The Mariners announced Thursday that right-hander Ryan Garton has cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Triple-A Tacoma, thus removing him from the 40-man roster.
Garton, 28 in December, was acquired from the Rays alongside catcher Mike Marjama in a minor August swap. Garton actually pitched rather well following his trade to Seattle, tossing 11 2/3 frames and allowing just two runs (1.54 ERA) on five hits and a walk with seven strikeouts. He averaged an even 92 mph on his heater to go along with a 41.2 percent ground-ball rate. All told, Garton has a career 4.55 ERA with 7.2 K/9, 2.5 BB/9 and a 44 percent ground-ball rate in 61 1/3 Major League innings. Presumably, he’ll compete for a spot in the Seattle bullpen next spring.
This may seem insignificant, but the Mariners really wanted to keep him around as a depth piece. Slick timing by Jerry to put him on waivers at this time. It worked!
Garton has the tools to become a solid middle reliever. His problem is that based on his underwhelming fastball, he has a small margin for error, That’s why his home run numbers in the majors are nearly double his minor league numbers. Let him work on some things in AAA and try him again if he gets it down.
As much as everyone is always looking for BP arms this was a bit surprising. It is nice to have the depth hopefully we don’t need it like we did last year. The M’s can’t be that unlucky with pitchers again.