Mariners, Luke Barker Agree To Minor League Deal
The Mariners agreed to a minor league contract with right-handed reliever Luke Barker, Jon Morosi of MLB.com reports. The Gaeta Sports client will head to Triple-A Tacoma.
Barker, 32, made three appearances for the Brewers in 2022 — his lone MLB experience to date. The right-hander was undrafted out of Division-II Chico State University in California back in 2015 but parlayed a dominant showing in the independent Frontier League into a minor league look with the Brewers organization. He spent the next six seasons in the Brewers system, working toward that ’22 debut.
While Barker was tagged for five runs in four innings during his MLB cup of coffee, his minor league track record is outstanding. In 261 2/3 minor league innings, the righty carries a 2.38 ERA, 27.6% strikeout rate and 6.4% walk rate. That includes three seasons of Triple-A work — a total of 116 1/3 frames with a 2.32 earned run average, an even better 30.4% strikeout rate and a 6% walk rate. Barker doesn’t throw hard, averaging just 91 mph on his heater during his brief MLB look, but he’s routinely posted swinging-strike rates north of 14% in the upper minors.
Barker didn’t pitch in 2023. He spent the season rehabbing from Tommy John surgery after suffering a UCL tear late in the 2022 campaign. He’ll now join just the second organization of his career.
The Mariners aren’t short on talented relievers, though two of their best are currently on the 15-day injured list: righties Matt Brash and Gregory Santos. Brash was slowed by a bout of elbow inflammation during spring training, while Santos suffered a lat strain late in camp. Neither has pitched in the big leagues or on a minor league rehab assignment so far this season. Barker will give the M’s some more depth in the upper minors. Seattle has a recent track record of striking gold on unheralded bullpen acquisitions — Paul Sewald, Drew Steckenrider, Justin Topa, Gabe Speier, Tayler Saucedo among them — and Barker will hope to add his name to the list.
Minor MLB Transactions: Deadline Day
As is the case at every trade deadline, there’s a flurry of activity on deadline day. The most high-profile of the moves are the trades themselves, but the aftermath of that activity often results in a shuffle of minor moves of their own. Plenty of clubs have had to fill or create roster spots depending on the deals they’ve made in the last 24 hours. We’ll round up 40-man roster transactions not previously covered on the MLBTR pages here:
AL East
- Yankees: Reinstated catcher Ben Rortvedt from 60-day injured list
- Blue Jays: Designated left-hander Anthony Banda for assignment; lost left-hander Andrew Vasquez on waivers to Phillies
AL Central
- Tigers: Reinstated right-hander Matt Manning from 60-day injured list
- White Sox: Claimed right-hander Tobias Myers off waivers from Giants
AL West
- Angels: Selected the contract of infielder Jose Rojas; designated infielder David MacKinnon for assignment
- Mariners: Designated first baseman Jack Larsen for assignment; released left-hander Tommy Milone
- Astros: Transferred catcher Jason Castro to 60-day injured list
NL East
- Nationals: Designated left-hander Josh Rogers for assignment; transferred left-hander Evan Lee to 60-day injured list. Selected the contract of first baseman Joey Meneses
- Marlins: Reinstated right-hander Anthony Bender from 60-day injured list
- Phillies: Claimed left-hander Andrew Vasquez off waivers from Blue Jays
NL Central
- Cubs: Claimed right-hander Kervin Castro off waivers from Giants
- Brewers: Designated right-hander Luke Barker for assignment
NL West
Giants: Lost right-hander Tobias Myers on waivers to White Sox; lost right-hander Kervin Castro on waivers to Cubs
Brewers Place Kolten Wong On 10-Day Injured List
The Brewers have placed Kolten Wong on the 10-day injured list with a right calf strain, retroactive to June 8th, per the team. Right-hander Luke Barker was also optioned to Triple-A. To fill the active roster, Mark Mathias and Peter Strzelecki were recalled from Triple-A. The Brewers have been sliding, losers of seven straight coming into today’s game against the Nationals.
Barker and Strzelecki are swapping places after doing the same back on June 3rd. The 27-year-old Strzelecki made just one appearance for the club, a two-inning outing back on June 2nd in which he surrendered one earned run. He gave his roster spot to Barker the following day. Barker, 30, made three appearances for the Brew Crew, yielding five earned runs across four innings of work.
Wong has been the leadoff man for most of the year, with Christian Yelich taking over atop the lineup in the past three games while Wong has been out. Defensively Luis Urias has continued in his role as a swingman, moving to the keystone from shortstop, where he had been filling in for Willy Adames before his return from the injured list. Wong has been exactly league-average with the bat (100 wRC+), slashing .228/.321/.389 in 209 plate appearances.
Mathias, 27, can step into Mike Brosseau‘s role as a right-handed infield option. Jace Peterson has been seeing most of the playing time at third base, but against a lefty starter, Milwaukee is likely to turn to Mathias or Keston Hiura.
Brewers Select Luke Barker, Option Ethan Small To Triple-A
The Brewers have made some transactions in between games of today’s doubleheader with the Cubs. Left-hander Ethan Small (the starter in the first game) was optioned to Triple-A, while right-hander Luke Barker had his contract selected. Righty Justin Topa was moved to the 60-day injured list to make room for Barker on the 40-man roster.
Small allowed two runs on four hits and four walks over 2 2/3 innings in Game One, as Milwaukee earned a 7-6 win over Chicago. It was Small’s first career MLB game, and he got the call to fill the spot left in the rotation by Brandon Woodruff‘s ankle injury. While not a stellar debut, Small could potentially still be in the running for future starts depending on how long Woodruff is out, and Small’s demotion could just be so the Brewers can free up a roster space while they figure out their next step.
From one Major League debut to another, as the 30-year-old Barker has made it to the Show after being undrafted out of Chico College. A season of indy ball in 2016 led to a contract with the Brewers, and Barker has a 2.36 ERA, 27.48% strikeout rate, and 6.33% walk rate over 255 1/3 relief innings in Milwaukee’s farm system. The Brewers have shown a knack for turning unheralded pitchers into viable relievers at the big league level, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if Barker is the latest hurler to come out of seemingly nowhere to help out the relief corps.
Topa was one of those pitchers himself in 2020, as the former 17th-rounder tossed some important innings for the Brewers in the regular season and in the playoffs. However, Topa has been plagued by elbow problems ever since, and threw only 18 totals innings in the majors and minors in 2021. The right-hander had recently started facing live batters, and since the clock on the 60-day IL placement begins when Topa was first placed on the shorter IL at the start of the season, he wasn’t going to be back by the first week of June anyway.