The Mariners announced this helper ken giles refused a direct commission and chose a free agency. Giles was scheduled for action on Friday and that announcement appears to indicate he has gone through unclaimed waivers. As a veteran with over five years of MLB service, Giles has the right to refuse direct action without forgoing his salary.
Giles, now 31, underwent Tommy John surgery in October 2020. The Mariners later signed him to a two-year contract, knowing he would miss the entire 2021 campaign but hoping for a payout in 2022. Giles made $1.5 million last year and is making $5 million this season. (There was also a club option for 2023, which now seems a moot point.) Unfortunately, things have not gone according to that long-term plan with Giles missing much of this season due to other injuries. Although it was hoped he would be ready for Opening Day, a finger injury in spring training kept him from making his Mariner debut until June 21. After five reduced-speed performances, a shoulder problem sent him back to the IL again. He was just recovering from that problem when the M’s put him on the assignment.
Giles will now return to the open market and try to find his next opportunity. Before his current injury struggles, he was one of the better assists in all of baseball. He was last healthy with the Blue Jays in 2019, throwing 53 innings with a 1.87 ERA, 39.9% strikeout rate, 8.2% walk rate and ground ball rate of 39.3%.
While dreams of that sort of performance will certainly make some people salivate, there are reasons Giles is feeling pessimistic about the remainder of the season. For one, the Mariners didn’t need his roster spot at the time of his DFA, perhaps indicating they didn’t expect his shoulder problem to subside by the end of the year. Giles could also have been snapped on waivers by any of the 29 other teams, with the suing club only on the hook for the remainder of his salary that year, which would have totaled about $1.4 million. This demanding team could have kept him on his contract through 2023 via the club option, which would have netted Giles $9.5 million over the next year and involved a buyout of just $500,000. The fact that all teams missed this opportunity suggests at least some pessimism from the market.
Now that he’s deleted, any team can sign him and pay him the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the roster, with that amount deducted from what Seattle pays. This will make him an interesting wildcard in the baseball world until he signs. On the one hand, it’s now three years from its last signs of effectiveness and has since dealt with various ailments. But on the other hand, teams that want bullpen upgrades have very limited opportunities to do so after the trade deadline. Given Giles’ past success and risk-free acquisition cost, teams might consider him worth a roll of the dice.
The Mariners also announced this catcher Luis Torrens cleared waivers and was straight for Triple-A Tacoma. His situation is slightly different than Giles’ since he has just over three years of MLB service. Players between the ages of three and five can decline a direct assignment and choose free reign, but must forego their remaining salary. Torrens qualified for arbitration as a Super Two player last offseason and is earning a salary of $1.2 million this year. With approximately $340,000 still to be paid out this year, no team considered him worthy. Although the Mariners have not announced whether he has accepted the contract, it seems fair to assume he has given the club have announced Giles’ rejection and the money Torrens would be leaving on the table if he did goes away Torrens isn’t rated very highly for his defense, but he delivered a strong offense last year, hitting 15 homers and hitting .243/.299/.431, wRC+ out of 101. However, he was far worse this year, adding just a single long ball and producing a .214/.262/.252 batting line, wRC+ of 52.