The Mariners announced that they have acquired Chance Ruffin from the Tigers to complete the trade that sent Doug Fister and David Pauley to Detroit for Casper Wells, Charlie Furbush, Francisco Martinez and a player to be named on July 30th.
Ruffin, a supplemental first round pick in last year's draft, reached the big leagues earlier in the summer and appeared in two games for the Tigers. The 22-year-old could not be traded until this week since he had signed his first professional contract less than a year ago at the time of the July 31st trade deadline. In 48 2/3 minor league innings since signing last summer, Ruffin has a 2.03 ERA with 11.1 K/9 and 4.1 BB/9.
Baseball America rated Ruffin as the Tigers' seventh best prospect before the season and identified his slider as the best among Detroit's prospects. His father, Bruce Ruffin, pitched in the Major Leagues for 12 seasons with the Phillies, Brewers and Rockies.
Lueke still has setup man potential and has had flashes of brilliance in the bigs despite poor ERA mostly attributed to his poor performance in April, in part due to velocity decrease that he’s now gained back.
Wells, Furbush, Martinez and Ruffin is definitely not a bad deal on the M’s part for Fister and Pauley.