Caregivers agree with the right hand Pedro Avila with a one-year contract, to be divided, according to Daniel Alvarez-Montes of El Extrabase. The deal is a split contract, although the exact salary figures he will make in the majors and minors are not yet known.
Avila, who turns 29 next month, was designated for assignment by the Rangers less than a year ago. He caught the Yakult Swallows of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball not long after, and went on to play 15 games for the Swallows in the Central League. Avila posted the results of a late starter in that outing, with a 4.04 ERA in 82 1/3 innings of work. Although he only struck out 17.8% of his opponents, he produced a solid ground ball rate of 43.9% and held his opponents to 8.7%. None of those numbers jump off the page themselves, but an incredible ability to limit home runs and make hard contact allowed Avila to post a 3.09 FIP with a 3.38 xFIP during his time overseas.
Now that he’s back stateside, Avila will get a chance to prove himself in the big leagues. The righty signed with the Nationals out of Venezuela as a rookie back in 2015, but came up mainly through the Padres program and made his major league debut in San Diego in 2019. He spent most of his career with the Padres, but didn’t get a significant look at the big league level until 2023, when he went from a solid IP3 3 ERA to a solid F5 3 ERA with a solid F600. 1/3 innings of work as a swing man in San Diego. A poor start to his 2024 campaign saw the Padres cut Avila, however, and he was acquired by the Rangers in mid-April 2024 as part of a minor trade.
When he arrived in Cleveland, Avila served as a solid relief option. The right-hander has pitched 74 2/3 innings of work in just 50 appearances with a 23.0% strikeout rate against a 9.4% walk rate. Overall, his career in Cleveland was good at a 3.25 ERA and 3.76 FIP, and both of those stats were solidly above the league average. That seemed like it would make Avila an easy choice to stay in the bullpen through 2025, but the scouts made a surprise call to let him go last winter. Perhaps that was because Avila had no options, and therefore would have to be exposed on waivers to option him to the minor leagues.
This severance contract provides a potential avenue for using Avila as an upside player this year despite his lack of options. By guaranteeing the right-hander a salary above the minor league level and a large amount of money during his time in the majors, the Rangers made Avila a less attractive waiver claim for rival clubs. That should make Avila more likely to clear waivers if he is traded, and also make Avila less likely to opt for free agency if he successfully clears waivers. That’s because the right-hander would have to leave his guaranteed money with the scouts on the table to leave via major league free agency, something the righty probably won’t be inclined to do. In other words, the contract split gives Avila a 40-man roster spot and more significant salary than he would in both the majors and minor leagues, while for the relievers it creates more roster flexibility that should be useful for a club with a deep bullpen that doesn’t have many options.
