Royals To Acquire Randy Dobnak

The Royals are acquiring right-hander Randy Dobnak from the Mariners, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. Dobnak triggered an upward mobility clause in his minor league deal with the M’s a few days ago. Kansas City will need to open a 40-man roster spot but have several players who could be transferred to the 60-day injured list. Though Dobnak is getting a 40-man spot, he has options and Passan says Dobnak will be sent to Triple-A Omaha initially.

Dobnak, 31, signed a minor league deal with the Mariners in the offseason. It was recently reported that there was a June 15th upward mobility clause in that deal. The way such clauses usually work is that the player is offered up to the 29 other teams in the league. If any one of them wants to give him a roster spot, the signing team has to trade him or give him a roster spot themselves.

The righty triggered the clause after a pretty decent showing for Triple-A Tacoma. He logged 70 innings over 13 starts, allowing 4.24 earned runs per nine. Considering that the Rainiers play in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, that’s not too bad. His 12.8% strikeout rate was barely half of typical big league average but his 7.9% walk rate was good and his 59.9% ground ball rate was very strong.

The Mariners are perhaps the team with the least need for more rotation depth. They are already six deep at the major league level and struggling to juggle Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryan Woo, Bryce Miller, Emerson Hancock and Luis Castillo. They also have prospects Ryan Sloan and Kade Anderson dealing in the minors.

The Royals, meanwhile, have recently seen their starting group take a few notable hits. Each of Cole Ragans, Kris Bubic and Seth Lugo have landed on the IL in the past six weeks. That has left them with a patchwork rotation consisting of Michael Wacha, Luinder Avila, Noah Cameron and Stephen Kolek in four spots. Mitch Spence made a spot start this week but was immediately optioned back to the minors afterwards. Depth arms like Ben Kudrna and Ryan Bergert required season-ending surgeries earlier this year.

In short, they can use any fresh arms they can find, so Dobnak is a sensible pickup for them. If he gets called up at some point, he can add to his major league track record, which currently consists of 140 2/3 innings over multiple seasons with the Twins with a 4.86 ERA, 13.9% strikeout rate, 6.1% walk rate and 56.8% ground ball rate.