The Seattle Mariners and Tampa Bay Rays have pulled off a deal between two relievers, sending Steve Cishek and cash to the Rays and Erasmo Ramirez to Seattle.
As contenders, the Rays have been looking for impact players to improve their roster. Yesterday, they acquired Dan Jennings and Lucas Duda. In Cishek, they get a solid reliever with some closing experience. They give up on of their arms in Ramirez, but Cishek is the better pitcher.
Cishek, 31 has a 3.15 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, one save and 15 strikeouts in 20 innings this year. In his eight year career for the Mariners, St. Louis Cardinals and Florida/Miami Marlins, Cishek has a 2.83 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 121 saves and 423 strikeouts in 397 innings.
The Mariners are also contenders, but are a couple games back of the Rays, who aren\’t even in the wild card currently. They trade Cishek, who\’s a rental, and even though he\’s better than Ramirez, Ramirez isn\’t a free agent until after the 2019 season. Ramirez also is versatile, and has started at least one game in every season of his career. Also, this is a case of an old friend alert. Ramirez signed with the Mariners out of a school in El Salvador in 2007, and played his first three years in the MLB there.
Ramirez, 27, has a 4.80 ERA, 1.18 WHIP and 55 strikeouts in 69.1 innings for the Rays this year. In his six year MLB career for the Rays and Mariners, Ramirez has a 4.23 ERA, 1.25 WHIP and 409 strikeouts in 530 innings.
I think this is an even trade. Both teams get an MLB reliever. But, the Rays get the more skilled one, but the Mariners get the one under contract and versatile. So, everybody wins.
For more on this trade, check out my YouTube video.
CarterHud 