Who is Adam Cimber? 5 things to know about the new Miami Marlins relief pitcher

The Miami Marlins made their first acquisition of the offseason Monday, sending $100,000 to the Cleveland Indians in return for relief pitcher Adam Cimber.

Jose Urena, the Marlins’ Opening Day starter in 2018 and 2019, was designated for assignment to make room for Cimber.

The 30-year-old sidearm thrower has made 152 career appearances over three MLB seasons and has a 3.89 ERA with 104 strikeouts against 38 walks in 136 1/3 innings of work. He pitched in 11 1/3 innings over 14 games in 2020, posting a 3.97 ERA and allowing opponents to hit a career-high .289 against him (his career average against is .263). The San Diego Padres drafted him in the ninth round of the 2013 MLB Draft.

While he has finished 33 of his 152 games and has converted one save, Cimber has primarily worked the seventh and eighth innings during his career.

Here are five things to know about the new Marlins reliever.

Three-pitch mix

Cimber relies on three pitches: A four-seam fastball, a sinker and a slider. The four-seam fastball is used almost exclusively against left-handed hitters (88 percent of his four-seamers have been thrown to lefties), the sinker primarily to right-handed hitters (90 percent of his sinkers have been thrown to righties). He throws both fastballs around 85 mph while his slider averaged 76.9 mph in 2020 and 75.4 mph in 2019.

About his delivery...

Cimber’s sidearm delivery dates back to his high school days in Puyallup, Washington. Cimber was smaller and couldn’t throw as hard as the guys he was competing with for a roster spot, so he had to get creative in order to stand out.

So what did he do? He started mimicking the submarine throwing style of MLB pitcher Brad Ziegler, who was at the beginning of his 11-year MLB career with the Oakland Athletics (a career that included two seasons with the Marlins).

“My dad was like, ‘If you want to continue playing baseball, you’re small and you don’t throw hard, so you should try to be weird, do something different,’” Cimber said in 2018, according to The Daily Record. “So I gave it a shot, dropped it down and it worked out.”

It paid off. He went 14-4 in his final two seasons at Puyallup, threw a no-hitter as a junior in high school and led the Vikings to a state runner-up finish as a senior.

Cimber played college baseball at the University of Washington from 2010-2012 before transferring to the University of San Francisco for his senior year. The Padres drafted him in the ninth round of the 2013 MLB Draft. He made his MLB debut with the Padres on March 29, 2018 and played in 42 games for San Diego that season before being traded along with All-Star Brad Hand to the Indians.

Limited but lackluster vs NL East

Cimber’s experience against the four National League East teams he’ll face regularly as a member of the Marlins is limited. He has never faced the Philadelphia Phillies and has just 11 combined appearances and 8 2/3 innings against the Atlanta Braves, New York Mets and Washington Nationals.

And while it’s a small sample size, it hasn’t been productive: A 10.38 ERA, 1.96 WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched) and a .297 BAA

The breakdown by team:

▪ Atlanta Braves (five games): Four earned runs on four hits and four walks with six strikeouts in five innings.

▪ New York Mets (three games): Three earned runs on two hits and one walk with one strikeout in two innings.

▪ Washington Nationals (three games): Three earned runs on five hits and one walk with three strikeouts in 1 2/3 innings.

Against the Marlins? He threw 3 2/3 perfect innings over three appearances with four strikeouts. He has one career appearance in Marlins Park, needing just 10 pitches to throw a perfect seventh inning in the Indians’ 4-2 loss against the Marlins on May 1, 2019.

Up for arbitration

Cimber joins seven other Marlins players who are eligible for arbitration. MLBTradeRumors.com projects Cimber to make somewhere between $800,000 and $1 million in 2021.

The others: catcher Jorge Alfaro, third baseman Brian Anderson, first basemen Garrett Cooper and Jesus Aguilar, and pitchers Yimi Garcia, Ryne Stanek and Richard Bleier.

Odds and ends

▪ Eleven of Cimber’s 38 career walks — or just shy of 30 percent — have been intentional walks. In 2018, nine of Cimber’s 17 walks were intentional, a mark that tied for the most in MLB that year with the Cincinnati Reds’ Homer Bailey and the Minnesota Twins’ Trevor Hildenberger.

▪ Cimber’s nickname according to his MLB.com bio is “Cimdog Millionaire.” He also goes by “Cim” or “Simba.”