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Mariners Place Bryan Woo On Injured List

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The Mariners placed Bryan Woo on the 15-day injured list due to a right hamstring strain before tonight’s loss in Tampa Bay. Seattle recalled reliever Collin Snider from Triple-A Tacoma to take the vacated active roster spot.

Woo left last night’s start in the fourth inning after experiencing the leg discomfort. The M’s sent him for imaging today. Woo told reporters he was diagnosed with a lower-grade variety of strain, though he wasn’t sure of the recovery timetable (X link via Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times).

It’s the second injured list stint of the season for the second-year righty. Woo started the year on the IL with elbow inflammation. He had another scare a couple weeks ago when forearm discomfort led the team to scratch him from a scheduled start and send him for testing. An MRI fortunately came back clean and Woo was able to make two more starts before the leg issue.

A hamstring strain is far less of a long-term concern than any elbow or forearm injury would be. It’s nevertheless a disappointing setback for a pitcher who has been amidst a potential breakout season. Woo owns a sparkling 1.77 ERA in 40 2/3 innings. While he’s running a modest 18.7% strikeout rate, he has only walked three out of 150 batters faced. Woo has only allowed three runs in two of his eight starts.

Manager Scott Servais was noncommittal on who will step into the rotation spot (link via MLB.com’s Daniel Kramer). The M’s have off days on Thursday and next Monday, so they could get by without a fifth starter until late next week. Emerson Hancock has been Seattle’s top depth arm, taking eight starts. The former sixth overall draftee has struggled to a 4.79 ERA while striking out 13.5% of opposing hitters. The M’s tabbed left-hander Jhonathan Diaz for a spot start when Woo was scratched a couple weeks ago, but Hancock would’ve been on short rest that day.

Mariners Outright Seby Zavala

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TODAY: Zavala cleared waivers and has been outrighted to Triple-A Tacoma, the Mariners announced.

JUNE 18: The Mariners have designated catcher Seby Zavala for assignment, per a team announcement. His spot on the roster will go to first baseman Ty France, who’s been reinstated from the 10-day injured list. Seattle’s 40-man roster is now down to 37 players.

Acquired alongside flamethrowing relief prospect Carlos Vargas in the offseason trade sending Eugenio Suarez and his remaining salary to the D-backs, Zavala entered the 2024 season as the primary backup to catcher Cal Raleigh. He’s only appeared in 18 games and taken 43 plate appearances, however, in part due to Raleigh’s iron-man workload — his 503 innings behind the dish rank second in MLB to William Contreras — and also due to some pronounced struggles in that limited playing time. Zavala is batting just .154/.214/.282 with a 37.2% strikeout rate thus far.

The Mariners signed former Twins and Rangers catcher/designated hitter Mitch Garver to a two-year pact over the winter, with the idea that Garver would serve as the full-time designated hitter. But as Garver has begun to heat up after a dreadful start at the plate (.229/.413/.571 over his past 46 plate appearances), the Mariners have begun using him at catcher more frequently. He’s still only made four appearances at the position, but they’ve all come in the past two weeks. And whether it’s coincidence or not, Garver’s turnaround at the plate has dovetailed with the team’s decision to begin plugging him back into the catcher’s spot on occasion.

With Garver now factoring into the catching equation, Zavala’s grip on a roster spot appeared increasingly tenuous. He’s a glove-first, light-hitting backup who’s always been prone to whiffs, as evidenced by a career 35.9% strikeout rate. The Mariners have been seeking ways to inject some life into a lackluster offense that has thus far been supported by a dominant pitching staff. Plugging Garver into that backup catcher role is one logical way to do that.

Though Zavala is highly prone to punchouts and carries an unsightly .205/.271/.342 batting line in 557 big league plate appearances, he’s a premium defender with particularly strong marks for his framing and ability to block balls in the dirt. Zavala is out of minor league options, so the Mariners didn’t have the ability to simply send him to the minors.

As such, Zavala will now be traded or placed on outright waivers within the next five days. Waivers themselves would be a 48-hour process. Within a week’s time, Zavala will know whether he’s cleared waivers or is headed to another team, either via trade or claim. He’s been outrighted previously, so if he goes unclaimed he’d have the right to reject a minor league assignment in favor of free agency.

Report: Mariners Planning To Be Aggressive In Adding Offense

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The Mariners are planning to be aggressive in adding offense this summer, according to a report from Will Sammon, Patrick Mooney and Ken Rosenthal the Athletic. The report adds that money isn’t expected to be an issue for them in the coming months, which tracks with comments from manager partner John Stanton earlier this month, when he said that the front office would have resources to bolster the club.

While many clubs around the league are hovering around .500 and waiting to decide if they are going to be buyers and sellers or somewhere on the fence, the Mariners are firmly positioned to buy. They have a record of 44-33 on the year and have an eight-game lead in the division, thanks to slow starts from the Astros and Rangers.

They have done that in a decidedly pitching-forward manner. The club has an overall batting line of .220/.300/.369 , which translates to a wRC+ of 97, indicating they have been three percent below average. But the pitching staff has a collective earned run average 3.53, the seventh-best mark in the majors. The rotation has been especially strong, as Seattle starters have a 3.39 ERA that’s behind just three clubs.

Given their position in the standings and the strength of their rotation, the club is well positioned to add a bat or two and strengthen the roster for a postseason run. As mentioned by the Athletic report, the club also has a very strong pipeline of prospects, with five guys on Keith Law’s recently-updated top 50 at The Athletic. Baseball America has seven Mariners on their top 100 at the moment. FanGraphs and MLB Pipeline each have four young Mariners on their respective top 100 lists.

The financial aspect of things is also good news, since that seemed to be an issue in the offseason. Due to concerns about TV revenue, the front office was reportedly given a smaller payroll increase than they had anticipated, which limited what they were able to do. The club didn’t make a qualifying offer to Teoscar Hernández and also made cost-cutting trades that sent away players like Eugenio Suárez and Jarred Kelenic.

They did add some of that money back to the ledger by signing Mitch Garver and acquiring Jorge Polanco, among other moves, but some fans were left feeling as though it amounted to a series of lateral plays. The fact that the club has started strong and now seems to have some financial wiggle room is surely encouraging relative to a few months ago.

All of those factors point to the Mariners being one of the most fascinating clubs to watch in the months to come. President of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto got the nickname “Trader Jerry” for being one of the executives with the strongest propensities for swinging deals. Now his club is going into next month’s deadline in a strong position to add, with prospects and money available for getting things done.

As noted by the report from the Athletic, the primary question for the front office to answer is exactly how much of their future talent are they willing to sacrifice in order to upgrade the team now. Teams seem to get more and more reluctant to give up top prospect talent as times goes on and the Seattle brass may have to make some tough decisions about whether to hold or let go.

There are different ways the M’s could go about adding offense. 16 players have taken at least 20 plate appearances this year with only five of them having an above-average wRC+: Ty France, Josh Rojas, Dylan Moore, Luke Raley and Dominic Canzone. After slow starts, Julio Rodríguez and Garver have begun to heat up. Cal Raleigh is striking out a lot but is a strong defensive catcher and has 12 home runs. J.P. Crawford seems to be getting BABIP’d while still providing strong shortstop defense.

The regulars with the largest struggles have been Polanco and Mitch Haniger. Polanco is currently on the injured list with a right hamstring strain while sporting a batting line of .195/.293/.302 for the year. He has five home runs and a strong 11.6% walk rate but his 30.9% strikeout rate would be easily the worst of his career if it stayed that way. Haniger is slashing .218/.286/.336 for a wRC+ of 83 with subpar defense to boot.

Moore has taken over second base in Polanco’s absence and has been performing well. He has the ability to play all over, which gives the club some flexibility in pursuing external additions. Some of the hitters that could be available include Tommy Pham, Eloy Jiménez, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Bryan De La Cruz. The White Sox may consider offers for Luis Robert Jr., though it would take a blockbuster to get something done there. The Angels and Athletics could look to move players like Taylor Ward, Luis Rengifo, Brandon Drury, Brent Rooker or Miguel Andujar, though the M’s may be reluctant to send young talent to a division rival. Depending on how the Wild Card races shake out, players like Randy Arozarena, Jesse Winker (though it’s hard to imagine Seattle bringing him back) or Mark Canha may become available as well.

Mariners Sign Rob Kaminsky To Minor League Deal

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The Mariners have signed left-hander Rob Kaminsky to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. The southpaw has been assigned to Triple-A Tacoma and will give the club some non-roster depth.

Kaminsky, 29, has a small amount of major league experience, having pitched for the Cardinals in 2020. He appeared in five games that year with a 1.93 earned run average in a small sample of 4 2/3 innings. He lost his roster spot later that year and has been limited to minor league deals in subsequent seasons.

For the most part, his minor league results have involved few strikeouts but lots of ground balls. From 2021 to 2023, he tossed 78 innings in the minors with a 4.96 ERA. His 21.4% strikeout rate in that time was subpar but he got opponents to hit the ball into the dirt around half the time.

This year, Kaminsky made two appearances for the Staten Island Ferry Hawks of The Atlantic League, tossing 6 2/3 innings. He struck out five but also allowed five walks. Last month, he retweeted some footage of himself pitching at Driveline, with his fastball seeming to get above 92 miles per hour and his secondary offerings in the mid-to-high 80s. In his brief big league stint, Statcast had his fastball averaging 91.6 mph, his knuckle curve at 84.9 mph and his changeup at 83.1 mph.

The M’s have had some bullpen injuries this year, with each of Matt Brash, Jackson Kowar, Gregory Santos and Gabe Speier on the injured list. Brash and Kowar each had Tommy John surgery and won’t be coming back this season. Tayler Saucedo is the only lefty in the big league bullpen at the moment. The Mariners are plenty familiar with Kaminsky as he was in their system the previous two seasons, so have tapped him for an extra left-hander in the minors.

Mariners Re-Sign Matt Bowman To Minor League Deal

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The Mariners and right-hander Matt Bowman have reunited on another minor league pact. The righty elected free agency a few days back but has now joined the Tacoma Rainiers, tossing a scoreless inning for them yesterday.

Bowman, 33, has been bouncing around the league this year. He started with the Twins on a minor league deal and was added to that club’s roster in mid-April. After just over two weeks with the Twins, he was designated for assignment and sent to the Diamondbacks in a cash deal. After about three weeks as a Snake, he was designated for assignment again, that time clearing waivers and electing free agency. He then landed a minor league deal with the Mariners and was selected to their roster shortly thereafter. But just a few days after that, he was designated for assignment yet again and eventually elected free agency once more.

Around all those transactions, Bowman has thrown 15 major league innings for three different clubs with a 5.40 earned run average. His 15.2% strikeout rate and 10.6% walk rate are both subpar but he’s kept the ball on the ground at a solid 46.8% clip.

Injuries kept Bowman from pitching during the 2020-22 seasons, with recovery from Tommy John surgery making up a big chunk of that absence. He returned last year and has been able to put up decent results in Triple-A. He tossed 58 2/3 innings at that level while in the Yankees’ system last year and has tossed nine more Triple-A innings this year. Putting those stints together, he has a 3.46 ERA, lots of ground balls and a 23.5% strikeout rate, though with his 11.1% walk rate a tad on the high side.

That has gotten him limited looks in the majors, both last year and this year. However, he exhausted his final option season with the Yankees in 2023, which is why he’s been in DFA limbo so often this season.

The Mariners have four relievers on the injured list, with Gregory Santos, Matt Brash, Jackson Kowar and Gabe Speier all on the shelf. Brash and Kowar both had Tommy John surgery earlier this year and are done for the season. The M’s also have just 38 players on their 40-man roster right now and could easily call upon Bowman again whenever the relief corps is taxed and they need a fresh arm.

Mike Brumley Passes Away

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Former big league player and coach Mike Brumley passed away yesterday in a car accident, as initially reported by MLB.com’s Mark Bowman (X link).  Brumley was 61 years old.

A second-round pick for the Red Sox in the 1983 draft, Brumley played in 295 big league games over parts of eight seasons from 1987-1995.  The early years of his pro career were defined by his inclusion in a pair of trades involving future Hall-of-Famers — the Red Sox traded Brumley and Dennis Eckersley to the Cubs for Bill Buckner in May 1984, which led to Brumley making his MLB debut in a Chicago uniform in 1987.  The Cubbies then dealt Brumley and Keith Moreland to the Padres in February 1988 in the swap that brought Goose Gossage and Ray Hayward to Chicago.

Overall, Brumley was traded four different times as part of his journeyman career.  He saw action with six different teams at the Major League level, and his 92 games with the Tigers in 1989 marked the most playing time he received in a season.  Besides the Cubs and Tigers, Brumley also played with the Mariners, Red Sox, Astros, and Athletics, and he was a member of four other organizations (Padres, Orioles, Angels, Marlins) without ever appearing with any of those teams in a big league game.  He hit .206/.261/.272 over 697 plate appearances while playing mostly shortstop, and also bouncing around the diamond as a second baseman, third baseman, and all three outfield positions.

Brumley moved into a long coaching career after his playing days ended, including stints as a minor league manager with Angels and Dodgers affiliates, while also working as a roving instructor for the Dodgers and as a field coordinator in the Rangers’ organization.  His work in a big league dugout came with two of his former teams — Brumley was a third and first coach with the Mariners from 2010-13, and then an assistant hitting coach with the Cubs during the 2014 season.

Brumley went on to work as a minor league hitting coordinator with the Braves in 2021, and built some lasting bonds with several members of Atlanta’s organization that lasted well beyond his lone season in the role.  Austin Riley today spoke at length about his friendship with Brumley, crediting him behind only Riley’s father as his greatest “role models in my baseball career.”

We at MLB Trade Rumors send our condolences to Brumley’s family, friends, and colleagues.

Mariners Outright Kirby Snead

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TODAY: The Mariners announced that Snead has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A.  As was reported yesterday, Bowman also cleared waivers and chose free agency rather than accept an outright assignment.

JUNE 11: The Mariners announced that they have recalled left-hander Jhonathan Díaz and right-hander Eduard Bazardo from Triple-A Tacoma. Díaz will start tonight’s game instead of Bryan Woo. To open roster spots for those two arms, both right-hander Matt Bowman and left-hander Kirby Snead have been designated for assignment.

Snead, 29, signed a minor league deal with the Mariners in the offseason. He made 12 appearances for Triple-A Tacoma to start the year with a 2.92 earned run average. He struck out 27.7% of batters faced, gave out walks at a tiny 4.3% rate and got grounders on 63.3% of balls in play.

That got him called up to the majors just over a month ago but the results haven’t been as strong since then. He made 11 appearances for the Mariners with a 4.35 ERA. His 51.5% ground ball rate was still strong but his strikeout and walk tallies were both seven, giving him a subpar 14.6% rate in each of those categories.

Snead pitched in two of the past three games for Seattle and likely would have been down for a day or two. Since he’s out of options and the overall results have been mediocre, he’s been bumped off the roster as the club gets some fresh arms aboard.

Bowman, 33, is also out of options and has been featured in many transactions because of it. The M’s just added him to their roster on Sunday and he made one appearances for them, logging two thirds of an inning in last night’s contest. That’s already the third team he’s pitched for this year, also taking the mound for the Twins and Diamondbacks.

For each player, the Mariners will have one week to either line up a trade or pass them through waivers. Bowman has a 4.22 ERA in 200 1/3 career innings but most of that work was a long time ago. He didn’t pitch in the majors during the 2020-2022 seasons due to injuries, including Tommy John surgery. He returned to the bigs by tossing four innings with the Yankees last year. Overall, he’s been able to get decent amounts of ground balls, with 55.6% of balls in play in his career hitting the dirt. Snead has a career ERA of 5.09 in a more limited sample of 74 1/3 innings at the major league level.

Díaz, 27, signed a minor league deal with the Mariners in the offseason and has been posting great results for Triple-A Tacoma this year. In 12 outings, including 11 starts and one long relief outing, he has thrown 66 1/3 innings with a 2.98 ERA. That’s despite pitching in the hitter-friendly confines of the Pacific Coast League. He has a 24.3% strikeout rate, 5.8% walk rate and 57.1% ground ball rate in that time.

He had an opt-out on his minor league deal but the Mariners were clearly impressed by his work in Tacoma this year. They added him to their 40-man roster to prevent him from triggering that opt-out, but kept him on optional assignment until today.

Per Adam Jude of the Seattle Times on X, Woo is having an MRI on his arm. It’s unclear exactly what the issue is but Woo began the year on the injured list due to right medial elbow inflammation. He returned in early May and has been utterly dominating, with an ERA of 1.07 in his six starts this year.

It’s a concerning development for the Mariners, both due to how well Woo has been pitching and the fact that it may be a recurrence of the previous issue. Further updates may be forthcoming after the MRI results come in, but it seems Díaz will step in and make at least one spot start. The Mariners have a strong rotation with Luis Castillo, Logan Gilbert, George Kirby and Bryce Miller in four spots, even without Woo. If Woo needs a trip to the IL, perhaps Díaz will stick around, though the M’s also have Emerson Hancock on the 40-man roster.

Matt Bowman Elects Free Agency

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Reliever Matt Bowman is back on the open market. The Mariners announced this evening that the righty elected free agency after clearing outright waivers. It’s the second time in as many weeks for Bowman, who became a free agent on May 31 after being waived by the Diamondbacks.

That could set Bowman up to join his fourth team of the season. He signed a minor league contract with the Twins over the offseason. He tossed six innings without allowing an earned run to earn a major league call midway into April. Bowman pitched five times before Minnesota designated him for assignment and sold his contract to Arizona. The Snakes DFA him after four outings, leading to a minor league deal with Seattle.

Bowman pitched twice for the M’s top farm team in Tacoma. The Mariners selected his contract and plugged him into a game against the White Sox on Monday. Bowman recorded two outs and surrendered a home run to Corey Julks. Seattle designated him for assignment the next day.

The 33-year-old has allowed nine runs across 15 innings between the three teams. He has punched out 10 while issuing seven walks. While that’s not particularly impressive, he hasn’t surrendered an earned run in eight Triple-A innings. Bowman had a solid 2023 campaign in Triple-A with the Yankees, turning in a 3.99 ERA with a strong 51.9% grounder rate over 58 2/3 frames. He should land another minor league contract in fairly short order.

Nationals Claim Eduardo Salazar From Mariners

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The Nationals announced that they have claimed right-hander Eduardo Salazar off waivers from the Mariners and optioned him to Triple-A Rochester. The Mariners had designated him for assignment earlier this week. The Nats had two vacancies on their 40-man roster, which is now at 39.

Salazar, 26, signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers in the offseason. That club added him to their 40-man roster in the middle of April but designated him for assignment just over a month later. The Mariners stepped up with a claim at that time but he lasted just over two weeks before being designated for assignment again, now landing with his third club of the year.

Around those transactions, he only has one appearances in the majors this year, tossing two scoreless innings for the Dodgers back on May 15. He made seven starts for Triple-A Oklahoma City while in the Dodgers’ system with a 5.61 earned run average. The Mariners kept him in a relief role for their Triple-A club, having Salazar throw 3 1/3 innings over four outings, allowing two earned runs.

There’s not much to go on in that sample, but the Nats had a couple of roster spots to use. Last month, they designated both Víctor Robles and Matt Barnes for assignment, opening up a couple of spots on their 40-man.

The Nats are likely intriguied by Salazar’s ability to generate ground balls. He did so at a 58.6% clip with OKC and it’s possible his 5.61 ERA there wasn’t entirely his fault as he had a .389 batting average on balls in play at that time. For reference, major league average BABIP is .288 this season. He also got grounders over 54% of the time with Reds last year, both in Double-A and Triple-A. He tossed 12 1/3 innings in the majors with the Reds last year, with a 51.1% grounder rate in that time. During his brief stint in the majors here in 2024, his sinker averaged 93.9 miles per hour.

Whether the Nationals envision Salazar as a starter or a reliever remains to be seen, but he has a couple of options. That means he can be kept in the minors for the rest of this year and one more season as they try to figure out the best path forward for him. If things click, he has less than a year of service time and can therefore be a long-term piece for the Nats.

Orioles Claim Levi Stoudt

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The Orioles announced Thursday that they’ve claimed right-hander Levi Stoudt off waivers from the Mariners, who’d designated him for assignment earlier in the week. Left-hander John Means was transferred from the 15-day injured list to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Stoudt has been optioned to Triple-A Norfolk.

Stoudt, 26, was the Mariners’ third-round pick in 2019 and for a few years ranked among the organization’s most promising pitching prospects. Though he was never quite as highly touted as current rotation members like Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryce Miller and Bryan Woo during their own prospect days, Stoudt was a well-regarded member of a deep Mariners pitching pipeline. He was talented enough to be included as a secondary piece — behind headliners Noelvi Marte and Edwin Arroyo — in the trade that netted Luis Castillo from Cincinnati.

Stoudt would go on to make his big league debut with the Reds in 2023, pitching just 10 1/3 innings. The Pennsylvania native was tagged for 11 runs on 16 hits and eight walks over a stretch of four one-off appearances, being optioned back to Triple-A Louisville after each. Most of the damage against him came in his debut effort, when he was rocked for seven runs in four innings. The Reds removed him from the 40-man roster in the 2023-24 offseason, and the Mariners wound up reacquiring Stoudt via waivers.

Although Stoudt made six sharp starts in Triple-A with the Reds following the 2022 trade that sent him to Cincinnati, he struggled in Louisville last season, posting a 6.23 ERA in 82 1/3 frames. Things haven’t gone any better so far in 2024. He’s made 12 appearances with the Mariners’ Triple-A affiliate in Tacoma (11 starts) and posted an unsightly 6.92 earned run average. Stoudt has fanned a well below-average 14.9% of his opponents and issued walks at nearly as high a clip (12.4%).

Rough as his performance in Triple-A has been, Stoudt is an optionable starter with big league experience and a heater that sits just shy of 95 mph. Scouting reports during his prospect peak credited him with plus command — though that hasn’t been the case this season, clearly — with Baseball America calling his split-changeup an at-times “diabolical weapon” that lacked consistency. He’ll give the Orioles some needed rotation depth on the heels of season-ending surgeries for Means and Tyler Wells, and it’s always possible that Baltimore could shift him to a short relief role and see if his stuff plays up and allows him to emerge as a high-end relief option.

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