeout rate at that level, where he has handed out free passes at a lofty 11.2% clip.

Since he’s out of options, Avila can’t be sent to the minors without going through waivers. The Guardians figure to give him a look in the MLB bullpen as a long reliever. 

Cleveland has a fair bit of roster flexibility in that regard. Of its current middle innings group, only Tyler Beede can’t be optioned.

Despite their inexperience, the Guardians’ bullpen has been excellent in the early going. They went into play Wednesday with an MLB-best 1.76 ERA and the league’s fourth-highest strikeout rate (27.6%). 

Cleveland has a full 40-man roster and will need to make a corresponding move once Avila’s acquisition is finalized.