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Mariners Reinstate Dee Gordon, Option Court

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Infielder Dee Gordon is back in the lineup for Seattle this evening, following the team’s announcement of his activation from the 10-day injured list. In a corresponding move, utilityman Ryan Court has been optioned to Triple-A Tacoma.

It’s been a season to forget for GM Jerry Dipoto’s “reimagined” Seattle crew, with the northwestern outfit limping to a 48-69 record entering play Saturday. As such, it’s difficult to see the Mariners having much to gain from the reinstallation of the 31-year-old Gordon, who, in this phase of his career, offers little aside from a light bat and some still-flight feet. The second baseman, who has been sidelined since July 22nd with a left quad strain, has hit .280/.306/.367 (81 wRC+) in 2019, his second season with Seattle. It is worth noting that a good late-season showing from Gordon could, in theory, help DiPoto’s chances of offloading the veteran in the offseason; Gordon will make $13.5MM in 2020, the last guaranteed season of a 5-year/$50MM deal signed in 2016 with the Miami Marlins.

Court’s initiatory stint in the big leagues granted him just 18 at-bats with Seattle. The 31-year-old has amassed over 3000 at-bats at the minor league level and is a career .275/.366/.430 hitter within the developmental ranks.

Twins Acquire Ian Miller From Mariners

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Today, 12:38 PM: The Mariners will receive cash considerations in return, per the team.

FRIDAY, 11:56 PM: The Twins are set to acquire outfielder Ian Miller from the Mariners, per Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times (via Twitter). The precise return isn’t known, but Divish indicates it’s not expected to be significant.

Because he isn’t playing on a MLB deal, Miller can still be dealt. The 27-year-old, a former 14th-round pick, is still looking for his first taste of the majors. Miller has been plying his trade in the upper minors in the Seattle system since 2015.

Divish indicates that the chief interest for the Twins lies in Miller’s baserunning abilities, and that makes sense. He is an accomplished base thief, with 237 bags snatched over seven professional seasons.

Miller is less accomplished with the bat, with a .699 career OPS through just under three thousand total plate appearances. He’s sporting a bit of a power surge this year, with a .272/.354/.453 slash and 11 long balls (easily a career high) over 441 plate appearances. But that’s still slightly below the mean for Pacific Coast League hitters.

Dodgers Acquire Jose Lobaton From Mariners

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The Dodgers and Mariners have announced a deal in which veteran backstop Jose Lobaton will head to the Los Angeles organization. Cash considerations will head the other way in the swap.

Lobaton, 34, had been playing with the top Seattle affiliate on a minors deal. That’s why he was able to be traded after the July 31st trade deadline.

It’s doubtful that the Dodgers anticipate utilizing Lobaton at the MLB level. He hasn’t been a passable offensive performer in the majors since 2016. In parts of nine seasons in the majors, the switch-hitter carries a .215/.293/.319 slash.

But with prospect Keibert Ruiz going down with an injury, there was a need for a gap-filler at Triple-A. And the Dodgers undoubtedly wish to be sure they’re covered with sufficient organizational depth in the event of an unanticipated run of injuries.

Felix Hernandez Two Triple-A Rehab Starts From Returning

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  • Rehabbing Mariners righty Felix Hernandez threw two innings at the Single-A level Thursday, after which he told Julian A. Lopez of the Modesto Bee he feels ready to return to the majors. The Mariners have other plans, though – they want Hernandez to make two rehab appearances with Triple-A Tacoma before he finally goes back to the Seattle. Shoulder woes have kept the pending free agent from the M’s staff since May 11 in what could be the final season of his storied tenure with the franchise.

Ryon Healy Undergoes Hip Surgery

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Aug. 7: Healy underwent a debridement procedure on his right hip and is expected to require four to six months to recover, Divish tweets.

Aug. 2: Mariners corner infielder Ryon Healy is slated to undergo hip surgery, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times was among those to cover on Twitter. The procedure will sideline him for the remainder of the season.

Healy was previously diagnosed with spinal stenosis. Whether the hip issue is related directly or indirectly is not entirely clear. Neither is it known just how lengthy a rehab process will be required.

The 27-year-old Healy was already facing questions on the field before the health issues arose. He turned in below-average offensive numbers for the second consecutive season, with good power (.219 ISO) but another sub-.300 OBP. In a total of 711 plate appearances with Seattle, Healy has posted a lackluster .236/.280/.423 batting line with 31 home runs. Given his lack of defensive value and baserunning abilities, that type of output is simply too tepid.

Healy entered the 2019 season with two-plus years of big league service and will cross the three-year mark in 2019, making him eligible for arbitration for the first time in his career this winter. This year’s health troubles will suppress a theoretical raise to an extent, but the power numbers that Healy has already logged in his young career will put him in line for a decent bump from this year’s $580K all the same. As such, it’s worth wondering whether the Mariners will tender him a contract at all this winter. The answer to that question could be dependent on the status of his recovery.

Mariners Notes: Beckham, Fraley, Haniger, Felix

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  • Mariners infielder Tim Beckham received an 80-game suspension for performance-enhancing drugs Tuesday, but his time on their roster might have been on the verge of ending even before then. Although he still has a year of arbitration eligibility remaining, Beckham was a candidate for a designation for assignment, according to the Seattle Times’ Ryan Divish. The Mariners could have cut Beckham to make room for outfield prospect Jake Fraley sometime soon, Divish reports. However, Fraley is dealing with a quad injury at the moment. The Mariners will need to add Fraley to their 40-man roster if they do promote him, but they have four openings right now. The club acquired Fraley from the Rays in last offseason’s Mallex Smith/Mike Zunino trade.
  • Sticking with the Mariners, injured outfielder Mitch Haniger and starter Felix Hernandez are progressing in their recoveries, Greg Johns of MLB.com explains. Haniger, out since June 7 with a ruptured testicle, is closing in on a rehab assignment, manager Scott Servais said Tuesday. And Hernandez, whom right shoulder problems have kept from the majors since May 11, will make a second rehab start Thursday. The 33-year-old King Felix may be able to return in late August, Johns notes, which could give the pending free agent and Mariners legend a chance to say goodbye to the franchise and its fans.

Tigers Claim David McKay

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The Tigers announced that they’ve claimed right-hander David McKay off waivers from the Mariners and optioned him to Triple-A Toledo. The move fills Detroit’s 40-man roster.

McKay, 24, made his big league debut with Seattle earlier this season, tossing seven innings out of the bullpen. He was tagged for four runs on five hits and eight walks with five strikeouts in that time, continuing to display the control problems that began to plague him upon reaching Triple-A this season.

McKay logged 43 2/3 innings with Seattle’s Tacoma affiliate but struggled to a 5.15 ERA with 31 walks and 10 hit batsmen in that time. While that’s obviously an ugly line, McKay also racked up an eye-popping 71 strikeouts in that time (14.63 K/9). Control wasn’t an alarming issue for him prior to this season, and he punched out 85 hitters in 59 1/3 innings a season ago when topping out in Double-A, so the Tigers will try their hand at sorting out his location issues. McKay averaged 93 mph on his fastball in his brief big league time this season and drew a plus grade on his slider in MLB.com’s scouting report on him. He lacks a third average pitch, though, making him a rather clear-cut bullpen prospect.

Tim Beckham Receives 80-Game PED Suspension

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Mariners infielder Tim Beckham has been suspended for eighty games under the MLB-MLBPA Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program, according to a league announcement. The league says that Beckham tested positive for the banned performance-enhancing drug Stanozolol.

The 29-year-old Beckham was the first overall pick of the 2008 draft. He joined the Seattle organization on a one-year, $1.75MM contract over the winter after struggling last season with the Orioles.

In a statement, Beckham places the blame on a “tainted” substance he was given by “a trusted source.” (Twitter link via MLBPA.) But his appeal to the league was already considered and rejected.

Beckham had been in the midst of a solid bounceback season. He has continued to struggle to reach base consistently, but made up for that with sufficient pop to produce at a league-average rate. Over 328 plate appearances in Seattle, he owns a .237/.293/.461 slash with 15 home runs.

It had seemed that Beckham was a candidate to be traded at the deadline — or, perhaps, to move via waiver claim this month. Instead, he’ll spend the rest of the year on the restricted list and seek a new chance next year. Beckham will still have to sit out for 32 games to begin the 2020 season.

Yusei Kikuchi’s Difficult Start

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The Mariners made a slew of moves last offseason as part of their “reimagining” plan, but no addition came with more hype than free-agent signing Yusei Kikuchi. The club handed the Japanese star a four-year, $56MM contract – a deal that could turn into a seven-year, $109MM pact – with the expectation it was landing at least a mid-rotation starter. The left-handed Kikuchi could still evolve into that for the Mariners, but their investment hasn’t paid off as planned so far.

In his most recent start last Friday, the Astros lit up the 28-year-old Kikuchi for six earned runs on nine hits, including four home runs, in four innings. The performance dropped Kikuchi’s already uninspiring ERA to 5.49 through his first 118 innings in the majors, with FIP (5.95), xFIP (5.18) and SIERA (5.17) indicating he has deserved his poor run prevention numbers thus far. Home runs have been the main problem for Kikuchi, who has yielded them on 20.1 percent of fly balls and surrendered 2.14 HRs per nine innings. He ranks in the bottom five of the majors in both departments, including dead last in the latter category.

Unlike other recent ballyhooed Japanese imports (Yu Darvish, Masahiro Tanaka and Shohei Ohtani, to name a few), Kikuchi hasn’t excelled at missing bats in his initial MLB action. While Darvish, Tanaka and Ohtani each struck out more than a batter per inning upon reaching the bigs, Kikuchi has only set down 6.41 per nine via K, which outdoes just five qualified starters. Therefore, even though Kikuchi has logged a decent BB/9 (2.9), he sits 13th last in K/BB ratio (2.21). Unsurprisingly, his swinging-strike, chase and contact rates are also subpar.

To this point, Kikuchi has relied on a four-seam fastball (51.3 percent), slider (26.0) and curveball (17.4), per Statcast. The trouble is that two of those offerings – Kikuchi’s fastball and curve – have been eminently hittable. Batters have teed off on Kikuchi’s four-seamer for a .422 weighted on-base average/.386 expected wOBA, while they’ve lit up his curve for a .397/.431 pairing. Although they’ve mustered a .334 wOBA off Kikuchi’s slider, his .271 xwOBA against is far more encouraging. Looking at the location heatmaps for those pitches (via FanGraphs: four-seamer, slider, curve), it’s not hard to believe two have gotten crushed.

Lefties and righties alike have smacked around Kikuchi, who has yielded a .385 wOBA against the former and a .359 versus the latter. While his overall xwOBA against (.339) paints a much more optimistic picture than the actual mark (.369) hitters have put up, that’s not saying much. After all, according to Statcast, Kikuchi still only ranks in the majors’ 24th percentile in the category. Meanwhile, he’s in the league’s 48th percentile or worse in expected batting average against, expected slugging percentage against, hard-hit percentage against, exit velocity against, average fastball velocity (93.0 mph), fastball spin and strikeout percentage.

There clearly hasn’t been much to like about the rookie version of Kikuchi, which isn’t what the Mariners had in mind when they made him their headlining acquisition last offseason. Manager Scott Servais preached patience in regards to Kikuchi on Monday, saying this has been “a developmental year” and he’ll “learn from it.” That may prove to be the case. So far, however, Seattle can’t be thrilled with what Kikuchi has provided.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Mariners Notes: Offseason, Six-Man Rotation

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  • Asked during a conference call about the Mariners’ plans in free agency this winter (link via Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times), general manager Jerry Dipoto replied: “We don’t expect to go into the offseason scouring the free-agent market at the top of the food chain.” That shouldn’t be a particularly surprising stance for anyone to see, as the Seattle club has made it abundantly clear that its rebuild will be a multiyear process. With Felix Hernandez’s contract coming off the books and just over $86MM committed to next season’s payroll at present, the Mariners will have plenty of money to spend, but those funds seem likelier to be allocated to stopgaps, potential summer trade chips and/or mid-range free agents than to any top-tier talent. As Divish points out, Seattle would have overpay (substantially, most likely) in order to sway any free agent to join a club that just lost 90-plus games and is publicly rebuilding.
  • The Mariners will consider moving to a six-man rotation in the near future, MLB.com’s Greg Johns writes. Well-regarded pitching prospects Justus Sheffield and Justin Dunn, acquired in the offseason deals for James Paxton and Edwin Diaz, respectively, will likely join the club by September. Felix Hernandez, too, could return in September. Such an arrangement could help Seattle in monitoring the workload of rookie Yusei Kikuchi and also preventing Marco Gonzales from a radical increase in his innings count from 2018. Sheffield was given a reprieve from the comically hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League recently and has dominated Double-A opposition with a 1.64 ERA and 65-to-14 K/BB ratio in 60 1/3 innings of work. Dunn has also spent the year in Double-A, compiling 100 1/3 innings of 3.59 ERA ball with 10.7 K/9 against 2.8 BB/9.
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