The Mariners officially demoted Tom Wilhelmsen to Triple-A prior to today’s game in the wake of the right-hander’s recent struggles. Wilhelmsen has been a fixture in Seattle’s bullpen for the last five seasons and served as closer prior to Fernando Rodney‘s acquisition, yet he had allowed nine runs over his last 6 2/3 innings of work (over seven games). Wilhelmsen has a 4.68 ERA, 10.1 K/9 and 2.55 K/BB over 25 IP this season, though a .413 BABIP may explain why is ERA is so much higher than his indicators (2.68 FIP, 3.50 xFIP, 3.32 SIERA). Here’s some more from around the AL West…
- Astros owner Jim Crane tells MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart that GM Jeff Luhnow and his staff is “working hard” to find rotation help. “If we can get the right move, I’m sure Jeff will pull the trigger. He has the ability to do that if he wants to do it,” Crane said. “It will depend on what kind of contract it is and how long it is and who it is and what we need, but I know it’s something a lot of teams are looking at right now.”
- The conflict between Mike Scioscia’s coaching staff and Jerry Dipoto’s front office was “no clash of Ivy League nerds vs. old-school baseball men,” Grantland’s Jonah Keri writes. Dipoto, assistant GM Scott Servais and pro scouting director Hal Morris were all long-time MLB veterans. Keri suspects Servais could also soon leave the Angels given his issues with Scioscia and the coaches. Keri’s piece outlines some of the disagreements between the Angels’ executives and coaches, including (as FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal initially reported earlier in the week) seemingly routine team matters as how scouting information was being presented to the players.
- In other AL West news from earlier today, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reported on some Angels/Brewers trade talks and speculation that Bud Black could be a favorite to be Anaheim’s new general manager.
Niese or Colon for Valbuena
The angels really need to make a trade and get Adam Lind and Parra. But then I guess they tried to get Revere and Amaro wanted trevor gott, that is asking way too much. Gott has been lights out since they called him up. As for bud black being the new gm , I would be ok with it as long as he don’t sell the farm.
Wonder if the Astros would be interested in Julio Teheran? Something like Julio Teheran and Chris Johnson for Preston Tucker, Tony Sipp and Jacob Nottingham or Max Stassi.
I doubt that the astros give up that much for Teheran. He’s young and a good pitcher but that is a lot of the astros future for him.
Astros might be willing to trade Domingo Santana, Sipp and Stassi for Teheran. Braves might want Nottingham instead of Stassi, but Astros may be more reluctant to include him. Catching is the shallowest aspect of their deep farm system.