SEATTLE, Wash. – Seattle Mariners Executive Vice President & General Manager of Baseball Operations Jerry Dipoto announced today the following roster moves:
* David Freitas, C recalled from AAA Tacoma.
* Mike Zunino, C, placed on the 10-day disabled list (retroactive to 3/27) with a strained left oblique.
Freitas (#36) will be in uniform and available for tomorrow’s (1:10 pm PT) game vs. the Cleveland Indians at Safeco Field.
Freitas (“FRAY-tas”), 29, hit .238 (5×21) with 1 run and 1 RBI in 11 Cactus League games with the Mariners this spring. He was acquired by Seattle in a waiver claim from the Atlanta Braves on October 27, 2017. The 6-foot-2, 240-pound righthanded
hitting catcher made his Major League debut with Atlanta after having his contract purchased from AAA Gwinnett on Aug. 30, 2017. He appeared in 6 games with the Braves, batting .235 (4×17) with 2 runs scored and 2 RBI. He spent the majority of the season with Gwinnett, batting .263 (62×236) with 28 runs scored, 13 doubles, 3 home runs, 21 RBI and 25 walks. Freitas threw out 30.2 percent of attempted baserunners (16 CS, 33 SB) and was one of 17 catchers in the International League to throw out at least 30% of baserunners (min. 40 ATT). He signed a minor league contract with Atlanta on Nov. 16, 2016.
The Elk Grove, CA, native has spent 8 minor league seasons with Washington (2010-12), Oakland (2012-13), Baltimore (2014-15), Chicago-NL (2016) and Atlanta (2017), batting .272 (631×2319) with 320 runs scored, 157 doubles, 1 triple, 57
home runs, 336 RBI and 285 walks in 671 games.
Freitas was originally selected by the Washington Nationals in the 15th round over the 2010 MLB First-Year Player Draft out of the University of Hawaii at Manoa (Honolulu, HI). He was a junior college All-American at Cosumnes River College before transferring to the University of Hawaii after two seasons.
Zunino, 27, sustained a strained left oblique during the Mariners workout at Safeco Field on March 28. In 17 Cactus League games with Seattle this spring, he hit .395 (17×43) with 8 runs, 2 doubles, 5 home runs, 12 RBI and 4 walks. In 2017, he hit
.251 (97×387) with 52 runs, 25 doubles, 25 home runs, 64 RBI, 39 walks, a .331 on-base percentage and a .509 slugging mark in 124 games with Seattle. His 25 home runs ranked 3rd in the Majors among primary catchers and are the most in a
single-season by a Mariners backstop. The 6-foot-2, 220-pound catcher was behind the plate for 994.0 innings last season, 2nd-most in the AL and 6th-most in the Majors. After a 12-game stint with AAA Tacoma (5/5-22), he hit .281 (84×299) with
24 home runs, 61 RBI and a .589 slugging mark in 95 games with the Mariners from May 29 through the end of last season.
The native of Cape Coral, Fla., has spent his entire seven-year professional career in the Mariners organization after being selected by the club with the 3rd overall pick in the 2012 MLB First-Year Player Draft out of the University of Florida. In parts of 5 Major League seasons with the Mariners, he has belted 75 career home runs, 2nd-most in club history by a primary catcher (Dan Wilson, 88). This marks Zunino’s second trip to the disabled list in his career and the first since sustaining a fractured left hamate bone in 2013 (on DL 7/26-9/2).
