APRIL 27: Martin has been outrighted to Triple-A after clearing waivers, Divish was among those to tweet. He’ll remain under Seattle’s control, then, though bringing him back to the active roster would require a 40-man move.
APRIL 23: The Mariners have designated outfielder Leonys Martin for assignment, according to Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times (Twitter links). First baseman Dan Vogelbach and right-hander Chris Heston have been called up from Triple-A Tacoma in corresponding moves, while righty Chase De Jong has been sent down to Triple-A.
[Updated Mariners depth chart at Roster Resource]
Martin is off to a very rough start this season, hitting just .111/.172/.130 through his first 58 plate appearances. This continues Martin’s slump from the last two months of the 2016 season, which put a damper on an overall productive first season in Seattle. Martin generated 2.2 fWAR on the heels of a .247/.306/.378 campaign in 576 PA, even if his base-running and defense contributed more to his value than his hitting.
Even Martin’s vaunted center field glove took a hit in 2016, however — he managed just a +4.2 UZR/150 and -2 Defensive Runs Saved, very middling numbers for a player who posted 45 DRS from 2013-15. Between this step backwards on defense, continued issues at the plate and a desire to give more playing time to Jarrod Dyson in center, it makes sense why Seattle would seek to move on from Martin.
The Mariners avoided arbitration with Martin by agreeing to a one-year, $4.85MM deal with him for the 2017 season, a sizeable enough salary that it seems unlikely another team would claim Martin on waivers. A trade could be a possibility; this is just my speculation, but the Tigers, Giants, and Pirates stand out as teams that could potentially use a left-handed hitting outfielder capable of playing center.
Vogelbach was originally ticketed for a timeshare at first base this season before a somewhat surprising demotion to Triple-A during Spring Training. With Danny Valencia struggling, however, it opens the door for Vogelbach to get some at-bats against right-handed pitching. The Mariners are also likely looking for ways to keep the hot-hitting Taylor Motter in the lineup with Jean Segura returning shortly from the DL, so Motter could factor into the mix at first or in left field (if Guillermo Heredia gets some time in center field).
Go get him cardinals
Nah the Cardinals don’t need another outfielder since Matt Adams has proven to be a capable LF…
No but in all seriousness, I would like to have Martin as a 4th OF option
Well the Cards already have JoMart as our 4th OF, but I wouldn’t mind Martin on the bench over Peralta.
Peralta has no place on this team anymore. He hasn’t even had an at bat in several games. He’s just taking up a spot on the roster for no reason. At least get somebody speedy so we can have a pinch runner to utilize.
Hard to get an at-bat when you’re on the DL.
Yeahhhh true, I just looked it up and realized that.
Still, we have Jedd, Garcia, Wong, Carp, and Diaz for the infield. Peralta is unneeded and I’d rather have Martin, Pham, or a plethora of other options
Giants may swing a trade for him. Wouldnt mind the padres trading for him. Send jankowski down to work things out.
jays please
I hope the Jay’s claim him also
Would be nice but idk how much salary the team is willing to add
If jays claim him.. I’m guessing Martin or Pillar moves to LF with the other in CF?
He’d be their best hitter.
Wow
When did this guy do anything recently become so wanted?
This is surprising and very disappointing. Martin is a joy to watch in the field, and his defense is good enough to warrant more patience.
I was sure the Ms would DFA Valencia first. He’s had a terrible start to the season. His 1B defense is quite good, but who cares about first base defense if a guy is hitting .110?
SSS.. Valencia can hit, especially against lefties
Because Valencia has an established career around putting up good numbers while starting slow. Plus, at least he has his glove (unlike Martin) plus he’s likely to be platooned with Vogelbach against Righties or something.
Valencia has a glove? He is a good hitter but can’t field. His range is below par at every position.
You must not have ever watched Martin play before which I understand based on your name. But his glove is amazing and saying that Valencia is better defensively is extremely ignorant. Your comparing a first baseman to a center fielder. Put Valencia in CF and let’s see how many fame saving catches he makes. The only position Valencia can play decently is first base so I would say he is actually limited defensively. And Martin is also a good base runner unlike Valencia. Also Martin fueled a 12 run comeback against the Padres last year without even playing while didn’t Valencia get in a fight with Billy Butler last year? And Valencia is batting like .150 or something which is the same as batting .111. This move is absolutely terrible in my opinion.
Valencia may be the next one to go if things don’t start looking up in Marinerville. When Segura comes back on Tuesday the M’s will need a position for him to play regularly if he keeps hitting and 1B could be that position.
Valencia is a very good hitter, although he is not hitting right now. And he’s actually been very good at first base.
But Martin is an excellent defender, and he’s never been a great hitter, so he’s not doing anything surprising, he’s just being himself.
I can’t understand why the Mariners are willing to get rid of a guy who offers outstanding outfield defense. The problem isn’t his lack of hitting, it’s everybody else’s lack of hitting.
Segura will go back to playing shortstop. But it’ll mean someone will have to go down and that’ll probably be Valencia, since they’ll now have Vogelbach to play first.
Oh I see what you meant–you meant Motter will need a place to play! I agree.
martin has a damn good arm also
RR(hyphen)S was on the pre-game show Thursday and was talking about Martin having attitude issues. That may have more to do with this than his production.
That would surprise me very much. Martin always seems so happy and like such a team oriented friendly person. I’m not saying it’s not true, but it sure does seem unlikely based on what everybody seems to say about him.
Didn’t he have clubhouse issues in Texas?
Yep. He didn’t want to report to the Fall league after being left off the playoff roster. His work habits were also said to be lacking
This is going to be a big surprise to some people who comment on Mariners articles on the Seattle Times website. They were so convinced that Dipoto would keep Martin around for the year because he wouldn’t want to admit he’d made a mistake in signing him. Sort of like Jack Z often did.
Well too bad Martin was traded for and not signed.
I doubt M’s fans care in any way, but Jack Z now works on Pirates pregame shows on radio and is actually really good at that.
I wish I could hear him!
I would emphasize that the downturn in defense from Martin in 2016 was a result of playing through injury. The M’s had no CF depth last season so they rode him too hard. He’s probably no more than a platoon bat on a good team, a 500 PA type maximum.
This could be a double-negative on defense, as Dyson is a clear downgrade from Martin in CF, and ground balls will get through the right side of the infield more often with Vogelbach’s immovable object of a body at 1B. That being said, I think that Martin may not have accumulated enough service time to refuse an outright minor league assignment if he passes through waivers; given that he’s owed over $4MM over the rest of the season, it’s definitely conceivable he slips through. Of course, this is Jerry DiPoto we’re talking about, so he’ll attempt another Frankenstein trade to bring another ill-fitting piece on the M’s roster.
IMHO, DiPoto is going down the Jack Z road. Both made big trades and moves in their first off-season that resulted in an unexpected (and unsustainable) surge in the standings. Then both proceeded to make more moves the following winter that backfired big time, I mean, you can’t subtract 60+ HR from your lineup (Smith, Lee, Lind, Gutierrez, Iannetta) and expect the same level of offensive production when you don’t replace them. And you can’t expect the Big Three to continue to thrive without the support out of the 6 and 7 spots. DiPoto needed to tweak the roster, not undergo another total revamp, and his over-meddling has led to some good acquisitions (Segura, Haniger, Motter, and Dyson) that are completely overshadowed by the failings of the bad ones (Vogelbach, Gallardo, Valencia, Fien.) Someone in the FO really needs to sit him down and cure his Trade-DHD problem.
And Servais may be one of the worst in-game managers I’ve ever seen. IMHO, he has NO idea how to manage a pitching staff, especially the bullpen. He has an 8-man bullpen, but always forgets to get pitchers throwing at the right time. He waits 2 batters too late, and by then, it’s a dumpster fire.
M’s fans had some hope going into the season, which is fading VERY fast. Too bad the FO got greedy and jacked up all the concession prices at Safeco this season; won’t be too many people willing to shell out for a $7.50 hot dog soon.
I wanted to love Dipoto and Servais, but they make it hard for me to.
I liked DiPoto when he came on board; he said and did all the right things that M’s fans wanted to hear, like how he wanted an “organizational hitting philosophy”, and getting rid of many of Jack Z’s mistakes. The M’s way overperformed in 2016, and if you looked at the team, you knew it wasn’t sustainable in 2017 without some tweaks. However, DiPoto is nothing if not unsubtle in how he does things, so he pursued another total makeover this winter. It was unnecessary, and some of the pieces he brought on board were puzzling to say the least (Gallardo, in particular; that trade made no baseball sense whatsoever.) But at least he had a plan.
One of the moves he made that truly baffled me was the hiring of Scott Servais. The guy had never managed before, and even though he is apparently a good people person, he has no strategic abilities and hasn’t put together a decent coaching staff (Edgar Martinez aside, though even his star is dimming a bit right now.) He also has the personality of a wet dish rag. The M’s haven’t had a manager with any fire in his belly since Lou Piniella left for greener pastures after the 2002 season. The closest was Lloyd McClendon, who was asked to re-arrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. I don’t think he should have been let go and replaced with Servais in the first place. It wasn’t a good hiring, and for the M’s to have any chance of contending, Servais needs to replaced sooner rather than later. DiPoto will get one more winter to right the ship or else the new ownership will move him out as well.
Really was on board with everything said here until the claim that Servais has the personality of a wet dish rag. If anything, his personality is his best trait when it comes to this clubhouse. Robbie, Cruz, Seager, Martin, Segura, Zunino all love him.
I feel bad for the M’s and the fans. I hope the M’s ownership wakes up before what he did to the Angels. Happens to the M’s. Over two years later, the Angels are still trying to recover from all of his horrible moves.
I thought the owners listened to Scioscia (spelling?) more than Dipoto.
Actually Mr Moreno, likes to hear different points of views. Now granted every signing, is his decision to make. After he hears the different points of views. If you look at Dipoto’s trades with the Angels, he lost more trades than he won. Hell he traded Trumbo twice. And if you combined both trades, he still would be on the losing side of the trade. Now granted you can’t win every trade, but a good GM is around 50% on winning or losing trades. How has that trade with the Reys working out in Seattle? Oh wait they don’t even have that player anymore.
Which trade with the Rays are you talking about?
Smyly is on the DL, if that’s the one you’re talking about. He came from the Rays.
I think he should’ve kept Trumbo on the Mariners. I don’t know what his problem with Trumbo was.
Thanks, that’s helpful. The M’s seem to have the worst luck with GMs, or ownership doesn’t know how to hire them.
I was talking about the one he flipped to the Cubs. Trumbo is a Scioscia guy. After what happen with the Angels, he doesn’t want a Scioscia guy on his team.
Vogelbach is our starting first baseman now.
I’d be all for the Cardinals to get him.
Pirates or Giants make the most sense right now….