Mariners place Leonys Martin on DL, recall Stefen Romero

For the second time in a week, the Seattle Mariners have lost a starter to the DL:

Leonys Martin placed on the DL. Romero recalled.

— Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) May 28, 2016

Martin suffered a strained hamstring while stealing second during the Mariners' 13-3 win over the Oakland Athletics on Wednesday. He initially attempted to play through it, but was removed from the game soon after.

This is a particularly tough break for Martin. After getting out to a bit of a slow start at the plate in 2016, Martin suddenly transformed into a hitting machine, slashing .320/.368/.533 with a 159 wRC+ in the month of May. With his defense as stellar as ever, Martin found himself at 1.7 WAR through 44 games, well on pace to beat out his career high mark of 3.5 in 2014. Thankfully, this injury shouldn't keep him out for long, considering most weren't even sure he'd be put on the DL in the first place.

Benefiting from the move is Stefen Romero, who finally gets another chance to prove himself against MLB pitchers after torching Triple-A this year. In 39 games with the Tacoma Rainiers, Romero slashed .358/.417/.601 with a 169 wRC+. The biggest area of improvement for Romero has been his K/BB ratio. Over 168 plate appearances, he has 15 walks and just 13 strikeouts.

He won't have to wait long to get his shot, either:

Romero will be in the starting lineup.

— Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) May 28, 2016

Get well soon, Leonys. Your walk-off homer has been my favorite moment this year by miles. Stefen, give 'em hell. Nori, please don't go all Apple Maps on us in center field.

goms.