The Mariners have optioned outfielder Nori Aoki to Triple-A, the club announced. His service time means that he had to clear revocable option waivers first, but couldn’t elect free agency without sacrificing his guaranteed salary.
[Related: Updated Mariners Depth Chart]
Seattle is in need of pitching reinforcements and the roster space to fit them, but the decision was also tied to Aoki’s struggles — especially against lefties, per MLB.com’s Greg Johns (Twitter links). Aoki says he is on board with the move and is prepared to work his way back.
It’s an especially notable move given that Aoki, 34, has never spent time in the minors except on rehab assignments. He went straight to the big leagues after signing from Japan back in 2012. Aoki was also a fairly significant free agent acquisition for the M’s, who guaranteed him $5.5MM over the winter.
At the time, it seemed like a nice value on a sturdy veteran. After posting league-average or better batting lines over each of the past four seasons, though, Aoki has scuffled to a .245/.323/.313 slash over his 284 plate appearances thus far. Aoki has also been gunned down on seven of eleven steal attempts.
The struggles go fairly deep for Aoki. He has been dreadful against opposing southpaws, with a .434 OPS. He’s hitting more groundballs and less line drives than ever, and his infield pop rate has skied to an ugly 17.1%, so the contact profile looks quite a bit different than usual.
Seattle optioned Aoki to Triple A because his foot is ailing. He can be recalled in 10 days as opposed to 15 days if he went to the DL.
Aoki was a HUGE mistake.. the first Big mistake Dipoto has made. .. 5.5 million one year deal, thank goodness.. He is not MLB quality.. maybe for Minnesota.. Dump him.. and lick your wounds.. more mistakes will show up soon..
Doug
This may seem racist, but irons not intended to be…other than Ichiro has there ever been a good Japanese position player in MLB?
Hideki Matsui
Kaz Matsui and Kosuke Fukudome didn’t live up to their enormous hype, but both had quietly productive big league careers.
Tadahito Iguchi was an instrumental part of the White Sox 2005 championship season playing 2cnd base and batting in the 2 hole behind Podsednick. He also had a good start to the 2006 season before fading at the end of 06, and subsequently completely fizzling and going away in 2007.
Hedeki Matsui and Nori Aoki came to the Mlb to late in there career for the ages they started they were very good
Hideki Matsui and Nori Aoki had good careers for the ages they started at Hideki was 28 and Aoki was 30
Such a sensitive world we inhabit, having to preface a perfectly legit question with ‘not intended to be racist.’ Valid question and, other than Matsui, a good point. In fact, the point further challenges the foolish claim that Ichiro is the all-time hits leader upon counting his hits from Japan.
I hear you; on one hand, they want to count Ichiro’s hits from Japan, but then they consider Japanese players “rookies” when they come to the big leagues, suggesting that their careers in Japan don’t count as big league stats.
“Rookies,” great point.
We should call ichiro the baseball hit King, not the mlb hit King
Pete Rose begs to differ.
Pete Rose actually said ‘Ichiro’s going to make me the hit queen’.
Fukudome had a couple good seasons w the cubs.
link to fangraphs.com
And akinori iwamura had a couple good seasons with the rays.
link to fangraphs.com
But by a large margin pitchers come over more than hitters.
link to en.m.wikipedia.org
I’m so glad teams are starting to figure out guys like this. No skills, offensively or defensively. Should have always been a AAA player
No skills? he had never hit lower than 285 and got on base a lot. He’s been a decent player. Ichiro? Of course not. But a guy who filled a role pretty well. It would be great to have all stars at every position but sometimes, that’s not possible.
No skills?
Over 4 years:
7.6 WAR = 55.7 Million Dollars
He’s been pretty damn good the last 4 years…
1st year with the brewers .288/.359/.411 for a 2.3WAR.
1st season with the royals .285/.349/.360 for another 2.3 WAR.
Injury plagued year with the giants still posted .287/.323/.313 for a 1.5 WAR.
But yeah he’s definitely AAA material. Teams should always keep guys that can hit .285+ in the minors and only bring up the .300 hitters ONLY.
That is one of the least informed statements ever.
@DavidCoonce74 LOL you really know your talent and your baseballers, don’t you…..3 multi hit games, and key hits in high leverage situations. You need to go back to your WAR. LMFAO.
I forgot about Matsui. It just struck me how many Japanese position players get hyped and how few are sustainable decent players. I’ve seen the A’s jump into the fray on a guy who could not beat out “specs” Eric Sogard.
This guy needs to be cut… His defense is atrocious and he looks completely lost at the plate. There’s gotta be a kid we have in AAA or AA that will hit the same and at the very least not look completely lost in the outfield.
Do you think Tyler Oneil is ready
Just as long as they don’t get desperate and bring up someone who’s not ready, like they did with Zunino.
*fewer line drives
Aoki a Bust.. not MLB quality.. maybe for the Twins or Braves.. $5.5 million dollar mistake.. Thanks Jerry..
Doug..
You really know your baseballers, not.