Reliever Matt Bowman exercised an opt-out clause in his minor league deal with the Mariners, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post (X link). Seattle granted him his release rather than call him to the MLB bullpen.
That sends Bowman back to free agency, a fairly common occurrence over the past few weeks. He decided to test the open market after successive designations by the Diamondbacks and Mariners. Bowman inked minor league deals with Seattle both times. He was called to the majors once during his first stint but didn’t get a call since signing his most recent contract a couple weeks ago. The 33-year-old sinkerballer has pitched six times with Triple-A Tacoma over the last two weeks, surrendering four runs through eight innings.
Bowman had fired six innings without allowing an earned run for the Twins’ top affiliate in April. He has surrendered five runs (four earned) with 18 strikeouts and three walks across 16 Triple-A frames on the season. He hasn’t matched that at the major league level, where he has given up nine runs with a 10:7 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 15 frames.
It has been a few years since Bowman held down a long-term stop in a major league bullpen. He’s putting together a second straight solid Triple-A campaign after turning in a 3.99 ERA with a 51.9% ground-ball rate in 49 appearances for the Yankees’ top affiliate a year ago. Bowman should quickly land another minor league contract now that he’s again on the free agent market.
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Did they see if he can hit first? He could have a future in Seattle if he can.
Yeah,if he can hit above .218 he’ll be above average for the team.
Cbeisbol- No one cares if you “mute” people
Guy’s been around the whole country in 2024. I hope he got a souvenir t-shirt during his travels.
He was ruined by Mike Matheny. He pitched him in 50+ games in one season and 70+ games in the next season – he’d never had a workload like that, and his arm was never the same after.
He climbed up as a starter with plenty of prior innings through the Mets’ farm system.
You are correct, he was a starter then, and if the Cardinals had kept him a starter, I’d hav no complaints. But my point wasn’t about innings pitched – it was about appearances. In 2017, he appeared in something like 75 games, and probably got warm in another 25. Starters go 5-7 innings every five days. It was common for Bowman to pitch or get up in the pen 3-4games in a row. In the second half of that season, Bowman was the Cardinals’ guy who entered with multiple runners on and 1 out or less – a double play specialist in high pressure games. He wasn’t a low-pressure, inning eater like he became after he got hurt and lost command within the zone. Mike Matheny (who I’ve met a couple of times and is a great guy) was fixated on the playoffs so that every game required max effort by the roster. A young reliever like Bowman won’t tell his manager “I need a day or two, Skip.” Bowman (and before him, Seth Maness, we disposable.
And no, I don’t have a Matt Bowman fan club and I’m not his fishing buddy. I just hate to see pitchers hurt when it is preventable.