Dan Vogelbach, Jacob Hennemann called up to Seattle, Evan Scribner released into the wild

The Tacoma Rainiers’ season drew to a close last night with a loss in Las Vegas, which means the remaining 40-man eligible members of their roster at last will join the Mariners in Seattle. It would be surprising if either start a game this season, but the two new players add a bit of depth to a bench that has been thin most of this season.

This will be the second time on the active roster this year for Dan Vogelbach. Back in late April, Vogey made a brief cameo, earning a 15% BB rate but otherwise struggling at the plate in just 20 plate appearances. The acquisition of 1B Yonder Alonso spoke volumes about the team’s belief in his readiness for 2017 at the very least, but he’ll provide a decent pinch-hitting option on the bench. Vogelbach’s 122 wRC+ and .290/.388/.455 line in AAA are solid, but Seattle is still just 2 ¹⁄₂ games back of the 2nd Wild Card spot. Unless the Mariners crater over the next week and a half, the defensively-limited Vogelbach shouldn’t see much, if any play over Alonso, Danny Valencia, or Nelson Cruz.

Jacob Hannahan Hanrahan Hannemann also joins the Mariners, making his first career appearance on an MLB roster. Hannemann was a 3rd-round pick by the Cubs out of BYU in 2013 after taking two years off of baseball to conduct his Mormon mission. As a result, he’s an atypical 26-year-old in AAA, but his skill-set as it relates to the Mariners is limited. Hannemann gets some love from KATOH but is still more wood and tools than birdhouse at this point. His 29 stolen bases this year (Six in 34 AA games, 23 in 80 AAA games) highlight his main role this September. With Jarrod Dyson nursing a groin injury that the team expects to linger the rest of the year, Hannemann will be a late-inning baserunning substitute and defensive replacement. Though his size indicates more potential power than similarly speedy/offensively limited Ian Miller, they currently have nearly-identical profiles, so Hannemann’s pre-empting seems to indicate a desire to maintain Miller’s options and service time.

Evan Scribner’s release is the final piece of the puzzle, and an unfortunate end for the injury-prone reliever with Seattle. The 32-year-old Scribner’s flyball-centric skillset led him to be gashed by the homerun happy environment that is 2017, but more than anything his health held him back. Since being acquired from the Athletics prior to 2016 for Trey Cochran-Gill (not terribly worried about this one hurting), Scribner has thrown just 21.1 innings and spent most of each season on the 60-day DL. Best of luck to him in his rehab, and he should garner at least a minor league contract this offseason.