The Mariners announced they’ve selected right-hander Ty Adcock onto the big league roster. Reliever Penn Murfee hit the 15-day injured list with elbow inflammation in a corresponding move. To clear a spot on the 40-man roster, Seattle transferred Robbie Ray from the 15-day to the 60-day IL.
Adcock, 26, gets his first major league call. A college teammate of George Kirby at Elon, Adcock also joined the Seattle organization in the 2019 draft. Seattle selected him in the eighth round and moved him to relief in pro ball after a college career as a two-way player. At the time, Baseball America praised a fastball that could touch 98 MPH and an intriguing slider.
The 6’0″ righty hasn’t logged a ton of professional experience. The pandemic cancelation of 2020 and an April ’21 Tommy John procedure prevented him from throwing his first minor league inning until last August. Adcock logged just eight innings late in the year, then started this season in High-A Everett. He tossed seven scoreless frames there to earn a bump to Double-A Arkansas in early May.
Through 13 innings in the Texas League, the North Carolina native has a stellar 13:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He’s up to 22 punchouts and only three free passes in 20 combined innings of 1.35 ERA ball on the year. That was enough for the M’s to look past his lack of professional experience to plug him directly into the MLB bullpen. While he makes the jump past Triple-A for now, he has three option years remaining and could eventually find himself back in the minors as Seattle juggles its relief corps moving forward.
Murfee just returned from an IL stint last week. He’d missed around five weeks battling a flexor mass strain in his forearm. During his first appearance back yesterday, the 29-year-old righty again experienced arm discomfort. Manager Scott Servais said this afternoon that Murfee was headed for an MRI (relayed by Curtis Crabtree of Fox 13). He’ll miss at least two weeks as the club tries to determine the source of the injury.
Ray is done for the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery last month. There was never any question he’d move to the 60-day IL when Seattle needed to create a 40-man vacancy. Ray will spent the rest of the year on the IL but has to be reinstated at the start of the offseason.
