Left-hander Kirk McCarty is re-signing with the CTBC Brothers of the Chinese language Skilled Baseball League in Taiwan (h/t to CPBL Stats). McCarty first signed with the membership previous to the 2024 season however will likely be returning to pitch for them once more in 2025.
McCarty, 29, was a seventh-round choose by Cleveland again in 2017 and made his massive league debut in 2022. That is still his solely season of massive league motion. He spent 13 video games as a swingman within the Guardians’ bullpen, beginning two video games and ending six as he cobbled collectively 37 2/3 innings of labor. The outcomes left one thing to be desired, nonetheless, as he posted a 4.54 ERA (84 ERA+) with a 6.64 FIP.
Considerably unusually, McCarty’s time in Cleveland was really damaged up by a short sojourn to the Orioles group in 2022, in the midst of his time as an up-and-down hurler for the Guardians. The membership really designated him for project after his third look of the yr on July 2, at which level he had a 9.00 ERA in 12 innings of labor. He performed only one recreation within the Baltimore group (a four-inning begin on the Triple-A degree) earlier than he was as soon as once more designated for project and claimed off waivers by the Guardians on July 14, ending his week away from the group.
McCarty’s ten appearances with the Guardians after being re-acquired went much better, as he pitched to a powerful 2.45 ERA in 25 2/3 frames throughout ten appearances. With that being mentioned, there have been nonetheless some purple flags within the peripherals; whereas McCarty’s 6.9% stroll fee was glorious, his 17.8% strikeout fee left a lot to be desired and he surrendered a whopping 5 residence runs throughout that point. That left him with a 5.18 in even throughout his finest stretch of play within the majors, so it wasn’t a lot of a shock when the Guardians launched McCarty early within the 2022-23 offseason.
It wasn’t lengthy after that when McCarty signed a take care of the Korea Baseball Group’s SSG Landers, and he pitched as a starter for the membership in 2025. Issues went fairly nicely for the southpaw throughout his first yr abroad, as he pitched to a powerful 3.39 ERA in 24 begins and struck out 21.4% of opponents in 130 innings of labor. That strong efficiency wasn’t sufficient to maintain McCarty within the KBO for 2024, nonetheless, and he as a substitute headed to Taiwan to pitch for the Brothers. The southpaw was completely dominant within the CPBL, making probably the most out of his 81 2/3 innings over 13 begins. McCarty posted a sterling 2.76 ERA regardless of placing out simply 18.5% of opponents confronted throughout the season.
These lackluster strikeout numbers could have assist McCarty’s prospects again considerably in free company, however the Brothers had been evidently pleased to have him again within the fold, the place he’ll look to additional set up himself as a powerful rotation choice in hopes of probably making it again to the majors in some unspecified time in the future sooner or later.
