The Mariners announced a series of roster moves today, reinstating right-hander Bryan Woo from the injured list and signing righty Luke Weaver to a major league deal. To open two active roster spots, they optioned righties Eduard Bazardo and Darren McCaughan. To open a 40-man spot for Weaver, righty Emerson Hancock has been transferred to the 60-day injured list.
It’s a belated birthday present for Weaver, who just turned 30 years old yesterday. He was recently released by the Reds, who had signed him to a one-year, $2MM deal in the offseason. Unfortunately, his 21 starts for Cincinnati resulted in him allowing 6.87 earned runs per nine innings. His 7.6% walk rate was solid but he only struck out 19% of batters faced. Home runs were a particular problem as he allowed 24 balls to sail over the fence in that time, easily a career high for him.
The Mariners were planning to utilize a six-man rotation when Woo returned from the injured list, joining Hancock, Luis Castillo, George Kirby, Logan Gilbert and Bryce Miller, but Hancock’s injury threw a wrench in those plans. He landed on the injured list yesterday due to a shoulder strain and it seems the club isn’t expecting him back soon. Today’s transfer makes him officially ineligible to return until the middle of October. His season is now effectively over unless the club goes on a World Series run and he gets healthy enough in the next two months to put himself in position to rejoin the roster. Daniel Kramer of MLB.com reports that his recovery will take at least four to six weeks.
The club could simply go with a five-man rotation, though there are reasons why they might still prefer six. Both Miller and Woo are rookies who are pushing towards uncharted territory in terms of innings pitched in a season. Last year was Miller’s first full professional season and he was able to toss 133 2/3 frames. This year, between the majors and minors, he’s up to 117 1/3 already. Woo, meanwhile, tossed 67 2/3 last year and is already up to 99 innings this year between Double-A and the majors. Kirby was a rookie last year and logged 130 major league innings plus another 26 2/3 in the minors, and is at 150 2/3 this year.
Going with a six-man rotation would soften some of the workload concerns and the potential for fatigue down the stretch. Perhaps that is why they have brought Weaver aboard. Though his results haven’t been good this year, a change of venue would likely help him to some degree. Looking at Statcast’s park factors, the Mariners have one of the more pitching-friendly home parks while the Reds are on the other end of the spectrum, especially when it comes to home runs.
It’s also possible that the Mariners are planning to implement Weaver out of the bullpen, a role in which he’s showed some encouraging signs in the past. With the Diamondbacks and Royals last year, he had an ERA of 6.56 overall, but that included one start in which he allowed nine earned runs. As a reliever, he had a 4.78 ERA and may have deserved even better. He had a 21.7% strikeout rate, 7.9% walk rate, 40.4% ground ball rate and didn’t surrender a home run at all. But a .404 batting average on balls in play and 64.9% strand rate pushed some extra runs across the plate, with his 2.46 FIP suggesting he was perhaps better than his ERA would indicate.
Regardless of his role, it’s a low-risk move for the M’s financially. Since the Reds released Weaver, they remain on the hook for what’s left of his $2MM salary, while the Mariners will only have to pay him the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the roster. That amount will be subtracted from what the Reds pay.
LOL
Emerson Hancock to 60 day IL is not good. Didn’t know Luke Weaver was still in the league.
Yeah, not a good sign that Hancock went to the 60 day IL, especially with Seattle firmly in the playoff race. Hopefully it’s just something that requires 6-8 weeks of rest & rehab and not something that requires major surgery to fix.
Weaver has been pitching for the Reds all year….
Yeah, Dogham, but now they say it will just be rest, and he can go again in mid-Oct if necessary.
These Mariners are doing things just about right, if success is any measurement.
I can’t wait to see Woo again tonight. And who knows, maybe Weaver.
It’s crazy lately, but tons of fun.
Luke Weaver and Paul DeJong signed on the same day. Big things for ex-Cardinals!
The offseason sort of coming full circle for Weaver; claimed on waivers by the Mariners in October and then non-tendered in November and back again to finish the season in Seattle
If he finishes the season in Seattle something will have gone either terribly wrong with the Mariners or terribly right with Weaver.
Seattle’s coaching staff won’t get a lot of time to work with Weaver, but I would imagine we’ll see him face KC or Oakland, if not in long-relief for Woo should he be limited or restricted tonight.
Need him to eat innings since Miller and Woo are on innings counts. Hopefully won’t get destroyed by the long ball at T-Mo.
Luke Weaver? There’s somebody I really didn’t think I’d ever see in Mariner blue. Why?
And with the latest on Lodolo, makes me wonder if Cincy would technically want Weaver back. Interesting developments…
Unless Lodolo murdered the rest of their pitching staff in the Majors and farm system, nothing about Lodolo would make the Reds want Weaver back.
It’s actually his second round with Seattle. But it will be the first time he pitches for them.
I feel for Mariners fans.
Weaver brought in for innings eater role. I can’t imagine him getting any starts. I’d rather have us doing that with Tommy Millone. I’d expect to see Weaver soaking up innings like in the 8th and 9th of last night’s games.
I guess every good Mariner team needs a Bob wells. I thought that’s what McCacky got called back up for, though
Bob Wells had a magical month of June back in 96…..
I did too. Thought we had something there. Even struck out the side.
Jerry stated that they expect to use him in long-relief and for spot-starts.
With our track record of getting the most out of pitchers recently, this move intrigues me. Sucks about Hancock, he looks promising, but he hasn’t really had big innings in a season. Hope it isn’t too bad.
Hancock moved to 60 day IL means significant strain I would assume and he doesn’t pitch till next year, reduces trade value in off season
Sometimes it’s not just the injury being severe. Either way, if Hancock only needs the 4 weeks they’d be a man short for the stretch run if they put him on the 15-day. If he needs the whole 6 weeks, he won’t be back at all for 2023 anyway. I’m thinking this is both them being extra cautious with his shoulder, and wanting that extra roster spot to swap out spare players down the stretch as they fight for a playoff spot.
Another ex-Red to the Mariners, joining Castillo and Suarez.
I remember Mariners fans saying the Reds should give up India for Hancock saying he isn’t injury prone.
Well, he isn’t but he is hurt now. We could speculate on proposed trades all day, but in the end we just have the real trades to critique and scrutinize.
The guys had shoulder issues since being drafted. Google is a great tool. The Reds would have been completely fleeced by giving anything of value for Justin Dunn 2.0.
He’s had minor shoulder fatigue (pretty normal for any hurler) and a strained lat (it happens) prior to his current ailment. Labeling a 24yo pitcher on his first MLB IL stint as injury prone seems, well, premature at best.
You could say that about Bryce Miller and Bryan Woo as well. The reason we got both pitchers in the draft so late was because of arm injuries. It’s not time to hit the panic button yet for Emerson Hancock.
Weaver looked pretty awesome as a Reliever today…struck out the side and his stuff was filthy, at least, in this outing he was! Go M’s!!!
Hopefully Hancock isn’t Paxton 2.0