Flurry of roster moves as Mariners place Matt Brash on 15-day IL, activate UTIL Miles Mastrobuoni

The Seattle Mariners were expected to make some moves following Tuesday’s unlikely extra innings victory. They have not disappointed Wednesday afternoon, but the results are in part quite distressing. RHP Matt Brash has been placed on the 15-day injured list for pitchers with a right lat strain, retroactive to June 9th, while INF Ryan Bliss has been optioned to Triple-A Tacoma. In their places are RHP Domingo González and UTIL Miles Mastrobuoni, recalled from Triple-A Tacoma and activated from the 60-day IL respectively. To make room on the 40-man roster for Mastrobuoni’s activation, RHP Yosver Zulueta has been designated for assignment.

While it seemed likely the M’s would make a move in the bullpen, Brash returning to the injured list with the same muscle area that sidelined him at the start of May seems suboptimal. A strain is more severe than the “inflammation” he was waylaid with in May, and typically costs pitchers at least a month or two. Given this appears to be an escalation in Brash’s troubles, the M’s may err on the side of caution with their quixotic Canadian fireman.

Mastrobuoni had been out since Spring Training with an oblique injury that caused him to miss most of his time in Arizona and his chance to play significantly for the quarterfinalist Team Italy in the World Baseball Classic. He’ll replace Bliss despite Seattle’s handedness trend, and take on a pinch-running role as well situationally.

González returns to the bigs after a stretch similar to last night’s hero Nick Davila, having worked 5.2 scoreless frames over four games in mid-May but being returned to the Rainiers due to a lack of space and some askance peripherals. Inarguably, he’s been nails in Tacoma, albeit less of the strikeout-heavy monster he showed at times in previous organizations. Zulueta drew the short stick, but has struggled to separate himself in the Pacific Coast League. The groundball specialist has always been able to get away with some wildness thanks to his penchant for eliciting double play balls, but walking 16% of hitters you face while punching out just 21% is a recipe for the waiver wire.

The Mariners 40-man roster remains full at 40.