2:55pm: In addition to Long, the Mariners announced that infielder/outfielder Sam Haggerty, righty Darren McCaughan, outfielder Marcus Wilson and righty Ryan Weber were all outrighted from the roster. Weber was able to immediately declare free agency, as this is the second outright of his career. Long and Wilson will be free agents after the postseason concludes.
Haggerty had a nice season in 2020, but in a limited sample of just 13 games and 54 plate appearances. In 2021, he got to the plate 94 times but produced a meager .186/.247/.291 line, then went on the IL at the end of May with a shoulder injury but never returned. He’ll now look to get back to health and regular playing time in the minors in order to earn his way back to the bigs.
McCaughan made his major league debut this season but only got into two games. In Triple-A, he logged 115 1/3 innings over 20 starts with an ERA of 4.53. His strikeout rate was subpar at 20.9% but his walk rate was an excellent 3.6%. He’ll remain in the organization as depth.
Wilson was claimed off waivers from the Red Sox in August but was stashed in Triple-A and has yet to make it to the show. Between the two organizations, he got 437 Triple-A plate appearances in 2021, slashing .240/.364/.421 for a wRC+ of 110.
Weber is the most experienced of the bunch, with 167 big league innings to his name, with an ERA of 5.28. In 2021, he bounced between Boston, Milwaukee and Seattle but got the most action with Tacoma, Seattle’s Triple-A team. He logged 60 1/3 innings there over 10 starts, with an ERA of 3.58, strikeout rate of 25.1% and miniscule walk rate of 0.9%.
2:05pm: Long underwent a second surgery to repair the stress reaction in his shin last week, agent Nate Heisler tells Divish (Twitter link). The bone is expected to be healed over in one to two months’ time, which should afford Long enough time to be ready for Spring Training.
1:52pm: The Mariners are performing some early roster maintenance in advance of the offseason and are set to announce that infielder/outfielder Shed Long Jr. has been outrighted from the 40-man roster, per Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times (Twitter link). That he’s being assigned outright off the roster means he’s already cleared waivers, and Long will now be able to become a free agent this offseason.
It’s been a tough couple of seasons for the 26-year-old Long, whom Seattle acquired in the three-team swap that sent Sonny Gray from the Yankees to the Reds and outfield prospect Josh Stowers from Seattle to New York. Long played much of last season through a stress fracture in his leg before ultimately undergoing season-ending surgery. The detrimental impact of that injury lingered into 2021, ending his season on Aug. 2 and helping to limit Long to just 34 games and 121 plate appearances at the MLB level.
At the time of his acquisition, Long was a well-regarded prospect seen as a potential everyday option for Seattle at second base or perhaps in left field. He looked the part of a possible regular in his rookie campaign in ’19, posting a .263/.333/.454 batting line with five homers, a dozen doubles, a triple and three steals through 168 trips to the plate. Unfortunately, in the two years since, he’s cobbled together a paltry .184/.250/.325 output through 249 plate appearances while struggling through that pair of leg injuries.
While Long was sidelined, the ever-active Mariners front office, led by president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto, acquired a slew of players who have now left Long as something of an odd man out in the organization. Abraham Toro and Ty France are getting regular at-bats in the infield, while the future outlook in the outfield is quite promising with Mitch Haniger, 2020 Rooke of the Year Kyle Lewis, Jarred Kelenic, Julio Rodriguez, Taylor Trammell and Jake Fraley all in the mix. The Mariners are also expected to further add to that infield mix this winter, perhaps in significant fashion, as the team looks to turn the final corner and emerge from an abbreviated rebuilding process on the heels of a surprising 90-win season
Long will hit the free-agent market at just 26 years of age and search for a new opportunity with an organization that can offer a clearer path to playing time. He’ll still have a minor league option remaining in 2022, but the fact that he went unclaimed on waivers could well mean that Long is ticketed for a minor league pact in free agency.
Out to the shed with you.
Long overdue.
They’re better off in the Long run.
With a shorter shed?
Knowing our luck he will become an AllStar next year hitting 50 home runs and hitting above .325 and slugging above .600
@Mets, that has to be the shortest comment you’ve ever posted on here. Are you ok, dude?
Thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery.
OH NO !!
The Mariners have SHED LONG !!
Yep. I guess they shed Shed.
They have shed Long so they have Shed Long no longer.
Well that didn’t take Long.
As Long as they don’t get rid of Arthur “Two Sheds” Jackson.
Mitch Haniger was left out of the article for some reason!
Not sure if they added after your comment or you read the first pp and called it good. He is there and not a rising star but playing all star level ball. His numbers are great then remember he just came off a year and a half injuries and surgeries.
I have a feeling Shed will be used down the road as a bad Dipoto trade. Some Angel fans used players that hadn’t played that well and were outrighted to get them off the 40 man roster. I could see Seattle in talks to get him back. He needs to play a few months to show his leg is healed and then get on a 40 man roster. Hopefully in Seattle because the talent is there.
Pretty sure the mariners traded nothing to get Shed. That Stanford OF is who we traded for him, Josh something. He’s with the yanks now and is still in the minors after all these years. Shed at least hit a walk off grand slam for the M’s this year. Sad we couldn’t stash him in AAA
@houk. Shed Long was traded for Josh Stowers to the Yankees. Yankees moved Josh Stowers and Antonio Cabello for Rougned Odor. Rangers had basically moved on from Odor and are paying most of his salary (like the Angels did with Pujols). Rangers just got a tiny bit of salary relief and a couple minor league lottery tickets.
Heard his cousin BARN SHORT is the real deal tho….
Can’t believe they let go of Shlong. Some team will grab him.
You can get into a lot of trouble grabbing Shlong these days.
Well…”shlong grabbing” was never en vogue in my circles at any time, quite frankly.
Obligatory: not that there’s anything wrong with that.
As a Yankee fan, they obviously like Shlong as they traded for him once. They should grab him while they can, I’d much prefer him to Odor.
Ed S…. we hardly knew ye.
This dude really out here named Shedric
Shedric Bernard Long, Jr.!
I hope the Orioles or Marlins pick him up
His very good high A numbers at 20 and 21 look a little out of place compared to the rest of his milb track record, but it was still solid work overall. He came up and put up a .787 OPS in limited time as a rookie in 2019, prorated to a ~2 WAR player as a starter. Baltimore actually looks solid in the outfield, but they have no infield building blocks, and need to bring in as many chances as possible while they figure out how to acquire those. Long having an option left is huge, because they can still carry four other chances in the bigs while he gets his feet under him. Some other clubs could use him, but yeah, Baltimore should be all over him.
It would be great if Long can end up at Baltimore.
(Just so it isn’t AL West)
So we will be watching for that.
Shed Long Jr. made my Father’s Day:
youtube.com/watch?v=O3QXmpuQCrU
The walkoff grand slam came off Tampa Bay reliever Diego Castillo, who a month later was traded to Seattle.
Wasn’t it big enough Shed
Would his mama be a she shed?
Shed is now longing for another team.
FWIW Shed Long’s mother, Lisa Long, is acting president of Talladega College in Alabama:
blackstarnews.com/education/education/talladega-co…
Is there anyone among these commenters who understands baseball?
Or cares about baseball?
Nothing here except plays upon the name Shed.
And, exposyadayada, Mitch is mentioned in the article. He’s is the promising future outfield list.
You need to shed that attitude. Don’t let it go to long.
But I did give a thumbs-up to muskie 73.
Shed is a good player and he had more than a few good games, but at the MLB level the difficulties and vagaries can mount up to be cruel. The article did pretty well in describing how Shed Long got off track after that great 2019.
Like a lot of players, he will very probably find his niche by starting over with a different team.
Personally, I will be sad not seeing him as a Mariner.
So you shed a tear for Shed?
Don’t be Long in the face, everything will work out fine for Shed Long.
The Oakland A’s need to go after Long.
That would be worse case scenario for the M’s. I can see Shed hitting 20-25 HRs with health and an opportunity somewhere.
Which analytically driven FO will see that Ryan Weber is only missing a minor tweak or 2 towards becoming a decent MLB pitcher next season before realizing, in actual terms after he pitches he’s just a recycled failure?
Guys like Weber should be used as a poster child for everything wrong with using analytics only instead of good old fashioned scouting.
Darren McCaughan
2019 MILB: (1.5 HR/9), (1.3 BB/9), (7.8 K/9)
2021 MILB: (1.5 HR/9), (1.3 BB/9), (7.8 K/9)
Shed long hit a dramatic grand slam for the Mariners early in the season. That was probably his 15 minutes. I do hope he recovers himself and finds a place where he can get some at bats and remain healthy. He is still Young. Jerry DiPoto needs to be fired along with his manager. He sat on his hands at the trading deadline and did nothing. Nothing to help this team. Unforgivable! Forget about team control, that’s all they seem to be interested in. Bring on Chris Taylor. Jerry sent him a packing for no good reason. In the real world you’d be let go…
Boy that is one lie after another .
Is this how you guys try to revise history?
Are you real confident Mariners gave Jack dzurencik A multi million dollar contract and fired him the following year, mid year if I recall correctly. Jerry DiPoto in five years has done nothing. The minor-league system has become enhanced, true, but that’s not winning major league games. Nor will it. You get tired of Looking at a major league team playing AAA ball!
Tried to win with an aging roster through 2018, then went into a rebuild which has been successful to this point in time. 2022 is a huge year for us, gotta make the playoffs
I get the sentiment and I like the direction we’re going, he is right about Dipoto’s track record. Dipoto was hired to push the right buttons to get that older core to the playoffs. His moves fell short of the goal (like acquiring Dee Gordon to play CF).
As for the rebuild, I truly don’t believe trading all your best players for a handful of lottery tickets is hard to do. Teams rebuild in every sport, and there’s never a barrier to that. You just decide to rebuild and start trading players. His biggest test will be this offseason, because now he is being asked to win by filling in around a core, something he failed at his first crack in Seattle.
Nothing but rebuild the entire team down and back up again to 90 wins as well as the farm system from last to first. Rebuilding happens in stages. The Astros had to endure losing season after losing season before they were good again.
Will it help Shed some payroll for long?