The Player To Be Named Later

Today, the Seattle Mariners and Detroit Tigers announced that Chance Ruffin is a Mariner, and not a Tiger. This is because it turns out that Ruffin was the “player to be named later” from the trade that sent Doug Fister to Detroit. The reason for the wait was because MLB rules prohibit a player from being traded until it’s been more than 365 days since they’ve signed their first professional contract. After being drafted in June 2010, Ruffin didn’t sign until the draft pick signing deadline on August 16th, 2010. Today is August 17th, 2011. The math here isn’t all that tough to figure out.

Ruffin is a reliever with very good stuff. He’s dominated both AA and AAA hitting this year, and has even already logged 3.2 innings of work at the MLB already. He instantly becomes Seattle’s “closer of the future,” if such a thing exists. If you’re reading this expecting a scouting report, you’re going to have to wait for Harrison to post something a bit later. I could try, but lets face it, that is his area of expertise.

Ruffin will join the Mariners bullpen, and will available to pitch on Friday when the M’s begin their series against the Rays in Tampa.

No blog post about a player to be named later would be complete without the following trip down memory lane. In 1985 Jose Gonzalez was traded from the St. Louis Cardinals to the San Francisco Giants. But before he joined his new team, he changed his name to Jose Uribe (Uribe being his mother’s maiden name).

This name change caused coach Rocky Bridges to joke that Uribe was “the ultimate player to be named later.” It’s kind of hard to argue with him on that one.