Blach, a left-handed pitcher, elected free agency after rejecting an outright assignment to Triple-A Iowa. He qualified to refuse the assignment based on prior career outright status and accumulated big league service time. The Cubs had signed him to a minor league deal in April, where he made five Triple-A appearances and was used like a starter, posting a 5.23 ERA. He was called up and pitched three scoreless innings in a relief appearance during a 9-3 loss to the Brewers. After that, roster constraints and his lack of options led the Cubs to remove him from the 40-man roster, making him a free agent. He has a 5.39 career ERA over 523 innings and is known as a soft-tossing, low-strikeout pitcher.
"A player has the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency if he has a previous career outright or at least three years of big league service time. Blach qualifies on both counts and has exercised that right."
"The Cubs signed him to a minor league deal in April. He made five Triple-A appearances, effectively stretched out as a starter. Only three of those five were officially starts but he went at least three innings each time he got the ball. He posted a 5.23 earned run average in that small sample before getting called up last week."
"After that outing, Blach was probably going to be unavailable for a few days. Since the Cubs had Caleb Thielbar coming off the IL and Blach is out of options, the circumstances pushed Blach off the 40-man roster and now to free agency."
"The 35-year-old Blach has a 5.39 ERA in his career, in 523 innings logged in 157 games. Part of that is likely due to him spending several years pitching in Coors Field as a member of the Rockies but he has also been a soft-tossing low strikeout guy. His four-seamer and sinker have averaged around 90 miles per hour in his career. He has punched out 12.9% of batters faced, barely half of the league average."
Read at MLB Trade Rumors
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