The Mariners are in agreement with reliever Trevor Gott on a one-year contract, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (on Twitter). Financial terms have not yet been reported. Gott is a Sports One Athlete Management client. Seattle’s 40-man roster count will jump to 38 once the deal is finalized.
Gott signed a somewhat surprising big-league contract with the Brewers last offseason. He’d spent the entire 2021 campaign in Triple-A in the Giants organization, impressing the Milwaukee front office with a 31% strikeout rate at the top minor league level. Milwaukee jumped early in the offseason to add him, and he played a fairly significant role in their middle-innings mix this past season.
The right-hander tallied 45 2/3 innings across 45 outings. The results were mixed, as he managed just a 4.14 ERA while surrendering eight home runs (1.58 per nine innings). He paired that with quality strikeout and walk marks, though, fanning a slightly above-average 23.7% of opponents against a 6.5% walk rate. He averaged around 95 MPH on his fastball and just north of 91 MPH on a cutter that served as his top secondary offering. Gott’s 10.5% swinging strike percentage and 43.7% grounder rate were right around the respective league marks, and he held right-handed hitters to a meager .200/.243/.333 line in 111 plate appearances.
MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected Gott for a $1.4MM arbitration salary this winter, and the Brewers instead opted to non-tender him. His roughly average peripherals in 2022 were enough to land a 40-man spot with Seattle, and he figures to have an inside track at an Opening Day bullpen job. Gott has exhausted his minor league option years, so the M’s will either have to carry him on the big league roster or make him available via waivers.
With between four and five years of major league service time, Gott would again be eligible for arbitration next offseason if he holds his roster spot all year. He could be a multi-year bullpen pickup for president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto and his staff if he performs well. Gott has also suited up for the Angels, Nationals and Giants in parts of seven seasons at the big league level.
The Mariners have an excellent bullpen that ranked sixth in the majors this past season in ERA at 3.33. Seattle relievers placed fifth with a 26.6% strikeout rate, and only the Orioles blew fewer leads in the late innings. That was a key part of the M’s winning 90 games for a second consecutive season and securing a Wild Card berth. Seattle subtracted from that with the deal that sent Erik Swanson to Toronto to bring in Teoscar Hernández, but they’ll bring back Andrés Muñoz, Diego Castillo, Matt Brash, Paul Sewald and Penn Murfee. Gott figures to work in lower-leverage spots, at least initially, to deepen the group available to manager Scott Servais.
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