Hart brought up, Smoak optioned

The decisions have been made on Corey Hart and Justin Smoak, who were rehabbing in Tacoma following injuries.

Hart, who had been nursing a strained left hamstring since May 18, is coming back up to the big club after hitting .297/.366/.514 in 41 plate appearances in Tacoma. He will be joining the team in Chicago and is in the lineup today, batting fourth. Obviously, the hope is that Hart performs far better than he did before his injury where he had a .209/.295/.353 line in 156 plate appearances. His performance over the next couple of weeks will likely help to determine what the M's plans will be at the trade deadline.

The Hart promotion comes at the cost of Cole Gillespie, who has been designated for assignment. It's disappointing considering there were a couple of weeks where it looked like Gillespie was going to be a real solution in the outfield before he fell off the radar in late June. Should Gillespie pass through waivers and accept assignment to Tacoma, he'd serve as a decent fallback plan if someone else falls to injury.

Smoak has been optioned to Tacoma after Logan Morrison essentially put him out of a job with his solid performance. Smoak hit .208/.282/.361 in 55 plate appearances during his rehab stint after straining his left quad on June 10. His job was far from secure to begin with and his optioning doesn't come as a complete surprise. Should Morrison continue to produce and if Smoak doesn't start to pick it up in Tacoma, Smoak's time as a Mariner could be over pretty shortly.