It’s a day that ends in “Y” so we have more incoming to the roster!
The Giants picked up a potential left-handed starter off yet another waiver claim — and this one is interesting. Nobody in baseball has done a better job of minting starting pitchers lately than the Houston Astros, who currently have five home grown starters in their six-man rotation, who were signed internationally for a grand total of $140,000 (with one of them taking up $100k of that) and spent their entire minor league careers as unheralded prospects. Jonathan Bermudez came up through that same system, making you wonder how much of the same fairy dust he had waived over him along the way. Bermudez was the NAIA Pitcher of the Year coming out of Southwestern University in Florida in 2018 before becoming the Astros 23rd round pick in that year’s draft (back when there was such a thing as a 23rd round pick). He’s a pitchability lefty who thrives on deception and command, with a low 90s fastball that has some rise, a couple of sliders (or a slider and a cutter), and a splitter. He tends to hide the ball well and comes at batters with a little bit of funk.
Bermudez pitched his way off of the Houston 40-man with a brutal 2022 that saw him post an 8.96 ERA for the Sugar Land Cowboys, but that comes just one year after he forced his way onto one of the most talented 40-mans in baseball with a fantastic 2021. If the Giants can help Bermudez rediscover that 2021 magic, when he had a 3.24 ERA between Double A Texas League and the PCL, with 146 strikeouts to just 34 walks in 111 IP, they could really have something.
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