Mariners Close To Acquiring Aaron Harang

The Mariners are close to acquiring righty Aaron Harang from the Rockies, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports.  He says the teams are working through the final details, including approval from the commissioner's office, since the Rockies will be sending cash in the deal.  Rosenthal adds that the Rockies will receive a minor league right-handed reliever from the Mariners in the trade.    

The Rockies acquired Harang and $4.25MM from the Dodgers for catcher Ramon Hernandez last week, and then immediately designated Harang for assignment.  Harang earns $7MM this year and has a $2MM buyout after the season, and the Rockies will send money to the Mariners to cover some of that. The Rockies will have saved close to $2.5MM in the series of trades, tweets Jim Bowden of ESPN and MLB Network Radio, implying they're sending around $5MM to the Mariners in this trade.  That would leave Seattle paying about $4MM to Harang.

Harang, 35 next month, posted a 3.61 ERA, 6.6 K/9, 4.3 BB/9, 0.70 HR/9, and 38.6% groundball rate in 179 2/3 innings for the Dodgers last year.  His peripheral stats from 2012 suggest an ERA close to 5.00.  This isn't the Harang of his Reds glory days, when he pitched 230 innings a year with around four strikeouts for every walk.  Harang will likely replace Blake Beavan in Seattle's rotation.

The Mariners and Rockies last matched up on a trade in December 2010, when Colorado acquired Jose Lopez for Chaz Roe.  More recently, a pitcher jumped from the Mariners to the Rockies when Jon Garland exercised his opt-out clause to leave the Mariners in March and signed with Colorado.

Originally published April 11th, 2013 at 12:38pm.