The Mariners have released lefty Ariel Miranda, as reflected on the MLB.com transactions page. The move was made to enable Miranda to pursue an opportunity with an organization in Japan, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times reports on Twitter.

While the 29-year-old Miranda spent all of 2017 in the Seattle rotation, he managed only a 5.12 ERA in 160 frames on the year. He has taken just one start in the bigs thus far in 2018 and obviously was not viewed by the club as an essential depth piece.

For most of the present season, Miranda has worked at Triple-A. Through 45 1/3 innings, he carries a 3.97 ERA with forty strikeouts and 24 walks — numbers that largely reflect his limited prior work in the upper minors.

Miranda originally joined the Orioles organization out of his native Cuba. He was sent to the M’s in the 2016 deadline deal that delivered Wade Miley to Baltimore.