The Mariners have signed left-hander Fernando Abad, as announced earlier today by Saraperos De Saltillo, Abad’s Mexican League club. It appears to be a minor league contract, as Triple-A Tacoma broadcaster Mike Curto reported that Abad will pitch for the affiliate tonight.
After not landing a contract with an MLB club over the offseason, Abad’s 2.25 ERA over four innings of Mexican League action was enough to get the Mariners’ attention. Anthony Misiewicz is the only left-hander in Seattle’s current bullpen, so there’s some opportunity for Abad to win a job if he performs well at Triple-A.
The 36-year-old Abad has suited up for seven different teams over his 10 MLB seasons, plus some stints in independent ball as well as the Mexican League. There have been plenty of ups and down over Abad’s long career, but he has generally been a pretty solid bullpen arm, able to deliver good results against both left-handed and right-handed batters.
Despite a lack of velocity and big strikeout totals, Abad has a 3.77 ERA over 348 1/3 career innings in the bigs. However, only 30 2/3 of those frames have come over the last four seasons, as Abad didn’t see any MLB action in either 2018 or 2020. Most recently, he posted a 5.60 ERA over 17 2/3 innings with the Orioles last season.
This is Abad signing? I’ll see myself out…
Im came here for Abad joke or two.
Can he hit? The Mariners bats have been cold on this road trip.
You take the good, you take Abad, you take them both and there you have, the facts of life….
Not Abad signing for Seattle, they need bullpen depth.
I know a lot of people are going to make jokes about this but Abad is one of my favorite pitchers of all-time not because of his skills set. The man just don’t quit and I respect that.
First player alphabetically!
*David Aardsma starts warming up*
I miss the old Aardvark!
It really pays to be a left handed pitcher in MLB. If he threw right handed, he’d be long gone from baseball. In fact, I doubt he would have played more than 3 seasons in his career. He had a decent season for Boston in 2017? Since he is a lefty, he has spent parts of 10 separate seasons in MLB with a total WAR of 3.1. It would be a cool story if he makes in back to the majors for his 11th season at age 36. While the article states he does a good job of getting both RH and LH batters out, most of his former teams used him as a classic lefty specialist, often times only pitching to one or two batters per game. He might find it more challenging with the 3 batter minimum MLB has since imposed, especially with his low strikeout rates.
If there was any justice, we could combine player’s names like Abad Odor or Abad Bummer, Abad Beer,
Abad signing