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Mariners Outright Seby Zavala

By Steve Adams | June 22, 2024 at 2:10pm CDT

TODAY: Zavala cleared waivers and has been outrighted to Triple-A Tacoma, the Mariners announced.

JUNE 18: The Mariners have designated catcher Seby Zavala for assignment, per a team announcement. His spot on the roster will go to first baseman Ty France, who’s been reinstated from the 10-day injured list. Seattle’s 40-man roster is now down to 37 players.

Acquired alongside flamethrowing relief prospect Carlos Vargas in the offseason trade sending Eugenio Suarez and his remaining salary to the D-backs, Zavala entered the 2024 season as the primary backup to catcher Cal Raleigh. He’s only appeared in 18 games and taken 43 plate appearances, however, in part due to Raleigh’s iron-man workload — his 503 innings behind the dish rank second in MLB to William Contreras — and also due to some pronounced struggles in that limited playing time. Zavala is batting just .154/.214/.282 with a 37.2% strikeout rate thus far.

The Mariners signed former Twins and Rangers catcher/designated hitter Mitch Garver to a two-year pact over the winter, with the idea that Garver would serve as the full-time designated hitter. But as Garver has begun to heat up after a dreadful start at the plate (.229/.413/.571 over his past 46 plate appearances), the Mariners have begun using him at catcher more frequently. He’s still only made four appearances at the position, but they’ve all come in the past two weeks. And whether it’s coincidence or not, Garver’s turnaround at the plate has dovetailed with the team’s decision to begin plugging him back into the catcher’s spot on occasion.

With Garver now factoring into the catching equation, Zavala’s grip on a roster spot appeared increasingly tenuous. He’s a glove-first, light-hitting backup who’s always been prone to whiffs, as evidenced by a career 35.9% strikeout rate. The Mariners have been seeking ways to inject some life into a lackluster offense that has thus far been supported by a dominant pitching staff. Plugging Garver into that backup catcher role is one logical way to do that.

Though Zavala is highly prone to punchouts and carries an unsightly .205/.271/.342 batting line in 557 big league plate appearances, he’s a premium defender with particularly strong marks for his framing and ability to block balls in the dirt. Zavala is out of minor league options, so the Mariners didn’t have the ability to simply send him to the minors.

As such, Zavala will now be traded or placed on outright waivers within the next five days. Waivers themselves would be a 48-hour process. Within a week’s time, Zavala will know whether he’s cleared waivers or is headed to another team, either via trade or claim. He’s been outrighted previously, so if he goes unclaimed he’d have the right to reject a minor league assignment in favor of free agency.

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Seattle Mariners Transactions Seby Zavala

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View Comments (29)
Post a Comment

29 Comments

  1. taco guy

    1 year ago

    One San Diego State guy for another.

    Go Aztecs

    Reply
  2. sad tormented neglected mariners fan

    1 year ago

    Looks like we don’t need seby when garver has moved to backup catcher

    At least we are getting more out of Mitch with him sparing some rest for Cal

    9
    Reply
    • Fred Park

      1 year ago

      Or, there is very likely another catching prospect needing a shot at the big time.
      We’ll soon see.

      1
      Reply
      • BillR47

        1 year ago

        There is no way the M’s are promoting Harry Ford yet with only about 200 AA plate appearances— this is about using Garver some games at catcher and moving on from a player they were not using.

        3
        Reply
        • User 42432876

          1 year ago

          Harry ford will get some AAA at bats this year and will be the starter for the Mariners in 2025. Cal Raliegh will be traded this offseason, mariners aren’t gonna extend a 31 year old (when his deals up) catcher who’s a Boras client. Cal has positional value and can bring a decent return meanwhile Ford is on pace to steal 45 bases. As a catcher. He’s got all the tools to be at least Cal if not better and much younger.

          4
          Reply
        • MartialArtisan

          1 year ago

          Nah Stanton will man up and extend Cal and the Mariners will have a 2 headed monster at Catcher next year…

          Reply
        • Littleman20

          1 year ago

          I wouldn’t be surprised if in the near future, they start experimenting different positions for Harry Ford. I just don’t see him being every day catcher in the majors.

          Plus, a guy with his kind of speed Shouldn’t be putting all that stress on his knees being a catcher

          1
          Reply
        • Greyhawk

          1 year ago

          You make a few good points. Especially the one that says he’s a Boras client. I’d like them to extend Cal now, but Boras won’t allow it, sadly.

          Reply
  3. Old York

    1 year ago

    So far, the D-Backs won the trade.

    To D-Backs: Eugenio Suarez: 0.2 WAR

    To Seattle:
    Seby Zavala: -0.1 WAR
    Carlos Vargas: N/A

    Depends how Vargas pans out, though.

    Reply
    • slund24

      1 year ago

      well the trade from the Mariners was all about dumping Suarez’s salary so thats all they really cared about. I’m sure Vargas will pitch for them at some point and it appears that Suarez is not going to be playing much moving forward so you might say Mariners won as they dumped the salary and Rojas has replaced Eugenio in the lineup with better production.

      9
      Reply
      • Old York

        1 year ago

        @slund24′

        I’m looking at the trade itself. Seattle is far from the luxury tax so they could have eaten the salary anyway.

        Reply
        • slund24

          1 year ago

          Ok, looking at the trade itself. Mariners improved their team and shedded salary with this trade. Moving off Suarez allowed Rojas to move to 3B who has been better than Suarez. Vargas adds BP depth which I’m sure sees action at some point this year. So you can’t really say Mariners lost the trade when they improved their team with the trade.

          3
          Reply
        • Old York

          1 year ago

          @slund24

          They lost the trade but won the war.

          4
          Reply
        • wayneroo

          1 year ago

          Yeah they could have, but why would they remotely want to?

          Reply
        • SewaldSwansonSwoon

          1 year ago

          Lol Old York the clown clowns again

          Reply
    • myaccount2

      1 year ago

      Shedding $13M at the expense of a 0.2 WAR player isn’t a loss, in my opinion. Doesn’t matter how Vargas plays or if he even makes it to the bigs if Suarez keeps performing like this.

      5
      Reply
    • Ringorbust

      1 year ago

      They shed 13M in payroll and have gotten significantly better production from Suarez replacements than the .2 WAR he’s had so far. You can’t look at baseball moves in a vacuum and if you do, you have to include all aspects in your analysis.

      5
      Reply
      • Old York

        1 year ago

        @slund24′ & @Ringorbust

        Okay, I’ll take the loss on this one. Your relentless pointing out facts destroyed my original post.

        1
        Reply
      • Greyhawk

        1 year ago

        I think you have to look at the Delta (the difference between one player and the other). What is Royas’ War right now comparatively?

        Reply
  4. solaris602

    1 year ago

    Didn’t take a baseball genius to see this coming before Zavala even arrived in SEA. Note to Cubs front office: I know your catching situation is dire, but Zavala is NOT an improvement. Keep looking.

    2
    Reply
  5. AllAboutBaseball

    1 year ago

    DBacks Legend!

    Reply
  6. sad tormented neglected mariners fan

    1 year ago

    At least they aren’t demoting locklear with France coming back, Tyler has shown some good potential with his hitting

    3
    Reply
  7. UWPSUPERFAN77

    1 year ago

    He will get another job. At least he plays defense well.

    Reply
  8. pharmor_loverchicagoridge

    1 year ago

    Word on the street in Bridgeport Chicago is that a whitesox reunion is not far off. Hopefully this rumor is true as anything is better than Maldonado. Back to drinking my Zimas and listening to the cicadas in armour square. You heard it here first baseball fans

    Reply
    • MartialArtisan

      1 year ago

      You still drink Zima? I haven’t seen that stuff since the early 90’s!

      1
      Reply
      • ChicagoCool

        1 year ago

        …I’m still hanging on to a half-case of Ripple !

        Reply
  9. lee cousins

    1 year ago

    This turns out to be a crap shoot on most players delivering the goods. Players such as Zavala, Urias, Polanco, Garver, Haniger, France, even Crawford and so on either don’t show up or are late, or are inconsistent. must drive them nuts.

    Reply
  10. lee cousins

    1 year ago

    How about that game yesterday? M’s pitching fell apart, did not play well in this series, count them that’s both series. Those Indians do have the hitting along with the base stealing if for nothing else they did expose our weakness. Voight sure ended up in a good spot hey?

    Reply
  11. pharmor_loverchicagoridge

    1 year ago

    Word on the streets in Bridgeport Chicago is that a whitesox reunion is close to happening. Hopefully they release that bum Maldonado who shouldn’t even be on a peewee league roster. Now back to my Zima

    Reply

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