Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Meet the 2021 Mariners!

Episode Date: April 1, 2021

D.C. Lundberg talks about every single player on the Seattle Mariners Opening Day roster. Yeah, that's basically the show. And because it's also April Fool's Day, the show is... a little different. 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.

Today on Locked-on Mariners, we have a cold open. Welcome to Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on podcast Network, your team every day. Here's your host, D.C. Lundberg. Yeah, it is opening day, gang. First game of this season is tonight. And it also happens to be April Fool's Day, but even with that, it's going to be a very straightforward show, no gimmicks, no April Foolery of any kind. Today we will be talking about the Mariners' opening day roster here on Locked on Mariner's. partners, part of the locked on podcast network, or T-L-O-P-N, or T-L-O-P-N, or T-L-L-N, of course.

Please remember to download, rate, and follow this program on whichever podcasting app that you personally care to use. Ask your smart device to play Locked-on Mariner's podcast or any program here on T-Loppin. It is very easy to do. All you got to do is say, hey, smart device, play Locked on Team M-Hare podcast. Well, gang, the opening day roster is set. We are going to talk about pretty much all of the players on said 26-man roster. And like I said, even though it's April Fool's Day, I'm not going to do anything weird.

It'll just be a very straightforward introduction to the 2021 Mariners. We'll begin behind the plate. Going into spring camp, there was pretty much no question as to who the two catchers were going to be, barring injury, of course. Last year, the M's organizational catching depth was put on display. It was not great. This season, however, both catchers are healthy. Tom Murphy is back after missing olive last year with a bad foot.

The plan last year was to have Murphy catch about 55% of the games and have Austin Nola catch the other 45. I think there's a similar plan in place this year for Murphy and Luis Torrens, who was acquired from the Padres, in the deal that sent Nola to San Diego. In 25 total Major League games last year, Terence slashed 257, 325, 375. He hit his first Major League home run with the M's and hit 254 in 18 games with Seattle.

Murphy had a breakout season of sorts with the 2019 Mariners, his age 28 season. After playing a combined 81 games with the Rockies from 2015 to 18, where he slashed 219, 271, 439, he was waived towards the end of spring camp in 2019 and was claimed by the Giants on March 25th. days later, however, on March 29th, the Giants traded him to the Mariners for minor league pitcher Jesus Azoria. For the M's in 2019, Murphy's offensive numbers surged, a 273, 324, 535 slash line in 281 played appearances, with 12 doubles and 18 home runs. His strikeout rate went down as well, but it was still on the high side, almost 23%. He even pitched a few ball games in mop-up duty, which was fun to watch and actually impressive. He had a pretty good slider. I wouldn't want him

coming out of the bullpen on a regular basis, though, but it was still fun to watch. But it was still fun to watch. Moving over to the infield, we will discuss the corners before taking a pause. Evan White is going to begin this season as the M's first baseman. Last year, he simply looked overmatched against Major League pitching, and his bat was clearly not ready for the bigs yet. However, this spring he cut down a strikeout rate and led the team an RBI. As inconsequential as spring training stats are, that is at least something the young man can hang his hat on. Plus, he does offer a gold-glove defense at first base.

White is one of the young guns the Ms are going to build their team around. And I do believe he'll one day be a very good Major League Baseball player. But for this year, I'm going to be very cautious in my expectations. And I wouldn't be surprised to see him back at Triple A at some point. point. I hope I'm wrong about that. The other first baseman on the roster is Jose Marmalai House, who offers the M's some versatility, as he can also play left field and maybe right field in a pinch. Marmo won two, Washington National's organization, Minor League Player of the Year Awards, before a couple of injuries stalled his progress. When healthy, though, he did nothing but

destroy minor league pitching. He came to the M's last year as a non-roster invitee, and may the club after very impressive spring and summer camps. The M's loved his versatility, and I don't think they thought left field was in his repertoire, or at least I don't know if they thought he could play left field adequately. He can't. He struggled big time at the plate, though, to begin the season, hitting 103 before being sent to the alternate training site.

He was later recalled prior to a double-heder as the extra man on the roster absolutely mashed in both games, and the meritor sent out a pitcher instead of Marmo after the doubleheader was over. He raised his average from 103 to 206 by season's end, and after his recall slashed 244, 314, 487, with five home runs in 78 at bats. Moving over to third, and this is most likely, the final season, Kyle Seeger, will be a mariner. Or at least that is what I'm foreseeing. His days of hitting in the 260s with the slugging average,

around 500 are long gone. His defense is not what it once was, and the Mariners are definitely getting younger. This will be Seeger's age 33 season, and he's clearly in decline. Last season, he actually started up pretty good, and I thought that he had been rejuvenated after a couple of injury-filled seasons. He did play all 60 games for the Mariners last season, and in the first 30, he slashed 291, 377, 515, very impressive. I did not think he was going to be able to sustain those types of numbers, but I also didn't expect the fall to be so sharp.

In the team's final 30 games, he slashed just 190, 333, 350. He was still getting on base, but the sting in his bat just wasn't there anymore. Both members of the Kyle connection started strong, but finished weekly. Kyle Lewis's first and second half numbers were even more dramatic a swing. Seeger's contract expires at seasons end, and I would be pretty surprised if the Mariner's decided to extend him. I also would not be surprised to see him traded at the deadline if he's having a decent season, especially if a third baseman on a contending team winds up with some sort of injury. I'll talk about Ty France here as well, who will mostly be the Mariner's designated hitter this year, and he turned in one of the hottest springs of anyone in Major League.

Baseball. In the Locked-on MLB Season Preview show of the AL West last Friday, Locked on Fantasy Baseball host Scott Cullen called him Second Baseman Ty France. Let's not kid ourselves. Ty France is not a second baseman. He is fantasy eligible at second base, although I don't know if he's going to be fantasy eligible at second in 2022. He's more suited to be a corner. He's not very rangy at second base, but he generally catches what he gets to. But the man can hit. That's his calling card. He's hit everywhere he's been. And in his 43 games in 2020 split between the Padres and Mariners, he slashed 305, 368, 468. He was also part of the deal that set Austin Nola to the Padres along with Danilte Villa.

France tends to fly under the radar, so much so that even I overlook him at times, I should not do that. And I apologize to tie France. When speaking about the future of at third base, I often want to give the crown right to Dylan Moore. I say that he's the future third base. Thai France is in that mix as well, ladies and gentlemen. I do foresee a situation where if Shedlong Jr. He plays well enough this year to play second base, and Dylan Moore also has a good season,

that Moore and France might share time at both third base and DH, much like the Mariners did with Edgar Martinez and Mike Blowers, before Edgar became a full-time DH in 1995 because of injury. problems. Shedlong also plays a little third, but he's better suited for second base. Going back to talk about first base again, if Evan White struggles and is sent to Tacoma, then I would expect to see Thai France and Jose Marmalaeho split time at both first base and D.H. Marmo is a left-handed hitter while France hits righty. Also, if Kyle Seeger struggles, then France may see increased playing time at third base. Seeger is a left-handed hitter. However,

he has historically hit lefties pretty well, so I don't expect any sort of true platoon situation there. I do also foresee a possible platoon at first base between Evan White and Jose Marmalahos if White struggles but isn't sent down, although I think that might be a temporary solution, and most likely probably an unlikely one. Time for the trivia corner, and today, another trivia question. And since it is opening day and everyone's in a really festive mood, I decided, I decided to write a really easy trivia question, and it reads, Thusly, in the Mariners' Brewers game on April 26, 1996, what type of pitch was the 16th pitch of the game? Very easy question, like I said, and I'm sure that you have the answer by now.

In fact, I'm going to be a little embarrassed for you if you don't know. But just in case you don't, I'll tell you the answer after this word from the locker room. This episode is brought to you by the locker room, like I just said. Locker room is the first social audio platform made for sports fans. The app is free to download, and once you're in, you can talk with fans, athletes, and insiders in real time about your favorite team or sport. Locker room is the perfect place to start or join conversations about the league. You'll find fans there just like yourself on the locker room for watch parties,

debates, and postgame breakdowns, and of course reacting to big news or rumors. You can even find locked on hosts across the NBA. MLB, and NHL. I am not on Locker Room yet. It is not yet available for Android devices. I don't have an Apple phone, and I never will. But I hope to be joining soon when it becomes available for Android. In the interim, go over to the Locked-on A's Room, hosted by Jason Burke,

and tell him that D.C. Lundberg sent you. I want to know what he says. Go download the free Locker Room app now, currently available on all iOS devices. Be sure to create a profile, link your Twitter account if you have one, and join the MLB group for the latest league updates. I know you will find a ton of incredible rooms around your favorite teams and leagues. I'm looking forward to joining the app once it's available for Android,

and I'll be sure to let you know once the Lockdown Mariners Room is live. Download the locker room app today. Locker room changing the way we look at sports. Answer to the trivia question, again, really easy question for opening day. the 16th pitch of the Mariners' Brewers game on April 26, 1996, was a change-up thrown by Brewers' starting pitcher Scott Carle and County Stadium in Milwaukee. Scott Carl was very much like Jamie Moyer, and on the telecast that day, Ron Fairley said that Carl reminded him of John Tudor, the left-hander who pitched for the Cardinals and Dodgers. Mid-80s fastball, very good change-up, and pretty good control. Coming up,

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Thank you very much, J.M. Get all the sports news you need in under 20 minutes with the Locked On Today podcast. Host Peter Bikowski updates you on the latest in every major sport with the help of our local experts. Follow the Locked On Today podcast today on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast. Back to this Locked on Mariners opening day extravaganza talking about the opening day roster here on opening day. Next, we will discuss the middle infield. Going into camp, there was a position battle for the starting second base job. But Shedlong Jr., who played through a bad shin last year,

was not healthy enough to play in any spring games and just recently resumed. running and hitting, I believe. So Dylan Moore is going to be the everyday second baseman, at least to start things off. Moore is one of the more versatile players on the 40-man roster, but his bat took a huge step forward last season before a wrist injury stifled his offensive production. He even took over the second base job from Long last season after Long just never got on track, though through the Mariners first 40 games, more slash 287, 367, 529. However, from there on out, he played in just 14 of the Mariners' final 20 games with that wrist injury and also a concussion.

And in those 14 games, he slashed 200, 344-440. The power and on-base skills remained, but he struck out 17 times in those 50 at bats compared to just 26 strikeouts in his first 87 at bats. The future of second base is kind of up in the air. Dylan Moore could take the job and run with it, but as I say, said in A block, there's more than likely going to be a hold to fill at third base. If Shedlong comes back from his injury and puts up the type of numbers he did in 2019, I would not be surprised to see both more and long in the starting lineup in 2020 in some capacity, with maybe more at third base and long at second. However, again, Thai France is certainly

in the picture for third base. He could also see some playing time at second, but I don't surmise it'll be very much. The shortstop is JP. Crawford. Last year was supposed to be a test for Crawford. I know you've heard me talk about this before. At the All-Star break in 2019, he was slashing 277, 347, 466. However, after the break, that fell to 188, 288, 299. Well, that is an impressive on base percentage relative to that low batting average, both his contact ability and power pretty much disappeared. He did not have the stamina necessary to maintain his production throughout a full season. The Mariners asked him to hit the weights and bulk up and get stronger, so he could last a full season with no significant drop in production. He did what the Mariners asked, but last season was abbreviated, so he did not find out if that work paid off or not.

That will come this year. However, he had a really bad spring training and lost his job as the lead-off man. He will likely hit ninth for the Mariners, as they are going to put Mitch Hanager in the lead-off role. I'll explain that rationale here in a bit. Back to Crawford. If his production falls off the face of the earth in the second half like it did in 2019, or if he just never gets on track like he did this spring, then I would not be surprised to see the Mariners exploring other options at shortstop for next season.

The only other infielder I have yet to mention is Sam Haggerty. His main position is second base, but he can pretty much play anywhere except catcher. Upon being recalled last year, he got off to a very hot start. He will play a utility role for the M's this season, much like he did last year. His main asset is his versatility, and with the Mariners only carrying three bench players, including a reserve catcher, that makes a player like Telegram Sam just that much more valuable. Now the outfield, and we'll start in right, to where Mitch Hanager will be returning. In addition, Scott Service has alluded to Mitch Hanninger's days in center field being over.

However, Manninger might be the M's most well-rounded player right now, and the Mariners are pleased with what they saw out of him in spring training. And as I said in the piece about J.P. Crawford, Manninger is the Mariners lead-off hitter. The thinking behind this is to get their best offensive player as many at-bats as possible, and the lead-off hitter generally has more at-bats than the rest of the lineup. I don't mind Manninger as a leadoff hitter. He's not as fast as I would like my leadoff guy to be, and he doesn't steal nearly enough bases, but he's not slow by any stretch of the imagination.

And on the plus side, he is one of the better contact hitters on the team with extra base punch and pretty good on base skills. In 2017 and 18, Manager slashed a combined 284, 361, 492. 2019 was a throwaway year for him because of various injuries. As was last year, he missed the whole season following two back surgeries. It's great to have Manninger back as he was beginning to take on a leadership role in 2019. That's very important for this young team and will become even more important after Kyle Seeger plays his final game as a mariner. The situation in left field and center field changed over the last few days.

There were two main questions, both of them regarding center fielder and reigning rookie of the year, Kyle Lewis. Would he be able to play opening day? And if not, would he begin this season on the disabled list? The answers are no and yes, respectively. It was announced just after 6 p.m. last night, after I had already written more than half of this program, that Lewis will indeed begin this season on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to Monday.

Scott's service indicated that he would more than likely miss a few weeks. Taylor Tremel had made the team as the everyday left-fielder, and he will be making his Major League debut this evening after he put together one of the more impressive spring camps that any mariner had. He will not be playing left field, however. He will slide over to center until Lewis returns, and left field will be occupied by a tandem of Jose Marmalejos and Jake Fraley. But I would suspect that Telegram Sam would also see a game or two and left,

especially if he gets off to a start similar to what he had last year. Fraley was going to be headed to the minors until Lewis's injury. He got off to a terrible start this spring. and his two cups of coffee in 2019 and 20 were not impressive at all. Prior to spring training, Jerry Depoto indicated that Ace Frey was the frontrunner for the left field job, but his bad start combined with Tramel's great camp made Tramel the winner of the left field job. But Kyle Lewis's injury opened the door for Fraley to not only make the opening day roster, but to get a fair amount of playing time until Lewis returns.

And also, to be fair, Frayley closed out camp pretty well. However, when Lewis does return, I would suspect that Fraley is probably going to be the one to get sent down unless he is on a tear and Tramel is struggling. Telegram Sam is far too versatile to send down, which again is important since the Mariners are carrying so few reserve position players, and Marmalejos is out of minor league options. He would have to clear waivers prior to getting sent down. Plus, Fraley is pretty much limited to the outfield. He's never played first base in either college or his pro career.

If you have a question or a comment you would like me to address on the air, please do send it over to Locked-on Mariners at gmail.com. Questions and comments on any subject are welcome and encouraged. But please keep them appropriate. This is a family show. Coming up, we talk pitchy, talk pitchy, talk pitchy, talk pitchy, talk pitchy, talk pitch, and now this from betonline.org. A.G. Bet Online is the fastest and easiest way to bet on all your sports action. Football might be over,

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Follow Locked-on MLB Prospects on the Odyssey app or wherever the hell you get podcasts. Before we get back to the show, I just want to say something about the previous buildbar ad, so I don't get in trouble. On the off chance that someone out there did not catch on, that was obviously a joke, The finals are actually cookie dough chunk versus coconut brownie. Both are excellent flavors. I joke and I have a lot of fun during the belt bar ads because I like them. If I didn't like him so much, I wouldn't be so silly.

All right, with that out of the way, let's talk pitching. The Mariners are going to carry 14 pitchers this year, six starters and eight relievers. Marco Gonzalez is starting tonight against San Francisco. He is the clear number one starter in this rotation. The other five pitchers really didn't slide out in terms of a number two starter, or number three started, it had more to do with matchups and whatnot. And trying to spread out the two right-handers rather than have them pitch back-to-back days at the end of the rotation.

Marco's starting game one. Starting game two will be Yusay Kikichi. If you've been listening to the show, you know my feelings about him. His contract is unique. I wanted to see how long the Mariners had him signed through, and it's kind of odd. He is signed through this year, but from 2022 to 25, the Mariners have club options,

which they can exercise all at the same time upon the conclusion of this season for $16.5 million a piece. Kikichi also has a player option for $13 million next season. The Mariners like him, and even if his ERA is in the 5.5 range again, I wouldn't be surprised to see the M's try to retain him, even if that means declining his options and trying to sign him to a contract with a lesser value. It should also be noted that he turns 30 years old, in mid-June, so he's not an up-and-coming pitcher like much of the rest of the rotation and bullpen.

The season's third game will be started by Chris Flexen, one of the two right-handers in the rotation. He was signed to a major league contract prior to spring training after spending the 2020 season in Korea where he was very good. While his career as a major league who has been quite bad, he's reportedly figured some things out and impressed the Mariner's brass enough in spring to give him a rotation job. He has had control problems in the past, which have more manifested itself in hanging pitches that got hit hard, rather than issuing a ton of walks in his days in the high minors. In 2019 in AAA Syracuse, he had a hit to nine innings ratio of 10.8 and a home runs per nine innings ratio of 1.3.

And this was in 78 and 2 thirds innings. Last year for the Dusan Bears in 116 and two-thirds innings, those ratios were. fell to 7.5 hits per 9 and 0.5 home runs per 9. His strikeout and walk rates last year were rather similar to what they had been in 2019 in AAA. His walk rate for AAA Syracuse that year was 2.4 per 9. That's pretty good. Game number 4 will be started by Justice Sheffield, who had a very good 2020 season after unimpressive showings at the Major League level in 2018 and 19,

with the Yankees and Mariners respectively. His new two-steemed fastball served him well, and his hit rate fell from 11.2 per 9 in those two cups of coffee to a much more manageable 8.5 per 9. His home run rates fell as well, from 1.4 per 9 to 0.3 per 9 last year. His walk rate also improved, but I'd like to see that come down even a bit more.

It was 3.3 per 9 last year, which isn't terrible. It's about average. average across Major League Baseball last year was 3.5 walks per 9. James Paxton will start the fifth game. He was slated to pitch tomorrow in game two, but he had a very delayed start to a spring because of visa issues. Remember, he's a Canadian citizen. The Big Maple suffered through an injury plagued 2020.

It seems like every season he's dealing with some injury of some sort, but when he's healthy, he's excellent. His walk rate as a Yankee was significantly higher than it was as a mariner, but I think that'll go back down now that he's back in Seattle. I think he's very comfortable here, and New York is such a tough place to play. Rounding out the rotation will be Justin Dunn, who won the final rotation spot.

He's another pitcher I've talked a lot about in my past shows, so I'm not going to bother rehashing any of that now, plus I'm short on time, and I have to start wrapping this thing up. Nick Margevich's was in competition with Dunn for the final rotation spot, and while he did lose that battle, he has made the opening day roster, and will be the lone long reliever out of the bullpen, and he's next in line for a rotation spot

should someone suffer an injury. The closer is going to be Raphael Montero, who was acquired in a trade with the Texas Rangers. Kendall Graven is most likely going to be the primary setup man after transitioning from the rotation to the bullpen last season because of health issues. Southpaw Anthony Mosevic is backed after a very good rookie season out of the M's bullpen last year.

Casey Sadler has made the club, five draft choice Will Vess has also made the club, as has free agent signing Keenan Middleton, and Drew Steckenrider has also made the 26-man roster. Domingo Topia, who was acquired from the Red Sox organization, has an oblique injury, otherwise he probably would have made the big league roster. Once that heals, I'm guessing he probably will be in the major leagues at that point, and I'm not sure who's going to be sent out to make room for him. Free agent acquisition Ken Giles is recovering from Tommy John surgery,

and will more than likely be out for the year. There's a chance he could come back in September, but I doubt it. Well, gang, there's your opening day roster for the 2021 Mariners. First game is tonight at home versus the San Francisco Giants, a group of Bay Area natives with pituitary gland issues. Marco Gonzalez gets the opening day nod for the M's, and he will be opposed by Kevin Gosman. Tomorrow I will be talking about this game,

and I'll hopefully be talking about a win. Joining me will be Dr. Johnny Fever, Sergeant Floyd Pepper, and a can of Donald Duck orange juice concentrate. Please remember to download, rate, and follow, Locked on Mariners. Look for us on any podcasting app that may pop into your brainhead. Thank you for listening to today's show, ladies and gentlemen. I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope you enjoy this evening's game. I'll talk to you tomorrow. Have a great day. And so when I say not a caller,

sir, I am not caller from keeps here on the owing to see.