Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Mariners Rumors

Quick Hits: Mikolas, K. Seager, Judge, D-backs

By | at

Cardinals right-hander Miles Mikolas will begin the season on the injured list after receiving a platelet-rich plasma injection, per Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. As of now, it appears Mikolas will make his 2020 debut toward the end of April or in the beginning of May, according to Goold. It’s a blow to the Cardinals’ rotation, which got back-to-back quality seasons from Mikolas in 2018-19 and now has to fill a couple openings behind Jack Flaherty, Adam Wainwright and Dakota Hudson. Carlos Martinez and Kwang-hyun Kim were already known to be in the running before Mikolas went down, and now Daniel Ponce de Leon, Austin Gomber, Ryan Helsley, Alex Reyes, John Gant and Genesis Cabrera are also in the mix, Goold writes.

Here’s more from around the game…

  • Mariners third baseman Kyle Seager was the subject of trade rumors over the winter, when “a handful of teams” discussed him with the M’s, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times writes. Seager has stayed put to this point, and he’s now the longest-tenured player on Seattle’s roster, though he realizes a deal could still come together. The 32-year-old admitted to Divish that a trade remains “a definite possibility.” Seager enjoyed a bounce-back season in 2019, but he’s still owed $37MM over the next two years. His contract also includes a 2022 $15MM club option that will turn into a player option if he’s dealt, which could help stand in the way of a trade.
  • Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge has been battling a right shoulder issue early in camp, but he’s progressing in his recovery, George A. King III of the New York Post relays. Judge told manager Aaron Bone he’s “game-ready,” but the Yankees are taking it slow with their prized slugger, whom injuries limited to a combined 214 of a possible 324 regular-season games from 2018-19. “Start reintroducing him to full swinging and stuff in the next couple of days I would think,’’ Boone said. “I am sure in the next day or two it will probably start to ramp him back up.’’
  • Thanks to a productive 2019 season at the Double-A level, Diamondbacks first base prospect Pavin Smith has a chance to make his major league debut sometime this year, Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic observes. Smith was the seventh overall pick of the Diamondbacks in 2017, and while he hit well in low-A ball that year, he provided little to no power (zero home runs, .097 ISO). He then didn’t produce at a particularly impressive clip at the high-A level the next season, but Smith turned it around last year. In his Double-A debut, he put up a .291/.370/.466 line with 12 homers and almost as many walks (59) and strikeouts (61).

Mariners Sign Cody Anderson

By | at

FEBRUARY 17, 5:42pm: Cowgill’s signing has also been announced, along with the previously reported deal with Carlos Gonzalez.

11:13am: Seattle has announced its deal with Anderson. Cowgill’s deal has yet to be finalized, it seems.

FEBRUARY 15: The Mariners are nearing agreements with right-hander Cody Anderson and outfielder Collin Cowgill, reports Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times (via Twitter). Once finalized, both players will get invitations to MLB spring training on minor-league pacts, Divish adds.

Anderson, 29, had spent his entire career in the Indians’ organization. He had an impressive run in Cleveland in 2015, working to a 3.05 ERA in 91.1 innings across 15 starts. His 12.1% strikeout rate that season suggested that level of run prevention was a mirage, but he limited walks and airborne contact and looked to have a shot at sticking in the back of Cleveland’s rotation. That never came to fruition, as Anderson was bombed in limited action the following year and was forced to undergo Tommy John surgery in March 2017. That procedure largely wiped out his next two seasons.

While Anderson returned to the mound in 2019, he was mostly limited to minor-league duty in the season’s first half. Another elbow surgery- this time to repair his flexor tendon- last July marked the end of his tenure in Cleveland. Anderson is taking his physical with the Seattle organization today, Divish reports. Assuming all goes well, he may take a shot at cracking a Mariners’ rotation that could also feature injury returnees Kendall Graveman and Taijuan Walker. Alternatively, he could be an option for a Seattle bullpen lacking much certainty.

As for Cowgill, the 34-year-old is hoping to crack the majors for the first time since 2016. He’s largely made the rounds at Triple-A the past half-decade with middling results. Last season, he took 280 plate appearances for the Nationals’ top affiliate and hit .228/.330/.440. In 759 MLB plate appearances over parts of six seasons, Cowgill has compiled a .234/.297/.329 line (79 wRC+).

Mitch Haniger Undergoes Surgery

By | at

11:09pm: Haniger underwent a discectomy, which “removes part or the whole intervertebral disc,” Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times writes.

8:50pm: Mariners outfielder Mitch Haniger underwent surgery on Thursday, Jeff Passan of ESPN reports. It’s the second procedure Haniger has undergone since he had core surgery three weeks ago. It’s unclear when he’ll be able to come back, but there will be a significant delay to the start of his season, according to Passan.

Haniger was already set to miss a major chunk of time after his previous surgery. As of Jan. 23, he was supposed to sit out six to eight weeks, which would’ve kept him out for at least the beginning of the season. Last week, though, general manager Jerry Dipoto didn’t seem sure when the Mariners would get Haniger back, saying, “We have no expectation on his timeline until we actually see him live [at Spring Training].”

Dipoto didn’t rule out an early season return or a mid-year debut for Haniger, and now uncertainty continues to abound in his case. It’s awful news for Haniger, who already missed 99 games in 2019, as well as a Mariners team that will have to continue trudging on without arguably its best player.

While the 29-year-old Haniger wasn’t as productive in 2019 as he was during the previous two seasons, in which he posted star-caliber offensive production, he still put up above-average numbers at the plate. His batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage experienced precipitous drops, but Haniger’s .220/.314/.463 line in 283 plate appearances was nonetheless 6 percent better than the MLB mean, per FanGraphs’ wRC+ metric.

Had he gone through a healthy offseason, Haniger – who has three years of team control left – could have served as an appealing trade chip for the Mariners. That’s obviously not going to happen in the near future, though, and it’s now up in the air whether he’ll have much of a chance to rebuild his value before this July’s trade deadline.

AL West Notes: Rangers, Dyson, Hamilton, Taijuan, Diaz, A’s

By | at

The Rangers talked with Jarrod Dyson and Billy Hamilton before the two veteran outfielders respectively signed with the Pirates and Giants, Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram writes.  The Rangers didn’t have any talks with Kevin Pillar prior to Pillar’s agreement with the Red Sox.  Center field is still something of a question area for Texas heading into the 2020 season, as utilityman Danny Santana is slated to handle the position, but with Scott Heineman, Joey Gallo, and perhaps Nick Solak on hand to share in some of the center field duties.

Additional help may not be imminent, as GM Jon Daniels told Wilson and other reporters “there’s nothing that is front-burner right now that I’m expecting to come to a head this spring.  There will be a lot of conversations, I’m sure.”  This doesn’t close the door on a new acquisition, of course, even if that new player may be more of a part-timer than a star (such as Kris Bryant, who has also been widely linked to the Rangers on the rumor mill.)  The versatile Santana is the answer in center field for the time being, though “we have to decide how we’re going to go about it,” Daniels said.  “I think Danny comes in with the expectation he’ll get the bulk of the playing time out there, but we also like him in that versatile role.  There’s a little bit of give there.  We have to make a call.”

More from around the AL West…

  • Taijuan Walker is back with the Mariners after signing a one-year deal with the club worth $2MM in guaranteed money, rejoining the team that originally drafted him in 2010 and, after four MLB seasons, dealt him to the Diamondbacks in the 2016-17 offseason.  Looking back on his initial stint with the M’s, “I had a lot of stuff to learn,” Walker told the Seattle Times’ Ryan Divish and other media.  “I don’t think I did very good job here of doing what I need to do become the best pitcher I could be.  I definitely slacked off and just didn’t put the work in.”  The trade inspired Walker to work harder in Arizona, plus he was further motivated by “good vets that kept on me — just having Zack Greinke over there, a bunch of guys who were really hungry and ready to work.”  It could be said that Walker’s injury problems have also aided in the maturity process, as the right-hander has tossed only 14 innings totals over the 2018-19 seasons due to both Tommy John surgery and shoulder issues.  The need to re-acclimate himself to pitching played a role in Walker’s decision to sign with Seattle, since “I’m comfortable here.  I haven’t pitched in two years, so I wanted somewhere where I can come in and kind of take my time.  I don’t have to rush.”  Another positive factor was the Mariners’ hire of Kyle Torgerson as head athletic trainer, as Torgerson previously worked for the Diamondbacks and is already familiar with Walker.  “I’m comfortable with him.  He knows my body.  He knows what I have to do to stay healthy,” Walker said.
  • The arbitration hearing between Aledmys Diaz and the Astros is scheduled for February 17, The Athletic’s Jake Kaplan tweets.  This is Diaz’s first of three trips through the arb process, and the utilityman submitted a $2.6MM figure while the team countered with $2MM.  Acquired from the Blue Jays for Trent Thornton last winter, Diaz hit well (.271/.356/.467 with nine homers) in his first year in Houston but was limited to 247 plate appearances and 69 games, largely due to a hamstring injury that sidelined him for almost two months.  Diaz is one of two Astros players who didn’t reach an agreement with the club prior to the filing deadline, though the Astros sidestepped a hearing with George Springer by agreeing to a one-year, $21MM deal with the star outfielder last month.
  • The Athletics brought a catcher to their Major League spring camp, though it was non-roster invite and former Oakland Double-A backstop Collin Theroux rather than one of the well-known veterans the club reportedly has under consideration.  “It probably looks like we go forward with the group we have right now,” manager Bob Melvin told the San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser and other reporters, with Theroux joining Austin Allen, Jonah Heim, Carlos Perez, Ronnie Freeman, and presumptive starter Sean Murphy at Spring Training.  There isn’t much collective MLB experience in this group, which is why the A’s have looked into the likes of Russell Martin as a seasoned backup (and mentor) to Murphy, who the A’s see as their catcher of the future.

Mariners Sign Taijuan Walker

By | at

5:10pm: The Mariners have announced Walker’s return to Seattle. To make room on the 40-man roster, right-hander Austin L. Adams was placed on the 60-day injured list. The 28-year-old Adams — not to be confused with Austin D. Adams, who signed a minor league deal with the Twins earlier this winter — underwent surgery to repair a torn ACL last October.

12:59pm: It’s a one-year, $2MM deal, per ESPN.com’s Jeff Passan (via Twitter). The pact also comes with another $1MM available in incentive money.

12:42pm: All indications are that the Mariners have or soon will reach an agreement to bring back former hurler Taijuan Walker. The free agent was spotted in Seattle’s camp and has since posted a rather suggestive tweet about his next destination.

Previous indication was that the M’s had a standing MLB offer out to Walker. Other clubs were also in pursuit; he had recently put on a showcase for the Cubs, for instance. As it turns out, the 27-year-old will return to where he got his start. The Mariners chose him with the 43rd overall pick of the 2010 draft and called him up to the majors for the first time in 2013. Walker never quite came into his own in Seattle but did have two productive campaigns. He ended up being dealt away — one of many players spun off in recent seasons by GM Jerry Dipoto.

The Diamondbacks got some good work from Walker, including 157 1/3 innings of 3.49 ERA ball in 2017, before losing him to Tommy John surgery. A year later, his rehab from said operation was slowed by a strained shoulder capsule that ultimately wiped out nearly all of his 2019 campaign. Although Walker made it back to the MLB mound late in 2019, the Snakes decided it wasn’t worth the investment of one more arbitration-eligible season to bring him back.

Health permitting, it seems that Walker will now slide into the fifth spot of a Seattle rotation that’ll also include Marco Gonzales, Yusei Kikuchi, Justus Sheffield and fellow offseason pickup/Tommy John returnee Kendall Graveman. There’s a good deal of upside in the second through fifth slots in the rotation behind the quietly solid Gonzales, but the Seattle rotation is also rife with uncertainty.

Depth options such as Justin Dunn, Erik Swanson, Nick Margevicius and Nestor Cortes Jr. could all get some run in 2020, be it do to injuries within the big league staff or merely poor performance. Non-roster options who could head to Triple-A if they don’t break camp with the club include veteran Wei-Yin Chen and former top prospect Manny Banuelos, each of whom signed minor league deals this winter.

Mariners Sign Manny Banuelos To Minor League Deal

By | at

The Mariners announced Tuesday that they’ve signed left-hander Manny Banuelos to a minor league contract and invited him to Major League camp in Spring Training.

Banuelos, 29 next month, once ranked as one of baseball’s premier pitching prospects but has been persistently hampered by injuries. The southpaw has undergone Tommy John surgery, another operation to remove bone spurs from his elbow and more recently been plagued by shoulder troubles. Banuelos did log 50 2/3 innings with the White Sox in 2019, but he was knocked around to the tune of a 6.93 ERA with an ugly 44-to-33 K/BB ratio and 12 home runs allowed.

That was only the second season in which the once-vaunted lefty has pitched in the big leagues. Despite a lack of success at baseball’s top level, though, Banuelos has notched a career 3.98 ERA in 376 innings of Triple-A work, averaging 8.4 K/9 against 4.4 BB/9 along the way. Seattle still isn’t certain how it’ll round out the back of the rotation, so Banuelos will compete for a spot either in the fifth rotation slot or in the bullpen this sprin

Mariners To Sign Carlos Gonzalez

By | at

The Mariners have agreed to a minor league contract with three-time All-Star Carlos Gonzalez, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today (Twitter link). The 34-year-old Boras Corporation client has been invited to Major League Spring Training and would earn $750K if he cracks the big league roster.

A star-caliber player with the Rockies from 2010-16, Gonzalez is now three full seasons removed from his last above-average year at the plate by measure of park-adjusted metrics like OPS+ and wRC+. Dating back to Opening Day 2017, he’s slashed .260/.328/.423 in 1204 plate appearances with the Rockies, Indians and Cubs — including a .200/.289/.283 output in 166 plate appearances in 2019. Both Cleveland and Chicago released Gonzalez during the 2019 season.

That said, Gonzalez is a perfectly sensible roll of the dice for the Mariners, who’ll be without right fielder Mitch Haniger early in the season due to his recent core surgery. The Mariners figure to have Mallex Smith in center field in 2020, with rising prospect Kyle Lewis likely tabbed for left field duties. In right, they’ll take a look at Jake Fraley, Braden Bishop, recent waiver claim Jose Siri and now CarGo as they look to bridge the gap to Haniger’s return to the roster.

From 2010-16, Gonzalez posted a very strong .296/.353/.535 slash with 184 home runs, 197 doubles and 28 triples in 3714 plate appearances. Along the way, he racked up an even 1000 hits in total and captured three Gold Glove Awards, two Silver Sluggers and a National League batting title (.336 in 2010). It’s obviously doubtful that he’s capable of anything approaching that peak form, but the Mariners will take a free look at what Gonzalez has left in the tank this spring.

Mariners Outright Matt Festa

By | at

The Mariners announced that right-hander Matt Festa went unclaimed on waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Nashville. He’s been invited to Major League Spring Training as a non-roster player.

The 26-year-old Festa made his MLB debut with the Mariners in 2018 and has pitched a total of 30 2/3 innings of relief since that time. To this point in his relatively young career, Festa has managed a 4.70 ERA with a 25-to-14 K/BB ratio and a 36.5 percent ground-ball rate in the Majors.

Festa, a seventh-round pick back in 2016, has averaged about 93 mph on his four-seamer — rather pedestrian among relievers in today’s game — but the righty’s success in both Double-A and Triple-A could earn him another look with the Mariners in the future. The Seattle bullpen is short on proven assets and could feature a Rule 5 pick (Yohan Ramirez) as well as several out-of-options hurlers to begin the season (Matt Magill, Sam Tuivailala, Dan Altavilla and offseason pickup Carl Edwards Jr.). That could be a recipe for a fair bit of in-season turnover, so it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to Festa back in Seattle at some point this summer, particularly if he’s able to continue his strong upper-minors production.

Mariners Have “Standing Offer” To Taijuan Walker

By | at

The Mariners have a “standing offer” of a one-year deal to free-agent right-hander Taijuan Walker, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times reports. Divish adds that the 27-year-old Walker has offers from a “handful” of clubs and is mulling which presents him with the best opportunity.

There’s a clear opening in the Seattle rotation behind Marco Gonzales, Yusei Kikuchi, Justus Sheffield and offseason signee Kendall Graveman, and Walker has plenty of familiarity with the Seattle organization. The Mariners selected him with the No. 43 pick of the 2010 draft, and Walker threw the first 357 innings of his big league career as a member of the Mariners before being sent to Arizona (alongside Ketel Marte) in a trade that sent both Mitch Haniger and Jean Segura to Seattle. Walker started 25 games for the Mariners in 2016 — the team’s first season under manager Scott Servais.

The Twins have also been linked to Walker, although they’ve since added righty Kenta Maeda in a trade with the Dodgers, and it’s not clear if that swap has curbed their interest. Notably, however, Minnesota does have an open spot on its 40-man roster (barring the inclusion of a second 40-man player from the Dodgers in that yet-unofficial trade). Walker also threw in front of nearly two dozen scouts recently; paired with Divish’s note on the righty sifting through a “handful” of offers, it’s clear that the Mariners still have some competition for his services regardless of where things stand with the Twins’ reported interest.

Walker has pitched just 14 innings in the past two seasons due to Tommy John surgery and a strained shoulder capsule, but he did make it back to a big league mound in the final game of the 2019 season, when he touched 94mph with his heater and tallied a strikeout in his lone (scoreless) inning of work. In his last full season, Walker tossed 157 1/3 innings with a 3.49 ERA, 8.4 K/9, 3.5 BB/9 and a 48.9 percent ground-ball rate.

Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto has been open about his expectation of further additions to the team’s rotation mix. Since making those comments, he’s signed Wei-Yin Chen to a minor league deal and claimed left-hander Nick Margevicius off waivers from the Padres. Either could factor into a camp competition for the fifth spot in the rotation (along with Justin Dunn and perhaps Erik Swanson), but Dipoto has yet to acquire someone who’s a clear plug-in option for that fifth rotation spot. Walker would fit that bill as well as (if not better than) any remaining unsigned starting pitcher.

Cardinals Claim Ricardo Sanchez

By | at

The Cardinals have claimed left-hander Ricardo Sanchez off waivers from the Mariners, as announced by both teams.  Infielder Ramon Urias was designated for assignment by St. Louis to create a 40-man roster spot for Sanchez.

Sanchez hit the waiver wire last week, when he was DFA’ed by the Mariners to make roster room for Yoshihisa Hirano.  The southpaw has spent four of his six pro seasons in the Braves organization, sandwiched between his debut season with the Angels’ rookie ball affiliate in 2014 and a 2019 season spent with the Mariners’ Double-A club.

Sanchez has an unimpressive 4.52 ERA over 517 1/3 innings, though with some solid peripheral numbers (8.2 K/9, 2.25 K/BB rate) and youth still on his side, as he doesn’t turn 23 until April.  There isn’t much risk for the Cards in seeing what Sanchez can do in a new system, as at worst, he can be a depth rotation in the minors.  Sanchez has started 106 of 111 career games, so a turn to relief pitching could also be explored if Sanchez ultimately doesn’t develop as a starter.

Urias, a longtime veteran of the Mexican League, has spent the last two seasons in the Cardinals’ farm system.  The bulk of that time has been spent at the Triple-A level, where the 25-year-old hit .262/.347/.426 with 14 homers over 524 plate appearances.  Urias has played mostly as a second baseman while in the Cards’ organization, though he also has quite a bit of experience as a third baseman, and seen some time as a shortstop, first baseman, and left fielder over his nine professional seasons.

Show all

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top