Red Sox invite Carlos Marmol to spring training

The Boston Red Sox have signed right-handed reliever Carlos Marmol to a minor league deal with a non-roster invitation to training camp.

The Boston Red Sox are keeping their options open when it comes to adding the finishing touches to a vastly overhauled bullpen. Now they have one more reliever to consider.

The Red Sox have signed Carlos Marmol to a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training, reports the Boston Globe’s Pete Abraham. The 33-year old hasn’t pitched in the majors since 2014 when he had a brief stint with the Miami Marlins, posting a brutal 8.10 ERA over 13.1 innings.

Marmol spent last season in Columbus, the Triple-A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians, where he owned a 2.03 ERA to go along with 48 strikeouts in 31 innings, but also walked 27 batters.

That’s essentially the book on Marmol. Striking out opposing hitters has never been an issue, with an enviable career 11.6 K/9 rate, but he’s about as wild as Rick Vaughn was in the 1989 film Major League. Unfortunately it’s been a while since Marmol was as endearing to the home crowd as Charlie Sheen’s fictitious character was, so don’t expect any “Wild Thing” chants to erupt out of Fenway Park.

Marmol possesses a baffling 6.2 BB/9 rate that would have led the majors by a mile last season among pitchers with a minimum of 50 innings. That’s merely an average season for him, while he’s been above that mark every year he’s pitched in the big leagues since 2011. Even in his best season, when he was an All-Star in 2008, Marmol’s 4.2 BB/9 rate put him near the bottom of the league.

The former Chicago Cubs closer has tallied 117 career saves and was a workhorse out of the bullpen earlier in his career. From 2007-2012 he averaged over 72 innings per year while producing a 2.93 ERA for the Cubs.

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Boston has been rumored to be in the market for a veteran left-handed reliever to battle for a spot in a bullpen that currently appears to have Robbie Ross as the only lefty that is a virtual lock to break camp with the team. Marmol isn’t left-handed, but he has held lefty hitters to a .188 average in his career, which is identical to his mark against right-handed hitters.

His blazing fastball is difficult to hit. The problem is that opposing hitters often don’t need to try, as Marmol is almost eager to hand out free passes to first base.

The Red Sox appear to have two open spots in their bullpen that will be fought over this spring, with Steven Wright, Tommy Layne and Matt Barnes among the primary options competing for the role. Marmol is a long shot as a non-roster invite, but a strong spring could force the Red Sox to consider him, especially if Layne flounders and the team becomes desperate for another option to use against lefties.

Marmol may still have some upside left if he can ever recapture anything resembling the form he showed back in his Chicago days. If he doesn’t pan out then he will have cost the Red Sox next to nothing, so there’s essentially no risk in taking a flier on him. Even if he doesn’t make the team he could potentially be sent to Pawtucket, where he could serve as depth for the organization.

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We may never see Marmol in Boston, but if we ever do, prepare for a wild ride.