Anderson, 31 next month, was a third-round pick by the Marlins back in 2014 and made his MLB debut with the club three seasons later. The 2017 campaign saw Anderson kick off his MLB career with a 25-game cup of coffee. He held his own in 95 trips to the plate, hitting .262/.337/.369 with a 92 wRC+ that was just below league average. He became a regular with the club the following season, and quickly established himself as one of the more reliable bats in a Marlins lineup lacking in thump. From 2018 to 2020, Anderson slashed .266/.350/.436 with 42 home runs and 74 doubles in 341 games while splitting time between third base and right field with the Marlins. That performance was worth a wRC+ of 115, which was good for 11th among all qualified third baseman during that three year period while his 7.2 fWAR ranked 12th.
Unfortunately, Anderson would find his career derailed by injuries in 2021 as he missed nearly four month with oblique and shoulder issues. While he managed to appear in 67 games in between stints on the injured list, Anderson posted pedestrian numbers when he was healthy enough to take the field, hitting .249/.337/.378 with just 7 home runs and 9 doubles in 264 trips to the plate. Those injuries woes continued in 2022, as he missed two months of time across three trips to the injured list for shoulder and back issues while posting a career-worst .222/.311/.346 slash line in 98 games with the club.
Those struggles with injuries and ineffectiveness over the 2021 and ’22 seasons led the Marlins to non-tender Anderson that November, making him a free agent for the first time in his career. The infielder then signed a one-year deal with the Brewers prior to the 2023 season but saw his struggles continue even as he managed to avoid the injured list for most of the campaign. In 361 trips to the plate with Milwaukee last year, Anderson hit just .226/.310/.368 with a wRC+ of 85. That weak performance led the club to designate Anderson for assignment just before the regular season came to an end, sending him back to the free agent market for the second time in as many seasons.
Anderson’s second trip through free agency wasn’t as kind as his first. He didn’t find a major league deal this winter and instead had to settle for a minor league pact with the Mariners back in February, with whom he figured to compete for playing time at the hot corner with Luis Urias and Josh Rojas. Anderson made the most of his time in camp with Seattle, slashing a solid .250/.344/.536 in 32 trips to the plate this spring, though it evidently wasn’t enough to earn the 30-year-old a spot on the Mariners’ Opening Day roster. Now that he’s been cut loose from his deal with Seattle, Anderson figures to search for a fresh minor league deal in free agency, perhaps with a club that can offer him a more clear path to playing time either at third base or in the outfield.
]]>Hollander compared Woo’s current ailment to a bout of forearm inflammation that sent him to the shelf last August. Woo ended up missing just over two weeks due to that issue, a fact that potentially indicates the young right-hander could be slated for a similarly minimal absence this time around as well. Hollander noted that the club hopes the inflammation will have faded in 7 to 10 days, at which point Woo would be able to resume throwing.
Even a short absence for Woo is an unfortunate turn of events for Seattle. The 24-year-old righty made his MLB debut with the club last season and made 18 starts in the big leagues, pitching to a roughly league average 4.21 ERA with a 4.36 FIP in 87 2/3 innings of work. While Woo paired a solid 25.1% strikeout rate with an 8.4% walk rate, he saw a hefty 13.4% of his fly balls leave the yard for home runs last year. That proclivity toward the long ball limited Woo’s ability to establish himself as a mid-rotation starter, though even if he were to fail to take a step forward he’s shown the ability to be a quality back-end arm for a Mariners team loaded with controllable pitching talent.
With Woo set to begin the season on the shelf, Seattle figures to turn to right-hander Emerson Hancock to take the fifth spot in the rotation behind Luis Castillo, George Kirby, Logan Gilbert, and Bryce Miller. Hancock, the sixth-overall pick from the 2020 draft and a former consensus top-50 prospect in the sport, also made his big league debut last season. In a trio of starts with the Mariners, the right-hander posted a decent 4.50 ERA with a 4.09 FIP. He struck out six while walking three across his 12 innings of work. That cup of coffee in Seattle is Hancock’s only experience above the Double-A level, where he owns a career 3.99 ERA and 24.1% strikeout rate in 210 innings across 44 starts.
As for Haggerty, the loss of the switch-hitter to open the season could have an impact on the club’s bench mix. Since arriving in Seattle after being claimed off waivers from the Mets prior to the 2020 season, the 29-year-old has posted roughly league average offensive numbers in four years as a reserve outfielder with the Mariners. He’s done particularly well the past two seasons, slashing a solid .255/.345/.382 with a 111 wRC+ in a combined 135 games with the club.
While Haggerty’s switch-hitting bat and ability to handle all three outfield spots and even the right side of the infield on occasion have made him a valuable bench piece for Seattle in recent years, the Mariners appear well equipped to handle his absence. Julio Rodriguez is locked into center field on an everyday basis as the club’s star player, and with the likes of Mitch Haniger, Dylan Moore, Luke Raley, and Dominic Canzone vying for playing time at the outfield corners, Haggerty was at risk of being squeezed off the roster even prior to the injury.
In addition to the IL announcements, Hollander also provided an update on the status of right-hander Gregory Santos, who is nursing a lat strain that will keep him off the roster to open the 2024 campaign. Divish relays that Santos is scheduled to undergo an MRI later this week. If said testing comes back clean, Santos will then resume his throwing program. It’s a welcome update for a Mariners club that is expected to be without two high-leverage relievers in Santos and right-hander Matt Brash to open the season. Free agent addition Ryne Stanek and southpaw Gabe Speier figure to set up for right-handed flamethrower Andres Munoz while Santos and Brash are out of action.
]]>Major League Signings
2024 spend: $17.3MM
Total spend: $29.3MM
Option Decisions
Trades and Waiver Claims
Minor League Signings
Notable Losses
It became clear fairly early in the offseason that despite the Mariners’ recent success, including the end of their two-decade playoff drought in 2022, payroll wouldn’t be rising much in 2024. Like so many clubs around the league, their offseason dealings were colored by uncertainty surrounding the team’s television rights. While Seattle wasn’t planning to cut payroll like many other clubs around the game, the Seattle Times reported in early December that president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto, general manager Justin Hollander and the rest of the front office received a smaller budget than anticipated from ownership.
That didn’t stop plenty of speculation regarding Seattle-area native Blake Snell, but a big free agent splash like that never seemed likely given the front office’s apparent budgetary restrictions. Instead, Dipoto went with a familiar approach: operating primarily on the trade market. Even by his own standards, this was an offseason for the ages in terms of wheeling and dealing. The Mariners made a staggering 12 trades over the course of their offseason.
Perhaps most remarkable about that progression of trades isn’t the sheer volume but rather the fact that Seattle held onto its entire crop of vaunted young pitchers. Entering the offseason, it seemed quite likely that one of Bryce Miller, Bryan Woo or Emerson Hancock could be dealt as the team looked to bolster other areas of the roster. Controllable starting pitching is always in demand, and there was less of it available this season than in years past. The Mariners, facing needs at designated hitter, second base, third base and in the outfield, could very likely have moved a young starter and filled multiple holes in one fell swoop.
That wasn’t meant to be, however. Dipoto would reveal that he unsurprisingly received considerable interest in his young pitchers but “never liked the way it looked” before adding that holding onto the entire group as always “Plan A.”
Even if the plan was to hold onto that group, changes were clearly needed. Dipoto hinted at a possible retooling early in the winter suggesting that he hoped add some more contact-oriented bats to the roster in the wake of last year’s prodigious strikeout totals. While the Mariners achieved this to some extent, that desire certainly didn’t inform all of their offseason moves, as many of the team’s new acquisitions still strike out at alarming rates.
Eugenio Suarez was the first domino to fall in this regard. He’d been a solid contributor for the Mariners in each of the two prior seasons but struck out in 31% of his plate appearances along the way and saw his power output dip in 2023. Suarez led the American League in strikeouts in both 2022 and 2023. A substantial dip in his defensive grades could well cause his value to plummet, as he was effectively a league-average bat in ’23 (102 wRC+). His contact rate on pitches in the zone sat more than five percentage points shy of league-average, and on pitches off the plate, it was nearly 13 percentage points shy of the mean. Suarez is making just enough contact and playing just sharp enough defense to remain an above-average regular, but his margin for error is thinning.
In return for Suarez, the Mariners got one of the game’s hardest-throwing young relievers, Carlos Vargas, and a backup catcher who strikes out at a staggering 35% clip: Seby Zavala. While Zavala was acquired for his glove, not his bat, it was a bit curious to see the team cite a desire to improve contact skills and then acquire such a whiff-heavy backstop. Cal Raleigh will work a larger workload than most starting catchers, but Zavala’s whiffs are still prodigious. For a Mariners club that is as good as any in the game — maybe better than any other — at maximizing bullpen performance, getting a power arm like Vargas is particularly intriguing. Still, the $12MM in cost savings in this deal was surely a motivating factor.
Replacing Suarez at the hot corner will be fellow trade pickup Luis Urias and holdover Josh Rojas, whom the M’s acquired last summer in exchange for Paul Sewald (a move that, in retrospect, perhaps foreshadowed the current offseason’s payroll restrictions, when considering Sewald’s arbitration salary). Urias was a buy-low grab who posted a solid .244/.320/.446 slash in 2021-22 with the Brewers before an injury-ruined ’23 season. In hindsight, the Mariners might regret committing $5MM to him so early, as veteran infielders like Gio Urshela and Amed Rosario signed for a year and $1.5MM apiece late in spring training, but their price tags falling to such extreme levels was generally unforeseeable.
The Suarez trade irked Mariners fans, as it seemed clearly financially motivated to at least some extent, but the trade of Jarred Kelenic, Evan White and Marco Gonzales smacked even more heavily of a salary dump. The M’s acquired a former second-rounder, Cole Phillips, who’d yet to pitch professionally due to injury and a change-of-scenery former prospect in Jackson Kowar. Both have since undergone Tommy John surgery.
Kelenic was a symbol of hope during the Mariners’ last rebuild — touted as a potential outfield cornerstone alongside current face of the franchise Julio Rodriguez. Things simply haven’t panned out that way, however. Kelenic has looked flummoxed by MLB pitching on a repeated basis, particularly fellow lefties. He had a hot start in 2023 but faded immensely before breaking his foot when he kicked a water cooler following a strikeout in a key situation. The Mariners shed $24.25MM of payroll in that deal and received little in return. But dealing Kelenic and his 31.7% strikeout rate did mesh with Dipoto’s goal of improving the team’s contact.
Between the departures of Suarez, Kelenic and free agent Teoscar Hernandez (who signed with the Dodgers on a one-year deal), the M’s bid adieu to a trio who combined for 1788 plate appearances and each struck out in 31% of their plate appearances (or more). In trading Suarez, Kelenic, Gonzales and White, the Mariners also trimmed nearly $37MM off the long-term payroll.
Those weren’t the only cost-driven deals of the winter, however. Dipoto shipped the final three seasons of Robbie Ray’s $115MM contract to the Giants in a trade bringing back old friend Mitch Haniger and right-hander Anthony DeSclafani. The Mariners know just how productive Haniger can be when at his best but are also plenty familiar with his susceptibility to injuries and strikeouts. As with Garver, he’s not a panacea for the team’s contact woes, but Haniger has never punched out at a clip higher than 2019’s 28.6%. He was at 28.4% in 2023 while battling through an oblique strain, a back strain and another fluky injury: a broken arm sustained when he was hit by a pitch.
Outside of last year, Haniger has been an above-average offensive player in every full season of his career. He’ll probably never return to his peak 2017-18 form, but even 2022’s .246/.308/.429 slash was 13% better than average, per wRC+. The Mariners would likely be fine with that level of output, and anything extra would be a bonus.
The Haniger/DeSclafani/Ray trade also set the stage for one of the Mariners’ biggest acquisitions of the offseason. It took several months to come together, but the M’s and Twins finally made good on what was a clear on-paper match from a trade partner standpoint. Seattle acquired switch-hitting second baseman Jorge Polanco from the Twins, sending back DeSclafani to provide some pitching depth, righty Justin Topa to beef up the Minnesota bullpen, and a pair of prospects: Gabriel Gonzalez and Darren Bowen. Gonzalez is particularly well-regarded, landing on a handful of top-100 lists this winter. Bowen joined the back end of the Twins’ top 30 prospects. The Mariners included the $6MM of salary relief the Giants provided for DeSclafani and kicked in another $2MM, leaving the Twins on the hook for $4MM of DeSclafani’s $12MM salary.
The Mariners weakened their bullpen, thinned out their rotation depth a bit and traded one of their best outfield prospects to get the trade done. From a roster construction standpoint, however, it worked for both parties. Seattle’s pitching is a strength, while second base was a glaring need. Mariners second basemen hit .205/.294/.313 last season. Only four teams (Giants, Brewers, Rockies, White Sox) saw their second basemen turn in a worse wRC+ mark than Seattle’s collective 75.
Going from that dearth of production to Polanco, who’s slashed .267/.337/.458 over his past 2362 plate appearances in the majors (117 wRC+) is a massive upgrade. Like Haniger, he’s had some recent injury issues, but Polanco is a balanced switch-hitter who’s signed for just $10.5MM in 2024 with a $12MM club option for the 2025 season. Knee and hamstring injuries limited him to 80 games last year, but he’s a clearly above-average hitter and capable defender at second base. His 18.2% career strikeout rate should help the Mariners’ contact goals, though it’s worth noting he did whiff in a career-high 25.7% of his plate appearances last year.
Sending Topa to Minnesota in that trade on the heels of his 2023 breakout — 69 innings, 23 holds, 2.61 ERA, 21.9% strikeout rate, 6.5% walk rate, 56.7% grounder rate — may also have served as a catalyst for one of the Mariners’ most uncharacteristic moves in recent memory. Seattle has thrived at turning minor league signees, waiver pickups and other little-noticed acquisitions into impact relievers. Topa himself is an example of it. They’ve become so prominent at doing so that the team has even coined the “Steckenrider Bucket” term — a nod to them signing Drew Steckenrider to a minor league pact a few years back and enjoying a dominant season of setup work from the journeyman righty.
Their February acquisition of White Sox closer Gregory Santos, however, marked the rare instance in which the Mariners paid a steep price in a trade for a reliever. It’s easy enough to see why Santos appealed to them. He pitched 66 1/3 innings of 3.39 ERA ball in front of a terrible defense, striking out 22.8% of his opponents against a 5.9% walk rate. Santos kept the ball on the ground at a 52.5% clip, averaged a blistering 98.8 mph on his heater, induced swinging strikes (13.4%) and chases off the plate (34.9%) at high clips, and regularly avoided dangerous contact (34.9% hard-hit rate, 1% barrel rate). Beyond that, he’s controllable for five more years and not arbitration-eligible until after the 2025 season.
Still, sending not only prospects Zach DeLoach and Prelander Berroa, but also a Competitive Balance draft pick that’ll slot in at 69th overall this summer, marked a divergence from the Mariners’ typical methods. Perhaps the M’s grew weary of mining for hidden gems on an annual basis. Perhaps they simply (and quite understandably) loved Santos’ arm and were enamored of the idea of pairing him with Andres Munoz and Matt Brash in the long term. Whatever the rationale, it gives the Mariners a potential three-headed bullpen monster for the ages. Both Brash and Santos are banged up and will begin the season on the injured list, but neither is believed to be facing a monthslong absence. At some point in the not-too-distant future, that trio will be locking down leads for manager Scott Servais. It’s a fun group on which to dream.
Polanco’s acquisition also helped replenish some of the depth the Mariners lost when trading Jose Caballero to the Rays in exchange for slugger Luke Raley. The 27-year-old Caballero debuted and usurped Kolten Wong as the starting second baseman, though he faded quite a bit after a hot start. Flipping him for Raley adds a considerable influx of left-handed power to the Seattle lineup — Raley homered 19 times in just 406 plate appearances and posted a stout .241 ISO — but does also set the club back in terms of contact skills. Raley fanned at a 31.5% rate in 2023. He hasn’t hit lefties at all in his brief MLB career (.206/.257/.324), so he’ll likely be platooned with Dylan Moore or serve as a bench bat, if the club prefers to give hot-hitting Dominic Canzone the first crack at the larger portion of the left field job. Either way, Raley’s out of options, so he’ll be on the roster.
We’re deep into this look back at the Seattle offseason but haven’t even yet touched on the team’s free agent dealings. That’s both a testament to the astonishing volume of trades and also a reflection of a fairly modest offseason in terms of free agent activity. However, the Mariners did shed a good chunk of money in the trades of Suarez, Kelenic/White/Gonzales, and Ray — as much as $43MM overall. That money has since been largely reinvested into the roster.
To replace Hernandez, Seattle signed Mitch Garver to a two-year, $24MM deal. Garver comes with his own strikeout concerns, but not to the extent of the players he’ll effectively be replacing. He’s fanned in 25.6% of his career plate appearances (24.2% over the past two seasons in Texas) and, more importantly, has quietly been one of the best-hitting catchers in the game when healthy.
Seattle will use Garver as the primary DH, though he could potentially suit up for a few games behind the plate depending on the health of Raleigh and Zavala. This was a bat-driven move, however. Over the past three seasons, Garver has hit .249/.347/.479 (128 wRC+) with 42 homers in 802 plate appearances. He’s a career .272/.377/.509 hitter against lefties. He’s been injured often, doesn’t run well and fans more than the average hitter, so there are some concerns. But the Mariners will hope regular DH at-bats keep him in the lineup more frequently — and if they’re right, he has more than enough bat to fill that role.
The aforementioned injuries to Santos, Brash and Kowar in camp proved too much even for a deep Seattle bullpen to withstand without making any noise. As those three relievers were banged up, the Mariners turned back to the free agent market and signed Ryne Stanek — one of the best remaining relievers — to a one-year, $4MM deal. He’s coming off a down season in terms of ERA and strikeout rate, but Stanek posted the first sub-10% walk rate of his career in 2023 and is yet another power-armed reliever with a fastball that sits north of 98 mph. Each of Munoz, Brash and Santos top 98 mph on average, as well.
Seattle’s only other free agent pickup, Austin Voth, is more in line with their traditional bullpen acquisitions. He inked a $1.3MM deal and will open the season as a swingman. The 31-year-old once looked like a potential long-term rotation option with the Nationals but never found consistency in D.C. He was designated for assignment in 2022, thrived down the stretch after landing in Baltimore (3.04 ERA in 22 appearances, including 17 starts), but couldn’t replicate that success in 2023 (5.19 ERA in 34 2/3 innings). The Mariners will be his third club, and if they can get Voth right, he’ll be controllable through the 2025 season via arbitration.
The Mariners overhauled their lineup, essentially swapping out Hernandez, Suarez, Kelenic, Caballero, Wong, Mike Ford, Tom Murphy and AJ Pollock for a group including Polanco, Haniger, Garver, Raley, Urias and Zavala. It’s not a perfect lineup still, the core of Julio Rodriguez, Cal Raleigh, J.P. Crawford and Ty France — who’ll ideally have a bounceback season — was always going to be the engine driving a contending Mariners club. The new group might not represent as dramatic a reduction in strikeouts as the front office hoped, but this collection of hitters should indeed put the ball in play more frequently.
And for all that turnover, the Mariners made it work without parting with any of their vaunted young starting pitchers or radically increasing payroll. Trading Miller or Woo for a bat, then signing Snell and Matt Chapman might have been a more straightforward means of operating, but those types of expenditures were never in the cards, given ownership’s budget.
The Mariners kept their core in tact, replaced a good bit of any lost production from the departures of Suarez and Hernandez, and did so while operating within a pretty tight set of financial restrictions. They may not be AL West favorites, but this group should be competitive again and the lineup looks solid, even if it’s a wildly different group than they trotted out a year ago. The biggest acquisitions — Polanco, Garver, Santos — are all signed/controlled through at least 2025 as well, making this whirlwind offseason one that’ll impact them beyond the current campaign.
]]>Tucker, 27, inked a minor league pact back in late January. He’s received just 14 plate appearances this spring and gone 2-for-10 with a pair of singles and four walks. He’d been vying for a bench spot, but the M’s already have a platoon of Josh Rojas and Luis Urias at third base (meaning one will be on the bench most days), plus fellow infielder/outfielder Dylan Moore locked into one bench spot. Outfielder Dominic Canzone’s big spring could push him onto the Opening Day roster as well, which would mean the final roster spot would go to the out-of-options Luke Raley, who’s sure to make the team despite struggling through 30 plate appearances in camp.
The No. 24 overall pick by the Pirates back in 2014, Tucker hasn’t lived up to his former top prospect status through a series of mostly limited looks in the majors. Though he’s appeared in parts of five big league seasons, he’s never topped 159 plate appearances in any of those years. He’s a career .216/.266/.318 batter in 459 trips to the plate at the MLB level. He carries a more palatable .250/.350/.382 line in just over 1100 Triple-A plate appearances, and he’s walked in a robust 13% of those plate appearances against a manageable 22.1% strikeout rate.
After working exclusively as a shortstop earlier in his career, Tucker has since logged time across all three outfield spots, at second base and at both infield corners. The switch-hitter is capable of playing just about any spot on the diamond and could latch on elsewhere as a depth piece for another team. Tucker is out of minor league options, so while he’s likely to sign a minor league pact wherever he lands next, he’d need to be kept on the 40-man roster once selected or else exposed to waivers before he could be sent back to Triple-A.
]]>Garabitos, 23, signed with the Mariners as an amateur out of the Dominican Republic back in 2019. He has pitched in the lower levels of the minor leagues since entering pro ball. Garabitos has posted big strikeout numbers but walked far too many hitters. That continued at Low-A Modesto in 2023, where he issued free passes to 17.3% of opponents. The 6’0″ righty struck out 30.2% of batters faced while allowing 4.02 earned runs per nine through 40 1/3 innings.
Last spring, Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs listed Garabitos as an honorable mention in his write-up of the Seattle farm system. Longenhagen noted that Garabitos averages around 96 MPH with his fastball but understandably panned his control. He’s a lottery ticket addition to the lower levels of the Kansas City system.
Taylor is trying to grab a utility spot with the Mariners. He has appeared in 11 Spring Training contests, hitting .269/.286/.500 over 28 plate appearances. He has hit two homers with six strikeouts and one walk.
]]>Llovera, 28 next month, has never appeared in a regular season game for the Mariners, having just been claimed off waivers from the Red Sox in January. He has 59 innings of major league experience under this belt with the Phillies, Giants and Red Sox over the past four years. He has a 5.80 ERA in that time, with a 20.6% strikeout rate, 10.1% walk rate and 44.6% ground ball rate.
He has been more impressive in Triple-A, posting a 2.82 ERA at that level in 92 2/3 innings over the past three years. He punched out 25.9% of opponents in that time and walked just 8.8%. Much of that sample was in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, when Llovera was in the Giants’ system.
The M’s took a flier on him but things haven’t gone especially well since then. He’s allowed five earned runs in 4 2/3 innings this spring. His velocity was down a few ticks, per Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times, which may have contributed to his uninspiring performance of late.
Llovera is now out of options and needed to either have a spot on the active roster or else be removed from the 40-man entirely. The M’s are dealing with some injuries to relievers like Gregory Santos, Matt Brash and Jackson Kowar, which could have opened a role for Llovera. But it appears his recent struggles led them to put him on waivers instead, with the 29 other clubs passing on a chance to grab him.
Llovera has a previous career outright, which means that he has the ability to reject this assignment and elect free agency. It’s not yet clear if he has chosen to do so.
]]>The health of Santos and fellow setup man Matt Brash (or rather, the lack thereof) has been a major storyline for the Mariners during spring training. Brash at one point was feared to have sustained a season-ending injury, but he’s since been diagnosed with only elbow inflammation and cleared to resume throwing. Santos felt some discomfort near his teres major muscle early in camp and was briefly shut down. He resumed throwing a couple weeks back but felt a “pinch” during yesterday’s long toss session and reported it to the team, Hollander explained. That prompted an MRI, which revealed the current strain.
Uncertainty in the Seattle bullpen only grew when one of their depth options, righty Jackson Kowar, experienced elbow pain and was diagnosed with a UCL tear. He’ll undergo Tommy John surgery and miss the 2024 season as a result.
The Mariners, suddenly facing the prospect of three injuries in the bullpen, pivoted and signed free agent right-hander Ryne Stanek to a one-year deal late last week. He’ll give them another experienced arm to add to the late-inning mix, though Stanek is coming off something of a down season and won’t necessarily be able to replicate the level of performance expected from Brash and Santos.
The Mariners acquired Santos from the White Sox in a late offseason trade sending a Competitive Balance (Round B) draft pick and prospects Zach DeLoach and Prelander Berroa to the White Sox. It was a fairly steep price to pay, but Santos broke out with 66 1/3 innings of 3.39 ERA ball for the South Siders in 2023. He fanned a roughly average 22.8% of his opponents, turned in an outstanding 5.9% walk rate and kept the ball on the ground at a very strong 52.5% clip — all while averaging 98.8 mph on his sinker. Add in that he’s controllable for another five seasons, and the appeal becomes all the more clear.
Thankfully for the Mariners, it appears Santos has avoided the type of significant lat strain that has caused various pitchers monthslong absences in recent years. If he’s able to return early in the season, as today’s update suggests, then the Mariners figure to have one of the game’s better bullpens. Brash and Santos are high-end setup options for one of the game’s premier relievers: closer Andres Munoz. Stanek is a veteran option with setup experience who can work in the middle innings. Last year’s unheralded acquisitions of Gabe Speier, Tayler Saucedo and Trent Thornton all yielded excellent results, and even if that trio sees some regression, it’s a deep and talented group if the M’s can get their top names healthy at the same time.
]]>The 30-year-old Vosler has appeared in parts of three big league seasons between the Giants and, in 2023, the Reds. He logged 20 games and tallied 65 plate appearances in Cincinnati last year, getting out to a blistering start before quickly fading. Vosler belted three homers in his first 15 trips to the plate but managed just a .106/.160/.128 slash with 20 strikeouts in 50 subsequent plate appearances. The Reds designated him for assignment in late April and outrighted him Triple-A Louisville after he went unclaimed on waivers.
Vosler spent the remainder of the season in Louisville, where he batted .240/.333/.482 with 20 home runs in 363 plate appearances. The production was right in line with league-average levels in the International League, by measure of wRC+ (99). It was also rather closely in line with Vosler’s career output at that level; in parts of five seasons and in 1747 plate appearances in Triple-A, Vosler is a .265/.342/.485 batter.
While Vosler has been primarily a third baseman in his professional career (5303 innings), he’s logged more than 1400 innings at first base and just shy of 200 in left field. He’s a left-handed hitter and will give the Mariners some lefty depth at positions where they’re lacking in that regard. Right-handed hitters Brian Anderson (third base), Michael Chavis (both corners) and Tyler Locklear (first base) are among the organization’s upper-level corner options, but the team lacks many lefty hitters of note at the infield corners.
Heading into the 2024 season, it seems like the Mariners will roll out a platoon of right-handed-hitting Luis Urias and lefty Josh Rojas at the hot corner. Urias has been slowed in camp by some shoulder soreness dating back to his offseason stint in the Mexican Winter League, but he recently made his Cactus League debut and should have time to ramp up for the year, barring any further setbacks.
]]>It’s a brutal setback for Kowar, who went into 2024 looking for a fresh start. The Royals selected Kowar 33rd overall in the 2018 draft, and viewed the righty as one of several young arms that would help spur the organization’s next contention window. Unfortunately, Kowar (and basically all of Kansas City’s pitchers to date) has yet to show much in the big leagues, with only a 9.12 ERA to show for 74 innings over the last three seasons.
Kowar made eight starts in his 2021 debut season but has since worked only as a reliever in the majors. The move to the bullpen upped his fastball velocity but not much else, as batters have continued to tee off on Kowar’s offerings. Shaky control has also been detrimental to Kowar’s cause, with a 13.7% walk rate and a modest 20.1% strikeout rate.
The Royals opted to move on from Kowar in November when he was traded to the Braves for Kyle Wright, and Kowar’s stay in Atlanta lasted just a couple of weeks, as he was flipped to the Mariners as part of the five-player trade that brought Jarred Kelenic to Atlanta. From Seattle’s perspective, the trade moved a good deal of salary off the books at the cost of Kelenic, and the M’s got to pick up a couple of younger arms in Kowar and Cole Phillips, a second-round pick for the 2022 draft. Unfortunately, Phillips was already recovering from a TJ surgery and recently had to undergo a second procedure, while Kowar has now also been sidelined with the same surgery.
News surfaced earlier this week about a possible arm injury for Kowar, adding to a list of reliever injuries Seattle has already had to address this spring. Gregory Santos has been dealing with soreness is his teres major area but is back throwing bullpen sessions, while Hollander also said that Matt Brash is upping his games of catch to throws of 90 feet. Brash was recently given the green light to start throwing again after a bout of elbow inflammation, as it appeared as though he dodged what initially appeared to be a much more serious injury. Given all these health concerns, it isn’t surprising the Mariners felt the need to spend $4MM on Stanek to reinforce the relief corps.
]]>MARCH 8: The Mariners and right-hander Ryne Stanek have agreed to deal, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. It will be a $4MM guarantee for Stanek, per Feinsand, with $2MM in bonuses also available. Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times reports that the MVP Sports Group client will report to Peoria tomorrow to take his physical and sign the contract. Divish also relays that it will be a one-year deal. The Mariners will need to make a corresponding 40-man roster move whenever the Stanek deal becomes official.
Stanek, 32, will jump across the American League West after spending the past three years with the Astros. He had solid results in that time, serving as a setup man for closer Ryan Pressly. Stanek made 186 appearances for Houston in that three-year span, racking up 41 holds and three saves. He allowed 2.90 earned runs per nine innings and struck out 27% of batters faced. The 12.2% walk rate in that time was certainly high but he was effective in spite of it.
Last year, he got that walk rate down to 9.9%, a personal best for his career. But his strikeout rate also dipped to 23.9%, barely above the 23.6% league average for relievers in 2023. His 4.09 ERA was more solid than great but the overall track record of his time in Houston is nonetheless strong. He also tossed 18 postseason innings for the club over those past three years with an ERA of 3.00.
Beyond the results, Stanek is also appealing for his stuff. His fastball averaged 98.2 miles per hour last year and he also has a splitter and a slider, throwing each of the latter two pitches around 18% of the time last year. Stanek received plenty of attention this offseason, as the Astros reportedly had some interest in a reunion while clubs like the Mets, Cubs and Red Sox were connected to him at various points.
Ultimately, he will land with the Mariners, which is a logical spot. Seattle is set to go into the season with Andrés Muñoz as their closer but the setup group has been dealing with a batch of injury concerns here in Spring Training.
Matt Brash was shut down a couple of weeks ago with an elbow issue and once seemed like he was facing a season-long absence, though he was cleared to resume throwing last week. Similarly, Gregory Santos was shut down due to some discomfort near his teres major muscle but has since started ramping things back up. Just yesterday, it was reported that Jackson Kowar will be meeting with a doctor to have his arm evaluated. None of those three situations seem disastrous in a vacuum but it appears there’s enough general uncertainty that the Mariners decided to reach out and add another arm into the mix and Stanek was the best one still out there.
RosterResource estimates the Seattle payroll is currently $136MM. That’s just barely under last year’s Opening Day figure of $137MM, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts. Previous reporting has suggested that uncertainty around the club’s TV revenue situation would limit them to a modest bump over last year’s spending. Adding Stanek’s salary bumps their payroll to $140MM, slightly beyond where they were a year ago.
The club’s Opening Day bullpen mix will largely depend on health at this point. Muñoz will certainly be in one spot and Stanek in another, while Brash and Santos will take two more if they are healthy. Kowar seemed to be trending to taking a spot before his health issues cropped up. Options for filling out the rest of the group include Gabe Speier, Trent Thornton, Tayler Saucedo, Austin Voth, Carlos Vargas, Mauricio Llovera and others.
For clubs still looking for bullpen upgrades at this late stage of the offseason, Stanek coming off the board leaves Brad Hand, Aaron Loup, Brad Boxberger and Mark Melancon as some of the most accomplished hurlers that remain unsigned.
]]>The Angels were linked to Snell back in December, with Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle writing at the time that Snell was “their priority” as a front-of-the-rotation pitcher to replace Shohei Ohtani. There hasn’t been much public movement between the two sides since, though the Halos also haven’t done anything else to upgrade their rotation, as their offseason pitching moves have been largely focused on bullpen additions. The Angels have traditionally been reluctant to sign pitchers to big multi-year commitments, though since Snell is reportedly open to taking a shorter-term contract (likely with at least one opt-out clause), this could help find common ground towards a landing spot in Anaheim.
Other items from around the AL West…
That may not seem like a significant concern, given Kowar’s unsightly big league track record. The former Royals first-round pick and top prospect was traded to Atlanta and then to Seattle in a pair of change-of-scenery swaps over the winter. He’s 27 years old and, in parts of three big league seasons, has yielded more than an earned run per inning (75 runs in 74 frames). He also has a minor league option remaining. On paper, he looked like a long shot to make the team.
But as Divish recently wrote, Kowar has impressed the Mariners in camp. He’s averaged 96.1 mph on his heater in his career but was hitting 98 mph early in camp. Kowar has pitched a pair of scoreless innings, fanned three of his six opponents, and caught the team’s attention with the quality of his changeup. With Brash unlikely to be ready for the opener and Santos also still building up, there was a potential spot for Kowar to claim. Divish noted that he had “seemed to be locking in a spot” before soreness in his arm led to a temporary shutdown. Kowar last pitched on Feb. 28 and is now going for additional testing — an ominous sign.
The Mariners have a knack for unearthing bullpen talent. In the past few years they’ve turned unheralded pickups of Paul Sewald, Drew Steckenrider, Justin Topa, Kendall Graveman, Gabe Speier, Tayler Saucedo and others into impact moves. Their ability to find hidden gems to round out the relief corps has allowed the M’s to perennially field strong bullpens and also to avoid the types of multi-year deals for relievers that often turn into landmines. A few short looks in spring training is far too small a sample to indicate Kowar would be the next bargain find for president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto and his staff, but at the very least, the hard-throwing Kowar was trending in the right direction. At least for now, that’ll be put on hold — hopefully only for a brief period.
Already dealing with a trio of arm scares in the bullpen isn’t an enviable spot to be in — particularly since Seattle traded one of last year’s top setup men, the aforementioned Topa, to the Twins as part of their trade to acquire second baseman Jorge Polanco. The Mariners still have one of the game’s most talented closers in righty Andres Munoz, and they can look to lefties Speier and Saucedo to build on last year’s breakout showings to help form a setup corps. Santos could be ready for Opening Day still, and if not, he and Brash may not be delayed all that long.
But the Mariners were already likely to be relying on some unproven arms — Kowar among them. Righty Trent Thornton had a strong showing after coming over from the Blue Jays in a little-noticed trade last year. Flamethrower Carlos Vargas, acquired in the Eugenio Suarez trade, has a significant ceiling but worrying command issues. Swingman Austin Voth has had flashes of big league success but has lacked consistency. Former eighth-rounder Ty Adcock had a solid debut in ’23, but last year’s 15 2/3 innings in the majors were his first experience above Double-A. Offseason pickups of Mauricio Llovera, Collin Snider and Cody Bolton give the M’s some other options, but none are proven at the big league level. Veterans like Heath Hembree, Ty Buttrey and Trevor Kelley are in camp on non-roster deals.
The Mariners likely wouldn’t shy away from late-spring additions, be they via the trade market, the waiver wire or perhaps a late splash for one of the remaining free-agent relievers of note (e.g. Ryne Stanek). Even in the absence (so far) of a major injury, their depth is already being tested a bit.
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]]>“With profound gratitude, I am announcing my retirement from Major League Baseball after 11 seasons,” Zunino says in the post. “As I reflect on my career, I am appreciative of the support of the baseball community and those who have guided me along the way.” He goes on to thank the Mariners, Rays and Guardians, their fans, the MLBPA, team staff and teammates, as well as his advisors, representatives and family members. “While my time on the field has concluded, my passion for baseball remains as strong as ever, and I eagerly anticipate exploring new avenues to contribute to the sport. I am excited to bring what I have learned in the game to the next generation of MLB players, and to give back to the game that has given so much to me.”
Zunino was a trumpeted prospect over a decade ago. He was selected third overall by the Mariners in the 2012 draft, with only Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton going ahead of him. He secured a $4MM signing bonus and, just a few months later, Baseball America ranked him the #1 Mariners’ prospect and the #17 prospect in all of baseball going into 2013. He started that year at Triple-A but was up in the majors by June. He missed some time due to a broken hand and only got into 52 big league games, hitting just .214/.290/.329 in that time.
He got his first full season in the majors in 2014 and showed some of the mixed results that would go on to be trademarks of his career. One of the positives was his glovework, as he posted eight Defensive Runs Saved that year. FanGraphs also considered his framing to be really strong, one of the top five backstops in the majors for the season. On offense, he launched 22 home runs but also had some less-exciting elements. His batting average was just .199 and his on-base percentage only .254, thanks to a 3.6% walk rate. He was also struck out in 33.2% of his plate appearances. His 87 wRC+ indicates his offense was subpar overall but he nonetheless was considered to be worth 3.8 wins above replacement by FanGraphs, thanks largely to the defense.
Over the next couple of years, his struggles with strikeouts and low batting averages continued and he was optioned to the minors from time to time. He seemed to take a step forward in 2017, when he walked in 9% of his plate appearances and hit 25 home runs. But he still struck out at a 36.8% rate and his results dipped again in 2018.
Going into 2019, he had two years of club control remaining but was traded to the Rays as part of a five-player swap. His first season in Tampa didn’t go especially well, as a quad strain and an oblique strain limited him to just 90 games in which he hit .165/.232/.312. In the shortened 2020 season, he missed time due to another oblique strain and and struck out in 44% of his 84 plate appearances across 28 games.
Despite the offensive struggles, the Rays clearly valued his defense and work with a pitching staff as the club went all the way to the World Series in 2020. Zunino reached free agency after that but the club brought him back via a one-year, $3MM deal with a club option for 2022.
He would be in arguably the best form of his career in 2021. The Rays limited his workload to 109 games but he still managed to launch 33 home runs and make the American League All-Star team. His strikeout rate was still high at 35.2% but he also walked at a 9.1% clip. His .216/.301/.559 batting line translated to a wRC+ of 133 and he tallied 4.5 fWAR. That’s just behind the 4.6 fWAR he produced in 2017, though that was in a larger sample of 124 games.
The club option for 2022 came with a base value of $4MM but had escalators that could push it to $7MM if he got into 100 games, which he did. After that monster campaign, the Rays triggered the $7MM option to keep him around but 2022 turned out to be a frustrating year for him. He hit just .148/195/.304 through 36 before landing on the injured list and requiring surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome.
The Guardians took a shot on a bounceback, signing Zunino to a one-year, $6MM deal for 2023. But Zunino struck out in 43.6% of his plate appearances and was hitting .177/.271/.306 when he was released in June. He didn’t sign elsewhere in the final months of the season.
Though he clearly had a lopsided profile, Zunino was incredibly skilled in certain areas. He retires with a .199 batting average and .271 on-base percentage, but he launched 149 home runs and racked up 18.3 fWAR thanks to 46 Defensive Runs Saved. He was often cited for his role as a clubhouse leader and could perhaps parlay that skill into future coaching opportunities. Based on his retirement statement, it sounds like he may pursue that line of work at some point. We at MLBTR salute Zunino on a fine playing career and wish him the best with whatever comes next.
]]>Brash was shut down from throwing a week ago, downplaying the severity of his issues by saying he was just “banged up” and “didn’t feel great” after throwing a bullpen. As mentioned, subsequent reporting from a couple of days ago suggested Brash was at risk of missing significant time, perhaps even all of 2024.
That makes today’s news a welcome development for the Mariners, though the concern will likely linger until he gets back on the mound. In the short term, he’ll resume his program shortly and try to build up for game readiness.
If that all goes well, it will be a great relief for the Seattle bullpen. Brash posted a 3.06 ERA last year but may have deserved even better. He struck out a huge 34.7% of batters faced while also posting an above-average 46.1% ground ball rate. His 9.7% walk rate was a tad high but not disastrously so, with relievers around the league averaging a 9.5% clip last year. Some extra runs may have scored thanks to a .380 batting average on balls in play and 77.2% strand rate, which is why his 2.26 FIP and 2.86 SIERA were even more bullish on his performance. He did all that while racking up four saves and 24 holds.
The club figures to have Andrés Muñoz in the closer’s role with Brash and Gregory Santos likely to be in setup jobs. There were recent injury concerns about both, as Santos had some discomfort near his teres major muscle. But Santos has already begun playing catch and general manager Justin Hollander suggested today that things are moving in a positive direction, per Divish. If things continue to trend well for Santos and Brash, it will be a nice development for the club, especially considering how worrisome things looked not too long ago.
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