The Seattle Mariners’ trade for left fielder Randy Arozarena is now complete.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan: The 3 positions Seattle Mariners need to address

The team announced Friday that minor league starting pitcher Ty Cummings is headed to the Tampa Bay Rays as the player to be named later from the July 26 deal that also sent outfielder Aidan Smith and right-handed starting pitcher Brody Hopkins to the Rays in exchange for Arozarena.

Cummings, 22, was a seventh-round pick out of Campbell University in 2023. He’s outside of Seattle’s top 30 prospects, according to MLB Pipeline.

In 25 starts with High-A Everett this season, Cummings went 4-5 with a 4.17 ERA, 1.41 WHIP and 124 strikeouts over 116 2/3 inning pitched. Opponents batted .263 off the right-hander.

Smith, 20, is now the No. 9 prospect and Hopkins, 22, the No. 12 prospect in the Rays’ organization.

The Mariners made the deal for Arozarena, a 2023 All-Star selection, with hopes he’d help spark a struggling offense that played a major factor in the team squandering a 10-game lead in the American League West. However, Seattle still fell short of the playoffs at 85-77 and finished one game behind the Kansas City Royals and Detroit Tigers for the second and third wild card berths.

In 54 games after the trade to Seattle, Arozarena slashed .231/.356/.377 with 14 doubles, five home runs, 23 RBIs, four stolen bases, 28 walks and 68 strikeouts.

Arozarena is under club control through the 2026 season.

More on the Seattle Mariners

• Mariners name Kevin Martinez as president of business operations
• Morosi: What the Mariners’ priority should be this offseason
• Mariners Stats: Where players, team finished on leaderboards
• Morosi: How Mariners can approach contracts of struggling vets
• Mariners manager Dan Wilson reflects on stretch run, looks ahead
• The key things Dipoto said about Seattle Mariners’ offseason plans

Follow @ZacHereth

The New York Giants face the Seattle Seahawks for the third straight season on Sunday. Out ‘five questions’ segment this week is with John Gilbert of SB Nation’s Field Gulls fills us in on things we should know about the Seahawks.

Ed: What are the Seahawks four games into the season? Three victories over teams that, honestly, are probably not very good. A loss against an excellent Detroit team in which Seattle gave up 42 points. What is your assessment?

John: You pretty much nailed my assessment. They’ve beaten the three bad teams they’ve played and they gave up 42 and lost by double digits to the serious contender they faced off against.

Most Seattle fans will argue that the defense is better than they played on Monday against the Lions because of injuries to several key players, including Leonard Williams, Byron Murphy, Boye Mafe, Uchenna Nwosu and Jerome Baker. However, even before injuries knocked Mafe, Williams and Murphy out the Hawks struggled at times to stop the run game of the Patriots. With that said, in terms of overall metrics, while the defense has been good, they’ve done it against one of the easiest schedules in the NFL, and obviously the rest of the schedule won’t be nearly as friendly, but hopefully it won’t be as rough as it was against the Lions.

Ed: Leonard Williams was a very good player for the Giants. How has he done for Seattle? How important is he to the Seahawks’ defense?

John: Williams has been phenomenal for the Seahawks, and easily one of the best players on the defense both in the back half of the 2023 season and before getting injured in Week 3.

He was second on the defense in total pressures before getting hurt, and is still tied for the team lead in quarterback hits even though he’s only played five snaps in the last two games. He was limited in practice on Thursday, but that’s a lot better than not practicing like last week when he was inactive for the matchup against Detroit, so hopefully he’ll be back in action this weekend.

Ed: If you could take one player off the Giants’ roster and put him in the Seattle lineup who would it be? Why?

John: Last season when you asked me this my answer was Leonard Williams and then a month later the Seahawks traded for Williams and the rest is history.

Thus, with the knowledge that Seahawks general manager John Schneider is going to trade for whoever I answer, I’d like to go ahead and advise Giants fans to enjoy Malik Nabers for the last few weeks he’ll be wearing a Giants uniform before Joe Schoen ships him off to Seattle.

The reason to grab Nabers is not just that he’s a phenomenal young talent, but also he brings a factor to the Seattle offense that is currently lacking outside of DK Metcalf. Metcalf’s speed is no secret, but the Seahawks have a lack of other receivers who can take the top off a defense. Tyler Lockett and Jaxon Smith-Njigba are good, but they aren’t burners who scare defenses deep. The only speedy receiver on the roster outside of Metcalf is Dareke Young, a key member of the special teams who has played just 11 offensive snaps through the first four games.

Long story short, offenses need receivers whose skill sets complement one another, and the Seahawks have Metcalf and a bunch of possession receivers. It’s a great group of receivers, but there is a decided lack of a receiver who can challenge a defense deep and pull the safeties back when they want to target Metcalf in the underneath and intermediate areas.

Ed: Tell us about a couple of under-the-radar Seattle players we should be aware of on Sunday.

John: On the offensive side of the ball, it’s got to be the guards. Laken Tomlinson is the starting left guard and he’s been bad. Anthony Bradford is the starting right guard and he’s been bad and heavily penalized. Christian Haynes is the backup who has struggled when he’s played, but he’s the rookie third round draft pick, so he’s the lifeblood and savior for many fans who have been calling for him to see increased snaps. He saw his most extensive playing time in Week 4 against the Lions rotating with Bradford at right guard, and the porousness of the line at both guard positions to this point in the season means watching the interior of the offensive line is crucial every game.

On the defensive side of the ball, the outside linebackers are an exciting group. Uchenna Nwosu is the veteran of the bunch, but he has yet to play this season after suffering a knee injury in the preseason. There is hope he could see his first action against the Giants, but even if he doesn’t go Boye Mafe and Derick Hall are a couple of exciting young players who have shown flashes at times of having the ability to develop into players who can make a serious impact on a game.

Ed: The Seahawks are significant favorites on Sunday. Is there anything about this game that concerns you? Is there a path to victory for the Giants?

John: It’s the NFL so it’s always any given Sunday, so there’s always concern that a team can pull an upset.

In this instance the biggest concern is Seattle either coming out flat after the Monday night letdown to the Lions, or looking ahead to the Week 6 Thursday Night Football game against the San Francisco 49ers.

A beautiful day leading to a great sunset over Mt. Rainier with a lenticular cloud. 

Highs today warmed up nicely as there was plenty of sunshine due to the high pressure moving east. Highs peaked in the mid to upper 60s.

Highs today warmed up nicely as there was plenty of sunshine due to the high pressure moving east. Highs peaked in the mid to upper 60s.

Advertisement

It was a sunny and clear day, but our next frontal system is offshore and slowly moving towards the Pacific Northwest. 

It was a sunny and clear day, but our next frontal system is off shore and slowly moving towards the Pacific Northwest. 

Tonight we will see increasing cloud cover and relatively milder temperatures thanks to that coverage. Lows in the mid to upper 40s.

Tonight we will see increasing cloud cover and relatively milder temperatures thanks to that coverage. Lows in the mid to upper 40s.

The cold front will move onshore early Friday and make its way along the I-5 corridor by 7 a.m. through midday. 

The cold front will move onshore early Friday and make it’s way along the I-5 corridor by 7 a.m. 

Highs Friday will not be as warm as the cold front ushers in cooler temperatures. Highs only in the upper 50s to low 60s.

Highs Friday will not be as warm as the cold front ushers in cooler temperatures. Highs only in the upper 50s to low 60s.

Winds will also get breezy as the afternoon continues, the strongest winds looking to be behind the front through early evening. 

Winds will also get breezy as the afternoon continues, the strongest winds looking to be behind the front through early evening. 

Advertisement

Skies will dry out and clear out into Saturday with slightly warmer temperatures. Temperatures were nice and warm to start the work week. Slight chance of showers late Monday, but better chance of showers through midweek. 

Skies will dry out and clear out into Saturday.  (FOX 13 Seattle)