Mariners keep reliever Cook on Minors deal

SEATTLE -- Right-handed reliever Ryan Cook, who missed all of the 2016 season, has agreed to a Minor League deal that will keep him in the Mariners' organization next year as he recovers from Tommy John surgery.
Cook, a 2012 All-Star with the A's, was outrighted to the Minor Leagues this month along with catcher Steve Clevenger and lefty reliever Charlie Furbush after all three finished the season on Seattle's 60-day disabled list.
All three opted for free agency. Clevenger and Furbush remain free agents.
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Cook, 29, was sidelined last Spring Training by a strained latissimus dorsi muscle in his right shoulder. He returned to throw one inning in a Rookie League game in Arizona on July 10, but was shut down again and wound up having surgery on his elbow on Oct. 20.
Cook was one of the American League's most-durable right-handed setup men with Oakland from 2012-14, when he posted a 2.60 ERA and 1.101 WHIP with 197 strikeouts in 190 2/3 innings over 196 appearances. But he pitched in just nine games for the A's and Red Sox in 2015 before signing a one-year, $1.1 million deal with the Mariners last January.