The Mariners announced today that left-hander Nick Margevicius has been released. Their spring camp is now down to 71 players.
Margevicius, 27 in June, once seemed like he was on a path to being a useful big league starter but has been held back by injuries in recent years. Originally drafted by the Padres, that club made the aggressive move of adding Margevicius to their Opening Day roster in 2019. At that time, the lefty had yet to pitch above High-A but he was coming off a strong season in the lower levels of the farm. He posted a 3.60 ERA in 135 minor league innings in 2018, striking out 26% of batters and walking just 3%.
Unfortunately, there hasn’t been much to be excited about since that time. Margevicius had a 6.79 ERA in his first major league season and got put on waivers prior to the 2020 campaign. The Mariners claimed him and then saw him put up a respectable 4.57 ERA in 2020. But he tossed 12 innings for the club early in 2021 before requiring surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome in May, wiping out the latter parts of that season.
He was able to return to the mound last year but struggled in his first few Triple-A outings and got designated for assignment in May. He cleared waivers and was outrighted, sticking with the M’s in a non-roster capacity. He eventually tossed 49 Triple-A innings last year but with a 7.53 ERA. He was surely victimized by a bit of bad luck, as he allowed a .422 batting average on balls in play and had a 61.4% strand rate, but his 5.49 FIP and 5.80 xFIP were still quite high.
It seems the M’s would prefer to get a look at some other arms in camp and have let Margevicius go to explore other opportunities. If he can latch on with a different organization, perhaps he can get into a better groove now that he’s further removed from his surgery. If he eventually earns himself a roster spot, he still has an option remaining and less than three years of MLB service time.
71 players? That’s a college football squad.
The clubhouses during Spring Training must be packed like a Tokyo subway.
That’s not atypical for most teams at this stage. 40-man, NRI, and minor league guys are all there. Once minor league camps open, that probably clears 20-25 guys. Then teams just have their 40-man and NRI guys as they whittle down to 26.
Minor league Camps open soon. There will be hordes going out of camp.
Not to mention the sizable number of players who will be leaving for the WBC soon. Most camps are overflowing with prospects right now so they have enough players to compete in Spring Training games once the WBC starts and lower level players get reassigned to minor league camps.
Best of luck Nick
This guy’s got NOTHING sorry.
I don’t think there are any rules about how many guys you can have in camp as long as you’re down to 26 by opening day. Anybody know? Are there cut down dates like in football? I don’t think so but I’m not positive.
No MLB rules for ST for amount of players a team can put in a dugout other than practical ones related to getting innings for everyone; staying within 40 man limits for the mlb team applies – basically minor league with invites or non-roster invites can fill up a dugout.
Sid is on the loose.
What a bummer. This guy looked great coming up as one of the arms of the future for the Padres. The dream ain’t over. It’s a long road…
Margevicivicus must be Italian, maybe Greek? He did have some success before the injuries. At any rate he not back in a good way.
Maybe he could use more time, being the better part of him getting back.
Definitely not Italian.
Maybe Lithuanian.