The Mariners have agreed to a contract with righty Carl Edwards Jr., per Bob Nightengale of USA Today (via Twitter). It’s a MLB deal for the reliever, per Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times. Edwards will earn $950K with another $500K in available incentives, Nightengale adds via Twitter.
Shoulder troubles ended Edwards’s 2019 season early. But it had been a forgettable one before that point. Edwards struggled on both sides of a trade that sent him from the Cubs to the Padres before being cut loose by the San Diego organization.
The M’s obviously are hoping that Edwards can regain the form that enabled him to throw 118 1/3 innings of 2.81 ERA ball over 2017-18. Even then, his 12.2 K/9 was accompanied by 5.3 BB/9, so there was room for improvement. But Edwards has a big arm and will bring plenty of upside with him to Seattle.
If that was the signing referenced yesterday….it’s underwhelming
The day isn’t over yet… but if this is the franchise surprise then it’s a let down, but Edwards could be very good. Relievers are fickle and this was low cost and low risk. Good signing.
franchise surprise? Nobody who relayed this news made it sound like it was a big name. If that’s what you heard then people were exaggerating the situation. No reason to rush this rebuild. Low risk, high reward are the exact signings the M’s should be making.
Don’t fool yourself, he stinks. Trust me…
2.81 era over 2 years. Why trust you?
Haha…so you’re excluding 2019
?! Hope you like walks
Yikes
Soooooooo, is this the “pre-Thanksgiving surprise for fans of the franchise”?
Yeah… I think this is what yesterday’s article was referring to. Not very tight for Mariners fans, huh? Pretty tight for Carl Edwards, Junior though. He gets to make $950 k just to keep sucking.
Somehow, he threw more wild pitches with the Padres than he had strikeouts
Actually he had two strikeouts and two wild pitches. I miss your commenting on football names PapiElf!
It will return soon, Mr. Jorge!
I’m good with it. No reason to sign a big name and add payroll. Barely anything committed beyond 2021 at this point and why sign a high cost FA when we are rebuilding that will be out of his prime when we’re ready to compete?
Gerrit Cole won’t be out of his prime for a at least 5 years or more. The rebuild isn’t going to take that long. Any rebuilding team that takes 5 years to rebuild doesn’t know what they’re doing. It’s good to have stars on a team that’s rebuilding otherwise all the pressure is on the prospects and the rebuild would take longer. Signing Cole doesn’t block anyone and they will have more than enough payroll after 2020. They could even sign Rendon and trade Seager if they wanted to. You will not have any better free agents to choose from by the time you’re ready. The Mariners rebuild is ahead of schedule because of all the progress at the farm level
Why the hell would Garret Cole come here to Seattle? It just doesn’t make any sense. Sure any team would love to have him.
“They could sign Rendon and trade Seager”. Seager is impossible to trade and we have no immediate 3b replacement. Rendon and Cole will cost $400m+.
Just because you have money doesn’t mean you just throw it in the trash can right away on 2 players.
You gotta love these cross-sport signings. I saw this guy on the NASCAR sprint series and he definitely has the mental fortitude and speed to make the transition. #19
i thought he had retired though.
He did. To put his focus on his baseball career
Unnecessary. Humorous, but not needed. 🙂
Thanks for policing these boards and helping to uphold their dignity.
He can be a bit frustrating at times, but his “stuff” is fantastic, especially his curve. The loss of velocity was hard for him to overcome last year and after struggling from the beginning, it was clear that he lost confidence.
I was a big fan of his when he was coming up through the Cubs system and he was devastating for a few years with the big league team. Hopefully he finds success in Seattle.
Agreed. Hope he’s able to fix what went wrong for him and get some success elsewhere.
Agree also, this was a nice gamble on Seattle’s part. I wish CJ the best of luck. He could do well in a smaller market.
8.47 ERA in 22 games, including 5.47 with the Cubs in 20 games and 32.40! with the Padres in 2 games. As for the WHIP, 1.11 with the Cubs and 4.80! with the Padres.
Did you have a point 666? Obviously it was a bad year last year or he wouldn’t have been available. Not saying this is a great signing, but with three years control and coming off very good 2016-2018 seasons, it’s worth seeing.
If you look at his pitch metrics, it looks like they will likely have him focus on his cutter and fastball primarily or perhaps they see a tweak they think can make his command more consistent.
Time will tell, but I can’t imagine the deal is for much in terms of commitment so why not?
The point is, Edwards has terrible control. He’s minor league material at best.
His track record says otherwise. No one is doubting he had bad overall numbers last year. If you look at what he was in the middle of his season, before he got hurt, it shows a little different story. Not saying he is going to be some magical piece but he has more talent than just being “minor league material”.
ChiSoxCity just wants to hate on a former Cub for the sake of it? Does he know people have injury-riddle off years? I’m not so sure. Not guaranteeing Edwards will rebound but this is low-risk, high-reward.
Look, my take on Edwards has nothing to do with “cubs hate”. I’ve watched him his entire career, and rooted for him to succeed. My observation of his lack of control and hanging fastballs down the middle of the plate are just that—observations. Also he has good mound presence, but lacks the mental toughness needed for high pressure situations, which makes him ill-suited for late inning relief work. He’s been let go by two organizations in need of relief pitching the past two seasons, and there’s a reason for it. The M’s should park him down in the minors and leave him there.
a cheap price to pay for huge upside.
He’s 1 year removed from a very strong 3 year run. Low risk high reward. Good for the M’s.
Agreed. Stack up pen arms. You contend your set, the likely chance you don’t you’ve got trade chips to contenders need depth. Jerry is so underrated with hes done here in Seattle. Brilliant job really.
Exact kind of moves the Mariners should make. Plenty of open jobs in that bullpen. He could even be the closer at some point this year.
Exactly- we certainly don’t have a top end rotation filled with stud SP’s and our up and coming prospects are inexperienced. Build a wealth of relief arms while you develop your SPs.
Hardees is better.
This is a great buy low opportunity. Carl’s Edward JR. has had multiple years with a ERA under 3.00 including 2018 season.
Edwards would be the cubs closer right now if he could keep the ball down. He hangs too many fastballs to be an effective reliever.
I remembered when Cubs’ fans thought this guy was good!
In fairness he was pretty good for several years. Bullpen pitchers are the biggest crap shoot year to year.
Crap shoot? Seattle BP pitchers it’s from game to game!
You must remember Carlos Marmol too then
Another one of the many bullpen bounce back candidates. I’d sign as many as possible and bring them into camp and let them compete with the younger guys. Maybe you strike gold with one or two of them.
Very surprising to me he gets a major league contract anywhere. Good for him. Doubt it works.
Black or Cyber Wednesday today in MLB! Perhaps the Cubs and White Sox can partake in the shopping before Turkey Day arrives.
Get him a lobotomy and then send him to AAA.
M’s May get an ROI in the future!
No surprise he chose the Mariners. They are the perfect team for him. He’s too mentally weak to pitch in big games and the M’s aren’t likely to be in any this year. On top of that, they have a pitcher-friendly ballpark and offered him guaranteed money.
I guess from the M’s side of things, if he pitches well in the first half of the season they may be able to get something back for him in a trade from some small-payroll contending team like the A’s or Rays,
The Mariners ballpark isn’t that pitcher friendly anymore. If you look at the ballpark factors, They are pretty neutral overall sitting 15-20 over the past three years.
So he’s giving up on NASCAR??
I have a feeling that Edwards is going to fall right into the category of the other two relievers the Cubs got in the Garza trade—Neil Ramirez and Justin Grimm. All three were really, really good for stretches—then got hurt and never fully recovered. Sure they have bounced around a bit, but once Edwards went on the DL with shoulder and thoracic injuries in 2018 he was never able to regain what he did prior.
There are probably 100s of other relievers out there with the same story, but these three all the same deal have taken that career arc of really productive for a short period, having that “great” future, then getting hurt and watching all the potential go away rather quickly.
HIs first fast ball pitch goes over the wall !
2018 season Mariners signed lefty Zach Duke, in his first appearance he comes in with runners on base, literally the second the announcer says Zach Duke has yet to give up a HR in over a year boom! HR! He was never the same after that
If you are signing a F/A contract with Seattle, Miami or Detroit……you are at your end of your baseball career.
Or maybe you are signing with one of those teams as they have the opportunity to allow to you show you are healthy and productive??
I wonder who’s gonna sign Felix?
Unless Seattle has a really,really good mental strength coach it’s a huge waste of $. Very unfortunate for the young man but he just gets in stretches where he can’t throw the ball close to the plate.
First off, in the grand scheme of MLB, less than $1M is basically nothing so it’s not a “huge” waste of anything. On your other point, the Mariners are at the forefront of mental skills, using analytics in pitching, and they do have very good coaches in that regard.
It may not work with every guy but they have shown just in the last season that they were able to take guys like Adams, Brennan, and Sadzeck from other organizations and help them become quality bullpen pieces.
First off, have you watched him pitch? $5 is too much. How many championships does Seattle have with all the analytics? Good eyeballs in scouting is much better than a spreadsheet.
JHanley108- surely they signed him to keep Dan Altavilla company then. Your description of CEjr sounds like half of our pen
If you like 55 ft. pitches you are in for a treat.
Good to see the majority of commenters using common sense. If Edwards has another bad season and is released, well, he costs the club sub-$1M. If he rebounds, he’s cheap and controllable. Low risk, high reward.
Another big mistake for the cubs.
How was it a big mistake by the Cubs? They never signed him as a free agent? He was a throw in for a trade and the Cubs got a few good years out of him while he was inexpensive.
But themed did not know this. You look kind of foolish
Solid pickup.
Solid pickup for Mariners.
JerryD with the big signing!
Can “Baseball Siberia” in Baltimore or Pittsburgh be far off for Carl?
Carl Edwards’s physical issues just complement his bigger issues: he does not have the mental strength to be used in any situation with a semblance of medium or high leverage.
Good luck, Mariners!
Don’t fool yourself, he stinks. Trust me…
I brained move for M’s – if he can bounce back he’ll get a prospect or two back in July at that price
The Mariners have still not officially made an announcement on this signing