Mariners make big, 'win now' move to bolster bullpen, outfield
Oh, this certainly sent a message. Loud and clear.
Alex Colome, an electric, All-Star caliber right-handed reliever, will now wear a Seattle Mariners uniform. So will veteran outfielder Denard Span after a Friday trade with the Tampa Bay Rays, the Mariners' familiar trade partner.
“I think it’s an awesome message,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said prior to Friday’s home game against the Minnesota Twins. “That everything we’ve dealt with the past 8-10 days here … that we’re all in on this season.
“That even though we had the setback of losing Robbie (Cano) with the injury and then the suspension, it’s not going to derail us. Our eyes are set on our goal and that’s getting to the playoffs and I think this helps us.”
In exchange, the Mariners traded away minor league starting pitchers Andrew Moore and Tommy Romero. Seattle also gets $4.75 million in cash considerations.
But this was a clear win-now message, with the Mariners entering Friday with a record of 29-20 and in second place in the American League West that contains the defending World Champion Houston Astros.
Colome is the big addition.
No pitcher in the American League has saved more games than Colome since 2016. His 95 saves in that span trails only the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Kenley Jansen (98).
Colome saved and AL-best 47 games for the Rays last season and was an all-star the season before that with 37 saves, compiling a 2.63 ERA in that span. For his career, the 29-year-old is 17-18 with a 3.21 ERA.
Not that this means the Mariners are changing the role of Edwin Diaz, who entered Friday tied with the Rockies’ Wade Davis for the most saves in the major leagues (17).
Colome, who throws a fastball that touches 96 mph, will slide into a set-up role, which means the Mariners will be less reliant on right-hander Juan Nicasio, their biggest offseason pitching acquisition, and right-hander Nick Vincent, who tied for the major-league lead in holds last season.
Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto said he’d talked with the Rays about Colome for about the past two seasons, though that died down when the Mariners signed Nicasio in December.
But when expected set-up reliever David Phelps tore his ulnar collateral ligament in spring training, meaning season-ending Tommy John surgery, “it became more of an item of interest,” Dipoto said.
“The dynamic this brings to our bullpen with the combination of Edwin Diaz, Alex Colome, Juan Nicasio, Ryan Cook, Nick Vincent, James Pazos – really interesting dynamic,” Dipoto said. “It should be a lot of fun to watch.”
The Rays acquired the 34-year-old Span from the San Francisco Giants this offseason. He was batting .238 with a .364 on-base percentage in 43 games. He had been playing left field with the Rays but has predominately played center for his career.
Span hit .272 with a .329 on-base percentage last year with San Francisco. For his 11-year career, Span has a triple-slash line of .282/.348/.396.
Span will start regularly in left field, Servais said, with Guillermo Heredia maintaining his spot in center. This leaves Ben Gamel as a platoon option and gives Servais the ability to interchange Span, Gamel and Heredia between left field and center.
“We’re acquiring Denard Span to play regularly for us, contribute in our lineup and do what he does,” Servais said. “He’s really good at getting on base and grinding out at-bats and doing those types of things. He’s not a home-run hitter, we get all that. But he does a lot of good things to help you win ball games.
“He’s been in the playoffs a couple of times, he’s a veteran presence we can plug in the outfield. Big acquisitions for us. I’m excited. I think we’re playing really good baseball right now and we’re adding to that with two veteran guys who can help us right away.”
Dipoto said they should arrive by Sunday for the Mariners' 1:10 p.m. game against the Twins, Span’s former team.
“They’re obviously in a position to win,” Span, a Tampa Bay native, said of the Mariners in an interview with Tampa Bay reporters. “So they had an opportunity to get myself and Colome and they’re trying to win over there.”
The Mariners transferred Phelps to the 60-day disabled list to make room on the 40-man roster.
The trade does cost them two young starting pitchers.
Moore, who turns 24 on June 2, made his major-league debut last year, going 1-5 with a 5.34 ERA in 11 games. He has been playing at Double-A this season, going 3-1 with a 3.04 ERA in nine starts. He was voted as the team's minor league pitcher of the year in 2016.
Romero, 20, is 3-3 with a 2.45 ERA in nine starts for Single-A Clinton. He's struck out 54 in 44 innings. Romero was a 15th round draft pick in 2017.
“I don’t want to sell Tommy Romero short … but it’s not easy to trade Andrew Moore and I told him as much when I spoke to him earlier today,” Dipoto said. “He works hard. He’s always prepared. He shot to the big leagues pretty quickly and we couldn’t be happier with his productivity and time with the Mariners. In this moment and this time, we felt like for the now and really the future of the organization, this was the impact move we could make. We took the shot while it was open.”
And this certainly doesn’t mean the Mariners are done making deals.
They have almost $12 million freed up because of Cano’s unpaid, 80-game suspension after he tested positive for a diuretic deemed to have been used to mask performance-enhancing drugs.
Colome is making $5.3 million this season and is under club control until the end of the 2020 season. Span is in the final year of his three-year, $31 million contract.
With Dee Gordon moving from center field back to second base, where he was a Gold Glove recipient with the Miami Marlins in 2015, Dipoto had some flexibility – look for an outfielder or second baseman. Gordon was willing to play either position to accommodate.
But it was thought Dipoto might leave the lineup alone and instead search for pitching help. He did that in the form of adding Colome to the back end of their bullpen.
So why not a starting pitcher?
“Strength of the game,” said Dipoto, a former major-league reliever. “We felt like we wanted to find a way to create or import some type of impact. How could we do that? We could do it with a bullpen guy. We could do it with a starting pitcher, we could do it with a position player – either a second baseman or an outfielder.
“But Dee gives us impact at second base. Denard Span comes in and his skill set fits our team quite well, and the impact we felt like we were getting in Alex Colome trumps what we thought we could get in the starting pitching market. There was a bigger deal we could achieve in getting Alex compared to what we thought we could get among the starters – while leaving ourselves some wiggle room if a starter or something otherwise is needed as we get into the season.
“We still aren’t entirely cut off. We have the ability to go if we can.”
And Dipoto is certainly one for making trades. It’s why he’s harbored the nickname “Trader Jerry” over his now three seasons as the Mariners’ GM.
He’s made more trades with the Rays than any other team – this being his ninth trade with Tampa Bay since 2016.
Dipoto joked this offseason that all he does during the Winter Meetings is sit in a corner and talk with the Rays about trades.
So what does he do in the few minutes he’s not talking with the Rays about trades?
“We think of the next trade we are going to do with the Rays,” Dipoto deadpanned. “Their availabilities met our needs almost perfectly, and as you know, we are pretty comfortable working with them. It’s a pretty easy dynamic.”
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TJ Cotterill: 253-597-8677
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This story was originally published May 25, 2018 at 3:33 PM with the headline "Mariners make big, 'win now' move to bolster bullpen, outfield."