The Mariners have claimed right-hander Mauricio Llovera from the Red Sox, reports Chris Cotillo of MassLive. The righty was designated for assignment a week ago when the Sox signed Lucas Giolito. Seattle’s 40-man roster is now at 39.
Llovera, 28 in April, has thrown 59 major league innings over the past four seasons. Splitting him time between the Phillies, Giants and Red Sox, he has a 5.80 combined earned run average. He has struck out 20.6% of batters faced, given out walks at a 10.1% clip and kept 44.6% of balls in play in the ground.
His results in the minors have been much better, with a 2.82 ERA at Triple-A in 92 2/3 innings over the past three years. He has a 25.9% strikeout rate at that level while walking just 8.8% of batters faced there. Almost half of that Triple-A time came in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League while he was in the Giants’ system.
The M’s are apparently intrigued by those minor league results but Llovera is now out of options. That means he has to stick on the active roster or else be removed from the 40-man entirely. Since he has a previous career outright, he would have the right to elect free agency if he were to be passed through waivers in the future. That perhaps suggests that he has a legitimate chance of making the team in Seattle. If he clicks with the Mariners, he can be controlled for five seasons before he would qualify for free agency.
Mariners knew all star closer for 2024 they’ll trade at deadline.
Hab – Was gonna say, he could be the next Brasier.
Available at Dairy Queen, er DQ?
Fever don’t be fooled by cheap imitations!!! Only accept the true ONE!!!
olmtiant – I’m breaking this news here!
Red Sox just announced they have backed out of the Town Hall at next week’s Winter Weekend!
This ownership group is looking worse and worse every year.
When a venture capital group buys into your ownership structure, you have to know that a big pile of cash is about to be siphoned out every year. Those guys aren’t looking for single digit ROIs each year, and even less so in a higher rate environment like now.
GASox – Superb post, I completely concur!
I was so looking forward to asking at the Town Hall: “When do you intend to elevate payroll spending so it’s in line with revenue, making the team competitive enough to finally get out of last place?”
I am looking forward to the Cinco Ocho Show though.
Unbelievable!!! I have the look of Calvin Schrialdi in the bottom of the tenth after first two outs……
olm – Schiraldi is from Texas!
You know who else is from Texas?
Ryan Brasier!!!
5 degrees of separation!!
If he’s an all star closer at the trade deadline this is a great waiver claim. Anytime you can trade a BP arm for anything non BP of value, you do it everytime.
only one 40-man spot left for the M’s. will they sign another mlb free agent? whit merrifield looks like a necessity for them at this point, not just a perfect fit
Merrifield, at his age, is unlikely to outperform the misfit toys the Mariners already feature at 2b/3b for 2024.
im not all that inspired by either of urias or rojas, and i think that merrifield could also play some outfield for raley who will need a platoon partner. i think he plays all three positions the M’s have a need at, and he would allow them to carry more depth in AAA to start the year. maybe not exciting, but he would be more valuable there than a lot of other places
Roster space isn’t an issue. They’d simply DFA him, or another relief project to make room if they need the space for a better player.
would be interested to see which relief projects they actually value enough to keep on the 40, it would perhaps give some insight into how they consistently are able to manufacture pitchers
I’m breaking this news here!
Red Sox just announced they have backed out of the Town Hall at next week’s Winter Weekend!
This ownership group is looking worse and worse every year.
Mister Loverman
I can’t believe someone claimed him. Maybe he’s a decent guy, but Llovera is a terrible baseball player.
I got to see him pitch in person twice. Once for the Phillies in 2021 and once for Boston last year. His combined line: 1 inning, 6 hits, 6 earned runs, 3 homers. And the 3 home runs came back-to-back-to-back against the Mets before he was yanked without recording an out.
That Bloom & Co. traded for the guy, maybe the worst reliever in baseball, because the Red Sox were so bereft of capable pitching is such an indictment of Bloom’s time in Boston.
sam – You know what’s even funnier about that trade?
The kid Bloom traded (Marques Johnson) to get Llovera is not only 4 years younger, but he pulled a Brasier too:
Salem (Red Sox) – 6.55 ERA and 1.602 WHIP
San Jose (Giants) – 0.00 ERA and 0.982 WHIP
That trade could go down as one of the worst in MLB!
Marques Johnson, the former NBA All-Star forward? He’s 67 years old.
Fever Pitch Guy: Giants still won the trade.
I actually live just south of Salem, VA.
You saw him twice, both times in hitter friendly ball parks.
Not saying he will become a late inn RPer in SEA but Pitchers LOVE pitching in SEA. HR balls go to die in that cold park on Elliott Bay. He will skip all the way to SEA knowing…..
BOS is THE most hitter friendly park in the AL. Its 3rd in all of MLB behind CIN and COL. Citizens Bank Park regularly inflates HR and fly ball rates. Year in yr out the park in PHI rates in the Top 10 hitters park in MLB
Superb post, I completely concur!
I was so looking forward to asking at the Town Hall: “When do you intend to elevate payroll spending so it’s in line with revenue, making the team competitive enough to finally get out of last place?”
I am looking forward to the Cinco Ocho Show though.
I don’t now wt the owner of Boston don’t spen some money?? Fkkk
I watched Mauricio Llovera throw some impressive batting practice in 2021 while pitching for the Phillies. Unfortunately, it occurred during a game.
They certainly have an eye on pitchers. Does this one come with options? Somehow they still could do a better examination of what they don’t have. Plenty of time, if not money to improve this team. Will collectively cross are fingers that this turns out better than last year.
Lee, it looks like Seattle is just sifting through the available players like someone might idly sort through a bag of fall apples to see if any are still worth keeping.
They’re where they need to be, and there’s not much else to occupy their time, so they tinker.
Carmel is what the M’s put on those apples Fred. That’s how they will get there monies worth out of them.
You know what’s even funnier about that trade?
The kid Bloom traded (Marques Johnson) to get Llovera is not only 4 years younger, but he pulled a Brasier too:
Salem (Red Sox) – 6.55 ERA and 1.602 WHIP
San Jose (Giants) – 0.00 ERA and 0.982 WHIP
That trade could go down as one of the worst in MLB!
That’s Seattle’s headache!
Was gonna say, he could be the next Brasier.
Okay to say it icon… just say it with pride!!!!
After trading Isaiah Campbell to the Red Sox, the Mariners this offseason have signed or acquired a boatload of relievers:
Brett de Geus
Jackson Kowar
Cole Phillips
Carlos Vargas
Tyson Miller
Cody Bolton
Cory Abbott
Kirby Snead
Jhonathan Diaz
Mauricio Llovera
The cost-conscious Mariners have a history of successfully rescuing relievers from the scrapheap.
Phillips is a 20-year-old starter prospect coming off TJ surgery. The others, I’d agree. Jerry’s Ms love assembling large reliever piles to see which 2 or 3 they can transform into useful major leaguers and trade chips.
Where is the Llove, You said you’d give to me soon as you were free will it ever be? Where is the Llove?
Summer of 1972
Great song by Roberta Flack and Donnie Hathaway, who would go on to sing the theme from Maude. So sad that he committed suicide.
These comments just keep skewing older and older….
Fine. I’ll withhold my Diana Ross “You can’t hurry Llove” comment.
You can certainly have him
You know what’s even funnier about that trade?
The kid Bloom traded (Marques Johnson) to get Llovera is not only 4 years younger, but he pulled a Brasier too:
Salem (Red Sox) – 6.55 ERA and 1.602 WHIP
San Jose (Giants) – 0.00 ERA and 0.982 WHIP
That trade could go down as one of the worst in MLB!
I know I read that somewhere.
He will be setting up Matt brash and munoz by June
Is it “Low-vehra” or “Yo-vehra”? Inquiring minds want to know.
I will respond as a grateful reader of Zippy the P, one of the truly great comics of all time. During a couple of Sox games I listened to last year, they said they were told the correct pronunciation of his name is “Jo – VER – a.” (With a J. Yeah, I know.)
Baseball Reference agrees: Pronunciation: \joh-VAIR-uh\
baseball-reference.com/players/l/llovema01.shtml
So does that mean the team officially has some Sodo Mo-Jo?
Yup, you heard it here first.
Garbage
He sounds like the love interest in a Spanish novela.