The Mariners have designated right-handed reliever Shawn Armstrong for assignment in order to clear a spot on the 40-man roster for Ichiro Suzuki, whose return to the organization is now official (Twitter link via MLB.com’s Greg Johns).
Seattle acquired Armstrong, 27, in a minor December swap that sent $500K of international bonus allotments to the Indians. Armstrong spent his entire career in the Indians organization prior to that trade, debuting with the big league club in 2015 and going on to pitch 43 1/3 innings out of the Major League bullpen from 2015-17. In that time, he worked to a solid 3.53 ERA with 7.9 K/9, 3.5 BB/9, 1.45 HR/9 and a 41.9 percent ground-ball rate.
Armstrong, however, was out of minor league options and was not a lock to make a bullpen that figures to be anchored by closer Edwin Diaz and righties Juan Nicasio, David Phelps and Nick Vincent in addition to lefties James Pazos and Marc Rzepczynski. That left just two spots for Armstrong, Mike Morin, Dan Altavilla, Tony Zych, Chasen Bradford and Nick Rumbelow — each of whom is on the 40-man roster and has minor league options remaining.
The Mariners will have a week to trade Armstrong or place him on outright waivers with the hopes of keeping him in the organization. He’s had a solid spring to date, allowing a run on four hits and two walks with six strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings.
Trade to the Twins for Vargas. Boom!
So far… this seems like a 500K loss of bonus pool allotment. Since the Mariners are not very good at developing young talent anyway… this could be a long-term positive. That’s using ‘positive’ in the pejorative sense of course.
The Mariners are going with a eight-man bullpen?
Probably
If Ramirez misses the start of the season, I would imagine so. They could get away with a 4-man rotation for a little while because of the early off days..
This guy has the straightest fastball ever.
As a Mariners fan this makes me mad. Dipoto willingly gives up prospects for fringe big leaguers. He has traded half the farm, and that’s not even an exaggeration. Just a waste of pool money that who knows, could have been spent on a talented prospect. Dipoto is throwing away resources to win now and it hasn’t worked and likely won’t. This is a little thing, but he completely screwed it up. Maybe Armstrong gets through waivers, but you can add a guy like that without giving up pool money.
Could handle a Armstrong for Thames or Broxton trade here.
Please!!!!
Are you serious?
Yeah I could handle it.
He has only traded a couple prospects that are worth anything. The farm system was not real good anyway after Z got done with it. I didn’t like losing Gohara O’Neill was another but I think the OF is better without him. Could he got more for him maybe but he has some holes to fix to be an MLB player. There are a few others but not many.
He traded Walker and Marte for Segura and Curtis. At first I was not a fan of the trade but when I saw Haniger play and when we signed Segura long term it was a good trade in my opinion. I think he has set the team up for the long term. We have Lewis and White coming up which will set our infield up long term. Gordon can take over 2nd when Lewis is ready and Cano is too old to play everyday. Then all the young pitchers he has picked up a few should have become legitimate starters and they can go out and pick up an ace in free agency if they don’t have one.
I’m not sure if you’re aware, or if it will even matter to you, but acquiring pool money is about acquiring the right to spent an allotted amount. When IBP dough is traded, no cash is actually exchanged.
Odds are Dipoto was/is feeling out international players. If they didn’t bite, or other teams were more intriguing for whatever reason, it could explain why he’s mostly came up empty handed.
I hated seeing Vieira traded for IBP dough. Still hate that trade. But I would bet most Mariners fans would have been ticked if he hadn’t done anything to acquire IBP dough and fell short in the Ohtani sweepstakes, crying how he didn’t try hard enough.
Trading for Armstrong might have been a preliminary move. Dipoto suggested that he might not stick around almost from the start. He may have been dangling relievers to spark a trade. Still might be able to swing a trade.
I’m just frustrated they took themselves out on Julio Pablo Martinez and others (like Atl prospects) just to get a waiver wire caliber relief pitcher.