The Mariners placed Trent Thornton on the 15-day injured list on Friday, and announced that the right-hander will miss the rest of the season due to a torn left Achilles tendon. Thornton had to be carted off the field after he suffered the injury in the ninth inning of Thursday’s 6-0 M’s win over the Rangers, as the reliever fell while leaving the mound to cover first base on an Adolis Garcia grounder. Follow-up tests revealed the unfortunate and expected news of an Achilles tear, and while a specific recovery timeline isn’t yet known, Thornton could be in jeopardy of missing some time at the start of the 2026 season.
Thornton has a 4.68 ERA over 42 1/3 innings for Seattle this season. A few particularly rough blowups have inflated his ERA, but his 17.8% strikeout rate is well below Thornton’s 26.2 K% from 2024. Owed a raise from his current $2MM salary in his final year of salary arbitration, Thornton will probably still be inexpensive enough that he won’t be non-tendered this winter, barring an unwelcome injury diagnosis. Since coming to the Mariners in a trade from the Blue Jays prior to the 2023 deadline, Thornton has been a workhorse out of Seattle’s pen, with a 3.65 ERA over 140 2/3 innings.
More from around the American League…
- Byron Buxton firmly denied any possibility of a trade away from the Twins back in mid-July, stating that he would use his contract’s no-trade provision to remain “a Minnesota Twin for the rest of my life.” It probably isn’t surprising that Buxton hasn’t changed course just a few weeks later, but in the wake of the Twins’ deadline selloff, Buxton reiterated to the Athletic’s Dan Hayes and other reporters that “nothing’s changed. It’s just part of baseball. It’s the business side of it. Just cause we go through these tough roads or whatever, it is what it is. We’ll be better once we get on the other end of it and figure things out a little bit more….But I ain’t going nowhere.” Buxton is owed roughly $49.6MM through the end of the 2028 season, and he has full no-trade protection until the end of the 2026 campaign.
- Most of the Rays’ deadline moves saw the team obtain either big leaguers or big league-ready talent in return, which was the team’s stated goal in any deal involving controllable talent heading out of Tampa. President of baseball operations Erik Neander told Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times that the Rays received “a lot of interest” in some veteran players, but “that wasn’t going to happen for A-ball prospects this time around.” The intention is to keep the team competitive for 2026 but also not robbing this year’s team of a chance to make a late run. The Rays have dug themselves into a hole with their dismal play over the last five weeks, as the club is now 55-58 and sit five games back of the final AL wild card berth.
- Miguel Vargas was a late scratch from Saturday’s White Sox lineup, and the team placed the corner infielder on the 10-day injured list today due to a left oblique strain. While oblique problems are difficult to diagnose in terms of a timeline, Vargas’ strain is believed to be mild, so he could only miss a couple of weeks. A very streaky season has evened out to a 97 wRC+ for Vargas over 439 plate appearances, with 13 home runs and a .229/.305/.402 slash line in Vargas’ first full season in Chicago.
His contract extension included a full no-trade clause. He said at the time of signing that he would retire a Twin, and he plans to keep it that way.
That’s a typo or an error in reporting. It’s for the entirety of the contract.
Philly – It’s kinda funny in this instance a player’s team doesn’t want the player to be loyal to the team.
No it is not a typo. Stop correcting people if you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Buxton only has a full NTC through next year.
Chill out- I stand corrected. Either way he will have 10/5 rights, so he still has the power to stop a trade. The author also worded the sentence awkwardly.
Buxton likely has a NMC included in his current contract, the 10-5 rights likely kick in after 2026, but the NMC expires after the 2026 season. Ultimately giving him a no trade clause thru 26, but league rights (the 10-5 then kick in) carry past his NMC. Just weird wording making it confusing. He has full control of where he will play thru this contract, and more if extended. An extension of his time in Minnesota will depend on a new contract agreed by both parties.
If buxton does waive his NTC it’s because someone gives him more money and I really can’t see any good gm doing that given his injury history.
Where else would he even want to go? Atlanta? It’s really sad that he couldn’t have had a couple seasons fully healthy just to see him at his full potential. Man could he play a CF. Durability is skill in itself.
You don’t think any other GM would extend Buxton or give him more than a 3yrs $45MM contract?
He’s got a +39. surplus value on BTV right now. He’s expected to produce about 3.5 WAR per season, and he’s clearly insanely dedicated to conditioning..
When Buxton signed his deal for 7yrs $105MM, he owned a career wRC+ of league average “100.” Over the course of the deal, he’s been wRC+ 130. His injury history hasn’t changed, but his projectable floor and expected production has clearly raised.
Unlike a lot of players, Buxton has aged very well. Have you looked at his sprint speed for the 31 year old? 30.2 ft/sec. Tied for 2nd best in all of MLB this year 0.1 ft/sec behind Bobby Witt, Jr. Buxton is back to his elite speed days. Zero GIDPs this year.
While I don’t think a lot of teams would “extend” Buxton or extend him by much, I do believe there are quite a few who would be willing to revisit the annual earnings.
I don’t think any team would extend someone who has played 140 games just once in his entire career.
He’s aged really well, only because they’ve treated him like he’s kawhi Leonard.
23 they DH him all year.
Last year he played 104 games I think.
You can’t have your best player available only 2/3 of the season if you’re lucky.
And as he ages he’s suddenly going to be playing more? Highly unlikely.
He’s unique and special buts he’s going to go down certainly in twins lore as a complete what if story. He’s hard to manage and even harder to build a team around.
Would contenders be interested absolutely but I don’t think anyone is going to pay fair market price it’s too big of a risk. Would he be great on say the Phillies where he wouldn’t need to be the guy he could be 4,5 best guy sure obviously plenty of contenders would love his glove alone in CF.
It’s going to be very interesting to see if buxton is going to want to stay because I think come the winter Joe Ryan and Pablo Lopez are both traded.
Buxton. Minnesota. Get it people.
There’s nothing to be discussed.
Buxton wants to be part of that mess with the Twins? Yikes ⚾
Yeah, that “mess” with the Twins. If you want to talk “mess” there are plenty of teams out there who are far worse off in terms of payroll, culture, and performance.
What you’re saying is the Twins are ‘best of the worst’? No one goes to the Twins. They end up there.
Carlos Correa, Josh Donaldson, Byron Buxton, Pablo Lopez, they’re all big extensions/free agent signings in recent years.
The Twins are clearly not a destination for players today, but they have been viewed just fine until just recently. They’re not the Dodgers, Yankees or Mets, but they’re not one of the bottom 10, destinations, either.
I think the Rays realize the AL is wide open this year. Not one AL team looks like a true pennant winner.
With good health and a well-timed winning streak, any team can win the AL pennant.
The Rays aren’t making the playoffs, They’re under .500 5.0 GB from the Wildcard with 3 teams ahead of them for the final Wildcard spot.
mart – No offense, but did you not follow baseball last year?
On August 10th the Tigers were 8 games under .500 and 10 games out of the final WC with 6 teams ahead of them. And guess what? They made the playoffs.
That’s just one of many examples where teams came back to make the playoffs.
Why do so many people here give up so easily? Thank God they aren’t in the military! LOL
Rays are 1 in 15 chance for making the playoffs based on projection models. So no, it’s not statistically impossible, but it’s far-fetched given the division they play in and the other teams they’re trying to pass.
mart – It’s sports. Comebacks happen all the time. Upsets happen all the time.
But you’re no longer definitively saying the Rays won’t make the playoffs, so we are aligned now :O)
FPG – That may be, but the probabilities are stacked against the Rays. They are beginning a 12 game road trip to the West Coast today and they typically come back from West Coast road trips with a .500 or below record. I expect they will be fully out of the playoff race in 2 weeks. Then again, Stu was playing with the new owner’s chips when he authorized the Deadline moves and non-moves this year. It would take a miracle for the Rays to make the playoffs, but what did it matter when he won’t own the team next year?
mp – Yes of course it’s a longshot, but considering how weak the league is this year anything is possible.
Just like last year, when most of the top AL teams in early August began losing and losing and losing …. except for the Tigers.
Anyone know why Thornton was put on the 15-d and not the 60-d? He’s done for the season anyway.
He’ll be added to 60 day if/when they need his 40 man spot. Right now, that spot wasn’t being given to anyone
Bit of a shame with Vargas. He was heating up again. He’s starting to show he can be a useful player, even if he never becomes anything close to a star. Several years of that is at least something useful from the Fedde trade.