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Chase De Jong

Mariners Acquire Zach Duke

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5:01pm: MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand tweets that the Twins sent $75K to the Mariners in the deal, which will leave Seattle on the hook for just over $600K of Duke’s salary.

4:36pm: The Mariners have deepened their relief corps as they continue to stock up for a potential postseason run, adding veteran lefty Zach Duke in a trade with the Twins. In exchange for Duke, an impending free agent who is owed about $683K of his $2.05MM salary through season’s end, Minnesota will receive right-hander Chase De Jong and minor league corner infielder Ryan Costello. Because De Jong was already on the Mariners’ 40-man roster, Seattle won’t need a corresponding move for Duke.

Zach Duke | Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Duke, 35, had Tommy John surgery in 2016 but returned for the last couple months of the 2017 season and pitched well enough to land a big league deal from the Twins this offseason. Minnesota was rewarded with 37 1/3 innings of 3.62 ERA ball from Duke, who has averaged 9.4 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9 without allowing a home run this season. Duke’s superb 58.8 percent ground-ball rate ties a career-high (set in 2016 prior to his surgery).

As one would expect, Duke comes with a fairly notable platoon split. Minnesota has used him in 45 games this season but only allowed him to total 37 1/3 innings — a split that is indicative of his status as more of a lefty specialist than a full-inning setup piece. Indeed, left-handed opponents have mustered just a .237/.274/.288 slash against Duke, while righties have hit slashed a much more potent .303/.409/.351 against the veteran southpaw.

Duke will give the Mariners a lefty option to step into the role which Seattle had hoped fellow veteran Marc Rzepczynski could fill in 2017-18. Unfortunately for Seattle, Rzepczynski’s two-year, $11MM deal proved to be a substantial misstep. “Scrabble” struggled in both seasons with Seattle and was released earlier this season. Duke will complement James Pazos and Roenis Elias as southpaw options in manager Scott Servais’ bullpen, giving him a trio of lefties to deploy as matchups dictate.

As for the Twins, they’ll acquire a former second-round pick (Blue Jays, 2012) with minor league options remaining in De Jong. The 24-year-old made his big league debut with Seattle last season but was hit hard in 28 1/3 innings. De Jong yielded 20 runs on 31 hits (five homers) and 13 walks with just 13 strikeouts in 28 1/3 MLB frames last season.

That said, De Jong is still just 24 years of age and has had a solid, if unspectacular season pitching for Seattle’s Double-A affiliate this season. Through 120 2/3 innings, De Jong has notched a 3.80 ERA with 6.6 K/9, 2.5 BB/9, 0.9 HR/9 and a 39.2 percent ground-ball rate. Despite some big league experience, he technically retained his prospect status and ranked 28th in an admittedly dismal Mariners’ farm system, per Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com.

Costello, 22, was the Mariners’ 31st-round pick in the 2017 draft out of Central Connecticut State University. He’s posted solid numbers in the Class-A Midwest League this season, though as a college bat playing against younger competition, that should be the expectation. In 406 trips to the plate, Costello has hit .266/.360/.486 with 16 homers, 24 doubles and a pair of triples while posting a 12.6 percent walk rate against a 20.2 percent strikeout rate. He won’t factor in anywhere near the top of the Twins’ prospect rankings, but he’ll add a left-handed bat with some pop to the lower levels of the Twins’ system.

De Jong is the more immediate return for the Twins, and while he profiles more as a swingman than a rotation option, that’s not a bad return for a couple of months of a lefty specialist who was set to hit free agency. Of course, it’s also a pretty easy commodity for the Mariners to surrender in order to improve their options in high-leverage spots down the stretch and, ideally, into the postseason. It’s hardly an exciting trade, but it’s one that makes a fair bit of sense for both parties involved.

Jon Heyman of Fancred reported that the Mariners had a deal to acquire Duke (via Twitter). Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported the return (also via Twitter).

Mariners Place Felix Hernandez, Mitch Haniger On 10-Day DL

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2:44pm: Hernandez is expected to be sidelined for two or three weeks at a minimum, per MLB.com’s Jon Morosi (via Twitter).

2:13pm: Both righty Felix Hernandez and outfielder Mitch Haniger are going on the 10-day DL after suffering injuries last night, as the team announced and Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune reported on Twitter.

Seattle made a variety of other roster moves, too. Righties Chase De Jong and Casey Fien, lefty Dillon Overton, and outfielder Ben Gamel are all headed onto the MLB roster. Meanwhile, righties Chris Heston and Evan Marshall have each been optioned back to Triple-A.

[RELATED: Updated Mariners Depth Chart]

In Hernandez’s case, he has been diagnosed with shoulder inflammation, as Dutton tweets. But it’s still not entirely clear whether that’s just an isolated issue or if there’s an underlying injury of greater concern causing the problem. The 31-year-old has been knocked around in his first five starts, allowing 14 earned runs on 39 hits.

As for Haniger, he has been a revelation. But an oblique issue will sideline him after 95 plate appearances of .338/.442/.600 hitting. It’s still not known how severe Haniger’s injury is or what kind of timeline he’ll be facing.

Needless to say, these DL placements constitute significant losses for a struggling Seattle club, though perhaps the hope remains that neither player will be out for an extended stretch. The M’s are already staring at a 6.5 game deficit in the AL West.

West Notes: Bumgarner, Jefferies, Athletics, Mariners

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Madison Bumgarner’s injury could mark the end of an era for the Giants, Tim Kawakami of the Mercury News writes. The short-term implications of the injury are clear — Bumgarner’s dirt bike crash will make it that much harder for the Giants to climb out of the 6-11 hole they’ve already dug. But Kawakami doesn’t suggest the injury even extinguishes the Giants’ playoff hopes. Rather, he thinks the rather silly cause of the injury upends Bumgarner’s nearly mythical status — Kawakami compares the old Bumgarner, the one who helped the Giants to three World Series wins and carried the team on his back  in 2014, to Paul Bunyan. It also suggests that the Giants as a team no longer warrant the presumption that they’ll win just because they’ve done so in the past. Here’s more from the West divisions.

  • Athletics prospect Daulton Jefferies will undergo Tommy John surgery, Scout.com’s Melissa Lockard writes. Jeffries was the 37th overall pick in last year’s draft out of UC-Berkeley despite missing part of the 2016 season due to a shoulder injury. The righty made five brief starts in rookie ball last year and had made two appearances with Class A+ Stockton this season. MLB.com currently rates him at the Athletics’ No. 8 prospect, praising his athleticism and delivery and noting he could eventually become a No. 4-type starter in the big leagues.
  • Yesterday, the Athletics promoted 1B/OF Matt Olson and optioned righty Cesar Valdez to the minors, MLB.com’s Jane Lee tweeted. Olson gives the A’s an extra bench option, with Valdez heading to the minors after a spot start Thursday (a start that was, remarkably, his first big-league action since he was with Arizona in 2010). Once one of the Athletics’ top prospects, Olson’s stock has fallen somewhat as he’s risen through the system, but he still has an impressive 105 career minor-league home runs, and his abilities to play first and right field, and perhaps third base in a pinch, could help the A’s.
  • Before last night’s game, the Mariners announced that they recalled righty Chase De Jong from Triple-A Tacoma and optioned righty Dan Altavilla to Tacoma. Altavilla had allowed three runs the previous night against the A’s, and De Jong had fared well in two Triple-A starts. The Mariners acquired De Jong from the Dodgers near the beginning of Spring Training, and he figured to contribute to their starting depth after pitching 147 innings with a 2.82 ERA, 8.1 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9 in a strong 2016 season in the high minors of the Dodgers’ system.

Mariners Acquire Chase De Jong, Designate Mike Freeman

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The Mariners announced that they’ve acquired minor league right-hander Chase De Jong from the Dodgers in exchange for minor league infielder Drew Jackson and minor league right-hander Aneurys Zabala. To clear room for De Jong on the 40-man roster, the Mariners designated infielder Mike Freeman for assignment.

Chase De Jong

De Jong, 23, was the Blue Jays’ second-round pick back 2012 but was traded to Los Angeles alongside second baseman Tim Locastro in a swap that sent international bonus money to the Blue Jays.

The former No. 81 overall pick has raised his profile since joining the Dodgers organization and is coming off an impressive 2016 campaign that saw him reach Triple-A for the first time. De Jong tossed just 5 1/3 innings in Triple-A (allowing one run and striking out eight against one walk) but also delivered an excellent campaign at the Double-A level. With Tulsa, the righty logged 141 2/3 innings with a 2.86 ERA, 7.9 K/9, 2.5 BB/9 and a 38.3 percent ground-ball rate.

Last offseason, Baseball America ranked De Jong 16th among Dodgers farmhands, praising his feel for a solid-average curveball. That scouting report noted that his 88-92 mph fastball, which can top out at 94 mph, is a bit straight. He also sports a fringe-average changeup, per BA, and could eventually surface in the Majors as a back-of-the-rotation arm.

De Jong will give the Mariners another upper-level arm to provide depth beyond a rotation that projects to include Felix Hernandez, Hisashi Iwakuma, Drew Smyly, James Paxton and Yovani Gallardo. De Jong will join Dillon Overton, Rob Whalen, Ariel Miranda and Cody Martin — each of whom has been acquired by Seattle GM Jerry Dipoto in the past calendar year — as an upper level depth option. De Jong is merely the latest trade acquisition for the game’s most active general manager, as Dipoto is now up to 14 trades this offseason and 40 total since being tabbed as the Seattle GM following the 2015 season (hat tip: MLB.com’s Greg Johns, on Twitter).

[Related: Updated Seattle Mariners Depth Chart and Los Angeles Dodgers Depth Chart]

As for the Dodgers’ return, the 23-year-old Jackson rated 12th among Mariners’ farmhands, per MLB.com, and ranked 18th among Seattle prospects in the eyes of ESPN’s Keith Law (subscription required/recommended). The 2015 fifth-rounder spent last year at the Class-A Advanced level, where he batted .258/.332/.345 with six homers and 16 steals in 596 plate appearances. Jackson swiped 47 bags in Class-A a year prior, and the scouting reports from both MLB.com and from Law praise his speed, throwing arm and defensive prowess. His power is a question, though, as Jackson has just eight long balls in 862 pro plate appearances. Law noted that Jackson lacks power and hits the ball on the ground with regularity.

Baseball America was more bullish on Jackson this winter, ranking him seventh among Mariners prospects and calling him a potential everyday shortstop, though they too note that he’s routinely graded as a “fringe-average hitter with below-average pop.” Still, Jackson’s “double-plus” speed and arm create plenty of hope in BA’s scouting report (subscription required/recommended to read in its entirety).

Zabala, 20, spent the 2016 season in the Rookie-level Arizona League, pitching to a 2.88 ERA with a 28-to-15 K/BB ratio in 25 innings. He’s been used out of the bullpen exclusively in each of the past two years, and Law notes that he reached 99 mph in 2016. MLB.com rates him 22nd among M’s farmhands and puts a hefty 75 grade on his fastball, though he receives 40-grade control from that report. Zabala’s curveball draws praise from each report, though it’s not regarded nearly as well as his fastball. Low-level arms with this type of velocity are becoming more common in today’s game, but he makes for a nice long-term lottery ticket of sorts to add to a deep Dodgers farm system.

Losing his roster spot in all of this is the 29-year-old Freeman, who made his Major League debut in 2016 but received just 24 plate appearances between the D-backs and Mariners. Seattle claimed Freeman off waivers from Arizona shortly after the non-waiver trade deadline. In 503 Triple-A plate appearances last year, the former 11th-round draft pick hit .314/.285/.419 with four homers, 23 doubles and six triples. Those numbers, tallied across 104 games, bear a striking resemblance to the second baseman/outfielder’s career marks in 298 contests: .314/.376/.424.

The latest Mariners trade leaves Seattle with a full 40-man roster but does create an opening on the 40-man for the Dodgers, should they wish to make another move in the coming days. Alternatively, the Dodgers could simply keep the spot open to create the flexibility for some waiver activity throughout the remainder of Spring Training.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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