The Mariners announced Wednesday that they’ve claimed outfielder Canaan Smith-Njigba off waivers from the Pirates. Right-hander Darren McCaughan was designated for assignment to open a spot on the 40-man roster. At least for the time being Smith-Njigba will head to the same city as his younger brother, Jaxon — a wide receiver for the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks.
Now 24 years old, Smith-Njigba was one of four players the Yankees traded to Pittsburgh in the trade that brought righty Jameson Taillon to the Bronx. He’s posted nice minor league numbers but seen minimal time in the big leagues. Through 44 MLB plate appearances, Smith-Njigba is a .135/.250/.243 hitter, but he’s posted a .273/.366/.439 slash in parts of three Triple-A campaigns. That includes a 2023 season that saw him slash .280/.366/.473 (110 wRC+) with 15 homers, 28 doubles, a triple and a 21-for-26 showing in stolen base attempts. Smith-Njigba also walked at a strong 11.9% clip with Indy this past season, but his 26.5% strikeout rate could stand to improve.
Smith-Njigba has drawn praise for above-average raw power and speed in the past, though that raw power hasn’t translated to much in the way of home runs. Last year’s 15 round-trippers were a career-high, and he’s only reached double digits in homers in one other season. Smith-Njigba’s strong walk rates and left-handed bat will help the Mariners to replace some of the outfield depth they lost when trading Zach DeLoach to the White Sox and Jarred Kelenic to the Braves. He has a minor league option remaining and has hit reasonably well at virtually every minor league level, evidenced by a career .277/.382/.429 slash in six professional seasons.
McCaughan, 28 next month, has spent his entire career in the Mariners organization since being taken in the 12th round of the 2017 draft. He’s twice received a call to the big leagues but has just 14 MLB frames under his belt, during which he’s been slammed for 11 earned runs. The right-hander posted respectable Triple-A numbers in a hitter-friendly league environment during the 2021-22 seasons but was roughed up for a 5.83 ERA in 139 Triple-A frames in 2023. Overall, he carries a career 5.22 ERA in parts of five seasons with the Mariners’ Tacoma affiliate, though his aforementioned ’21 (4.46 ERA, 121 innings) and ’22 (4.55 ERA, 154 innings) performances were a far sight better.
The Mariners will have a week to trade McCaughan or attempt to pass him through outright waivers. He still has a minor league option remaining. If he goes unclaimed, he’ll have the right to reject an outright assignment by virtue of a previous outright earlier in his career, but his longstanding tenure in the Mariners organization could make him likelier to accept if things reach that point.
ok
Brothers unite
The M’s seem satisfied being a borderline playoff team that wins anywhere between 87 and 91 games each year.
Its called depth. Of the AAA or journeyman type players.
He does have some power and a good amount of 2b’s/AB. BB above ave and dosnt K as much. Can steal afew bases. The amount of 2b is of interest, could translate into more HR’s as he matures.
“It’s called depth”..Where did you see me mention this particular move?.Obviously I’m talking about in general, not this one move. I wouldn’t use one move to critique any team. I’ve never even heard of this particular guy so I’m clearly talking about the M’s off-season in general.
Then your comment has absolutely nothing to do with this post is what you’re saying.
He has the raw power and build to hit homers, just needs to put the ball in the air more. I like Smith-Njiba, there really isn’t any standout tools in his game but he provides some value in a lot of different ways (draws walks, steals some bases, gets on base, lefty hitter, etc.). I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up having a Mark Canha type of career where he never seems to be more than a slightly above average player that bounces around the league a bit and you kinda think the wheels will fall off at any point but 7-8 years later he’s still productive.
Claiming Canaan Smith-Njigba certainly proves contentment with 87-91 wins. Clearly.
Smith-Njigba? Why is a man hyphenated??!
They have crushed it so far based on what they have to work with… It’s not like the FA class was anything special to pick from anyway.
In addition, Seattle likely has to offer a heck of a lot more than other teams to entice them to sign. Probably could have gotten Ohtani for $1.5 billion though.
why do you say that? If they are satisfied winning 87-91 wins I dont think they would make so many moves.
“Why do you say that?…make so many moves”….It’s always going to be a lot of moves with “Trader Jerry”, but many of the moves seem like lateral moves, not unlike rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Does anyone really think Luis Urias is an upgrade at 3b over Suarez?(was giving away Kelenic wise?)…I’m hopeful with the Polanco move though, because I saw him in Minnesota a couple years back and he seemed good, but that was a while ago.
“Does anyone really think Luis Urias is an upgrade at 3b over Suarez?”
Steamer projects Luis Urias with 2024 WAR and wRC+ of 1.8 and 104 in 110 games and Eugenio Suarez with 2024 WAR and wRC+ of 1.6 and 99 in 146 games.
ZiPS projects Luis Urias with 2024 WAR and wRC+ of 1.9 and 104 in 119 games and Eugenio Suarez with 2024 WAR and wRC+ of 1.9 and 96 in 148 games.
FanGraphs projects Luis Urias with 2024 WAR and wRC+ of 1.3 and 104 in 73 games and Eugenio Suarez with 2024 WAR and wRC+ of 1.7 and 98 in 141 games.
We received a pretty good pitching prospect when they “gave away” Kelenic. By the way, Kelenic had one HR in his fast 200+ at bats.
Mariners always seem like they make moves for the sake of it, just being bored. Aside from the Castillo deal, seems like they just shift things around back and forth and tough to tell if they are better from it.
Well they can’t sign FA unless they go way above everyone else so they need to make trades and it would take Gilbert or Kirby to get an elite bat via trade.
It may seem that way from fans who are on the outside looking in, but if you knew how hard it is for this M’s FO to get any money (at all) from ownership you’d know that they HAVE to make trades using prospects and ML roster spots to try to improve.
Another thing I’d add Camels35: if you are visiting this MLBTR site multiple times daily like this Mariners fan, you’d also know that every single MLB team is adding depth to their Minor and Major League teams this time of year. This Mariners fanbase is not the only one that has negative reactions to Minor League Depth acquisitions. But you’d probably know that.
Luke Raley was one of the most productive corner outfielders vs. RHPs last year. When you adjust for PAs, I believe he was 10th or 11th. in wRC+
Raley > Kelenic.
Honestly, I can’t believe Atlanta was willing to eat so much salary to get Kelenic. Watching Seattle get Raley for Caballero to replace him made it even more justifiable.
“Fangraphs project Luis Urias”…I’m not too impressed by projections but if you want to use analytics, How about Urias’ negative WAR from last year?…And the guy is only 26 and has already been on 5 teams, so lots of teams feel comfortable moving on from Urias. Urias has been on more teams than years of service.
He got injured early in the year and the middle of the year. 21-22 he was a 104 wRc+ bat. At 26 years old, fair to gamble he can bounce back to that level in a timeshare role with Josh Rojas.
What would you do instead (of running your mouth)?
Three teams have traded away Luis Urias but three teams traded value to acquire Urias, who is in his fourth organization.
No team has ever waived Urias, who has value.
Feels like most of the league is trying for 85 wins anymore. There’s a few clear contenders a few clear bottom dwellers but most of the league is bulding for a wildcard contention.
Let’s keep adding more playoff brackets and they won’t even need to win 81 games!
It has nothing to do with depth. The “brothers’ hook is the motivator in this acquisition.
The hope is that it will stir fan interest and sell tickets.
If this 24-yr-old develops well, that is just a little frosting on the cake.
Hey Fred, this guy can play all over the field, He can swipe a base when needed, No telling how well he develops hitting. There might be an opening for him. Didn’t Haggerty get traded? Seems I came across that.
54% baby!!!
Pirates act like they’re allergic to OFers. They can’t have more than 3 legitimate ones on their 40-man.
They can’t seem to have more than one legitimate starting pitcher either and I’m still waiting for those transactions Nutting and Cherington said to would be making several weeks ago
Both said they were only half done with trades and/or signing free agents
Spring training starts in one week, it’s apparent they will be dumpster diving again this year
Agreed. Glad they made some moves but if they spent their money on Chapman and don’t further address starting pitching I will be disappointed. They got Keller and a bunch of 4-5 starters. Not sure if there’s a FA out there who can be a 1-3 type (maybe Clevinger or blackballed Bauer) so they should trade for someone like Edward Cabrera.
Yeah, agreed. There are some here who say the kid had his chances. But after watching literally everyone designated a middle infielder get long looks with the big club last season—and all season long— you have to wonder. The logic they used with this kid—even with dropping Andujar—is lost on me.
Will be interested to see how he progresses
Smith-Njigba reunion.
The Pirates shouldn’t have let him go. Nice young depth piece to have in the minors.
Don’t sign Chapman? Or who you getting rid of?
Again, he’ll go to the minors as he still has an option year left.
Since the first of the year, this is now the fifth player with a last name starting with “s” that the Mariners have added. Snead, Solak, Santos, Snider, and now Smith-Njigba.
Well then that must mean Snell is next !!!!
Seems like the Sox couldn’t get him out in the series the Pirates played at Fenway last april and apparently he didn’t hit anywhere else…
Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s brother.
You sure? Smith is one of or the most common last name.
Love this move. Seems like the Pirates gave up on him too early. Like him better than DeLoach. Has Athletic talent that runs thru the family. Maybe it will all synergize in Seattle.
NSB, like DeLoach, is 8th or 9th on their depth chart, and would have a hard chance at finding a ML spot this season.
I’m not surprised the M’s chose to add another depth piece, I am very surprised that Darren McCaughan is the player who loses his spot on the 40 man Roster. If you look at the various Projection models for McCaughan, he was projected to have much higher value than I thought. Zips even saw him having more value than Bryan Woo! Zips projected Darren Mac to have 1.7 fWAR! Woo 1.6 fWAR Interesting….
Huh, that’s interesting, I’ve always read that McCaughan has middling low-velo stuff, albeit with a funky arm angle and great spin rate, but nothing that projects to him being anything more than average.
I was surprised that McCaughan was the one, too. Seattle doesn’t have much for starting pitching depth.
But maybe this signals that minor-league deals are in the works.
Projections can get it wrong a lot. McCaughan has nothing in his repertoire that can consistently get MLB hitters out. He’s only good for that one random spot start a year when he throws batting practice for about 4-5 innings, then gets sent back to AAA.
McCaughan being on the 40 has always surprised me. He hasn’t proven to be anything but a decent AAA starter. If the M’s really believed in him, he’d have been pitching in AA, oddly enough, which isn’t so batter-friendly. And hey, at least the new guy has a place to live if he needs it.
He had to be on the 40 because Seattle couldn’t afford to DFA him and lose him last season. They were depleted due to injury and Flexen’s cliff-dive.
He certainly isn’t seen as anything more than depth, but this still surprises me, because they lack SP depth right now.
But there’s plenty of time to find reserve starters for AAA. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a veteran signed to a minor-league deal as well as a waiver claim, perhaps out of spring.
Tommy Milone is inevitable.
He still can pitch in a pinch maybe good for 3,4,5, innings.
Well they still have McCaughan at AAA depth so thats good since no one claimed him and he’s signing a minor league deal with the M’s.
They need more SP depth even with him in the organization. Joyce might be an under-the-radar internal option, but it would be good to see at least one more veteran brought in.
Well this didn’t age well…
The M’s have there vacuum cleaner out, scooping up every available pitcher out there. Injuries aside somehow I can’t see them shorthanded like they were last year. I would like to see another potent bat somewhere on the team. Can you believe Teo, getting 23.5 mil. for one year.