Zach Pop cleared outright waivers and elected free agency, the Mariners announced. Seattle had designated the righty reliever for assignment over the weekend.
Pop, 28, had a brief run in Dan Wilson’s bullpen. He signed a minor league contract in mid-April and was selected onto the MLB roster on June 13. The Kentucky product made four appearances over the next two weeks. He gave up nine runs (eight earned) on 10 hits and a pair of walks through 5 1/3 innings. Pop recorded only three strikeouts among 30 batters faced with a well below-average 7% swinging strike percentage.
Before his brief run in Seattle, Pop spent a couple seasons as a middle reliever with the Blue Jays. He hasn’t missed many bats but recorded a gaudy 55% ground-ball rate across 48 1/3 innings last year. While hitters had a difficult time elevating the ball, they did a lot of damage when they were able to get it in the air. More than 20% of fly balls cleared the fences, leading to a 5.59 earned run average.
Pop owns a 4.75 ERA in parts of five big league campaigns. He’ll probably be limited to minor league offers but should intrigue teams as a depth option thanks to a sinker that averages around 96 MPH.
Iggy’s kid?
I show my age more and more every day! LOL
Pitchers come and go, he did create a lot of popups.
Snap and Crackle to be DFA’d next…
Zach Soda in some parts of the country
Lost any Pop he had from last year.