Wilhelmsen rejoins Mariners after Double-A stint

Right-handed pitcher Tom Wilhelmsen was recalled from Double-A Jackson by the Mariners on Tuesday and will be available out of the bullpen for Tuesday night’s game against the A’s at Safeco Field.

The Mariners had an opening on their 25-man roster because of the Erik Bedard trade on Sunday.

Wilhelmsen, 27, made Seattle’s Opening Day roster after being out of baseball from 2006-09 and never having pitched above Class A ball. His unique story, a top baseball prospect who instead worked as a bartender afer walking away from the game, garnered considerable attention. Here’s a piece I wrote on him in Spring Training as he began looking like a guy whose long-shot might come in.

He posted a 5.59 ERA in eight relief appearances with the Mariners before being optioned to Jackson on May 17.

Wilhelmsen went 4-5 with 5.49 ERA in 14 games with Jackson, including 12 starts.

The Mariners have restructured their pitching staff in recent days, trading away starters Bedard and Doug Fister as well as reliever David Pauley.

We haven’t had a chance to talk with Mariners skipper Eric Wedge yet today, but Wilhelmsen likely will be used as a reliever with the Mariners, who have announced that Charlie Furbush will move into the starting rotation on Wednesday against the A’s to take Bedard’s place.

Rookie Blake Beavan started in Fister’s spot on Monday and picked up the victory in an 8-4 victory over Oakland.

There has been talk of going to a six-man rotation in order to ease the load on young Michael Pineda, but that doesn’t seem likely at this point given the number of off days coming up in August.

The Marineres will use one of those this Thursday, for example, to push Pineda back until Tuesday in Texas. With the off day, they can keep Felix Hernandez, Jason Vargas and even Furbush on a five-day schedule and put Pineda at the back end of the rotation and give him an extra four days rest.

Meanwhile, here’s tonight’s lineups for the 7:10 p.m. start against the A’s:

Mariners (46-62)
——————————-
51  Ichiro Suzuki (L)     RF
26  Brendan Ryan          SS
13  Dustin Ackley (L)     2B
20  Mike Carp (L)         DH
4  Adam Kennedy (L)      3B
30  Miguel Olivo          C
17  Justin Smoak (S)      1B
33  Casper Wells          LF
21  Franklin Gutierrez    CF
——————————-
34  Felix Hernandez       RHP

Athletics (49-60)
——————————-
19  Jemile Weeks (S)      2B
4  Coco Crisp (S)        CF
55  Hideki Matsui (L)     LF
16  Josh Willingham       DH
15  Ryan Sweeney (L)      RF
28  Conor Jackson         1B
8  Kurt Suzuki           C
36  Eric Sogard (L)       SS
29  Scott Sizemore        3B
——————————-
18  Rich Harden           RHP