Ryan

Rowland-Smith

The 29-year-old left-hander failed to reach the major leagues last year with Houston and had a brutal 6.75 ERA in 109 1/3 innings with the Mariners in 2010. He will function as organizational relief depth for the Cubs.

Smith had a 3.79 ERA in 12 starts and 17 relief appearances for Single-A Inland Empire last season. He’ll get a chance to make the Twins as a reliever, but he’s unlikely to be kept.

Rowland-Smith is hoping to get invited to a major league camp. The 30-year-old left-hander hasn’t pitched in the bigs since 2010, when he posted an ugly 6.75 ERA and 1.69 WHIP in 109 1/3 innings with the Mariners.

Rowland-Smith spent last season with the Cubs’ Triple-A affiliate, where he posted a 3.94 ERA over 30 appearances (eight starts). He hasn’t been in the majors since 2010 and should continue to serve as organizational depth.

A bad outing versus Tampa Bay says little about a pitcher right now, but Rowland-Smith had a very kind schedule in April and still finished the month with a 5.28 ERA and a 9/13 K/BB ratio. He’s been a big disappointment, and the Mariners might want to think about replacing him with Luke French.

Rowland-Smith gave up three earned runs on seven hits in his 3+ innings, but had only thrown 55 pitches. The Mariners didn’t give him a chance to work out of it. With a 6.44 ERA and 1.60 WHIP, Rowland-Smith could very well find himself out of the rotation shortly.

This has to be it for Rowland-Smith. We had high hopes coming into the season, but he’s been brutal, going 0-4 with a 7.62 ERA. The Mariners could turn back to Ian Snell now, but it’s more likely that they’ll go get Luke French from Triple-A.

The writing was on the wall after Rowland-Smith was hammered for seven runs over just 2 2/3 innings against the Athletics on Monday night, falling to 0-4 with a 7.62 ERA over his first eight starts. Snell has a 4.76 ERA over seven games (four starts) with the Mariners this season.

The offers are undoubtedly of the minor league variety. Rowland-Smith, 30, hasn’t appeared in the majors since 2010, but he’s coming off a terrific season at Triple-A with the Red Sox, having put up a 1.55 ERA and 45/15 K/BB ratio across 52 1/3 frames.