BATON ROUGE, La. — Former LSU outfielder Jake Fraley was promoted on Tuesday to the active roster of the Seattle Mariners. Fraley, who played at LSU from 2014-16, will join the Mariners in St. Petersburg, Fla., for their series versus the Tampa Bay Rays.
Fraley, the Rays’ second-round draft choice in 2016, became the 18th LSU player coached by Paul Mainieri to reach the big leagues. He was traded to Seattle last November and has excelled in the Mariners’ minor league organization, collecting 19 homers and 80 RBI this season.
Fraley joins former LSU infielder Austin Nola, who was called up in June, on the Mariners’ big-league roster.
Fraley, a native of Middletown, Del., helped lead LSU to the SEC championship and a College World Series berth in 2015, and he was named the recipient of LSU Baseball’s 2016 Skip Bertman Award as the player who best exemplifies the spirit of the program. He played in 173 games during his LSU career (149 starts), batting .328 (201-for-613) with 28 doubles, 12 triples, 10 homers, 142 runs, 100 RBI and 59 steals in 77 attempts.
Fraley batted .326 (87-for-267) in 2016 with 10 doubles, six triples, five homers, 61 runs, 36 RBI and 28 steals in 38 attempts. He finished No. 1 in the SEC in stolen bases and No. 3 in the league in runs scored, base hits and triples. Fraley was named to the 2016 NCAA Baton Rouge Regional All-Tournament Team, batting .375 (6-for16) with one double, two homers, four RBI and five runs scored.
The other Mainieri-coached LSU players to reach the major leagues are infielder Alex Bregman, pitcher Aaron Nola, infielder DJ LeMahieu, infielder Austin Nola, pitcher Kevin Gausman, pitcher Nick Goody, outfielder Andrew Stevenson, pitcher Ryan Eades, infielder JaCoby Jones, infielder Ryan Schimpf, outfielder Mikie Mahtook, pitcher Nick Rumbelow, pitcher Louis Coleman, pitcher Charlie Furbush, pitcher Ryan Verdugo, pitcher Anthony Ranaudo and infielder Matt Clark.
LSU has had at least one former player make his MLB debut in 26 of the past 29 seasons. The Tigers have produced a total of 76 Major Leaguers during their illustrious baseball history.