SEATTLE — More details surfaced Tuesday on free-agent catcher Chris Iannetta’s contract with the Seattle Mariners, which provides the opportunity for him to earn far more than his one-year guarantee for $4.25 million.
The deal includes $1.75 million in performance bonuses along with a club option for $4.25 million in 2017. The option can vest into a guaranteed year at $6 million based on the number of games that Iannetta starts in 2016.
Rule 5 risk
Triple-A Tacoma outfielder Jabari Blash ranks among the top candidates for selection in the upcoming Rule 5 Draft, according to Baseball America.
The Mariners chose to expose Blash to the Dec. 10 draft when they didn’t add him to their 40-man roster prior to last Friday’s deadline.
Blash, 26, batted .271 last year in 116 games at Double-A Jackson (60) and Tacoma (56) with 32 home runs and 81 RBI. He was available, but went unselected, in last year’s draft.
“Blash doesn’t run as well as he did a few years ago,” Baseball America reported, “but he has prototypical right field tools and now he has upper-level minor league production as well.”
Players are eligible for the Rule 5 Draft if not placed on a club’s 40-man roster after four or five pro seasons. (Four years for players 19 or older when they signed their first contract; five years for those who were younger.)
Dream School
Robinson Cano’s RC22 Foundation opened its first Dream School — a Montessori School — on Tuesday in his hometown: San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic.
The school will serve 100 youth, ranging in age from three to eight, and offer holistic community and employment training programs for residents.
The RC22 Foundation seeks to “expand opportunities for improved outcomes in the areas of youth development and community healthcare.”
Ex-M alert
Former Mariners outfielder Eric Thames, 29, was picked as the Most Valuable Player in the Korean Baseball Organization after batting .381 with 47 home runs and 140 RBI in 142 games for the NC Dinos.
Thames, who now plays first base, also had 40 steals in becoming the first 40-40 (home runs/stolen bases) player in KBO history.
Further, he won the slash triple crown (batting average/on-base percentage/slugging percentage) at .381/.497/.790.
The Mariners acquired Thames from Toronto in a June 30, 2012 trade for pitcher Steve Delabar. Thames batted .220 in 40 games over the remainder of the season with six homers and 14 RBI.
Thames batted .295 in 57 games for Triple-A Tacoma in 2013 with seven homers and 33 RBI before a June 30 trade sent him to Baltimore for utilityman Ty Kelly.
Looking back
It was 31 years ago Tuesday — Nov. 24, 1984 — that first baseman Alvin Davis became the first Mariners player to win a BBWAA award when selected as the American League Rookie of the Year.
Davis garnered 25 of the 28 first-place votes.
His teammate, left-handed pitcher Mark Langston, got the other three first-place votes and finished second.
The 1984 AL rookie class also included Minnesota outfielder Kirby Puckett (who finished third) and Boston right-hander Roger Clemens (who finished sixth).
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