Mariners acquire C Blake Hunt (again)

OF Samad Taylor designated for assignment

Just in time for us to have to write another 40 in 40 about him, the Mariners have re-acquired catcher Blake Hunt from his current organization, sending Baltimore cash in exchange for the services of the now-26-year-old Hunt. You’ll recall that Hunt came to the Mariners last off-season as a casualty of a 40-man roster crunch in Tampa Bay, where he went as part of quantity-over-quality package in the Blake Snell trade after having been a second-round pick by the Padres in 2017. You’ll probably also remember that the Mariners traded Hunt to the Orioles in late May of last season in order to take their spin on the Big Mike Baumann Wheel of Volatile Outcomes.

Hunt, who underwent a swing change during the pandemic designed to unlock more power from his six-foot-four frame, hit well in the offensive environment of the PCL, coming close to the vaunted .300/.400/.500 slash line with a career-low 11.6% strikeout rate before he was shipped off to Baltimore, but his bat didn’t hold up as well in the stingier International League. His strikeouts regressed to his career MiLB numbers and then kept right on going, shooting past the 30% mark, and after hitting four homers in 86 plate appearances with Tacoma, he hit just three more over the rest of the season, including this blast:

Baltimore designated Hunt for assignment this week in order to make room for the newly-acquired Andrew Kittredge (also a former Mariner!), and the Mariners brought him back to see if he can recapture the magic he found in the PCL early last season.

At this point, Hunt is another year removed from that former prospect shine, still fighting to make his big-league debut. To start, he’ll likely start in Tacoma and serve the same break-glass-in-case-of-emergency catcher role played by Brian O’Keefe in previous years (and David Freitas in years before that, and so on), behind Cal Raleigh and Mitch Garver on the depth chart. He will occupy a 40-man slot in doing so, however, and since the Mariners roster is currently full, adding him necessitated bumping speedy outfielder Samad Taylor off the roster. There’s certainly a lot more power potential in Hunt’s bat; there’s no PCL inflation in this opposite-field blast. Hopefully Hunt will be able to rediscover his big-bopping ways in a second go with the Mariners organization.