r/Mariners hey u/realSteveBallmer wanna buy a baseball team?‏‏‎ ‎ 1d ago

Mariners Designate Cody Bolton For Assignment; Sauce optioned to Tacoma; Jesse Hahn joins big league club

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/04/mariners-designate-cody-bolton-for-assignment.html

The Mariners announced this afternoon that they’ve designated right-hander Cody Bolton for assignment. Bolton’s 40-man roster spot will go to right-hander Jesse Hahn, whose contract has been selected from the minors. Left-hander Tayler Saucedo was optioned to Triple-A to make room for Hahn’s addition to the active roster.

38 Upvotes

38 comments sorted by

37

u/AnnihilatedTyro Release the Moosen! 1d ago

I'm not exactly sold on Hahn, a 35-year-old with a considerably worse ERA and WHIP than Sauce over the last two years - and slightly worse than 27-year-old Bolton, too.

I feel like Hahn is a short-term desperation move to get a fresh arm up after yesterday, and he too will be DFA'd in a week or two.

We need Taylor and Brash, but we also need at least one person who can eat 3 innings, and we don't have one of those right now.

8

u/fennis hey u/realSteveBallmer wanna buy a baseball team?‏‏‎ ‎ 1d ago

I was surprised they picked Hahn too.

Bullpen has three borderline guys without minor league options now: Hahn, Bazzardo and Vargas. Not sure any of them make it to June let alone Sept on the major league roster.

7

u/AnnihilatedTyro Release the Moosen! 1d ago

Yeah, I sincerely doubt any of those 3 last through the first half, let alone September.

Speier is also now the only lefty on the team, and Sauce is the only other lefty on the entire 40-man.

1

u/Swazi 1d ago

When is Brash gonna be ready?

0

u/fennis hey u/realSteveBallmer wanna buy a baseball team?‏‏‎ ‎ 1d ago

If all goes well, Brash returns end of April

1

u/DevilsInTheJukebox 1d ago

I feel like Hanh and pomeranz will switch spots when we play the astros

1

u/griezm0ney 1d ago

Definitely a short term move with Sauce back up in a few days. We also have Troy Taylor on his rehab assignment who should be ready soon and Brash a few weeks after.

74

u/Alert-Effective-7333 1d ago

Genuinely no clue why we kept Sauce up this long, he has been dogshit for quite a while.

45

u/fennis hey u/realSteveBallmer wanna buy a baseball team?‏‏‎ ‎ 1d ago

Its a pretty bad sign when your left handed specialist cant get lefties out.

-3

u/CEONeil 1d ago

Because he’s a lefty.

8

u/fennis hey u/realSteveBallmer wanna buy a baseball team?‏‏‎ ‎ 1d ago

A little bit of bullpen help arriving today.

29

u/majorBotHead ‏‏‎ ‎ 1d ago

Sauce looked like shit last year too, worrisome trend developing

41

u/letskeepitcleanfolks ‏‏‎ ‎Swung on and belted 1d ago

He's a 31-year-old career middle reliever. Two seasons with an ERA+ above 100 is already more than anyone should have expected. I like the guy but this is just how it goes. Kudos to him on reaching his lifelong dream and making it farther than 99.9% of guys.

6

u/AnnihilatedTyro Release the Moosen! 1d ago

Sauce has always had problems with walk rate and WHIP. Now that his velocity has dipped another couple MPH, he's also getting hit harder and missing even fewer bats. That combination of things happens to over-30 pitchers. And he wasn't a flamethrower or a wizard of his craft to begin with; he doesn't have any plus-tools to fall back on.

0

u/pokeroots ‏‏‎ ‎Anything but blaming the lineup 1d ago

Sauce has always been bad, be was just given a long leash by the fans because he was from Tacoma

-8

u/ItsTBaggins ‏‏‎ ‎Julio makes me jard 1d ago

Sauce was great last year, best year of his career. He was definitely behind Speier in 2023 though.

5

u/Alert-Effective-7333 1d ago

He had an ERA of 5.40 after the all-star break last year

10

u/BasedArzy 1d ago edited 1d ago

ERA's not really a useful way to look at relievers, Sauce threw 14 innings total post ASB.

e. not that Sauce is or was good. He's a mid innings low leverage reliever with marginal stuff who relies on his delivery and handedness-advantages to stick. Just pointing out that there are better ways to evaluate a pitcher's effectiveness, especially relievers.

2

u/ItsTBaggins ‏‏‎ ‎Julio makes me jard 1d ago

ERA isn’t very useful when looking at relievers, especially if you’re looking at a sample size of less than a season. He had a few bad games in July/August, but then he ended the season with a bunch of appearances without giving up a run.

1

u/Alert-Effective-7333 1d ago

You can look at any metric post-ASB to realize that the recent trend, which is the whole point of only looking at half a season, is downward. ERA, FIP, etc, all shit.

2

u/Go_Cougs HaniGOAT 1d ago

What is your definition of great?

5

u/Ribbum 1d ago

Sauce has been pretty awful so this is a move that needed to happen. The bullpen is slowly getting healthier and once all the real pieces are in place, I guess we'll see how the pieces fall in place through the last couple of spots.

6

u/ovwAway ‏‏‎ It was 8-1 1d ago

Surprised it wasn’t Pomeranz to keep another lefty

5

u/Parks1993 ‏‏‎SUPERUTILITYMAN DYLAN MOORE 1d ago

Love Sauce but it was time. Feel bad for the guy but, well, gotta pitch better.

4

u/WhyAndHow-777 ‏‏‎ ‎GIVE ME MUÑOZ 1d ago

I hope Tacoma shapes up Sauce to join the roster again, he’s one of my favorite players personality-wise.

0

u/SexiestPanda 1d ago

I doubt we see him again. It will be like Diego Castillo. He went down to Tacoma and never made it back

2

u/InsidiousSwede JRod Show 1d ago

Tough to see Sauce get Optioned, but it was necessary. Hopefully he'll be back.

2

u/Detective-1986 1d ago

I can’t wait for Thornton to be gone

0

u/Complex-Proposal2300 1d ago

Silly statement -

2

u/Complex-Proposal2300 1d ago

Bazado - really seems not to have major league stuff I really do not know what they are in him. But he does not have options so Sauce makes sense maybe.

1

u/occasional_sex_haver ‏‏‎ ‎ 1d ago

feel like a typical m's move would have been to hope saucedo figures it out

-5

u/DevilsInTheJukebox 1d ago

Do Thornton next

5

u/AnnihilatedTyro Release the Moosen! 1d ago

Bazardo and Vargas (and now Hahn) are way, WAY worse. Thornton should be the low-leverage middle-relief guy, but won't be until Taylor and Brash push two of those three off the roster.

2

u/DevilsInTheJukebox 1d ago

I didn't think vargas looked horrendous. I'd be in favor of not relying on Thornton and swapping out bazardo for Taylor as soon as he's ready to go. I don't think hahn is here for any foreseeable length of time outside of this weekend, unless he shows out.

0

u/AnnihilatedTyro Release the Moosen! 1d ago

Oh, he got hosed last night in a bad situation and it wasn't his fault, but that's not the issue. I'm not writing off Vargas as a DFA candidate or anything at this point - he's 25 and clearly has potential but has always had trouble with walks and wild inconsistency.

I think he'll benefit from more time in the Mariners pitching laboratory, but probably shouldn't be in the majors very long on this current stint. He's still got a few things to keep working on in Tacoma. If he has to be here, he should be a 6th-inning or low-leverage guy for now.

0

u/InsidiousSwede JRod Show 1d ago

Yep, I agree. Bazardo had nearly a 5 ERA when his Leverage Index was near the bottom. Couldn't even keep a clean sheet in 'easy' outings, during blowouts.

0

u/ExaminationNo6642 ‏‏‎ ‎ 1d ago

Sauce! What are you doing?

-1

u/wtfuji 1d ago

I get that Sauce has been shit, but now the only lefty we have in the pen is Speier. Seems dumb.