Mariners select RHP Will Vest from Detroit in the 2020 Rule 5 Draft

Photo by Joshua Sarner/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images I’m already so over everyone’s “Will Vest” puns, please people, 2020 has been hard enoughToday was the Rule-5 Draft and the Mariners, with free space on the 40-man roster and corner store money jing-jangling in their pocket from Uncle Stanton, selected RHP Will Vest from the Detroit Tigers. Vest was not among the targets we discussed in our Rule 5 draft primer, although to be fair, he wasn’t in much of anyone’s Rule 5 writeup; the numbers, on the surface, aren’t exactly sterling. Vest, selected by Detroit in the 12th round out of Stephen F. Austin University, a school I can only imagine was started by Stone Cold Steve Austin, dominated in the lower minors in 2018, bowling over opponents in the Midwest League and the Florida State League. The Tigers started Vest out again in 2019 at A+-Lakeland, but quickly advanced him to Double-A Erie, where his strikeout numbers dropped off significantly and he also struggled some with giving up the long ball.

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