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Mariners Select Gordon Beckham, Designate John Andreoli

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The Mariners announced today that they have selected the contract of veteran infielder Gordon Beckham. He’ll help the club fill out its infield mix while shortstop Jean Segura is on paternity leave. To create a 40-man opening, the Seattle organization designated outfielder John Andreoli for assignment.

Beckham, who’ll soon turn 32, has played two-dozen MLB games over the past two seasons with the M’s. He has spent most of his time of late, though, at Triple-A Tacoma. This year, the ten-year major-league veteran has posted a strong .311/.411/.479 slash with 52 walks against 46 strikeouts in his 370 plate appearances at the highest level of the minors.

The 28-year-old Andreoli, meanwhile, reached the majors this year only long enough to record his first and only big-league base hit. He’s in his first year in the Mariners org after spending seven professional campaigns in the Cubs system. Andreoli has posted a .287/.397/.401 slash in 388 plate appearances with Tacoma in 2018.

Minor MLB Transactions: 8/2/18

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Here are Thursday’s minor moves from around the league…

  • The Mariners announced that veteran infielder Gordon Beckham cleared waivers and was outrighted off the 40-man roster to Triple-A Tacoma. He’d been designated for assignment Monday after Seattle acquired right-hander Adam Warren from the Yankees. Beckham, 31, appeared in 13 games with Seattle this season and batted just .200/.263/.229 in 40 trips to the plate. At the time of his DFA, he was playing with the team’s Tacoma affiliate, where he’d delivered a productive .305/.406/.469 slash through 315 plate appearances. Beckham has more than enough service time to reject the outright in favor of free agency. Seattle’s announcement didn’t indicate whether he’d accepted, though he’s stuck around with the Mariners on the heels of a DFA multiple times over the past two seasons.

DL Placements: Felix Hernandez, Sean Doolittle, Josh Tomlin

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With several players hitting the disabled list this afternoon, we’ll round them up in this post:

  • The Mariners announced that starter Felix Hernandez will hit the DL owing to lower back tightness. It seems the idea is to afford him a longer rest by lining up the placement with the coming All-Star break, as Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times tweets. Reliever Nick Rumbelow and infielder Gordon Beckham will head onto the active roster, with outfielder John Andreoli being optioned out. Hopefully for the M’s, a bit of a respite will allow Hernandez to bounce back in the second half. It has been a frustrating season to this point, as he has allowed 5.13 earned runs per nine over 105 1/3 innings.
  • Likewise, the Nationals announced that closer Sean Doolittle is hitting the shelf with left toe inflammation. His placement is retroactive to July 7th, meaning he’ll be eligible to return immediately after the break. The roster will get two fresh arms in Wander Suero and Austin Voth, while fellow right-hander Jefry Rodriguez was optioned after his start yesterday. As for Doolittle, it had been hoped that he would be able to return to action, but the team can ill afford an un-utilized roster spot with a tired relief corps. The club has other capable late-inning arms to turn to, though obviously the fervent hope will be that this placement will stave off any more concerning health matters.
  • Indians righty Josh Tomlin is going to the DL with a right hamstring strain, per another announcement. He’ll be replaced by Adam Plutko, who has seen seven games (including six starts) of action in the majors this year. Tomlin has struggled both before and after being bumped from the rotation. Though he hasn’t been hit quite as hard in a relief capacity, he’s still allowing a .256/.294/.538 slash to opposing hitters while working from the bullpen. The 33-year-old owns a 6.98 ERA with 5.5 K/9 and 1.8 BB/9 — and an unhealthy 3.9 homers per nine — over 49 total innings this year.

AL West Notes: Beckham, Astros, Gallo, Tocci

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The Mariners optioned Gordon Beckham to Triple-A Tacoma last night, but as a player with five years of Major League service time, he’ll have the ability to decline the optional assignment in favor of free agency. It doesn’t appear that Beckham has made up his mind yet, as MLB.com’s Greg Johns tweets that the Mariners are hopeful he’ll decide to remain in the organization but apparently have not yet been informed whether he’ll report. The veteran 31-year-old hit just .206/.270/.235 in 39 plate appearances with Seattle, but he raked at a .300/.412/.500 pace in 114 plate appearances at the Triple-A level prior to having his contract selected earlier this season.

Here’s more from the division…

  • Jake Kaplan of The Athletic takes an interesting look at the Astros’ revamped scouting department in its first full year of deployment (subscription link). The Houston organization took plenty of heat for electing not to renew the contracts of eight pro scouts last season, and Kaplan examines the new operation and chats with GM Jeff Luhnow about the team’s scouting processes. While the Astros still send scouts to watch amateur talent (high school, college, Latin America, etc.), their pro scouting now relies primarily on video and data analysis. As Kaplan notes, they’ll occasionally send scouts to a park to watch a Major League or Minor League player if they feel they need a closer look, but the organization no longer does so with regularity. “It’s allowing us to have what we think is the best balance for us of field scouting versus information scouting,” says Luhnow. “Because we’re capturing a lot of information out in the field from technology, from video, from other things, and we have to spend a tremendous amount of time reviewing that information.”
  • The Rangers’ decision to option Ryan Rua to Triple-A has pushed Joey Gallo into the role of backup center fielder for the time being, writes Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Manager Jeff Banister explained that he’s comfortable playing Gallo at any of the three outfield spots if needed, though Gallo would only need to shift over to center field if Delino DeShields were unable to take the field due to an injury. It’s a bit surprising to see Gallo in that role, though as Wilson notes, it’s possible that he may only need to be DeShields’ backup for a matter of days. Texas has to activate outfielder Carlos Tocci from the disabled list this weekend, and as a Rule 5 pick, he’ll have to either be added back to the 25-man roster or designated for assignment. It’s not clear which way the Rangers will go, but given that they’re already out of contention on June 1, the team can certainly afford to roster a Rule 5 player through season’s end if they choose. Tocci, 22, has just two hits and a walk through 28 plate appearances for the Rangers this season. The fleet-footed outfielder has a strong defensive reputation, though, and hit well for the Phillies’ top two minor league affiliates in 2017 (.294/.346/.381).

Mariners Select Contract Of Gordon Beckham, Place Robinson Cano On DL

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The Mariners announced that they’ve placed second baseman Robinson Cano on the 10-day disabled list due to a fractured fifth metacarpal in his right hand and selected the contract of infielder Gordon Beckham from Triple-A Tacoma.

There’s still no word on precisely how long the Mariners expect Cano to miss, as he’s slated to meet with a hand specialist in Philadelphia tomorrow. Once that evaluation takes place, the Mariners will likely have another update, though it seems reasonable to expect that Cano will miss at least several weeks as his throwing hand mends after he was hit by a pitch in yesterday’s game against the Tigers.

[Related: Updated Seattle Mariners depth chart]

The loss of Cano, obviously, is a significant blow for a Mariners club that is right in the thick of both the AL West race (2.5 games behind the Astros) and the American League Wild Card picture (1.5 games back of a Wild Card spot). While Cano’s performance in Seattle hasn’t drawn the national fanfare that it did during his New York days, he’s been every bit as productive a player as he was with the Yankees. In nine seasons with the Yanks, Cano hit .309/.355/.504 (126 OPS+), and he’s roughly matched that with a .294/.353/.471 slash (128 OPS+) in a considerably more pitcher-friendly setting at Safeco Field.

Certainly, the veteran Beckham won’t be expected to replicate that level of production or anything close to it. But he’s off to a .300/.412/.500 start to the season through 114 plate appearances with Triple-A Tacoma and will be asked to assume some of the playing time for Cano along with utilitymen Andrew Romine and Taylor Motter. Manager Scott Servais told reporters yesterday that it wasn’t likely that Dee Gordon would be moved out of center field back to second base (Twitter link via Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times).

Minor MLB Transactions: 3/26/18

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We’ll use this post to run down the day’s minor moves:

  • After being designated for assignment yesterday, catcher Chris Herrmann was released by the Diamondbacks, per a club announcement. The 30-year-old won’t get a chance to prove he can return to the strong batting output he produced in 2016 — at least in Arizona.  That effort earned Herrmann a career-high 256 plate appearances last season, but he managed only a .181/.273/.345 batting line. He has, however, enjoyed a solid spring, swatting two long balls and carrying a .300/.324/.567 slash in 34 Cactus League plate appearances.
  • The Nationals have brought back Alejandro De Aza on a minor-league deal after releasing him to avoid the necessity of a $100K retention bonus, SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo tweets. Soon to turn 34, De Aza is at this point mostly an organizational depth piece, though he has at times in the not-so-distant past been a significant contributor at the MLB level. Indeed, he carries an approximately league-average overall offensive line through nearly three thousand major-league plate appearances, most of which have come since the start of the 2012 season. De Aza played only briefly in the majors last year with the Nats and hit .280/.368/.403 in his 212 Triple-A plate appearances.
  • Also re-signing after being released was infielder Gordon Beckham, who’ll head to the minors with the Mariners, per Cotillo (via Twitter). The 31-year-old had a torrid spring but, like De Aza, has generally been on the downswing of late after receiving quite a lot of opportunities earlier in his career. Until last year, Beckham had played in at least 88 MLB contests annually since cracking the majors (despite minimal minor-league seasoning) in 2009. But his chances, which were already on the decline, largely petered out in 2017, as he made it into just 11 games in the majors. In his 355 plate appearances at Triple-A in the Mariners organization, Beckham posted a .262/.313/.393 batting line.
  • The Diamondbacks have sent outfielder Ramon Flores to the Red Sox, Cotillo also tweets. It is not apparent what Arizona is getting back in return, or whether Flores might even be the PTBNL in the recent swap between the teams. Either way, it’s a minor transactions. Flores signed a minors deal with Arizona and has struggled this spring. He carries only a .204/.281/.256 slash line in 331 plate appearances, but has generally hit well at Triple-A. Last year, Flores hit .312/.409/.460 with ten home runs and 68 walks against 70 strikeouts in his 493 trips to the plate at the highest level of the minors.

Minor MLB Transactions: 3/23/18

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The latest moves from around the baseball world…

  • The Mariners announced that infielder Gordon Beckham has been released from his minor league contract.  Beckham had an opt-out clause in his contract for tomorrow, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times tweets, and since the veteran wasn’t going to make the M’s roster, the release gives him some extra time to catch on with a new team.  Beckham re-signed with the Mariners on a minor league deal this winter after spending 2017 in the organization, hitting .262/.313/.393 in 355 PA for Triple-A Tacoma and also appearing in 11 games at the Major League level.

Minor MLB Transactions: 12/12/17

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Here are the latest minor league moves from around baseball, with the newest transactions at the top of the post…

  • The Mariners have re-signed infielder Gordon Beckham to a new minor league deal, SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo tweets.  Beckham spent 2017 on another minor league contract with Seattle and spent the majority of the season at the Triple-A level, appearing in just 11 games in an Mariners uniform.  The light-hitting veteran utilityman will continue to provide the M’s with some infield depth in the minors, though it seems unlikely Beckham will get much time on the 25-man roster unless injury strikes.
  • The Angels signed outfielder Rymer Liriano to a minors deal, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register reports.  Once ranked as a top-60 prospect in baseball during his time in the Padres farm system, Liriano has a .274/.346/.432 slash line over 3599 career PA in the minors but he has appeared just sparingly in the majors, posting a .580 OPS over 167 PA with the Padres and White Sox.  Forty-six of those plate appearances came last season for Chicago, as Liriano got his first taste of big league action since 2014.
  • The Dodgers have agreed to sign Colombian right-hander Guillermo Zuniga to a deal with a $205K bonus, MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez reports (Twitter link).  Zuniga was one of the 12 former Braves prospects who were declared free agents in the wake of MLB’s investigation into signing improprieties within Atlanta’s front office.  Each of the other 29 teams received an extra $200K in international bonus pool funds to sign any of these players, so the Dodgers only slightly dipped into their pre-existing pool money for Zuniga.  The Braves originally signed Zuniga, 19, to a $350K bonus.

Mariners Designate Shawn O’Malley For Assignment

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The Mariners have designated utilityman Shawn O’Malley for assignment, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times tweets. The move clears space on the team’s 40-man roster for infielder Gordon Beckham, whose contract the Mariners have selected from Triple-A Tacoma.

The 29-year-old O’Malley played a significant role on the 2016 Mariners, batting .229/.299/.319 in 89 games while playing six positions. This year, however, he missed time due to an appendectomy, then a significant shoulder injury. He hasn’t appeared in the big leagues at all and hasn’t hit much in 20 games with Tacoma as he’s tried to shake off the rust.

Beckham signed with the Mariners after the Giants released him near the end of Spring Training. He’s produced a .262/.313/.393 line this season for Tacoma. The veteran played in 88 games last year with the Braves and Giants, batting .212/.294/.347. He should provide a bit of extra infield depth for the Mariners down the stretch.

Mariners, Gordon Beckham Agree To Minors Deal

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The Mariners have agreed to a minor league contract with free-agent infielder Gordon Beckham, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (via Twitter). Beckham, who was released by the Giants last week, is represented by CAA Baseball.

The 30-year-old Beckham has struggled considerably at the plate over the past three big league seasons, hitting a collective .218/.278/.344 in 999 plate appearances between the White Sox, Braves and Giants. He inked a minor league deal to return to San Francisco this offseason, but his fortunes didn’t turn in Spring Training, as he slashed a lackluster .194/.268/.250 in camp with the Giants. That level of output placed him firmly behind fellow veteran Aaron Hill (who took a $100K retention bonus to stay in San Francisco) and offseason signee Jae-gyun Hwang, who is also in camp on a minors deal.

Seattle figures to send Beckham to Triple-A Tacoma, where he can serve as an insurance policy at a number of positions and could eventually surface as a bench option. The Mariners’ infield is set with Kyle Seager at third base, Jean Segura at shortstop and Robinson Cano at second base, Danny Valencia at first base and Taylor Motter on the bench as a super utility option. But, Beckham could conceivably bounce around the infield should injuries arise at the Major League level.

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