Right-hander Al Alburquerque has signed a minor league contract with the Mariners, as was first reported by Triple-A broadcaster Mike Curto last week (Twitter link). The longtime Tigers reliever spent the majority of the 2016 season with the Angels but was released on Aug. 13.
Alburquerque, 30, logged a 3.80 ERA with a 26-to-13 K/BB ratio and a 44.9 percent ground-ball rate in 23 2/3 innings with the Halos’ Triple-A affiliate in Salt Lake this season. Alburquerque also tossed two innings for the Angels at the Major League level this year, allowing one earned run on two hits and two walks with a strikeout. He’s appeared in a pair of games for Seattle’s Triple-A affiliate and will hope to earn a promotion to the big league level when rosters expand on Thursday.
While Alburquerque hasn’t pitched much in the Majors this year, he was a regular contributor to the Detroit bullpen from 2011-15, continually demonstrating an ability to rack up strikeouts but also consistently showing below-average control. In 225 innings as a member of the Tigers, Alburquerque posted a very solid 3.20 ERA and averaged an impressive 11 strikeouts per nine innings, but he also averaged five walks per nine innings pitched over the life of his Tigers career. If he does end up making an appearance on the Mariners’ roster next month, Seattle will have the ability to control him through the 2017 season if desired, as he’s currently just shy of five years of big league service (a September call-up would push him over the threshold).
Like the Mariners need another guy with a strange name
Zunino
Zych
Ianetta
How are theses strange, and what does it have to do with baseball.
I think it’s was a joke. chill out
Haven’t you heard that it’s cool to make fun of a group of people different from yourself. It’s called bigotry; get with the intolerance.
Leave it to the PC police to show up everywhere.. Stay with the Clinton crowd and liberal base please?
As to Alburquerque? He’s the king of the slider. Hard to believe Angels let him go with that disaster of a pen they had all season, not to mention full of retreads and guys that throw 89-90 with nothing up and down. Al has ability (always has) to get swings and misses with that filthy slider and go on a several game roll where he’s just not hittable.
You should take a look at his player page and see his BB/9…
There is more to some players than the BA page sometimes. A few are capable of going on rolls, especially some that have a good pitch, like Al does that is so good. Does he loose command? You bet, then so does Fernando Rodney for games at a time with his ultra straight FB and relies on his changeup to get outs. No command? He’s nothing.
Another guy who think should get another chance is Alexi Ogando.. He’s got such a good FB, then loses command of his slider nearly half the time negating the effectiveness of the FB..
I think Al Albuquerque will do well with the Mariners. In Detroit, Jim Leyland was terrible at managing the bullpen and Brad Ausmus just emulated his technique.
Haha no, Alberquerque was just a terrible pitcher after he took a baseball to the head on a comebacker, he was always visually rattled when pitching for Detroit, he just wasn’t himself after getting hit like that
It wasn’t Leyland’s lack of using a bullpen, he also has zero tools to use out of the pen, literally can you name a real “bullpen ace” the Tigers have had? We had Todd Jones, alright. Way to go. Leyland never had a Zach Britton, Wade Davis, Mariano Rivera type of just straight domination coming from the pen, wether it be a closer or just a bullpen guy.
And Ausmus barely had anything to do with Al’s technique, it was Al that did, he just lost it after previously said comebacker.
He was just a rattler guy who I wish the best for, but you can’t blame management when it’s the player who took himself out really.
Not looking to dice on you, one of the big Tigers fans here who are making a point about the lousy pen’s the Tigers have had, but he did have a guy myself has never cared for in Rodney and then Zumaya for 1-2 seasons where he wasn’t hurt and he was 100% dominant in the setup role.
Rodney was rarely a reliable reliever with the Tigers. He’s only been good (off and on at that) throughout the last 5 years.
I can give you a half for Zumaya, but he was “dominate” for around 2/3rds of 2006, then got hurt in the playoffs and didn’t help at all in the WS, and was then hurt for the rest of his useless 3 years on the roster, I’ll give you I was thinking of him it’s just that he never has had the track record of Davis, Britton, Rivera of dominance.
Just a piece
You have to have reliable pieces first in order to manage a bullpen.
I was hoping Colorado would have signed him.
This was another moronic move made by the kakabrainiacs running and ruining the Angels…
Not really, he’s a good bounce back candidate. It was low risk high reward, nothing wrong with that
As a lifetime Tigers fan, I’ve always liked Albuquerque but he was so inconsistent and he nearly gave you a heart attack when he was on the mound. Either he was striking guys out, walking them or giving up home runs to them, one of the three. Good luck to him in Seattle.