AL West Notes: Healy, Bradford, Hamels, Thompson

The Mariners announced today that they’ve placed first baseman Ryon Healy on the 10-day disabled list due to a sprained right ankle. The move is retroactive to yesterday, so Healy will be eligible to return from the DL in nine days’ time, though no specific timeline was given for his rehab. Right-hander Chasen Bradford, an offseason waiver claim from the Mets, has been recalled from Triple-A Tacoma to take his place on the roster.

Healy, 26, is off to just a 2-for-22 start to his Mariners career and has now been dealt a pair of injuries early in his Seattle tenure, as he also missed several weeks of Spring Training following surgery on his right hand. He did knock in three runs with a double on Saturday, though he’ll now have to wait more than a week (at least) to try to build on that momentum. In his absence, the Mariners can turn to Daniel Vogelbach to line up at first base or go with utility options such as Taylor Motter or Andrew Romine at first base, leaving Vogelbach to DH in place of the also-injured Nelson Cruz.

More out of the AL West…

• Rangers lefty Cole Hamels is entering a transitional phase of his career, writes Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News, as his significantly diminished velocity now forces him to become more of a finesse lefty than a power pitcher. Hamels has never been a flamethrower, per se, but he averaged 92 mph or better on his fastball for the vast majority of his career, including last season in 2017. Through his first three starts of the 2018 campaign, however, Hamels has averaged just 89.7 mph on his heater. While some pitchers build up velocity over the course of a season, Hamels has never started out a year with this lack of life on his fastball. “I’m in between in terms of identifying what I need to do and going out and doing it,” Hamels tells Grant. “You can’t be in between on those two types of pitches and executing them.” To his credit, Hamels has racked up 23 strikeouts in just 16 innings, but he’s also issued nine walks, served up five homers and is currently toting a cumbersome 5.06 ERA.
• Trayce Thompson thought several years ago that he could be included as part of the prospect package the White Sox sent to the Athletics to acquire Jeff Samardzija, writes Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. Marcus Semien eventually headlined a package that did not include Thompson, but Oakland eventually got their hands on him over the weekend by claiming him off waivers from the Yankees. Thompson is thrilled to be reunited with Semien, one of his closest friends, and to be playing in the Bay Area, where his brother Klay stars for the NBA’s Golden State Warriors. “It was a long week for sure, one of the longest weeks of my life,” said Thompson, who was placed on waivers by two different teams last week. “When the Yankees got me, initially I thought it was a good opportunity, they have a lot of guys hurt and stuff … Then they told me their plan to try to spin me back through waivers and maybe get me to Triple-A — that’s not the news as a baseball player you want to hear.” Thompson acknowledges that he could once again be the odd man out in Oakland in the near future and speaks about the roller-coaster-like feeling of being on the bubble of multiple big league rosters in an interview that’s well worth a read for some insight into the human component of MLB transactions.