The Mariners announced that right-hander Matt Festa went unclaimed on waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Nashville. He’s been invited to Major League Spring Training as a non-roster player.
The 26-year-old Festa made his MLB debut with the Mariners in 2018 and has pitched a total of 30 2/3 innings of relief since that time. To this point in his relatively young career, Festa has managed a 4.70 ERA with a 25-to-14 K/BB ratio and a 36.5 percent ground-ball rate in the Majors.
Festa, a seventh-round pick back in 2016, has averaged about 93 mph on his four-seamer — rather pedestrian among relievers in today’s game — but the righty’s success in both Double-A and Triple-A could earn him another look with the Mariners in the future. The Seattle bullpen is short on proven assets and could feature a Rule 5 pick (Yohan Ramirez) as well as several out-of-options hurlers to begin the season (Matt Magill, Sam Tuivailala, Dan Altavilla and offseason pickup Carl Edwards Jr.). That could be a recipe for a fair bit of in-season turnover, so it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to Festa back in Seattle at some point this summer, particularly if he’s able to continue his strong upper-minors production.
robstoneii
Pretty sure the Mariners Triple-A affiliate is Tacoma not Nashville.
dynamite drop in monty
Nashville has a great restaurant called Puckett’s. Across from their library which is a fascinating building itself. What a great town.
MoRivera 1999
Not a Country & Western fan which is kind of the heart and soul of Nashville so I really wasn’t enamored. The marquees didn’t dazzle me. Smaller and less impressive than I expected. As a result I was only there from like 2-7pm and I can’t say I have any interest in going back. Memphis was better.
dynamite drop in monty
No good hat restaurants either
MoRivera 1999
Ha!
peyton
Nope, Matt Festa!
DarkSide830
really Klentak?
Brendan Dougherty
Triple A Tacoma…Nashville is the Texas Rangers.
BuddyBoy
Glad they were able to keep Festa as he has the offerings to be successful. Last year he clearly had a bad year, but he could get things back the right way. I’m kind of surprised a team like the Orioles or Tigers didn’t take a shot on him.
HighHardOne
Wow! They outrighted him to the Texas Ranger AAA club!
LoL