Mariners promote Dominic Canzone, designate Leody Taveras for assignment
PHOENIX — The Leody Taveras experiment as a regular in the Mariners outfield ended on Monday.
The switch-hitting outfielder was designated for assignment by the Mariners following an underwhelming month in the lineup after he was claimed off waivers from Texas.
Taveras made his debut on May 7 on the road against the Athletics. His debut started with a game-tying RBI single and eventually scored what was the winning run in a 6-5 victory that day.
It didn’t get much better from there.
Taveras batted .174 with a .470 OPS in 28 games, which somehow were significantly worse numbers than he had in the first 30 games with the Rangers and led to his release from Texas. Taveras homered twice and doubled three times and had nine RBIs with the M’s; he also struck out 27 times in 98 plate appearances and walked only three times.
The M’s recalled Dominic Canzone from Triple-A Tacoma in place of Taveras for his second stint in the majors this season, although the first lasted all of two games and three at-bats.
The Mariners could have lasted a little longer with the shaky bat, but Taveras’ defensive metrics per FanGraphs were the worst of his career. The breaking point seemed to come on Saturday night in Anaheim when Taveras was a midgame replacement for Julio Rodríguez in center field after Rodríguez was hit on the ankle by a batted ball and left the game for treatment.
Immediately, the first ball was hit at Taveras and he clearly wasn’t ready, making a bad read and compounding what should have been an out by letting the ball ricochet off his body for an error. Later in the same inning, Taveras called off right fielder Miles Mastrobuoni to try for a leaping grab at the wall in right-center field, only to fail in making that catch.
Per FanGraphs, Taveras had a (negative)-1.0 fWAR in his 28 games with the M’s and a 32 wRC+ where 100 is league average.
It was a gamble when the Mariners claimed Taveras because it came with financial ramifications to what already was a tightly held budget from ownership. The M’s were on the hook for the remainder of his $4.75 million contract for this season, which was around $3.5 million.
With the Rainiers, Canzone hit .296 with 13 home runs 36 RBIs and a .924 OPS in 45 games. Canzone was sixth in the Pacific Coast League in homers and ninth in OPS.
Getting the call up now brings Canzone full circle in a way as he’ll play in Arizona for the Mariners for the first time since being traded from the Diamondbacks to Seattle at the deadline in 2023.
Oddly enough, the last games Canzone played at Chase Field for the D’backs came against the M’s on July 28-30, 2023. He was traded to the M’s along with Ryan Bliss and Josh Rojas as part of the deal that sent Paul Sewald to Arizona immediately after that series.