Former Mariners infielder's career takes another turn for the worse with A's DFA

Major League Baseball history is littered with a a myriad of stories of unfulfilled potential, whether it be the fault of the players themselves or circumstances beyond their control. This frequent tale of squandered opportunity came to mind on Monday, with news of a former Seattle Mariners player being designated for assignment.

The player in question is Luis Urías, who was DFA'd by the Athletics after they recalled Zack Gelof from Triple-A Las Vegas. Urías previously spent the 2024 season with the Mariners, after being traded from the Boston Red Sox in exchange for reliever Isaiah Campbell.

There was plenty of intrigue surrounding Urías, who had been ranked 23rd by MLB Pipeline in their top 100 prospects for the 2019 season. His main strength was his pure hitting prowess and combined with his above average defense he profiled to be a bat-first infielder, primarily at second base.

It all seemed to come together in 2021 with the Milwaukee Brewers, as the Mexico native had a whole host of career-bests including a 3.3 rWAR, 23 home runs and 75 RBI. However, this represented the peak of his career in the majors and since the 2022 season he has been on a steep decline.

Luis Urías underwhelms in Seattle with the Mariners

As such, any hope that Urías could help the Mariners soon gave way to more disappointment, as he produced a .191/.303/.394 slash line, .696 OPS and 0.4 rWAR in only 41 games last year. After the 2024 season ended he was sent outright to Triple-A Tacoma, but rejected the assignment and became a free agent.

It appeared to work out for the 28-year-old, as he subsequently signed a one-year $1.1 million deal with the Athletics and started out this season extremely well, highlighted by a 127 wRC+ by the end of April. However, following a solid May he began to fall away, eventually leading to the A's going down the DFA road.

It's not even as if Urías can claim he wasn't given enough chances, with 96 games and 330 plate appearances representing his most in each category since 2022 in Milwaukee. In any event, a .230 batting average, .653 OPS, 81 OPS+ and 0.5 rWAR ultimately wasn't going to cut it in Sacramento.

What happens next for Urías remains to be seen, but it would be a surprise if anyone claims him off waivers with around $200,000 remaining on his current contract. At the same time there may well be a club out there who believe it's still possible to tap into his unfulfilled potential, with the feasible possibility he will end up signing a minor league deal.