Mariners Notes: Rodriguez, McGee, Flexen, Hernandez
Julio Rodriguez left today’s game due to lower back tightness, with manager Scott Servais telling reporters (including MLB.com’s Daniel Kramer) that Rodriguez started feeling discomfort after a stolen base in the third inning. The outfielder remained in the game until AJ Pollock replaced Rodriguez in center field before the bottom of the sixth, but the Mariners opted to be a little cautious with the young star.
The injury doesn’t appear to be serious, as Servais indicated that Rodriguez might potentially be back in the lineup tomorrow. However, the Mariners have an off-day on Monday before facing the A’s on Tuesday, so the team might opt to give Rodriguez “a couple days down, [so] he will be okay when we go over to Oakland,” Servais said.
As Kramer notes, Rodriguez also dealt with lower back problems near the end of the last season, which ultimately resulted in a 10-day IL placement. That decision was made in part to get Rodriguez healthy prior to the playoffs, and he was able to return just before the end of the regular season prior to hitting .217/.357/.435 over 28 plate appearances during Seattle’s postseason run.
Rodriguez’s presence might have made a difference late in today’s 1-0 loss to the Blue Jays in 10 innings. One bright spot for the M’s was the performance of surprise starter Easton McGee, who allowed just one hit and one walk over 6 2/3 scoreless innings. McGee held Toronto hitless until his final batter faced, when Matt Chapman lined a double to center field to end the unlikely no-hit bid.
Chris Flexen had initially been slated to start on Saturday, but the Mariners instead called McGee up from Triple-A prior to the game. Going into the season, Flexen was projected to work as a reliever, but a spot in the rotation opened up when Robbie Ray was sidelined with a flexor tendon injury that ended up requiring a season-ending surgery. Unfortunately for Flexen, he hasn’t risen to the occasion, with a 10.38 ERA over 17 1/3 innings in four starts as Ray’s replacement.
In addition to Monday’s off-day, the Mariners are also off on May 11 and May 18, giving the team some opportunity to reset their rotation multiple times. As a result, the M’s might only need a fifth starter twice within the next three-plus weeks. It would certainly seem like McGee has earned another look, but whether it’s McGee, Flexen, or another pitcher used as the fifth starter, the Mariners will get some time to evaluate and prepare for the longer-term question of how they’ll replace Ray.
McGee was making his first Major League start and just his second career appearance in the Show, after debuting with three innings of relief work (allowing four hits and one unearned run) as a member of the Rays in their 3-1 loss to the Astros on October 2, 2022. Tampa opted to designate McGee for assignment after that game, with the Red Sox quickly claiming the right-hander off waivers. The Mariners then acquired McGee in a trade for cash considerations in November.
A fourth-round pick for the Rays in the 2016 draft, McGee isn’t a hard thrower or much of a strikeout pitcher, with a modest 17.47% strikeout rate over 485 1/3 career innings in the minors. McGee worked to a 4.30 ERA over his minor league career by inducing a lot of grounders and avoiding walks, though his walk rate with Triple-A Tacoma this year has risen to a still-solid 7.6%. McGee largely struggled at Triple-A Durham in 2022, but he has done much better with the Mariners’ top affiliate, with a 3.14 ERA over 28 2/3 innings for Tacoma in 2023.
This weekend’s series marked Teoscar Hernandez‘s first time in Toronto since the November trade that sent him from the Jays to the Mariners. Interestingly, M’s president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto told The Athletic’s Kaitlyn McGrath and Corey Brock that Hernandez might have come to Seattle much earlier, as “most of the work we did on the Teoscar trade actually happened in Spring Training before the [2022] season began. We tried so hard to pick him up before the season started and talked through a lot of players.”
It makes for an interesting what-if, as Hernandez being dealt prior to the season might have greatly changed the trajectory for two teams that reached the postseason (and faced each other in the Wild Card Series). For Seattle, it could be that the M’s pivoted to the Eugenio Suarez/Jesse Winker trade with the Reds after not reaching an agreement with Toronto over Hernandez, or perhaps DiPoto’s front office might have even explored adding Hernandez in addition to the two former Cincinnati players. That would’ve made for a crowded outfield in Seattle, but it’s possible the Mariners might have sent one or two of those excess outfielders to the Blue Jays as part of a projected Hernandez swap. Erik Swanson may have still be part of such a trade but likely not as the primary piece, given how Swanson hadn’t yet had his 2022 breakout season, and Hernandez would’ve commanded a higher trade ask since he had two remaining years of arbitration control.
Can These Five Players Sustain Their Strong Starts?
We’re about a month into the 2023 baseball season, and as is always the case there are teams that are over-performing (that’s you, Pittsburgh) and under-performing. It’s not just on the team side either, certain players are off to better than expected starts, and while a month of play isn’t enough to make a definitive judgement on one’s season, it’s certainly enough of a sample size to have a conversation about whether a player has turned a corner.
Let’s take a look at five players who are have performed better than expectations over the first month, and try and predict whether they’ll be able to sustain their strong start. (All stats are up to date entering Saturday’s matches)
Joey Gallo: .265/.368/.796 with seven home runs
The poster boy of the three true outcome hitter, Gallo has frustrated fans from Texas to New York to LA in recent years with his tantalizing power but sky high strikeouts and sub-optimal batting averages. Last year was one of Gallo’s worst, as he posted just a .160/.280/.357 line with a strikeout rate a touch shy of 40% between the Yankees and Dodgers and hit free agency without much fanfare. The Twins brought him in on a one-year, $11MM deal and it already seems to be paying off. Gallo’s shaved almost ten percentage points off his strikeout rate and is still walking at his usual solid clip.
Gallo appears to have a really good feel for the zone at the moment, swinging at more pitches in the zone and taking fewer called strikes. I spoke with Betsy Helfand, Twins beat reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, on the MLBTR Podcast this week and she detailed some changes Gallo had made in his stance over the off-season. Perhaps also he’s benefitting from the shift changes. Gallo is pulling the ball more than in recent years, perhaps freed up to play more of his natural style with teams unable to shift quite so aggressively against him.
In any case, there’s a lot to like about Gallo’s start to the season in Minnesota. It’s probably unlikely he continues to hit a home run every seven at bats, but there’s every chance the Twins have themselves a much better version of Gallo than we’ve seen recently.
Yusei Kikuchi: Five starts, 27 IP, 3.00 ERA, 9.3 SO/9, 2.0 BB/9
Kikuchi came into the season clinging onto the final rotation spot in Toronto, but he’s been a really solid arm for them over the first month. Last season Kikuchi posted a 5.25 ERA in 20 starts for the Blue Jays and wound up out of the rotation by the end of the season. A big reason for his turnaround this year is a significant drop in his walk rate. Last season, Kikuchi was handing out free passes 12.8% of the time. This season? Just 5.7%. He’s also tweaked his pitch mix a bit, leaning less often on his fastball and bumping up the usage of his slider and splitter.
Yet a peak under the hood of Kikuchi’s performance does raise some red flags. He is still giving up far too many home runs, conceding about two every nine innings, much the same as his rate last year. He’s also carrying a sky high 97.2% left on base percentage, which is bound to drop some.
All in all, I’m skeptical Kikuchi holds on to the sort of numbers he’s putting up over his first five starts and expect a decent amount of regression. Maybe that still results in an improvement on last year and provides the Jays with enough to feel comfortable running him out every fifth day, but I still think he ends up with an ERA somewhere in the fours rather than the threes.
Cody Bellinger: .298/.475/.560 with five home runs
After winning the NL MVP in 2019 with the Dodgers, Bellinger has descended into a below average hitter since, putting up a wRC+ of just 78 between 2020-22. That led the Dodgers to non-tender him at the end of last season, and he latched on with the Cubs on a one-year, $17.5MM deal. It looked like an expensive gamble at the time for Chicago, but it appears to be paying off.
Bellinger has almost halved his strikeout rate from a year prior, bumped up his walk rate but still isn’t hitting the ball nearly as hard as he was during his MVP season. In fact his HardHit% is at 31 this year, and was as high as 45.6 in 2019 and 38.1 last year. The huge drop in strikeouts really is the most impressive aspect though, as that’s where Bellinger had come undone in recent years. In 2019 his K rate was just 16.9%, but it rocketed up into the 27% range over the past few seasons, so to bring it back down to an elite rate is a firm indication of some meaningful change in Bellinger’s performance.
So with all that considered perhaps he’s sort of back? Mostly back? Or maybe on the way to being back? Either way, it’s still a hugely productive player for the Cubs and the signs are there that even if he’s not peak-Bellinger he’s still very much turned a corner.
Johan Oviedo: Five starts, 29 2/3 IP, 3.03 ERA, 8.8 SO/9, 3.3 BB/9
Little was made of the return the Pirates received for Jose Quintana when they dealt him to the Cardinals at the deadline last summer. Yet in Oviedo, with a few changes, they may have unearthed a really solid mid-rotation arm. Oviedo had been a ho-hum arm in the Cardinals system getting mixed results and it didn’t appear as though his departure would really change much in St Louis.
Yet since coming over the Pirates, Oviedo has blossomed, and I’ll borrow from my colleague Steve Adams’ analysis in a broader Front Office piece on Pittsburgh’s impressive start to the season, which includes this on Oviedo:
Oviedo has upped his fastball velocity, doubled his curveball usage and morphed from a fringey swingman to what looks like a legitimate Major League starter. He’s not an ace, but the tangible changes here and immediate results are intriguing.
Oviedo’s fastball velocity may be up to 96.6 mph on average, but he’s throwing the pitch at a career-low 33.7% clip, instead heavily favoring his slider and curveball, both of which have a 34% whiff rate in 2023, per Statcast. Fewer fastballs and more breaking pitches have led to a stark increase in ground-ball rate – a well above-average 55.7% in 2023 – and a glut of weak contact. He’s yielded just an 85.6 mph average exit velocity and a paltry 31.1% hard-hit rate.
Steve’s piece is well worth a read, but the key here is that Oviedo and the Pirates coaching staff have made meaningful change to his pitching repertoire and are seeing results. With that in mind, it’s hard not buy this start from Oviedo. Perhaps there’s a bit of regression from the 3.03 ERA, but even if the Bucs have landed themselves a solid third or fourth starter who gives them a chance to win each time he takes the mound, it’s a huge win.
Jarred Kelenic: .325/.380/.663 with seven home runs
Is it finally happening? Kelenic has been one of the game’s top prospects for a number of years now but has failed to make an impact at the highest level. That may be changing. Kelenic has been one of the best hitters on a struggling Seattle team to start 2023, and could be blossoming into the sort of player the team dreamed on when they acquired him from the Mets.
Sure, Kelenic will see some regression from the .385 BABIP he holds right now, but the guy is hitting the ball and hitting it hard. He’s already barreled up ten balls and his HardHit% sits at 57.6%, a full 22 percentage points higher than last year and his exit velocity has shot up from the previous two campaigns.
As Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic details, Kelenic spent the winter in Arizona revamping his swing with Tim Laker, a former Mariners hitting coach and the results are clear. A career .168/.251/338 hitter in the big leagues, Kelenic looks to have finally broken out in 2023. Even if his strikeout and walk rates are largely in line with his previous numbers the fact that he can do more – a lot more – with the contact that he is making is the difference.
Mariners Release Justus Sheffield
The Mariners are releasing left-hander Justus Sheffield from Triple-A Tacoma, tweets Rainiers’ director of media relations Paul Braverman. The southpaw had already been taken off the 40-man roster over the offseason but had remained in the system after going unclaimed on outright waivers.
Sheffield had been hit very hard through his first 10 outings in Tacoma. He’s allowed 17 runs over 8 1/3 innings, walking 11 batters with only four strikeouts. Given that production, he surely wasn’t on the radar for an imminent look at the MLB level. Seattle will instead officially part ways with the 26-year-old hurler, a disappointing conclusion to a four-plus year tenure in the organization.
The M’s first acquired Sheffield from the Yankees in the James Paxton trade over the 2018-19 offseason. One of the game’s top pitching prospects at the time of the deal, Sheffield was regarded by many prospect evaluators as a potential mid-rotation starter. He was the headlining piece of the trade return, though righty Erik Swanson wound up outperforming him after moving to the bullpen.
Sheffield struggled in a brief look in 2019 but flashed some of that promise during the shortened 2020 campaign. Sheffield had a 3.58 ERA through 10 starts that year, inducing ground balls at a quality 50.6% clip. Over the past two seasons, though, the former first round draftee has allowed over six earned runs per nine innings at the MLB level. His ERA was pushing 7.00 over 24 starts in Triple-A last season.
That led to him clearing waivers in January, preceding his immense struggles through this season’s first month. He’ll hit the open market in search of a new landing spot, which would assuredly be via minor league contract.
Robbie Ray To Miss Remainder Of Season Due To Flexor Tendon Surgery
Mariners left-hander Robbie Ray will undergo flexor tendon repair surgery, reports Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times. Ray will not be able to return this season. The lefty had already been on the 15-day injured list due to a flexor strain but Divish adds that further testing revealed damage in a different area of the tendon.
The news is obviously terrible for both Ray and the Mariners, as he was a key part of the club’s plans for this year. After an up-and-down career with the Tigers and Diamondbacks, Ray stabilized himself in tremendous fashion with the Blue Jays in 2021. He had always had tremendous strikeout ability but struggled with command, walking 11% of batters he faced in his career by the end of the 2020 campaign. But the 2021 season saw him whittle that down to 6.7% while still getting punchouts at an incredible 32.1% clip. He finished the season with a 2.84 ERA and was awarded the American League Cy Young.
That breakout was perfectly timed, as he went into free agency immediately after, signing a five-year, $115MM deal with the Mariners with an opt-out after the third season. Last year, he naturally regressed from his incredible heights of the year before, but still had a solid year with Seattle. He made 32 starts and posted a 3.71 ERA, striking out 27.4% of opponents while walking 8%. That helped the club break their postseason drought, as they qualified for the playoffs for the first time since 2001. Unfortunately, 2023 season will now go down as a total loss, effectively. Ray made one start of just 3 1/3 innings before landing on the injured list and that will now be his entire tally for the year.
The Mariners have had six viable starters since their deadline acquisition of Luis Castillo last year, which bumped Chris Flexen into the bullpen. With Castillo, Ray, George Kirby, Logan Gilbert and Marco Gonzales set to be in the front five spots, it had been speculated by many that perhaps the club would look to trade Flexen in order to improve another area of the roster. In the end, they kept all six hurlers, a decision which now seems wise in the wake of Ray’s injury. Flexen has struggled so far this year, currently sporting an 8.86 ERA, but was plenty effective for the M’s in the two prior seasons.
This won’t impact the Mariners in the short term as they were already operating without Ray, but this will have a huge impact on their long-term plans now that a return of Ray later in the year is off the table. They have depth options on the 40-man such as Darren McCaughan, José Rodríguez and Easton McGee, but Divish relays word from manager Scott Servais that the club is re-evaluating their pitching depth in the wake of this news. The last time they needed a spot start, veteran journeyman Tommy Milone was given the nod.
Finding external pitching options at this time of the year can be tough as most teams are dealing with injuries of their own and few have decided to press the sell button so early. The free agents that are unsigned are usually still available because they haven’t been effective in a while. That’s certainly the case for Madison Bumgarner, who was just released by the Diamondbacks today, joining pitchers like Dallas Keuchel and Chris Archer on the open market.
The Mariners are currently 11-12 and in fourth place in the American League West, though they are by no means buried with just 2.5 games separating them and the division-leading Rangers. There’s still plenty of time for them to gain ground, but they will now have to do so without any contributions from their player making the highest salary this year.
Minor MLB Transactions: 4/23/23
A few minor transactions around the baseball world have occurred recently:
- Per his profile on MLB.com, right-hander Trevor Hildenberger has been released by the Giants. Hildenberger, who signed a minor league deal with the Giants back in December, last appeared in the majors in 2021 with the Mets. In that two appearance stint he allowed four runs on three hits and three walks in 2 1/3 innings while notching four strikeouts. Prior to his stint with the Mets, Hildenberger had been part of the Twins bullpen from 2017-2019 after the club selected him in the 22nd round of the 2014 draft. As a member of the Twins, Hildenberger pitched to a 5.35 ERA with a 4.08 FIP in 131 1/3 innings of work. In the minors, Hildenberger sports a career 4.43 ERA in 85 1/3 innings at the Triple-A level.
- The Dodgers recently released right-hander Rubby De La Rosa according to Chris Hilburn-Trenkle of Baseball America. De La Rosa, 34, has amassed 421 1/3 innings in the big leagues across seven seasons, but hasn’t pitched in the majors since 2017. With a 4.49 ERA (91 ERA+) and 4.55 FIP in the big leagues, De La Rosa headed to Japan to pitch for the Yoimuri Giants from 2019-2022 before signing a minors deal with the Dodgers back in February. With a 2.53 ERA in 124 1/3 innings of work out of the bullpen in Japan, it’s certainly possible another club could be interested in giving De La Rosa a shot on a minors deal.
- The Mariners recently signed left-hander Rob Kaminsky and right-hander Braden Shipley to minor league deals, per Hilburn-Trenkle. Kaminsky has five career games in the big leagues under his belt, all of which came during the 2020 season with the Cardinals. The lefty pitched to a solid 1.93 ERA over 4 2/3 innings of work, though he has amassed just 41 2/3 innings of work in the minor leagues since. Shipley, meanwhile, has 100 career innings in the big leagues across the 2016-2018 seasons with the Diamondbacks, though he struggled to a 5.49 ERA over those 26 games (14 starts). A former first-round draft pick, Shipley returns to the Mariners after pitching for their Double-A affiliate last season, with a 3.79 ERA in 54 2/3 innings of work.
Mariners Reinstate Sam Haggerty From 7-Day Concussion Injured List
The Mariners reinstated utilityman Sam Haggerty from the seven-day concussion-related version of the injured list today, with catcher/outfielder Cooper Hummel optioned to Triple-A in the corresponding move.
Haggerty hit his head while trying to make a catch in Seattle’s 5-3 win over Colorado on April 14, and required a stint on the concussion IL while his symptoms cleared up. The versatile Haggerty has appeared mostly as a second baseman in his eight games played this season, but his experience as a third baseman and at all three outfield positions makes him a key contributor off the Mariners’ bench. The switch-hitter also delivered at the plate in 2022, hitting .256/.335/.403 with five homers over 201 plate appearances. Haggerty is also 25-for-27 in stolen base chances over his five MLB seasons, and his baserunning skills could be even more valuable under the new rules in play for the 2023 campaign.
Hummel is off to a rough start, batting only .087/.192/.130 over his first 26 PA of the season. With an interesting defensive skillset in his own right, Hummel has experience as an outfielder and catcher, though the Mariners have yet to use him as anything but an outfielder and DH thus far, as Cal Raleigh and Tom Murphy have been handling duties behind the plate. The M’s acquired Hummel in an offseason trade with the Diamondbacks that saw Kyle Lewis dealt to Arizona in return.
Mariners Sign Eric Stout To Minor League Deal
The Mariners have added some left-handed pitching depth, bringing in Eric Stout on a minor league deal, per Baseball America’s transactions page. The 30-year-old was a free agent after being released from the Cubs’ organization.
Drafted in the 13th round in 2014 by the Royals, Kansas City handed Stout a brief debut in 2018. He was knocked around for six earned runs in just three outings and was released by the organizations not long after. Since then Stout’s largely bounced around the league providing bullpen depth.
Seattle will be the seventh team he’s been employed by, with the Cubs and Pirates the only two beyond the Royals that he’s made it to the big leagues. Those appearances came last year, when Stout pitched a combined 22 1/3 innings across Chicago and Pittsburgh, working to a 5.64 ERA with a 22.7% strikeout rate and a 14.6% walk rate. As is often the case with left-handers, the splits were stark as right-handed hitters torched Stout to the tune of a .359/.477/.623 line, while left-handers were held to a .158/.289/.184 line.
Gabe Speier and Tayler Saucedo are the current left-handers in the Mariners’ bullpen, and while Stout will link up with the team’s Triple-A affiliate, the inevitable churn of a major league bullpen over the course of a long season could see opportunities for Stout to contribute down the line.
Dylan Moore Headed For MRI With Core Discomfort
Mariners utilityman Dylan Moore hasn’t played all season. He suffered a Grade 1 oblique strain during Spring Training, an injury that shut him down from baseball activities for a few weeks. It looked as if he was nearing his return, as he embarked on a rehab assignment with High-A Everett on Tuesday.
Moore only played in one game for the AquaSox, tallying three plate appearances. Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times tweets that Moore experienced some core discomfort coming out of that game. He’ll be returned from his rehab assignment and head to Philadelphia for an MRI.
The right-handed hitter indicated his current soreness isn’t in the oblique area. It’s concerning nevertheless, as Moore had a core injury late last season that necessitated offseason surgery. His upcoming imaging will be with the surgeon who performed that procedure, according to Divish.
Moore signed a three-year extension in February. That was a testament to the value the Seattle front office and coaching staff put on his defensive flexibility, baserunning and right-handed bat. Moore’s offense has been up-and-down throughout his career, but he’s coming off a .224/.368/.385 showing in 255 plate appearances. Consistently high strikeout totals have resulted in a lowly .208 career batting average. Moore draws plenty of walks and has enough power to post roughly league average on-base (.317) and slugging (.384) marks after considering Seattle’s pitcher-friendly park.
The Mariners planned for Moore to platoon with trade acquisition Kolten Wong at second base. The lefty-hitting Wong has taken the bulk of the at-bats, with a handful of plate appearances going to Sam Haggerty and José Caballero. Seattle second basemen enter play Friday with a woeful .088/.171/.103 line over 77 trips, largely because of Wong’s frigid start with his new team. The veteran infielder is hitting .098/.190/.098 over 16 games as a Mariner.
In more fortunate injury news, reliever Andrés Muñoz is set to begin a rehab stint with Triple-A Tacoma next week, tweets the Seattle Times’ Adam Jude. Muñoz hit the injured list on April 8 with a deltoid strain. It seems he’s in line to return not long after a minimal 15-day absence. The flamethrowing right-hander worked 65 innings of 2.49 ERA ball with an elite 38.7% strikeout percentage last season, breaking through as one of the sport’s best late-game weapons.
Mariners Outright Tommy Milone
Veteran left-hander Tommy Milone went unclaimed on outright waivers following this past weekend’s DFA, and the Mariners have assigned him to Triple-A Tacoma, per MLB.com’s transactions log. He has enough Major League service time to reject the assignment if he chooses, though Milone spent a good chunk of the 2022 season in Tacoma as well and re-signed with the Mariners organization over the winter, so he’s clearly comfortable there.
The 36-year-old Milone made a spot start for Seattle this past weekend, holding the visiting Rockies to just one run through 4 2/3 innings. With that start, the well-traveled lefty has now logged time in each Major League season dating back to 2011.
Milone was a regular in the rotation for the A’s and Twins for a few years earlier in his career, making 113 starts with a solid 4.16 ERA from 2012-16 between Oakland and Minnesota. He’s since become more of a journeyman southpaw, donning seven more big league uniforms since 2017 and posting a combined 5.77 ERA in 260 2/3 innings through a series of bullpen stints, spot starts and occasional relief appearances at the MLB level.
All in all, Milone has piled up 949 big league innings for nine different teams, pitching to a collective 4.59 ERA in parts of 13 big league seasons. He’s accrued more than eight years of Major League service time in the process.
Assuming Milone indeed sticks with the Mariners, he’ll provide them some depth both in the rotation and in the bullpen. He’s spent parts of ten seasons in Triple-A and has a lifetime 3.24 ERA in 497 innings there — including a tidy 2.68 ERA in 40 1/3 innings with Tacoma just last year.
MLB’s transactions log also indicates that the Mariners re-signed righty Konner Wade a few days back, and he indeed just started last night’s game in Tacoma. The 31-year-old Wade had a brief MLB look with the 2021 Orioles but has otherwise spent his career grinding through the minor leagues. He spent the 2022 season in Tacoma, making 23 starts and pitching to a 5.60 ERA in 115 2/3 innings there. Wade, a seventh-round pick of the Rockies back in 2013, has a career 4.42 ERA in Triple-A.
Brewers Claim J.B. Bukauskas From Mariners
The Mariners announced that right-hander J.B. Bukauskas has been claimed off waivers by the Brewers. The M’s had designated him for assignment last week. To make room for Bukauskas on their 40-man roster, the Brewers have transferred infielder Luis Urías to the 60-day injured list, per Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Bukauskas has been assigned to Triple-A Nashville, per Rosiak.
Now 26 years old, Bukauskas was the No. 15 overall pick by the Astros back in 2017. The ‘Stros traded him to the D-backs as part of the four-prospect package that brought Zack Greinke to Houston, but Bukauskas battled injuries and never got much of a big league look in Arizona. The Diamondbacks gave him just 17 1/3 innings in the Majors, during which time he was tagged for 15 earned runs on 24 hits and seven walks with 14 strikeouts.
A flexor strain in 2021 and a teres major strain in 2022 limited Bukauskas to just 52 1/3 innings combined between those two seasons. The Diamondbacks designated him for assignment back in January when opening a roster spot for the re-signing of Zach Davies, at which point the Mariners claimed him. Seattle successfully passed him through outright waivers a few weeks later but selected Bukauskas back to the big league roster early in the season when Andres Munoz hit the injured list.
While he’s had a rough start to his season, Bukauskas posted strong Triple-A numbers in a small sample of 20 1/3 innings last year. Overall, he carries a 3.96 ERA, 26.3% strikeout rate and 6.9% walk rate in 38 2/3 innings at that level. Bukauskas has averaged 94.5 mph on his four-seamer in the big leagues, and in his lone look with the Mariners this year he was relying on a sinker in place of that four-seamer. Dating back to his prospect days, he was touted for a plus or better changeup. He’s in his final minor league option year, so if he sticks on Milwaukee’s roster, he can give them some flexible bullpen depth for the remainder of the season.