Mariners Announce Several Roster Moves
4:15pm: Bolton is dealing with kidney stones, per Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times.
3:10pm: The Mariners shook up their bullpen with a series of roster moves Monday. Right-handers Brett de Geus and Tyson Miller were selected to the 40-man roster from Triple-A Tacoma, with righty Ty Adcock being designated for assignment to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Right-handers Cody Bolton and Collin Snider were both placed on the 15-day injured list — the latter due to a knee contusion and the former with what the team labeled a “general medical issue.” The Mariners also reinstated first baseman Ty France from the paternity list and optioned infielder/outfielder Samad Taylor to Tacoma.
Both Miller and de Geus have big league experience, albeit fairly minimal. The 28-year-old Miller was a fourth-round pick by the Cubs back in 2016 and has pitched for five different teams over the past four years (Cubs, Rangers, Mets, Dodgers, Brewers). In 31 career innings, he’s been tagged for an ugly 6.97 ERA, though his Triple-A work is far better. Miller was roughed up for an ERA north of 7.00 in his first taste of Triple-A as a 23-year-old back in 2019. In parts of three seasons since that time he’s logged a 3.85 ERA in just under 200 innings. That includes 43 2/3 innings of 3.50 ERA ball with the Triple-A clubs for the Dodgers and Mets last year, during which he punched out 28% of his opponents.
The 26-year-old de Geus pitched 50 MLB frames between the Mariners and D-backs back in 2021 after Texas plucked him from the Dodgers in the 2020 Rule 5 Draft. He made 19 appearances as a Rangers and another 26 as a D-back, struggling mightily in both stops. Given that de Geus pitched in A-ball in 2019 then didn’t pitch with an affiliate in 2020 due to the canceled minor league season, it’s not all that surprising that he was hammered by MLB hitters in his debut campaign. In those 50 frames, he yielded a 7.56 ERA.
Even to this point in his career, de Geus only has 14 Triple-A frames under his belt. He’s been hit hard in that tiny sample as well, but he pitched 35 1/3 innings with a 2.80 ERA in Double-A for the Royals last season. De Geus has plenty of experience working multiple innings as a reliever and has also been a starter in the past, so he can provide some length to the Seattle bullpen while he’s up.
Adcock, 27, made his big league debut with the Mariners in 2023. The former eighth-round pick tossed 15 2/3 innings with a 3.45 ERA and 19% strikeout rate out of Scott Servais’ bullpen and didn’t issue a walk or hit any of his 58 opponents with a pitch. Adcock was never going to sustain that level of command, but he still walked only five of the 75 hitters he faced between High-A and Double-A last year (6.66%). However, he’s already issued three free passes in 2024 despite facing just a dozen opponents. The Mariners will have a week to trade Adcock, attempt to pass him through outright waivers or release him.
Mariners Promote Prelander Berroa, Devin Sweet
The Mariners announced a few roster moves prior to tonight’s game, selecting the contract of right-hander Devin Sweet and recalling fellow righty Prelander Berroa, with both players set to make their respective major league debuts as soon as they get into a game. In corresponding moves, right-handers Ty Adcock and Isaiah Campbell were optioned to Double-A Arkansas. The club already had a 40-man vacancy and won’t need to make a corresponding move in that regard.
Berroa, 23, came over the Mariners last year in a trade that sent Donovan Walton to the Giants. Berroa finished last year with a combined 2.86 earned run average across those two systems and different minor league levels, tossing 100 2/3 innings. The M’s liked him enough to give him a 40-man roster spot in November in order to protect him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft.
He started this year in the Double-A rotation but had a 5.16 ERA through his first five starts. He was moved to the bullpen at that point in a move that seems to have worked out quite well. He’s thrown 23 1/3 innings over 19 appearances since taking on a relief role, posting a 0.77 ERA in that time. His 13.5% walk rate is certainly on the high side but he’s limiting damage by striking out 39.3% of batters faced. He won’t be able to sustain a .238 batting average on balls in play or 90.9% strand rate but the results are nonetheless encouraging enough to earn him a big league look. He’s currently considered the club’s #10 prospect at Baseball America and #11 at FanGraphs.
Sweet, 26, cracks a 40-man roster for the first time in his career. An undrafted free agent who signed with the Mariners in 2018, he’s been climbing the minor league ladder since then. He’s spent all of this year in Double-A, posting a 1.54 ERA in 35 innings over 27 appearances. He’s struck out 34.6% of opponents while walking just 5.9%. He’s ranked the club’s #26 prospect by BA and #29 at FanGraphs.
The Mariners suffered a rough 10-3 loss at the hands of the Twins last night, with Bryan Woo allowing six earned runs and getting bounced in the fourth inning. Each of Adcock, Campbell and Tayler Saucedo tossed 29 pitches or more, while many of the high-leverage hurlers appeared in close games on both Monday and Sunday. With a fairly taxed relief corps, these moves give the club an injection of fresh arms.
Mariners Select Ty Adcock
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.