Mariners acquire relievers from Twins, Yankees. Are they done dealing before MLB’s trade deadline?
Monday was bullpen day for the Seattle Mariners.
First, they acquired that left-handed reliever they had been looking for – 35-year-old Zach Duke from the Minnesota Twins.
Then they added another right hander – 30-year-old Adam Warren from the New York Yankees.
In exchange for Duke, the Mariners sent minor league pitcher Chase De Jong and infielder Ryan Costello to the Twins, and they reportedly sent $1.25 million in international slot money to the Yankees to get Warren.
“Just got across the goal line on these two deals,” Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto said. “A lot of time on the telephone and a lot of things internally and a lot of different discussions on how we can make those adjustments or additions that can help our team get better that are real acquisitions for us. We think these two are.”
That’s three relievers the Mariners acquired in three days before MLB’s 1 p.m. nonwaiver trade when you include right-hander Sam Tuivailala added Friday from the St. Louis Cardinals.
But are they done dealing?
Dipoto said it’s quite likely, but he didn’t shut the door.
He was asked specifically about adding to the starting rotation in the wake of Felix Hernandez’s continued struggles with a career-high 5.58 ERA.
“Not really,” Dipoto said. “Tough to imagine how we’re going to fit much more on our pitching staff. There are a lot of bodies and only so many chairs. We’re going to have to be creative in how we work it right now.
“We’re not closing the door on the possibility of adding something else to the rotation, but we’re certainly not, I would say, hopeful that something is going to happen.”
Say that the Mariners are at about their own 20-yard line on that.
But maybe they’re a little closer to the end zone on adding a position player.
“We’re still ear to the street in terms of adding another position player,” Dipoto said. “If that possibility exists.
“I wouldn’t anticipate we’re going to do anything else. This is likely it, but you know how we go,” he smiled. “It’s possible.”
Dipoto briefly talked about what the Mariners will do about Hernandez. Mariners manager Scott Servais said on Sunday that he and Dipoto would talk about it.
Hernandez is scheduled to make his next start Thursday against the Blue Jays, and Dipoto confirmed that they’re going to continue to give the two-time American League ERA champion and the Mariners’ all-time strikeouts leader some leash in the rotation – for now.
“We’re going to let that play itself out,” Dipoto said. “Felix has struggled. There’s no question about it. But right now Felix is among our five best starters, the five we run out there every day and we’re going to continue to go that route until we decide not to.”
But Dipoto quickly deflected attention back to the two relievers they acquired. Dipoto outlined two weeks ago that the Mariners would prefer to add situational relievers before the deadline.
So, about Duke and Warren:
Duke is 3-4 this season with 12 holds and a 3.62 ERA in 45 games with the Twins, though he’s limited left-handed hitters to a .237 average (14-for-59) with just two of those hits going for extra bases. He’s one of three AL pitchers to appear in at least 30 games this season without allowing a home run. He’s another lefty bullpen option to go with James Pazos and Roenis Elias, who is more of a long reliever.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Many thanks to the <a href="https://twitter.com/Twins?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Twins</a> organization and fans. My family truly enjoyed the time there. Very excited to start the next chapter with the <a href="https://twitter.com/Mariners?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Mariners</a> ! See y’all soon!</p>— Zach Duke (@zach_duke) <a href="https://twitter.com/zach_duke/status/1024096474123198470?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 31, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Duke is more of a lefty specialist to replace Marc Rzepczynski, who was designated for assignment in early June.
Duke was an All-Star starting pitcher with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2011. He’s since fully converted to the bullpen and he brings a slightly wider repertoire than the hard-throwing Pazos.
“Zach Duke does just the opposite,” Dipoto said, comparing him with Pazos. “Zach is a lower slot, he buries his arm angles and throws mostly from a low three-quarter to sidearm slot. The velocity is going to be considerably lower than James on his good days, but he gives a very high dose of ground balls and generally throws strikes.”
Warren has a 2.79 ERA in 30 innings pitched this season over 24 appearances for the Yankees. This is not the first time Dipoto has tried to acquire the right-hander.. Warren was traded from the Cubs back to the Yankees in a 2016 deal along with star rookie Gleyber Torres and other prospects for closer Aroldis Chapman.
“With Tui and Adam Warren, it gives us guys who have really neutralized right-handed hitters very well,” Dipoto said. “And are also capable of doing multi-innings. In Adam’s case, a guy who has been battle tested in meaningful innings for championship-type competition on the big stage.
“Adam has flown under the radar and been a good big-league pitcher throughout the course of his career. With so many famous names down there he kid of tended to get lost in the shuffle. But he’s really good.”
The Mariners’ moves came within minutes of their American League West-rival Houston Astros acquiring Blue Jays reliever Roberto Osuna, with his 75-game suspension for domestic violence set to end on Sunday, in exchange for struggling closer Ken Giles and two other pitchers.
What’s uncertain is what moves the Mariners will make to create room on the 25-man roster once Duke and Warren report. The Mariners already have a three-man bench, so the moves will have to come from the bullpen. Chasen Bradford, Edwin Diaz, Roenis Elias and James Pazos are their lone relievers with minor-league options remaining. Juan Nicasio, Nick Vincent and Alex Colome are out of options.
“We’re going to have to take a look as we go through and discuss it these next few days,” Dipoto said. “We have a pretty good idea of it and we’ll see it come together over the course of these next 48 hours.
“But the combination of Duke and Warren and Pazos and Tuivailala and the group we already have down there, it gives Scott (Servais) really anything he wants to do once the fifth innings comes around. We have the ability to do that without burdening anybody with too much workload.”
This story was originally published July 30, 2018 at 2:55 PM.