Mariners activate James Paxton, stock bullpen in first wave of September roster call-ups

It’s Sept. 1 – and that means roster expansion day for the Seattle Mariners.

They added seven players, including activated left-hander James Paxton to start Saturday night’s game against the Oakland Athletics, the third of a critical four-game series with the playoffs less than a month away.

Simply, and really no other way to put it, the Mariners needed wins Saturday and Sunday. That’s their best chance at overcoming a 5½-game deficit to the A’s for the American League’s final wild card and playing postseason baseball for the first time since 2001 – the longest active playoff drought in North American professional sports.

So enter the reinforcements. Here’s who the Mariners added:

▪ LHP James Paxton (activated from 10-day DL)

▪ RHP Chasen Bradford (recalled from Triple-A Tacoma)

▪ RHP Ryan Cook (recalled from Tacoma)

▪ Catcher David Freitas (recalled from Tacoma)

▪ LHP James Pazos (recalled from Tacoma)

▪ RHP Justin Grimm (selected from Tacoma)

▪ INF/OF Kristopher Negron (selected from Tacoma)

So the Mariners went from seven relievers in their bullpen to 11.

Welcome to the world of September roster expansion.

“We need the extra guys,” Mariners manager Scott Servais told reporters before Saturday’s game. “We’ve been carrying a guy light in the bullpen, anyway. So good to get some extra arms here so you don’t have to tax your starter to go later in the game.”

And with Paxton back, the Mariners return to a five-man rotation. They were able to get by with four starters while they’ve had both Paxton and left-hander Marco Gonzales on the disabled list because of some off days (more on Gonzales in a bit).

Neither Grimm nor Negron were on the Mariners’ 40-man roster before Saturday, so to create space, they outrighted right-hander Christian Bergman to Triple-A Tacoma and designated right-hander Rob Whalen for assignment.

All seven players were available for Saturday’s game.

Bradford, Cook, Freitas and Pazos all have played with the Mariners at points this season.

Pazos returns after the Mariners wanted him to work on some mechanical adjustments in Tacoma. He was on the Mariners’ active roster from opening day until Aug. 18 and had a 2.68 ERA with 35 strikeouts in 40 1/3 innings. He took over as the Mariners’ most steady lefty bullpen option until his velocity began to dip after the All-Star break.

“He went down with a specific program for the days he wasn’t throwing and from everything I heard he followed the program really well,” Servais said. “I know the results from what he was trying to do his last outing was really good, looking like he was earlier in the season and attacking hitters and using his stuff.”

Freitas adds a third catcher to the roster and earlier this season he hit his first big-league home run with the Mariners when they played in Anaheim against the Angels. He’s hit .330 in 27 games since he was last optioned to Tacoma.

Cook had early success with the Mariners, but struggled late (namely against Mike Trout, and who doesn’t struggle against Mike Trout). He had a 6.75 ERA in 11 games with the Mariners and a 2.25 ERA in 21 games with the Rainiers since he was optioned on June 22.

Bradford has bounced back and forth from Seattle and Tacoma all season. The sinkerball pitcher has a 3.23 ERA in 38 appearances with the Mariners this year and he’s thrown the second-most innings of any Mariners reliever this year other than Edwin Diaz.

Grimm and Negron would be making their Mariners debuts. Grimm is a 30-year-old from Tennessee who was pitching for the Royals earlier this season and has appeared in each of the past seven big-league seasons between the Royals, Cubs and Rangers with a career 5.02 ERA in 301 appearances.

His last big-league outing was June 23 against the Astros when he took the loss after allowing two hits, two walks and a run without recording an out.

But in 10 relief appearances with the Rainiers, Grimm allowed two runs in 11 innings (1.64 ERA) with 17 strikeouts and two walks.

“I have a little history with Grim because he was originally drafted by the Rangers when I was there a long time ago,” Servais said. “He’s a much different pitcher now, but another guy we signed and gave him specific things that we wanted to see if he could get better at.”

The Mariners acquired Negron from the Diamondbacks on Thursday. The 32-year-old utility player has appeared at every position in the big leagues except for pitcher and catcher over the past five years and has a career .216 batting average (.297 on-base) in 112 games.

“I don’t know a ton about him, but I know our scouting people were really on it,” Servais said of Negron.

Gonzales timeline

Marco Gonzales went to the disabled list last week because of a strain of a cervical muscle in his neck, and Servais didn’t provide a positive outlook for Gonzales’ quick return.

“Not exactly sure right now,” Servais said. “It doesn’t look like Marco will be ready to go soon, though. He did feel much better (Friday) but I’m not in a position to give you a full plan. We’re getting closer though. We wanted to see how he felt today. We’ll hopefully know (Sunday) and have a bullpen mapped out.”

Gonzales was eligible to return from the DL on Sunday.

He had felt the strain in his neck over his past few starts he said, and certainly it could have been a factor in his 10.35 ERA over his past four starts (0-4 record).

And Servais said when Gonzales does return that the Mariners could roll with a six-man starting rotation through the end of the season, combining him with Paxton, Wade LeBlanc, Mike Leake, Erasmo Ramirez and Felix Hernandez.

August rush

As much as the Mariners’ offense looked sluggish for much of August, Mitch Haniger didn’t.

Remember his scorching first month of the season, when Haniger hit .309 with a .384 on-base percentage and 10 home runs and six doubles for March and April? He hit .345 with a .392 on-base percentage in August with five home runs and 12 doubles.

His OPS was just slightly lower than his first month (.964 compared to 1.085) but this was easily his second best stretch of the season, all while spending 20 of the past 28 games entering Saturday as the Mariners’ leadoff hitter.

Haniger led the American League with 41 hits in August.

On tap

Right-hander Felix Hernandez (8-12, 5.49 ERA) starts the series finale against Athletics right-hander Edwin Jackson (4-3, 3.03 ERA) in the 1:05 p.m. Sunday game at the Oakland Coliseum. It will broadcast on Root Sports and 710-AM radio..

This story was originally published September 1, 2018 at 11:38 AM.