Xavier Nady signs with Seattle Mariners
By Jacob Rude
The Mariners appear to have reached an agreement to bring in outfielder and first basemen Xavier Nady, who will start out in Triple-A Tacoma.
xavier nady has deal with #mariners. @TNT_Mariners says plan is to begin nady at triple-a.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) May 28, 2014
Nady, who started with the San Diego Padres earlier this season, turned down an outright assignment to Triple-A El Paso, instead becoming a free agent. He was rather underwhelming in San Diego, hitting just .135 with a .238 slugging and .405 OPS.
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The 35-year old Nady will likely use his time with the Mariner’s Triple A squad as an informal try-out before making a move to Seattle to join the big league squad. He spent last season in Triple A for the Kansas City Royals and Colorado Rockies, but never performing well enough for a call up.
His most recent time in the big leagues came in 2012, when he played for both the San Francisco Giants and Washington Nationals, but underperformed then too. For his career, Nady sports a slash of .268/.323/432 with 104 career home runs and 961 total games.
The Mariners are likely looking for a bat to liven up an offense that ranks dead last in the American League in batting average (.234), on-base percentage (.297), and second from last in slugging percentage (.365). Despite the anemic offense, the Mariners sit tied for 3rd in the AL West, just five games behind Oakland for first place. However, the Mariners likely won’t stay afloat without more consistent output from the offense.