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Quick Hits: Muñoz, Sadler, Vavra

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Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto spoke with the media this week, including Shannon Drayer of 710 ESPN, in advance of the start of Spring Training. During those talks, Dipoto provided an update on reliever Andrés Muñoz.

Muñoz, 24, had a tremendous breakout last year, posting a 2.49 earned run average over 64 appearances. That ERA probably shortchanges Munoz a bit, who struck out 38.7% of batters faced while walking just 6% of them and got ground balls at a 52.6% clip. ERA estimators all thought he actually deserved better, including a 2.04 FIP, 1.84 xERA and 1.74 SIERA. After the club was eliminated from the postseason in October, he underwent foot surgery, but he’s already out of a walking boot and began a throwing program two weeks ago.

The fireballer has emerged as a key piece of the club’s bullpen, something they seemingly anticipated when they extended him after the 2021 season. The righty had just returned from Tommy John surgery and made a single appearance that year, but the M’s had enough faith to sign him to a four-year, $7.5MM extension with three club options. That could keep him as a fixture of the club’s relief corps through the 2028 season, and his current health is surely a good sign for the club going into 2023.

Other notes from around the league…

  • Dipoto also provided an update on another reliever in 32-year-old Casey Sadler, who is coming off a season lost to shoulder surgery but is going to be ready to go for Spring Training this year. In 2021, Sadler made 42 appearances for the M’s with a ridiculous 0.67 ERA. That level of run prevention was in no way sustainable, with Sadler benefitting from a .188 batting average on balls in play and 90.9% strand rate. But his 25.5% strikeout rate, 6.9% walk rate and 62.9% ground ball rate all point to an excellent campaign nonetheless, with Sadler pegged for a 2.48 FIP, 2.41 xERA and 3.06 SIERA. Unfortunately, he required the surgery on his shoulder in March of 2022, which kept him out for all of that year. The Mariners outrighted him off the roster in November but re-signed him to a minor league deal. “If we get that ’21 version of Casey Sadler with the bullpen group we currently have, that just takes us to a different level,” Dipoto said. Despite trading Erik Swanson to the Blue Jays in the Teoscar Hernández deal, the M’s bullpen is still pretty packed. Munoz should be joined by Paul Sewald, Diego Castillo, Matt Brash, Penn Murfee, Matt Festa and Trevor Gott, as well as Rule 5 draftee Chris Clarke. If the rotation is fully healthy, Chris Flexen should be in the bullpen as well as a long reliever. Sadler was so good in 2021 that he could force his way into the picture if he looks like he’s back on track. Despite the crowding, pitcher injuries are fairly inevitable and this pile of depth should serve Seattle well as the season progress.
  • Orioles utility player Terrin Vavra, 26 in May, cracked the majors last year and managed fairly well by hitting .258/.340/.337 in his first 103 plate appearances. That production was just barely below league average, with his wRC+ coming in at 97, though he hit a much sturdier .324/.435/.451 in Triple-A. Between the two levels, he played second base, third base, shortstop, and all three outfield positions, making him a usefully versatile piece of the club’s roster. It seems he’s not satisfied with that level of versatility and has been working to add first base to his repertoire this offseason. “I don’t think until I really play a game over there, I’ll truly feel the most comfortable, but that’s what spring training’s for,” Vavra tells Nathan Ruiz of The Baltimore Sun. “I think I’ll get some opportunities to showcase that and showcase other talents and try and make my case. I want to be able to show that I can do that, and I want the coaching staff to be confident if they had to send me out there, Day 1 of spring training even.” The O’s have been looking to find left-handed bats to complement right-hander Ryan Mountcastle in the first base mix, acquiring Lewin Díaz and Ryan O’Hearn this offseason, as well as signing Franchy Cordero, Josh Lester and Nomar Mazara to minor league deals. But Vavra, who also hits left-handed, could have a leg up on that group since none of them are on the 40-man but Vavra is. On the other hand, Vavra has option years remaining and could be ticketed for some more time in the minors if he gets squeezed off the active roster.

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 Notes: Left Field, Brash, Rotation

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The Mariners’ plans in left field have looked fairly straightforward since the team signed AJ Pollock to a one-year deal last month, but president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto nonetheless confirmed to reporters last night that the expectation is for left field to a platoon between Pollock and one of Jarred Kelenic or Taylor Trammell (Twitter link via Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times).

Both Kelenic, 23, and Trammell, 25, are recent top-100 prospects who at one point were candidates to hold down long-term spots in the Seattle outfield. Kelenic, in particular, was touted as a potential star but has struggled in the big leagues to this point despite a .302/.372/.574 output in 537 plate appearances at the Triple-A level. His struggles against fellow lefties have been particularly pronounced, but Kelenic did turn in a .249/.330/.503 slash against right-handed pitching in 2022 (Triple-A and MLB combined). Trammell, meanwhile, hit .274/.365/.527 against righties between Triple-A and MLB. There’s some understandable hope, then, that a platoon arrangement with one of Kelenic/Trammell and Pollock (.286/.316/.619 against lefties in 2022) could form a productive tandem.

Trammell was heralded as the superior defender of the pair during his prospect days, though neither he nor Kelenic has posted standout defensive grades thus far in the big leagues. Kelenic has more experience in the corners and has drawn above-average marks for his work there. He’s also been more apt to barrel the ball and has been less strikeout-prone, though his 29.9% mark in the big leagues is obviously problematic.

Both Kelenic and Trammell were featured in a piece by Baseball America’s Kyle Glaser, wherein he polled scouts for opinions on some recent top prospects who’ve graduated to the Majors but struggled to establish themselves. Kelenic drew more praise between the two, particularly for substantial defensive improvements, but scouts who spoke to Glaser offered fairly bearish views of both players’ swings at this point. However, Mariners GM Justin Hollander said yesterday that hitting coach Jarret DeHart has been working with Kelenic and gone through a motion-capture breakdown of his swing this offseason, and the results have been “over-the-top awesome” (link via Corey Brock of The Athletic).

Both Kelenic and Trammell are still young, and it’s fairly common to see a swing change or mechanical adjustment bring about major turnarounds in a player’s outlook. The Mariners clearly aren’t giving up on either player yet, though with both entering their final minor league option year, this is a crucial season for Kelenic and Trammell. Should they falter, the M’s have another lefty-swinging outfield bat who’s nearly ready for a Major League look; 25-year-old Cade Marlowe is on the 40-man roster and turned in a combined .287/.377/.487 slash between 120 Double-A games and 13 Triple-A games in 2022.

Kelenic and Trammell aren’t the only once-vaunted Mariners prospects who’ve turned in shaky big league results to this point. Righty Matt Brash won the fifth starter’s job out of spring training in 2022 but was tagged for 17 runs while posting a 19-to-17 K/BB ratio through his first 20 innings (five starts). That prompted the team to option Brash back to Triple-A Tacoma, and when he returned in July, he was used exclusively as a reliever.

That’ll be Brash’s role in 2023 as well, Dipoto confirmed (Twitter link via Divish). It’s easy to see why the Mariners are intrigued by the switch. Brash has been a starter for most of his career, but he returned to the Majors and obliterated opposing lineups while working in short relief last summer; from July 9 through season’s end, the 24-year-old pitched to a 2.35 ERA with a huge 33.9% strikeout rate. His 12.6% walk rate still needs refinement, but Brash’s heater jumped from an average of 96.3 mph in the rotation to 97.8 mph out of the ’pen and his 14% swinging-strike rate was excellent.

It’s always possible that there will be rotation innings for Brash down the road, but the Mariners look to have several spots locked up long-term. Ace Luis Castillo signed a five-year, $108MM extension after being acquired in a trade last summer, and left-hander Robbie Ray inked a five-year, $115MM in free agency last offseason. Young arms Logan Gilbert and George Kirby, meanwhile, are controllable for another five and six seasons, respectively.

Both Gilbert and Kirby have made good on their status as former first-rounders and top prospects, quickly cementing themselves as high-quality big league hurlers. And, as Dipoto tells it, the duo won’t be facing any hard innings limitations in 2023 (via Brock). Gilbert threw 185 2/3 innings over the life of 32 regular-season starts in 2022, while Kirby notched a combined 156 2/3 innings between Double-A, Triple-A and the big leagues. Both pitchers turned in an ERA in the low-3.00s with sharp strikeout and walk rates (Kirby, in particular). The pair might be eased into spring work, but the goal seems to be for each to make a five-inning start in the late stages of camp, setting the stage for them to work without limits once the season begins.

The group of Castillo, Ray, Gilbert and Kirby is among the best rotation quartets in baseball, but the fifth spot in the rotation remains a source of at least some uncertainty. Seattle has a pair of candidates in Marco Gonzales, a mainstay over the past five years, and KBO returnee Chris Flexen, who’s posted a 3.66 ERA in two seasons since signing in Seattle. Both pitchers have been floated as possible trade candidates throughout the winter. Gonzales is owed a combined $18.5MM from 2023-24, while Flexen will earn $8MM in 2023 before becoming a free agent in the offseason.

There’s been little indication of serious trade talks involving either in recent weeks, but it’s certainly possible that another club will show increased interest once early-spring injuries inevitably begin to arise. Then again, having both on hand gives the Mariners themselves an important safety net in the event of an in-house injury, so there’s little pressure to force a deal if the return isn’t meaningful.

Mariners, Dylan Moore Agree to Three-Year Extension

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The Mariners and infielder/outfielder Dylan Moore are in agreement on a three-year extension to avoid arbitration, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. Moore will earn $8.875MM over the course of the pact, with escalators that could push his earnings beyond $9MM. There are no options in the deal. This deal buys out his two remaining arbitration seasons and one free agent year.

Moore, 30, has been a fixture of the Mariners for the past four seasons in a sort of Swiss army knife capacity, providing the club with a little bit of everything. He’s appeared in 381 games in that time, playing every position on the diamond except catcher, even including one inning on the mound in 2019. He’s probably stretched as a shortstop, since all three of Defensive Runs Saved, Outs Above Average and Ultimate Zone Rating all give him negative grades there, but they all like his work in the outfield and at second base, with his marks at other positions coming in around average.

He’s hit 35 home runs in his 1,073 plate appearances and also stolen 65 bases. His 30% strikeout rate is certainly on the high side, but he’s also drawn walks at a strong 10% rate and has a career batting line of .208/.317/.384. That production has amounted to a wRC+ of 100, indicating he’s been exactly league average at the plate for his career. That performance at the plate has been fairly inconsistent, with Moore hitting very well in 2020 but following it up with a rough showing the year after. His .255/.358/.496 batting line in the shortened season led to a 140 wRC+ but he hit just .181/.276/.334 in 2021 for a wRC+ of 74. It’s possible that a lot of bad luck was hounding him that year, as he had just a .229 batting average on balls in play, almost 100 points shy of the year prior. He put that misfortune behind him with a strong .224/.368/.385 line last year for a 126 wRC+.

Moore first qualified for arbitration a year ago and earned a salary of $1.35MM. For the upcoming season, he was projected to get a bump to $2MM by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz but he and the club couldn’t come to an agreement prior to the filing deadline a few weeks ago. He submitted a figure of $2.25MM with the club filing at $1.9MM, though they’ve now agreed to a longer commitment instead of going to a hearing over that difference. Since he was a late bloomer, he didn’t make it to the big leagues until he was 26 and wasn’t slated to reach the open market until after his 32nd birthday, but he’s carved a role for himself in Seattle and found a way to lock in some sizeable earnings.

Moore underwent surgery in the offseason to address a core injury that he sustained at the end of last season. That procedure came with a 6-8 week recovery estimate, indicating Moore should be good to go for the upcoming season. Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto recently revealed that Moore might be slightly behind his teammates when Spring Training begins, but it doesn’t seem as though the club has any significant concerns about Moore’s health, given their investment in him.

He might not have a direct path to regular playing time at the moment, but given his ability to play just about anywhere, he will surely find a way in there as injuries and underperformance will inevitably crop up somewhere. The regular infield alignment for the M’s will likely have Ty France at first, Kolten Wong at second, J.P. Crawford at shortstop and Eugenio Suarez at third. The outfield mix includes Julio Rodríguez in center, with Teoscar Hernández, AJ Pollock, Jarred Kelenic and Taylor Trammell candidates for time in the corners or as the designated hitter. Tommy La Stella, Sam Haggerty and Moore should all be on the roster as well, filling in at various spots as needed.

Cal Raleigh Underwent Offseason Thumb Surgery

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Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh revealed in October that he had been playing through a broken thumb and a torn ligament in his left hand. At the time, it wasn’t known what course of action would be required in the offseason, but Adam Jude of The Seattle Times reports that Raleigh underwent surgery in the offseason. It’s unknown exactly when the procedure took place, but Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times reports that Raleigh caught a bullpen for Marco Gonzales yesterday in Arizona.

Raleigh, 26, made his debut in 2021 with a paltry .180/.223/.309 showing in 47 games. He was even worse at the start of 2022, hitting .083/.214/.208 a few weeks into the season when the club optioned him to the minors at the end of April. Just over a week later, Tom Murphy suffered a significant injury when he dislocated his shoulder, leading to Raleigh getting recalled back to the big league club.

From that point on, however, Raleigh seemed to find his power stroke in a big way. He hit 26 home runs between that recall in May and the end of the season, slashing .220/.289/.509 during that time. His 29.2% strikeout rate was certainly on the high side, but the power was enough for him to produce a 127 wRC+, indicating he was 27% better than the league average hitter in that stretch. The thumb injury reportedly occurred in early September but didn’t seem to dampen his output, as he hit seven homers in September, one in October and then another in the postseason.

He was also graded well on the other side of the ball, with 14 Defensive Runs Saved on the season, trailing only Jose Trevino and Adley Rutschman. Both FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus gave him positive grades for his framing work as well. Those all-around contributions led to 4.2 wins above replacement, per the calculations of FanGraphs.

It’s unclear if the recovery from that surgery will impede his readiness for 2023 in any way, but the fact that he’s already catching bullpens suggests that he’s at least close to full health. That’s surely a good sign for the M’s, though they might be okay even if Raleigh were to need some down time. It was recently reported that Murphy is back to health after not returning from that shoulder dislocation last year.

That could give the Mariners two strong options behind the plate, as Murphy has been a great hitter when healthy. He launched 18 home runs in 2019 and hit .273/.324/.535 for a wRC+ of 126. A fractured metatarsal in his left foot wiped out his 2020 and he was subpar offensively in 2021, but he was on fire last year before the injury. He hit .303/.439/.455 for a wRC+ of 168 before hitting the injured list.

Teams in recent years have seemingly been moving away from having a clear starting catcher and a backup, preferring to have two backstops sharing the time somewhat equally. Having Raleigh and Murphy both healthy would be a great situation for the Mariners in that sense, especially with Murphy hitting right-handed and Raleigh being a switch-hitter. 24 of his homers last year came as a lefty, though he walked way more from the other side.

Should either of them need any help with the workload behind the plate, Cooper Hummel is also on the 40-man while Jacob Nottingham and Brian O’Keefe will be in camp as non-roster invitees.

Mariners Win Arbitration Case Against Diego Castillo

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The Mariners have won their arbitration case with reliever Diego Castillo, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com (Twitter link). He’ll be paid at the team’s filing rate of $2.95MM rather than his camp’s requested $3.225MM figure.

Castillo has played a season and a half in the Pacific Northwest. Acquired from the Rays at the 2021 trade deadline, he’s provided the M’s with 76 1/3 innings of 3.42 ERA ball. That includes a 3.64 mark over 54 1/3 frames last season, with the big righty striking out a solid 23.9% of opponents against a slightly elevated 9.9% walk percentage. That’s not quite the level he’d managed during his best seasons in Tampa Bay but has still made him a solid high-leverage option for manager Scott Servais.

He’ll again take on some key innings as part of what should be another strong Seattle relief unit. Andrés Muñoz, Paul Sewald, Penn Murfee and Matt Brash are among the other righties who could log key work. The M’s don’t have an established left-hander in the group — offseason waiver claims Tayler Saucedo and Gabe Speier are the only two lefty relievers on the 40-man roster — but the unit was nevertheless among the league’s top ten in both ERA and strikeout percentage last season.

Castillo has between four and five years of MLB service time. He’ll be eligible for arbitration again next winter before qualifying for free agency over the 2024-25 offseason, at which point he’ll be entering his age-31 season. Seattle still has pending arbitration hearings with Teoscar Hernández and Dylan Moore.

Mariners, Kyle Tyler Agree To Minor League Contract

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The Mariners are signing reliever Kyle Tyler to a minor league deal, MLBTR has learned. The Nello Gamberdino client hit free agency last summer after being released by the Giants.

Tyler’s name frequented the MLBTR pages last offseason. The right-hander bounced around to a number of teams in rapid succession, essentially serving as the 41st man on a handful of clubs’ rosters. A career-long member of the Angels through the lockout, he lost his 40-man spot with Anaheim during Spring Training. Within a few weeks, he’d go to the Red Sox, Padres, back to the Angels and then back to the Padres via waivers.

While Tyler held a 40-man spot in San Diego into early June, he was again designated for assignment at that point. He finally cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A. The Padres re-selected him onto the roster within a few days, then waived him again a couple weeks thereafter. Tyler cleared and became a minor league free agent (as was his right after a second career outright assignment) and signed a non-roster deal with the Giants. He made only four Triple-A appearances in the San Francisco organization before being released.

It was a circuitous route, one Tyler acknowledged at the time wasn’t a particularly pleasant experience. The 26-year-old got into just two MLB games last year, both with San Diego. He spent the majority of the season with the Friars’ top affiliate in El Paso, posting a 4.98 ERA through 21 2/3 innings of relief. He struck out 29% of batters faced with an excellent 58.7% grounder percentage for the Chihuahuas, though he also walked over 20% of opponents.

The free passes were uncharacteristic, as Tyler had never previously walked more than 8.6% of batters faced at a minor league stop. Prospect evaluators had pointed to his above-average control in pegging him as a potential depth starter, though he’s settled into a relief role for the past couple seasons.

Tyler joins Taylor Williams, Casey Sadler, Riley O’Brien and José Rodríguez as righty relievers with MLB experience who’ll serve as non-roster depth options for the Mariners. The M’s have a very deep bullpen that isn’t likely to afford many early opportunities to that group. Tyler will likely start the year at Triple-A Tacoma and try to vie for a midseason job. He still has two option years remaining, so the M’s could shuttle him between Seattle and Tacoma if he secures a 40-man roster spot.

Mariners Re-Sign Taylor Williams To Minor League Contract

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The Mariners announced a number of non-roster Spring Training invitees this afternoon. Among those in camp are reliever Taylor Williams and catcher Brian O’Keefe, meaning both have signed minor league deals to return to the organization.

Williams has 97 MLB appearances to his name, splitting that over four clubs. The right-hander broke into the big leagues with Milwaukee and landed with Seattle for the 2020 campaign. He struck out 19 in 13 2/3 innings through the first month-plus of the shortened season. With Seattle out of playoff contention, they flipped him to the Padres in a deal that netted then-prospect Matt Brash. It proved a coup for Seattle, as Brash quickly blossomed into a highly-regarded talent and now looks a key piece of the Seattle relief corps moving forward.

San Diego got just five outings from Williams, as he lost most of the 2021 season battling a knee injury. The Friars waived him in September 2021, and he had brief stints in the Marlins’ and Giants’ organizations before returning to the Mariners via minor league deal last summer. The 31-year-old posted a 1.14 ERA over 23 2/3 innings for Triple-A Tacoma, racking up grounders at an incredible 60% clip. With the Mariners overloaded with bullpen depth, he never got an MLB look but impressed the front office enough to get another crack this spring.

Seattle still has an excellent relief corps. The offseason trade of Erik Swanson in the Teoscar Hernández deal subtracted one player from the mix, but Seattle added the out-of-options Trevor Gott on a free agent contract. He joins Paul Sewald, Andrés Muñoz, Diego Castillo, Penn Murfee and Brash as virtual locks for the season-opening group. Matt Festa is out of options himself and probably cracks the roster, while one of Marco Gonzales or Chris Flexen could take a long relief role if not traded before Opening Day given Seattle’s rotation depth. The M’s also have offseason trade acquisition Justin Topa and nabbed Tayler Saucedo off waivers from the Mets today.

That’s a deep collection of arms, meaning Williams and other non-roster invitees like Casey Sadler, Nick Margevicius, Ryder Ryan and Riley O’Brien could have an uphill battle to the roster. Most of that group is likely to start the season with the Rainiers. Williams is out of options himself, so if he cracks the MLB roster at any point, he’d have to stick in the majors or be made available to other clubs via trade or waivers.

O’Keefe is a 29-year-old backstop who played in two games for the M’s last year. He picked up a hit and a walk in his first four MLB plate appearances. The righty-swinging catcher had a decent .253/.330/.449 line with 13 homers over 352 trips to the dish with Tacoma last year. He joins Jacob Nottingham as non-roster catchers with previous big league experience. Seattle has Cal Raleigh and Tom Murphy as their catching duo but no additional depth on the 40-man at the moment.

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.

Dipoto: Mariners Likely Done Adding To Roster Before Camp

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Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto appeared on the latest Locked On Mariners podcast with Ty Dane Gonzalez and Colby Patnode and offered a fairly thorough review of the club’s offseason strategy and overall roster makeup leading into the 2023 campaign. First off, they’re likely done spending for the time being …

“We might wind up coming up with a late trade like we did a year ago with Eugenio Suarez and Jesse Winker by way of Cincinnati,” said Dipoto. “We could pick up a couple of extra NRIs, the non-roster invites … we’re constantly trying to add to the depth of what we go to Spring Training with. But if I had to bet on anything major happening before we step foot on the field, I’d bet against it at this point. And we’re comfortable with that. We feel like we have improved this team.”

Winker is gone after one highly disappointing season in Seattle, having been dealt to the Brewers in December as part of a package for rangy second baseman Kolten Wong. Among the other newcomers: Teoscar Hernandez, acquired via trade from the Blue Jays in November. AJ Pollock, brought in on a one-year, $7MM free agent contract earlier this month. And also Tommy La Stella, signed to a one-year major league pact 10 days ago.

Dipoto views this as more of a deep and dynamic group than what the Mariners put out there in 2022, when they snapped the longest postseason drought in North American professional sports before getting swept by the eventual World Series-champion Astros in the ALDS. Most of the additions have been on the position-player side, which makes sense given that Seattle finished 14th last year in combined team OPS at .704 and 8th in combined team ERA with a mark of 3.59.

Hernández will be the new starter in right field, with near-unanimous 2022 AL Rookie of the Year Award winner Julio Rodríguez locked into center for possibly the next decade-plus. Dipoto expressed hope that Jarred Kelenic can take a step forward and grab the reins in left. Taylor Trammell figures to factor into the outfield mix as well, and so can the versatile Dylan Moore if he makes a full recovery from offseason surgery to address a core injury. Moore will be a little behind his teammates when Spring Training officially gets underway next month, which maybe gives young speedster Cade Marlowe a chance to shine.

The infield looks set with Ty France at first base, Wong sliding into second, Suarez handling third, and J.P. Crawford returning at short. La Stella will back up a couple of those spots along with Moore and Sam Haggerty. Cal Raleigh should get the majority of the action at catcher, with a healthier Tom Murphy sitting behind him in reserve. “All baseball activity is in play now,” Dipoto said of Murphy, who appeared in only 14 games in 2022 because of a left shoulder injury that required season-ending surgery in June. “His workouts have gone extremely well … We missed Murph.”

The bullpen largely has the same dominant names and faces — Paul Sewald, Andres Munoz, Diego Castillo, Matt Brash, Penn Murfee — that helped produce a combined 3.33 reliever ERA (6th in MLB) and 583 strikeouts in 544 innings last season. Justin Topa, recently picked up from Milwaukee, drew praise from Dipoto as an under-the-radar breakout candidate in that department.

The biggest camp battle, as things stand right now, is going to be for the final spot in the starting rotation. Chris Flexen and Marco Gonzales are the frontrunners, but Dipoto sees Emerson Hancock, Bryce Miller, Taylor Dollard and Bryan Woo knocking on the door as the season plays out. Luis Castillo, Logan Gilbert, Robbie Ray and George Kirby can be penciled into the top four spots, pending any sudden injuries.

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