The Mariners announced that they have signed right-hander Austin Voth to a one-year major league deal. Their 40-man roster is now full. Robert Murray of FanSided reported the deal prior to the official announcement, relaying that the Beverly Hills Sports Council client will make $1.25MM.
Voth, 32 in June, has pitched in each of the past six MLB seasons with mixed results. He has tossed 299 1/3 innings between the Nationals and Orioles, allowing 4.90 earned runs per nine. His 21.6% strikeout rate and 8.5% walk rate are both in realm of typical league average.
In 2023, Voth missed over two months of the season due to elbow discomfort. When healthy enough to take the mound, he posted a 5.19 ERA over 25 relief outings. He was outrighted by the Orioles in September and elected free agency at season’s end.
Voth is out of options and will have to stick on the club’s active roster or else be removed from the 40-man entirely. He has worked both as a starter and as a reliever in his career but he wouldn’t have an obvious path to a rotation job in Seattle. The club’s starting mix already includes Luis Castillo, George Kirby, Logan Gilbert, Anthony DeSclafani, Bryan Woo, Bryce Miller and Emerson Hancock.
DeSclafani has a notable injury history while each of Woo, Miller and Hancock have less than a full year in the majors. Plus, the Mariners are one of the most aggressive clubs in terms of making trades, so perhaps the picture will change, but Voth will project to be in the club’s bullpen for now.
Curiously, he’s actually fared much better out of the rotation so far in his career, with a 4.23 ERA as a starter and a 5.89 ERA out of the ’pen. But those aren’t huge sample sizes, with 178 2/3 innings out of the rotation and 120 2/3 as a reliever. He’s been fairly inconsistent overall but once looked like a breakout rotation candidate and could perhaps put it together as a reliever in Seattle. The Mariners have been fairly adept at helping pitchers bloom relatively late, with Paul Sewald and Justin Topa just a couple of recent examples. If things go well this year, the Mariners can retain him for 2025 via arbitration.
Another pitcher off the board:) Another pitcher Twins miss out on….There will be nobody left by the time Twins brass gets off their asses!
Chill
Bruh, it’s just Austin Voth.
And we’re done! Finally can relax with following the offseason and hoping for any kind of marginal improvement
I feel for u guys ! Ms were my team in AL West. I enjoyed following them last year. Sad thing is Theres no way Ms don’t finish 3rd in the division so it’ll look good when it goes down in history. But I’ll remember! I’ll remember Ms counting coppers with an absolutely loaded rotation, a closer, and a superstar cemented in the lineup.
This is depressing
Mariners keep signing useless players. Ugghh. WTF
Yea, wth? A bunch of no names.
Where the 69 Mets, All the way baby.
Kinda like when they signed sewald/flexen/penn Murphy/topa/gott and many other no names that either became key pen pieces or got dealt for upgrades? The Ms know what they are doing with pitching. That’s well known.
Yeah these are the kinds of signings I dont worry about. At worst spring training competition and at best another M’s bullpen success story. The weak lineup however is still a problem that doesnt seem likely to be solved in the offseason
The Mariners should be able to match last year’s team wRC+ of 107 (7 percent above league average, the ninth best in MLB).
Pitching should remain Seattle’s strength.
I agree, I don’t sweat these type of signings. In fact, I become intrigued with these “no names” to see how they pan out.
BOOM
There’s about a 66.67% chance he has a sub-3.50 ERA with the M’s. Dude has excellent spin rates and the front office and Woodworth always believe they can work magic with that–and they usually can.
Kinda how they operate the bullpen year to year. Jerry actually does really well with these additions.
Dipoto did mention final offseason move could be a splashy flashy reliever
First Krehbiel and now Voth, who is the next former Oriole pitcher the M’s sign?
Maybe Randor Bierd will come out of retirement to sign with SEA.
Erik Bedard?
AAAARRRGGGHHHH…Don’t say that name out loud to M’s fans!
*melts*
That’s just mean to bring up that name.
Chris Tillman.
Sid Ponson
Ubaldo Jimenez
Fujinami
Rocky Coppinger
Jim Palmer
Matt Hobgood!
Felix Hernandez – he tried out for the Orioles in 2021.
M’s loading up on the former Orioles lately. Glad to see him and Krehbiel get more opportunities. Voth had a sneaky good 2022 and his 2023 was marred by a really rough start. He had 5 bad outings to start the year but then pitched at around a 3 ERA until getting hurt.
I won’t be surprised if the M’s can get him back on track as a solid long man. Just hopefully not when they’re playing the O’s.
For a good part of 2022 the Os didn’t have a #5 in the rotation. Coach Hyde would go bullpen by committee; always starting the game with Voth. Went well.
Someone tell Austin that he’ll be a Mariner not a player on the Mariners.
Not sure why Voth deserves a guaranteed contract. People are going to say that the M’s are going to work their “magic” on him and turn him into a dominating reliever. That’s just wishful thinking in my view.
He likely got a guaranteed contract because other teams were interested in him, and Seattle has a reputation for their ‘magic’ for a reason. This list of fixed relievers is an extensive one.
Worth noting, he was solid in he 6th & 7th innings last year.
@Stevil Well said. I watched Voth plenty over 2022-2023 and I’d wager he’ll justify that salary. He was largely trending up after a rough start in 2023 before getting hurt.
I’m also local for the Orioles AAA team so saw him pitch in the AAA playoffs after he came back from injury. He was absolutely carving dudes up. He had some like 7 or 8 k’s over 4 innings. Nasty stuff when he’s on.
Yeah, he can miss bats. Has a cutter that Seattle will probably have him utilizing more.
It’s the curve that really works for Voth, elite spin rates. The cutter was one that either worked perfect, or left the yard.
The cutter is the alternative to his 4-seamer.. If he throws that more, he’ll throw his 4-seamer less.
He’s a project, but this exactly the kind of pitcher Seattle’s had success with.
I’ve watched Voth since the beginning of his career with the Nats. He was consistently inconsistent. After a good start with the O’s, he resumed that pattern. It would surprise me if he broke out of that with the Mariners.
Stranger things have happened and I could be wrong. But I fully expect Voth to remain bafflingly inconsistent and mostly on the downside.
Mekias
“M’s are going to work their “magic” on him and turn him into a dominating reliever. That’s just wishful thinking in my view.”
Well, if anyone knows it’s a rando on MLBTR and not like teams spending millions on scouting, analytics and coaching
It’s a small sample but Voth was bad as a reliever but good as a shorter length starter (3-5 innings most times) in Baltimore.
Maybe he can change that as he gets more comfortable being a reliever.
I don’t know anything about Voth except what’s available on stats sites. That being said, a guy with 300 major league innings and a 4.90 career ERA isn’t likely to suddenly turn things around.
The M’s have been better than most in recent years of finding bargain bullpen pieces but it’s likely a combination of luck, scouting, coaching, and the efforts of the players themselves. I don’t think we can say for sure at this point that the M’s have some kind of secret sauce and I personally think that constantly selling off your best guys and not spending money on the bullpen is a recipe for disaster. We’ll see.
I think spending on bullpen guys is a recipe for disaster personally.
I think that’s the best spot on a baseball team to save some money. Especially with some of these guys getting 4 years deal now out of the pen. Way too volatile for me.
They have a lot of relief depth. For 1..25, this makes no sense.
I don’t really think they do. I don’t trust anyone other than Topa, Munoz, and Brash
Sacedo, Spiers, thornton, Barroa, adcock. Where do Hancock and DeSciafarni fit in? I could see voth as AAA depth, but at 1.25m? In the rotation? He’s not even 7th.
Adcock and Hancock are going to AAA
Marginal pitchers flock to Seattle after seeing the restorative results of the Mariner pitching lab.
The Seattle braintrust identifies something that belies a pitcher’s raw stats.
I almost think that a player is 25% fixed once Seattle signs him. Just knowing that Seattle sees something in a pitcher has to do something for his psyche!
Can’t the Ms do a little minor league signing or two for some position other than pitcher?
No
Someone like, say, Michael Chavis?
Yes…and that’s the only position player compared to the dugout full of pitchers.
They also signed Rangel Ravelo and traded for Blake Hunt.
But seriously, pitching depth is more important. They have Marlowe, DeLoach, and Bliss as well as he aforementioned, and it’s too early to worry about who the AAA depth is right now. They’ll probably pick up another fielder or two before opening day as rosters are set and some players get the squeeze.
Which reminds me, Trammell is one of those who will likely get squeezed out because he’s out of options.
Voth is basically a local so that’s cool for him, a big league deal and he gets to return home
Redmond baseball
He actually went to Kentwood.
How much of it is Deferred???
If Voth’s arm is healthy, he can be a decent long reliever and offer some flexibility as a 5th/spot starter. He’s the pitching equivalent of a utility infielder. For $1.25M, it’s not a bad contract.
Voth is a terrific value at $1.25 million. Like the article notes, there are several starters in front of him. However, he is the type of pitcher that benefits from being in a rotation with advance preparation from start to start. He was also respectable in the Orioles bullpen last season after a brutal start.
Either role gives Dipoto more trade options for potentially upgrading the offense.
Voth is not a fall back option IF a trade opens a spot. With SP depth, voth should be a AAA depth. like Malone was
Its highly doubtful they assign Voth to Triple-A after signing him to a major league deal. He is out of options and would have to clear waivers first.
Voth, Ok looks like something could come of him. He may be able to find a place in the pen at some point. He at least has a better chance than those before him. Now they will need more catchers to handle the overload how’s about bring in Harry for a workout?
Both Voth and Kriehbel can be very effective under good coaching. Any O’s fan knows. Great pickups.
Voth will come out of the pen for middle inning relief, if he’s effective in ST and does the Driveline thing. Like Snell, he was begging for a chance to pitch for his hometown team. Could work out. But last I checked, he’s not a .300 hitter with an OPS+ of 125. It’s like that new play, “Waiting for Arozarena.”
“Waiting for Arozarena”… I love that!
Muñoz
Brash
Topa
Speier
Saucedo
Voth
Thornton
Vargas/Kowar/Berroa
Voth and Thornton have guaranteed money, but not nearly the upside of the three below them, 2 of whom who will start in Tacoma next year.
I’d suggest Voth rent when he gets to Seattle.