Every offseason, the Cleveland Guardians’ front office rummages through the free agent scrap heap and signs discarded relief pitchers to minor league contracts. Every year, almost without exception, at least one of them turns out to be a diamond in the rough.
This year, that diamond was Enyel De Los Santos.
The 26-year-old right-hander was first signed as an international free agent by the Seattle Mariners back in 2014. He was traded three years later to the Philadelphia Phillies, with whom he made his big league debut in 2018. But De Los Santos struggled with the Phillies, even missing all of the 2020 season after being demoted to Triple-A the previous August.