Games afoot, bringing new set of Mariners questions
This story was excerpted from Daniel Kramer’s Mariners Beat e-newsletter. To learn the total e-newsletter, click on right here. And subscribe to get it often in your inbox.
Here are 4 issues to look at now that the Mariners’ spring slate is underway:
1. How will the Mariners deal with their World Baseball Classic guys?
The Mariners’ huge run producers who will quickly be off to play within the World Baseball Classic — Julio Rodríguez (Dominican Republic), Teoscar Hernández (D.R.) and Eugenio Suárez (Venezuela) — will see extra motion early with a view to get their timing down and face as a lot dwell pitching as doable earlier than being thrust into the playoff-like depth that awaits in baseball’s grandest worldwide event.
“They’re not going to play on consecutive days right out of the chute, but they’ve all expressed their desire to get more at-bats than they typically get early in the spring,” Mariners supervisor Scott Servais mentioned.
Seattle additionally has three pitchers — Matt Brash (Canada), Matt Festa (Italy) and Diego Castillo (D.R.) — heading out, they usually’ll probably get precedence innings early earlier than leaving the primary week of March.
2. What concerning the beginning pitchers?
It’s no secret that the Mariners will ease in George Kirby and Logan Gilbert this spring, however how they really deploy them will stay of intrigue till the plan is seen in motion.
“You reverse-engineer it,” Servais mentioned of mapping their workloads. “You look at what the rotation is probably projected to be coming out when the season starts and then work backwards from there.”
Seattle hasn’t introduced when Kirby and Gilbert — each of whom have been throwing bullpens on flip — will make their Cactus League debuts. Regardless, the expectation is that each will likely be constructed as much as 5 innings and the 80- to 85-pitch threshold by Opening Day.
3. Which younger pitchers will take the following step?
The mixture of WBC sendoffs, the Kirby-Gilbert scenario and return to a six-week Spring Training for the primary time since 2019 ought to unlock extra innings than in an in any other case “normal” yr for a bevy of bullpen arms competing for eight roster spots.
Many of these spots are already locked up, however for those who don’t break camp, the impression they make within the coming weeks may put them on the radar for later this summer time.
“You need more than eight,” Servais mentioned. “So the depth that we have is really important. … There are a few interesting young guys, too, like there always is in every camp. Someone is throwing 97, 98 [mph], and you’re intrigued by it. That’s what excites me — how could this guy fit into our plans as we go along.”
4. Who’s essentially the most attention-grabbing man to observe?
Asked this very query, Servais listed off a “number of young arms” after which talked about Harry Ford by title. The 20-year-old catcher has maybe essentially the most upside within the group, and never only for his No. 1 rating (No. 49 total) amongst Mariners prospects.
Ford possesses unbelievable power, a required attribute for a catcher, however he pairs it with uncommon athleticism and elite bat-to-ball abilities that — if he stays at catcher, which all indicators level to — may make him the following big-ticket headliner to emerge from Seattle’s pipeline within the coming years.
Ford gained’t be within the Majors this yr, that means he gained’t be in Cactus League video games for lengthy, both, because the Mariners wish to allocate extra at-bats to their huge league roster. But earlier than he departs for the WBC, enjoying for Team Great Britain, he’ll be the Mariners’ most intriguing participant to look at.
