Spencer Howard becomes free agent after being DFA'd by Guardians

Spencer Howard's time with the Cleveland Guardians organization has come to an end. After being designated for assignment last week, Howard declined that assignment and become a free agent instead.

Howard's time in Cleveland was brief, making just two appearances (one start) for the Guardians. The outings from Howard did not go well, allowing four runs in 3 innings against the Tigers in his only start for Cleveland and giving up four runs (one earned) in 2 innings out of the bullpen during a 7-0 loss to the San Diego Padres.

The idea of bringing Howard into the mix made some sense on paper. Cleveland had two arms that were noticeably struggling (Triston McKenzie and Logan Allen,) and they needed to be sent down to Triple-A to work on a few things. The Guardians needed someone, anyone, to pitch in their absence, and that person was Howard.

Ideally, Howard would have pitched better than what he did and could have given the Guardians more than 5 innings across two games, but given his track record in the majors, how things transpired was hardly a surprise. The once-promising pitching prospect has experienced some difficulties trying to become a major league-caliber pitcher, a prospect that may no longer be on the table for him given his notable struggles. It would be one thing if there was a stretch of productive outings at the big league level, but that really has not happened, making it difficult to justify any team keeping him as part of their pitching staff.

The newly 28-year-old Howard has a career ERA of 7.00 and 1.736 WHIP in 47 career appearances over five seasons in the majors. Perhaps he may be able to catch on in a different role with an organization willing to take a chance on him, but that would more than likely come with a team that is not anywhere close to being remotely competitive at this time.