Mariners Must Clear 40-Man Roster Spot
27-year-old outfielder Mike Wilson is off to a blazing start for the Tacoma Raniers, with a .381/.429/.683 line in 70 plate appearances. He'll be called up to the Mariners before Tuesday's game in Baltimore, reports Ryan Divish of The News Tribune. Since he's not on the 40-man roster, the Mariners will need to clear a spot.
Divish ran through players who could be removed from the 40-man, and came up with minor leaguers Edward Paredes and Yoervis Medina as well as Mariners Chris Ray, Milton Bradley, and Ryan Langerhans. It's time to end the Bradley experiment, writes Dave Cameron of U.S.S. Mariner. In the opinion of Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times, it will down to Ray or Langerhans.
Releasing Bradley would require eating the remainder of his contract. He has just under $9.5MM remaining on the deal he signed with the Cubs in January of '09. Bradley has a .209/.298/.351 line in 393 plate appearances for the Mariners since the beginning of the 2010 season.
Mariners Sign Langerhans, Bautista, Gimenez, Ring
The Mariners announced they've signed four players to minor league deals with spring training invites today: outfielder Ryan Langerhans, reliever Denny Bautista, catcher Chris Gimenez, and reliever Royce Ring.
Langerhans, 31 in February, hit .207/.328/.351 in 254 plate appearances over the last two seasons with the Mariners, playing mostly left field. He was non-tendered by the Mariners a year ago, re-signed shortly thereafter, designated for assignment in April, and outrighted in November.
Bautista, 28, posted a 3.74 ERA, 11.8 K/9, 7.2 BB/9, 1.1 HR/9, and 33.3% groundball rate in 33 2/3 innings for the Giants this year. He averaged almost 95 mph on his fastball, but clearly had control issues. In a 22 2/3 inning Triple-A stint, his walk rate was down at 3.6 per nine.
Gimenez, 28 later this month, has 197 big league plate appearances with the Indians to his name. This year at Triple-A, he hit .276/.341/.464 in 219 plate appearances while spending time at catcher and the outfield corners. He can also handle the infield corners.
Ring, 30 later this month, posted a 1.93 ERA, 8.4 K/9, 2.4 BB/9, and 0.4 HR/9 in 42 Triple-A innings for the Yankees' affiliate this year. The southpaw posted a 9.8 K/9 and 2.6 BB/9 against lefty batters.
Mariners Decline Options; D’Backs Claim Sweeney
The Mariners declined their 2011 options for Erik Bedard, Russell Branyan and Jose Lopez. The Mariners had a $5MM mutual option with Branyan and an $8MM mutual option with Bedard. Lopez is still arbitration-eligible, but he’s a candidate to be non-tendered next month.
The Mariners also announced that the Diamondbacks claimed righty Brian Sweeney off of waivers. Kevin Towers’ bullpen reconstruction has begun. Sweeney, 36, pitched for the Padres in 2004 and 2006 when Towers was the GM in San Diego. More recently, the right-hander posted a 3.16 ERA with 3.4 K/9 and 1.5 BB/9 in 37 innings for the Mariners this year.
Outfielder Ryan Langerhans and catcher Guillermo Quiroz elected free agency after the Mariners outrighted them to Triple-A. The Mariners also outrighted lefty Ryan Feierabend, lefty Chris Seddon and righty Sean White to Triple-A and all three can become free agents.
Mariners Release Eric Byrnes
The Mariners have released Eric Byrnes, according to Larry LaRue of The News Tribune. The veteran outfielder has posted a .443 OPS this season in 34 plate appearances.
The 34-year-old agreed to a one-year deal with Seattle in late January. While Byrnes is earning $11MM in the final year of the three-year pact he signed with the D'Backs, the Mariners are responsible for just $400K of that sum.
Seattle has also made a trio of in-house adjustments, sending Matt Tuiasosopo to Triple-A while promoting Ryan Langerhans and Josh Wilson. All four roster moves have been confirmed by a team press release.
Shannon Drayer of ESPN Radio Seattle (via Twitter) points out that Langerhans and Wilson were not on the 40-man roster, meaning that another move is on the horizon. She later tweeted that the move will not be shifting a player to the 60-day DL and it will likely not involve a player on the 25-man roster (also via Twitter).
Earlier this evening, both Dave Cameron of U.S.S. Mariner and Larry Stone of The Seattle Times predicted that Byrnes' days in Seattle were numbered.
Ryan Langerhans Clears Waivers
MONDAY, 2:52pm: Ryan Divish of The Tacoma News Tribune tweets that Langerhans has cleared waivers and will report to Triple-A Tacoma.
THURSDAY, 2:14pm: The Mariners designated outfielder Ryan Langerhans for assignment to make room for reliever Jesus Colome, tweets ESPN's Shannon Drayer. This ends the Mariners' six-man bullpen experiment. U.S.S. Mariner's Dave Cameron wrote yesterday that while he feels a six-man pen can work, he's not sure the Mariners are presently built for one. Talking to Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times, Ms GM Jack Zduriencik explained why Langerhans was cut instead of Mike Sweeney.
Langerhans, 30, hit .218/.311/.386 in 122 big league plate appearances last year. He hit .278/.371/.488 at Triple A. Langerhans was non-tendered by the Mariners in December but re-signed a week later.
Baseball Blogs Weigh In: Hendry, Lugo, Towers
On this day back in 2003, the Tigers became the first team in baseball history to have four pitchers make their Major League debut in the same game. The starter was 20-year-old Jeremy Bonderman, who gave way to 22-year-old Wil Ledezma, 25-year-old Chris Spurling, and 23-year-old Matt Roney before "veteran" closer Matt Anderson entered the game. Anderson was just 25-years-old at the time, but the first overall pick of the 1997 draft already had 210 big league appearances to his name.
The Tigers went on the finish the season 43-119, and were rewarded by selecting Justin Verlander with the second overall pick the following season. Here's this week's set of links from around the web…
- A Cubbies Consilience throws some kudos Jim Hendry's way for his offseason.
- Camden Crazies calls the O's trade for Julio Lugo an okay one.
- The Kept Faith finds some players Kevin Towers passed on while he was the Padres' GM.
- 1 Blue Jays Way remembers Roy Halladay's time in Toronto.
- Meanwhile, Around The BasePath looks at some expectations for Halladay's first year in Philadelphia.
- Drunk Jays Fans wonders why Lyle Overbay was named the team's every day first baseman when he can't hit lefties.
- Lookout Landing compares Eric Byrnes and Ryan Langerhans with regards to the Mariners' spare outfielder's job.
- Bronx Bombers Beat examines the Yankees' plan for Phil Hughes.
- More Hardball lists the players who will begin the season on the disabled list.
- Capitol Avenue Club rounds out the Braves' roster.
- Crashburn Alley looks at the Phillies' winners and losers from Spring Training.
If you have a suggestion for this feature, Mike can be reached here.
Mariners Sign Ryan Langerhans
The Mariners signed Ryan Langerhans to a one-year major league contract, according to a team press release. They had non-tendered him earlier in the month, but had expressed interest in retaining him.
The 29-year-old hit .218/.311/.386 in 122 plate appearances for the Mariners last year. UZR/150 ranks him as quite a good defensive outfielder over the course of his career.
Odds & Ends: Mets, Royals, Dodgers, Lowe
More links for Tuesday…
- Joe McDonald of the Providence Journal writes about the efforts of some players to find work during the off-season. Joe Nelson, who made $1.3MM with the Rays last season was at the winter meetings and said he is "just trying to put food on the table.”
- Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic is now on Twitter and reports that the Diamondbacks looked into bringing back Jose Valverde but his price was not within their budget.
- Mets GM Omar Minaya tells Newsday's David Lennon that he had hoped to sign John Lackey.
- Minaya tells Bart Hubbuch of the New York Post that he has interest in bringing Carlos Delgado back.
- Minaya tells Hubbuch that the Mets asked about Roy Halladay before the Blue Jays moved on to other options.
- The Royals accepted cash from the Red Sox to complete the Tug Hulett deal, according to Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star.
- ESPN.com's Buster Olney says the Dodgers are expected to target pitchers with the money they freed up in the Juan Pierre deal. Could they target Joel Pineiro? They saved $8MM in the trade and that may not be enough for a single year of Pineiro's services. I'd be surprised to see the Dodgers sign him.
- The Mariners hope to bring the recently-non-tendered Ryan Langerhans back, according to Ryan Divish of the Tacoma News Tribune.
- Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports says the Braves aren't necessarily looking for a right-handed bat in exchange for Derek Lowe. They'd accept prospects, too.
Mariners Notes: LaRoche, Gomes, Cust
Let's take a look at some Mariners tidbits courtesy of The Seattle Times' Geoff Baker…
- Recently non-tendered Ryan Langerhans indicated to Baker that his friend Adam LaRoche is being looked at by the Mariners. Yesterday, it was reported that LaRoche is seeking a three-year, $31.5MM deal. We've seen some rather surprising deals go down over the years, but does anyone see that as a realistic figure?
- The aforementioned Langerhans wouldn't rule out the possibility of returning to Seattle on a minor-league contract.
- As the M's have made it a priority to find a DH who can also play a field position, Baker doesn't anticipate Jonny Gomes, Jack Cust, or Mike Sweeney to land with the club. As one person told him, "[The Mariners] can't carry two Griffeys."
Non-Tendered Players
The deadline for teams to offer contract to their players with less than six years of service time is midnight ET tonight, so let's keep track off all the non-tenders here in one post. Make sure you check back in, we'll be updating this post throughout the day.
- Rough day for Jose Arredondo. First it was announced that he would have surgery and miss 2010. Then right at the deadline, the Angels decided against tendering him an offer. Matt Brown and Dustin Moseley were given their walking papers as well.
- The Giants non-tendered Ryan Garko.
- Clay Condrey has been non-tendered by the Phillies.
- Josh Whitesell, though not arbitration-eligible, was non-tendered.
- The Indians non-tendered Adam Miller, Anthony Reyes, and Jose Veras.
- The Pirates made Matt Capps and Phil Dumatrait walk the plank.
- Raul Chavez is the only player not brought back by Toronto.
- The Royals have non-tendered John Buck and Josh Anderson.
- Mark Worrell and Jackson Quezada have been non-tendered by the Padres.
- Shawn Riggans was not offered a contract by Tampa Bay.
- Rays have non-tendered Gabe Gross.
- Seattle has non-tendered outfielder Ryan Langerhans.
- Milwaukee will non-tender Mark DiFelice and Mike Rivera.
- The Metropolitans have non-tendered Cory Sullivan, Tim Redding, Jeremy Reed, and Lance Broadway.
- The BoSox did not tender an offer to outfielder Brian Anderson.
- Oakland has parted ways with Jack Cust.
- The Nationals announced that they will not tender a contract to Mike MacDougal.
- Let's welcome D.J. Carrasco to the list.
- The Orioles bid Brian Bass farewell.
- The Cubs will non-tender Neal Cotts.
- Jonny Gomes has been non-tendered by the Reds.
- Raise your hand if you're an arbitration-eligible Marlin who has been tendered an offer. Not so fast, Alfredo Amezaga.
- Scott Olsen will not be invited back by the Nats.
- The Yankees non-tendered Chien-Ming Wang.
- The Braves gave Kelly Johnson and Ryan Church their walking papers.
- Garrett Atkins has been cut loose.
- Seth McClung tweeted a classy goodbye to the Brewers organization this morning, noting it was not his choice to leave.