Mariners Rumors

AL Notes: King Felix, Tigers, Angels, Richards

By Connor Byrne | July 1, 2018 at 4:52pm CDT

Mariners right-hander Felix Hernandez’s contract expires after next season, but he doesn’t expect it to be his last deal. “Oh yeah, I’ve got more years to play. I’m not going to retire,” Hernandez told Jon Heyman of Fancred, adding that he has an affinity for Seattle and would like to continue his career in the only major league city he has ever called home. Whether the Mariners feel similarly is up in the air, as Hernandez has fallen off in recent seasons since inking a seven-year, $175MM extension prior to the 2014 campaign. Hernandez was among the game’s best starters then, but he’s now sporting a career-worst 5.11 ERA over 100 1/3 innings in his age-32 season.

AL West Notes: Cruz, Athletics, Gallardo, Angels

By Mark Polishuk | June 30, 2018 at 12:00pm CDT

Mariners slugger Nelson Cruz not only plans to keep playing in 2019, but Fancred Sports’ Jon Heyman reports that Cruz has hopes of landing a multi-year contract as a free agent this winter. Cruz will be an interesting test case within a market that has been increasingly unkind to veteran bat-only players over the last two offseasons. He turns 38 tomorrow and his list of suitors is almost surely limited to American League teams since Cruz has become a full-time DH. On the plus side, Cruz is still hitting as well as ever, with 21 homers and a .273/.358/.569 slash line through 288 PA. Teams are increasingly preferring to rotate several players through their DH spot rather than employ a full-time designated hitter, though Cruz’s production has been so excellent in recent years that you’d think at least a couple of clubs would be willing to trade lineup versatility for a big bat.

Some more from around the AL West…

The Athletics are getting calls about their relievers, as a scout tells Peter Gammons (Twitter link) that Blake Treinen, Lou Trivino, and Ryan Buchter have all drawn interest from multiple teams. Treinen has been mentioned as a potential trade chip, though Gammons says that Oakland has declined all offers for the closer. Treinen has two more years of control remaining via arbitration, while Buchter has three and Trivino only made his MLB debut this season. The A’s would surely need quite a bit to part with any of the trio, though a trade isn’t out of the question if the team is considering buying at the deadline. The A’s still have a big deficit to make up in both the AL West and wild card races, though an 11-2 run in their last 13 games has given them an impressive 45-38 record.
With the Rangers facing a lot of uncertainty with their starting rotation in 2019, Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram suggests that Yovani Gallardo could potentially return to the team next season. Gallardo hasn’t shown much in three starts for Texas, though he would likely be a low-cost signing in the offseason and would give the Rangers some veteran depth as they juggle their various pitching options going forward.
While the Angels’ farm system is usually rated around the middle of the pack in most organization rankings, this represents a major improvement from just a couple of years ago, when the prospect-starved Halos were considered to have one of the worst collections of minor league talent of any team in recent memory. The Athletic’s Steve Dilbeck (subscription required) looks at how the Angels have rebuilt their player development system under GM Billy Eppler, with a particular organization-wide focus on finding athletic players. “You’ve seen over the course of [Eppler’s] drafts a very common thread,” Angels director of scouting Matt Swanson said. “Athleticism and not being afraid of high upside players and understanding that we can bring guys in and get them bigger, faster and stronger.”

Report: “Increasingly Possible” Cole Hamels Is Traded Before All-Star Break

By Jeff Todd | June 29, 2018 at 12:17am CDT

FRIDAY, 12:17am: The Mariners have engaged in some “dialogue” regarding Hamels, Morosi tweets, though there’s no indication at present that they’re particularly likely to end up with him.

THURSDAY, 8:37pm: It’s “increasingly possible” that the Rangers will strike a deal involving veteran starter Cole Hamels in advance of the All-Star break, according to MLB.com’s Jon Morosi (via Twitter). This year’s mid-summer classic is scheduled for July 17th.

It has long been apparent that Hamels was in position to be traded. The Rangers stumbled out of the gates and never made up ground. Meanwhile, the 34-year-old southpaw has produced good results with good-enough peripherals. With just one option year left on his high-priced contract, he’s a clear trade candidate.

While this evening’s report hints at some movement, much is still unknown. It’s largely unclear just which teams have interest, though there are a limited number of “buying” organizations and most of them could stand to add a rotation piece. It remains to be seen whether any will really push to get Hamels on board well in advance of the deadline. There’s no indication that a single suitor has emerged to this point.

It is also not yet apparent how much of an obstacle Hamels’s contract situation will pose. He can block trades to twenty teams. While he indicated a willingness to facilitate a move, he also could still seek some additional inducement. Teams will surely not be enthused with the fact that Hamels is earning a hefty $22.5MM salary this season. There’s yet greater potential for complication from his $20MM club option for 2019, which comes with an unusually large $6MM buyout.

Of course, those matters wouldn’t be quite so important were it not for the fact that Hamels is no longer the pitcher he was when the Rangers originally acquired him. We examined some of these limitations a month back. For the most part, the situation remains the same: Hamels has restored most of his lost ability to get swings and misses, but he’s giving up far too many homers and has perhaps been a bit fortunate to carry a 3.61 ERA. Opponents this year own only a .266 batting average on balls in play (well below the mark Hamels has allowed in his career) despite making hard contact at a lofty 44.1% rate (by far the highest Hamels has permitted).

To be sure, Hamels still warranted a top spot in our recent list of the top fifty summer trade candidates. But that’s due in no small part to the fact that few high-end rental starters seem likely to be made available. Other pitchers — J.A. Happ and Tyson Ross, in particular — are arguably preferable given their strong numbers and cheaper contracts.

In fairness, there are some factors that point in favor of Hamels, too. He has a lengthy track record as a standout pitcher and had reeled off seven-straight 200+ inning campaigns before missing some starts last season. Hamels also has ample postseason experience, carrying a composite 3.48 ERA in 98 1/3 total playoff innings.

Jayson Werth To Retire

By Jeff Todd | June 27, 2018 at 1:48pm CDT

Veteran outfielder Jayson Werth tells Jon Heyman of Fancred Sports that he will retire. He had been with the Mariners organization on a minor-league deal.

Though Werth declined to describe the situation in precisely those terms, he told Heyman: “I’m done … whatever you want to call it.” That statement does not seem to leave much room for interpretation, so it seems fair to assume that Werth will not look to return from the hamstring injury that recently put him on the shelf at Triple-A Tacoma.

Werth, 39, had signed on with the Seattle organization after wrapping up a seven-year, $126MM contract with the Nationals. That monster contract marked one of several turning points over Werth’s long professional career.

Drafted 22nd overall by the Orioles in the 1997 draft, Werth did not exactly race to the majors. And he did not stick immediately upon reaching the game’s highest level. He bounced from the Baltimore organization to the Blue Jays and then on to the Dodgers, moving from behind the dish to the outfield along the way and receiving relatively meager opportunities in the majors.

Werth posted strong numbers in a partial season of work with Los Angeles in 2004, but ended up suffering a significant wrist injury during camp in the ensuing spring. He played poorly upon returning and the issue failed to dissipate. Werth ended up missing all of the 2006 campaign and being set loose by the Dodgers.

At that point, clearly, there was a high likelihood that Werth would simply never make good on his original promise. But he drew major-league contract offers and ultimately landed with the Phillies, as MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes explained at the time.

Needless to say, things turned up from there. Werth ended up slashing a robust .282/.380/.506 in over two thousand plate appearances over four seasons in Philadelphia, swatting 95 home runs and swiping sixty bags along the way. He was a key piece of the organization’s magical run in that span, including a 2008 World Series victory.

When free agency arrived, both team and player decided to make other plans — not that the Phillies fans ever forgave Werth for leaving. As MLBTR’s Zach Links wrote, it took an eye-popping number to convince him to head to D.C., a surprising decision for a Nationals organization that was then a perennial cellar dweller.

Werth’s first season with the Nats did not go according to plan. And he missed time with a wrist injury in the one that followed. But his play picked up quite a bit. And the tide soon turned in the division, with the Washington organization rising as the Phillies fell apart. From 2012 through 2014, Werth made good on his hefty salary, posting a cumulative .303/.394/.479 slash with 46 home runs. Unfortunately, that output — and Werth’s good health — would not last. Over the final three years of his deal with the Nationals, he managed only a .233/.322/.402 batting line in 301 games.

While postseason success wasn’t to be in D.C., Werth will be remembered well for his leadership role in an important time in the organization’s history. Now, he tells Heyman, he’ll head off to spend more time with his family — and, perhaps, take up some organic farming. Both sound like worthy pursuits, and we at MLBTR wish him the best of fortune.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Trade Rumors: Britton, Red Sox, Beltre, Dodgers, Boyd

By Mark Polishuk | June 24, 2018 at 10:37pm CDT

We’re still over a month away from the trade deadline but the hot stove is already percolating. Here’s some trade buzz from around the majors…

The Red Sox are one of several teams who are scouting Orioles southpaw Zach Britton, the Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo reports. Craig Kimbrel wouldn’t be in any danger of losing his closing job if Britton joined the Sox, though Britton would be a setup man and big left-handed weapon out of Boston’s pen. Brian Johnson is currently the only lefty reliever on the 25-man roster, though Bobby Poyner (currently in Triple-A) has posted some solid results when pitching for the big league team. MLBTR’s Steve Adams recently explored Britton’s value as a trade candidate, noting that virtually every contender will, or should, be monitoring Britton as he continues his return from offseason Achilles surgery.
Also from Cafardo, he adds the Red Sox and Braves to the list of teams with some interest in veteran third baseman Adrian Beltre. With Rafael Devers on Boston’s big league roster and Braves top prospect Austin Riley looming at Triple-A, both teams could make sense for a short-term upgrade like Beltre, who is only signed through this season. While Beltre seems like a natural trade chip for a Rangers team that is well out of contention, there still remains some speculation as to whether or not Texas will actually move him, as the team heavily values Beltre’s leadership and wants him on the roster in 2019. Beltre also has no-trade protection via 10-and-5 rights. Still, the Rangers are at least shopping Beltre (and other players) to gauge trade interest, and it can’t hurt that multiple contenders could be in the market for third base help.
The Dodgers will be looking for relief help but otherwise don’t have any really obvious areas of need on their roster, Ken Rosenthal notes in a FOXSports.com video report. This will allow the Dodgers to pursue the best players available on the trade market and “be picky” if they don’t like the asking price for a big-name rental player (i.e. Manny Machado).
Left-hander Matthew Boyd “is one of the Tigers’ most coveted players in trade talks,” MLB.com’s Jon Paul Morosi writes. Even after a rough outing against Cleveland today, Boyd still has solid overall numbers this season, with a 4.15 ERA and 7.54 K/9 through 82 1/3 innings. Advanced metrics aren’t nearly as high on Boyd’s work, however, so Detroit could explore a trade when Boyd is at his peak value, even though he is just 27 and isn’t eligible for arbitration until this winter. Morosi speculates that the Mariners could target Boyd based on their past attempt to trade for him in the 2016-17 offseason, when GM Jerry Dipoto offered Taijuan Walker and prospects to the Tigers for Boyd and J.D. Martinez.

Yankees, Mariners Interested In J.A. Happ

By Steve Adams | June 18, 2018 at 10:03am CDT

The Yankees and Mariners are among the clubs interested in Blue Jays left-hander J.A. Happ, tweets Jon Morosi of MLB.com. Happ figures to be one of the top rentals available on the starting pitching market this summer, if not the top rental, so it’s hardly a surprise to see a pair of contending clubs with some rotation question marks eyeing the 35-year-old southpaw. Presumably, most contending clubs have at least considered making a run.

Happ is in the final season of a three-year, $36MM contract that has proven to be a bargain for the Jays. In 423 innings since signing that deal, he’s worked to a 3.36 ERA, averaging 8.5 K/9, 2.8 BB/9 and 1.1 HR/9 with slightly above-average ground-ball tendencies. Happ’s 2018 season is among his best yet, as he’s sporting a career-best 10.2 K/9 mark and a 10.4 percent swinging-strike rate. Lefties haven’t stood a chance against him (.159/.188/.246), while the efforts of right-handed opponents have been relatively futile in their own right (.217/.294/.346). Cole Hamels may have Happ topped in name value, but Happ is the better pitcher and this point and looks like one of the clear prizes of the summer trade market.

Happ is earning $13MM this season, and there’s still about $7.3MM of that sum remaining to be paid out before season’s end. That’s hardly an insignificant sum, but it’s not a backbreaking total for most contending clubs, either. And, of course, the Blue Jays could help to facilitate the trade by agreeing to pay down a portion of Happ’s remaining salary as a means of helping to extract the best possible return.

Both New York and Seattle have had some issues in their rotation, even though both clubs have received above-average results from their starting pitching. The Yankees, for instance, recently lost left-hander Jordan Montgomery to Tommy John surgery and have received inconsistent contributions from Sonny Gray and Masahiro Tanaka. Domingo German has not seized the fifth spot in the rotation in Montgomery’s absence.

The Mariners, meanwhile, have received just 9 2/3 innings from Erasmo Ramirez in 2018. Felix Hernandez has been hammered for a 5.44 ERA, and while Wade LeBlanc has been terrific in the fifth starter’s role, there are questions about the 33-year-old’s ability to sustain his current level of production.

As for the Blue Jays, despite the fact that they just completed sweeps of the Nationals and Orioles, it still seems likely that they’ll be open to selling off veteran assets this summer. Even after going 7-3 in their past 10 games, the Jays are sitting at 33-38 on the season, placing them 15 games out of first place in the American League East and a similarly daunting 12.5 games back of a Wild Card spot in the American League. Toronto also has just six games against sub-.500 teams remaining between now and the All-Star break, so their upcoming schedule doesn’t present an easy road back to contention.

Quick Hits: Brewers, Mariners, Ichiro, Mets, R. Hill, Rays

By Connor Byrne | June 16, 2018 at 10:34pm CDT

Rival executives expect the Brewers to be aggressive in targeting starting pitching help this summer, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports (video link). The Brewers’ rotation has been a middle-of-the-pack group to this point, as it entered Saturday 13th in the majors in ERA (3.92) and 19th in fWAR (3.8). Of course, the unit has been without its top starter from 2017, Jimmy Nelson, who’s working back from the right shoulder surgery he underwent last September and should return sometime this season. He and another starter acquired from elsewhere could help the Brewers hold on to a playoff spot, which they were unable to do a year ago during an 86-win campaign. Rosenthal also points to catcher and shortstop as positions the Brewers could upgrade, though he notes they’re “unlikely” to be in play for Manny Machado at the latter spot.

Mariners Outright Mike Morin

By Kyle Downing | June 16, 2018 at 1:15pm CDT

Mariners right-hander Mike Morin has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A Tacoma, the club’s PR department has announced. Morin had been designated for assignment by Seattle on Thursday.

Morin’s been an above-average reliever throughout the course of his career in terms of FIP (3.35 lifetime mar), but he’s one of those pitchers whose ERA doesn’t line up with the type of contact he induces. Morin owns a 4.60 career ERA despite excellent command of the strike zone and a strikeout rate of nearly a batter per inning. August Fagerstrom of Fangraphs once described him as having baseball’s “silliest change-up” due to the extreme velocity differential between that pitch and his fastball.

Morin’s removal from the roster is somewhat puzzling considering he’s performed strongly between the majors and minors this year (as MLBTR’s Jeff Todd noted when the Mariners designated him for assignment). Perhaps the Mariners (along with all 29 other MLB clubs) were still dismayed by the 7.20 ERA he posted across 20 innings last season. Regardless, they’ll retain him within the organization and likely see him contribute again at some point this season.

Red Sox Return Eric Filia To Mariners

By Steve Adams | June 15, 2018 at 7:50pm CDT

JUNE 15: The teams have announced that Filia will be returned to Seattle after failing his physical. Instead, Boston will receive cash considerations to complete the swap.

JUNE 12: The Red Sox announced that they’ve acquired minor league outfielder Eric Filia from the Mariners as the player to be named later in April’s Roenis Elias trade. FanRag’s Robert Murray was the first to reports that Filia was going to the Red Sox (Twitter link).

Filia, 25, was Seattle’s 20th-round pick back in 2016 and ranked as the No. 11 prospect in a thin Mariners farm system, per MLB.com, though he missed the early portion of the season while serving a 50-game suspension due to a second positive test for a drug of abuse. He was recently activated and has batted .426/.508/.537 with a home run, three doubles and more walks (nine) than strikeouts (four) in 63 Double-A plate appearances.

Of course, Filia is older than the average competition he’s facing in Double-A, as was the case in 2017 when he batted .326/.407/.434 with five homers in 564 plate appearances as a 24-year-old in Class-A Advanced. Filia has punched out in just 7.3 percent of his professional plate appearances, and while that’s in part a testament to the younger competition he’s faced, it’s also an undeniable testament to his above-average bat-to-ball skills. He’s also walked at a 12.3 percent clip in the minors.

Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com laud those on-base and bat-to-ball skills, though their report also indicates that he’s limited to the outfield corners on the defensive spectrum and has “average-at-best tools” in other facets of the game. Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen called him a potential bench bat in running through the Mariners’ system this offseason, noting past injury issues and recreational drug usage have slowed his path to the Majors.

Mariners Designate Mike Morin

By Jeff Todd | June 14, 2018 at 5:10pm CDT

The Mariners have designated reliever Mike Morin for assignment, per a club announcement. The club also optioned out first baseman Dan Vogelbach while adding righties Nick Rumbelow and Rob Whalen to the active roster.

Morin, 27, had appeared twice this year for the M’s at the MLB level but spent most of his time in the Seattle organization at Triple-A. Over 25 total frames, he allowed nine earned runs and carried a strong 28:6 K/BB ratio.

Over parts of five seasons in the majors, Morin has worked to a 4.60 ERA over 172 innings. Claimed off waivers over the winter, he was removed from the 40-man late in camp and then added back just a few days ago. Given his prior outright, Morin can refuse an assignment to Triple-A if he clears waivers.

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