The Mariners announced that they are looking for relief Jonathan Hernandez on waivers from division-rival Rangers. Seattle is aptly named Brett de Geus with an assignment to open a spot on the 40-man roster. The M's also announced the acquisition of the business JT Chargois He joined the team and will be in the MLB bullpen. Gregory Santos goes on the 15-day injured list, starting August 1, with biceps inflammation.
Hernández, 28, is switching teams for the first time in his career. He spent more than ten years as a member of the Rangers organization after signing in January 2013. Hernández reached the majors in the second half of the 2019 season, not long after his 23rd birthday.
The right-hander has had a solid couple of seasons to start his MLB career. He turned in a 2.90 ERA in 31 innings during the shortened 2020 schedule. He missed the entire next season after having Tommy John surgery in April '21. Hernández returned for the second half in 2022 and looked to pick up where he left off. He threw 30 1/3 frames of 2.97 ERA ball in the stretch run. He picked up four saves and 10 shutouts while finishing 16 games as a medium-leverage reliever.
Things have gone downhill in the last two seasons. Hernández struggled to a 5.40 earned run average last year. Texas bounced him back and forth between Triple-A several times, burning his final minor league option in the process. That meant the Rangers needed to keep him on the MLB roster this season.
Texas gave Hernández plenty of runway, giving him 41 innings in 26 appearances, but his results didn't change. He allowed a 5.05 ERA with a career-high 19.9% slugging percentage and a career-high 14.4% walk rate. The Rangers released him from their bullpen (and thus removed him from the 40-man roster) on Tuesday and the draft deadline. Andrew Chaffin at MaNgwe's.
Seattle will try to help Hernández right on board. They will also need to keep him on the big league roster unless they decide to designate him for assignment. Hernández still averages around 97 MPH on his sinker and misses a decent amount of bats with his slider. Those green solids were often reduced by poor command, but there is little cost to the M's in looking. They took a little less than $400K of his $1.245MM career salary. Hernández will be under arbitration control for two more seasons if he keeps his bullpen spot in Seattle.
The Mariners added de Geus to the 40-man roster in April. He played in four major league games, working 3 1/3 frames of one-run ball. Seattle largely kept the 26-year-old in his Triple-A Tacoma assignment, where he allowed a 6.60 ERA in 30 innings in the Pacific Coast League.
de Geus was Hernández's teammate with the '21 Rangers, who drafted him from the Dodgers in the Rule 5 draft. He pitched 50 innings of 7.56 ERA ball between the Rangers and Diamondbacks that season and didn't return to the majors until this year. Seattle will likely waive him this weekend.
As for Santos, the offseason trade missed most of the first half with a lat strain. He also played in six games before leaving Wednesday's appearance with biceps pain. He'll miss at least the next two weeks, though Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times fortunately tweeted this afternoon that the snap is coming back clean.
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