The Mariners announced Tuesday that righty Drew Steckenrider, who’d been designated for assignment last week, has cleared outright waivers and been assigned to Triple-A Tacoma. He’ll remain with the club but will not hold a spot on the 40-man roster.
Steckenrider has enough service time to reject the assignment in favor of free agency, but doing so would require forfeiting the remainder of this year’s $3.1MM salary. Players gain the right to reject outright assignments beginning with three years of service time, but they can only reject an outright and retain the remainder of their salary once they have five-plus years of service. Steckenrider, 31, entered the season with four years and 94 days of service, meaning he needed another 78 days of service to reach five years. He’s still 10 days shy of reaching that five-year service milestone, so Steckenrider figures to accept the assignment so he can retain the $1.935MM yet to be paid out on his deal.
A minor league signee with the Mariners in Dec. 2020, Steckenrider was a revelation for Seattle’s bullpen in 2021 when he pitched to an even 2.00 ERA with a 21.7% strikeout rate and 6.4% walk rate over the life of a team-leading 67 2/3 bullpen innings. Steckenrider tallied seven holds and eventually got the nod as one of manager Scott Servais’ preferred ninth-inning option, going 14-for-17 in save opportunities. With that showing, Steckenrider looked to have shaken off an injury-marred 2019-20 stretch that saw him pitch to a 6.28 ERA in 14 1/3 innings with the Marlins, for whom he’d previously been a quality setup man.
However, the 2021 season has again been a struggle for the former eighth-rounder. Steckenrider appeared in 16 games with the Mariners this season, pitching to a 5.95 ERA with a dramatically reduced 14.7% strikeout rate against a slightly elevated (but still solid) 7.4% walk rate. His average fastball velocity hasn’t dropped (94.4 mph in 2022, 94.2 mph in 2021), but hitters have teed off on the pitch so far in 2022 after floundering against it a year ago. Opponents batted just .216/.275/.346 last year in plate appearances ending in a heater, whereas they hit .333/.415/.528 in 2022.
Steckenrider had already been optioned to Triple-A Tacoma and made four appearances, allowing three runs on five hits and three walks with three strikeouts. He’ll continue working to get back to his 2021 form with the Rainiers in hopes of an eventual return to the MLB roster. If he does make it back to the big leagues, he’d be arbitration-eligible for the final time this winter. If not, he’ll be able to become a free agent at season’s end (as is the right at the end of the season for any player with three-plus years of service who’s been outrighted and not added back to the 40-man roster).
He probably needs a change of scenery.
Baseball offers the possibility of fabulous rewards. That’s the way it has always been, and that is the good side of this great sport.
There is also a cold, hard side. Steckenrider, like most, got the cold dark side rather early.
That’s how life is.
I had a best buddy in high school, Jack Mordhorst, who was first cousin to Harmon Killebrew. Jack worked insanely on his game, even having me throw BP to him every chance we got, even during school hours.
We were all 3 born the same year.
After graduation, Jack played a little for the old Boise Pilots.
and that was all.
Harmon got discovered and got the rewards.
Jack ended up working hard all his life for a normal living.
I joined the Navy and was never seen again.
That’s how life is.
Fred, did you play in the Killebrew’s yard? One of my favorite stories is that Killebrew’s mom complained that the boys were tearing up the grass. And the legend is that Harmon’s dad said to her, “We’re not raising grass, we’re raising boys” -priceless.
No. Never played in Harmon’s yard.
I didn’t know Harmon that well. Jack moved to NP from Payette when we were Juniors.
That is a true story by the way.
Harmon’s uncle owned the Payette Valley Sentinel newspaper in my hometown, New Plymouth, and he ran that quote as part of a story when Harmon got his big offer from the Senators.
I wasn’t on the baseball team, by the way, as my dad couldn’t spare me to stay for practice.
I wouldn’t have been good like Jack anyway, being an inch shorter and 5 pounds lighter. But we both had the muscles.
Hard to believe all this was 70 or so years ago.
Thanks for sharing your baseball memories! What a great time and place to grow up I’ll bet.
BPax, thanks for the nice comments.
Yeah, we had no idea what the world would be like in 2022.
Most people I knew didn’t even have TV there yet.
But like you said, great time and place to grow up.
It was the end of the old, traditional subsistence family farm, though.
By 1955, my dad went to work for someone else and I had to join the navy.
No jobs unless you knew somebody and were lucky.
How does this guy not get claimed or traded, but I have to watch the A’s shuffle bullpen pieces with different minor leaguers every other day
Being owed close to $2 million is too big of tab to for the remaining teams to hope that he figures it out.
Steckenrider? I hardly knew her!
Thats what she said