American Association of Professional Baseball - SEATTLE BUYS CONTRACT OF STAR RIGHTY CAUGHEL

Courtesy Sioux City Explorers Media Relations

Sioux City, Iowa – The Sioux City Explorers announced on Monday that the Seattle Mariners have purchased the contract of recently-acquired RHP Lindsey Caughel. Caughel was acquired by the X’s on November 16^th in a trade with the Lincoln Saltdogs and will report to spring training with the Mariners when pitchers and catchers report in the spring to earn a spot within the Mariners organization for the 2017 season. The X’s will retain the reversionary rights to Caughel.

Caughel, 26, is coming off a phenomenal 2016 campaign in which the righty went 6-3 with a league-leading 2.09 ERA on his way to being named the American Association pitcher of the year. The Ocoee, Fla., resident was also tops in the league in batting average against, allowing opponents to hit for only a .215 average, while his 120 strikeouts were good for 3^rd most in the league. For the 2016 season, Caughel tossed 124.2 innings allowing only 101 hits, while only walking 24 batters, good for an impressive 5.00 strikeout/walk ratio. For his efforts, Baseball America listed Caughel as the 7^th best prospect in their annual list of top Independent prospects.

Caughel was originally drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in the 35^th round of the 2011 MLB June Amateur Draft, chose not to sign and was once again drafted in 2012 in the 23^rd round by the Los Angeles Dodgers out of Stetson University (DeLand, Fla.). Prior to pitching in the American Association in 2016, Caughel pitched the previous 4 seasons in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization. In his four seasons in the Dodgers organization, he accumulated a 3.72 ERA while recording 264 strikeouts while only yielding 54 walks in 293 innings pitched.

With Caughel’s signing by the Mariners organization, Sioux City has now had eight players’ contracts acquired by an affiliated organization since the completion of the 2015 season: