Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mariners Pre-Spring Positional Outlook: The Infield

Episode Date: February 4, 2020

In part two of this four part series, D.C. Lundberg talks about the state of the Mariners' infield prior to Spring Training, and what it may look like as the regular season commences. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome, welcome to another edition of Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. You can access this program and all the others on the Locked-on Network on Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, or whichever podcasting app you like to use. Ask your smart device to play Locked-on Mariners podcast. It'll do it. Remember also that you can find the show on Twitter at L.O. underscore Mariners. I'm on Twitter as well, gang, at D.C. underscore Lunberg. L-U-N-D-B-E-R-G, if you're scoring in home. I hope you liked yesterday's look at the outfield. Today we're going to look at the infield.

But before we do that, a couple of roster moves to report. As I said on yesterday morning's program, the Mariners were interested in bringing in an outfielder with some majorly experienced because of Mitch Hanaker's injury. And while they did not do that, it was announced about six hours after the program was published that they claimed former Reds prospect Jose Siri off waivers. Siri had been DFAed by the Reds after they signed Nick Castellanos as a free agent.

Siri was at one time one of the better prospects in the Reds system. He's considered a very good defensive player and also looked like he was going to hit until he severely injured his thumb a couple years ago. His offensive numbers took a dive at that point and the Reds were ready to give up on him. He is on the Mariners 40-man roster and will be in Major League Training Camp. To make room on said 40-man roster for Siri, the Mariner's designated pitcher Matt Festa for assignment. Thesta had spent parts of the last two seasons at the Major League level.

I think that's a bit of a shame. I liked Festa, and I'm sure someone will claim him. I hope he goes on to have a successful career. In addition, it was announced yesterday that Gonzaga alum, Marco Gonzalez, has been signed to a contract extension. I will talk more about that when I break down the pitching staff on Thursday's show. But let's get into the infield. We'll start at first base, and I'm not exactly sure what's going to happen here.

The Mariners did sign Evan White to a major league contract during the offseason, despite him never playing above double A ball. He did hit 293 at Arkansas last season, 18 home runs, in 265 at bats. Good numbers for sure, and there are players who can make the jump from AA to the bigs. Juan Soto is the most obvious example, but it's a risk. I'd also like to see White try to cut down on a strikeouts and become a little more discerning at the plate based on his double A stats from last season. He is considered an excellent defender and a probable future gold glover,

which is an obvious upgrade over Daniel Vogelback. Speaking of Vogelback, while he has been working on his defense, it's just not there. He's not very mobile and is really nothing more than a DH. And as a DH, you need to hit, which is something he did for, at least part of last season. He was incredibly streaky. He had a very good April, but a pretty bad May, in OK June, and was 10th, terrible from there on out. At the All-Star break, he was hitting at 238 with 21 home runs. After the break, 162 with nine home runs. His strikeout rate went up and as walk rate went down.

A lethal combination. I like Voguey. He's an old school masher, but he's got to gain some consistency at the plate. He's always had a really good eye and the Mariners have been working with him to try to be more aggressive. He's almost been too passive at the plate, working himself into some tough counts, and he's had to try to hit some very tough pitches, which he's not able to do. He's going to strike out, I get that, but your DH needs to hit better than 208 for his season, which is what he did last year. His career major league average is only 205. Again, I like Vogue. I root for him. He's a likable guy.

He works his tail off. He's got the right attitude. And he had my favorite quote of all last season. Prior to the All-Star game, he said, I'm not analytic at all, which is refreshing in this era of overthinking and over-analyzing everything. Austin Nola also saw significant time at first base for the M's last season. We'll talk more about him in the second half of the program. Moving over to second base, you've got Prospect Shed Long and veteran D. Gordon.

Going into spring trading, I think the two of them will kind of split time at second base, probably going into the season as well. They're both left-handed hitters, and Dee Gordon's career numbers against right-handed and left-handed pitching are virtually identical. So a platoon situation really doesn't make sense. As the season progresses, I think Long will start to see more playing time there. Gordon can also play shortstop, and Long can play all over the place. Long mostly played second in the minors, but he's also long time at third base, left field shortstop,

and he was a catcher's first season and a half. The Mariners want him to focus on second base and develop there instead of developing into a utility player, and I highly suspect his days behind the dish are over. Beginning this season, he will be known as Shed Long Jr. And we'll switch from uniform number 39 to his own choice, number four. D. Gordon is in the last year of his contract. He's got a team option for 2021, but I'll eat my left shoe if the Mariners pick that one up. If he has a good first half of the season, I would not be surprised in the slightest to see him

traded by the deadline. The Mariners would likely have to remain on the hook for a large portion of a salary, but I'm okay with that. I'd rather have that happen and get a low-level prospect or a young non-prospect than to see him walk away at the end of the season and get nothing in return. Wow, that took a little longer than I thought it was going to. It's already time for a break. We'll talk about shortstop and third base and the bench in the second half of the program.

Before any of that takes place, Mariners Trivia. Which Mariner hitter holds the franchise single-state? season record for strikeouts. Who struck out the most in the season? The answer may surprise you, or it may not. Whichever the case, I'll tell you when we get back. And remember that if you've got any question

whatsoever you want to ask me or a comment on the show, please email it to Locked-on Mariners at gmail.com. I'll consider using it for the Friday mailbag segment. Remember, somebody asked me a question about pancakes. You can ask me about pancakes or breakfast meats, potato chips. I don't care.

Opinion questions, baseball questions. You can ask me about music, television. I don't care just as long as it's appropriate. Locked-on Mariners at gmail.com, remember, is the address. And Locked-on Mariners will return. Later. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for sticking around. This is the second half of Locked-on Mariners, hosted by me, D.C. Lunberg.

Trivia question, I asked before the break, which Mariner holds the single-season record for strikeouts? The answer, believe it or not, is Mike Cameron, who struck out 176 times in 2002. Not far behind is who I thought the answer was going to be. Jay Buehner, who struck out 175 times in 1997. Incidentally, Jim Presley is third with 172 in 1986. Now time to talk about the left side of the infield, and we'll start at shortstop. J.P. Crawford is going to be your shortstop, and man, is he fun to watch play defense.

He made the play of the Mariners season last year. I'm sure you know which one I'm talking about. It was the one where he was running to the hole and threw across his body midair. I do not know how he didn't wrench his back on that play. That was one of the best plays I've ever seen an infielder make. His range is above average at short and his glove is statistically exactly league average, which was an improvement from his 2018 season in Philadelphia. He's going to get better.

And if he develops as I think he can, he will be the anchor of that, infield for a long time. Among the acquisitions Jerry Depoto made last offseason in that fire sale, Crawford is my favorite. He is fun. Offensively, he needs to gain some consistency and he really faded down the stretch.

As he gains experience and plays more full seasons, I suspect that he will. However, he's got a nasty platoon split. He hit 95 points worse against left-handed pitching than he did against righties. That is something he can work on. He just

turn 25, so hopefully he can turn that around. I'd also like to see him walk a bit more and cut down on his strikeouts, which is beginning to be a recurring theme, but then again, I could say that about 75% of the American League. Third base is kind of an interesting situation. Kyle Seeger's there, and he's had a couple of down years, some of which can be attributed to injuries, some of which can be attributed to trying to bulk up a bit too much. He shed some muscle weight last season in an effort to be more loose at the plate and more mobile at third base. And it kind of worked. He had the injury at the beginning of the season, which certainly affected him,

and he played better in the second half. He hit 323 with a 1.166 OPS in August. Those are great numbers, but followed that up with a 202 batting average in September. He's 32 now. His days of hitting in the 260s and 270s are over. He's not the defensive third baseman he once was. I thought this guy was going to be a preemptive. he'll all-star when I first saw him, but he's just kind of a marginal major leaguer at this point.

It's kind of sad to watch. I hope he can bounce back. He's not going to, like I said, he's not going to hit 260, 270 anymore. If he breaks 250, he'll be happy. There were also some rumblings about him also being traded. He's got two years left on his contract, so it's kind of a different situation than D. Gordon, who just has this one. But like Gordon, if Seeger is traded, they're going to have to eat a lot of that salary.

But again, I'm fine with that. The Mariners did that in the Edwin Encarnacion deal. They did that to get rid of Robinson Canoe. So it's not like Jerry Depoto isn't willing to do that. The Mariners really don't have a major league ready prospect to take over the hot corner. I suppose they could move shed long over there and tried Donnie Walton at second base, but I really don't see that happening. They signed Patrick Wisdom to a contractor over the off season,

who figures to share time at third base with Seeger. He can play both corner infield spots and started playing the corner outfield spots at the AAA level last season also to try to make him more versatile, though as defensive numbers in the outfield do not look promising at all. Wisdom is a right-handed hitter who could start against lefties, but Seeger, a left-handed hitter, has a really weird platoon split in that he hits much better against lefties than he does righties. The Mariners' best third baseman coming up through the farm system is Joe Rizzo, who turns 22 at the end of March. He's probably a couple years away from making the major league.

and he was not invited to spring training. Last season, he hit 295 at Advanced A. Modesto. He hit 10 home runs and 30 doubles. However, he is statistically very poor defensively. And when I say very poor, we're talking Russ Davis territory. In fact, his numbers are actually worse than Davises. Very quickly going over the rest of the players who will play infield in spring training since I am running out of time. Dylan Moore is a virtual lock to make the team.

He can play second, third short. He can play first base, and he can also play in the outfield. Mariners also have Tim Lopes, very similar situation to Dylan Moore. He can play all over the place, also plays the outfield. Donnie Walton looks like he'll begin the year in the minors, I think. He's a middle infielder. His arm definitely plays better at second base than it does shortstop. Defensive specialist makes some contact.

Good type of player to have on your team. I think he projects more of a bench player than he does a starter. The other infielder the Mariners have on the 40-man roster is, Hamardy, who made his major league debut last season with the Mets, did not play very much. Spend most of the year in AA Binghampton or Binghampton, as I like to say. 259 average there. He did have a 310 average in AAA, but in only 42 at bats. Haggurty can play second base, third base, and a little bit of outfield.

Mariners still have Austin Nola, who will be their backup catcher, but he can also play all four infield positions, played a lot at first base last year, can play second, short, and third as well. The infielders, the Mariners, have invited to spring training as non-roster invitees are Jordan Cowan, Alan Hanson, Connor Hoover, and Jose Marmalajos. I like saying that name Marmalajos. Speaking of Marmalejos, actually, this has nothing to do with Marmales at all. But if you have been listening to this show or the other programs here on the Lockdown Network,

then I'm sure, I am just sure you've heard all the great advertisers working with Locked On to reach sports fans. But you may not know that Locked on Mariners, this program right here, is a great way for your local business to reach passionate Mariners fans that are exactly like you. Unlike any other podcast,

Locked On gives your local company the unique ability to reach local podcast listeners. Not just any podcast listener. I'm talking a Locked On podcast listener. If your company wants to connect with Mariner's fans and a predominantly male audience that is well educated with a disposable income, then let's put your company right here on this Locked-on podcast.

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I will be appearing on Locked on Brewers at some point this week. I'm not sure if that's going to happen today or if that show is going to be published on Wednesday or sometime later in the week. Check the show's Twitter page and my personal Twitter page. I'll keep you updated on when that's going to happen. We will talk about the pitching staff on Thursday's show. And tomorrow, the return of the baseball trivia game show, which now has a name. Taylor Blake Ward will be back right here on this very program to defend his championship against two newcomers.

Will he be able to do it? Tune in and find out. I say that like it hasn't been recorded already. We did it on Saturday, so I already know what happens. Anyways, download, subscribe, rate Locked-on Mariners, Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, any podcasting app you like, Ask your smart device to play Locked-on Mariner's podcast or Locked-on Anything podcast. Listen to every single show we have here. Tell your friends to switch on to the Locked-on Podcast Network, ladies and gentlemen.

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