The Mariners announced several roster moves today. Infielder Patrick Wisdom has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list and left-hander Robinson Ortiz has been recalled from Triple-A. The lefty will be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game. To open spots for those two, Seattle optioned right-hander Domingo González and infielder Leo Rivas. Additionally, the Mariners selected outfielder Brennen Davis to the 40-man roster and optioned him to Triple-A. The 40-man had a vacancy but is now full with Davis taking the open spot.
Ortiz, 26, was just acquired from the Dodgers in an offseason trade. As a minor leaguer, he has missed significant time due to injuries. When healthy, he has been able to get batters out but has also flashed control issues.
That has been the case in his first season with the M’s so far. He has thrown 16 Triple-A innings, allowing 1.69 earned runs per nine. He has struck out 26.1% of the batters he has faced and induced grounders on half the balls in play he has allowed but has also given out walks at a massive 17.4% clip. If it weren’t for a .211 batting average on balls in play and no fly balls clearing the fence, he surely would have suffered far worse results.
He has mostly been a fastball-slider guy this year, throwing those two pitches almost 90% of the time. His cutter has made up the rest of his offerings. The four-seamer is averaging 94.4 miles per hour this year with the slider at 83.9 mph.
It’s possible the the Mariners wanted to get a fresh arm onto the roster. They have been utilizing a six-man rotation lately, leaving them with only seven relievers. González has been heavily used recently, with four appearances in the past six days, including the two most recent contests. If González was going to be unavailable for a day or two, that would drop the Mariners to only six available relievers. Instead, they have swapped in Ortiz, who will make his major league debut as soon as soon as he gets the call.
More to come.
Why would they select Davis just to option him? Did he have an opt out or something?
Yes he did.
Should have let Wisdom hangout in AAA and called Davis up. Unless JP is hurt..
Wisdom can also back up Emerson at 3B and Naylor at 1B. I still would’ve preferred them to call up Brennan Davis and send Joe back down. Davis hits RH and is killing it in Tacoma, even for the PCL.