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Penn Murfee

National League Non-Tenders: 11/17/23

By Anthony Franco | November 17, 2023 at 8:13pm CDT

The deadline to tender a contract to arbitration-eligible players is tonight at 7:00pm CT. Here’s a rundown of fairly minor players on National League teams who have been non-tendered today. This post will be updated as more decisions are revealed. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected salaries for all players eligible for arbitration last month.

All players who are non-tendered before this evening’s deadline go directly into free agency without being placed on waivers. They’ll be eligible to sign with any of the league’s 30 teams. It’s not uncommon to see non-tendered players almost immediately return to their previous organization on a minor league deal.

The transactions:

Latest Moves

  • The Giants non-tendered pitchers Thomas Szapucki, José Cruz and Cole Waites, reports Maria Guardado of MLB.com (X link). None of that trio had been eligible for arbitration.
  • No team had a higher percentage of non-tenders than the Braves, who cut seven players loose. As reported by Mark Feinsand of MLB.com (on X), they’re moving on from pitchers Yonny Chirinos, Kolby Allard, Penn Murfee, Angel Perdomo and Michael Tonkin, catcher Chadwick Tromp and infielder Luke Williams. Murfee and Perdomo were recently claimed off waivers.
  • San Diego’s non-tenders are covered here.

Earlier

  • The Reds have non-tendered relievers Derek Law and Reiver Sanmartin. Cincinnati also confirmed the previously reported non-tender of Nick Senzel.
  • In addition to Rowdy Tellez and Brandon Woodruff, the Brewers have non-tendered right-hander J.C. Mejía. He failed a PED test in September, the second such result of his career, and was suspended for 162 games.
  • Former Rookie of the Year winner Kyle Lewis was non-tendered by the Diamondbacks. He played in only 16 games after being acquired from the Mariners last offseason.
  • The Cubs non-tendered relievers Ethan Roberts, Brandon Hughes and Codi Heuer. All three are recovering from surgeries.
  • Right-hander Tommy Doyle was non-tendered by the Rockies. Colorado designated him for assignment when acquiring Cal Quantrill this morning.
  • The Cardinals have non-tendered catcher Andrew Knizner, first baseman Juan Yepez and starting pitchers Jake Woodford and Dakota Hudson. St. Louis reportedly tried to deal Hudson this afternoon but evidently did not find a taker.
  • The Mets have non-tendered relievers Jeff Brigham, Sam Coonrod and Trevor Gott. New York also cut loose infielder Luis Guillorme and confirmed the reported non-tender of Dan Vogelbach.
  • Left-hander Josh Fleming was non-tendered by the Phillies, the team announced. Philadelphia just snagged the southpaw off waivers from the Rays a few weeks ago.
  • The Marlins have non-tendered catcher Jacob Stallings and infielder Garrett Hampson, per a club announcement. Stallings spent two seasons as the primary catcher after being acquired from the Pirates at the 2021-22 offseason. Hampson signed a minor league deal with the Fish last season.
  • The Pirates non-tendered Osvaldo Bido and Hunter Stratton, tweets Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Neither had yet been eligible for arbitration. Both right-handers made their big league debuts in 2023; Mackey suggests the Bucs will try to bring them back on minor league pacts.
  • The Nationals announced they’ve non-tendered first baseman Dominic Smith and right-hander Cory Abbott. Both players were designated for assignment earlier in the week, making this an inevitability.
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Arizona Diamondbacks Atlanta Braves Chicago Cubs Cincinnati Reds Colorado Rockies Miami Marlins Milwaukee Brewers New York Mets Philadelphia Phillies Pittsburgh Pirates San Francisco Giants St. Louis Cardinals Transactions Washington Nationals Andrew Knizner Angel Perdomo Brandon Hughes Chadwick Tromp Codi Heuer Cole Waites Cory Abbott Dakota Hudson Derek Law Dominic Smith Ethan Roberts Garrett Hampson Hunter Stratton J.C. Mejia Jacob Stallings Jake Woodford Jeff Brigham Jose Cruz Josh Fleming Juan Yepez Kolby Allard Kyle Lewis Luis Guillorme Luke Williams Michael Tonkin Osvaldo Bido Penn Murfee Reiver Sanmartin Sam Coonrod Thomas Szapucki Tommy Doyle Trevor Gott Yonny Chirinos

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Braves Claim Penn Murfee, Designate Yonny Chirinos

By Mark Polishuk | November 14, 2023 at 1:06pm CDT

The Braves announced that right-hander Penn Murfee has been claimed off waivers from the Mets.  In the corresponding move, Atlanta designated right-hander Yonny Chirinos for assignment.

It was pretty brief run for Murfee in Queens, as the Mets only just claimed the righty themselves from the Mariners two weeks ago.  It wasn’t publicly known that Murfee was again available, but it could be that the Mets opted to move on and clear some 40-man roster space since Murfee won’t be an option until at least midway through the 2024 season.  Murfee underwent a UCL surgery last June that prematurely ended his 2023 campaign and might threaten all of his 2024 season, depending on the exact nature of the procedure or whether or not he might hit any setbacks.

Since making his big league debut in 2022, Murfee posted a 2.70 ERA over 83 1/3 relief innings for Seattle, along with a 27.9% strikeout rate and 8.5% walk rate.  That latter statistic is rather heavily skewed to 2022, as Murfee had a very impressive 6.6% walk rate last season before his control spiked to a 17.2% walk rate this year.  Of course, this could also be a sample size variant, as Murfee only pitched 14 innings in 2023 before hitting the injured list.

Murfee was a bit of a late bloomer, as he didn’t make his MLB debut until he was just shy of his 28th birthday.  While a little older than most second-year players, Murfee is also controlled through the 2028 season, giving the Braves an interesting longer-term reliever to monitor if Murfee returns healthy and keeps his past form.

Chirinos also arrived in Atlanta via waiver claim, as the Braves plucked him off waivers from the Rays last July.  He made five starts and posted a 9.27 ERA over 22 1/3 innings before a bout of elbow inflammation ultimately ended his season in August.  For the 2023 season as a whole, Chirinos had a 5.40 ERA over 85 combined innings with Tampa Bay and Atlanta, with a 14.4% strikeout rate that was a career low even by Chirinos’ usual standard of not missing many bats.

Chirinos is no stranger to UCL injuries himself, as a Tommy John surgery led to over two full years between Major League appearances for the righty between the 2020 and 2022 seasons.  This year marked Chirinos’ first full season back in action, and he didn’t have the form he showed in posting a 3.65 ERA for the Rays over 234 1/3 innings from 2018-20.

Given Chirinos’ past solid numbers and his utility as a pitcher who can work in a variety of different roles as a starter, reliever, or swingman, it seems reasonable that he might get claimed off waivers.  Chirinos has enough service time to reject an outright assignment to Triple-A, though it seems likely that the Braves will just release him in the event that he clears waivers, thus handling one bit of arbitration-related business.  Chirinos is projected to earn $2MM via arbitration this winter, and today’s transaction is essentially an early non-tender in advance of Friday’s deadline.

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Atlanta Braves New York Mets Transactions Penn Murfee Yonny Chirinos

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Mets Claim Penn Murfee From Mariners

By Nick Deeds and Mark Polishuk | October 31, 2023 at 2:55pm CDT

The Mariners announced several roster moves this afternoon, chief among them the departure of right-hander Penn Murfee, who was claimed off waivers by the Mets.  In addition, the Mariners assigned three players outright to Triple-A: catcher Luis Torrens along with right-handers Easton McGee and Adam Oller.

Murfee underwent UCL surgery back in June and is expected to miss at least the first half of the 2024 campaign.  Prior to his injury, Murfee had a 1.29 ERA over 14 innings for Seattle in 2023, following up on a 2022 rookie season that saw the righty post a 2.99 ERA in 69 1/3 frames of work.  For his career, Murfee has an impressive 27.6% strikeout rate and an 8.5% walk rate, though that latter number rose significantly from a 6.6BB% in 2022 to an ungainly 17.2% total this past season.

Between the UCL injury and Murfee’s spike in walks, the Mariners had some legitimate reasons for seeing the reliever as expendable, and Murfee is also turning 30 in May.  On the other hand, Murfee had some very strong numbers since becoming a full-time reliever in the minors in 2021, and he hasn’t yet reached his arbitration years.  Should Murfee return in good health, the Mets might’ve landed themselves some quality relief help for some portion of the 2024 season and beyond, as Murfee is controlled through the 2028 season.

Torrens has the right to reject the outright assignment and elect free agency, since he has previously been outrighted in his career.  Oller and McGee, meanwhile, lack the requisite service time to reject their assignments but still figure to be eligible for minor league free agency in November.

Now perhaps nearing the end of his second stint with the Mariners, Torrens was signed to a minor league deal back in August.  Seattle didn’t tender Torrens a contract last winter, and he subsequently signed a minors contract with the Cubs before eventually moving to the Orioles and Nationals in other transactions over the course of a journeyman season for the 27-year-old catcher.  Brought back as some catching depth after Tom Murphy was injured, Torrens appeared in five MLB games with the M’s, to go along with the 13 Major League appearances he made with the Cubs during the 2023 campaign.

Never known for his defense, Torrens’ market will be limited since some teams go glovework-first when considering backup catcher options.  Torres did hit 15 homers as recently as 2021 when it looked like he might be carving out a place for himself in Seattle’s catching mix, but he has a .227/.289/.354 slash line over his 807 career plate appearances in the majors.

Torrens will surely catch on somewhere on a new minor league deal since teams are always in need of catching depth, yet he might need some spark at the plate to keep himself from another carousel of roster transactions.  This winter marked Torrens’ second trip through the arbitration process, and since he was projected to earn $1.3MM in 2024, it made for a pretty easy decision for the Mariners to part ways.

Like Murfee, McGee is in the midst of a lengthy rehab, as he underwent Tommy John surgery back in May.  That will keep the right-hander out until at least halfway through the 2024 season, with the timeline perhaps a little fluid depending on both health and whether or not McGee is built back up for a starters’ workload.  McGee has worked mostly as a starter throughout his pro career, though the Mariners (or a new team) could bring him back as a reliever next year as a way of getting him back into the field, and then fully stretching him back out in Spring Training 2025.

McGee (who turns 26 in December) was a Rays fourth-round selection in the 2016 draft, and his big league experience to date has consisted of exactly two games — three innings in an outing with Tampa in 2022, and a 6 2/3-inning start with Seattle in 2023.  His minor league resume consists of 485 1/3 innings and a 4.30 ERA, including a 4.78 ERA over 141 1/3 frames at the Triple-A level.  McGee isn’t a big strikeout pitcher, relying on good control and grounders to get results.

All of Oller’s MLB experience came with the Athletics (94 innings in 28 games) in 2022-23, though he has been part of five different organizations in his career.  Oller was a Rule 5 Draft selection for the Mets off the Giants’ roster in 2019, and Oller was part of the trade package New York sent to the A’s for Chris Bassitt prior to the 2022 season.  Seattle claimed Oller off waivers from the A’s in July but he never made any appearances for the M’s at the big league level.

Oller has a 7.09 ERA over his 94 innings for Oakland, and a 4.50 ERA in 526 1/3 career innings in the minors.  It seemed as though Oller had turned a corner in 2021 with an impressive years in the Mets’ farm system, but things soured in 2023 as Oller struggles both the big leagues, and at the Triple-A level with the Athletics’ and Mariners’ top affiliates.

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New York Mets Seattle Mariners Transactions Adam Oller Easton McGee Luis Torrens Penn Murfee

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Mariners To Select Tommy Milone

By Darragh McDonald | July 5, 2023 at 2:15pm CDT

The Mariners announced that they have selected the contract of left-hander Tommy Milone. Right-hander Darren McCaughan was optioned in a corresponding move while righty Penn Murfee was transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a spot for Milone on the 40-man. Milone is listed as the club’s starter for tonight’s game in San Francisco.

Milone, 36, has plenty of major league experience, serving as a regular rotation member with the Athletics and Twins in the early parts of the previous decade. In more recent years, he’s been in the role of a journeyman depth piece. Since the start of 2020, he’s suited up for Atlanta, Baltimore, Toronto and Seattle, not reaching 40 innings in any of those campaigns.

He’s already played this game with the M’s once this year, getting called up in April, making one start and getting designated for assignment promptly after. He tossed 4 2/3 innings in that outing, allowing just one earned run on three hits and two walks while striking out three. He’s spent most of the season in Triple-A, making 11 starts there with a 4.47 ERA.

The Seattle rotation lost Bryce Miller to the injured list this week and needs another arm to be slotted next to Luis Castillo, George Kirby, Logan Gilbert and Bryan Woo. It’s possible that this will be another one-and-done situation for Milone, since Miller’s IL placement was due to a blister and the All-Star break is coming up on Monday. Assuming Miller’s blister is healed up, he’ll be eligible to come off the injured list after the break and retake his rotation spot.

As for Murfee, it was reported last week that he would require season-ending UCL surgery, making this transfer an inevitable formality. He’ll spend the rest of the year on the 60-day injured list and won’t count against the club’s roster count, though he’ll need to be reinstated during the offseason when there’s no IL.

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Seattle Mariners Transactions Darren McCaughan Penn Murfee Tommy Milone

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Penn Murfee To Undergo Season-Ending UCL Surgery

By Darragh McDonald | June 27, 2023 at 6:15pm CDT

The Mariners are dealing with a rash of significant pitching injuries, as relayed by Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times (Twitter links one, two and three). Right-hander Penn Murfee will undergo season-ending surgery on his ulnar collateral ligament. Meanwhile, pitching prospect Taylor Dollard will undergo season-ending labrum surgery. Additionally, lefty Marco Gonzales will be shut down for two weeks due to nerve issues in his elbow.

The news is a very unfortunate development for Murfee, who has been a strong presence in Seattle’s bullpen over the past two years. He debuted last season with a 2.99 ERA in 69 1/3 innings, striking out 27.9% of opponents against a 6.6% walk rate. This year, he’s struggled with control but nonetheless dropped his ERA to 1.29. He twice landed on the injured list due to elbow inflammation and will now have to go under the knife.

It’s not exactly clear exactly what kind of surgery Murfee will require, but he’s sure to face a significant absence either way. Full ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction, also known as Tommy John surgery, typical requires 14 to 18 months of recovery time. Even the internal brace alternative usually requires close to a year. That means that, in addition to missing the remainder of the 2023 season, Murfee will miss a chunk of the 2024 campaign as well.

Dollard, 24, is also set to miss the remainder of this year, though his timeline beyond that isn’t clear. He was selected by the Mariners in the fifth round of the 2020 draft and pitched in the lower levels of the club’s system in 2021. Last year, he posted a 2.25 ERA in Double-A, striking out 22.9% of opponents against a 5.4% walk rate. He figured to serve as rotation depth this year but made just three starts in Triple-A before landing on the injured list.

As for Gonzales, his timeline is still up in the air but he’s already been on the injured list for over three weeks and will now be shut down for two more. Even if he’s given a clean bill of health at that time, he’ll need to ramp back up after such a long layoff, which will push his theoretical return further down the line.

He posted a 5.22 ERA before landing on the IL but a 62.1% strand rate was likely pushing that up. His peripherals were roughly in line with his previous seasons and his 4.29 FIP suggests he may have deserved better results. The lefty may not be an ace but has a serviceable 4.02 ERA dating back to his 2018 breakout campaign.

The Mariners have some rotation challenges with Robbie Ray and Easton McGee both out for the year and Chris Flexen now designated for assignment. Bryce Miller has cooled off after a red hot start while Bryan Woo has a 5.09 ERA thus far. With Gonzales now unlikely to be available for a while, it could impact the club’s approach to the deadline. Their 38-39 record has them fourth in the American League West but just four games back of a Wild Card spot.

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Newsstand Seattle Mariners Marco Gonzales Penn Murfee Taylor Dollard

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Mariners Select Ty Adcock

By Anthony Franco | June 12, 2023 at 7:37pm CDT

The Mariners announced they’ve selected right-hander Ty Adcock onto the big league roster. Reliever Penn Murfee hit the 15-day injured list with elbow inflammation in a corresponding move. To clear a spot on the 40-man roster, Seattle transferred Robbie Ray from the 15-day to the 60-day IL.

Adcock, 26, gets his first major league call. A college teammate of George Kirby at Elon, Adcock also joined the Seattle organization in the 2019 draft. Seattle selected him in the eighth round and moved him to relief in pro ball after a college career as a two-way player. At the time, Baseball America praised a fastball that could touch 98 MPH and an intriguing slider.

The 6’0″ righty hasn’t logged a ton of professional experience. The pandemic cancelation of 2020 and an April ’21 Tommy John procedure prevented him from throwing his first minor league inning until last August. Adcock logged just eight innings late in the year, then started this season in High-A Everett. He tossed seven scoreless frames there to earn a bump to Double-A Arkansas in early May.

Through 13 innings in the Texas League, the North Carolina native has a stellar 13:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He’s up to 22 punchouts and only three free passes in 20 combined innings of 1.35 ERA ball on the year. That was enough for the M’s to look past his lack of professional experience to plug him directly into the MLB bullpen. While he makes the jump past Triple-A for now, he has three option years remaining and could eventually find himself back in the minors as Seattle juggles its relief corps moving forward.

Murfee just returned from an IL stint last week. He’d missed around five weeks battling a flexor mass strain in his forearm. During his first appearance back yesterday, the 29-year-old righty again experienced arm discomfort. Manager Scott Servais said this afternoon that Murfee was headed for an MRI (relayed by Curtis Crabtree of Fox 13). He’ll miss at least two weeks as the club tries to determine the source of the injury.

Ray is done for the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery last month. There was never any question he’d move to the 60-day IL when Seattle needed to create a 40-man vacancy. Ray will spent the rest of the year on the IL but has to be reinstated at the start of the offseason.

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Seattle Mariners Transactions Penn Murfee Robbie Ray Ty Adcock

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Mariners Notes: Caballero, Wong, Moore, Bullpen

By Steve Adams | May 23, 2023 at 11:18am CDT

Rookie infielder Jose Caballero’s initial call-up to the Mariners’ roster was expected to be a short-term stint to provide some depth while utilityman Sam Haggerty dealt with a concussion, but he’s parlaying that opportunity into a larger role. As Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times writes, he’s already made a strong impression on manager Scott Servais.

“From the day he showed up here, he was not in awe of anything,” Servais said of Caballero, going on to praise the 26-year-old’s baserunning, on-base ability and defense. “…He understands how to play and he doesn’t back off.” President of baseball ops Jerry Dipoto had similar praise, telling Corey Brock of The Athletic that Caballero “has been terrific in every way.”

Caballero has indeed impressed, surging out to a .276/.371/.431 batting line with a pair of homers, three doubles and a 6-for-6 showing on the basepaths through his first 24 games (70 plate appearances). He’s had a bit of good fortune on balls in play (.333), but even if his average took a slight step back, an 11.4% walk rate would keep his on-base percentage plenty strong.

The plate discipline hasn’t been a small-sample fluke, either; Caballero has a career 13% walk rate in the minors and has chased pitches off the plate at a lower rate than the average big leaguer thus far in his young career. Statcast also credits him with 92nd percentile sprint speed, so there’s good reason to believe he can keep swiping bags at a high rate of success.

Caballero’s immediate strong play further shines a light on the mounting struggles of veteran second baseman Kolten Wong, whose .177/.259/.208 batting line (108 plate appearances, 40 wRC+) ranks among the worst in baseball. Wong’s 20.4% strikeout rate is the worst of his career, and he’s making hard contact at career-worst levels as well (85 mph average exit velo, 24% hard-hit). Statcast ranks Wong in the fifth percentile of MLB players or lower in each of hard-hit rate, average exit velocity, barrel rate, expected batting average, expected slugging percentage and expected wOBA. His once plus sprint speed is down to the 37th percentile as well.

In the wake of such a miserable start to the season, Wong has already begun to cede time at second base to Caballero. The rookie has made five starts at second base since Wong’s name was last penciled into the starting lineup. Wong has been on the bench, but the Mariners will have to figure out how to align their infield and bench mix before long. Mariners GM Justin Hollander told reporters yesterday that utilityman Dylan Moore could be reinstated from the injured list during the team’s current homestand (Twitter link via Divish).

Moore, who over the winter signed a three-year, $8.875MM contract that bought his final arbitration seasons and one free-agent year, has yet to play in 2023 due to oblique and core injuries. He’s played in four minor league rehab games, however, and the team apparently believes he could be back on the big league roster with only a few more. The current homestand runs through May 31.

The 30-year-old Moore has had  an up-and-down run with the Mariners since debuting in 2019, alternating between poor and strong showings at the plate on an every-other-year basis. He’s a career .208/.317/.384 hitter, though as evidenced by a .255/.358/.496 showing in 159 plate appearances in 2020 and a .224/.368/.385 line in 255 plate appearances last year, he has plenty of on-base ability and some pop in his bat. Moore has 35 home runs and 65 steals in 381 career games, and he’s drawn outstanding defensive ratings at second base, third base and in both outfield corners.

Seattle’s bench currently consists of backup catcher Tom Murphy, the aforementioned Haggerty (who has had minimal playing time so far) and struggling veterans Wong and AJ Pollock. Barring an injury elsewhere in the lineup, it’s likely someone from that bench group will be displaced by Moore’s return. Haggerty has minor league options remaining, and that route would preserve more depth, but he batted .256/.335/.403 last season in 201 plate appearances, showing plenty of defensive versatility himself. The Mariners will have to weigh that against the poor starts of both Wong and Pollock in determining their preferred course of action.

The Mariners are also anticipating a return to health for some important bullpen arms (Twitter links via Divish). Closer Andres Munoz and righty Penn Murfee are both expected to join the Mariners on their upcoming road trip, which runs from June 1-11. Munoz has been throwing bullpen sessions, and Murfee has responded well to a platelet-rich plasma injection. Both will need quick tune-ups on minor league rehab stints, but they’re only a matter of weeks away.

Munoz, 24, broke out as one of the best relievers in baseball in 2022 when he pitched to a 2.49 ERA with a stellar 38.7% strikeout rate against a 6% walk rate. He averaged a whopping 100.3 mph on his heater, and his 21.6% swinging-strike rate trailed only Edwin Diaz among all big league pitchers with at least 50 innings pitched.

Murfee, meanwhile, has pitched 82 1/3 innings of 2.73 ERA ball dating back to last year’s MLB debut. He’s fanned 27.9% of his opponents against an 8.3% walk rate without displaying the type of platoon splits that many fellow sidearmers tend to carry. Lefties have batted just .210/.297/.305 against Murfee, while right-handers have posted an even more dreadful .165/.232/.303 slash.

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Notes Seattle Mariners Andres Munoz Dylan Moore Jose Caballero Kolten Wong Penn Murfee Sam Haggerty

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Mariners Place Penn Murfee On 15-Day Injured List

By Mark Polishuk | May 6, 2023 at 5:37pm CDT

The Mariners have placed right-hander Penn Murfee on the 15-day injured list due to right elbow inflammation, according to Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times (Twitter link).  Right-hander Juan Then is being called up from Double-A in the corresponding move, and Then’s first appearance will mark his MLB debut.

Murfee made his own Major League debut in 2022 and immediately contributed to Seattle’s bullpen, posting a 2.99 ERA over 69 1/3 innings.  Murfee’s strikeout and walk rates were well above average, and he was one of the league’s best at inducing soft contact.  The overall results have improved this season as per Murfee’s 1.38 ERA over 15 innings, except with the red flag of a drastically inflated 16.7% walk rate.  A tiny .143 BABIP has certainly helped Murfee avoid much damage, though his SIERA is 4.52.

Walks have been a problem for the Mariners’ bullpen as a whole this season, even though the relief corps has still been quite solid overall.  However, it isn’t good news that the M’s are now missing two notable relievers in Murfee and Andres Munoz, who has spent close to a month on the 15-day IL due to a right deltoid strain that seems to be a bit more troublesome than initially anticipated.  For what it’s worth, Murfee’s elbow inflammation also seems relatively minor, as Divish tweets that the Mariners were hoping he could avoid an IL trip altogether.

Then was added to Seattle’s 40-man roster back in November, protecting righty from selection in the Rule 5 Draft.  Then was an international signing for the Mariners in 2016, and after being traded to the Yankees in November 2017, was re-acquired as part of the Edwin Encarnacion trade in June 2019.  Once the 2019 season was complete, things started to go sideways for Then, who (like all minor leaguers) lost the 2020 season to the pandemic, and then struggled through two injury-shortened seasons at the high-A and Double-A levels in 2021 and 2022.

MLB Pipeline ranks Then 23rd on their list of the Mariners’ top 30 prospects, noting that his performance in the Arizona Fall League merited a return to the ranking and apparently indicated that his elbow problems were behind him.  Back at Double-A this season, Then has a 27.5% strikeout rate and 7.5% walk rate over nine innings of work, but also a 5.00 ERA.

To this end, promoting Then to the majors and skipping Triple-A entirely seems like an aggressive move for the Mariners, based both on results and the fact that Then has pitched only 30 total innings (counting AFL and Dominican Winter League work) since the start of the 2022 season.  It could be that the M’s might be viewing Then as just a short-term add before figuring out a 40-man roster opening to accommodate another pitcher.

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Seattle Mariners Transactions Juan Then Penn Murfee

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Mariners Select Penn Murfee

By Anthony Franco | April 28, 2022 at 4:31pm CDT

Prior to this afternoon’s game against the Rays, the Mariners selected reliever Penn Murfee onto the major league roster. Catcher Cal Raleigh was optioned to Triple-A Tacoma, while first baseman Evan White was transferred from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list in corresponding moves.

Murfee was selected as a COVID substitute last week when Paul Sewald went on the injured list. He stayed on the active roster for seven days but was returned to Tacoma yesterday without making an appearance. Because he’d been designated as a substitute, Murfee could be taken off the 40-man roster without being designated for assignment.

That won’t be the case this time around, as Seattle brought him back to the big league club quickly. He figures to get an opportunity to make his MLB debut this time around, although the M’s are still free to option him back to Tacoma if they’d like. Taking him off the 40-man roster again would require exposing him to waivers, though. Seattle likely wouldn’t have selected Murfee back up if they had plans on doing that, so it seems he’ll hold his 40-man spot for longer than his previous stint.

Murfee, 28 next month, has made five appearances out of the Rainier bullpen thus far in 2022. The Santa Clara product hasn’t allowed a run in eight innings, and he’s surrendered just four baserunners (two hits, a walk and a hit batter) while striking out ten. The righty punched out an impressive 28.2% of batters faced in 78 2/3 innings between Double-A Arkansas and Tacoma last season, although that came with an elevated 10.2% walk rate.

Raleigh has been part of a three-person catching group in Seattle thus far. His eight starts behind the dish lead the team, but he’d been more or less alternating games with Tom Murphy in the early going. Raleigh had reached base in just six of his first 28 plate appearances. Murphy, on the other hand, is off to a blistering 10-24 start with six walks and eight strikeouts.

Neither Murphy nor Luis Torrens, who returned from a stint on the COVID list this week, can be optioned to the minor leagues. Particularly with active rosters set to shrink from 28 to 26 next Monday, carrying three catchers could’ve been challenging over the long haul. Rather than expose either of Torrens or Murphy to waivers, it seems the M’s will turn to that duo behind the dish while getting Raleigh some more work in the minors.

The switch-hitting Raleigh has been one of Seattle’s more highly-regarded prospects in recent years. He’s yet to produce in 176 MLB plate appearances, hitting .166/.222/.294 with a sky-high 34.7% strikeout rate. The 25-year-old had a much more impressive .324/.377/.608 mark while fanning in just 12.6% of his 199 trips to the plate in Triple-A last season, though. Between his high minors performance and a general belief among prospect evaluators he’s an adequate defensive catcher, Raleigh figures to get another opportunity before too long. For now, however, his slow start and three remaining option years make him the odd man out.

White underwent sports hernia surgery during the final week in March. The team didn’t provide a timetable on his return, and he’ll now be out of action until at least the first week of June. It’s yet another setback for White, who missed most of the 2021 campaign after undergoing left hip surgery. Even when he returns to health, he figures to be optioned to Tacoma, as he’s been surpassed by the hot-hitting Ty France on the depth chart at first base.

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Seattle Mariners Transactions Cal Raleigh Evan White Penn Murfee

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COVID Reinstatements: Sewald, Pinder

By Anthony Franco | April 27, 2022 at 5:43pm CDT

A pair of AL West teams announced reinstatements from the COVID-19 injured list this afternoon.

  • The Mariners activated reliever Paul Sewald from the IL. Penn Murfee, who had been selected to take his place last week, was removed from the 40-man roster and returned to Triple-A Tacoma. Interestingly, that the M’s were able to return Murfee as opposed to outrighting him off the 40-man indicates they’d received permission from the commissioner’s office to designate him as a COVID “substitute.” That seemingly wasn’t the case for first baseman Mike Ford, who’d been called up to replace Luis Torrens a day prior and was designated for assignment when Torrens was activated earlier this week. That suggests that Sewald’s contracting the virus, which made him the third Seattle player in fairly short order to do so, was enough for the league to determine the M’s ability to field a competitive team was impacted. Murfee didn’t make an appearance with the big league club. Mitch Haniger remains on the COVID list but is expected to be back within a few days.
  • The Athletics announced that utilityman Chad Pinder has been activated from the IL. Infielder Christian Lopes was returned to their top affiliate in Las Vegas in a corresponding 40-man roster move. Lopes, who was selected as a designated COVID substitute himself, appeared in his first four MLB games. He went hitless in nine at-bats, although he did draw a walk. Jed Lowrie, Lou Trivino and Drew Jackson remain on Oakland’s virus-related IL.
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Transactions Chad Pinder Christian Lopes Paul Sewald Penn Murfee

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