6:18pm: Albers tweets that he’s joining the NPB’s Orix Buffaloes.
12:39pm: The Mariners have granted lefty Andrew Albers his release so that he may pursue an opportunity in Japan, reports Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet (via Twitter).
The 32-year-old Albers, a client of True Gravity Sports, is no stranger to playing overseas after spending the 2014 season playing for the Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization. However, this would mark the first action for Albers in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball.
Albers remained on the Mariners’ 40-man roster to this point in the offseason after a strong 41-inning showing in Seattle. The Canadian-born southpaw turned in a 3.51 ERA with 8.1 K/9, 2.2 BB/9 and a 33.6 percent ground-ball rate over the life of six starts and three relief appearances. Albers also turned in a terrific 2.61 ERA in 120 2/3 innings with the Braves’ Triple-A affiliate before being traded over to the Mariners in early August.
The trip to Japan will mark another chapter in what has been a fascinating professional career for Albers. A 10th-round pick of the Padres back in 2008, Albers scarcely pitched in the San Diego organization before finding himself in independent ball for the 2010 campaign. He parlayed a brilliant showing in the Canadian-American Association into a minor league deal with the Twins and rose through their ranks to make his big league debut in 2013.
Improbably, Albers tossed 8 1/3 shutout innings in his MLB debut and followed that up with a complete-game shutout in his second career start. He went to Korea the following year and has been up and down in the Majors since. Albers averages in the 86-87 mph range on his heater and has never been much of a strikeout arm, but his excellent control and knack for inducing weak contact have served him well throughout his time as a pro.
[Related: Seattle Mariners depth chart]
For the Mariners, the loss of Albers will thin out their rotation depth to some extent, though that’s one area of need that the team is seeking to add anyhow — especially in the wake of missing out on Shohei Ohtani. At present, the Mariners will turn to James Paxton, Felix Hernandez, Mike Leake and Erasmo Ramirez in the top four spots of the rotation, though the 40-man roster contains several other options. Lefties Ariel Miranda, Marco Gonzales and Sam Moll (whom the Mariners are converting to a starter) will join righties Max Povse, Andrew Moore, Chase De Jong and Robert Whalen in competing for starts.
This certainly has the potential to further tarnish what has already been a disastrous offseason for the M’s
Added, Healy, Dee Gordon and Juan in the bullpen. Felt like this has been a great offseason. If they add another starter I think they are a wild card threat. Hope they can workout a deal to get smyly back. Think they had a top ten off-season to this point.
Smyly went to the cubs.
Dee Gordon is a plus? The Mariners already had a Dee Gordon clone in Dyson, and he actually knew how to play center field.
Dee Gordon batted over 300, had over a hundred runs, over 60 stolen bases. Dyson batted 250, was hurt and is not near the baserunner or hitter. I feel like if I have to explain how he is a great upgrade over a career part time player you don’t watch much baseball.
Maybe you don’t
fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&…
Dyson has produced more value over the last six years as a part time player than Gordon has as a full time player.
Dyson is elite defensively, costs a fraction of what Gordon does, and is a fantastic base runner.
And his bat is barely weaker. Obp and slugging are comparable.
Im pretty disappointed in their effort to add. A first baseman who can’t hit anything but fastballs, (seriously, check his stats, he destroyed the m’s but the Astros figured him out right away) and a second baseman to play center. Nothing to actually improve the team. They haven’t added any wins. It’s just like the last 15 years, if things break their way they might make the playoffs but pitching wins championships and this rotation doesn’t look good compared to other teams in the playoffs. I’d bet we will be looking at year 17. It’s a shame too. If they’d spend some money on the rotation they’d have a great team
Do you think they’re hampered by Cano? I mean, he’s still good bu so expensive…
They have a huge tv deal and the ownership group has a lot of money and have approved dipoto to spend a lot more if he wants too. So no cano is no factor. Feel like I’m educating up and down this thread on the Mariner’s.
No.
They’re hampered by a broken rotation and an empty minor league system.
How has it be disastrous? Ohtani isn’t a miss, because it was always going to go where he felt comfortable. We got top hitter in our line up and a top reliever. Now just get a solid pitcher we should be fine.
Sucks about smyly. I think haniger has a really good year too if healthy
He wouldn’t pitch again until ‘19… how is that a loss? He gets to tie up payroll in Chicago (not Seattle) and they get the gamble on a guy who’s done so/so in his career. Pursuing Darvish should be a priority now or at least assuring that he doesn’t make his way onto a division rivals staff.
Because they need a starting pitcher that’s better than 3-4-5, and it doesn’t look as if they will get one.
Doesn’t look like they won’t get a SP? Slinging Jerry I’m sure will add 20 more guys before January
The chances of that SP being actually decent, however…
To quote the greatest robot poet of the 20th century…”I’m back baby!”
he was pitching when the mariners committed 5 errors in 1 inning. poor guy, maybe he’ll play with a good defensive team now
Jerry DiPoto better get busy acquiring some serviceable SPs. Based on the never-ending litany of injuries to the starting staff in recent years, he needs to assemble a viable starting staff of at least 8 (a la Dodgers) to have any shot whatsoever at the post season. Good luck with that, by the way.
I agree needing sp. Would prefer two to move Ramirez to long relief. See what happens.
If I was an NPB team I would be thrilled to have such a capable pitcher. We’ll see if he comes back next offseason, looking even better.
This is the right move for Albers. I believe he is a major league arm not really given an extended chance in the majors. If he goes to Japan and has an extended run of success he will cash in either here or there. Smart move, Andrew!
Presumably, the Mariners get money out of losing Albers.
Likely high-six figures.
Which should finance plenty of waiver wire action.
You know there are teams that are in desperate need of a 2nd bm who have have a few extra Ofers. Maybe the plan all along was to move Gordon for a true OFer you don’t know that yet. To say the off season is a disaster is like saying the season is a disaster after losing the 1st game 1-0 on 11 innings. There is a lot more bodies going to move wouldn’t surprise me if Gordon is one of them.
I think they have him come down to Arizona and shag a few balls to see how he looks. Maybe play some winter ball in CF and evaluate him. He is a good athlete with a good arm can he adjust to throwing the ball like an OFer and and getting to balls hit to an OFer? Things they can find out pretty fast. If he can play D at a 2 or 3 war clip he will be a great player for us. If after they evaluate him and they don’t believe he can they will trade him. Just like that and Heredia will take his spot
Lot of former braves prospect in this article.
Max Povse could really be a break out candidate for the Mariners. The Mariners just need to stop yo-yo’ing him between the bullpen and starting. They just need to keep Max in as a starter, let him find his groove, and fine tune little things here and there as he learns to make adjustments at the ML level.
Povse has the durability to pitch as many innings as the Mariners could hope to ultimately get out of a number five starter. He’s a workhorse, they just need to let this horse work on a consistent basis!!
He does struggle at times with his command, when he’s off, but that’s just typically due to Max not being able to successfully repeat his mechanics and find his landing spot..Although, that is typically an easy fix for Povse after a game or two, and once he’s back on, he’s one of the rare pitchers his height, 6’8″, that actually has really good control.
His height allows his FB to play up a little bit, and the downward plane he gets on his FB is generally very effective against RH hitters, inducing weak contact..He sometimes struggles putting away LH batters, but if he can improve his Curveball location, and continue working on spotting his nasty change-up down to LHH’s, he should improve his results versus lefties as well..
Povse just needs a real shot in spring training, and I certainly am rooting for him to ultimately earn the Mariners #5 spot in their rotation…I think if he does in fact get it, he will suprise some fans and some analysts, and he very well could end up being a very solid #5 option for the M’s
^This is some nice and honest input, from a Mariners fan to the Braves fan who wrote it. Povse really interests me and his true value comes from finding his way via starting. Hope he does so, soon. Hopefully you can make Alex Jackson work. Cheers!
I foresee a future Rangers starting pitcher in the making
Win-win situation for Albers and the ball club. Albers will no doubt be paid more to play in Korea and the Ms don’t have to gamble on signing a SP who had an extremely small sample size of 6 starts in MLB. Hard not to root for the guy and he did step up for us when our backs were against the wall- I can see how some fans are disappointed we didn’t sign him. If we did sign him on an incentive based contract he’d be fighting for the #5 SP slot between a pool of pitchers who have more potential, higher ceilings.