Saga of Mariners' infamous trade for Teoscar Hernández takes another sad turn

To this day, plenty of Seattle Mariners fans remain frustrated that the team didn't do more to keep Teoscar Hernández following the 2023 season. Yes, his 211 strikeouts were second-most in the American League that year, but don't try telling us the M's continuing offensive struggles couldn't use something similar to the 26 home runs and 93 RBI he produced during his solitary campaign in the Pacific Northwest.

When the Mariners originally acquired Hernández from the Toronto Blue Jays, the return package included reliever Erik Swanson and pitching prospect Adam Macko. As we wrote back in March, about the only solace — if you can really call it this — is that things haven't exactly gone great for either player during their time in Southern Ontario.

Erik Swanson hasn't been able to build on career year with the Mariners

In the case of Swanson, his first season with the Blue Jays in 2023 was an extremely productive one, but since then it has all gone wrong including some injury concern earlier this year. Now, as per the Blue Jays on social media, his continued fall from grace has seen him designated for assignment.

After starting this season on the Injured List, the righty just hasn't been able to put it together since returning to the fold in Toronto. In 5.1 combined innings over six appearances, he has produced a 15.19 ERA, 10.20 FIP, 10.0 strikeout rate, and 2.438 WHIP, which would all project to be Major League career worsts.

It's telling that the Blue Jays have already decided to make the move of designating Swanson for assignment, alluding to the organization lacking confidence in his ability to bounce back and definitely not helped by a drop in his average velocity. Further, with five years of service time, he cannot be optioned to the minors without his consent, so it will be interesting to see how this all plays out in the coming days.

It will be a real shame if this does indeed represent the end of the 31-year-old' s career at the Major League level, and we will be unashamedly rooting for him to get back on track somewhere. In any event, the final tally of the Hernández trade as it stands is a 2.3 WAR for the Mariners and 0.7 WAR for the Blue Jays, with this feeling like one of those situations where neither side really won the deal.

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