Seattle Mariners trade reliever Carter Capps to Miami Marlins for OF/1B Logan Morrison

It’s been a very busy afternoon for the Seattle Mariners.

Just moments after news broke that Seattle had signed veteran right-handed bat Corey Hart to a 1-year deal, Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald was the first to report that the Mariners had acquired Logan Morrison from the Marlins in exchange for right-handed reliever Carter Capps.

This is a “buy-low” situation for Seattle, as investing in Morrison isn’t quite as “sexy” as it would have been a few years ago. The OF/1B combo player has a big-time “hit” tool in theory, but Morrison has only posted a career slash line of .249/.337/.427 in 1,479 big league plate appearances. He arrived on the scene with the Marlins in 2010 with a very productive half-season (.390 OBP in 243 PA’s), but injuries have derailed him a bit in recent years, and the former top prospect hasn’t developed.

For the Marlins, they’re acquiring a high-upside reliever in Capps, who is just 23 years old. At one point, he was considered to be the “closer of the future” in Seattle, but Capps has struggled a bit in the majors (5.04 career ERA in 84 innings) despite a big-time strikeout arm. Capps has a career MLB strikeout rate of 10.07 per 9 innings, and even if he doesn’t become the closer that many projected, he could be a high-leverage arm (at a young age) for a developing franchise.

Seattle is apparently attempting to acquire every available first-base/outfield option on the market (insert laughter here), but there’s a good bit that they will “hit” on either Morrison or Hart for 2014.