Mariners claim Evan Marshall, transfer Drew Smyly to the DL

And so the Seattle Mariners-Arizona Diamondbacks Wheel of Fortune spins on. Approximately sixteen hours after the conclusion of last night’s sputtering clunker of a game, the Mariners have claimed relief pitcher Evan Marshall, whom the Diamondbacks DFAd on March 28th. Marshall will head to Tacoma to start the season.

What should you know about Evan Marshall, right-handed relief pitcher? Well, first of all, it’s important to differentiate him from Evan Marshall, virtuoso mandolinist, and Evan Marshall, meta novel-writing author who specializes in writing about writing about novels. Now that we’ve clarified that, let’s look at his numbers via Fangraphs...

He was pretty okay in 2014, and has mostly been not great since then. It’s worth noting that he fractured his skull on a line drive while pitching in Triple A in 2015, which explains why his season was cut short, and also makes a seemingly unremarkable 2016 completely incredible. Take a minute and read the story in that link because it guarantees you’ll be rooting for Marshall to succeed this season, and for however many other seasons he continues to play baseball.

Anyway, if your baseball-loving cousin texts you about this latest move, and you want to sound vaguely intelligent, you can tell said cousin that in 2014 Evan Marshall had the lowest percentage of pitches thrown in the zone of all major league relievers, but also one of the top ten swing rates on pitches outside of the zone. You can also remind your cousin of that really amazing shot you made when the two of you were playing basketball in the backyard three years ago.

The other chunk of this little news blurb is that Drew Smyly was officially transferred to the 60-day DL. This isn’t at all surprising, given the 6-8 week prognosis we heard about with the flexor bundle strain, and simply settles over an already gloomy Tuesday like the dust blanketing the city as Bertha tunnels her way toward the light.