Rodney not surprised about being DFA'd by Mariners
After two straight losses facilitated by shaky bullpen outings, the Seattle Mariners finally made a change.
Fernando Rodney, who has had a rough, unproductive season for the M's for much of the year, was designated for assignment after Saturday night's loss to the Chicago White Sox.
Having blown six saves out of 22 appearances, Rodney was more or less demoted to an eighth-inning option for Lloyd McClendon, who has relied more on young right-hander Carson Smith for ninth-inning duties since the middle of June.
Rodney, whose meltdown on Friday night directly led to another M's loss and added a tally to his 'ineffective outings' list on the year, told MLB.com's Greg Johns he wasn't particularly surprised by the team's decision: "It's baseball for me and I understand. Somebody has to step up and see what's going on. We tried everything we could. I'll continue and keep my head up. … I know when you don't do the job you're supposed to do, something's coming."
Rodney, 5-5 with a 5.68 ERA in 54 appearances spread across 50 2/3 innings of work was a constant issue for the Mariners. McClendon used Rodney's situation to express to Johns just how odd MLB can be sometimes: "It just never worked for him. This is a funny game. He was an All-Star last year, did a tremendous job. It just did not work for whatever reason this year. He could not get it going and it's very unfortunate. We wish him the best."
In addition to DFA'ing Rodney, Seattle also optioned Danny Farquhar to Triple-A Tacoma and replaced both relievers with lefty Roenis Elias and righty Logan Kensing as they look for more consistency down the stretch and into 2016.
