The Mariners announced a series of roster moves this afternoon. Seattle claimed catcher Jacob Nottingham off waivers from the Brewers and selected the contract of fellow backstop José Godoy. To create 40-man roster space, first baseman/corner outfielder José Marmolejos and reliever Brady Lail have been designated for assignment. Incumbent backup catcher Luis Torrens was optioned to Triple-A Tacoma.
It’s familiar territory for Nottingham. He played for Milwaukee from 2018-21, but the Brewers designated him for assignment last month. Seattle claimed Nottingham off waivers but designated him for assignment themselves just four days later without giving him an opportunity to get into a game. In the interim, the Brewers lost starting catcher Omar Narváez to injury, so Milwaukee quickly acquired Nottingham back for cash considerations. Now, with Narváez healthy, Nottingham found himself squeezed off the roster yet again.
Having acquired Nottingham twice in less than a month, the Seattle front office clearly has some affinity for the 26-year-old. The right-handed hitter was a decently-regarded prospect on the strength of his raw power, and he’s shown flashes of it over his first 99 MLB plate appearances, hitting .205/.293/.477 with seven homers. However, he comes with some question marks about his receiving aptitude and has struck out quite a bit at nearly every level of his pro career, including at a 38.4% clip in his brief major league time.
Nottingham is out of minor league option years, which has surely driven his recent roster shuffle. The Mariners must keep him on the MLB roster this time around or again risk losing him to another club. Optioning Torrens could suggest Seattle’s prepared to give Nottingham some run.
Acquired from the Padres as part of last summer’s Austin Nola trade, Torrens showed some offensive promise down the stretch last season. He’s gotten off to a terrible start to 2021, though, hitting .178/.219/.300 over 96 plate appearances. Torrens has also had a rough go defensively. He’s thrown out just two of 21 attempted base stealers, rated as a below-average pitch framer (per Statcast) and been behind the plate for a lofty 14 wild pitches in just 190 2/3 innings (although, to his credit, he hasn’t been charged with a passed ball). The Mariners surely hope Torrens can regain his footing on both sides of the ball in Tacoma.
Godoy began his pro career with the Cardinals organization. He spent the 2012-20 seasons in the St. Louis system, topping out at Triple-A. Godoy was at the Cards alternate training site last summer and elected minor league free agency at the end of the year. He signed a minors pact with Seattle over the winter and earned his first big league promotion with a strong start for Tacoma. All told, the 26-year-old carries a .315/.370/.481 line in 119 career Triple-A plate appearances and has hit .255/.339/.391 in parts of three seasons at Double-A.
Like Godoy, Marmolejos joined the Mariners via minor league free agency, doing so during the 2019-20 offseason. He’s picked up 209 MLB plate appearances over the past two seasons, although he didn’t do much at the plate. Marmolejos has hit just .177/.263/.355 and struck out in an alarming 30.6% of his plate appearances. Lail signed a minors pact over the winter and was selected to the MLB roster three days ago. He’s since pitched a pair of innings out of the bullpen, allowing three runs on four hits.
Isn’t this like the second time he landed with Seattle?
I believe so. Maybe this time he’ll actually appear in a game.
Robin Hood must be back in Washington.
Back to Milwaukee in a week I’m calling it
Nope, it’s a first.
Just continue to ignore what was noted in the post, you’ll learn everything you need to know from the commenters here.
Do you not retain anything that you read?
It’s Deja Vu all over again.
See you back in milwaukee in a week
run it back – again!
Matt Adams was stuck in a rotation of the Cardinals, Braves and Nationals a couple years ago. I guess Jacob Nottingham is now in the same cycle between the Mariners and Brewers.
It’s a rotary club with the 2021 Mariners. What could go wrong?
It’s Jacob Nottingham. A lot could go wrong.
Ah yes going from the Seattle (Mariners) to try Seattle (Pilots) and back to the Seattle (Mariners)
Round and round we go
The team is batting .199. Where have you gone, Edgar Martinez?. Or, for that matter, Alvin Davis?
I wouldn’t say a nation turns their lonely eyes to Edgar, but at least a sizeable portion of the Seattle-Tacoma metro area.
I was thinking about the state of the Mariners offense (or as my Mum would say- “look at the bloody state of it,”) and I was wondering how we got here and why. The team is in a state of purgatory right now- and it’s all down to the pandemic.
We lost a full Minor League seasons worth of development across each level, 100 games of development at the ML level and most importantly the loss of income in 2020 and 2021 prevented us from buying any decent hitters to balance out the youth. Who knows which veterans or Minor League players could’ve filled the roles of Marmolejos, Haggerty, Torrens and Murphy.
A healthy Ty France and Dylan Moore will help the lineup a whole lot. Flexen, Graveman, YK, Miz and Dunn have looked really good but going into a season with young players at every outfield position except 3B and RF might not have been a good plan! As it turns out! Oh well onto the time honored tradition of having your heart broken as a Mariners fan then shifting focus to the Sounders and the Hawks! Such is life in the NW
Personally I would’ve rather given one of Jerry Sands or Mel Rojas Jr a couple million to play rather than Marmolejos. That said, he would do well in the NPB/KBO.
Can we here in Chicago interest you in a now-redundant David Bote to stand at 3B after Kyle Seager exits stage left?
So Nottingham is not on Milwaukee once again and back in Seattle, hope they kept his jersey.
Marmolejos has Mets written all over him
Milwaukee, ironically, has a history of collecting former Mariner 1B/DH types.
Reds. He’s gonna end up on the Reds. Blandino should not be starting at 1B
Who’s on first?
No one if the Mariners are batting.
Lol
No one if the Mariners are fielding actually.
The question should everyone be asking is …. will the Mariners go for the hat trick and be no hit for the third time this season. Just saying …
“It’s groundhog day…again”
It’s funny and all, but the next CBA really should address these out of option guys getting jerked around like this. This is not just a name on a roster, this is a human being being told every 10 days that he has to move his family once again. It’s really a problem because the players that this is happening to are not the millionaires, it is the fringe guys . They make a comfortable living, but probably not good enough to afford to move 6 times a year.
I think the simplest solution would be to require anyone claiming a player to keep them on the 40 man roster for at least 60 days. It would stop a lot of the teams that try to sneak guys through waivers and outright them. And more importantly, it would give these fringe players at least some stability.
I seriously doubt these guys move their entire families to each new destination.
Fine, that might be an exaggeration for effect, but you can’t deny that it does more than just put one guy in limbo several times. It affects real people, not just names.
Then hit better, and you’ll stop moving around. Or pick a different profession. Duh!
Marmolejos gone, Torrens down.
Add Gadoy and Nottingham….
Good little step.
Now do something for 2nd and 1st – offensively.
Nottingham will likely man 1B for the time being. The bar is low.
Servais seems to have to put Dylan Moore and/or Sam Haggerty in the lineup every game so i would expect to see both of them at 1B until White or France comes back
Marmolejos sounds like a fruity alcoholic beverage.
Fire Dipoto. His rebuild is far from where HE said it would be by now. There has been a half dozen players or so that were called “rebuild players” that can’t hit their way out of a wet paper bag.
Thanks another Angel hopeful popping off.
Torrens let’s too many balls under his glove and reaches across his body to catch the ball instead of sliding over to stop the ball. He seems to have caught the funk that almost all other hitters have for Seattle. They are young but need to do a bit better or a lot. There is still time the D is fine now get the O going and it will look up.
I’m assuming ignorance is bliss in your world? Name one player that were considered future cord pieces that can’t hit? Unless you’re going to say Kelenic based on one week in the majors, you have zero idea what you’re talking about although I give you White so far. Raleigh, JRod, Marte, and the limited Kelenic sample aren’t even in the majors or have do little data it’s absurd to make any call. Even Trammell has too small of a sample.
As far as the timeline goes, unless you’ve been under a rock and don’t realize there was a lost year, is right on track. Get back to me next year and you’d have a better argument
I sure heard Dipoto spouting off about how great Bishop was going to be, and how excited he was to watch him develop.