{"id":446100,"date":"2026-01-31T23:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T23:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/446100\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T23:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T23:20:09","slug":"mariners-sign-michael-rucker-to-minors-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/446100\/","title":{"rendered":"Mariners Sign Michael Rucker To Minors Contract"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Mariners signed right-hander Michael Rucker<\/a> to a minor league deal earlier this month, according to Rucker\u2019s MLB.com profile page<\/a>.\u00a0 Rucker\u2019s contract included an invitation to the Mariners\u2019 big league spring camp, as per the list of non-roster invites Seattle released yesterday.<\/p>\n

Rucker began his college career at Gonzaga, so this deal with the M\u2019s could represent a return to the Pacific Northwest if the righty is able to break camp with the team.\u00a0 After transferring to BYU later in his NCAA days, Rucker was an 11th-round selection by the Cubs in the 2016 draft, and he broke into the bigs with Chicago in 2021.\u00a0 Over 123 1\/3 MLB innings from 2021-23, Rucker posted a 4.96 ERA, 22.6% strikeout rate, 46.6% grounder rate, and 9.4% walk rate out of the Cubs\u2019 bullpen.<\/p>\n

These uninspiring numbers weren\u2019t enough to keep Rucker on the roster, as Chicago designated him for assignment in February 2024 and soon traded him to the Phillies in a cash deal.\u00a0 He was limited to 30 2\/3 minor league innings for the Phillies and Nationals in 2024 due to an arterial vasospasm in his pitching hand.\u00a0 The Nats outrighted Rucker off their 40-man roster following the 2024 campaign, and he then didn\u2019t pitch at all in 2025.<\/p>\n

As he enters his age-32 season, Rucker is looking to revive his career and show what he can do in the Mariners\u2019 Spring Training camp.\u00a0 Rucker is probably more of a candidate to pitch at Triple-A Tacoma than he is to win a spot on Seattle\u2019s Opening Day roster, but he can provide the M\u2019s with some experienced bullpen depth.\u00a0 The righty has a 4.01 ERA, 25.64K%, and 7.54% walk rate over 107 2\/3 career innings at the Triple-A level.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Mariners signed right-hander Michael Rucker to a minor league deal earlier this month, according to Rucker\u2019s MLB.com…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,90706,462,82],"class_list":["post-446100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-michael-rucker","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}