DENVER — With two games remaining at Coors Field before the All-Star break, the Mariners did some more roster maneuvering on Saturday afternoon, calling up young reliever Matt Festa from Class AA Arkansas and optioning starting pitcher Christian Bergman, who started Friday’s game, back to Class AAA Tacoma.
Festa, 25, is one of the Mariners’ top relief pitching prospects in the organization, and is rated the No. 7 overall prospect in the system by Baseball American and No. 9 by MLB.com. He has a fastball that sits around 94-96 mph with some late movement. He has a solid slider and still also has a changeup and curveball from his days as a starting pitcher at East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania.