Diamondbacks reinstate RHP Randall Delgado, RHP Fernando Salas designated for assignment

Edbigghead received 50% of his wish today. The deadline to reinstate Randall Delgado from the 60 day disabled list from his rehab assignment was today. With his imminent return looming for weeks, the question was whether the team would cut Fernando Salas or Jorge De La Rosa loose from both the 25 and 40 man rosters. Ultimately, the team will continue to stick with three left handers in the bullpen for the time being with JDLR, T.J. McFarland, and Andrew Chafin. Salas boarded the boat to DFA land to make room for Delgado.

Delgado has not pitched in a Major League game since July 15th of last season against the Atlanta Braves. He was the team’s stop gap in 2017 when Shelby Miller went down due to Tommy John Surgery and Taijuan Walker was dealing with blisters on his throwing hand. In 5 appearances as the “emergency” starter in 2017, he provided 25 innings with a 2.52 ERA. It was solid work from a man who had not started a game during the regular season since a spot start in 2015. The extra innings undoubtedly taxed his arm, and he was placed on the disabled list on July 16th, 2017 with inflammation in the elbow of his throwing arm. He opted to forgo surgery, but when the problem persisted during a rehab assignment towards the end of the season the team opted to shut him down for good. He was slated to return at the start of spring training, but an oblique strain found him winding up on the disabled list again. Since being traded to Arizona from the Atlanta Braves in the 2013 Justin Upton deal, he has made 236 appearances with 29 of those being starts.

Fernando Salas provided slightly below league average performance during his time in the bullpen with a 97 ERA+ in 41 appearances. Remember that Baseball Reference is still using multiyear park factors for Chase Field, and with the hitter friendly history of the ballpark that ERA+ figure overestimates his performance anywhere from 4-8%. However, considering that he was another one of Mike Hazen’s dumpster dive bullpen finds out of spring training we should be satisfied with what he was able to provide out of the gate. He was signed to a minor league contract with an invite to spring training, and was to be paid $1.5 million for reaching the Major League squad with Arizona.