Mariners Moose Tracks, 1/13/24: Bryce Miller, Jordan Hicks, and Naoyuki Uwasawa

Bryce Miller’s stock continues to rise.

Greetings friends and welcome to the weekend! We’re just about a month away from pitchers and catchers reporting to camp, and there’s still plenty of action to come in the offseason. Let’s get into the latest from the sport.

In Mariners news...

• Bryce Miller continues to develop his splitter alongside his other pitches. As an aside, it’s very funny to me that you’ve got the “Home of the 12th Man” sign above the press box, which took me a second before I remembered that Texas A&M (Miller’s alma mater) originated that concept.

• Matt Ferenchick at Pinstripe Alley looked back on the last several decades of Mariners-Yankees trades.

Around the league...

• The Giants signed right-hander Jordan Hicks to a four-year deal. The Giants plan to deploy the longtime reliever as a starting pitcher, a role he has struggled in in the past.
• Longtime utilityman Charlie Culberson agreed to a minor league deal with Atlanta, where he will attempt to reinvent himself as a pitcher at the age of 34.
• Speaking of Atlanta, the Braves organization extended the contract of of president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos through the 2031 season.
• The Rays agreed to a minor league deal with Japanese right-hander Naoyuki Uwasawa, who turned down several major league offers following his posting because of the Rays’ reputation for developing pitchers.
• The Dodgers have hired former Mariner favorite Raúl Ibañez as their vice president of baseball development.

Anders’ picks...

• Yesterday was a tough day for a large portion of Seattle sports fans, with University of Washington head football coach taking the same recently-vacated role at the University of Alabama, leaving the Huskies in the lurch after being the national runners-up.