5:29PM: Brash will pitch out of the bullpen at Triple-A, as reported by The Seattle Times’ Ryan Divish and other media members. Relief work could give Brash a quicker path back to the majors and allow him to better help the Mariners in 2022, even if the team still sees him as a longer-term starting pitcher.
2:47PM: The Mariners announced six roster moves, including the news that right-hander Matt Brash has been optioned to Triple-A. Left-hander Nick Margevicius was designated for assignment, and righty Matt Festa was placed on the 15-day injured list with right elbow tendinitis. Joining the roster from Triple-A Tacoma are right-hander Riley O’Brien and left-hander Danny Young, with Young’s contract being officially selected. In addition, recently-designated right-hander Matt Koch has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A.
Brash has never pitched at the Triple-A level before, as the Mariners made the aggressive move of adding him to the Opening Day roster after an impressive Spring Training. A rather lightly-regarded prospect who was acquired from the Padres in 2020, Brash exploded into top-100 notoriety with a very impressive 2021 season with the Mariners’ high-A and Double-A affiliates.
Results were far more mixed for Brash in his first taste of the bigs, however. Brash has a 7.65 ERA over five starts and 20 innings, with almost as many walks (17) as strikeouts (19). Yesterday’s start against the Astros saw Brash allow four runs over three innings, walking four batters and striking out three.
With Brash heading to Triple-A for more seasoning, Seattle has a hole to fill in the rotation. The M’s have a few days remaining to figure out their plans, whether they’ll go with a bullpen game for Brash’s next scheduled start or whether another Triple-A call-up could be in the works. Asher Wojciechowski, Daniel Ponce de Leon, and Darren McCaughan are all getting starts for the Rainiers but none have pitched particularly well, and Margevicius is now headed to the DFA wire.
Margevicius has also struggled, posting a 12.75 ERA over four starts and 12 innings at the Triple-A level. A veteran of three MLB seasons, Margevicius is trying to work his way back from thoracic outlet syndrome surgery, and it isn’t surprising that the southpaw is still getting on track following that major procedure. With this recent surgery in mind, teams might not claim Margevicius, allowing Seattle to slip him through waivers and outright him off the 40-man roster.
Festa is also no stranger to health issues, as he missed all of the 2020 season and most of 2021 after undergoing Tommy John surgery. With this past procedure in mind, any sort of elbow problem is especially concerning, though tendinitis is usually a relatively minor problem. After tossing 30 2/3 innings for the M’s in 2018-19, Festa made it all the way back to the Show this season, but had only a 5.25 ERA over 12 relief innings.
Though O’Brien has only worked as a reliever over six Triple-A appearances this season, he might also factor into the Mariners’ rotation picture given his track record as a minor league starter. Acquired from the Reds back on April 17, O’Brien has a 3.36 ERA over 353 1/3 innings in the minors, mostly in the Rays organization from 2017-19. O’Brien made his big league debut in cup-of-coffee fashion last season, tossing 1 1/3 innings in a single game for Cincinnati.
Now in his seventh pro season, Young is lined up to make his first MLB appearance. Young was an eighth-round pick for the Blue Jays in the 2015 draft, and has worked almost exclusively as a reliever over his 280 1/3 innings in the Toronto, Cleveland, and Seattle farm systems. While mostly a grounder specialist during his career, Young has boosted his strikeout numbers since the canceled 2020 minor league seasons, and has a 26.1% strikeout rate over 70 Triple-A frames (though also with a 5.14 ERA in Triple-A ball). Anthony Misiewicz is the only other left-hander in the Mariners’ bullpen, so Young should get some looks against lefty batters.
The tide sure turned fast (and it’s still ebbing)
Dipoto & Co. overestimated their hand, it would seem.
Well so did I, I will admit. The truth can be painful.
It’s a long season and that was a predictably tough road trip. I’m going to give it a bit more time before I declare their season over. Vegas expected around 84.5 wins and they’re usually fairly close. I think fan expectations were overly high just because of the momentum to end last season, but in reality this team was always more likely to compete for the last wild card spot than the division.
I’m not sure a 90 win season was best for the long term plan because it forced Dipoto to make moves before seeing who the core would truly be composed of.
Very astute analysis, myaccount2.
myaccounts2, how about the way they flip-flopped the lineup, the batting order, for tonight’s game?
I find this extremely interesting, and a great experiment.
I commented on this earlier today and couldn’t get anyone interested in it.
I like it.
Go Robbie Ray! Go Mariners!
@FredPark: Well nobody replied, so I’ll reply to myself.
Earlier today I called it “the o’l jump start”, where they rearranged the lineup. It was almost a complete flip-flop”.
Crawford and Winker basically changed positions with Crawford batting 3rd.
And Frazier hit at the 9th spot instead of 1st..
It isn’t working too well, as might have been expected.
The flip-flop seems to have flopped.
Still extremely interesting though, because what happens next?
Well, next comes the “ol’ kick start”.
Tune in tomorrow at Trade Rumors to see how that one works.
They overestimated the unexpected dominance of the bullpen and the role it played, not to mention winning so many close games. Going into the season without getting one more legit SP was a mistake. Lots of holes right now. Does the playoff drought continue? Still a young season but they need to shore some serious weaknesses up quick.
It’s just one bad road-trip my man. They’re only like 25 games into the season.
Time to start the George Kirby era.
The mariners are fine. They are in roughly the same spot as last year at this time. The whole league is panning out oddly. Many teams are not where protections had them at. I’d assuming some trades are coming near the end of the month to fill weak spots.
The Mariners seem like a good fit for Montas. He’s not a long term commitment so he wouldn’t really block Hancock, Kirby, or Brash. I also doubt the A’s would be opposed to a trade within the division.
Montas would fit in nicely with Seattle but he’s going to cost a lot at the deadline with 1.5 years remaining on his deal. I’m not sure Seattle is willing to part with the prospect capital Oakland will be looking for. Oakland has trimmed their payroll enough where they can easily afford to keep Montas through his final arbitration year so they only move him if they get the value they are asking for.
This is just bump in the road time. New players and young ones trying to adjust and find themselves as players and a team. This is a GOOD squad. By June, they’ll be rocking!
It was the Mariners mistake to call up Brash.
A brash move eh?
Mariners are only two games out of the WC. Texas and Oakland aren’t going to compete, and the Astros arent that strong, so there’s still a good chance the Mariners will at least end up in the post-season as a WC. The Angels have at least most of May against weaker teams, only the Rays and Blue Jays could be problematic, so I expect them to stay atop the division at least through then, and possibly through June.
Kirby time
Maybe Robbie Ray can win the game tonight all by himself, like Logan Gilbert does. ‘Tain’t easy, though.
Plus, I notice that the lineup for tonight’s game is totally rearranged, almost top to bottom.
Well, maybe that’s one way to get a new start. The ol’ jump start.
Ya know who’s got starting pitching to spare? The Padres.
Ya know who’s got OF’s to spare? The M’s.
Time to figure something out.
tippin- The M’s absolutely do not have outfielders to spare. Are you kidding? Unless you mean Trammell or Souza. Winker hasn’t done anything. Haniger cannot be relied on, and is currently injured. Kelenic will most likely head back to AAA soon. Kyle Lewis cannot be relied on as he is always hurt. Julio is 21 years old and has not established himself quite yet.
Although I would agree that the Mariners don’t have outfielders to spare I don’t see it as gloomy as you do. Winker is proven and will be fine. Haniger will be back soon and should be fine as well. Kelenic needs to go down to the minors, but ultimately he’s going to be lights out good. Lewis is the big question mark. It’s going to be a long time before (if at all) he can shake the injury prone label. Rodriguez has been absolutely enjoyable to watch.
Sounds like a textbook change of scenery trade waiting to happen. Something centering on Snell/Winkler, or Snell/Haniger..
6 moves and Kelenic is still in the majors and Kyle Lewis in the minors……they both have about 400 major league at bats, it doesn’t take a genius to figure who should be in Seattle.
Lewis is on a rehab assignment. When that’s complete, Kelenic to AAA Lewis to MLB.
There is a mandatory time players have to be down for a rehab assignment. I could be wrong but think I heard that. Doesn’t matter when Lewis comes up he will be DH for awhile with some spot starts.
They could get rid of Winker I don’t see him helping the club. He is OK in the OF and has sucked at the plate. Yelling at umps for calling a strike a strike. Saw a game awhile ago he put a finger in Julio’s chest after he called him off a fly ball. It was tailing to CF and his ball anyway you look at it. Seems like an angry guy to me. Could be wrong on that too just my impression of him.
No, there is no mandatory time for a rehab assignment. Some players go out on a rehab assignment and join their team 1-3 days later while others like Lewis, who is coming off a major injury and has not played in close to a year, needs more time to get his feet under him and get his timing back at the plate. Seattle can recall him whenever they feel he’s ready.
20 days. Look it up. That’s all he gets for his rehab assignment. You are incorrect Mantooth.
Winker has not sucked at the plate. He has hit the ball hard and has been the victim of bad luck. That will soon change.
20 days isn’t mandatory, it’s just the maximum for a rehab assignment.
Incorrect M’s, I did look it up
Any MLB player can be assigned to any minor league affiliate for the purpose of rehabbing an injury for a maximum of 20 days (non-pitchers) and 30 days (pitchers). The player will still continue to get his MLB salary while on his rehab assignment.
Emphasis on maximum, there is no minimum. Lewis could be called up now if they think he is ready. It’s hard to believe he could do worse than Kelenic
I guess Margevicius can always resume his career as a gladiator.
If they’re putting Brash in the bullpen just because, I think that’s short sighted. If there’s a plan to use him frequently to see if they can get more consistent appearances with a tweak to his approach or mechanics that’s one thing…but if he’s in the bullpen in Seattle that’s doing a massive disservice to his future with the club IMO.
I disagree, we did it with Edwin Diaz and he was awesome for us. If, Dipoto is pressing the “win now” his arm is a huge addition to our pen-if he can find the zone out of the pen that is. He can always work on his other pitches on the side and off season next year, and build back up to starting strength. Simplifying his work plan might be the thing he needs to be successful in the MLB. His development, as a reliever or a starter is limited on his workload anyway. He like all of the Prospects have an innings limit anyway.
Why the heck is the Jinx dude (Rick Rizzs) still calling M’s games on radio? No wonder they lost.
TF? Rizz is a legend, you’re certainly not.
The Mariners fell into the trap of they got on a great run at the end last season and by tweaking the roster a little bit more they “thought” they were ready to to win the AL West. Wrong !!!!!!!
No offense, but I thought the Mariners were going to spend a lot more on free agents than just the Rob Ray signing. Still need a middle of the order run producer ( 3rd base) and an outfielder than can hit above 215. Instead JD traded excellent young prospects for Frazier and Winker.Storey, Bryant and other hitters could have made this a play off team. But noooo. The Kevin “The Mouth” Mather ethic still prevails.
Margevicius, Misewicz… remember that other LH reliever we had whose name was so hard to pronounce they called him “Scrabble”? Started with a Z.