STANDISH, ME – Former Monks pitcher Charlie Furbush was traded from the Detroit Tigers to the Seattle Mariners on Saturday.

Furbush, in the midst of his first season in the major leagues, was dealt along with third base prospect Francisco Martinez – along with a player to be named later – for Mariners starter Doug Fister and reliever David Pauley.

Before the trade, the 6'5 left-handed pitcher made 17 appearances, including two starts, and posted a 3.62 ERA with 26 strikeouts and 14 walks in 32.1 innings for the Tigers. Furbush was called up by Detroit from Triple-A Toledo on May 23rd and earned his first MLB victory that night when he tossed 3.2 scoreless innings against the Tampa Bay Rays.

Considered to be one of the Tigers' top pitching prospects, Furbush made 73 appearances with 69 starts over four minor league seasons with 406 K's in 386 innings. The 2007 fourth-round draft pick ranked second in all of minor league baseball strikeouts in 2010, when he amassed 183 K's in 159 innings in stops at high-A Lakeland, Double-A Erie and Toledo.

Furbush was a two-way standout for the Monks during the 2005 and 2006 campaigns. He currently owns the program's career records for ERA (2.38), K/9 rate (12.2) and WHIP (0.95) and set single-season records for wins (10), strikeouts (115) and K/9 (13.9). Furbush helped lead the St. Joe's Baseball program to it's first-ever NCAA DIII Tournament appearance in 2006 and registered a victory against Bowdoin in his only tourney start.

He is expected to be in uniform for Seattle on Sunday when the Mariners wrap up a home series with Tampa Bay at 4:10 PM EDT. His new manager, Eric Wedge, has been quoted as saying that he will likely be in the starting rotation at some point but will need to be built up before making the jump from reliever to starter.

Also:

Mariners get haul from Tigers for Fister, Pauley - MLB.com

Mariners deal Doug Fister and David Pauley for future help - Seattle Times

Seattle sends Fister, Pauley to Detroit - MyNorthwest.com