The Mariners signed Luke Jackson to a minor league deal on Thursday, as per the right-hander’s MLB.com profile page. Jackson (who turns 34 tomorrow) made his debut with Triple-A Tacoma last night, allowing two runs in an inning of relief work.
The Rangers signed Jackson to a one-year, $1.5MM free agent deal back in February, plus he added another $450K to his salary by reaching innings-based incentives thresholds. Jackson was designated for assignment and then released in late July, then quickly joined the Tigers on another guaranteed deal. This tenure in Motown lasted just three appearances and 4 1/3 innings before Jackson was DFA’ed again, and he elected to become a free agent rather than accept an outright assignment to the Tigers’ Triple-A affiliate.
Should the Mariners call Jackson up to the active roster, Seattle will owe him just a prorated minimum salary, which will be subtracted from what remains of his original salary. With Texas still responsible for the bulk of Jackson’s owed money, there’s no risk for the M’s in adding a veteran depth arm to the ranks.
As one might expect from the three-team tour, it hasn’t been a terribly productive year for Jackson on the mound. Jackson has a 4.54 ERA over 39 2/3 combined innings with Texas and Detroit, with almost as many walks (24) as strikeouts (28). The lack of results have come despite Jackson’s usual success at keeping the ball on the ground, as he has a 52.5% grounder rate and a favorable .267 BABIP.
It has now been more two years since Jackson’ last productive MLB season, as he also had a 5.09 ERA across 53 innings with the Giants and Braves in 2024. While walks have always been an issue for Jackson, he posted very strong numbers in both the 2021 and 2023 seasons, with the 2022 campaign a writeoff due to a Tommy John surgery. If he can recapture any of his old form, Jackson could bring some postseason experience to a Mariners team that has hopes of making some noise in October.