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Mariners Outright Christian Bergman, Designate Rob Whalen, Activate James Paxton

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The Mariners have announced a flurry of roster moves amidst their September call-ups. Among the most notable transactions: lefty James Paxton has been activated from the 10-day disabled list, righty Christian Bergman has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A, and righty Rob Whalen has been designated for assignment. The latter two moves were made to clear room on the roster for the contract selections of utilityman Kristopher Negron and righty Justin Grimm.

Paxton has been on the disabled list for the past two weeks after being struck in the left arm by a comebacker. While there was thankfully no structural damage to his pitching arm, the concerns were apparently heavy enough to warrant a trip to the DL. Paxton has been one of the bright spots for the Mariners this season, pitching to a respectable 3.68 ERA that actually seems unlucky when compared to his 3.12 FIP. His 2018 resume also includes 176 strikeouts in 139 1/3 innings, as well as a no-hitter against the Blue Jays on May 8th.

Bergman, 30, has made appearances in the majors during each of the past five seasons, pitching for both the Rockies and Mariners. He’s never managed to contribute a whole lot of value, though, as he’s never mustered an ERA south of 4.74 in a given season. Perhaps that’s in part due to his inability to strike batters out; Bergman’s career K/9 sits at just 5.43, while his 39.1% ground ball rate is nothing special, either.

Whalen’s spent time with the Braves organization during his career, but he’s spent the past two seasons with the Mariners. He pitched four innings in long relief against the Red Sox on June 15th, allowing just a hit, a walk, and no earned runs. He failed to strike anyone out, though, and his more extensive Triple-A track record suggests he’s obviously far more flawed than a 0.00 ERA pitcher. In 99 1/3 innings at Tacoma, Whalen’s posted a 5.16 ERA (4.03 FIP) while striking out just under a batter per inning.

Mariners Acquire Kristopher Negron From Diamondbacks

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The Mariners announced today that they’ve acquired infielder/outfielder Kristopher Negron from the D-backs in exchange for cash. He’s been assigned to Triple-A Tacoma for the time being.

Negron, 32, has seen MLB time in parts of five seasons, posting a combined .216/.297/.338 batting line in 304 trips to the plate. He appeared in a pair of games with Arizona earlier this season and 14 games last year as well, though he’d previously been outrighted off the 40-man roster and subsequently won’t require a 40-man spot on the Mariners’ roster (barring a September promotion).

Negron has big league experience at every position other than catcher and pitcher. He has nearly 5000 professional innings at shortstop under his belt but has also spent more than 1200 innings at second base and third base in addition to more than 1000 innings in the outfield corners and 998 innings in center field. He’s enjoyed a productive season in Triple-A Reno this year, hitting .283/.368/.477, though those numbers have come in an admittedly hitter-friendly setting. All told, Negron is a .249/.314/.392 hitter in parts of nine Triple-A campaigns.

Mariners Select Shawn Armstrong

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The Mariners announced Tuesday that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Shawn Armstrong from Triple-A Tacoma and optioned fellow right-hander Nick Rumbelow to Double-A Arkansas to open a spot on the active roster. Seattle already had an open spot on the 40-man roster, so no further moves were necessary to accommodate Armstrong’s return to the big leagues.

Armstrong, 27, saw time in the Majors with the Indians across the 2015-17 seasons but was traded to Seattle in exchange for international bonus pool space this past offseason. The Mariners exposed Armstrong to outright waivers just three months later when a need for roster space arose in Spring Training. He’d go on to clear and remain in the organization, which could prove fortuitous for the Mariners.

Through 56 innings out of the Rainiers’ bullpen in Triple-A, Armstrong has been nothing short of overpowering. He’s posted a sterling 1.77 ERA while averaging 13.2 strikeouts, 4.2 walks and 0.48 homers per nine innings pitched, collecting 15 saves along the way. It should be noted that Armstrong is no stranger to gaudy Triple-A numbers, but he’s done a better job of limiting walks this year than in recent seasons while still maintaining a hefty strikeout rate.

Armstrong will join the Mariners with 43 1/3 innings of Major League experience already under his belt from his time with the Cleveland organization. In that time, he’s pitched to a 3.53 ERA but hasn’t matched his minor league strikeout tendencies, averaging 7.9 K/9 against 3.5 BB/9 with a 41.6 percent ground-ball rate.

Mariners Notes: Diaz, Gonzales, Paxton

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  • Corey Brock of The Athletic takes a look at the rise of Edwin Diaz to one of the game’s elite closers (subscription required). Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto, manager Scott Servais, bullpen coach Brian DeLunas and first base coach Chris Prieto are among those to weigh in on Diaz’s ascension from a prospect who never appeared on a major Top 100 list to the second-fastest player ever to reach 100 big league saves. As Dipoto recalls, there was a fair bit of internal debate in his first offseason as GM with the team about whether to develop Diaz as a starter or a reliever. It was eventually decided to see how Diaz’s stuff would play in shorter stints and, if things didn’t go well, to then transition him back to the Majors. Diaz uncorked a 101 mph fastball on his first pitch out of the Double-A bullpen, per Dipoto, and the right-hander’s ensuing dominance made the organization’s decision fairly straightforward. Brock also chats with Astros manager A.J. Hinch and a few of Diaz’s teammates about his emergence as one of the game’s premier relievers.
  • In other Seattle pitching news, the Mariners have placed southpaw Marco Gonzales on the 10-day DL with a cervical neck muscle strain, per a club announcement. He’ll be replaced on the active roster by outfielder Guillermo Heredia. As Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times writes, it’s still not clear how the M’s will address the newly opened rotation hole. While it’s possible southpaw James Paxton will be ready to go in time to take the ball on Wednesday, when Gonzales had been scheduled to start, that would mean moving up his schedule. It’s certainly not an optimal situation for a Seattle club that is trying to catch up to the division-leading Astros and Athletics. Gonzales entered the month of August with a strong 3.37 ERA, but has faded of late. He coughed up eight earned runs in just three innings in his most recent start and has seen his earned-run average climb all the way to 4.32. It has been a compelling season for the 26-year-old, regardless, but as Divish explains the southpaw may be wearing down now that he has reached 145 2/3 frames on the year — a significant workload for a pitcher who has been limited by injuries for most of the past three campaigns.

Hisashi Iwakuma Begins Rehab Outing

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  • Hisashi Iwakuma pitched his first inning of the 2018 season, allowing one run on two hits during the frame as he began an A-ball rehab assignment (hat tip to MLB.com’s Jake Rill).  It was Iwakuma’s first action of any kind since a minor league start in June 2017, as shoulder problems limited him to six Major League starts in 2017 and have continued to keep him sidelined all of this year, despite his undergoing arthroscopic surgery last September.  If Iwakuma can stay healthy, Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto has suggested that the veteran righty could see some action in Seattle’s bullpen before the season is out.

Juan Nicasio To Undergo Season-Ending Knee Surgery

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Mariners reliever Juan Nicasio is scheduled to undergo season-ending knee surgery, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times tweets. It seems the procedure will be “cleanup surgery, nothing catastrophic,” Corey Brock of The Athletic adds.

Nicasio has dealt with right knee issues throughout the season and endured multiple stints on the disabled list as a result. The 31-year-old last pitched Aug. 2, when he allowed two earned runs in two-thirds of an inning in a loss to Toronto. He’ll wrap up his season with a hideous 6.00 ERA across 42 innings, though FIP (2.99), xFIP (3.17) and SIERA (2.58) suggest Nicasio deserved far better in the run prevention department. Nicasio logged excellent strikeout and walk rates (11.36 K/9, 1.07 BB/9), to his credit, and he was victimized by an unusually high batting average on balls in play (.402) and an abnormally low strand rate (58.1 percent).

Assuming Nicasio returns at full strength in 2019, the Mariners will hope he experiences some positive regression during what will be a contract year. Seattle signed Nicasio to a two-year, $17MM guarantee in free agency last winter, but the deal obviously hasn’t panned out thus far for the club.

Injury Notes: Chapman, Judge, Sale, Santana, Goody, Iwakuma

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Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman went in for a platelet-rich plasma treatment on his ailing left knee, David Lennon of Newsday tweets. Skipper Aaron Boone indicated that the plan is to reevaluate the high-powered lefty in two weeks’ time. That’s a bit less promising than the initial suggestion that Chapman could be back after the minimum ten-day DL stint, though there’s no indication as of yet that there’s any real concern that the injury could carry over into the postseason. For a Yankees team that is all but locked into a Wild Card play-in game, getting Chapman up to full speed by the end of September is of much greater importance than having him available for the final month of the regular season.

  • Meanwhile, the Yankees are still waiting for a breakthrough from star outfielder Aaron Judge. As Boone stated, and MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch tweeted, the team has “stopped guessing” as to when Judge’s fractured wrist will be in good enough shape to allow him to resume swinging. In this case, perhaps, there’s a bit more reason to be anxious. It has been a long layoff for Judge, after all, and he’ll want to get as many plate appearances as possible before October arrives. Clearly, though, there’s not much the team can do but wait and hope the wrist improves.
  • The news is slightly more promising — though no less clear — on Red Sox southpaw Chris Sale. He’s “doing better” and “getting close,” per Boston manger Alex Cora, as Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald reports on Twitter. With a healthy division lead, the Boston organization is in no need of Sale’s services for the next five weeks. But he’s essential to the team’s World Series hopes, so getting his balky shoulder sorted out is a top priority.
  • The injured finger of Twins hurler Ervin Santana won’t require surgery, skipper Paul Molitor said and Phil Miller of the Star-Tribune tweeted. That said, the veteran is going to remain shut down until “doctors come up with a plan.” With the Twins’ season sunk and Santana not looking himself since making a brief return to the majors, the objective here is to set him up as well as possible for the future rather than rushing him back in 2018. While no decision has been made as to whether Santana will pitch again for the Twins this year, it could well be that he has already taken the mound for the club for the last time. Minnesota is unlikely to pick up its $14MM option over the right-hander, who will presumably be a popular bounceback target in the offseason to come.
  • Indians righty Nick Goody isn’t in need of a new ulnar collateral ligament, Jordan Bastian of MLB.com tweets, but he is headed in for some kind of procedure. That’s rather promising news, given that the 27-year-old was making the rounds to several noted surgeons recently. Goody has missed much of the 2018 season with arm woes, making for a disappointing follow-up to his strong 2017 performance. Last year, Goody worked to a 2.80 ERA with 11.9 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9 over 54 2/3 frames. He had been on track to reach arbitration via Super Two status this fall. While he’ll have enough MLB service time to reach it, he won’t be eligible since he has not spent 86 days on the active roster this season.
  • It seems the Mariners and Hisashi Iwakuma haven’t given up entirely on the veteran hurler this year. Seattle GM Jerry Dipoto said in a regular appearance on 710 ESPN (write-up via Brent Stecker) that the 37-year-old is nearing a rehab stint, in fact, though it doesn’t sound as if there’s particular cause for optimism that he’ll be a real factor this year. Iwakuma only made six starts in 2017 and hasn’t made it back to competitive action this season. Still, Dipoto suggested he’d do everything possible to get him up to the majors as a reliever down the stretch.

Minor MLB Transactions: 8/23/18

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Here are the day’s minor moves from around the league…

  • The Mariners announced Friday that left-hander Ross Detwiler and infielder Zach Vincej, each of whom was designated for assignment earlier this week, have cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A Tacoma. Detwiler was selected to the big league roster when Mike Leake had to be scratched due to injury. He gave the Mariners six innings of three-run ball against the Astros on short notice in what ultimately wound up to be a losing effort. The veteran southpaws has spent the summer with Seattle’s top affiliate in Tacoma and could emerge as an option with expanded rosters in September, if Seattle wants to add some additional lefties to its bullpen. As for Vincej, he’ll remain in the organization and hope to receive another look as well. He went 2-for-4 in his lone MLB appearance earlier this season and is a career .268/.336/.359 batting line in the minors while playing shortstop, second base and third base.

Mariners Designate Ross Detwiler

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It was a short-lived return to the majors for Ross Detwiler, who was designated for assignment today by the Mariners, per a club announcement. He’ll be replaced on the active roster by righty Nick Rumbelow.

Seattle had called up the 32-year-old Detwiler only recently and ended up asking him to provide six innings of relief last night. While he only allowed three earned runs and helped preserve some other pen arms, the extended appearance also ensured he’d be removed from the roster since it rendered him unavailable for several days to come.

Detwiler opened the year in the indy ball ranks before landing with the Seattle organization. The southpaw worked to a 5.15 ERA with 5.8 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9 in his 71 2/3 innings at Triple-A before seeing action in the majors for his tenth season.

Mariners Select Ross Detwiler, Designate Zach Vincej

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The Mariners announced that they’ve selected the contract of left-hander Ross Detwiler from Triple-A Tacoma and designated infielder Zach Vincej for assignment to open space on the 40-man roster. Righty Chasen Bradford was optioned to Tacoma to open a spot for Detwiler on the active roster.

The move will give the Mariners some important length in the bullpen, as Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times tweets that Mike Leake has been scratched from tonight’s start due to illness. Reliever Nick Vincent will start in his place, so the Mariner look to have a bullpen day on their hands with Leake unable to take the ball.

Detwiler, 32, returns to the big leagues after spending the entire 2017 season at the Triple-A level between the Athletics and the Cubs. The former No. 6 overall pick was a solid back-of-the-rotation arm for the Nationals earlier in his career and had success out of the Nationals’ bullpen in 2014 as well. However, his career took a turn for the worse following a trade to the Rangers in 2015, and he was clobbered for a combined 6.73 ERA in 107 innings between Texas, Atlanta, Oakland and Cleveland from 2015-16.

Detwiler opened the 2018 season with the York Revolution of the independent Atlantic League and pitched 30 strong innings before the Seattle organization purchased his rights. In 71 1/3 frames with Tacoma, he’s posted an uninspiring 5.15 ERA with a 46-to-24 K/BB ratio. He was slated to start tonight before being scratched from his start, though, and since he’s been working in the rotation anyhow, he could enter the game in relief of Vincent and give the Mariners several innings.

Vincej, 27, went 2-for-4 in his lone game with the Mariners earlier this season but has spent the rest of the year in Tacoma. An offseason waiver claim out of the Reds organization, he’s capable of playing multiple infield positions and has batted .246/.314/.346 with six homers, 13 doubles and a pair of triples in 391 plate appearances so far in Tacoma. He’s a former 37th-round pick (Reds, 2012) who owns a career .268/.336/.359 batting line in the minors while playing shortstop, second base and third base.

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