Mariners Claim Michael Toglia

The Mariners have claimed first baseman Michael Toglia off waivers from the Reds, per a team announcement. It wasn’t previously reported that Cincinnati had placed Toglia on waivers. He’d been on the 60-day IL since early September after dislocating his shoulder.

Cincinnati added Toglia on a minor league deal over the winter after Colorado dropped him from the 40-man roster. He had a nice season in Louisville, slashing .273/.373/.547 with 22 dingers in only 402 trips to the plate before being selected to the big league roster in mid-August. It was a short stay on the active roster, however, as Toglia appeared in only 10 games and took just 28 plate appearances before suffering his shoulder injury, which required season-ending surgery.

The 6’5″, 225-pound Toglia is a switch-hitting former first-round pick who was a well-regarded prospect in the Rockies organization but has never made enough contact to sustain a role in the majors. He did log a career-high 458 plate appearances and belt 25 homers back in 2024, but a 32.1% strikeout rate undercut that power and left him with a .218/.311/.456 batting line (99 wRC+). He followed that with a brutal .190/.258/.353 showing in 337 plate appearances the next season, during which his strikeout rate soared north of 39%. That led the Rockies to designate him for assignment and non-tender him last November.

Toglia is out of minor league options, so if the Mariners carry him on the roster all winter, he’ll need to either break camp with the club or else be designated for assignment once again. For the time being, he’ll add a first base/corner outfield/designated hitter option to the depth chart, but there’s a decent chance he’ll get bounced from the 40-man at some point over the winter.

Players who are on the injured list can’t be placed on outright waivers, so it seems likely the M’s picked him up off release waivers. Seattle’s press release indicates that the 40-man roster “remains” at 39 players, so it seems Toglia will be stashed on their own 60-day IL until players need to be activated and returned to the 40-man roster — which happens five days after the conclusion of the World Series.