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J.B. Bukauskas

Mariners Select Tommy Milone, Designate J.B. Bukauskas

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The Mariners announced that they have selected left-hander Tommy Milone. He will take the active roster spot of fellow lefty Marco Gonzales, who has been placed on the paternity list. To open a spot on the 40-man for Milone, right-hander J.B. Bukauskas was designated for assignment.

Milone, 36, is a veteran journeyman who has suited up for the Nationals, Athletics, Twins, Mets, Mariners, Orioles, Braves and Blue Jays in his career. Though he was capable of holding down a full-time rotation spot earlier in his career, he’s mostly been called upon for emergency spot start duties or long relief in recent years. Since the end of the 2019 season, he’s made 22 appearances, including 10 starts, posting a 6.33 ERA over 69 2/3 innings. He doesn’t rack up strikeouts but has strong control, with a 5.6% walk rate in his career.

Last year, Milone made seven appearances for the M’s, posting a 5.40 ERA in 16 2/3 innings. He also tossed 40 1/3 innings in Triple-A with a 2.68 ERA. He signed a minor league deal with the club over the winter and has already made one Triple-A start here in 2023, tossing five scoreless innings back on April 4.

The Mariners went into the season with six solid starters, pushing Chris Flexen to a long relief role in the bullpen. However, Robbie Ray landed on the injured list just a few days into the season, with a rough expectation of an absence of four to six weeks. That required putting Flexen back into the rotation and now Milone will step up to start tonight’s game while Gonzales steps away for the birth of his child. Stints on the paternity list are allowed for between one and three days, so it seems likely this will be just a single spot start for Milone.

That roster shuffling results in Bukauskas being designated for assignment for the third time in as many months. The former first round pick was let go by the Diamondbacks over the offseason. Seattle grabbed him off waivers but quickly DFA him themselves. He went unclaimed that time and stuck in the organization. The M’s brought him back last week but will take him back off the roster following one appearance.

Bukauskas has 22 MLB games under his belt. He’s allowed 21 runs in 18 2/3 innings at the highest level, though he did post a 2.66 ERA over 20 1/3 Triple-A frames last year. The Mariners will have a week to deal him or put him back on waivers. Because he’s already gone unclaimed once, Bukauskas would have the ability to elect minor league free agency if he clears waivers.

Mariners Designate Nick Solak, Select José Rodríguez

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The Mariners have selected the contract of right-hander José Rodríguez, reports Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times. In a corresponding move, infielder/outfielder Nick Solak was designated for assignment. Right-hander J.B. Bukauskas  was optioned in order to get Rodríguez onto the active roster.

Solak, 28, has spent the past four seasons with the Rangers. He had a strong major league debut in 2019, hitting five home runs in 33 games, leading to a .293/.393/.491 batting line and 126 wRC+. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to carry that over, having hit just 16 homers in 220 games over the past three seasons and slashing .246/.317/.354 for a wRC+ of 88.

Early in the offseason, the Rangers flipped him to the Reds for cash considerations. Solak didn’t perform well in Spring Training with his new club and was designated for assignment on Opening Day. He was once again traded for cash considerations, this time going to the Mariners. He’s was optioned to Triple-A Tacoma and has appeared in four games for the Rainiers but has just a .077/.294/.077 to show for it. That’s obviously a tiny sample size but it doesn’t help a guy whose stock has been falling in recent years. In addition to his offensive struggles, his second base defense wasn’t well regarded either. When the Rangers signed Marcus Semien to take over the keystone, Solak got pushed into a corner outfield role. Since the offensive expectations are higher for a corner outfielder than a second baseman, that’s only magnified his struggles at the plate.

The Mariners will now have one week to trade Solak or pass him through waivers. Despite his big league struggles, he’s continued performing well in the minors, this year’s small sample aside. From 2019 through to the present, he has a .289/.368/.503 batting line for a 117 wRC+ in 198 Triple-A games. He still has one option year left, meaning that any acquiring club could keep him down on the farm if they’re willing to give him a 40-man roster spot.

As for Rodríguez, 27, he has a small bit of major league experience already. He got into 10 contests as an Angel in 2019 and 2020, posting a 2.53 ERA over 21 1/3 innings. That impressive ERA  wasn’t sustainable, given his .226 batting average on balls in play and 100% strand rate in that small sample. He was outrighted off their roster in August of 2020 and has been pitching in the minors over the past few years. In Triple-A with the Mets last year, he tossed 76 1/3 innings over 11 starts and 18 relief appearances, posting a 4.95 ERA in that time. Signed by the Mariners to a minor league deal this winter, he has a couple of scoreless appearances for the Rainiers this year and will give the big league club a fresh arm. He still has options and can be sent back to Tacoma in the future without being exposed to waivers.

Mariners Place Andres Munoz On 15-Day IL, Select J.B. Bukauskas

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The Mariners announced five roster moves today, including the news that right-hander Andres Munoz has been placed on the 15-day injured list (retroactive to April 8) with a right deltoid strain.  Seattle also placed first baseman Evan White on the 60-day IL with a left adductor strain, since it was known White would be out of action for the next two months.  Right-handers Justin Topa and J.B. Bukauskas are up from Triple-A, and in Bukauskas’ case, the Mariners selected his contract.  Matt Festa was optioned to Triple-A to create further space.

Coming off a dominant 2022 campaign, Munoz hasn’t allowed a run in 3 1/3 innings of work so far this season, though his strikeout rate has declined to only 20 percent.  Manager Scott Servais told reporters (including The Seattle Times’ Ryan Divish and The Athletic’s Corey Brock) that imaging didn’t reveal any structural problems for Munoz, though he has been feeling pain in the back of his shoulder and he has had trouble recovering after outings.  Likely related to this issue, the Mariners haven’t used Munoz on back-to-back days yet.

Munoz didn’t have quite a normal Spring Training, as the team took a slower progression to his ramp-up work as a nod to Munoz’s recovery from offseason foot surgery.  It could be that Munoz just needs a little more time to properly build his arm strength, and the IL placement seems somewhat precautionary in nature.  “We’re playing the long game,” Servais said, referring to the Mariners’ hope that this IL stint gets Munoz on track for the remainder of the season.

Seattle didn’t enter the season with a true closer, as while Paul Sewald got the bulk of save chances in 2022 and was expected for more or less the same this year, the M’s were taking a more situational approach to their late-game situations.  Munoz was seen as a candidate to perhaps eventually become the first-choice closer, or the Mariners could have simply continued to use him when needed in any sort of high-leverage scenario.  Servais said that Matt Brash will now get more usage in Munoz’s role with the righty out of action.

Bukauskas was claimed off waivers from the Diamondbacks in January, and then designated for assignment and outrighted off of Seattle’s 40-man roster.  His only other MLB action came in 2021, when he posted a 7.79 ERA over 17 1/3 innings for Arizona.  A former top-100 prospect during his time in the Astros farm system, Bukauskas has posted some interesting numbers since becoming a full-time relief pitcher the minors, and the move to the bullpen looks to have solved the control problems that began to emerge for Bukauskas as a starter.  He’ll now get another crack at the majors as part of the Mariners’ bullpen shuffle.

Mariners Outright J.B. Bukauskas

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The Mariners announced that reliever J.B. Bukauskas has gone unclaimed on waivers. He’s been sent outright to Triple-A Tacoma and will be in big league camp as a non-roster Spring Training invitee.

Bukauskas didn’t have a particularly long stay on the Seattle 40-man roster. Claimed off waivers from the Diamondbacks on January 17, he lost his spot earlier this week when the M’s grabbed Tayler Saucedo from the Mets. Seattle quickly ran Bukauskas through waivers and will now be able to retain a former first-round draftee and highly-regarded prospect without allocating a 40-man spot.

The 26-year-old was the 15th overall pick in the 2017 draft by the Astros. Houston flipped the UNC product to Arizona two summers later as part of a four-player package for Zack Greinke. A starter early in his minor league days, Bukauskas has come with questions about his ability to hold up in a rotation because of inconsistent command dating back to college. Those concerns have borne out over the past two seasons, as the Snakes moved him to relief after adding him to the roster over the 2020-21 offseason.

Bukauskas made his MLB debut in April ’21, eventually getting into 21 contests. He was hit hard for 19 runs through his first 17 1/3 big league innings despite averaging 94.5 MPH on his fastball and generating plenty of whiffs on his mid-80s slider. An elbow strain cost him a chunk of that season, and a lat injury suffered in Spring Training sidelined him for the first half of last year.

While he didn’t return to the mound until July, Bukauskas closed out the 2022 season with a nice run at Triple-A Reno. Pitching in an extraordinarily hitter-friendly park, he posted a 2.66 ERA with a solid 23.8% strikeout percentage and an excellent 5% walk rate. Nevertheless, he never got another MLB opportunity in a below-average Arizona bullpen and has found himself squeezed off two clubs’ rosters in a matter of weeks.

Bukauskas will try to pitch his way back onto the radar in spring camp and, if necessary, with Tacoma to open next season. The M’s already have a strong bullpen, with Andrés Muñoz, Paul Sewald, Diego Castillo, Matt Brash, Trevor Gott and likely Penn Murfee penciled into jobs. Matt Festa is out of minor league option years and has a strong case to hold onto a roster spot, while whomever of Marco Gonzales and Chris Flexen doesn’t win the #5 starter role could be in the bullpen. The M’s would also have to carry Rule 5 draftee Chris Clarke on the active roster or waive him and, if he clears, send him back to the Cubs. Bukauskas joins Taylor Williams, Casey Sadler, Riley O’Brien and Kyle Tyler among the non-roster depth options in the organization.

Mariners Claim Tayler Saucedo, Designate J.B. Bukauskas

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The Mariners announced that they have claimed left-hander Tayler Saucedo off waivers from the Mets. He was recently designated for assignment when the Mets signed Tommy Pham. In a corresponding move to get Saucedo onto Seattle’s roster, right-hander J.B. Bukauskas was designated for assignment.

Saucedo, 30 in June, was a Blue Jays draftee who cracked that club’s roster midway through the 2021 season. He’s since logged 28 1/3 innings in the big leagues with a 5.40 ERA. He’s gotten much better results in the minors, having posted a 2.11 ERA over the past two years while striking out an incredible 35.7% of batters faced. He’s put up strong ground ball rates in both the majors and minors but the strikeouts are the major difference maker so far as he’s only punched out 15.3% of big league hitters.

Despite the lack of results in the majors to this point, teams seem to be willing to take a shot on Saucedo based on his strong work down on the farm. The Mets claimed him off waivers from the Jays in November but he lost his spot last week with the Mariners now the beneficiary. Saucedo still has a couple of option years remaining and can be sent down to the farm, if needed. He’ll join Gabe Speier and Brennan Bernardino as southpaw relief arms on the club’s roster.

As for Bukauskas, 26, this ends a very short stay on Seattle’s roster, as he was just claimed off waivers from the Diamondbacks two weeks ago. A former first round pick and exciting starting pitching prospect, he struggled with control and was moved to a relief role in recent years. He made 21 major league appearances in 2021 but struggled and posted a 7.79 ERA in that small sample. He’s had much better results in the minors over the past couple of years but hasn’t been able to log significant time due to injuries. He threw 35 minor leagues innings over 2021 and 2022 with a 3.09 ERA, with most of that time spent in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. He struck out 27.5% of batters faced while walking 5.8%. That small workload is due to a strain in his throwing elbow in 2021 and a strain in the teres major muscle in his shoulder last year.

The Mariners will now have a week to trade Bukauskas or pass him through waivers. He still has one option year left, meaning that an interested club could put him on their 40-man and wouldn’t necessarily have to keep him on the active roster. Based on that fact, as well as his youth and previous prospect pedigree, it’s possible that he could have a new club yet again before Spring Training kicks off in two weeks.

Mariners Claim J.B. Bukauskas, Designate Alberto Rodriguez

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The Mariners announced that they have claimed right-hander J.B. Bukauskas off waivers from the Diamondbacks. In a corresponding move, outfielder Alberto Rodriguez has been designated for assignment. Bukauskas was designated for assignment last week when the D-Backs re-signed Zach Davies.

Bukauskas, 26, was a first round draft pick of the Astros in 2017 and he landed on top prospect lists shortly thereafter. However, many evaluators predicted his inability to consistently throw strikes would lead to a bullpen move down the line. Those predictions proved to be fairly astute as Bukauskas moved up the minor league ladder and struggled with walks. In 85 2/3 innings for Houston’s Double-A affiliate in 2019, he walked 14.2% of batters faced and posted a 5.25 ERA.

The Diamondbacks acquired Bukauskas alongside three other players when they traded Zack Greinke to Houston and have since had him spend most of his time as a reliever. His control has certainly improved in that time but injuries have limited him to a small workload. In 2021, he only pitched 30 innings between the majors and the minors due to a strain in his throwing elbow. Last year, a Grade 2 strain in the teres major muscle in his shoulder put him on the injured list from the start of the year until July. The D-Backs kept him on the farm once he was healthy, but he fared well there. He posted a 2.42 ERA in 22 1/3 innings while striking out 25.3% of batters faced and walking just 4.6% of them. Most of that work came in the Pacific Coast League as well, which has a reputation for being quite hitter-friendly.

The M’s have decided to take a shot on Bukauskas to see if they can be the ones to benefit from a breakout. The righty still has an option year remaining, allowing them to keep him in the minors until he’s needed with the big league club. He also has just over a year of service time and can be kept around for the foreseeable future as long as he holds a spot on the 40-man.

In order to take a chance on Bukauskas, the M’s are risking losing the 22-year-old Rodriguez. An amateur signing of the Blue Jays, he was traded to the Mariners as part of the 2020 deal that sent Taijuan Walker to the Jays. In 2021, he hit .289/.379/.470 between Single-A and High-A, a strong enough showing to get him added to the 40-man roster ahead of the Rule 5 draft. Last year, he went back to High-A and still hit fairly well. His .261/.336/.396 showing was good enough for a 106 wRC+, or 6% above league average. However, he struck out in 26.2% of his plate appearances and only stole six bases after going well into double digits in previous seasons.

The Mariners will now have a week to trade Rodriguez or pass him through waivers. Though his 2022 season wasn’t ideal, he’s still a young and talented outfielder who has a couple of option years remaining. As recently as midway through 2022, Baseball America still considered him one of the club’s top 30 prospects.

Diamondbacks Designate J.B. Bukauskas For Assignment

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The Diamdonbacks announced they’ve designated righty J.B. Bukauskas for assignment. The move creates a 40-man roster spot for Zach Davies, who has officially signed his one-year free agent guarantee to return to the desert. According to the team, Davies’ deal also contains a mutual option for the 2024 campaign.

Bukauskas was a first-round pick of the Astros in 2017 and appeared among Baseball America’s top 100 overall prospects the following spring. The University of North Carolina product was credited by scouts with a promising three-pitch mix that included a sinker, slider and high-quality changeup. Evaluators raised questions about how consistently he’d throw strikes thanks to a high-effort delivery, though, with many projecting a future move to the bullpen.

While Bukauskas worked as a starter up through Double-A, he’s indeed moved to relief in recent years. At the 2019 trade deadline, Houston sent him to Arizona alongside Josh Rojas, Seth Beer and Corbin Martin in the Zack Greinke blockbuster. Bukauskas made two Double-A starts the rest of the year and didn’t pitch in 2020 because of the cancelation of the minor league season.

After the 2020 campaign, Arizona added him to the 40-man roster to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. He was called up for his major league debut that April and wound up pitching 21 times out of Torey Lovullo’s bullpen. He allowed 19 runs in his first 17 1/3 innings, thanks largely to the four longballs he served up. Bukauskas struck out 14, walked seven and missed bats on a slightly above-average 12.2% of his offerings.

Unfortunately, injuries have thrown off his attempts to carve out a permanent spot in the Arizona relief corps. Bukauskas missed roughly six weeks in 2021 thanks to a strain in his throwing elbow. More notably, he began last season on the 60-day injured list after suffering a Grade 2 strain in the teres major muscle in his shoulder. That kept him out of action until mid-July, when he was reinstated and optioned to Triple-A Reno. He pitched quite well in that hitter-friendly environment, working to a 2.66 ERA with a solid 23.8% strikeout rate and an excellent 5% walk percentage over 20 1/3 relief innings.

Despite that performance, Arizona never gave him a look in a floundering MLB bullpen in 2022. He’s now been squeezed off the 40-man entirely, with the Snakes having a week to trade him or try to run him through waivers. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Bukauskas land elsewhere given his prospect pedigree and Triple-A performance last year. He still has a minor league option year remaining, so another team could keep him in Triple-A for a season if they’re willing to devote him a 40-man roster spot.

Diamondbacks Designate Dallas Keuchel, Reinstate Ian Kennedy

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July 21: The Diamondbacks have announced their slate of roster moves, with Keuchel being designated for assignment. His active roster spot will go to right-hander Ian Kennedy, who has been reinstated from the 15-day injured list. With the open spot on the 40-man roster, righty J.B. Bukauskas has been reinstated from the 60-day IL and optioned to Triple-A.

July 20: The Diamondbacks have designated veteran left-hander Dallas Keuchel for assignment, reports ESPN’s Jeff Passan (via Twitter). The team has not yet formally announced the move.

It’s the second DFA of the season for Keuchel, who was cut loose by the White Sox earlier this year while playing out the third and final season of a three-year, $55.5MM contract. The former AL Cy Young winner posted a pristine 1.99 ERA in 11 starts with the ChiSox during the shortened 2020 season but logged a lackluster 5.28 ERA in 30 starts a year ago before taking another step back in 2022.

Keuchel was rocked for a 7.88 ERA with the Sox, tallying just 32 innings despite making eight starts. The D-backs brought him in on a minor league deal after he cleared waivers and became a free agent, hoping that a reunion with former Astros pitching coach Brent Strom — now the pitching coach in Arizona — might help Keuchel tap into some of his prior success. That, however, hasn’t proven to be the case. Keuchel somewhat remarkably struggled even more with the Snakes, yielding 22 runs (20 earned) in just 18 2/3 frames before today’s DFA.

To Keuchel’s credit, he did post markedly improved strikeout and walk rates in Arizona. After posting identical 12.2% strikeout and walk rates in Chicago — both among the worst marks in the league for starters — he turned in a 20.2% strikeout rate against a 7.9% walk rate with the D-backs. The strikeout rate is still below average, but that walk rate is solid, and Keuchel can still induce grounders at an above-average rate (albeit nowhere near his peak rate when he was perennially among the league leaders).

Whether that’s enough for another club to take a look remains to be seen. Keuchel will be placed on waivers within the week and will surely clear a second time and again become a free agent. He’ll likely settle for a minor league deal wherever he lands next.

Diamondbacks Sign Zach Davies

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March 24: The D-backs have announced the signing. In order to open a spot on the 40-man roster, Arizona placed right-hander J.B. Bukauskas on the 60-day injured list. Bukauskas suffered a Grade 2 teres major strain earlier this week and is expected to be sidelined for “months” with the injury.

March 22, 10:54am: Davies is guaranteed $1.75MM on the deal, tweets Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. He’ll earn a $1.5MM base salary and is also guaranteed at least a $250K buyout on next year’s option. The contract allows him to earn an additional $2.5MM based on his number of games started. The 2023 option is a mutual option, Heyman reports.

8:58am: The D-backs have reached a one-year agreement with free-agent righty Zach Davies, reports MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link). There’s also a 2023 option on the contract. Davies, a client of the Boras Corporation, can earn up to $4.5MM this year, per Heyman. Robert Murray of FanSided first tweeted that the two sides were close to a deal.

Zach Davies | Patrick Gorski-USA TODAY Sports

Davies, who turned 29 last month, was one of the younger free-agent starters on the market but also hit free agency in need of a rebound campaign after a lackluster 2021 showing with the Cubs. Acquired from San Diego in Chicago’s salary dump of Yu Darvish, Davies made 32 starts and covered 148 innings but did so while limping to a career-worst 5.78 ERA. Among the 129 pitchers with at least 100 innings last year, Davies’ 17.1% strikeout rate ranked 116th, while his 11.2% walk rate was the sixth-highest mark in that same set.

Just a year prior, during the shortened 2020 campaign, Davies had the finest season of his career. Obviously it wasn’t a full slate of 30-plus starts, but Davies nevertheless pitched 69 1/3 innings over a dozen appearances and turned in an outstanding 2.73 ERA with vastly superior strikeout (22.8%) and walk (6.9%) rates to those that he displayed in his lone year with the Cubs.

Davies has never missed bats at that 2020 level in any other season, which perhaps makes it something of a small-sample anomaly, but it should also be noted that he’s never struggled with his command like he did in 2021. To the contrary, prior to this past season’s surprising uptick in free passes, Davies offset his pedestrian strikeout rates and lack of velocity with strong command of the zone. From 2016-20, he walked just 6.7% of his opponents — a mark that tied him for 48th among 181 qualified pitchers.

In all likelihood, Davies’ true performance level lies somewhere between the extremes he posted in 2020 and 2021. He’s worked to a career 4.14 ERA with a 17.3% strikeout rate, a 7.8% walk rate and a 45.3% grounder rate in 831 2/3 innings between Milwaukee, San Diego and Chicago. Davies doesn’t miss many bats, given that his arsenal is headlined by a sinker that averages 88.2 mph, but he’s better than average when it comes to inducing weak contact. Outside of 2021, he hasn’t been particularly homer-prone in his career, either.

Arizona’s rotation is currently projected to include Madison Bumgarner, Zac Gallen, Luke Weaver, Merrill Kelly and perhaps non-roster invitee Dan Straily, who signed a minor league deal during the lockout after a solid two-year run in the Korea Baseball Organization. Gallen, however, is nursing some shoulder troubles at the moment, and Weaver has battled his own share of injury problems in recent years. Both Weaver and Kelly have also garnered trade interest at various points, though there’s no current indication the Snakes are weighing a move involving any member of their staff.

The signing of Davies could push Straily to a long-relief role or perhaps even to Triple-A Reno to begin the season, but teams are going to be cautious with their starters early in the season following a truncated Spring Training that did not give pitchers a full ramp-up period. It’s likely that there will be innings to go around for all six of those rotation candidates — to say nothing of upper-minors options like Tyler Gilbert, Corbin Martin, Humberto Mejia and Humberto Castellanos.

Diamondbacks’ J.B. Bukauskas To Miss “Months” With Teres Major Injury

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Diamondbacks right-hander J.B. Bukauskas has suffered a grade two tear of his teres major muscle, manager Torey Lovullo told MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert and other reporters.  A specific timetable is not yet known for Bukauskas’ return, but Lovullo said the righty will miss “months, not weeks.”

Former D’Backs righty Taylor Clarke was cited as possible comp, as Lovullo noted that Clarke suffered a similar injury last season.  In that situation, Clarke missed just over a month and a half of action, hitting the injured list on June 15 and being activated on August 5.  However, it is probably safe to guess that Bukauskas will be sidelined for a longer amount of time, given that he’ll have to both recover from the injury and then do some extra prep work to make up for missing so much of Spring Training.

The teres major tear is another in a series of injury setbacks for Bukauskas, who missed about six weeks of the 2021 himself himself due to a flexor strain in his throwing elbow.  Wrist and other elbow problems have been issues in the past, and Bukauskas also hurt his back during a car accident during Spring Training 2018 when he was a member of the Astros organization.

With all these injuries in mind, it isn’t surprising that Bukauskas has yet to produce much at the big league level.  Making his debut last season, he had a 7.79 ERA over 17 1/3 relief innings for the Diamondbacks, though advanced metrics (4.49 SIERA, 4.50 xFIP) were a bit more favorable, accounting for Bukauskas’ .357 BABIP and an absurdly low 47.2% strand rate.  That said, Bukauskas didn’t help himself with only a 17.3% strikeout rate, and four homers allowed during his brief time in the Show.

Concerns over Bukauskas’ durability have lingered for a while, though it also wasn’t long ago that he drew some attention on top-100 prospect lists.  Houston selected Bukauskas with the 15th overall pick of the 2017 draft, and the righty was one of the key pieces of the four-player package the Astros sent to Arizona for Zack Greinke at the 2019 trade deadline.  Bukauskas hasn’t actually started a game at the major or minor league level since 2019 when he was with the Diamondbacks’ Double-A affiliate, and with his injury history only lengthening, it remains to be seen if his future will be as a starter or as a reliever.

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