The Mariners have selected the contract of infielder/outfielder Weston Wilson. Fellow infielder/outfielder Miles Mastrobuoni has been designated in a corresponding move. Prior to the official announcement, Adam Jude of The Seattle Times noted Wilson was in the clubhouse. Daniel Kramer of MLB.com indicated Mastrobuoni would likely be designated for assignment to make room.
Kramer suggests the swap is related to the fact that the Mariners are slated to face a bunch of lefties. The Red Sox are scheduled to start southpaws Ranger Suárez, Connelly Early and Payton Tolle this weekend. Seattle’s regular lineup is mostly filled with lefty bats, including J.P. Crawford, Josh Naylor, Dominic Canzone, Luke Raley, Cole Young and Colt Emerson. Righties Connor Joe and Rob Refsnyder are on the bench but Joe has a .189/.302/.324 line this year while Refsnyder is at .143/.214/.242.
Mastrobuoni and Wilson are both multi-positional types but the former hits from the left side and the latter the right. The 31-year-old Wilson has a .240/.331/.413 line in 291 plate appearances from 2023 to 2026, a line that translates to a 108 wRC+. That breaks down as a .248/.351/.456 line and 124 wRC+ against southpaws compared to a .229/.302/.352 line and 83 wRC+ in the other half of the split.
Defensively, Wilson has big league experience at every position on the diamond except for shortstop and catcher. Though he’s never played short in the big leagues, he has spent a decent amount of time there in the minors. He should give manager Dan Wilson a good amount of flexibility in trying to get through this gauntlet of lefties.
After this Boston series, the Mariners play the Pirates, who have an all-righty rotation. Wilson is out of options, so perhaps he is in line for a short stay on the roster if the M’s want to shuffle things up again in a few days. Then again, Joe is still optionable and has been struggling, so sending him down could be another possibility.
More to come.
