The Cleveland Guardians completed a trade with an American League opponent. The Cleveland Guardians have made a few deals in recent months, and they finalized another one on Wednesday.
According to Guardians source Tim Stebbins, Cleveland has reached an agreement with the Texas Rangers to acquire pitcher Matt Festa in exchange for cash. He’ll be assigned to Triple-A Columbus. Festa appeared in 19 games out of the bullpen for the Rangers and New York Mets last season, finishing 6-1 with a 5.70 ERA, allowing 21 hits and 24 strikeouts in 23.1 innings.
The 32-year-old was originally selected by the Seattle Mariners in the seventh round of the 2016 MLB Draft and made his big-league debut two years later, making eight appearances and one start for the Mariners. He then made 20 bullpen appearances in 2019, pitching to the tune of a 5.64 ERA.
Festa spent the first six seasons of his major-league career with Seattle, with his most productive season coming in 2022, when he had a 4.17 ERA, surrendered 43 hits, and struck out 64 hitters in 54 relief innings.
The Brooklyn native has a 4.60 lifetime ERA over 108 games, which isn’t particularly spectacular, but his 9.7 K/9 rate is intriguing.
The Guardians are normally quite smart when it comes to acquiring pitching, so they clearly see something in Festa, who could see some major league action this season.
Cleveland is 16-13, one and a half games behind the Detroit Tigers for second place in the AL Central. It will face the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday evening.
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