Mariners hoping for best with RHP Shae Simmons to undergo MRI

The Mariners are optimistic that Shae Simmons did not suffer a serious injury in Saturday’s game against the Reds, but the right-hander will undergo an MRI Sunday.

“The preliminary is he is going to be OK, but we just want to make sure,” manager Scott Servais said.

Simmons, who underwent Tommy John Surgery in 2015, was removed from the game after experiencing forearm tightness. He faced three batters in the eighth inning and then felt something strange in his arm.

“It was different; that’s why I didn’t really know how to take it so I threw another pitch. I didn’t know what it was,” Simmons said. “At that point, I realized that it wasn’t smart to throw anymore.”

Simmons added that he wasn’t too worried about what he felt, that the tightness was in a different area than what forced him to end his season in early September last year. He said Saturday’s tightness felt more like muscle soreness than something that could sideline him for a significant period of time.

“Hopefully this is just a little bump in the road and everything is going to be fine,” Simmons said.

The Mariners are hoping the same thing. With Steve Cishek most likely out for at least a couple of weeks of the regular season, Simmons has shown the stuff that could put him in the mix to help get outs in the eighth inning until Cishek returns.

“We really like the pitcher,” Servais said of Simmons. “We like the stuff, we like his makeup and everything else. He is certainly going to help us at some point. We just want to make sure he is an option. We want to be overly cautious on this one.”