SEATTLE — The first time Virginia pitcher Danny Hultzen stared down Clemson’s Brad Miller this year, the outcome was ugly. Hultzen threw a fastball, Miller squared to bunt and suffered a broken finger when the ball hit him.
In the goes-around-comes-around nature of baseball, they’re both get
ting the last laugh about it now. Hultzen and Miller are in the same organization after the Mariners made the two Atlantic Coast Conference stars their first and second round picks in the June draft.
“We’re not going to talk about how I fared against him,” Miller joked Wednesday at a news conference, two days after he and Hultzen signed with the Mariners.
Asked later if he truly owned Miller this year, Hultzen gave a shy smile and said yeah.
“This year I did,” Hultzen said. “But he had a hurt finger.”
And you broke it, right?
“I did,” he said. “I thought he’s be really mad about it, but I learned that he’s not that kind of guy. We give each other a lot of crap about it now.”
Hultzen was especially at-ease Wednesday after signing for a reported $8.5 million. He and the Mariners reached an agreement with seven minutes remaining before Monday’s midnight (EDT) deadline for teams to sign draft picks with remaining college eligibility.
“I was pretty calm throughout the day, but about 11 o’clock I had kind of an anxious feeling,” Hultzen said. “Then at 11:53 the deal was done. That last hour was pretty nerve-wracking.”
Hultzen said he was prepared for either outcome — becoming a pro or remaining at Virginia for his senior year. His schooling was an issue during negotiations; several reports said Hultzen wanted to attend the fall semester at Virginia even if he signed.
“I really value my education,” said Hultzen, who’s two semester short of getting a degree in history. “It’s something that’s very important to me. But either way I was going to be really, really happy. I’m glad this worked out, but I knew if it didn’t work out that I would have a really good situation at UVA.”
Hultzen will report to the Mariners’ instructional league program in September in Peoria, Ariz., then pitch for the Peoria Javelinas in the Arizona Fall League. Minor league director Pedro Grifol said the Mariners will evaluate Hultzen before deciding when he’ll start pitching.
“We’re going to take it slow,” Grifol said.
Hultzen said he has been lifting weights and running but hasn’t thrown since the college season ended in June.
Miller will report this week to the Mariners’ Class A team in Clinton, Iowa.
Rookie Ruffin completes Detroit trade
Eighteen days after the Mariners acquired outfielder Casper Wells, pitcher Charlie Furbush and a player to be named in a trade with the Detroit Tigers, they received the fourth player in the deal Wednesday and immediately brought him to the big leagues.
Right-handed reliever Chance Ruffin, the Tigers’ supplemental first-round draft pick last year (48th overall), spent his first night in a Mariners uniform after flying most of Wednesday from Buffalo, N.Y.
To make room for Ruffin on the roster, the Mariners designated left-handed reliever Aaron Laffey for assignment. They have 10 days to trade, release or re-assign Laffey to the minor leagues if he clears waivers.
“This is a little more extreme than going from one minor league team to another,” said Ruffin, a former closer at the University of Texas and the son of former major league pitcher Bruce Ruffin.
Chance Ruffin, who’ll be 23 on Sept. 8, said he didn’t know he’d be joining the Mariners until Wednesday although he’d heard rumors since the trade July 30 that he might be the player to be named later.
“I’d seen the rumors, that it was me or Drew Smiley,” he said, adding that he didn’t ask questions. “I assumed that I was going to stay (with the Tigers), but I was mentally prepared for either way and went about my business the same way I normally would have.”
Of note
Mariners manager Eric Wedge said catcher Miguel Olivo, knocked woozy when he was hit on the mask by a foul tip Tuesday night, was OK and available to play in Wednesday’s game. Josh Bard started Wednesday … Justin Smoak, on the DL after getting hit in the face by a ground ball Friday, says he feels like he’s been to the dentist. Much of the left side of his face is numb, a product of the nerves being affected by the ball that broke his nose and fractured his cheekbone. Until this injury, Smoak had never broken a bone in his life. … Catcher Adam Moore (April knee injury) will continue his rehab Friday at the Mariners’ facility in Peoria, Ariz., and hopes to start catching games in mid-September at the instructional league.
Kirby Arnold, Herald Writer
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