Mariners Activate Carlos Vargas

The Mariners announced that reliever Carlos Vargas is back from the 60-day injured list. Seattle optioned Nick Davila to Triple-A Tacoma to clear a bullpen spot and transferred Matt Brash to the 60-day IL to create an opening on the 40-man roster.

Vargas has been out all season with a lat strain that he suffered late in camp. He’s back after a brief rehab assignment in which he tossed 4 2/3 scoreless innings over four appearances. He struck out six while only allowing two hits. Vargas averaged 97.5 mph on his sinker in his work with Triple-A Tacoma.

The 26-year-old righty has huge velocity but doesn’t miss a ton of bats. The power sinker leads to much more of a ground-ball profile. Vargas kept the ball on the ground at a 56% clip over 77 innings last year, his first full MLB campaign. He turned in a 3.97 ERA and picked up 14 holds while blowing seven leads.

Vargas should be an upgrade in the middle innings for a Seattle bullpen that has allowed an 8.55 ERA in August. While that’s worsened by Victor Robles and Leo Rivas each getting hammered in one mop-up inning in blowouts, their actual relievers still have a cumulative ERA north of 7.00 over the last three weeks.

Brash’s IL transfer is an inconsequential move on its own. He has already been out for more than 60 days with a lat strain, so it’s purely a procedural move that doesn’t impact his return timeline. However, it means they’ll need to make a different transaction to open a 40-man roster spot tomorrow when they promote Kade Anderson.

Anderson will make his MLB debut against the Cubs, who’ll run lefty David Peterson. That was slated to be Bryan Woo’s turn in the rotation, but he’s being pushed back after leaving his most recent start with shoulder soreness. Manager Dan Wilson said the M’s are hopeful Woo will avoid the injured list (via Daniel Kramer of MLB.com). He won’t pitch until at least next week, however, as Bryce Miller will stay on rotation for Sunday’s series finale against Shota Imanaga.