SEATTLE -- General manager Jerry Dipoto added another right-handed reliever to the Mariners' mix on Saturday, acquiring 26-year-old Nick Rumbelow from the Yankees in exchange for Minor League pitchers JP Sears and Juan Then in his third trade in four days.
Dipoto has now made 60 trades in the 26 months since he was hired as the Mariners' GM at the end of the 2015 season, the most in the Majors in that span.
Rumbelow pitched 17 games for the Yankees in 2015 before undergoing Tommy John surgery on his right elbow in '16. He spent all last season in the Minors, going 4-1 with a 1.12 ERA and six saves in 25 games while splitting time between Double-A Trenton and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
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Rumbelow had 45 strikeouts and 11 walks in 40 1/3 innings, with opposing batters hitting just .150 with no home runs in 140 at-bats.
"Nick is another young, power-arm reliever who provides us with present flexibility and future impact," Dipoto said.
Dipoto traded away a pair of right-handed relievers earlier in the week, dealing Emilio Pagan and Minor League shortstop Alexander Campos to the A's for first baseman Ryon Healy and then sending hard-throwing prospect Thyago Vieira to the White Sox for international slot money.
Rumbelow goes onto Seattle's 40-man roster, which now is at 36 players. The Yankees promoted the Texas native to their 40-man roster earlier this month rather than let him become a Minor League free agent.
Rumbelow, a seventh-round Draft pick of the Yankees in 2013 out of Louisiana State, was 1-1 with a 4.02 ERA in 15 2/3 innings in 17 games after making his Major League debut with the Yankees in 2015. He pitched just once for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in '16 before being undergoing surgery on his elbow.
The Mariners gave up two promising young arms to get Rumbelow. Sears, 21, was an 11th-round Draft pick last year out of Citadel who ranked as Seattle's No. 21 prospect, per MLBPipeline.com, after posting a 0.65 ERA with 51 strikeouts in just 27 2/3 innings for Class A Short Season Everett and Class A Clinton.
After his promotion to Clinton on July 21, Sears gave up just two unearned runs in 17 innings of relief over his final 10 outings.
Then is a 17-year-old who signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2016. He made his pro debut last season, going 2-2 with a 2.64 ERA in 13 starts for the Mariners' Dominican Summer League squad.