Mariners Designate Cody Bolton For Assignment
The Mariners announced this afternoon that they’ve designated right-hander Cody Bolton for assignment. Bolton’s 40-man roster spot will go to right-hander Jesse Hahn, whose contract has been selected from the minors. Left-hander Tayler Saucedo was optioned to Triple-A to make room for Hahn’s addition to the active roster.
Bolton, 27 in June, was a sixth-round pick by the Pirates back in 2017 and made his big league debut with Pittsburgh in 2023. That first stint in the majors did not go especially well, as the righty posted a lackluster 6.33 ERA (72 ERA+) with a 20.6% strikeout rate against a hefty 14% walk rate in 21 1/3 innings of work. While he pitched better at Triple-A Indianapolis, with a 3.86 ERA and a more reasonable 9.2% walk rate, that still wasn’t to convince the club to keep Bolton on their 40-man roster throughout the winter; in early November, the club traded Bolton to the Mariners in a cash deal.
Bolton’s time in Seattle went better than his time in Pittsburgh, but still left something to be desired. The right-hander pitched impressively for the Mariners at Triple-A Tacoma, with a 3.07 ERA in 29 1/3 innings of work that’s made all the more impressive by the inflated offensive environment of the Pacific Coast League. Strong as that work was, however, the righty still posted a below-average 4.34 ERA (85 ERA+) with a 20.5% strikeout rate and a 10.8% walk rate that were largely reminiscent of his time with the Pirates. While Bolton stuck with the Mariners on the 40-man roster throughout this past offseason, a rough start to the 2025 campaign at Triple-A where he’s surrendered three runs in two innings of work was evidently enough for Seattle to pull the plug. The club will now have one week to either trade Bolton or attempt to pass him through waivers. Should he clear waivers successfully, the Mariners can outright him to the minor leagues as a non-roster depth option going forward.
The departure of Bolton makes room for Hahn, whose debut with the Mariners will be his first MLB appearance since 2021. A sixth-rounder drafted by the Rays back in 2010, the 35-year-old hurler made his debut with the Padres back in 2014 and enjoyed an impressive rookie campaign where he posted a 3.07 ERA in 73 1/3 innings spread between 12 starts and a pair of relief appearances. His 10.5% walk rate was a bit elevated, but he largely made up for it with a strong 22.9% strikeout rate to post solid results in line with those expected of a #4 starter.
Hahn was included by the Padres in an offseason trade with the A’s that sent catcher Derek Norris to San Diego, and his first year in Oakland saw the righty continue to fill the role of a potential mid-rotation arm with a 3.35 ERA and 3.51 FIP in 16 starts. Unfortunately, much of Hahn’s 2015 season was wiped out by a flexor tendon injury, and when he came back to the mound in 2016 he no longer looked like the same pitcher. The righty posted a lackluster 5.59 ERA in 116 innings of work for the A’s over the next two seasons before being traded once again, this time to the Royals in a trade that brought back reliever Ryan Buchter.
Hahn did not appear in the majors for the Royals until 2019 due to a UCL injury that eventually required surgery, and when he came back late in the 2019 season it was as a reliever. The right-hander ultimately made just 29 appearances for the Royals over parts of three seasons, with a 4.62 ERA (105 ERA+) and a 4.81 FIP in 25 1/3 innings of work. Hahn hit the injured list due to shoulder issues back in 2021 and didn’t pitch again professionally at any level until 2024, when he latched on with the Dodgers on a minor league deal. He’s thrown 51 1/3 solid innings for the Dodgers and Mariners at Triple-A since then, and now appears poised to make his comeback to the majors. He was released from his minor league deal with Seattle just a couple of weeks ago ahead of Opening Day, but evidently re-signed with the club on a fresh minor league deal since then.
Making room for Hahn on the active roster is Saucedo, who served as a solid middle relief option for Seattle in each of the past two seasons with a 3.54 ERA and 3.79 FIP in 86 1/3 innings of work across 105 outings. Things have not gone well for the southpaw so far this year, however, with four runs allowed and more walks than strikeouts in his first three appearances. He’ll head to Tacoma to serve as optionable depth for the Mariners for the time being as he awaits his next big league opportunity.
Mariners Designate Hagen Danner For Assignment
The Mariners announced that right-hander Hagen Danner has been designated for assignment. That opens a 40-man spot for Luis F. Castillo. It was reported yesterday that Castillo would be coming up to start today’s game, making for an odd bit of trivia as the other Luis Castillo started the prior game for the M’s. An active roster spot was already opened by optioning left-hander Jhonathan Díaz yesterday.
Danner, 26, hasn’t been with the Mariners for long. He was claimed off waivers from the Blue Jays in January. He then tossed 3 1/3 innings in the Cactus League, allowing five earned runs. He was then sent to Triple-A Tacoma and started his season with 2 2/3 scoreless innings there.
His overall track record as a pitcher isn’t terribly long. The Jays drafted him as a catcher and tried him at that spot for a few years, but his bat didn’t pan out and they moved him to the mound. He has since put up some decent numbers on a rate basis but with occasional injury absences. Due to those health issues, he still hasn’t thrown 40 innings in any one season.
He has one third of an inning in the majors, which was back in 2023, and then 116 2/3 minor league innings from 2021 to the present. In that minor league work, he has a 2.93 earned run average, 28.3% strikeout rate and 8.7% walk rate.
The M’s will now have a week of DFA limbo to figure out what’s next. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so any trade interest would have to be gauged in the next five days. Danner still has an option, so he could be stashed in the minors by any club willing to give him a 40-man spot. If he were to pass through waivers unclaimed, the Mariners could hold onto him as some non-roster depth.
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images
Mariners To Select Luis F. Castillo
The Mariners plan to select right-hander Luis F. Castillo to start tomorrow evening’s game against the Giants, the club informed reporters (including Adam Jude of The Seattle Times). As Jude notes, it’ll be the second straight Mariners game started by a Luis Castillo. Seattle’s veteran right-hander of the same name tossed seven innings in yesterday’s win over Detroit.
Luis F. Castillo will be making his first major league start. The 30-year-old has three MLB relief appearances under his belt. Those came with the 2022 Tigers, for whom he tossed 3 2/3 scoreless innings with four strikeouts. Detroit sent him through outright waivers at the end of that season. Castillo signed with the Chiba Lotte Marines of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball the following offseason.
After turning in a 3.12 ERA across 49 innings for the Marines, Castillo moved to the Orix Buffaloes. He fired 94 1/3 innings of 2.96 ERA ball despite a pedestrian 19.6% strikeout rate. Castillo showed fantastic control, though, walking fewer than 5% of batters faced for the second consecutive season. The Dominican-born pitcher returned to the affiliated ranks last offseason, joining the Mariners on a minor league contract in January.
Castillo pitched five innings of three-run ball across three appearances in Spring Training. He worked 5 2/3 frames in his first Triple-A start on Sunday, allowing one run on two hits and a pair of walks. Seattle will bring him up for at least a spot start as the fifth spot in their rotation comes around. Emerson Hancock got that job out of Spring Training because of the George Kirby injury, but the former sixth overall pick couldn’t escape the first inning in his season debut. Seattle optioned him out a few days later.
The Mariners announced this afternoon that they reinstated Jorge Polanco from the paternity list. They optioned Leo Rivas and swingman Jhonathan Díaz to Triple-A Tacoma. Castillo will take Díaz’s active roster spot. The 40-man roster is at capacity, so they’ll need to make another move in that regard tomorrow.
MLBTR Podcast: Garrett Crochet’s Extension, Problems In Atlanta, And Other Early-Season Storylines
The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.
This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…
- The Red Sox signing Garrett Crochet to a six-year extension (0:50)
- The Red Sox keeping Rafael Devers at designated hitter full-time and the general position player logjam (12:20)
- The Braves have started the season ice cold and have lost Reynaldo López to the injured list and Jurickson Profar to a PED suspension (20:05)
- The Rockies trade Nolan Jones to the Guardians for Tyler Freeman (28:05)
- The Astros put Cam Smith on their Opening Day roster, which could alter the view of the trade with the Cubs (34:05)
- The ongoing contract talks between the Blue Jays and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (44:00)
- The Mariners signing Cal Raleigh to a six-year extension (50:30)
- The Guardians extending Tanner Bibee and the Diamondbacks extending Brandon Pfaadt and others (54:35)
Check out our past episodes!
- What We Learned From The Offseason – listen here
- The Rays’ Stadium Deal Is Dead, Rangers’ Rotation Issues, And More! – listen here
- Lawrence Butler’s Extension, Gerrit Cole’s TJ, And Rays’ Ownership Pressured To Sell – listen here
The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!
Photo courtesy of Tim Heitman, Imagn Images
Mariners Select Jhonathan Díaz
The Mariners announced that they have selected the contract of left-hander Jhonathan Díaz. The club already had an open 40-man roster spot, so no corresponding move was necessary there. In terms of the active roster, right-hander Emerson Hancock has been optioned to Triple-A Tacoma. Daniel Kramer of MLB.com noted earlier that Díaz was in the clubhouse with Hancock headed out.
As of a month ago, the Mariners were set to open the season with a strong front five of Logan Gilbert, Bryce Miller, George Kirby, Bryan Woo and Luis Castillo. Unfortunately, Kirby was shut down in early March due to some shoulder inflammation and started the season on the injured list.
That opened an opportunity for Hancock but his start in yesterday’s game against the Tigers could hardly have gone much worse. He didn’t make it out of the first inning, recording just two outs, one of which was a caught stealing. He allowed six earned runs on seven hits, forcing the bullpen to cover 8 1/3 innings.
Of the club’s eight relievers, four of them pitched last night, each of them recording at least four outs and throwing at least 31 pitches. Out of the four guys who didn’t pitch last night, three of them appeared in Sunday’s contest.
They have brought up Díaz presumably for a multi-inning option out of the bullpen soon. Last year, he made five appearances in the majors for Seattle but spent most of his time in the Triple-A rotation. He logged 117 2/3 innings for Tacoma over 22 starts and one relief appearance. His 4.36 earned run average wasn’t bad in the context of the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. He struck out 22.9% of batters faced, gave out walks at a 9.9% clip and got grounders on 54.1% of balls in play.
The lefty was outrighted off the roster in February and elected free agency but returned via a minor league deal. He still has options, so the M’s could perhaps shuttle him to Tacoma and back throughout the year, recalling him whenever a situation like this arises.
In the short term, it’s unclear what the M’s plan to do with the rotation. They are in the midst of a seven-game stretch to start the season, with two more to go. But thanks to having five off-days in April and some at the start of May, they don’t play more than six games in a row again until the second half of May. Perhaps they could survive for a while with a four-man group of Gilbert, Miller, Woo and Castillo. Optionable arms like Hancock, Díaz and Blas Castano could perhaps make spot starts or take bulk work in occasional bullpen games over the next six weeks or so.
Photo courtesy of Steven Bisig, USA TODAY Sports
Poll: Who Will Win The AL West?
Opening Day has finally arrived, and teams all around the league are gearing up for another pennant chase in hopes of being crowned this year’s World Series champion. Of course, there’s still another seven months to go before someone raises the Commissioner’s Trophy. Until the playoffs begin, teams will be focused on a smaller goal: winning their division. We’ll be conducting a series of polls to gauge who MLBTR readers believe is the favorite in each division. That series has already covered the National League, with the Dodgers, Cubs, and Phillies each coming out on top in their respective divisions. Now, the series moved on to the American League with a look at the AL West. Teams are listed in order of their 2024 record.
Houston Astros (88-73)
The only club to make the playoffs from the AL West last year, the Astros enter the 2025 season on the heels of a postseason that snapped their nearly decade-long run of trips to the ALCS. After a winter where the team parted ways with longtime franchise stalwarts such as Alex Bregman, Kyle Tucker, Justin Verlander, and Ryan Pressly, the team is looking very different than it has in previous years. There’s some clear signs of weakness, most notably the fact that the club’s outfield depth is thin enough that their starters in the outfield corners are two infielders: longtime second baseman Jose Altuve has moved to left, while top third base prospect Cam Smith is patrolling right field with just five games of experience outside of A-ball.
Flawed as the club’s roster may be, there’s still plenty to like about the Astros in 2025. Christian Walker is an upgrade at first base and Isaac Paredes is an All-Star caliber hitter who should benefit greatly from the Crawford Boxes as he steps into the third base job vacated by Bregman. Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown have a chance to form a strong front-of-the-rotation duo, while few teams boast a pair of arms better than Josh Hader and Bryan Abreu at the back of their bullpen. Whether that will be enough to maintain a stranglehold over the AL West in 2025 even after this winter’s departures remains to be seen, however.
Seattle Mariners (85-77)
2025 ended in soul-crushing fashion for Mariners fans as they missed the playoffs by just one game for the second consecutive season. The club’s offseason was similarly disappointing as well; despite rumors of trades that would’ve sent players like Triston Casas, Nico Hoerner, and Alec Bohm to the Pacific Northwest making their way through the rumor mill this winter, the club was content to simply re-sign Jorge Polanco and bring in veteran infielder Donovan Solano to augment a lineup that was in the bottom ten for runs scored last year.
Fortunately, there’s still some reason for optimism headed into 2025. The club’s elite rotation remains in place, and a quintet of Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryan Woo, Bryce Miller, and Luis Castillo should still give them an excellent chance to win on any given day, particularly with a strong bullpen that features fireballers like Andres Munoz and Matt Brash on the back end. A big year from Julio Rodriguez would go a long way to correcting last season’s offensive woes, but even if Rodriguez starts out slowly again in 2025 he’ll have support from a full season of deadline addition Randy Arozarena, who posted strong numbers down the stretch after being acquired from the Rays last summer. Will that be enough to get the club their first division title since 2001?
Texas Rangers (78-84)
When looking at clubs that finished below .500 in 2024, there’s arguably no team with more helium entering the 2025 campaign than the Rangers. The 2023 champs didn’t have the most explosive offseason, but nonetheless enter the season with an overhauled bullpen highlighted by Chris Martin and Robert Garcia as well as a pair of solid additions to the lineup in Joc Pederson and Jake Burger. The upside a healthy season from Jacob deGrom could offer the rotation is impossible to overstate, and the middle infield tandem of Corey Seager and Marcus Semien once again figures to be among the best in the sport.
If there’s a flaw in the club’s present construction, it’s a heavy reliance on youth. The club’s vaunted Vanderbilt duo of Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker are supremely talented and were always expected to be a big part of the team in 2025, but leaning on both youngsters as members of the Opening Day rotation is a tall ask given the pair’s inconsistency and inexperience at the major league level and highlights the lack of reliability in the club’s rotation outside of Nathan Eovaldi. In the lineup, meanwhile, Wyatt Langford appears to be as good as bet as any sophomore player can be to have a big year, but both he and Evan Carter struggled to stay healthy in 2024. Will those youngsters be able to carry the Rangers back to the playoffs?
Athletics (69-93)
West Sacramento’s temporary baseball team showed signs of life for the first time in a while during their final months in Oakland, even ending the season with a solid 32-32 record after the All-Star break. After departing Oakland, the club aggressively attempted to improve this winter. They signed right-hander Luis Severino and traded for southpaw Jeffrey Springs to bolster the rotation while adding Gio Urshela to the lineup and Jose Leclerc to the bullpen. That group of additions join a solid core featuring Lawrence Butler, Brent Rooker, Mason Miller, and Shea Langeliers.
As solid as that collection of talent is, however, the A’s will need a lot more to go right in order to compete this year. Steps forward from homegrown arms like JP Sears and Joey Estes would go a long way, as would former and current top prospects in the lineup like Tyler Soderstrom, Max Muncy, and Jacob Wilson breaking out and playing up to their ceilings. It’s certainly not impossible to imagine most of that happening. And if it did, the team surprising and making it back to the postseason for the first time since they tore down their core from the late 2010s should be on the table.
Los Angeles Angels (63-99)
Anaheim’s first year post-Shohei Ohtani could hardly have gone worse. Franchise face Mike Trout played just 29 games last year, and very few things went right for the club as they narrowly avoided a 100-loss season. That didn’t stop them from making an effort to improve this offseason, however. The club added Jorge Soler to the lineup for a stable source of power, with Yoan Moncada, Travis d’Arnaud, and Tim Anderson filling out the bench. Meanwhile, Yusei Kikuchi, Kyle Hendricks, and Kenley Jansen were added to the pitching staff to deepen the rotation and bring a proper closer into the bullpen.
Kikuchi, Soler, and Jansen are all solid pieces, but the club will need more than those ancillary additions to bounce back from a dreadful 2024 campaign. Trout putting together his first fully healthy season in half a decade would go a long way, and the club’s decision to shift him to right field could help in that goal. Outside of that, the club will need its young position players like Nolan Schanuel, Zach Neto, and Logan O’Hoppe to step up and put together big seasons if it has any hope of catching up to the top dogs in the AL West.
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Just two seasons after the top three AL West clubs finished within a game of each other in 2023, that same trio appear set to jockey for the top spot in the division once again. After years of being the prohibitive favorite on paper, the Astros look more vulnerable than ever. Will their offseason additions be enough to keep them on top, or will the Mariners’ impressive rotation or the Rangers’ infusion of young talent be enough to finally overtake Houston? Or, perhaps, you think the Athletics or Angels will surprise with their respective collections of offseason additions and talented youngsters. Have your say in the poll below:
Who Will Win The AL West?
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Texas Rangers 37% (2,219)
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Houston Astros 22% (1,311)
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Seattle Mariners 20% (1,228)
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Los Angeles Angels 12% (736)
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The Athletics 10% (578)
Total votes: 6,072
Logan Gilbert Expressing Interest In Future Extension With Mariners
As the regular season gets underway, fans in Seattle enter the year on the heels of an offseason that didn’t see the Mariners make many significant changes to the roster, with veteran infielder Donovan Solano standing as the club’s most notable addition. Even after that quiet winter and missing the postseason in both 2024 and ’23, however, the team still remains in good position to compete in 2025 thanks primarily to an elite starting rotation that features four young, homegrown arms with front-of-the-rotation abilities: Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryce Miller, and Bryan Woo. Seattle resisted overtures from clubs all around the league regarding their top starters this winter, and Adam Jude of the Seattle Times indicates that the club could have an eye on keeping those young arms in town long-term.
“Frankly, I’d love to see all the four young pitchers stay here,” Mariners chairman John Stanton told Jude. “It takes an interest on the players part and an interest on the organization’s part. But I think we, as an organization, are real believers in having a core group. There’s some symmetry … in keeping a group together that is as talented as our guys are, and I feel great about that.”
Stanton’s comments track with the club’s organizational philosophy of prioritizing extending their in-house talent rather than signing players in free agency. Julio Rodriguez, Luis Castillo, and J.P. Crawford are among the current Mariners who have signed lucrative extensions with the club after either being developed by the club or acquired via trade. Just before Opening Day, the Mariners added another player to that list when they locked up star catcher Cal Raleigh on a six-year extension that will keep him in Seattle through at least the end of the 2030 season. The $105MM pact, which comes with $99.4MM in new money, locks up Raleigh after a three-season stretch where he emerged as one of the best offensive catchers in the sport and on the heels of a Gold Glove winning 2024 season.
Raleigh’s strides behind the plate have been such that he’s been nearly universally lauded among the Mariners’ pitching staff, with Gilbert in particular offering effusive praise for his longtime battery mate. Jude relays that the right-hander noted that the club’s decision to extend Raleigh “definitely” gives him further reason to stay in Seattle long-term, though it’s clear that Gilbert has interest in an extension even outside of continue to work with Raleigh.
“[The Mariners] know where I stand,” Gilbert said, as relayed.by Jude. “Seattle has become like home for me, and I’d love to be able to finish my career here.”
It’s less clear where Kirby, Woo, and Miller stand on the possibility of signing with the club long-term, but Gilbert’s desire to stick around is surely encouraging news for Mariners fans. The club’s ace has been among the most reliable pitchers in baseball since his breakout 2022 campaign, with a 3.36 ERA (112 ERA+) and a 3.50 FIP since then. He’s combined those solid results with durability that’s become rare in today’s game. In each of the past three seasons, Gilbert has posted between 32 and 33 starts, and his 208 2/3 innings of work in his first career All-Star campaign last year led the major leagues and helped him to a sixth-place finish in AL Cy Young award voting.
With two seasons of team control remaining after this one and his 28th birthday approaching in May, it seems as though Gilbert is entering a phase of his career where an extension could make plenty of sense for both sides, guaranteeing the righty significant money through his early-to-mid 30s while extending the Mariners’ window of control through the rest of Gilbert’s prime.
All this being said, it doesn’t appear likely that a deal is around the corner. Gilbert acknowledged to Jude that it’s been “a while” since the Mariners approached his camp about the possibility of an extension, and added that he would be hesitant about opening up extension talks during the season. Those comments would suggest that, if an extension between the sides were going to come together, it would most likely wait until the coming offseason, when Gilbert will be preparing for his penultimate trip through arbitration.
Mariners Re-Sign Drew Pomeranz To Minor League Deal
The Mariners and left-hander Drew Pomeranz have reunited on a fresh minor league deal, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. He and Seattle signed a minor pact in the winter but he didn’t make the Opening Day roster and asked to be released. After presumably assessing his offers over the past few days, he has returned to the M’s on a new deal.
Pomeranz, 36, has been on the comeback trail for quite a while. He hasn’t pitched in the majors since 2021 due to various injuries, but he did just have a decent showing in camp. He tossed 7 2/3 innings of Cactus League action, allowing four earned runs. He gave out four walks but struck out ten opponents.
The southpaw had previously been one of the better relievers in the league. The Brewers acquired him from the Giants in 2019 and moved him from the rotation to the bullpen. He tossed 26 1/3 innings for Milwaukee after that deal with a 2.39 earned run average, 45% strikeout rate, 8% walk rate and 46.8% ground ball rate.
He hit free agency then and the Padres gave him a four-year, $34MM deal, making a large wager that he could continue that strong form. That worked well for a while. Pomeranz tossed 44 1/3 innings for the Friars over 2020 and 2021 with a 1.62 ERA, 33.7% strikeout rate, 11.4% walk rate and 45.8% ground ball rate.
But he’s been in the wilderness since then. He underwent flexor tendon surgery in August of 2021. After that, he hit various speed bumps in his attempts to get back on the mound, struggling to get back to 100% health. He pitched less than ten innings in each of the past three minor league seasons.
For the Mariners, there’s no harm in keeping him around as non-roster depth to see if things click back into place. Their two lefty relievers at the moment are Tayler Saucedo and Gabe Speier. Saucedo has an ERA of 4.00 over his 114 2/3 career innings, with Speier at 4.18 over 118 1/3. Pomeranz getting back somewhere near his peak would be a great find but perhaps a tall ask given his age and track record. But over a long season, injuries are fairly inevitable, so the Mariners may be able to use him at some point even if he’s not quite his previous elite self.
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images
Mariners Sign Cal Raleigh To Six-Year Extension
The Mariners announced that they’ve signed catcher Cal Raleigh to a six-year extension that starts this year. It’s reportedly a $105MM guarantee for the Excel Sports Management client. He had previously agreed to a $5.6MM salary in 2025 to avoid arbitration, so this deal adds five years and $99.4MM in terms of new money. He was slated to hit free agency after 2027, so this deal buys out three free agent seasons and there’s also a vesting option for 2031. Raleigh gets full no-trade protection.
The specific breakdown is a $10MM signing bonus and $1MM salary in 2025, followed by salaries of $11MM and $12MM in 2026 and 2027. He will then make $23MM salaries for three straight years. For 2031, there is a vesting player option valued at $20MM with a $2MM buyout. The option would vest if Raleigh appears in 100 games behind the plate in at least four of the six guaranteed seasons.
Raleigh, now 28, was a third-round pick of the M’s in the 2018 draft. As a prospect, he drew attention as a switch-hitting catcher with notable power. His 2021 debut wasn’t great but he has since established himself as one of the best two-way catchers in the game.
Over the past three seasons, Raleigh has stepped to the plate 1,612 times. His 28.3% strikeout rate in that time is a bit on the high side, but he’s also drawn walks at a 10% clip and hit 91 home runs. The end result is a .222/.303/.457 line, which translates to a 117 wRC+. That indicates he’s been 17% better than the league average hitter, but that’s even more impressive for a catcher, since they are usually about 10% below average.
The switch-hitter hasn’t been totally balanced in his production. 73 of his 93 career homers have come against righties and he has a .223/.304/.454 line when hitting from the left side. When he turns around to bat right-handed against southpaws, his line drops to .202/.271/.410, though the 94 wRC+ on that latter line is still passable.
Defensively, he’s received strong marks for all aspects but especially his framing. FanGraphs gave him the third-best framing mark last year, behind only Patrick Bailey and Jake Rogers. Statcast had him second only to Bailey.
The overall package is quite strong. FanGraphs has credited him with between 4.2 and 5.3 wins above replacement in each of the past three seasons. That means he was worth a total 13.9 fWAR over the 2022-24 period. That was tops among all catchers in the league and in the top 20 of all position players. It’s difficult to quantify a catcher’s contributions to a pitching staff but Seattle has had strong results from the mound during Raleigh’s time as well.
He just crossed the three-year service line in 2024, qualifying him for arbitration for the first time. As mentioned, he and the club settled at $5.6MM for this year. He would have been slated for two more arbitration passes before hitting free agency after 2027, his age-30 season.
Had he stayed healthy and productive between now and then, he could have perhaps been in line for a strong trip to free agency. However, the earning power of catchers at that age isn’t tremendous, as shown on MLBTR’s Contract Tracker.
While shooting into nine-figure territory and beyond is common for other players, the wear-and-tear of the catching positions make it rare for that group. J.T. Realmuto is actually the only free agent catcher to get to nine figures. He and the Phillies agreed to a five-year, $115.5MM deal going into 2021. Only four other free agent catchers have gone beyond $53MM. Willson Contreras got $87.5MM from the Cardinals, Brian McCann $85MM from the Yankees, Russell Martin $82MM from the Blue Jays and Yasmani Grandal $73MM from the White Sox.
Extensions have been the path for the top deals for catchers. Joe Mauer and Buster Posey are tops on that leaderboard, though those deals are both over a decade old. More recently, some rough comps for Raleigh can be found in Will Smith and Sean Murphy. Smith’s $131.5MM guarantee is larger than Raleigh’s, though he was one year closer to free agency, therefore giving him a bit more earning power. The nine-year term is a bit eye-popping but that was largely viewed as a way to lower the average annual value for tax purposes.
Murphy was in the same three-to-four service window as Raleigh and got $73MM over six years plus a $15MM option. The two players had a broadly similar profile as strong two-way backstops. Raleigh’s deal shoots well beyond that one.
For the Mariners, they generally struggle to attract top free agents. That’s perhaps somewhat due to the pitcher-friendly nature of T-Mobile Park but more generally about the club not having massive payrolls. Since Jerry Dipoto has been atop the baseball operations department, this is now the eighth contract the club has given out worth more than $24MM. Of those eight, only two of those were free agent deals. They went to Robbie Ray and Yusei Kikuchi, both pitchers.
The six extensions have gone to Raleigh, Julio Rodríguez, Luis Castillo, Jean Segura, J.P. Crawford and Marco Gonzales. There are couple of pitchers in there but four of the six have gone to position players, showing that to be a preferred way of spending money for the club, particularly the lineup.
Perhaps not coincidentally, Raleigh’s salary jumps up at a time when the club should have some extra payroll capacity down the line. He will almost double his salary from 2027 to 2028, going from $12MM to $23MM. By that time, Castillo’s deal will be done the guaranteed portion, though there is a vesting option for 2028. Castillo would need to throw 180 innings in 2027 and be verified as healthy by an independent surgeon. Even if Castillo is still around in ’28, the deals for Mitch Haniger, Mitch Garver, Crawford, Polanco and Víctor Robles will all finish between now and then.
It’s surely an exciting day for Raleigh, the Mariners and their fans. “Big Dumper” has become one of the better backstops in the league and a fan favorite. He’ll now be slated to stick around for six or maybe even seven more years, instead of just three. He’ll be 33 years old in the final guaranteed year of the deal and 34 in 2031, the vesting option year. Barring a future trade, he will eventually spend the majority or perhaps his entire career in Seattle.
Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported that the two sides had agreed to six-year, $105MM deal. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic relayed the no-trade clause. Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times first reported on the vesting option that could push the total to $123MM. Passan reported the specific salary breakdown. Rosenthal reported the vesting condition.
Photos courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images.
Mariners Select Rowdy Tellez
The Mariners announced that they have selected the contract of first baseman Rowdy Tellez. The roster already had a couple of vacancies from losing Seth Martinez off waivers and releasing Mitch Haniger. Their 40-man count goes from 38 to 39 with the Tellez move. Now that he’s been added to the 40-man roster, Tellez will earn a $1.5MM salary, as reported by Jack Magruder for MLB.com.
Tellez, who turned 30 during camp, signed a minor league deal in late February and has mashed his way into the team’s plans with a big spring performance. He’s tallied 50 plate appearances across 16 games and turned in a .298/.320/.574 batting line with three homers and four doubles. He’s only drawn one walk, but he’s also fanned a reasonable nine times (18%).
That performance from Tellez, coupled with a brutal spring from Haniger, forced the Mariners to cut ties with Haniger — a player the organization is very fond of but whose contract has become an albatross in the wake of a series of career-altering injuries. Haniger, if healthy and productive, would’ve been a favorite for playing time at DH and occasionally in right field. Instead, Tellez will now see ample time at designated hitter and likely log some games at first base in a timeshare with Luke Raley.
Tellez has had an up-and-down career, delivering huge production in both 2020 and 2022 but also posting several below-average years at the plate. He popped 35 homers with the Brewers in ’22 but has followed that up with 772 plate appearance and a .231/.295/.385 slash in the two years since (85 wRC+). The Mariners have been searching high and low for reliable power bats for years, however, as their home environment at T-Mobile Park is the least hitter-friendly venue in the sport. Tellez will bring significant power but a mercurial, at best, track record to the lineup as the M’s look to return to the postseason after last year’s narrow miss and continue to build on the late-season offensive gains they enjoyed following a shuffle of the dugout staff.