The Mariners announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Michael Rucker. Fellow righty Domingo González has been designated for assignment as the corresponding move.
Last night, the Mariners went into the game with a pretty taxed bullpen. They are operating with a six-man rotation at the moment, giving them a seven-man bullpen while most other clubs have eight. Andrés Muñoz, Jose A. Ferrer, Eduard Bazardo and Gabe Speier all pitched two out of three days from Sunday to Tuesday. Alex Hoppe and Nick Davila both pitched on Tuesday.
George Kirby started last night’s game and was dealing for a while, keeping the Orioles scoreless through five. But he allowed three runs in the sixth, putting the M’s down 3-0. Seattle opted to have González enter at that point. He covered the seventh and eighth, allowing four earned runs and throwing 39 pitches as Baltimore took the game 7-2. While the other arms got a day of rest, the Mariners have decided to swap in a fresh arm for tonight.
González, 26, was claimed off waivers from Atlanta last year. He has made five appearances for the Mariners this year as they have shuttled him between Triple-A and the majors. In his 7 2/3 innings, he has allowed four earned runs, which all crossed the plate last night.
He now heads into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Mariners could take as long as five days to explore trade interest, though they could also put González on waivers sooner than that.
He is still optionable, which could give him some appeal to a club looking for more depth in the minors. He has thrown 107 Triple-A innings since getting promoted to that level in 2024. In that time, he has a 3.62 earned run average, 24.7% strikeout rate and 10.2% walk rate. His four-seamer and sinker both average around 93 miles per hour. He also throws a slider and a changeup.
Rucker, 32, gets back to the big leagues for the first time in a few years. From 2021 to 2023, pitched 123 1/3 innings for the Cubs with a 4.96 ERA. He was traded to the Phillies ahead of the 2024 season but he didn’t pitch for them in the big leagues. He spent the campaign either on the injured list or pitching on optional assignment. He was put on waivers in September and claimed by the Nationals, but that club also kept him on optional assignment and then outrighted him off the roster at season’s end. He elected free agency and didn’t sign with any club for 2025.
He signed a minor league deal with the Mariners coming into 2026 and has been with Triple-A Tacoma. He has thrown 22 2/3 innings over 22 appearances with a 1.59 ERA. He’s gotten a lot of help from an 87.1% strand rate. His 24.5% strikeout rate and 47.5% ground ball rate are a few ticks better than average but his 10.8% walk rate is on the high side. Rucker will try to put up some good numbers with the Mariners. If they need bring in more fresh arms in the near future, he is out of options.
Photo courtesy of Daniel Kucin Jr., Imagn Images
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Mary Poppins is back in the bigs!
Weird move. They still have a few guys already on the 40 pitching in Tacoma. They could have brought one of them up. Or, they could have DFA Troy Taylor, who’s having a really bad AAA season, instead of Gonzales, who is having a really good AAA season and one bad MLB appearance. Odd.