Mariners acquire Miles Mastrobuoni, designate Nick Raposo

The Mariners announced that they have acquired the infielder/outfielder Miles Mastrobuoni from the kids. The latter club had appointed him for assignment last week and is now receiving cash consideration for his departure. Seattle designated catcher Nick Raposo tasked with opening a guard post.

Mastrobuoni, 29, has been a part-time big leaguer over the past few years. Over the past three seasons, he has appeared in 119 games and made 272 plate appearances, mostly with the Cubs but also with the Rays. He has a tepid .219/.279/.263 batting line in that time, but has stolen 16 bases in 17 attempts while providing defensive versatility. He has spent time at the three infield positions to the left of first base as well as the outfield corners.

As is often the case with a depth player like this, the minor league performance has been better. Over the last three years, he has 982 Triple-A plate appearances with 22 home runs, an 18.1% strikeout rate, 12.8% walk rate, .278/.371/.434 slash line and 114 wRC+.

The Mariners have been looking for infield upgrades this winter. They lost Justin Turner to free agency, rejected an opportunity Jorge Polanco and not offered Josh Rojas. That left them JP Crawford at short stop and no clear answers for the other positions. They have different possible solutions for the shift schedule, including Luke Raley, Dylan Moore, Ryan Bliss, Austin Shenton and others, although it has clearly been a goal to strengthen the group this winter. The club signed Donovan Solano this week, but should not be done.

Mastrobuoni won’t fix everything, but he’s a solid addition to this cluster of potential contributors. He can bounce around to multiple positions and steal a few bases at least. The offense in the majors hasn’t been great yet, but the minor league numbers have been better, which might indicate there’s potential for more there. He also has one option left, meaning he doesn’t need to have an active roster spot and can be moved between the minors and majors with relative ease.

Raposo, 27 in June, was just claimed off waivers from the Blue Jays last month. He has yet to make his major league debut. He first earned a spot on the 40-man roster from the Cardinals last summer, when both Iván Herrera and Willson Contreras was injured but never entered a match. He went from the Redbirds to the Bluebirds in August when the Jays claimed him off waivers, though Toronto lost him to Seattle a few months later.

In his four years of minor league experience, he has a .241/.321/.387 line and 85 wRC+ in 808 plate appearances. Baseball Prospectus has given him solid grades for his blocking and throwing in the minors. He still has a few options and only a handful of days of service time.

The M’s will now have a week to figure out what’s next for Raposo. It could be a trade, or Raposo could be placed on waivers again. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so any trade negotiations must take place within the next five days.