The Seattle Mariners announced Thursday that they’ve placed OF Victor Robles on the family medical emergency/bereavement list. Robles is allowed up to three days on the list, and though the exact nature of the situation is unknown, kindness and best wishes are being sent his and his family’s way. In his stead, Seattle has recalled OF Stuart Fairchild, the local product who Seattle acquired midway through this season. Additionally, Seattle recalled OF Brennen Davis from Triple-A Tacoma and placed him
on the 60-day injured list, immediately removing him from the 40-man roster and ending his season due to hamstring and oblique injuries.
Occupying a bench and defensive replacement role when healthy this year for the most part, Robles will be mostly a 1-1 swap for Fairchild in the next few days. Though not quite the base stealer Robles is, Fairchild roams the outfield well and runs enough to fill in. The Seattle Prep product has been a stellar hitter in Triple-A this year in his age 30 campaign, and has played in parts of the last six seasons in the bigs.
Davis is a bittersweet move, as the 26 year old outfielder who spent years near the top of prospect lists spent much of this season on the sidelines once again, unable to ring the bell when Seattle was scouring its system for any sort of offensive spark. By adding him to the 40-man roster earlier this year, Seattle retained Davis following a scorching hot spring and excellent season with the Tacoma Rainiers. Unfortunately, as has been the case every year of his career, his body betrayed him, with his oblique injury effectively ending his season as he rehabbed his hamstring. By putting him on the IL, Davis will be paid for the remainder of the year at a big league minimum rate, a goodwill gesture from Seattle for a player who by all accounts is a diligent, hard worker and high-quality teammate. Seattle may also choose to retain Davis through the winter on their 40-man roster without needing to expose him to minor league free agency once again, though it’s unclear if they’d choose to do so.
