Catcher Blake Hunt went unclaimed on waivers after being designated for assignment by the Mariners and has been assigned outright to Triple-A, per the team’s transaction log. He hasn’t been outrighted in the past and doesn’t have three years of big league service, so Hunt does not have the right to reject the assignment in favor of free agency. He’ll remain with the organization on a crowded catching depth chart.
Hunt, 26, has been traded four times but still never taken the field for a big league game. The Padres selected him with the 69th overall pick back in 2017 and traded him to the Rays in the Blake Snell blockbuster. Hunt was with the Rays through 2023 before being traded to the Mariners in exchange for fellow minor league catcher Tatem Levins. Six months later, Hunt was on his way to the Orioles in exchange for reliever Mike Baumann, and after being designated for assignment in Baltimore later last year, he was shipped back to the M’s for cash.
Hunt is a glove-first catcher who draws strong marks for his minor league framing and blocking skills, in particular, per Baseball Prospectus. He’s long been touted for above-average to plus raw power but been dinged for a hit tool and an approach (or lack thereof) that don’t allow him to tap into that power often enough. He’s a career .232/.284/.413 hitter in parts of three Triple-A seasons, including a .231/.271/.407 slash this season that’s right in line with those career marks.
Seattle, of course, has the top catcher in all of baseball right now in switch-hitting slugger Cal Raleigh. Veteran Mitch Garver is backing Raleigh up and at least reaching base at a respectable .321 clip, but he’s hitting .204 with nowhere near the power he once displayed. Hunt is one of several catching options in the upper minors for the Mariners, who also have journeymen Jacob Nottingham and top prospect Harry Ford on their Tacoma roster.