The Mariners have designated Rickie Weeks for assignment, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times tweets. The move clears space for the Mariners to recall reliever Danny Farquhar, who will provide help for a Mariners bullpen that had to pitch 7 2/3 innings in a blowout against the Astros yesterday.
The Mariners signed Weeks to a one-year, $2MM deal in the offseason, and he was a disappointment, hitting .167/.263/.250 with just three recorded line drives (according to Fangraphs’ batted-ball data) in 95 plate appearances with the club. The 32-year-old Weeks had rebounded from a poor 2013 season to have a quality 2014 in a part-time role in his final season in Milwaukee, but that success obviously didn’t continue this year as a right-handed bench bat with the Mariners. Weeks also struggled defensively at second base in his last few seasons with the Brewers, and the Mariners used him exclusively in left field, where his bat played even worse than it would have at second. The result was that Weeks posted -0.7 fWAR in his brief time in Seattle.
Weeks isn’t far removed from some effective seasons with the Brewers, and he’s a career .260/.382/.445 hitter against lefties, so he’ll probably eventually make it back to the big leagues. His salary will likely be an obstacle to any team claiming him right now, however.
The Yankees love reclaimation projects, need help at second and don’t trust the kids. A fit there, perhaps?
thanks for the homerun in oakland
Maybe the Orioles and M’s could work out a deal.
Everth Cabrera for Weeks.
Their contracts are similar and wouldn’t be a bad idea for either team.
Then again…
Also has anyone heard anything about Matt Dominguez?
I want to know where he is going to wind up, I still stand by the Orioles taking a good look at him because if Machado gets hurt (heaven forbid) but if he did I would trust Dominguez to replace him and do good job. The O’s still really don’t have many if any alternatives to replace Machado if something happened.
Not sure they need that infield depth…he’s probably just released
$2 million down the tubes; didn’t like the Weeks move when they made it this winter, like it even less now, which speaks to a much bigger problem. A lot of the pundits pushed the M’s as the division champs this year, but they were, at best, going to get a wild card, given the Angels’ roster. Of course, no one (and I mean no one) picked the Astros or Rangers to do what they’ve been doing, but the M’s have disappointed well beyond that. The pitching was poor early, but has picked up recently (Felix’s nuclear bomb last night notwithstanding). But the hitting has been at its normally putrid levels, despite a decade’s worth of shuffling hitting coaches. Hmmm… perhaps could it be… the front office? I think it’s time that Messrs. Lincoln and Mather realize that Jack Z is NOT a good talent evaluator, does NOT know how to put a team together, does NOT realize that asking a player to change positions on short notice with little to no help is a losing idea (yet still does it over and over), and has NO concept of an organizational hitting philosophy, and hit the “flush” button. Each day that passes puts the Mariners further behind the 8-ball in being legit contenders anytime in the foreseeable future. Time to clean house and get in a GM, farm system director, scouts, and other FO personnel who realize that you need to draft guys who understand OBP as opposed to swinging for the fences on every swing, sign free agents and trade for players who won’t fall apart in Safeco Field, and compete with the rest of teams in baseball who seem to have caught onto this “fad” over the past 5-10 years. Sorry Rickie… don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
Probably Yankees. I seem him signing a minor league deal at the best
I can hear the corks popping out of the champagne bottles all over the state of Washington.
I’d say his defense improved in later years. Where are the members of #teamrickie who were on this forum defending him?
His defense in left has been scary though
he has actual fans?? why???
Back in the day he could hit some long HRs. The love he got always seemed illogical to me so i can’t answer. Ironically it was the sabermetrics crowd in Milwaukee who were cultish in their devotion. Do a twitter search for #teamrickie and you’ll see some.
I went to the Brewers’ game on Friday night and it felt very odd not seeing Rickie’s picture up on the scoreboard during the photo montage of Brewers’ plays from earlier in the season. I’m hoping that Brewers’ GM Doug Melvin offers Jonathan Broxton for Weeks.
Let’s go with neither weeks nor broxton.
Yes, one less trash on the Mariners.
HAHAHA good. I’ve been saying Weeks sucks for years now. His last name fits, because even in his productive seasons with the Brewers, all of his damage came over a period of about 2 or 3 Weeks. the rest of the season he sucked.
He also can’t field, and is as dumb as a box of rocks.
Huge bust
hate to say I told ya so…..
I saw it coming when they signed him. He had no interest in playing other positions in Milwaukee. Seems his change of mind was just a ploy to get some sucker team to sign him.
Off topic, but what is up with Alex Jackson?
Most Brewer fans are not surprised at all by Weeks’ struggles. Weeks went from a lithe athlete who was very fast and who could turn around 98 mph fastballs with a flick of his wrist and turned into a bulky muscled guy that often swung and missed balls by a foot and who now can’t run at all. He got addicted to the weight room to his detriment.