Mariners option Nori Aoki as part of rash of roster moves
The Mariners optioned starting outfielder Nori Aoki and relief pitcher Tom Wilhelmsen to Triple-A Tacoma to clear space for pitching reinforcements.
The Mariners made seven roster moves Friday before starting a homestand against St. Louis. The Mariners also placed right-hander Adrian Sampson on the 15-day disabled list and brought up left-handers Wade LeBlanc and David Rollins and right-hander Donn Roach from Tacoma. Seattle also transferred right-hander Tony Zych to the 60-day DL.
LeBlanc was set to start for Seattle on Friday night. It’s his first start in the majors since 2014.
Aoki had started 67 games this season but was hitting just .245. He was demoted from the leadoff spot in the batting order recently.
Pete Rose to be honored by Reds
Pete Rose is being inducted into the Cincinnati Reds’ Hall of Fame and is having his No. 14 officially retired over the weekend, 27 years after he was banned from baseball for betting on the Reds. His ban makes him ineligible for baseball’s Hall of Fame, but the team is honoring him with the permission of Commissioner Rob Manfred.
The Reds already honor him in displays at their hall and at various places in Great American Ball Park. Now, he’ll be included fully in the team’s gallery of greatest players.
“This will be the ultimate thing to happen to me so far in my baseball career,” Rose said on Friday. “I tell people you should put it on your bucket list to go to the Reds’ Hall of Fame, and I’m happy to be in there. It seems like everybody I played with is in there, so they might as well put me in there, too.”
The Reds have turned the Rose honors into a weekend gala. They reunited members of their 1976 Big Red Machine championship team on the field Friday night before a game against the San Diego Padres, the same team Rose got his record-setting hit against on Sept. 11, 1985. Rose was the last player introduced but didn’t speak to the crowd.
He’ll be formally added to the team’s Hall of Fame on Saturday and have his number retired on Sunday. His son, Pete Jr., is the only one who has worn No. 14 since Rose played.
Last December, Manfred turned down Rose’s application for reinstatement to Major League Baseball, saying the hits king still hasn’t reconfigured his life as he was told to do in 1989.
Clearing the bases
The Tampa Bay Rays addressed a need for help in the outfield, acquiring left-handed hitting Oswaldo Arcia from the Minnesota Twins for a player to be named or $45,000. … Nationals right-hander Stephen Strasburg will return to start Sunday against the Brewers after skipping his last scheduled appearance with an upper back strain. … Red Sox left fielder Chris Young is sore and on the disabled list because of a strained right hamstring, but manager John Farrell said that the injury isn’t as bad as the team initially feared.