Mariners agree with former All-Star Ryan Cook on minor-league deal
The Seattle Mariners are trying to strengthen a bullpen that saw hard-throwing right-handers Tom Wilhelmsen and Carson Smith dealt in offseason trades, and on Thursday they reached agreement with former All-Star Ryan Cook. Jon Heyman of MLB Network broke the news about his minor-league deal with the M's:
Cook's All-Star season was in 2012 when he was the lone member of the Oakland Athletics sent to the Midsummer Classic. He was a vital piece of the A's bullpen in their AL West division-winning years of 2012 and 2013, though shoulder issues then crept up and forced him to cut back to 54 appearances in 2014 (down from the 71 he had in both '12 and '13).
In 2015, that nagging shoulder issue ruined his year. After a first half of just four appearances with Oakland, Cook was traded to the Boston Red Sox on July 31 - but only totaled 5 games for Boston, allowing 13 earned runs in just over four innings of work before being put on waivers after the season.
Obviously, Cook is a 'buy-low' option for the Mariners. During his dominant 2012 and 2013 seasons with the A's, when Cook posted ERAs of 2.09 and 2.54 and racked up 147 strikeouts in just under 141 innings of work, he threw in the mid-90s. How he'll look during spring training for the Mariners will likely be a key factor in whether he earns a role on the team's bullpen to start the season.
