2:14pm: The Mariners have announced the signing. Their 40-man roster is now up to 38 players.
9:35am: The Mariners have agreed to a one-year, MLB deal with righty Kendall Graveman, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (Twitter links). It’ll promise him $2MM, a sum that includes a $1.5MM salary for 2020 and a $500K buyout of a $3.5MM club option for 2021.
As we explored last month, Graveman worked hard to put himself back on the map after returning from Tommy John surgery. While the Cubs ultimately decided not to hang onto the hurler for a $3MM price tag, the M’s obviously saw enough to bring him in for a lesser guarantee — while also picking up an affordable option if things go well.
There’s also a provision to allow some extra earning power for Graveman, a client of Sports One Athlete Management. He’ll have the ability to earn up to $1.5MM in incentives for each year of the contract (assuming that he’s picked up for 2021). It’s not yet known how readily achievable those extra dollars are.
Seattle makes for a perfect landing spot for the 28-year-old hurler, who was able to return to the mound — but not the majors — during the 2019 season. He’ll likely have the inside track on a rotation spot, with the backstop of serving as a swingman out of the pen.
Graveman was a productive starter with the Athletics for a solid stretch earlier in his career. Up until the roadblock he hit in 2018, the Mississippi State product had dialed up 411 2/3 innings of 4.11 ERA ball. While he never was and surely never will punch out many hitters, Graveman boasts a strong 51.7% groundball rate for his career.
Though he was not able to make it back to the majors last year, Graveman made it into competitive action in the minors. That gave the Mariners a chance to get a look at his form. And it should leave full confidence that Graveman will be a full participant in Spring Training from the outset.
Graveman immediately becomes the team’s *checks notes* #2 starter?! That can’t be right.
He’s at least their #4
Maybe Kikuchi is above him. Who do you think their #3 is?
Why did the Cubs sign this guy in the first place? Didn’t they give him a 2 year deal before the 2018 season knowing he was going to miss all of it with TJ? Then they didn’t even use him last season? I thought the whole point of paying him when he was injured was to be able to keep him layer when he got healthy. Seems like a complete waste of money to pay a guy that isn’t going to play and then let him go once it gets to the point that he’s actually healthy and ready to play.
The cubs gotta cub. Non-impactful roster moves is just what they do.
It’s the Cubs
Justus Sheffield
Having him pitch right at the end of last year, and have a 3m price tag for this year, seemed to be exactly what they needed. Not sure why they paid to rehab this guy. One can only assume they didn’t love his medically, or like his velocity? Other than that, it’s a head scratcher. I hope Theo isn’t one of those guys that ha to make the moves that nobody sees coming so he becomes a genius, IF they work out. Instead of just making the right move. It sure feels like he’s in for a very hard fall. He’s traded away LaMaheiu, for Ian Stewart. We could of used him the past 5 years. And we could still use him today!
Torres? Got you the first WS ring 108+ years, so that’s hard to argue. But I wonder if they’d of taken Addi Russell? Hmmmm…
Soler is mashing. There was a time Schwarber would be netted quite the return. Too bullish on him. Basically pissed KB off to the point you absolutely know he won’t re-sign. You have a very big market team, yet managed to piss away so much money that you can’t sign a Z. Wheeler or J. Donaldson. Those two are big time FA but they Are reasonable as well. Hell they should’ve been able to keep Graveman just based on the time they had in it, for 3m. But they literally have to cut him? Something is wrong in Wrigleyville. What they do with Schwarber, Contreras, and KB-
And what they don’t do with Javy Baez, Rizzo etc could be the very life or death of this franchise in the 10 years. It could swing all the way, either way. I believe they need more strikes behind the plate. If automated umps came in next year, you keep Willy. If not, trade him-trade Quintana- guys with palatable contracts to smaller market teams with good prospects. We take Q for granted, but a team’s org rotation issues would love an onnnijgs water with a 4.00 E.R.A.-for 10.5mil
Or you could make Willy an OF.
You can easily trade KB and get back a Segura for 2b/3b and save $$. Play Bote at the other spot. Hell you could trade KB. You could prob trade KB and Kimbrel for Segura and 2/3 very good prospects. STILL sign Didi. Sign Iglesias and have Bote and Iglesias as your backup INF. Then you could trade Schwarber or keep him, sign Akiyama and keep Happ as your reg Of. Send Almora down and midway thru he can become your 5th ,glove first OF for the run.
I might be in the minority here but I actually think trading Contreras this offseason would be the smartest thing. This is the best catchers market I have ever seen. I mean Zunino getting 4 and a half mill and darnaud getting $16 million? Darnaud got released by multiple teams last season and still got that money. There are at least 5 teams that are expecting to contend next season with no decent catcher and nowhere to turn to get one. The Cubs could get a fortune for Willy. They could probably get some team to give them top prospects and take Heywards contract at the same time. If KB gets tied into the deal the Cubs could get even more and probably unload Kimbrel and Darvish as well. Or they could accomplish that by splitting it into 2 trades. The obvious one right now though to me is Contreras. More players could advance next season and the catching market could be totally different. I honestly believe the Marlins would have gotten more for Realmuto if they had just waited until this offseason. Too many teams and nowhere near enough catchers. If darnaud is worth $16 million imagine what teams would be willing to give up for Contreras at less than $6 million. I guess the Cubs might think it would send the wrong message to fans but it would be a quick little one or two year mini-rebuild that could have the Cubs the favorite to win it all with a bunch of good prospects and tons of cash to spend in just a year or 2.
Kimbrel, Darvish, Contreras, Bryant, Heyward…anybody else you wanna send packing? If gutting the team and trying to open a “window” for 2025-2030 is your goal, then this is a start.
Thank God you’re not old enough to have a real job!
Are you stoned?
I do take solace in the fact they won the World Series. However, even if the Yankees would have taken Russell, I don’t think they win the World Series without Russell that year.
Theo and Jed call these moves getting creative. Just like when the Cubs recently signed Jharel Cotton. Another head scratcher in my opinion.
Nice to see that you jag-bags troll on every possible thread. Seriously, do any of you have jobs or is this it?
They signed him including an option by the Cubs to have him for $3 million this season. The Cubs chose not to pay the $3 million
As opposed of course to all other teams that make only impactful roster moves?
Good point. Russell was an all star shortstop that year with almost 100 ribbies and hit and played well for the Cubs all year including the playoffs with not one but I think two big grand slams.
I know one slam was in the world series and I think the other was against the Dodgers in the NLCS
They are not really head scratchers they are just low risk depth moves hoping to catch lightning in a bottle so to speak. It is not a big deal at all. I would expect the Cubs to be doing these types of deals. Most teams take chances as well on low risk deals.
Theo… Kimbrel and Heyward are highly paid and not helping the team at all. Darvish helps occasionally but the Cubs could buy a much better pitcher on the free agent market than Darvish if they had that money freed up. The Cubs would walk away from all of those contracts right now so they could have an extra $57 million in payroll to add for next year and years after that. Bryant and Contreras are good players but Bryant clearly wants out of the NorthSide as soon as his contract is up so you won’t have him for long. Contreras is great but the market for catchers is so high right now the Cubs could get a fortune for him that they likely wouldn’t be able to get any other offseason. You give all those guys up and you get a ton of great prospects and free up a ton of cash so the Cubs can actually compete as a 100+ win team in the very near future. This team as is will not win the world series in the next 2 years and Bryant will be gone after that. Contreras will be less valuable and more expensive at the same time. The biggest problem the Cubs have is a lack of available funds. They should probably throw Lester in the trade too as he is on a serious decline. That way the Cubs have over $75 million to spend on replacements for Heyward, Kimbrel, Darvish and Lester. Considering how poorly those guys have performed recently, $75 mill a year should easily replace their terrible stats.
Marco is the set in stone #1. I’m sure Kikuchi slots in above him and wouldn’t be shocked if Dunn or Sheffield makes the team out of camp and is the #3. If you go to the Mariners official website, Graveman is listed as the #4, currently.
Decent pickup. Improving around the margins can be just as important as signing that marquee name.
I smell a championship in 2020…for another team.
Yet another former A’s pitcher landing in Seattle….
Can he start every single game? The Mariners kinda need that.
every other. Gonzales isnt too bad.
That would be tight, Papi. You mean like 162 starts? 1,458 innings? 4,374 outs? That would be so tight. Arguably the tightest season ever for a pitcher. That way they could use all of the other 25 roster spots for hitters. They could have a right handed hitter, a left handed hitter and a switch hitter for every single offensive position plus a DH.
Good to see Graveman get a deal. I hope he bounces back after TJS.
He wasn’t much even when healthy, but the price is right. Definitely worth a shot, if just for his experience only. And it ain’t like there isn’t room in Seattle’s rotation.
If the Brain Cashman of 2019 signed him, he’d be a Cy Young finalist. But the baseball gods are fickle, and Cash might be paying the price for his good fortune for a while.
Kendall Graveman was very durable in Oakland. He was a horse but then he got hurt, unfortunately. If fully healthy, KG can be a very interesting signing.
Players like this is what Agencies should use as examples when recruiting. If your average and blow out your arm, we can get you a couple million based on MLB GM egos of finding the next miracle low priced starter!
M’s are now a 100 win team
More like .100, and I’m a long life fan… (ugh)
This guy sucks, never enjoyed watching him pitch. A group of A’s fans online were convinced he’d be a #2 type sp. Also expect an annual DL stint every season. For me, graveman is just a reminder of that horrible donaldson trade.
Another major mistake for the cubs.
The Mariners are now the favorites in the AL.
This would have been right up the the cubs alley – injured starter coming back from TJS with little to no impact on the club but epstein promoting as a #3 stater or closer, mmmkay?
How that Josh Donaldson trade go, lol.
He’s a one year stop gap/back of the rotation piece. Bridge deal and hopefully gone after one year. Logan Gilbert will be our #1 in 2021. George Kirby and others hopefully won’t be busts i.e. Danny Hultzen.