The Mariners have landed right-hander JT Chargois in a deal with the Marlins, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reports (X link). In return, the Marlins will receive minor league right-hander Will Schomberg, as reported by Christina De Nicola of MLB.com (X link).
Chargois began the 2024 season on the injured list due to neck spasms and did not make his 2024 debut until mid-June. Since his return from the IL, the 33-year-old has put up excellent surface-level numbers, having allowed just three earned runs over 16 2/3 innings. However, he has struck out only 12 batters (16.9% K%) while walking seven (9.9% walk rate), and all three runs he has given up have come on home runs. What’s more, he is inducing groundballs at just a 34.6% rate, well below his 52.9% career average entering the season. As a result, Chargois’s underlying numbers are not nearly as impressive as his sparkling ERA; he has a 4.74 SIERA and 5.21 xERA, both of which would be the worst of his career. Even more worrisome, his fastball velocity has decreased significantly. His sinker, which averaged 96.3 mph last season, is down to 94.4 mph this year.
With all that said, Chargois has been an effective reliever in the recent past. Over 211 2/3 career innings with the Twins, Dodgers, Mariners, Rays, and Marlins, he has a 3.40 ERA and 3.84 SIERA. He was particularly effective from 2021-23, following his return from a brief stint in NPB. Across those three seasons, the righty went 9-1 with a 2.89 ERA and 3.99 SIERA over 118 1/3 innings. Perhaps a return to Seattle – an organization known for developing excellent pitching – will help Chargois get back on the right track. After all, it was the Mariners who took a chance on him in 2021 after his difficult 2019 season with the Dodgers (6.33 ERA in 21 1/3 IP) and poor performance in Japan (4.58 ERA in 35 1/3 IP). He pitched to a 3.00 ERA in 30 IP with Seattle over the first four months of the season before he was traded to Tampa Bay at the deadline.
Chargois will presumably slot into a middle relief role in the Mariners’ bullpen. Seattle ranks 12th in MLB with a 3.76 bullpen ERA and sixth with a 3.54 bullpen SIERA this season. Every reliever currently on the team’s active roster has a SIERA under 3.70, but the Mariners surely understand that there is no such thing as too much bullpen depth down the stretch. Chargois, who is earning $1.285MM this season, will be eligible for arbitration one more time in 2025.
Schomberg signed with the Mariners organization as an undrafted free agent in July of 2023. He has split the 2024 season between Single-A and High-A, pitching to a 2.83 ERA and 4.23 FIP in 19 starts (92 1/3 innings). Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs included Schomberg among the “other prospects of note” beyond his top 34 prospects in the Mariners system earlier this month. Longenhagen praised the righty’s “elite breaking ball spin,” noting the success he had “throwing a lot of cutters and curveballs” before his promotion to High-A.
Welcome back, Monsieur!
Relievers are just getting passed around atp
Let’s get Tanner Scott moving Bendix!
They really shouldn’t have DFAed Tyson Miller back in May; still a very regrettable subtraction from the bullpen.
Shaggy doesn’t really have a great out pitch for lefties
Figured they’d get more than that for a couple of more years of control…but I forgot to factor in the Marlins tax
Undersized arm in return, seemingly misses bats. Might make a useful option in the bullpen
This is interesting. He still has another year of control, Seattle obviously already knows him well, and he’s having an outstanding year.
I bet they move Thornton. If not in this deal, in another very soon. The clock is ticking.
Still need infield help
Is he really having a good year? I wouldn’t know. I liked him for us a couple yrs back but a look at this yrs 1.32 WHIP, his 5.32 FIP and his 1.6 HR9 ….those metrics don’t excite me
Outstanding is too strong. I was looking at his game log through 20 July. He strands runners. That’s what you like in a middle-innings reliever.
He offers more than a single inning of work as well. The HR9 and FIP don’t really concern me because of the sample size.
Can’t see us moving Thornton at the deadline and don’t envision him as a DFA candidate. Pretty sure he’s on the roster until the offseason at the earliest.
I’m hoping the walks and HRs Shaggy has given up over his 16 games is just a case of being rusty. Gabe Speier and Gregory Santos are both going through that right now
He has struggled lately and won’t be available today. They need fresh arms. JT is one, but they need more than that.
Yeah, he was on the IL until June, but he’s still getting the job done.
It was just 3 HRs. The HR9 looks bloated because of the 16-inning sample.
I’m more worried about Speier.
Thornton’s peripherals are more exciting than Chargois’ this year anyway so I agree. This feels like more of a low leverage RP addition than a high leverage one.
We’ll see. I don’t have a strong opinion, I’m just looking at recent performance and current needs.
And it’s worth noting Seattle has moved relievers with just a year of control.
M’s traded minor leaguer Will Schomberg
Welcome back JT!!! Good move! Now get rid of Thornton. Maybe we can get something for him from a team who’s desperate for a average reliever.
But can he bat above .200 and play 3b?
Works for both teams. Reliever prices have drastically came down today.
Well, could have been better for the Mariners at the trade deadline, and could have been worse. All four players the Mariners picked up are needed and helpful in varying degrees but they needed to get one more bat. Jerry DiPoto said that many of the big bats that were going to possibly be on the market were not, and that may be true but it seems like they coud have grabbed one more bat especially Lane Thomas, I. Paredes, or B. De La Cruz, seeing what it took to get them. That is disapointing to me. It is nice to see Polanco heat up. I had greats seats to the Mariners-Red Sox game last night and he is not missing many pitches but man, Garver is lost at the plate. It would be nice to get Rojas going again and we really need Santos to find himself in the bullpen, if he does, this bullpen could be really good because Garcia is the real deal.
You’re not kidding about Polanco! If Refsynder doesn’t make that sensational diving catch that was a 3 XBH night last night. It is so good to see because he and Garver are public enemies in Seattle. I still think Garver can turn things around. More importantly I think the M’s did just enough to cover his DH spot in case he doesn’t.
Re: the M’s Deadline haul- I think it’s obvious they did the best they could in this limited “sellers market.” There were so few impact bats moving at the deadline because of the WC races. I also have a theory that you’ll continue to see fewer impact bats in future deadlines because they are much more valuable today compared to 10, 20 years ago. FO’s know it is harder to create Runs in this Pitching Dominant Landscape, so they will be less likely to move their best hitters.
The Mariners have a really good farm system but you and I know that doesn’t mean they can simply get any player they want. The truth is the M’s did more than both their Division Rivals and if you include the Victor Robles acquisition you can see why some Industry execs think Seattle had the best deadline of all the 30 teams
If Shaggy’s back, can we trade for Scooby?