Marlins make Bass signing official. A starting pitcher is the roster crunch casualty

Jordan Yamamoto became a casualty of a roster crunch.

The Miami Marlins designated for assignment the 24-year-old starting pitcher in order to make room for free agent relief pitcher Anthony Bass, who they officially signed Thursday. Bass’ deal is for two years and $5 million with a team option for the 2023 season.

Yamamoto, one of four players acquired from the Milwaukee Brewers as part of the Christian Yelich trade, had a solid rookie season in 2019 (4.46 ERA, .191 batting average against, 82 strikeouts against 36 walks in 78 2/3 innings over 15 starts) before struggling severely in 2020.

He started the season at the alternate training site, with Elieser Hernandez earning the fifth spot in the rotation to begin the season. Yamamoto was part of the massive group of callups following the team’s COVID-19 outbreak three games into the season but threw just 11 1/3 innings through four outings (three starts) in the condensed 2020 season and gave up 24 runs (23 earned) for an 18.26 ERA. Thirteen of those runs came in 2 2/3 innings of relief in the Marlins’ 29-9 loss to the Atlanta Braves on Sept. 9.

The Marlins’ starting pitching depth made Yamamoto expendable. He didn’t seemed destined to hold a role in their starting rotation in 2021, with Sandy Alcantara, Pablo Lopez, Elieser Hernandez, Sixto Sanchez and Trevor Rogers the front-runners to be the five to start the season. Including Sanchez and Rogers, six of the Marlins’ top 11 prospects according to MLBPipeline are starting pitchers (Max Meyer, Edward Cabrera, Braxton Garrett and Nick Neidert are the others).

Bass, meanwhile, figures to hold a late-inning role in the Marlins’ bullpen and will likely contend with Yimi Garcia to be Miami’s closer. He has converted 12 saves in the past two years and has a combined 3.44 ERA in 84 relief appearances since 2018.

In addition to those two, the Marlins’ bullpen as the roster is currently constructed would likely include Richard Bleier, James Hoyt, Paul Campbell, Zack Pop, Adam Cimber and Ross Detwiler. Jeff Brigham and Alex Vesia are other relievers on Miami’s 40-man roster.