Seattle Mariners Send Over Minor League Hurler to Complete Randy Arozarena Trade
Back on July 26, the Seattle Mariners pulled off one of the biggest trades of the deadline and acquired Randy Arozarena in a deal with the Tampa Bay Rays.
According to comments from Jerry Dipoto on Sept. 28, acquiring Arozarena seemed to be the final piece of the team's outfield core going forward along with franchise star Julio Rodriguez and a resurgent Victor Robles.
But the deal between Tampa Bay and Seattle still had one moving part.
The initial return for the Rays from the Mariners was prospects Aidan Smith (outfield), Brody Hopkins (RHP) and a player to be named later.
On Friday, that player was named.
Right-handed pitcher and 2023 seventh-round Seattle draft pick Ty Cummings was the final piece of the Arozarena deal and will be joining Smith and Hopkins in the Rays' farm system.
Cummings played his first professional season this year and spent the entirety of it with the Mariners High-A affiliate Everett AquaSox.
Cummings made 25 starts with Everett and had a 4-5 record with a 4.17 ERA and 124 strikeouts in 116.2 innings pitched.
Ty Cummings was awesome tonight. Final line: 5IP, 4H, 0R, BB, 8K, 65-42. pic.twitter.com/daGQ26qmJC
— Mariners Minors (@MiLBMariners) August 29, 2024
Cummings was originally projected as a reliever coming out of Campbell, but his upside and ability to generate ground balls and swings-and-misses with his slider helped him find a way into a starting role.
Baseball America, which ranked Cummings as the #213 prospect in the 2013 draft and had the following profile on the 6-foot-2, 205-pound hurler:
"A skinny right-handed reliever with a 6-foot-2, 205-pound frame, Cummings pitches out of the bullpen with a slow and deliberate delivery that features a sidearm slot and a bit of drift to the first base side throughout his leg lift. He is a sinker/slider pitcher who attacks hitters with a 93-94 mph fastball that has been up to 97 and features around 20 inches of horizontal break. He has driven ground balls at a 60% clip with the fastball, and uses an 81-85 mph slider as his primary swing-and-miss pitch. He has thrown an upper-80s changeup, but used the pitch infrequently in 2023. Cummings has a bit more upside remaining given his projectable frame, but he looks like a solid arm strength reliever with fringy control. He posted a 4.31 ERA in 54.1 innings with Campbell in 2023, with a 21.7% strikeout rate and 9.6% walk rate."
Cummings' potential and sidearm throwing slot makes him a valuablle prospect, and if Tampa Bay can continue on his development as a starter, he could be a valuable part of a starting rotation in the future.
But Seattle also has fellow starting prospects Brandyn Garcia, Logan Evans and Michael Morales waiting in the minors and has several more years of team control on its current major league starting rotation. Losing Cummings doesn't hurt in the short-term.
And, once again, the Mariners managed to hold on to all of their top-100 prospects.
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