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Sean Poppen

Mariners Release Sean Poppen

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The Mariners released right-handed pitcher Sean Poppen today, according to his player page on MLB.com (h/t to Tacoma Rainiers broadcaster Mike Curto). Poppen, 30, signed a minor league deal with the club in January.

The Twins selected Poppen out of Harvard in the 19th round of the 2016 draft. Though he was never a highly-regarded prospect, the righty rose through the ranks of Minnesota’s system, succeeding at every step along the way. He put up a 2.97 ERA in eight games of Rookie ball, a 2.77 ERA in 18 games at Low-A, a 3.15 ERA in 19 games at High-A, a 3.96 ERA in 26 games at Double-A, and a 1.55 ERA in five games at Triple-A before he was first called up to join the Twins in 2019. He bounced back and forth between the majors and Triple-A over the next four seasons, while he also bounced from the Twins to the Pirates to the Rays to the Diamondbacks. In a total of 63 MLB appearances from 2019-22, he pitched to a 5.08 ERA and 4.12 SIERA, earning three wins, one save, and six holds.

Following the 2022 season, the Padres claimed Poppen from the D-backs. Out of minor league options, he was soon designated for assignment and sent outright to Triple-A El Paso, where he spent the 2023 campaign. Over 58 1/3 innings, he posted an ugly 6.33 ERA and a poor 1.70 K/BB, his worst in any season at any level. He elected free agency in November.

Although Poppen received a spring training invite from the Mariners this year, his time with Seattle would turn out to be short. He pitched well in five outings this spring, striking out eight and walking just one in 5 2/3 innings of work. Unfortunately, he didn’t look nearly as sharp in his Triple-A debut with the Tacoma Rainiers, giving up two walks, two homers, and four earned runs over two frames in a 7-9 loss to the Oklahoma City Baseball Club. While he performed much better in his second appearance, retiring all four Salt Lake Bees batters he faced, it wasn’t enough to save his job in the Mariners organization. Poppen is now a free agent.

Mariners Sign Casey Lawrence, Sean Poppen To Minor League Deals

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The Mariners announced their non-roster invitees to Spring Training this evening. A trio of players with MLB experience have joined the organization on deals not previously covered at MLBTR: right-handers Casey Lawrence and Sean Poppen and catcher/first baseman Michael Papierski.

Lawrence is a familiar face for Seattle fans. The righty has logged multiple stints in the organization as a swingman. He made 34 appearances as a Mariner between 2017-18, accounting for a little over half his big league experience. The 36-year-old has also pitched for the Blue Jays and Cardinals, logging 15 appearances in St. Louis a year ago.

In 27 1/3 innings of mostly low-leverage relief for the Cards, Lawrence posted a 6.59 ERA. He struck out a below-average 16.4% of opponents while averaging 90 MPH on his fastball. Lawrence had better results working as rotation depth in Triple-A. He started 21 games at the top minor league level, allowing 4.76 earned runs per nine through 104 innings. Lawrence fanned just under 20% of opponents while limiting his walks to a 6.8% clip.

Poppen, 30 in March, is a pure reliever. He compiled a 5.08 ERA in 63 appearances divided with four teams between 2019-22. The Harvard product spent last year at Triple-A with the Padres. He struggled with the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League setting, allowing a 6.33 ERA through 58 1/3 frames. Poppen had a subpar 17.6% strikeout percentage against a slightly elevated 10.3% walk rate. He has shown better swing-and-miss potential at the MLB level, where he owns a serviceable 22.3% strikeout rate for his career.

Papierski is a right-handed hitting backstop who had a brief MLB look with the Giants and Reds two seasons ago. He played the ’23 campaign in Triple-A as a member of the Tigers. Papierski had a solid offensive performance, hitting .266/.370/.422 with eight homers in 77 contests. He walked at a strong 13.8% clip across 305 plate appearances.

Seattle also said that right-hander Darren McCaughan is in camp as a non-roster player. According to his transactions log at MLB.com, he went unclaimed on outright waivers. The M’s announced that he was designated for assignment this afternoon as the corresponding move for their waiver claim of outfielder Canaan Smith-Njigba. They’d apparently placed McCaughan on waivers before officially revealing his DFA. While the 6’1″ hurler had the right to elect free agency, it seems he decided to stick in the organization with the understanding he’d get a look in MLB camp.

Padres Outright Sean Poppen

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The Padres announced Friday evening that reliever Sean Poppen has gone unclaimed on waivers and been assigned outright to Triple-A El Paso. There’d been no previous indication Poppen was designated for assignment, so the move clears a spot on the San Diego 40-man roster. That count drops to 39.

Poppen landed in San Diego last month on a waiver claim from Arizona. The right-hander has pitched in the majors in each of the last four seasons, with the majority of that work coming since the start of 2021. Poppen has played for four different clubs, spending the past year-plus with the Diamondbacks.

In 67 1/3 career innings, the Harvard product has a 5.08 ERA. He’s posted a slightly below-average 22.3% strikeout rate and 10% walk percentage. It was a similar story in 2022, as Poppen worked to a 4.40 ERA across 28 2/3 frames. He struck out 18.3% of batters faced while handing out free passes at a 10% clip. He averaged a solid 94.6 MPH on his sinker but only generated swinging strikes on 6.3% of his total pitches.

Poppen has had more success in the minor leagues. He’s logged 121 innings over parts of three Triple-A seasons, working to a cumulative 3.50 ERA. The former 19th-round pick has fanned around 24% of opponents at the highest minor league level. He worked to a 4.62 ERA over 25 1/3 frames with Arizona’s top affiliate last year. That was his final option season, so the Friars couldn’t send him back to the minors without first passing him through waivers.

Despite appearing in parts of four MLB seasons, the 28-year-old has yet to reach two full years of big league service time. This is the first time in his career he’s been outrighted, so he won’t have the right to test minor league free agency. Poppen will presumably head to big league camp as a non-roster invitee to Spring Training. If he doesn’t reclaim a 40-man roster spot before Opening Day, he’ll start the season in the El Paso bullpen.

Padres Claim Sean Poppen From Diamondbacks

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The Padres announced that they have claimed right-hander Sean Poppen off waivers from the Diamondbacks.

Poppen, 29 in March, has seen some time in the majors in each of the last four years with the Twins, Pirates, Rays and Diamondbacks. Over those four seasons, he’s thrown 67 1/3 innings with a 5.08 ERA, 22.3% strikeout rate, 10% walk rate and 42.9% ground ball rate.

Poppen was frequently optioned by the D-Backs this season and also threw 25 1/3 innings in the minors. In that time, he posted a 4.62 ERA, with a 17% strikeout rate, 6.3% walk rate and 41% ground ball rate. He’s now out of options, meaning the Padres will have to keep him on the major league roster or else place him back on waivers at some point.

There had been no previous indication that Poppen had been designated for assignment but Arizona evidently put him on waivers in recent days. Their recent signing of Miguel Castro gave them a full 40-man roster but this claim drops them to 39. That move was perhaps made with an eye towards next week’s Rule 5 draft.

Diamondbacks Reinstate Sean Poppen, Option Seth Beer

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The Diamondbacks announced that right-hander Sean Poppen has been reinstated from the injured list. He had been dealing with right shoulder inflammation. To create room for him on the active roster, first baseman Seth Beer was optioned to Triple-A Reno.

Poppen’s season got off to a good start, as he threw six innings with a 1.50 ERA. That might not be terribly sustainable, as he had just a 13% strikeout rate and 23.5% ground ball rate. He was likely being helped by a .222 BABIP, 83.3% strand rate and 0% HR/FB rate. However, that’s a very small sample size and it’s possible that Poppen’s shoulder was barking at him during part of that. Last year, between the Pirates, Rays and D-Backs, he had a 5.16 ERA but decent peripherals: 23.6% strikeout rate, 8.2% walk rate and 48.6% grounder rate.

As for Beer, his season got off to a tremendous start when he hit a walkoff home run in the club’s Opening Day game on National Beer Day. Unfortunately, the rest of the season hasn’t been able to live up to that moment, with Beer hitting .210/.301/.284 on the campaign, amounting to a wRC+ of 69.

Beer has limited defensive value, only playing three games at first base this year and the rest at DH. A designated hitter who doesn’t hit isn’t terribly valuable to a team, meaning the 25-year-old have to get his bat going again to earn his way back onto the roster.

Diamondbacks Place Merrill Kelly, Joe Mantiply On COVID List

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3:03PM: Joe Mantiply has also been placed on the COVID-related IL, with The Athletic’s Zach Buchanan noting that Mantiply was sidelined due to being a close contact of Kelly.  Pitching coach Matt Herges is also away from the team due to contact tracing.  Left-hander Miguel Aguilar and right-hander Sean Poppen were called up from Triple-A to replace Kelly and Mantiply on the active roster.

8:00AM: Diamondbacks starter Merrill Kelly has tested positive for COVID-19, per Zach Buchanan of The Athletic. He will now have to go on the IL and quarantine for at least 10 days.

The Diamondbacks have been one of the teams hardest hit by the pandemic, with multiple players going onto the COVID IL since early July. The club currently has the worst record in baseball at 38-80, and the lost of Kelly certainly won’t help, as he’s been one of the few bright spots for the team during this trying season.

Kelly has logged 142 1/3 innings this year, the seventh-most in all of baseball, with an ERA of 4.30. His strikeout rate is below average at 19.8%, but his walk rate is an excellent 5.5%. All told, he has accrued 2.5 fWAR on the year thus far, good enough for the team lead.

The Snakes have Zac Gallen starting today and then on off-day on Monday. Kelly was in line to start Tuesday’s game. So, the club has a couple of days to figure out how to juggle their rotation in his absence. Speculatively speaking, Humberto Castellanos could be an option. He was called up a few days ago and hasn’t seen action since. Prior to that, he’d been stretched out and starting in the minors.

Diamondbacks Claim Sean Poppen

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The D-backs announced Monday that they’ve claimed righty Sean Poppen off waivers from the Rays. Right-hander Stefan Crichton, who’d been with the club as a Covid-19 replacement player, was returned to Triple-A Reno in a corresponding roster move. Because Crichton had been selected to the roster as a replacement player, he didn’t need to be put through outright waivers to be sent back to Reno.

Poppen, 27, has seen brief big league action in each of the past three seasons, totaling 21 1/3 innings between the Twins, Pirates and Rays. He pitched just two-thirds of an inning for Tampa Bay this season and another 4 2/3 frames with the Pirates early in the year. The rest of his MLB experience has come in Minnesota. Overall, he carries a 6.33 ERA but a much more palatable 3.85 FIP and 4.12 SIERA in that small sample of work.

Poppen has spent parts of two seasons in Triple-A and pitched quite well — particularly with the Rays’ top affiliate so far in 2021. He’s thrown 28 1/3 frames of 1.59 ERA with Durham while also notching strong strikeout, walk and ground-ball percentages (26.8, 9.8 and 64.3, respectively). Poppen is in his final option year, so he can be shuttled between Reno and Phoenix as the D-backs see fit for the remainder of the 2021 campaign. He’ll be out of options at season’s end, however, so the D-backs won’t be able to send him down next spring unless they first pass him through outright waivers.

Deadline Day Roster Moves

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After what was arguably the wildest trade deadline in years with dozens of deals around the league, multiple teams made follow-up roster moves. Trades end up squeezing some players off of rosters, or creating holes that need to be filled. This post will itemize the many 40-man roster moves that teams made after a dizzying array of blockbuster deals earlier in the day.

AL East

AL Central

  • Pablo Sandoval was released by the Indians. This was just hours after he was acquired in the Eddie Rosario trade. Based on his release, it’s clear that he was only included as salary offset.
  • The Tigers selected the contract of reliever Ian Krol. The left-hander is back after being designated for assignment earlier in the week.

AL West

NL East

NL Central

NL West

  • The Diamondbacks claimed outfielder Jake Hager off waivers from the Mariners. This will be Hager’s fourth club on the season, having been previously designated for assignment by the Mets, Brewers and Mariners. Arizona also selected the contracts of infielder Drew Ellis and left-hander Miguel Aguilar.
  • The Dodgers announced that they claimed catcher Chad Wallach off waivers from the Marlins. Wallach was recently designated for assignment when Brian Anderson was reinstated from the IL.

Roster Notes: Rays, Orioles, Reds

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The Rays announced a roster move today, optioning Taylor Walls to Triple-A and recalling right-hander Sean Poppen from Triple-A, per the team. After the recent Rich Hill trade, Poppen provides an extra arm right away for the Rays to lean on, while Walls may have been subject to a demotion when Manuel Margot returns from the injured list later this week anyhow, suggests Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (via Twitter).

The Rays have also added southpaw Ryan Sherriff to the taxi squad, per Topkin, presuming that Sherriff will soon take the roster spot of whoever on the roster gets used in today’s ballgame. Let’s check in on some other roster moves happening around the game right now…

  • The Orioles have selected the contract of Conner Greene from Triple-A, per the team. Greene takes the place of Tyler Wells, who was placed on the injured list yesterday, though he’s expected back shortly. Greene is a 26-year-old right-hander who has yet to make his big league debut.
  • The Reds have placed right-hander R.J. Alaniz on the 10-day injured list with a left calf strain, the team announced. Infielder Max Schrock has been recalled to take his roster spot. Alaniz, 30, made three appearances for the Reds, tossing 2 2/3 innings, allowing one run on a solo homer, walking three and striking out three.

Pirates Trade Sean Poppen To Rays

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The Rays announced Tuesday that they’ve acquired right-hander Sean Poppen from the Pirates in exchange for cash. Pittsburgh had recently designated Poppen for assignment. Tampa Bay’s 40-man roster is now full.

Poppen has been optioned to Triple-A Durham for the time being but could see some action in the big leagues with his new club before long, given the regularity with which the Rays have shuffle up their pitching mix in recent seasons.

The 27-year-old Poppen has seen time in the Majors in each of the past three seasons (2019-20 with Minnesota, 2021 with Pittsburgh) but hasn’t found much in the way of success. He’s tallied 20 2/3 innings in the bigs but yielded 18 runs (15 earned) on 30 hits and 11 walks with 23 strikeouts. Poppen’s sinker averages 94.4 mph and has resulted in a solid 46.8 percent ground-ball in his limited big league action. He pairs the pitch with a slider and a seldom-used changeup, but none of the three offerings has been particularly effective against MLB opponents.

Poppen has had more success in the minors, where he sports a 3.39 ERA and a strikeout per inning in parts of five professional seasons — mostly as a starting pitcher. All 13 of his MLB appearances to date have come out of the bullpen, but it’s possible the Rays could look to stretch him back out, either as a multi-inning reliever or as a true depth option for the rotation. The Harvard product is a former 19th-round pick who has never been considered to be one of his organization’s top products, but he carries a respectable 3.88 ERA in 65 Triple-A innings.

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