The Mariners announced they’ve designated reliever Ken Giles for assignment. The move drops Seattle’s 40-man roster tally to 38.
It’s a surprising development, as the M’s didn’t have a pressing need for a spot on the 40-man roster. Giles also hadn’t been occupying a spot on the active roster, as he’s spent the past week and a half on a minor league rehab assignment while working his way back from shoulder tightness. The right-hander has tossed two scoreless innings with Triple-A Tacoma this week, but the organization apparently wasn’t bullish about his chances of fulfilling a key role in the bullpen down the stretch.
The move more or less closes the books on a two-year free agent deal that didn’t pan out as the club had hoped. The M’s signed Giles to a $7MM guarantee over the 2020-21 offseason. He’d undergone Tommy John surgery the previous October, but the organization agreed to pay him $1.5MM while rehabbing from the injury last year. In exchange, they got a potentially elite reliever who’d posted a 1.87 ERA while striking out almost 40% of opponents over 53 innings in 2019. The deal came with a 2022 salary of just $5MM, which would be massive bargain if Giles recaptured his pre-surgery form, along with a $9.5MM club option for the 2023 season.
Giles wound up making just five MLB appearances within the course of that deal. He missed all of last season, as expected. While the hope had been he’d been ready to go for Opening Day this year, he suffered a finger injury in Spring Training that cost him more than two months. Giles made his Mariners debut on June 21 and spent a little more than two weeks on the active roster. He worked 4 1/3 scoreless frames, allowing just one hit but walking four batters against six strikeouts. In that brief look, Giles’ fastball averaged 94.8 MPH and his slider checked in at 84.1 MPH. That’s solid velocity, but down from the respective 96.9 MPH and 86.4 MPH averages from his 2019 work.
After five outings, Giles went down with the shoulder issue from which he’s been trying to work his way back. Between the diminished velocity and the shoulder tightness, the Mariners decided to move on from the 31-year-old.
The trade deadline has already passed, so Seattle will have to place Giles on outright or release waivers in the coming days. There’s no real difference between the two in this case, as he has well over five years of major league service time. That gives him the right to refuse a minor league assignment while still collecting the remainder of his guaranteed salary even if he clears waivers. The league’s 29 other teams will have an opportunity to add Giles for the stretch run. If they all pass, he’s almost certain to test free agency.
Any team that claims Giles would be responsible for the remainder of this year’s salary (around $1.5MM). A claiming team would get the right to the club option, but they’d also be on the hook for the $500K buyout if they declined the option. Given Giles’ lack of recent experience, it seems likely he’ll go unclaimed on waivers, although that’d be a more than reasonable price to pay if another team thought he could recapture something like his 2019 form.
If Giles clears waivers and hits free agency, the Mariners would remain on the hook for essentially all of that tab. They’d have to pay the buyout on next year’s option as well as all of his remaining 2022 salary, except for the prorated portion of the $700K league minimum for any time he spends on another team’s MLB roster (which would be paid by the signing club). Should Giles go unclaimed and sign elsewhere, he’d be a free agent after this season; the ’23 team option would not carry over to another team unless he’s claimed off waivers.
Money well spent.
High risk, high reward. The risk won out over the reward. Not mad about it.
Low risk. Ms spent money while payroll was low. It’s no big deal.
@dannycore- True. I suppose the “high risk” was to Stanton’s pocket but definitely low risk in terms of payroll and timeline, you’re right.
He must be punching himself in the face over this.
Injuries and better talent surpassing him are largely to blame.
I would strongly disagree with the statement that better talent surpassing him has been a reason. He’s been hurt for almost multiple consecutive seasons, it was never an issue of his talent.
@dshires4 Well Seattle arguably has the best bullpen in baseball. Giles is now healthy, but they can’t find a spot for him. Seattle obviously thinks every arm in that pen is more valuable than him at this time. Right now he is the odd man out, based on performance.
Giles isn’t healthy if his fastball velocity is down 2+ MPH. I don’t care how you spin that. He’s not healthy. Our bullpen has been lights out, but that’s not the reason he’s not pitching in the majors.
Better talent on the BP was just as big a reason as the injury concerns and diminished velocity. In fact you could go so far as to say that Penn Murfee and Matt Festa’s surprising success this year cost Ken Giles a shot at regaining that 26 man roster spot. It boils down to this- Seattle’s FO thought – which RPer should go back down to the Minors or be released? Clearly the answer was none! Each member of the current BP was seen as a better option down the stretch!
A debate over whether to release Ken Giles or the ‘weakest link’ is a good problem to have seeing the overall consensus in preseason was that the Seattle BP could not replicate its 2021 success. The 2022 BP not only matched last yrs success in one R games but this years Pen is better than last years. That success has come from Servais learning not to ride his high leverage arms into the ground. As well as the unexpected success of Murfee, Festa, further improvement from Swanson, the Matt Brash RP conversion and call up and Andres Muñoz’s pure nastiness. Even Paul Sewald is having a slightly better yr.
Bummer for the Mariners. Giles has been mostly excellent on the mound, when he can stay healthy and off the IL.
Except when he punched himself in the face, on the field, he was so bad.
Giles gave them 5 scoreless outings. Have to believe someone grabs him
Sign him for 2 years then DFA shortly after he makes it back to the bigs… yep, makes sense to me.
Look at his minors stats. They are horrific.
Minor are for working through things:
we’re talking about practice man, we’re not even talking about MLB games … the actual game, when it matters … We’re talking about practice
I guess phillies should have cut him in 2013 with his minors numbers
The numbers aren’t even close to 2013. Combine his horrible numbers with the loss in velocity, the Mariners obviously don’t think he is worth holding onto..
No room for him in the Mariners pen and like the article said his velo was down. He’s not “healthy” and every time he’s seemed to be, he’s shown he’s not.
Everyone in Seattle’s bullpen is currently better than Giles. Significantly better. There’s no room for him. His contract doesn’t justify a roster spot. Seattle couldn’t have projected that Swanson, Murffee, Munoz, and Festa would come out of nowhere and pretty much dominate forcing Giles out… Also he has been injured for about 3 years now. Availability is crucial. M’s aren’t hurting for money either. No harm, no foul bro.
A surprise. That’s gotta be a real punch in the face for him.
Perhaps an Astro reunion?
Please no. While his stuff was good, the mental part of his game was not.
If he was a lefty sure, although he’s looking injury prone as well. Yeah, he punched himself once but who hasn’t. I haven’t heard of any other form of self punishment.
Go get him back, Blue Jays!
I’m kind of curious why. I’m not saying keep him on the rehab assignment just because, but you can keep pitchers down on rehab assignments for 30 days, right? Why not just do that? Worst that happens is you don’t need him and DFA him then. Maybe somebody gets hurt in that time and you’ve got him ready and waiting.
Maybe he thought he was ready to be called up but they don’t have a spot for him. Then he punched himself in the face and through a fit. See ya!
Maybe the M’s are hoping to save 2M.
How will they save $2m? If you had reading comprehension skills or have ever read about a DFA then you would know that the Mariners are still on the hook for the money and will not be saving anything unless hes claimed by another team which more than likely will not happen
Too bad he won’t make it to the Red Sox on waivers
Since the Astros and Jays fans want him back, I’ll throw in a vote for the Phillies too.
Wouldn’t hate that.
Who would you have him replace in the current Phils bullpen? I’d say maybe Nelson, but he’s the long man.
There isn’t a single Astros fan who wants this clown back. Watching him punch himself in the face after bad outings was enough proof of his mental issues.
The face punch was iconic, but speaks to his inability for pitch in big games.
Sounds like he wasn’t healthy enough to help the bullpen out for the stretch run.
Has to be better what my Jays throw out there.
He’s getting paid too much for my Nats to scoop him up unless he clears waivers, which I doubt will happen.
I don’t believe he’ll be claimed. Teams will wait for him to clear waivers; otherwise, they’ll owe him a couple million. He’ll get to pick his landing spot.
Cant have enough pitching,, Sign him up Braves
Doesn’t he have to just reject assignment. to be a free agent? with 7 years in
That’s what the article says.
TB is looking for a closer. Might be a good fit.
Ken “the Fist” Giles
Giles is a complete head case, they must have figured that out.
Can’t wait for the brewers to pick him up only to cut him a few days later
Contender looking for BP help, here ya go.
Minny…
he is a reclamation project coming – Farhan, Giles is on line 1
I was thinking the same thing. Giants should be on this.
Hello, Ross Atkins, Toronto needs bullpen arms and feel good stories. Go for a two-fer.
Like we simply used to say back in the day…..he’s just not that good anymore.
Probably better than Craig “the human torch” Kimbrel at this point..
He certainly couldn’t be worse. Kimbrel is as cooked as they come.
Phillies Could use him
O’s GM is familiar with Giles from their Houston days, so maybe they pick him up for their WC run.
Jays need to be all over this, Giles said he loved his time here, and Walker can fix him. Too bad we couldn’t take him and give Seattle back their old head case Kikuchi lol
He doesn’t need fixed. He needs to stay healthy. If they can figure that out. It will be the first in MLB history!
Bring back hundred miles Giles back in TOR!
He’ll be on the Red Sox lol
If only someone would make a joke about him punching himself in the face.
Swiiiing and a miss Jerry. Oh well. Low risk
Bit of a head scratcher being there wasn’t a pressing need on their 40 man roster. I hope the White Sox take a look. He’s been effective when healthy.
I feel like Ken Giles has been pitching since 2002
Looks like the Jay’s got hurt on this suspension this was twist of fate.
Legit thought this guy would be about 37. Seems like he’s been around forever.
When he threw 100 he wasn’t that dominant so velo being down is bad
Watch the guy answer questions orb Mariners all access. Somethings wrong with this guy. It’s creepy. The way he talks…
Twins please pickup this guy and finally get rid of Pagan!!!