Right-hander J.P. Feyereisen has elected free agency, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. The Dodgers designated him for assignment a few days ago. The log shows that he was sent outright to Triple-A Oklahoma City, indicating he cleared waivers, but he has exercised his right to head to the open market. Players have the right to reject an outright assignment if they have a previous outright or at least three years of service time. Feyereisen qualifies on both counts.
Feyereisen, 32, had some strong results for the Rays a few years back. Unfortunately, shoulder surgery wiped out his 2023 season and he hasn’t seemed the same since. He logged 56 innings for Tampa in 2021 with a 2.73 earned run average. The following year, he amazingly added another 24 1/3 innings without allowing an earned run. Putting those two seasons together, he had 80 1/3 innings with a 1.90 ERA, 24.4% strikeout rate and 11.9% walk rate.
But since recovering from shoulder surgery, he hasn’t been able to get back to that level. Going back to the start of 2024, he’s logged just 15 big league innings with 15 earned runs allowed. That’s a small sample of work but his 18.3% strikeout rate has been subpar, along with an average walk rate of 8.3%. He’s also tossed 56 2/3 minor league innings in that time frame with a 5.08 ERA. That’s been in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League but he hasn’t helped himself with a 16.5% strikeout rate. His fastball has been averaging around 91 miles per hour this year, a couple of ticks below his pre-surgery velo.
He started this year with the Diamondbacks on a minor league deal. He was called up in the third week of April but only made two appearances before being designated for assignment. The Dodgers claimed him off waivers and shuttled him between OKC and LA for a bit. He was able to make another two big league appearances before getting designated for assignment again.
He’ll now look for his next opportunity, which will likely be a minor league deal. The fact that no club claimed him off waivers suggests that no one is willing to give him a big league spot at the moment.
Photo courtesy of Isaiah J. Downing, Imagn Images