By Kyle Downing | at
We’ll track the day’s minor MLB transactions here:
By Kyle Downing | at
The Seattle Mariners will send shortstop Osmy Gregorio to Tampa Bay, according to a tweet from Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune. Gregorio will be the Player to be Named Later in the trade that sent left-hander Anthony Misiewicz and infielder Luis Rengifo to the Rays in exchange for right-hander Ryan Garton and catcher Mike Marjama.
Gregorio has played 101 games over the past two seasons between Seattle’s Rookie and Low-A minor league affiliates. The right-hander hit just .220/.288/.311 across both levels in 2017, but did manage to steal 15 bases. The 19 year-old international signee out of the Dominican Republic stands at 6-2 and weights 175 lbs.
Garton pitched to a 1.54 ERA across 13 appearances with the Mariners, with seven strikeouts and just one walk. However, his 4.07 SIERA and 4.35 xFIP show him to be a bit worse than his ERA suggests. Marjama collected three hits in nine plate appearances, including one home run in Seattle’s final game of the season.
By Jeff Todd | at
The Mariners are still dead-set on trying to contend in 2018, CEO John Stanton tells Larry Stone of the Seattle Times. While the club didn’t ride a wave of “magic” to the postseason this year, as Stanton said he expected, the team is still committed to expanding and relying upon its existing core.
Stanton, who has been running the organization since its sale was finalized last August, is obviously on board with the approach of GM Jerry Dipoto. The org’s top baseball decisionmaker recently chatted about things from his own perspective, emphasizing the strides the team has made in sustainability, even if it has yet to get over the hump and crack the postseason.
Notably, though, Seattle’s payroll does have some “room for growth,” according to Stanton. The M’s opened at $154MM this year and already have around $113MM committed for 2018 (including a pair of buyouts) with just under $30MM in potential arb payouts still to go.
While Dipoto said he did not expect many fireworks over the winter, it seems there’s at least a little space for some additions. What the team likely won’t do, however, is go wild for a major free agent.
Though Stanton says he likes the prior additions of Robinson Cano and Nelson Cruz, that’s not how he prefers to build a roster. “Bluntly, I’d like to see us be strong in the playoffs for a decade,” said Stanton, “and I think we need to have the payroll dollars spent on players that can be with us for a long period of time.”
Rather, any big contracts in the future could go to younger players that earn extensions, Stanton suggests. He cites the Jean Segura and Kyle Seager deals as models for the team to pursue in the future. Rather than bringing in such players once they have reached or perhaps moved past their prime, he’d rather make large but still more manageable commitments to players that have shown merit earlier in their careers.
Of course, that’s more or less the ideal for any organization. For the M’s, the question remains whether enough of the team’s recent acquisitions — both in terms of younger amateur talent and recent trades — will fully establish themselves as core pieces. If so, it’s possible to imagine this club taking further strides and eventually even challenging the ascendant Astros. But that’s far from a given.
By Jeff Todd | at
Mariners outfielder Guillermo Heredia has undergone surgery on his right shoulder, per a club announcement. With a full offseason to recover, the 26-year-old is expected to be ready for Spring Training.
While the overall prognosis seems promising, it appears to be a fairly significant surgery. Heredia is said to have required repair of a Bankart lesion — one of the varieties of labrum tears that can occur.
Fortunately, though, the injury did not occur to his throwing side. More importantly, he’s not a pitcher. And given the timing, there’s plenty of time for rehab work.
Heredia played a significant role for the M’s this year and is expected to continue to do so into the future. While he’s generally regarded as a talented defender, though, he managed only a .249/.315/.337 slash with six home runs over 426 plate appearances in 2017. Clearly, that output will need to increase if he’s going to keep receiving so much playing time.
Seattle is already going to be looking to add an outfielder with Jarrod Dyson heading to free agency. Heredia’s status injects a bit of added uncertainty to the situation, though given the outlook it doesn’t seem as if Seattle’s plans will change significantly due to the surgery.
By Connor Byrne | at
By Mark Polishuk | at
Here’s the latest from around the AL West…
By Jeff Todd | at
Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto discussed the next steps for his organization with reporters, including Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times and Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune. Seattle trailed off late in the year and missed the postseason for the 16th-straight season, but it doesn’t sound as if a major roster shakeup is in order.
To the contrary, Dipoto stressed that he’s not anticipating anything approaching the kind of player turnover he oversaw during his first two years in charge of Seattle’s baseball operations. While he acknowledged there are “holes to fill,” he also said that he doesn’t expect “frantic movement” in the offseason to come.
Most broadly, the club’s top baseball ops official noted that his front office’s prior efforts have resulted in a more youthful slate of MLB talent that should provide a solid base moving forward. “I feel like we’ve made a significant move forward,” said Dipoto. “You just don’t really see it in the standings quite as much as we might see it in future planning.”
He also acknowledged that it remains a tall order to put together a team that’s truly competitive with the division-leading Astros. “That’s going to take some time and frankly a little bit of luck,” he said.
It’s unclear what kind of payroll space will be available for what moves the team does make. Seattle finished 2016 with over $170MM on the books and opened the 2017 campaign at over $150MM. Even if the team spends at that level again, there likely wouldn’t be much room to work with, since the Mariners already have $110MM on the books for 2018 before accounting for some significant arbitration salaries.
Looking more particularly at the roster, Dipoto suggested that he doesn’t see the M’s as being particularly in need of adding starting pitching. While he acknowledged that adding a quality starter would be nice, he indicated that the team is no more needy in that area than are most others around the league.
Dipoto sees both “depth” and “quality” in the existing staff. Notably, he also suggested that Seattle is prepared to utilize its staff in a more flexible manner going forward. “We’re going to see a different style of pitching staff and how it’s set up,” said Dipoto. “… We are adjusting toward what the world looks like now for starting pitchers, which is a 15-to-18-out starter (rather) than the complete-game starter.”
Of course, like most teams, the Mariners have interest in young Japanese star Shohei Otani, who is poised to represent a unique bargain given his unique circumstances. He’d represent a potentially game-changing addition to the pitching staff and Dutton says the club is going to do everything it can to land him, perhaps hoping its history with Japanese players will provide an edge. Dipoto did not comment on the two-way performer, but did note that he thinks it’s possible a player could see significant action as both a pitcher and hitter — though he added it’s unlikely that both could be done on a full-time basis.
Elsewhere, the club needs to add an outfielder and consider its options at first base. Dipoto said that the Mariners won’t necessarily need to add a center-field-capable player to cover for the loss of Jarrod Dyson to free agency, citing the potential to utilize Mitch Haniger and Guillermo Heredia up the middle. (Notably, though, manager Scott Servais did mention the need to improve on the bases, as Dutton reports. Dyson was easily the team’s best performer in that department.) That stance ought to help with flexibility as the Mariners sort through the options on the open market (and, perhaps, the trade market).
At first base, the GM suggested there’s a real possibility of bringing back Yonder Alonso, though he also emphasized that there will likely be “a lot of different options” to be considered. Certainly, the free-agent market has a variety of possibilities, perhaps representing opportunity to target a given player or to achieve some value through patience. Though he indicated that the team still believes in Dan Vogelbach and Evan White, Dipoto noted that it “remains to be seen” whether either will be a major part of the solution for the season to come.
By Kyle Downing | at
By Mark Polishuk | at
By Mark Polishuk | at
Hisashi Iwakuma underwent arthroscopic right shoulder debridement surgery two days ago, as per an announcement from the Mariners. The right-hander is expected to resume throwing in five months, putting him on pace to miss the first few weeks of Spring Training and likely to miss some time at the start of the season as he rebuilds his strength.
Iwakuma made just six starts for the M’s in 2017 before being sent to the disabled list with inflammation in his throwing shoulder. What was expected to be an absence of four-to-six weeks ended up lasting the entire season, as Iwakuma suffered a setback that couldn’t be overcome despite cortisone and PRP injections.
It was already expected that Seattle wouldn’t exercise their $10MM club option on Iwakuma’s services for 2018, and the veteran righty will instead receive a $1MM buyout. It isn’t out of the question that the Mariners re-sign Iwakuma to a smaller or even a minor league contract for next season in the aftermath of his surgery — they’re obviously more familiar with his health situation than other teams, who would naturally be wary of adding a pitcher who turns 37 in April and will probably need significant time to ramp up for action in 2018.
Never a hard-thrower or a big strikeout pitcher, Iwakuma has relied on a recipe of grounders, soft contact and a lack of walks over his six MLB seasons, all with the Mariners. He was seemingly on the verge of signing a three-year, $45MM deal to join the Dodgers in the 2015-16 offseason before L.A. pulled out of that agreement due to a still-unknown concern with Iwakuma’s medicals. Iwakuma returned to Seattle on a one-year contract that contained a pair of vesting option years, the first of which Iwakuma caused to vest for 2017 by easily surpassing the 162-inning threshold (he tossed 199 frames in 2016) and finishing the year injury-free.
Starting pitching is a clear need for the Mariners this offseason in the wake of all their rotation injuries this year. James Paxton, Felix Hernandez and Mike Leake have three spots spoken for and the M’s have several young arms who could battle for at least one of the other rotation jobs, though adding a reliable veteran would greatly help stabilize the Mariners’ staff.
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