Former Miami Marlins Reliever Ready for Shot with Athletics

May 17, 2024; Miami, Florida, USA; Miami Marlins relief pitcher Anthony Maldonado (52) delivers a pitch against the New York Mets during the ninth inning at loanDepot Park. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
May 17, 2024; Miami, Florida, USA; Miami Marlins relief pitcher Anthony Maldonado (52) delivers a pitch against the New York Mets during the ninth inning at loanDepot Park. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Back in November, the Athletics made a waiver claim, bringing in right-hander Anthony Maldonado from the Miami Marlins. The way Maldonado tells it, the A's were surprised that he ended up on the waiver wire at all.

"I got a call from a number I didn't recognize, and it was Dan Feinstein, the assistant GM of the A's, who was saying 'we're very excited to have you. We were surprised to see you available on waivers, and we snatched you up as soon as we saw you.'"

The A's also said that despite the numbers he put up in the big leagues, they believe that he throws the ball very well, and that his pitches will play, especially in a larger sample size. "Show up to camp and you'll have as good a chance as anybody to make the team."

This was at the beginning of the off-season, before the A's went on a bit of a spending spree and the roster composition changed a little bit, but Maldonado certainly has the tools to be a successful big league relief pitcher in the green and gold.

Last year in his debut season, the righty racked up 19 innings with a 5.68 ERA (3.80 FIP). While his fastball averaged 93 miles per hour with the Marlins, which is below league average these days, he did a great job of limiting hard contact with an 85.3 mile per hour average exit velocity, as well as a 31.9% chase rate and a 28.7% whiff rate, all of which were well above league average in a small sample.

In looking at his time in the minor leagues the past two seasons with Triple-A Jacksonville, they were fairly comparable except for the results. In 2023 he threw 46 innings and held a 1.76 ERA (3.40 FIP) while striking out 39.4% of batters and walking 10.9%. He also had a low BABIP of .222 that year, which may have helped keep the ERA down, but the rest of the stat line was impressive, even without the help.

This past season, Maldonado tossed 46 1/3 innings in Triple-A, but his ERA spiked to a career-worst 4.66 (5.08 FIP), while his strikeout rate dropped to 26.1%, but his walk rate held at 10.8%. The biggest difference (aside from the ERA) was that he gave up 23 hits in '23, and 46 in '24, doubling the number of hits allowed.

In a chat with Maldonado earlier this week, he told A's on SI that he was tinkering too much last season, which led to the difference in outcomes.

"A lot of tinkering with my pitches. Why I did that, I don't know, but I learned from it. It kind of goes to show you, what you do works. You don't really need to tinker with what you have. I mean, I had good minor league numbers my whole career up until '24."

He also mentioned that he added a new pitch last season, a cutter, that he felt took away from his slider, which is his biggest weapon. The slider he throws averaged 85.2 mph, while the 11 cutters he threw with the Marlins sat at 91.1 mph.

"This offseason I'm not tinkering. I know what pitches I have. I would say last year was almost not me. 2023 was more me. 2024 was just an off, down year."

Maldonado's best pitch is his slider, which he threw 62% of the time with the Marlins last season, and while batters hit .333 against the pitch, the expected batting average on the offering was a much better. 267. Batters also whiffed at it 38.1% of the time, which is fairly close to the rate of swing and miss that Austin Adams got with his slider (39.3%) as a member of the A's this past season.

This coming year he will be going with a new pitch mix, dropping that cutter, and adding a changeup to his three-pitch mix to go along with the slider and what he called a fastball, though Baseball Savant classifies it as a sinker. He says it's really a four-seamer with some natural run.

"The cutter brought more negative than positive. It took away from my slider and kind of got in between on my fastball, and I believe that's where [my] velo dip came from.

"I was working on a changeup a lot last year. Never really threw it in games because I didn't have that confidence with it, but towards the end of the year it felt really good. This offseason it's been really good."

While he has a spot on the 40-man roster, his goal is to make it back to the big leagues, so when camp opens up he's not going to be tinkering when he's on the mound. Instead, he plans to give it his best shot each and every time he goes out there in Arizona.

"I would say that this is the best offseason of my pro career so far. I've worked on all my pitches, so when I show up to camp, I'll be ready to compete and show the A's staff who I am as a pitcher and what I have. Get outs, throw up zeroes, and give myself in the best chance to make the team."


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Jason Burke
JASON BURKE

Jason has been covering the A’s at various sites for over a decade, and was the original host of the Locked on A’s podcast. He also covers the Stanford Cardinal as they attempt to rebuild numerous programs to prominence.