Mariners Moose Tracks, 8/30/23: Andrés Muñoz, Josh Donaldson, and the Los Angeles Angels (of Anaheim)

Hello everyone! Let’s get into the latest from around baseball.

In Mariners news...

• Every Julio Rodríguez fun fact is turning into the same fun fact, but boy is that fact fun.

• Daniel Kramer spoke to Andrés Muñoz about how he tweaked his slider to find recent success.
• The Mariners have been great throughout the organization this year! The A’s, less so.

• Ever wanted to hit some golf balls at T-Mobile Park? Now is your chance! Upper Deck Golf is coming to the ballpark this fall.

Around the league...

• Just a few weeks after trading multiple top prospects to secure rental players for a playoff run, the Angels are reversing course — placing several everyday players including Lucas Giolito, Hunter Renfroe, and Randal Grichuk on waivers in the hopes that someone will claim their contracts and get the Angels under the luxury tax threshold.
• This is perhaps the craziest Shohei Ohtani stat, to me. But perhaps it really just says more about the instability of the Angels lineup and the number of players they’ve cycled through in the last few years.

• After multiple years of middling production and a personality that has turned even his own fans against him, Josh Donaldson has been released by the Yankees.
• Bo Bichette and Matt Chapman are both headed to the injured list, hampering one of the two teams that could realistically knock the Mariners out of the playoff picture (the other being the Red Sox).
• Speaking of the Sox, young stud outfielder Jarren Duran will undergo toe surgery, ending his season.
• The Rays have agreed to a major league contract with right-hander Chris Devenski.
• Well, the White Sox do not appear to be committed to a true top-down organizational reset.

• Speaking of the White Sox, this story keeps getting stranger.

• Baseball is back, baby!

• Dan Szymborski at Fangraphs argues for the usefulness of xStats when looking at a player’s statistical profile.