2:20pm: The Mariners have now announced the claim. Their 40-man roster is up to 38 players.
1:00pm: The Mariners have claimed catcher Nick Raposo off waivers from the Blue Jays, MLBTR has learned. The latter club designated him for assignment last week. The Mariners had 40-man roster vacancies and didn’t need to make a corresponding move.
Raposo, 27 in June, still hasn’t made his major league debut. The Cardinals added him to their 40-man roster in June when both Willson Contreras and Iván Herrera were on the injured list, but Contreras was reinstated a few days later. Raposo was optioned to the minors without getting into a game. He was designated for assignment in July when the Cards added Erick Fedde and Tommy Pham in a deal just before the deadline. He was claimed by the Jays and stuck on their roster until last week, getting designated for assignment again when Toronto signed Yimi García.
Over the past four years, Raposo has taken 808 plate appearances in the minors. He has a combined batting line of .241/.321/.387 in that time, which translates to a wRC+ of 85. Baseball Prospectus has generally given him solid marks for his blocking and throwing in the minors.
The Mariners only really have one proper catcher on the 40-man roster right now in Cal Raleigh. They also have Mitch Garver, who they signed last offseason with the idea of using him as a full-time designated hitter. That plan didn’t work out as Garver struggled with the bat in 2024, so the M’s did eventually put him behind the plate a few times, either to try to extract some value from him or with the hope that returning to catching would somehow help get back in a groove offensively. Seby Zavala was the third backstop to play for the M’s in 2024 but he was outrighted off the roster in September and signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox last month.
It’s unclear how the M’s plan to tackle their catching situation in 2025, apart from Raleigh being the obvious mainstay. If Garver is the backup, then Raposo can serve as an optionable depth piece in Triple-A. If Garver is going to be heavily in the DH mix, Raposo could battle for the backup job. The nature of that battle will depend on who else the M’s bring in, whether that’s veterans on non-roster deals or perhaps other waiver claims such as this one.
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We could be so lucky
Until ownership makes the financial commitment to spent at least 180M on payroll the best the Mariners can hope for is sneaking in as a wild card team! One playoff appearance over the past 22 years speaks volumes about the organisation’s commitment to winning a championship!
World Ser– aw, screw it.
What the ?? The Mariners should claim Abreu, Casas & Crawford for Logan Gilbert!
Ummmm, no they shouldn’t.
Lol. So the Mariners sign a potential backup catcher and another pitcher when they desperately need quality hitters?
When was the last time they won a WS?
MLB – They should have changed their name to the Kraken when they had a chance.
Depth pieces, minor league players. What’s difficult to understand about that?
Not worth it.
Neither is a WS for the Mariners
They could have won the WS in 1997 if they took a chance and traded for a quality pitcher. Now we are seeing the opposite. They need quality hitting to balance out their pitching!
Couldn’t sneak him down to the minors. Shatkins finish second again.
Great move!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! World series 2025!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As Willy Wonka would say. You get NOTHING YOU lose!!! Good day sir!!
The blockbusters just keep on comin’
And we start off another day in Seattle with our middle fingers raised to John Stanton, and his minions or boyfriends Dipoto and Hollander. Probably all in a three-way relationship, where they all get off on how cheap they can be, on how much Seattle fans suffer, and on how badly they can ruin this already egregious organization. #BoycottTheMariners
I hope things improve for you, I really do.
Probable headline a week or two from now: Mariners Designate Nick Raposo for Assignment
They would need to add 3 Major League contracts in order to need to DFA someone. I don’t see that happening.
This will be the biggest move of the winter for the mariners. So pathetic
and the reign are on a Roposo Chevrolet power play!!
Every single team in baseball makes moves like these. Seattle only had one catcher in AAA, so this move was necessary, and it suggests Ford will start the season in AA, which he should.