Seattle Mariners claim OF Phillip Ervin off waivers from Cincinnati Reds

The tenure of 2013 1st round pick Phillip Ervin with the Cincinnati Reds has officially come to an end. Ervin was designated for assignment last week by the Reds, and today it was confirmed that he’d been claimed off waivers by the Seattle Mariners.

The Athletic’s C. Trent Rosecrans had the news.

Ervin, now 28, chipped in with 17 dingers in his Reds career, spread across four seasons that saw him bounce between the bigs and the minors. That rendered the former 27th overall pick out of options, which is precisely why the Reds had to DFA him instead of stashing back at their Prasco facility while reinforcing the OF.

The Reds had hoped Ervin could form the lefty-mashing portion of an outfield platoon in 2020, a job he’d largely excelled at in the 2019 season. Last year saw him hit a perfectly acceptable .271/.331/.466 (101 OPS+) overall in 266 PA, largely fueled by a blistering .349/.411/.628 mark against southpaws. Alas, that was not to be in 2020, as he went just 3 for 35 against all pitching before being DFA’d.

Ervin, for now, will join a host of other former Reds and Reds prospects in the Seattle organization. Former top Reds prospect Taylor Trammell was just traded there earlier this week at the deadline, while Shed Long, Joe Hudson, and Matt Magill are all either on Seattle’s roster or in camp. He’ll also get to be teammates with utilityman-extraordinaire Jose Marmolejos, who was never a Red but has a name too cool to not write about at least once in a stock article talking about the Seattle Mariners.

Marmolejos. Marmolejos. Just awesome.

Best of luck to Phil with Seattle, as he has long flashed stretches where he looks like a legitimate big leaguer. Hopefully he can find the consistency he’ll need to stick around for a few more seasons and avoid the waive/claim cycle that so many out-of-options players get stuck in.