A minor league depth arm, Uceta saw Dbacks playing time five different times in 2022, with worrying results.
Overview
- Rating: 2.81
- 2022 Stats: 10G, 5.82 ERA, 4.52 FIP, 1.235 WHIP, 6.9:3.7 K:BB
- Date of Birth: 01/09/1998 (24 at time of publishing)
- 2022 Salary: League Minimum
- 2023 Status: On 40-man roster
2022 In Review
DFA’d by the Dodgers at the end of the 2021 season, they quickly plucked Edwin Uceta from waivers and added him to the stable of available pitchers. Despite being primarily a starter throughout his minor league career, the D-backs used him as a long-reliever in 2022 just as the Dodgers did in 2021, with 33 of his appearances coming out of the bullpen.
Replacing Humberto Castellanos on the big-league roster as he was on paternity leave, he made two appearances – a scoreless inning one night and a disaster the next, walking the bases loaded before exiting and allowing two runs.
His other appearances were of the single appearance variety to provide an extra arm, as he joined the club for a doubleheader, an injury replacement, and to help a beleaguered bullpen in the midst of a long stretch of use. His final major league stay was at the end of August when he replaced Kyle Nelson on the roster and made 4 appearances, allowing 5 runs across 4 innings before being sent down again. He’d spend the rest of the year with Reno.
2023 Outlook
In his second year with the D-backs, Uceta seems to be on the outside looking in. Other pitching prospects will take priority making MLB starts over him, and with an average velocity out of the bullpen of only 93mph and with no outstanding pitches, he seems stuck in this long-relief/extra arm role that 5th starter types are destined to become once they reach this point in their careers. The two biggest things going for Edwin Uceta are he has an option year remaining, allowing the D-backs to yo-yo him back and forth between the minors and majors and he makes the league minimum, with less than a year of MLB service time.
With the team looking to make drastic bullpen improvements, his handle on the 40-man roster may come to an end. Until the team decides to do anything about that, pencil Uceta in for a handful of appearances out of the D-backs bullpen with the off-chance of him pitching well enough to stick around.