Mariners Salary Dump of Jay Bruce to Phillies Shows Pure Ineptitude by Front Office

Jay Bruce has been the victim of two salary dumps over the last six months. First, he was traded to the Mariners from the Mets in December 2018 in the blockbuster exchange that sent second baseman Robinson Cano and closer Edwin Diaz to New York.

Now, just a mere two months into his Mariners career, he was dumped off to Philadelphia for minor-league infielder Jake Scheiner.

Philly will assume most of the financial responsibility for Bruce's contract, which was 3 years and $39 million, given to him by the Mets in the 2017 offseason.

Bruce was hitting .212 with 14 home runs in a Mariners uniform, so while the power was there, he was clogging up a logjam at first base, as both Daniel Vogelbach and Edwin Encarnacion have been in competition with Bruce for playing time at first base.

The return for Seattle is a 23-year-old infield prospect. Scheiner was at Single-A+ Clearwater, where he'd been batting .256 with 2 homers and 19 RBI across 44 games. He's yet to break past that level in the minors, having been at Single-A since 2017.

Part of conducting a rebuild is taking on bad contracts because it means the quality of prospect return is likely going to be higher in deals. Unfortunately that's not exactly how it worked out for Seattle, as they're handing over $18 million to Philadelphia, while taking on Scheiner as their only haul.

While effectively saving $3.5 million over the next two years, the less optimistic approach is that the Mariners are paying Philadelphia $18 million to have Jay Bruce off Seattle's roster. Not the smartest financial planning from the M's.