The Mariners announced that they have acquired right-hander Casey Legumina from the Reds. Cincinnati, who designated Legumina for assignment last week when they signed Austin Hays, receives cash considerations in return. The M’s have designated left-hander Jhonathan Díaz for assignment in a corresponding move.
Legumina, 28 in June, has a limited major league track record to this point. He threw a combined 22 innings for the Reds over the past two seasons, allowing 17 earned runs for an unpleasant 6.75 ERA. His 16.7% strikeout rate and 10.2% walk rate in that time have both been below average, though his 56.4% ground ball rate has been strong.
The M’s are probably more interested in his larger sample of minor league work. Over the past four years, he has logged 226 2/3 innings on the farm with a 4.05 ERA, 26% strikeout rate and 8.5% walk rate. He did a decent amount of starting earlier in his career but has primarily been working in relief over the past two seasons.
He still has one option year remaining and less than a full season of service time. That means he can be shuttled between the majors and the minors pretty freely for one more year and can also be cheaply retained well into the future if he continues to hang onto a roster spot. The M’s apparently had enough interest in Legumina as a depth arm that they sent some cash to the Reds in order to skip the waiver line.
Díaz, 28, also has a small big league résumé. He has thrown 45 innings in the majors, scattered across four different seasons. He has a 4.80 ERA, 15% strikeout rate, 12.6% walk rate and 45.7% ground ball rate.
Naturally, the minor league numbers are better, and in a larger sample. Over the past four years, he has thrown 328 innings on the farm, most of that coming in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. He has a 4.42 ERA in that time, along with a 23.6% strikeout rate, 9.4% walk rate and grounders on about half of the balls in play he allowed.
Díaz still has a couple of options and could perhaps appeal to a club looking for some affordable rotation depth. The M’s will have a maximum of one week of DFA limbo to figure out what’s next for the lefty, though the waiver process takes 48 hours, so any trade talks would need to happen in the next five days.
jerry cooking
Jerry Dipoto has firmly reestablished his status as defender of the status quo, protector of his master’s bounty and the “King of lateral trades”.
I doubt Jerry is happy with the situation. You can only work with what ownership gives him
Jerry took what ownership gave him and traded it for a Case’ o’ magic beans.
Let us know what sort of transformational and groundbreaking changes you’re making with your own line of work that goes directly against the wishes of your bosses.
“Ground breaking changes”..Getting good baseball players is hardly “ground breaking”. The Dodgers(and Mets, Phillies, Yankees, Rangers…etc)Jerry Dipoto IS in the business of acquiring good baseball players you know.
It’s not like I judged Jerry on his ability to build a ship or a car you know. Do you think it’s “transformational” when a brick layer lays a brick?
Dipoto does not get to dictate his team’s budget. He has to work within the boundaries that he was given. Inaction doesn’t mean he isn’t trying. He wants to protect his job security as much as the fans want to see their team win.
Making these depth moves is essential to the foundation of the team; it IS laying a brick as a brick layer.
lasagna or legumes
Sounds delicious.
Lego Mania
John Leguizamo
Jerry and AJ really having twin offseasons.
Mariners and Padres a little trade tango?
Must be something in the water in Peoria.
Buffalo Bob considers cash considerations as good as money. He heard a famous ballplayer say something like that.
AFLAC!
The Seattle Reds strike again.
the churn of the players we probably never heard of.
The Palouse Hills raised the lentil man…
Diaz is a pretty quality arm. Is this dude better with his 8.00 era?
How will the M’s ever survive without their 4.5 ERA 9th starter?
Typical Mariners garbage move… Might as well throw in the towel already, oh wait, there fireworks nights to look forward to.
Don’t forget bobbleheads and kids run the bases!!!
And hot dogs from heaven!
Has any GM come close to the same amount of trades as Dipoto over the last 4 years
Oh what thrilling news. Can we please make some moves for better bats now?
They’re replacing a starter that is 8th on the 40 man depth chart and in all reality probably further down behind Evans, Garcia, and Morales for a bullpen arm that they apparently value more than Diaz. Bullpen was one of the worst in MLB so BP help is needed. This guy has options and M’s have done well with these types of arms. Every MLB teams makes several moves to try to improve their depth or team in many ways. If Diaz pitches for M’s then they probably hit some serious issues with starters. They need more BP arms so this isn’t a move to be upset about
Diaz was 7th in the SP depth chart behind Hancock. The hope is Evans or Morales ascends, but keeping Diaz who is one of the few LHP on the 40 man seems more valuable than another RHP bullpen project.
It’s a depth move in any event and not one likely to make a big difference in any way, but one I’m a bit surprised by.
He was more than likely behind Castano on the 40 SP depth since they added him to protect him from Rule 5 so I would say #8. I guess obviously Castano is ahead of Diaz since they choose Diaz to DFA rather than Castano.
Castano was way worse last year, so I personally don’t see keeping him over Diaz. In the end, these are all players who shouldn’t get over 20 innings in season anyways, so really doesn’t matter much (and will likely all be DFA’d to make room for Evans, Morales, Garcia, Young, Ford, Cranton and Williamson later this year when they get the call; plus are far from guaranteed to not be put on waivers again prior to Opening Day).
I think Diaz was behind Hancock, Morales, Evans, and Brandyn Garcia as a starter. And will probably survive DFA to land in Tacoma.
All your dfa’s belong to Jerry
Legumina sounds like a female bean
Or a Hispanic toothless prostitute.
They finally found a way to get Jhonathan to get the H out of Seattle. Trading him for peanuts (peanuts are legumes).
Diaz is absolutely horrible… A batting practice pitcher. May as well sign Jamie Moyer.