The Diamondbacks have signed right-hander J.P. Feyereisen to a minor league deal, according to an announcement from the club’s Triple-A affiliate Reno Aces.
Feyereisen, 32, was a 16th-round pick by Cleveland all the way back in 2014 but didn’t make his big league debut in the shortened 2020 season, when he made six relief appearances with the Brewers. That brief cup of coffee aside, Feyereisen’s real first crack at a significant role with Milwaukee came in 2021. The right-hander posted a solid 3.26 ERA in 19 1/3 innings with the club early in the year but was eventually shipped out to the Rays alongside Drew Rasmussen as part of the trade that brought Willy Adames to Milwaukee in May of that year.
The right-hander found another gear in Tampa and performed excellently the rest of the way, with a 2.45 ERA in 36 2/3 innings of work for an overall season ERA of 2.73 in 55 innings. Feyereisen’s peripherals left something to be desired, with a 4.21 FIP thanks primarily to a massive 14.1% walk rate. Those peripheral concerns vanished in 2022, however, as Feyereisen posted an otherworldly start to the season for Tampa. In 24 1/3 scoreless frames for the Rays to open the year, Feyereisen cut his walk rate to just 5.8% while striking out 29.1% of opponents with a 1.67 FIP and a 2.93 SIERA. It was on pace to be one of the better relief seasons in recent memory, but unfortunately Feyereisen’s campaign was cut short by a shoulder injury.
The shoulder woes eventually wiped out the right-hander’s entire 2023 campaign after he underwent surgery on his rotator cuff. While Feyereisen returned to the mound (now as a member of the Dodgers) in 2024, his results left much to be desired. Feyereisen was shelled to the tune of an 8.18 ERA in 11 innings with L.A. in the majors last year, and even in the minors he struggled to a 5.48 ERA with a strikeout rate of just 17.9%. That led the Dodgers to outright Feyereisen off their 40-man roster last July, allowing him to elect free agency back in November. He’s been on the open market since then, but will now land in Arizona and attempt to work his way back into a big league role.
The Diamondbacks have spent the offseason in search of bullpen help, but have not yet secured the lock-down closer they were hoping to find. While Feyereisen is hardly a sure thing, there’s few relievers in the game who have showed the sort of upside he flashed during his stint with the Rays. If Arizona can unlock even some of that ceiling, it’s not hard to imagine Feyereisen pitching high leverage innings for the Diamondbacks at some point this season. For now, however, the right-hander appears ticketed for Triple-A Reno where he’ll look to get his career back on track.