The Seattle Mariners outrighted three relievers to Triple-A, the team announced. Matt Magill, Carl Edwards Jr., and Nestor Cortes Jr. each elected free agency. The Mariners have 7 open spots on their 40-man roster.
Magill underwent arthroscopic debridement surgery on his right shoulder on Sept. 15, effectively ending his season. The surgery was performed by Dr. Neal ElAttrache in Los Angeles, per the team release. The 30-year-old reliever did a fine job for the Mariners in 2019 after Seattle purchased his contract from the Twins in July, posting a 3.63 ERA across 22 appearances totaling 22 1/3 innings. His 2020 was more fraught, however, yielding over 6 runs per 9 innings before going down with injury. Originally drafted in the 31st round by the Dodgers, Magill has appeared in the bigs with the Dodgers, Reds, Twins, and Mariners since his debut in 2013.
Edwards Jr. will be well-remembered by Cubs fans for his time in Wrigley Field where he spent the first 4 1/2 seasons of his career. One of a small cadre of relievers that gained manager Joe Maddon’s trust during their title run in the 2016 playoffs, Edwards Jr. remained a key member of the Cubs’ bullpen from 2015 to 2018 with a 3.06 ERA/3.12 FIP in 159 innings over 172 appearances with 12.3 K/9 to 4.9 BB/9. The String Bean Slinger lost his command as he stumbled through a difficult season in 2019. The Cubs eventually traded him to the Padres for Brad Wieck in a swap of bullpen projects.
Edwards Jr. signed with the Mariners as a free agent before 2020, appearing in just 5 games, though he looked sharp in those 4 2/3 innings, allowing just 1 earned run while striking out 6 to just 1 walk. A forearm strain sent him to the injured list on August 10th, ending his season. The 29-year-old will be an interesting reclamation project to track for someone next season. If he can return to the player he was with the Cubs, he’d certainly be a viable weapon out of the bullpen.
Like Magill and Edwards Jr., Cortes was put on the injured list in mid-August, and he too missed the remainder of the season. Cortes made one start and four relief appearances for the Mariners, giving up 13 earned runs across 7 2/3 innings. The 25-year-old has a 6.72 career ERA over parts of 3 seasons with the Orioles, Yankees, and Mariners.
Carl Edwards Jr. has really fallen off. I remember in 2016 and 2017 when he was thought of the next big reliever for the Cubs and now he’s being outrighted by the Seattle Mariners.
Such is the life of a reliever.
Watch the Yankees resign Nestor the Molestor Cortez !!’ God I hope not
Edwards looked good with Seattle before the early injury. No doubt he would have stuck around if they believed he would be a full-go by spring. But that apparently isn’t the case. Similar story with Magill. Not so much with Cortes.
Edwards Jr. needs to be an option for the Phillies next season. He shouldn’t cost much (if anything more than a minor league deal) and he has had success in the past. They need to take all the flyers they can since they have a ton of holes to fill and can’t really take a step back.
my thoughts exactly
Listen. I am and have always been a phillies fan, but what has happened with the bullpen makes zero logical sense. They’ve done exactly what you mentioned, workman was a stud last year, hembree has always been solid, as has Hale, Parker, Hunter, and many other people who have been in and out of that bullpen. Throwing darts is not what they should be doing, they should use the players that have failed and try to analyze why they haven’t pitched well here and try to fix that first. Otherwise they’ll sign him and then everyone will blame klentak for it.
Even when Edwards was good for the Cubs for those few years, he still felt to me like a bit of an enigma, as if everyone was expecting him to become the next dominant closer, but he never did. He will still have plenty of teams interested in giving him a “prove it” deal, he’s only 29 and has a good track record.
Well he looked sharp in the 4 2/3 IP this season.
Hahaha I was going to post the exact same thing! He was good in 5 games! The article doesn’t say- the Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto is once again the victim of misfortune with an injured offseason addition at RP. One of their few offseason FA’s for 2020 to be excited about is added to the long list of injured RP’s during Jerry Dipoto’s reign. It will be nice to finally have the money to afford RP’s other than reclamation projects, post injury pitchers and scrap heap pick ups.
Forearm strain? Just call him Carl Tommy John Edwards, Jr.? The Mariners probably don’t want to take the chance of getting stuck paying him for sitting out the season rehabbing after surgery, right?
If Edwards or Cortes had anything left why did the M’s release them. I doubtful think the M’s are over flowing with top pitchers
Seattle actually does have a number of young relievers breaking in. We saw Gerber, Misiewicz, and Rule-5 pick Ramirez debut last season. All three have a legitimate shot at starting the season on the active roster and they have two more potential late-innings options in Delaplane and Mills, plus Muñoz who should return from rehab in the second half (and eventually close), and multiple reserves, such as Hamilton, Guilbeau, Fletcher, and Bautista if healthy,
Edwards is arbitration eligible, so it’s easy to understand him getting the axe if he wasn’t likely going to be ready by spring. Cortes was simply bad, injury or not.
Seattle can’t expect to lean on a bullpen full of youth and no experience, though. They need balance, hence Dipoto suggesting they’ll try to bring in 3-4 veterans. One of them might be Graveman if they believe he’s worth the 3.5m option for a relief role.
Maybe they did, but there’s a time to fish or cut bait and that’s what Dipoto did. He did that with Vogelbach.
There’s absolutely nothing to suggest that Edwards can’t rebound. While it was a small sample size, he looked excellent in 2020 and his velocity was right on point.
Magill lost 3 mph on his average fastball velocity, and threw it WAY less than he has in the past. I’m not certain as to whether or not he was playing hurt, but it certainly looked that way
The Mets can use some relief pitchers lol
Whoever ends up signing Nestor Cortes, have fun
Whoever ends up signing Nestor Cortes, have fun