The Mariners announced that infielder Tommy La Stella has been designated for assignment. His roster spot will go to pitching prospect Bryce Miller, whose promotion was reported yesterday.
Seattle signed La Stella in January. That came on the heels of his release from the Giants, with whom he’d signed a three-year free agent deal over the 2020-21 offseason. La Stella’s two seasons in San Francisco didn’t go well. He hit .245/.297/.380 and was limited to 136 games over that stretch by injuries. The Giants moved on, eating the $11.5MM he’s due in 2023.
Once La Stella cleared release waivers, other teams could add him for the league minimum salary. The Mariners jumped on the opportunity, hoping he’d add a productive left-handed bat to their infield mix. That didn’t pan out, as the 10-year MLB veteran had a tough showing in 12 games. He hit .190/.292/.238 with only one extra-base hit (a double) in 24 plate appearances. La Stella didn’t see any action on defense; he started six games at designated hitter and came off the bench to pinch hit on six more occasions.
With the club apparently reluctant to push La Stella into much or any defensive work, there was plenty of pressure on him to start well offensively. He didn’t come out of the gate strong and is now designated for assignment for the second time in five months. The M’s will have a week to trade him or put him on waivers; in all likelihood, he’ll be released and hit free agency within the next few days.
Once he gets to the open market, La Stella will again have the opportunity to explore his options around the league. The Giants remain on the hook for the bulk of his salary. He’d be an affordable pickup for another club that thinks there’s some offensive ability still in the tank. It’s possible he’s limited to minor league offers this time around but he still brings a high-contact bat with good awareness of the strike zone.
Praise Jesus!!
Yes, Montero! Cause he’d be a better DH than LaStella right now!
He was one of Joe Maddon’s favorite players while they were both on the Cubs. Never understood why.
Whaaahooah, Big Gulps, eh?
Welp. See ya later!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Whoa bro. What happened to this all star ?
I thought they Outrighted Diego Castillo to clear a spot.
That was to add Miller to the 40 man. Still needed to be added to the active roster.
Remember when Diego Castillo was the big return a couple years ago at the trade deadline after the M’s traded away Kendall Graveman which made a lot of folks angry at the time? Castillo was brought in to take Graveman’s spot with the expectation that he’d be a high leverage guy with club control. My how that trade came to blow up in the M’s faces.
Tbf he was great until like middle of last year. Just recently he’s been sooo terrible
@SumTing Trade did not blow up in M’s faces. Stop with the propaganda and disinformation. Castillo was effective in the bullpen for a season and a half. Relievers are by definition highly variable. JT Chargois, who M’s traded for Castillo, is no longer in Rays system. And have you seen Graveman’s stats lately?
Indeed, this year Kendall Graveman has posted a negative 0.2 fWAR and an ERA of 5.56 in 11.1 innings while Diego Castillo has posted a negative 0.2 fWAR and an ERA of 6.23 in 8.2 innings.
Dude, Graveman was a FA at the end of that season and would not have been on the M’s roster this year or last year. They traded away the last 2 months of his contract and their bullpen had been one of the best in baseball for the end of the 2021 season and all of 2022. Their was nothing wrong with that trade at all.
Well…that experiment didn’t last long
No place for him on the roster as lefty hitting Infielder/DH. Pollock and Haggerty may be on the bubble too when Dylan Moore is ready to return
I hope not. Pollock is a professional hitter and for whatever reason, Servais is under-utilizing him. He should be in the lineup nearly every day as DH.
Fun facts about the Mariners’ DH this year…
Tommy La Stella: .190/.292/.238 (24 PAs)
AJ Pollock: .118/.164/.275 (55 PAs)
Even Cooper Hummel had more DH PAs than La Stella.
THANK YOU!
6 MLB squads so far. Who will be #7?
so the mariners were his #6 org too…
Padres? They sign pretty much anyone…
And it seems like they have a 60-man roster. Preller has a way of compressing players into a roster the way the rest of us can compress data onto a hard drive.
Glad the Angels moved on from La Stella. His performance has cratered
One of the few times moving on from a player was actually a smart move. Shame cause I liked La Stella during his brief stint with the Angels
His first year with the Angels, he hit 16 homers with an .832 OPS in their first 80 games, got an All-star selection. Didn’t play in it though because of a broken leg from a foul ball. Hasn’t been the same since.
Maybe Jerry will finally figure out that a parade of .210 hitters is not the best approach to the DH position.
Just ran into Drew Steckenrider at 7-11 today . Word is he is coming back to pitch for the mariners . You heard it here first . Stay tuned
I ran into Joey Votto at Skyline last year and he asked “how can you eat that stuff?”
But that’s another story.
Did he look like Thor in End Game with the big old beer gut and out of shape?
He sure did.
He was downing a super big gulp with nachos
I went to Cincinnati once and are at Skyline Chili. I didn’t meet any ballplayers but the food was the worst. Crystal is a close second.
Cincinnati chili, the way they do it, you either love it or you hate it.
Now the Mariners are making some progress.
Some work out; La Stella didn’t.
I hope I didn’t jinx Bryce Miller yesterday when I reminded people that a hard-throwing pitcher can also get hit hard.
They’ll start winning a lot of games now, and probably add a bat just as soon as it can be done.
Not a La Stellar showing by Tommy.
You know you went for it. It kind of fell flat cause you had to add the r to La Stella to make it work but you know what kudos to you for going for it. Take my like.
Think the proper way would have been La Stella-r but don’t quote me on that one.
Something tells me that this Bryce Miller promotion is really to showcase him to be potential trade bait at the trade deadline for the M’s to get themselves a quality hitter. Just my thoughts.
Tommy La Stella always sounded like the kid who bagged & delivered groceries to old ladies back in the Little Italy section of NY.
Tommy LaStella has never been good. I don’t understand how this guy ever became a thing. His one quasi-okay relevant season came in 300 AB or so and was 5 years ago. Dude must have a really good agent.
It was a minor signing but probably one of the most awkward. Made zero sense.
minor? it was one of the biggest signing of Seattle’s offseason that they’d been saving up half a decade for. Was he the ‘generational talent’ they were referring to?
I didn’t even realize he was a “10 year MLB veteran”. Time really does fly
I think The Stella is one of those guys who needs everyday playing time. He did ok for the Angels when he was a starter. Too bad because I like him…he’s scrappy. I wouldn’t mind if the Angels tucked him away at Salt Lake to see what happens.
Did we see the game tonight? almost a carbon copy of the last win, great pitching by the rookies only no support if this keeps up, they will need to pitch no hitters then win it in the 10th inning by one run. Nothing to it.
This was a fishing expedition, Dipoto brings in these players who fell on hard times hoping to find lightening in a bottle. While stepping off his boat, on the beach there it was in the bottle it read La Stella, Pollock, Hummel. Now what?
LaStella a great teammate, bit of power earlier in his career. This most likely his final year in the bigs. Age waits for no one, unless your talking about Rich Hill and Jamie Moyer’s of the game.
Something needs to happen with this hitting. There are some guys down in Tacoma that could help, though it’s resume aside. they can do great down on the farm so it’s not that easy up here. there’s also this matter of option to consider in place of moving players. around. so it does become tactical in more ways than one. Have you ever had a grease fire in the kitchen so you throw water on it? Seems like a good Idea at the time unless you know better, but wrong move if you don’t. It’s not clear cut with a player either many of these promising player need to go threw this invisible wall the MLW. otherwise they will yoyo back in forth. Still one might hope they have a breakthrough like Kelenic seems to have made, Hurray there are three players that I spotted in Tacoma Cade Marlowe who only recently seems to have started up again. I would Imagine he will get a call up at some point. Mike Ford a first round choice are my eyes deceiving me? is now with a 348 Ba. ops. 455. some how make room for him. How about Keon Wong? 316 Ba. obs. 435. of course logistics may get in the way here but then what have you done for me lately? Seems to be something more to pay attention to these days.