Beating an MLB deadline Friday night before the winter meetings, the Mariners signed newly acquired INF Robert Andino to a major league contract and signed RHP Josh Kinney to a one-year deal. The club tendered contracts to C John Jaso, RHP Shawn Kelley, SS Brendan Ryan and LHP Jason Vargas. With these transactions, the 40-man roster is full.
Clubs had to make contract offers (“tender”) to every player on their 40-man roster who is not already signed for the 2013 season by 9 p.m. PT Friday. The four who are arbitration eligible and were tendered contracts may either agree to a contract or advance to arbitration proceedings with the club.
Andino, 28, hit .211 with 41 runs, 13 doubles, one triple, seven home runs and 28 RBI in 127 games for Baltimore in 2012. He appeared in games at second base (108 G/96 GS), third base (15 G/9 G), shortstop (2 G/GS) and one game each in left field and center field.
Jaso, 29, appeared in 108 games, making 83 starts (DH 44, C 39) while hitting .276 (81-for-294) with 41 runs, 19 doubles, 2 triples, 10 home runs, 50 RBI, 56 walks, .394 OBP, .456 SLG, .850 OPS. He was honored as the Mariners Unsung Hero by the Seattle chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America after leading the team in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and OPS.
Kelley, 28, posted a 3.25 ERA (16 ER, 44.1 IP) in 47 appearances over three stints with the Mariners. He also made 14 appearances for AAA Tacoma, going 2-0 with six saves and a 0.90 ERA (2 ER, 20.0 IP).
Kinney, 33, went 0-3 with one save and a 3.94 ERA (14 ER, 32.0 IP) in 35 relief appearances with Seattle. He tied for the team lead (with Tom Wilhelmsen) with 35 appearances from the time of his season debut (July 3). He finished second on the team with nine holds, including seven over his last 15 appearances while averaging 10.12 strikeouts per 9.0 IP.
He began the season with AAA Tacoma, going 1-0, 2.70 ERA (11 ER, 36.2 IP) with 38 strikeouts over 27 relief appearances.
Ryan, 30, appeared in 141 games, making 134 starts at shortstop. He hit .194 (79-for-407) with 42 runs, 19 doubles, three triples, three home runs, 31 RBI, 44 walks and 11 steals. He set or tied career-highs in games (141), doubles (tied, 19), walks (44) and strikeouts (98).
Vargas, 29, ranked among AL leaders in games started (33, T4th), quality starts (4th, 22), innings pitched (6th, 217.1), WHIP (10th, 1.178) and complete games (T10th, 2). He led the Mariners in wins, going 14-11 while setting career-highs in starts (33), innings pitched (217.1), strikeouts (141) and quality starts (22).
Vargas became the first Mariners left-handed pitcher to win 14 or more games since Jamie Moyer in 2003.
1 Comment
Whew! And I was worried they wouldn’t get any big bats wrapped up! ( Wedge has an unknown gripe about playing Jaso, so that one good bat doesn’t count)