It was nunca.
- Rating: 2.65
- 2024 stats: 7 G, 6.1 IP, 9.95 ERA, 4.90 FIP, 2.37 WHIP, 1.75 SO/BB, 44 ERA+
- Date of birth: May 23, 1998 (26 years old)
- 2024 earnings: $155,194 (Pre-Arb, via Spotrac)
- 2025 status: Designated for assignment by Diamondbacks on August 8, claimed by Toronto Blue Jays on August 10. Designated for assignment by Toronto on November 4, elected free agency.
Introduction
Not much introduction needed, but for those of you who haven’t been that long on this site or don’t remember the background story we have been telling for 3 years already on here: Luis Frías was originally a third baseman but signed as a pitcher by the Diamondbacks in 2015. He didn’t pitch in 2017 because of an injury and it took until 2019 before he hit Class A. He was on the alternate site in 2020 and then moved up from Hillsboro to Amarillo to Reno in 2021. He was said to be more of a “thrower” than a pitcher and the high velocity was often offset by the lack of command.
The lack of command has held Frías back from dominating in the majors, despite the velocity, with a fastball that isn’t deceiving enough and a below-average slider. They tried adding a change-up in 2021, but that pitch wasn’t good enough and apparently in 2024 they got rid of it for good.
In 2023 he was mildly successful with a cutter. It overtook his fastball as the most dominant pitch and, together with the slider, he was able to make it successful in his return to the majors in September, after being up and down 4 times during the season, leading to a strike rate of 68% and keeping the runs limited to 3 over 12 games.
That made him pretty much a lock for the post-season roster where he did good, but I expressed my doubts in last year’s player review:
Luis Frías earned a spot on the post-season squad in both NLCS and NLDS and the World Series and did rather well. Helped by a ridiculously low BABIP of 0.071, he saw action in 7 games, pitching 6.2 innings in which he gave up 3 runs, 2 of them a homerun, although 3 of 4 inherited runners also scored. That surely puts a question mark on the sustainability of Luis Frías’ success, but you have to give the kid credit for adding a pitch to the mix. I am sure that the mediocre rating Frías got was heavily skewed by his BABIPy post-season performance, but that is okay. – DBacksEurope in the 2023 player review of Luis Frías on the AZSnakePit
2024 review
I have to admit that somewhere in the past 3 years that he was optioned to the minors we missed out on him being able to be optioned for a fourth year in 2024. As MLBTR explained in August: “a club is granted a fourth option on a player who has exhausted the first three but without playing five full seasons, with a “full” season defined as 90 active days either in the majors or minors. The shortened 2020 season reportedly does not count. It appears Frias didn’t play a “full” season until 2019, then 2020 didn’t count, so he only had four “full” seasons after 2023.””
Luis Frías made the opening day roster, snagging one of the final bullpen spots, as Jim McLennan wrote. Was it a surprise? Maybe not that much if you know that Scott McGough also made Opening Day, but he got credits for the good Spring Training of 2 earned runs in 9.1 innings. Opening Day was good for Luis Frías and the 9th inning in a blowout 16-1 win over the Rockies was probably the spot where we would see him: in a low leverage situation. Still, he threw 7 strikes and needed just 10 pitches to get a long-beaten Rockies team to the showers. Two days later Frías replaced Tommy Henry in the 5th inning, with the Diamondbacks trying to stay close in a 1-run game at that moment. Frías immediately got himself into trouble when he made a throwing error while trying to pick off Blackmon at second base. He then walked Bryant and allowed a 2-run double to Nolan Jones, who was later brought home on a sac fly from Ryan McMahon.
The following day he pitched a quick and scoreless 9th inning in a 5-2 loss against the Yankees, before he would get the biggest test of his entire season on April 6 in Atlanta. In what was a save situation in the 8th inning, Frías was summoned to protect a 8-7 lead but failed miserably, allowing 3 hits and 2 runs, while getting just 1 batter out. Kyle Nelson came on and saved the ship from sinking at that moment, but the damage was already done and the Diamondbacks would hit bottom in an 9-8 loss.
Frías pitched in 3 more games after that, his final game against the Cubs. There he entered the 7th inning with a 8-5 lead but loaded the bases without getting a batter out. Kyle Nelson then allowed them all to cross home plate, ballooning Frías’ ERA to almost 10.00 over the season. Hazen had seen enough and Frías found himself in AAA after that. There was nothing to be positive about: cutter, fastball, slider…they were all worthless.
In Reno Frías would pitch to a 4.88 ERA and never looked like he would get on track again. In August he was removed from the 40-man roster when the Diamondbacks claimed and added Andrew Knizner to the team. Like one could expect, Frías was claimed by another team and so he went to Toronto.
2025 review
In Toronto he reached the majors again, in September, but with 8 runs allowed in 3.1 innings, you can hardly say he made a positive contribution there. He was recently designated for assignment and being it the second time in his career now, Frías chose free agency.
A late switch to pitching, injury, COVID and Frías being tossed between starting pitching and the bullpen certainly has not done him any favours in his career so far. Though one can wonder if his pitches are quality material, command is what Frías is holding back and after 4 years with a major league appearance here and there, you could ask yourself if it ever comes. Luis Frías is still just 26 years old and there is still hope that he will eventually figure it all out, but we all knew that it probably wasn’t going to happen as a Diamondback and that indeed has come true.