July 10: Clarke went unclaimed on outright waivers and was assigned to Triple-A Nashville, per the crew’s transaction log at MLB.com. As beforehand famous, he’ll doubtless settle for. Clarke picked up 48 days of service earlier this season whereas on the foremost league injured record, bringing him to 4.168 years of service — simply 4 days shy of the 5 years he’d have to reject the outright however retain his wage. (Clarke didn’t obtain huge league service time throughout his DFA window, as he was in Triple-A on the time he was designated.)
July 3: The Brewers have designated right-hander Taylor Clarke for project to open a spot on the 40-man roster for newly acquired right-hander Aaron Civale. The best-hander didn’t pitch within the majors for Milwaukee after coming over from Kansas Metropolis in an offseason commerce sending minor league right-hander Ryan Brady and minor league infielder Cam Devanney again to the Royals.
The 31-year-old Clarke pitched within the huge leagues for the 2019-21 D-backs and 2022-23 Royals. He had a pleasant exhibiting with Kansas Metropolis in 2022, tossing 49 innings of 4.04 ERA ball with a stable 23.6% strikeout fee and pristine 3.9% stroll fee. He couldn’t maintain that manufacturing into the 2023 marketing campaign, nonetheless, evidenced by a 5.95 ERA in 59 frames. Clarke punched out a fair higher 24.4% of his opponents but in addition walked 9% of the batters he confronted and yielded significantly extra exhausting contact en path to a bloated 1.83 HR/9 mark.
Milwaukee, doubtless intrigued by Clarke’s 95 mph common heater, potential to overlook bats and remaining minor league possibility, despatched a pair of minor leaguers to Kansas Metropolis after the Royals had designated Clarke for project themselves (to make room for the signing of Seth Lugo). He opened the season on the minor league injured record and has been stretched out as a starter since returning, although the outcomes haven’t been encouraging. Clarke has pitched in 11 video games, 9 of them begins, and been tagged for a dreary 5.30 earned run common. He’s again to exhibiting robust command (5.2% stroll fee) however has seen his strikeout fee dip to 19.5% whereas final season’s house run troubles persist (1.77 HR/9)
The Brewers will both commerce Clarke or place him on outright waivers throughout the subsequent 5 days. (Waivers themselves are a further 48 hour course of.) He has sufficient service time to reject an outright project to the minors within the occasion that he goes unclaimed, however doing so would require forfeiture of the rest of this season’s $1.25MM wage. On condition that arbitration wage and his struggles within the higher minors, it appears doubtless that Clarke will clear and stay with the Brewers in Triple-A Nashville. If he’s not added again to the 40-man roster earlier than season’s finish, he’d be eligible for minor league free company, as is the case with all gamers who possess three-plus years of service however have been faraway from a crew’s 40-man roster.
