Mariners News: Leody Taveras DFA, Bryce Miller back to IL, Dominic Canzone's amazing HR

The Seattle Mariners laid some important groundwork for the remainder of their 2025 season on Monday, including by admitting defeat on their experiment with Leody Taveras. Mere weeks after they claimed him off waivers from the Texas Rangers, he's been designated for assignment.

It's a move that had begun to feel inevitable. Though Taveras looked vaguely like Victor Robles 2.0 when the Mariners scooped him up in May, the 28 games he played in place of Robles in right field yielded an abysmal .470 OPS and -0.6 rWAR. By FanGraphs WAR, he was the worst player in MLB during his time as a Mariner.

As for what happens next, Taveras must be placed on waivers or traded within the next five days. It seems unlikely that another team will take him on, if for no other reason than it would mean adding about $2.86 million in additional salary. If nobody takes a flier and he accepts an assignment to Tacoma, that money will remain on Seattle's books, potentially complicating the club's trade deadline outlook.

It's a frustrating situation that is made even worse by the ongoing uncertainty in right field. Luke Raley will hopefully stabilize the position when he returns from an oblique strain, but he has yet to even start a rehab assignment.

Mariners News: Bryce Miller is back on the IL with more elbow trouble

After the Mariners eventually suffered an 8-4 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday, the team revealed more bad news with an announcement that Bryce Miller is going back on the injured list.

The right-hander had only recently returned from a three-week stint on the IL with elbow inflammation, which was eventually revealed to be the result of a bone spur. It always seemed unlikely that rest would solve the problem, and it seems it hasn't.

“It’s the same issue as he had the last time. The cortisone shot wasn’t as helpful as we had hoped,” manager Dan Wilson said, per Tim Booth of The Seattle Times.

Without jumping to any conclusions, it's hard not to feel like this could mean the end of Miller's 2025 season. He had previously alluded to his bone spur as "something I can't just take out without missing the rest of the year." That implied that surgery could end up being an option down the road, and it probably should be now.

Either way, the Mariners may well go the rest of the season without the Miller of 2024 showing up. Whereas that version of him posted a 2.94 ERA with a team-high 3.4 rWAR, this year's version has just a 5.73 ERA in 10 starts.

Mariners News: Dominic Canzone made subtle history with his game-tying homer

For anyone who missed it, the highlight of Monday's game for the Mariners was Dominic Canzone capping a four-run rally in the ninth with a tank of a two-run homer:

As noted by Sarah Langs of MLB.com, Canzone's 115.9 mph, 450-foot shot made it the longest Mariners homer of the season and their hardest-hit ball since the start of last season.

As per Baseball Reference, Canzone is also the first Mariner to hit a multi-run, game-tying homer with two outs in the ninth inning since Jose Lopez in 2009.

It may not have resulted in a W, but Canzone may have provided the spark the Mariners have been looking for offensively. He had certainly been cleaning up in Tacoma prior to his promotion to fill Taveras' shoes, with his last 37 games producing a .937 OPS and 11 home runs.