2020 Arizona Diamondbacks Reviews #38: Jeremy Beasley

• Rating: 3.10
• Age: 25 (since November 20)
• 2020 Stats: 0.1 innings pitched, 16 pitches, 2 hits, 1 strike out
• 2020 Salary: $575,000 (league minimum)
• 2021 Status: under team control until 2027

“He has a pulse. We won the trade!”, those were the words that Jim wrote when the Andriese trade was announced on the SnakePit back in January 2020 and the Los Angeles Angels apparently were prepared to give up “something”.

That something carried the name Jeremy Beasley. Fangraphs did not include Beasley in the Angels’ top 30 prospects list, but he got a mention amongst a bunch of Anaheim prospects: “Beasley has the best long-term prognosis as a potential fifth starter. His splitter is plus, the rest of his stuff average.”

Beasley in 2019 pitched mainly in AA and a handful of games in AAA, for the Angels, where he did not do that well. He would have obviously started the season in AAA to get annihilated in the PCL, maybe with a call up or maybe not. But instead COVID gave him the opportunity to stay a bit closer to the team on the alternate training site.

And, yeah, not much more to say about Beasley other than that he has a pulse and he breathes. And he pitches right-handed. Ah, and he has 3 options remaining coming into 2020.

2020 review

Jeremy Beasley was called up when Madison Bumgarner was placed on the IL on August 10. He made his debut the following day in the 8th inning of a game against the Rockies, when the team was down 2-7. He gave up a single on his splitter to Tony Wolters that brought Raimel Tapia home, but the run was unearned. He would give up a double to Garrett Hampson on a meatball but finally struck out Trevor Story, who flirted with a homer on a foul ball, ending the 8th.

The outing was not good despite a 0.00 ERA. His fastballs were sprayed literally everywhere, but as promised his splitter (which is classified as a change up by statcast) was more on target. He also threw a handful of sliders that all ended up in the dirt. Reviewing the game day thread and Dano’s recap, apparently hardly anyone cared.

We probably didn’t know either that his outing was in a certain way “abnormal”. On August 16 Beasley was transferred to the 10-day IL with shoulder issues. Nick Piecoro reported his velocity was down in the game against the Rockies, which could have been caused by the injury.

On September 1 Beasley was placed on the 45-day IL with a right shoulder strain, officially ending his season.

And Matt Andriese meanwhile pitched to a 1.00 WHIP for the Angels this season.

2021 outlook

Having thrown just 16 pitches, we can hardly conclude anything useful out of Beasley’s performance.

Since he can be freely moved up and down the next couple of seasons, if healthy, he will definitely get time to show his skills in 2021.

Baseball Reference currently projects 25 IP, 4.32 ERA and 1.320 WHIP for 2021.