The Mariners agreed to a minor league contract with right-handed reliever Luke Barker, Jon Morosi of MLB.com reports. The Gaeta Sports client will head to Triple-A Tacoma.
Barker, 32, made three appearances for the Brewers in 2022 — his lone MLB experience to date. The right-hander was undrafted out of Division-II Chico State University in California back in 2015 but parlayed a dominant showing in the independent Frontier League into a minor league look with the Brewers organization. He spent the next six seasons in the Brewers system, working toward that ’22 debut.
While Barker was tagged for five runs in four innings during his MLB cup of coffee, his minor league track record is outstanding. In 261 2/3 minor league innings, the righty carries a 2.38 ERA, 27.6% strikeout rate and 6.4% walk rate. That includes three seasons of Triple-A work — a total of 116 1/3 frames with a 2.32 earned run average, an even better 30.4% strikeout rate and a 6% walk rate. Barker doesn’t throw hard, averaging just 91 mph on his heater during his brief MLB look, but he’s routinely posted swinging-strike rates north of 14% in the upper minors.
Barker didn’t pitch in 2023. He spent the season rehabbing from Tommy John surgery after suffering a UCL tear late in the 2022 campaign. He’ll now join just the second organization of his career.
The Mariners aren’t short on talented relievers, though two of their best are currently on the 15-day injured list: righties Matt Brash and Gregory Santos. Brash was slowed by a bout of elbow inflammation during spring training, while Santos suffered a lat strain late in camp. Neither has pitched in the big leagues or on a minor league rehab assignment so far this season. Barker will give the M’s some more depth in the upper minors. Seattle has a recent track record of striking gold on unheralded bullpen acquisitions — Paul Sewald, Drew Steckenrider, Justin Topa, Gabe Speier, Tayler Saucedo among them — and Barker will hope to add his name to the list.
Let’s go Barker! Hometown guy from Chico awesome to see a Chico State dude gettin some mlb success!
Love to see the Mariners go after Luke Voit. Line up just needs a bit more thump.
Go Luke!
I love how a disclaimer about their track record with relievers is often added to articles like this or pointed out by fans (myself included). I get that this is more depth and not them relying on magic reliever dust but I get the feeling there are some people who expect them to find a Paul Sewald almost every time they pick up a scrap heap reliever. not accusing Steve Adams of this, he obviously is just pointing out that they do have a good recent track record with that. I also relalize getting Brash and Santos back will go a long way toward their bullpen quality
Yes.
The Mariners are really thrashing around here recently, trying to find the spark that gets them going like they should be.
But this particular addition may just be a normal pot-boiler move.
That said, the Mariners do their homework as well as any team, so Barker is probably a good one.
I notice the mariners are very similar to the brewers in toiling around with bp arms and hoping some stick. Fact is the majority of relievers have various levels of success year to year. A vast majority of relievers have various levels of interchangeability. Fall into better years/worse years etc. One can fully expect good teams to constantly play within this thought process. Hitting lightning in a bottle sometimes but more often than not scratching as many lottery tickets as possible hoping for a small win.
Adcock out Barker in. It’s something short of being amazing what the turnover are for relieve pitchers. I have a medal detector, they with there pitching detector. Something always turns up.
This Clase fellow should provide for some intrigue. He evidently has move along as fast in his development as that with his foot speed. Given the depth the M’s have talent wise, there lacking in experience is there challenges. Clase does provide for some needed intervention in the energy ⚡ department he could very well become a flash in the pan or not unlike Julio could have a break through of sorts. One thing for sure the chemistry on the ball club could use some tweaking.