The Miami Marlins have reportedly signed veteran pitcher Jeremy Guthrie, who will report to Triple-A before joining the major league club.
Ken Rosenthal and Jon Morosi of Fox Sports reported the news.
Guthrie, 37, last pitched for the Kansas City Royals in 2015. He previously signed minor league contracts with the Texas Rangers in spring training and the San Diego Padres in April.
The Padres released Guthrie on June 3. He had compiled a 3-6 record with a 6.60 ERA and 1.57 WHIP in 11 starts in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League. Those numbers fell in line with his miserable 2015 in Kansas City, which saw him go 8-8 with a 5.95 ERA and 1.55 WHIP. The Royals sent him to the bullpen late in the season, and he did not pitch in their World Series run.
Guthrie had been an MLB regular for the last nine years, working as a starter with the Baltimore Orioles and Colorado Rockies in addition to Kansas City. He began his career with the Cleveland Indians. The righty has a career 91-108 record and said reaching 100 wins was a career goal.
“That would be a huge accomplishment for me to have been able to win 100 games in the major leagues,” he said in April, per Carter Williams of the Deseret News. “So it’s certainly something that pushes me, I think. It would be a huge motivating factor to get back up there and try to pitch well and help a team win nine more games like that.”
The likelihood of Guthrie making the major league roster depends on how he performs in the minors. Miami starters Wei-Yin Chen (4-2, 5.00 ERA) and Justin Nicolino (2-4, 5.17 ERA) have struggled for most of the season; although the Marlins sit ninth in ERA overall, Jose Fernandez (2.28 ERA) accounts for a lot of that.
Guthrie is unlikely to anchor the rotation with Fernandez, but he could be the difference of one or two wins on the back end if he can return to form. The Marlins (41-35) are third in the National League East and have a real chance at a postseason berth if they can shore up their shortcomings over the next month. Guthrie represents an end-of-the-rotation flier they hope can help on the cheap.
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