Mariners Re-Sign Tommy Milone To Minor League Deal

The Mariners brought back veteran southpaw Tommy Milone on a minor league contract this week, according to his transactions log at MLB.com. Seattle released him on trade deadline day to clear space on the 40-man roster for their acquisitions.

Milone was on the 15-day injured list at the time, having sustained a cervical muscle strain in the preceding days. The 35-year-old has not yet been assigned to an affiliate, so he’s yet to make an appearance since his most recent big league outing on July 29. That was the final of seven MLB outings during his run in the majors with Seattle. Milone worked 16 2/3 innings as a long reliever, posting a 5.40 ERA with six walks, five strikeouts and four home runs allowed.

That’s obviously not a great showing, but Milone excelled over seven starts with Triple-A Tacoma early in the year. He posted a minuscule 1.13 ERA through 32 frames, punching out 24.8% of opponents against a tidy 6.8% walk percentage. He’ll presumably return to that role with the Rainiers at some point as a rotation/long relief depth option.

Despite being one of the game’s softest throwers, Milone has continued to attract interest from myriad teams into his mid-30’s. He’s reached the big leagues in each of the past 12 years, working as a strike-throwing swing option of late. He’ll look to work his way back to the bigs with Seattle before the end of the season.