Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Michael Arroyo HEADLINES Seattle Mariners Early Spring Training Takeaways | Mailbag Monday

Episode Date: February 23, 2026

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The first weekend of spring training games is in the books. Now let's answer your questions coming out of it. Colby, hit it. You are Locked-on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Ahoy, Sailors, it is Monday, February 23rd, 2026. You're listening to the Lockdown Mariner's podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network,

now the number one sports podcast network. My name is Tiding Gazzalas, and I'm joined as always by my co-cove-Colby Patnode. We're two lifelong Marins fans have been covering the team for over half a decade. And today, we're opening up the mailbag like we do here every single Monday and answering some of your Mariners questions. But before we do, I want to shout out our title sponsor today. FanDuel, use your profit boost on an NBA future and get entered for your chance to win a trip to the NBA finals. Play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA.

Kicking us off here on Mailbag Monday is David who wants to know, what are your highs and lows from the small sample size of spring training thus far? So in other words, what are our takeaways? from the first three games of spring training so far. Not a ton because it's only been three games of spring training. You know, baseball being played on, you know,

February 20th through the 22nd. You know, as far as lows go, there are none because no one's gotten hurt, which is a high in itself. And then in terms of the, you know, the highs,

I think it would be that, you know, the prospects have really dominated the conversation so far. Obviously, Michael Royal has been fantastic so far in game. games offensively, maybe not so much defensively. But he had the really good game on Friday with the first homer of the spring for the Mariners, you know, that opposite field rip that he had.

And then also had an opposite field double into the right center field gap. So that was pretty cool. And then yesterday he had a couple of really hard hit balls. And then, you know, Colby Kate Anderson has had an impressive camp so far. We haven't been able to see it, see it. But, you know, outside of, you know, videos that have been taken from behind the cage. but I know the club has been really excited about what he's done and those opportunities. And hopefully we'll be able to get to see him soon in games.

Yeah, it sounds like you're going to get to see him this week, sometime early this week, next couple days. And hopefully during a televised game, that would be nice to watch. But, yeah, Anderson and Sloan really kind of stealing the headlines right now in terms of like in Cactus League play, Michael Arroyo's probably the guy who stands out the most. I mean, Las Montes had a really nice bat against Mason Miller, but whatever. Yeah, Royo kind of stealing the show in terms of, you know, Cactus League games. And then in spring training, it's been the two rookie pitchers or the two, you know, prospects. And it sounds like both of them are probably going to pitch in a big league game this week.

Anderson before Sloan, Anderson dominated another live BP and people are really excited about that. So we'll see how that goes. But, you know, the overall, I mean, the big positive out of the early, you know, small sample size of camp in the Cactus League is nobody's hurt. And that's really the only thing that matters at this point. There are no lows. It doesn't matter that, you know, Bizarro only got one out. He also threw a couple pitches that, you know, might have been strikes, might not have been. They decided not to challenge whatever.

You're out of that inning if those are strikes. So, yeah, it doesn't matter. Like those guys could have a bigelian ERA. It doesn't matter. Like just get to the season healthy. Get your work in. Get your reps in. And you'll be fine. And that goes for everybody. You know, Rayleigh's had a couple of hits and some nice at bats. That's good to see. You know, Robles has had a couple hits. So that's nice to see. But ultimately, just get your work in, get healthy, stay healthy and get out of the game. And let's get to opening day. Because you guys remember last year, they unfortunately couldn't get out of camp. And it's been two years in a row now that they haven't been able to get out of camp without a significant injury. You know, a couple years ago was Matt Brash. This last year, it was.

George Kirby, who had to start the year on the IL. So get out of camp as healthy as you possibly can. And right now, so far, they are doing that, but we are about a month away. So yeah, the good news is nobody's gotten her. That is far and away, the most important thing of the camp so far. Code mode wants to know. Do you have any guesses on who's going to start on opening day this year?

So I assume you mean who's going to be the starting pitcher, who's going to be the opening day starter for the merits? So last year it was Logan Gilbert. this year i think it's going to be brian woo i think he earned it last year it could still be Logan you think it's going to be Logan again yeah i think you know Logan is a guy that the mayors want to reward both with a new contract but also just in general he is kind of the the staff leader uh he's very involved in everybody else's bullpins and they're you know he's very attentive and he's there and that's not to say Brian woo

isn't we know that the starters are all close and they watch each other's bullpins and all that but uh you know logan is is the is the cow rale of that pitching staff where he is just like the unquestioned leader and you know again was woo better last year sure was logan terrible last year no no he just you know couldn't get deep in the game so uh i think it'll be logan but yeah it could be woo i mean it's one of those two guys right i mean they're not going to surprise to give it to george kirby but does it really matter? No. I mean, like, I don't think if you, I don't think if you named Brian Wu the opening day starter, it just crushes like any chance of Gilbert signing an extension or anything like that. So it doesn't matter. But I think it'll be low. And if it did, then you got bigger

issues. Yeah. Then Logan probably was never going to sign here. Let's be honest. But I think it'll be Logan. I think they want to reward him. And he was good enough last year that it's justifiable. So yeah, I think it'll probably be he'll get game one. I think we'll get game two. And then you know probably Kirby Castillo Miller in that order assuming they're all healthy of course yeah you know my dad always asked me like what's the rotation going to be

you know on opening day and all that like who's going to start on opening day and the thing that I always tell my dad is like look the order of the rotation really doesn't matter especially because like later on in the season it's going to change yeah but like the opening day starter aspect of it though like that's a cool thing especially for whoever you know gets chosen to

do it like that's a really cool thing being an opening day started because there's only 30 of those guys every single year. So the year where the Mariners gave it to Eric Bedard over Felix. Yeah. Yikes. I would say that Brian Wu absolutely earned it over the course of

2025. But if they want to give it to Logan, that's fine. That's fine. I mean, I really don't like care that much at the end of the day. But I would give it to Brian. If I was Dan, I would give it to Brian. All right. We will answer more of your questions in just a moment. But first a reminder of this episode of the Locktime Marys podcast is brought to you once again by Fandul.

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Thank you so much for making us your first listen for all things, Mariners, and also thank you for making Lockdown the number one sports podcast network. Baseball is back, and you can lock in by joining the Everydayer Club, which gets you add free episodes and access to our group chat on Discord. For the next week or so, you can use the promo code spring. That's S-P-R-I-N-G for a free month. Go to Lockdown Mariners.com or tap the link in the description to learn more.

Also, tomorrow we'll be kicking off our top 50 Mariners Moments bracket, which means we have a winner in our playing matchup. Who's advancing, Colby? Well, in a rousing victory for recency bias, Dylan Moore's Grand Slam, pretty thoroughly destroyed the combined no hitter. So, yeah, Dylan Moore's Grand Slam advances. The matchup at one point got to about 66 to 33, but ultimately ends up being 7030 in favor of Dylan Moore.

So yes, I imagine recency bias will play quite a role in our in our poll going forward. So, you know, if you're of an older generation who doesn't want your history race, maybe you might want to start voting on this because now, to be fair, this sample size was found on Twitter. So we'll see how different it is from. I mean, it was also in the description of Friday's episode. Yeah. You know, we probably should have added a question there.

Like, hey, did you come to the, did you find the poll via Twitter or via the episode? blah, blah, whatever. Doesn't matter. Yes, the whole thing kicks off tomorrow. Right now, as you guys are listening to this, there will be a video showing the first 14, the buy week teams or whatever you want to call them. They are automatically advancing to round two.

Tomorrow, Ty and I will go through all around one and just tell you guys the bracket and probably give you our quick thoughts and picks on each one of them. There's 18 matchups, so I'm not going to dive too deep into them, but there will also be a video attached to those. on a separate channel, not this one, that we will link in the description. And it just shows the plays in case you guys aren't quite sure what we're talking about when we mentioned the moments and all that.

So yeah, be on the lookout for that. The link to the first 14 will be in the description of this episode. The link to kind of the companion guide, if you will, to the first round matchups will be in tomorrow's episode description. Yeah. Now, is it recently biased on the Dillmore Grand Slam? A little bit. I mean, we're talking about a combined no hitter.

I mean, yeah, that's cool. But like the Dillmore Grand Slam. Grand Slam in July, combined no hitter. Yeah, that's, yeah, sure. Roughly the same historical significance. I mean, I mean, what that meant for the rivalry with the Astros. I would argue the Abraham Toro Grand Slam meant more, which spoilers is not in our top 50 moments. So, gee, I wonder whose fault that was.

You, you didn't fight for it. You're like, oh, that's way better than any cycle. Like, what you know? There are no cycles in the top 50 either, by the way. Yeah. So. Yeah. Yeah, I made sure we got rid of all the cycles.

Just, just remember, guys, if your favorite moment isn't in the top 50, it's probably did it because we hate you. And we wanted you to personally feel the sting. Yeah, it was a personal attack against you. And your fandom. You, you watching right now, you look directly into your soul. Yeah. that's right we did it to screw with you that's right

let's get back to your questions anonymous anonymous wants to know to me garver and revos are making the team and uh colt emerson and andrew kisner are not and uh vargas and legamina are to me the last spot really up for grabs is the eighth man in the bullpen who do they choose someone without options i'm guessing yeah it's chriswell

yeah if leg of legge Mena makes it, then it's Chriswell. Though I kind of feel like he's going to make it. I think Hancock makes it over Legamina. And then Chris Ruhl. I think they try to get Legamina through. And if they don't, they're okay with that. They built up the pile arms with Zuluetta and Rob and Robinson Ortiz and Hoppe and blah, blah, blah, blah.

Cole Will Cox. So yeah, I actually don't agree with you. I think Rivas makes it sure. But I think Kisner will win the backup job. That one, flip a coin, who cares. But yeah, I think there's two bullpen spots up for grabs because Vargas is going to make it. I don't think Legamina is going to make it. So I would disagree with you there.

Chris Well, I think is probably going to make the squad as things sit right now. So yeah, at the end of the day, I do agree there's probably one bullpen spot up for grabs. Yeah. Maybe two, maybe two because Chriswell's not a guarantee, but they like him. They think he's like really good rotation depth as well. And, you know, he doesn't have options. and he's probably not going to clear. So, yeah, I think the other guy might be Hancock, but they, I don't know.

They still really haven't committed. Like, everyone's like, oh, well, obviously he's going to stay in the rotation now. And people are just, Mariners haven't said that. Yeah. Like, everybody's kind of assumed it, but the Mariners haven't confirmed it. I don't know. I think we've seen all we need to see from Emerson, Hancock as a starter. And by the way, like, are we sure Hancock's even the number six?

Like obviously, like somebody, you know, has a neck cramp or something. You need to skip a start. You need a spot start. Hancock fine. But like if somebody misses a month or two months, are we sure Hancock's the guy they're giving the ball to to fill that rotation spot? Because I don't know. Like how soon before Kate Anderson is just that number six guy.

Right. It might be right away. Like it might have already happened. We don't know. Like obviously Anderson's not going to need a lot of time in the minors. So we'll see. But yeah, Hancock, if they don't want to keep them stretched out, then yeah, I think Hancock probably gets that last bullpen spot would be my guess. Next question here from Colby, not that Colby, different Colby, wants to know if Michael Arroyo goes off this spring, when is the earliest we see him?

And will it be in the outfield or the infield? I'm not sure how he gets there without injuries or he just absolutely destroys, you know, double A pitching. And then probably needs at least a cup of coffee in AAA. And I think they call them up, it would be in kind of a true role player mode where it's be like, yeah, he'll play some second, he'll play some third, he'll play some left. And we'll just live with the defense because we trust the bat that much. So I think the answer to the second part of your question is actually yes. I don't think that's a joke.

Like, yes, he'll play infield, he'll play outfield. But, yeah, when could you see it? June, July, maybe. Yeah, it's just how do you clear the path for him to get ample playing time where it actually makes sense because you don't want to call him up and then you're only playing him once, maybe twice a week. Like you want to play him at least three to four times a week if he's coming up. And it's just like, how do you do? Now, obviously injuries can happen, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But like right now, as things currently stand, how is Michael O'Royle getting playing time right now?

Basically, you would need Robles and Rayleigh to just be bad like they were last year or hurt. because at that point then your right field platoon can kind of be refsnyder and and uh can zone and then maybe you could dh your oil and that's the way to get them in the lineup regularly uh but yeah i mean you're at least like you're at least two or three months away from that even being a realistic possibility and just you know cut this off at the past there is no chance he makes the opening day roster none zero zip zilch um not going to happen uh he was pretty good in double a last year, not good enough to force the Mariners hand, not good enough for him to be a real shot here. And keep in mind, you know, to play in the infield, he would have to be better than Emerson and

Young because he's not a short stop. Josh and I ain't going anywhere. So he'd have to be better than Emerson or Young, not to mention Donovan, who's in front of both of those guys. And again, you're not calling him to be a bench guy. So being better than Leo Rivas really doesn't matter in this case. So the outfield is where he has his best shot to break through. But even then, you kind of need Rayleigh or Canzon.

And you need Robles or Ref Snyder to be bad, like really bad, like DFA worthy bad. And I just don't see that as a real possibility anytime soon. So sometime in the middle of the summer around the All-Star break would be my best guess at the earliest. You could see them unless, of course, there are injuries, which, oh, do the Mariners ever suffer injuries? Yeah. So do baseball teams ever suffer injuries? Yeah. Yeah.

It just happens. But like, yeah, just right now, just with the way that everything is constructed, I just don't really know how you get him the playing time that he would really need. That'll probably answer itself at some point. I feel pretty confident that we'll see Michael O'Royo at the big league level at some point, as long as he stays healthy and performs relative to expectations. I feel pretty confident that we're going to see him sometime in 20. 26. I just, it could be September, honestly. I mean, you kind of hope it is. Like,

everybody's just healthy and performing so much. You don't have room for Michael Arroyo. It's ideal. I mean, honestly, ideal. Cole Demerson wasn't up until September if we're being honest. But, yeah, I mean, I think maybe the interesting thing here to watch for Arroyo the rest of camp is does he start the year back in Arkansas or do the Mariners think he's ready for Tacoma after a very short trip in Arkansas? All right. We will answer. a couple more of your questions than just a moment. But first, a reminder of this episode of the lockdown errors podcast is brought to you by Indeed. Hiring isn't just about finding someone willing to take the job. It's about finding the right person with the right background who can

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status it deserves at Indeed.com slash podcast. That's Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply hiring. Do it the right way with Indeed. And you're listening to the Locktime Marriss podcast, part of the lockdown podcast network, your team every day. As always, if you want to hear from me and Colby even more and help support the show, we have a Patreon. It's called Control the Zone.

And on there we talk, Maris, Seahawks, all the good stuff. For more information, go to patreon.com forward slash control the zone. Link in the description of this episode. Getting back into your questions here on Mailbag Monday, Craig wants to know why hasn't Brendan Donovan played in a spring training game yet? I think we should first acknowledge the fact that he has been participating in live BP pretty much every single day. Like he's getting netbats.

He's getting reps. He just hasn't gotten into a game yet. And I think that's twofold. One, I mean, everything has started, you know, earlier than usual because of the WBC. And right now it seems like the Mariners are prioritizing,

getting playing time for the guys that are going to the WBC. For Donovan, you know, he did have sports hernia surgery back in October. So maybe they're just trying to slow play it with him a little bit here. You know, he's not someone that's going to the WBC, so they don't really need to, you know, fast track him or anything right now. There's still so much time left. And look, last year, and this is a very different situation.

So don't get me wrong here. But, you know, last year, Jorge Polanco didn't play for a while. And we were like, what's going on there? And that was super concerning because obviously he had the surgery on his knee and all that stuff. And Jorge Polanco went on to be fantastic last year. So, you know, I'm not concerned about Donovan right now, especially because, again, he's getting live reps almost every single day on the backfields right now. And I assume he'll be in a game at some point, probably sometime later this week, if I had to guess. Yeah.

I mean, there's no reason to be concerned. You know, as far as we know, he's not hurt. And obviously, since he's getting the live reps and he's, you know, participating in everything else, there's really no. reason to suspect he is. Yeah, I mean, the Mariners have kind of already said like, yeah, you know, he's going to play a lot. We just, we want to make sure he's comfortable at third and we want to make sure that we manage his workload throughout the year here. And we're going to play a lot of games with a lot of open positions. And so Donovan's going to get his at-bats. He's going to get plenty of them. It's not really an issue. There is nothing to be

concerned about with Donovan, not yet playing in the Cactus League. I mean, especially since we're three games in, about to be four. It's February 23rd. Yeah. But opening day isn't until March 26. Like there's so much time. Talk to me next week if he hasn't played yet. And then I'll be like, noteworthy. Still not worried, but it's noteworthy at that point. Sure. Sure. Yeah. But right now again,

because we know that he's getting the reps and because there's the context of all these guys that are, you know, getting priority, you know, because they're going to the WBC, all that, you know, and also like right now, I think they want to prioritize giving Cole Emerson some runway and Cole Young some runway as well because that's a far more important thing right now. Like, you know where you're going to get out of Brendan Donovan. You don't necessarily know what's going to happen with Cole Young,

Cole Emerson yet. So given those guys runway, that's the more important thing to me. So, yeah, again, like I said, I think Donovan will play in a game at some point this week, maybe even tomorrow, who knows? Jay wants to know, with the Mariners pitchers, batting outperform the Mariners hitters pitching or vice versa.

So essentially like if the position players and the pitchers on the mayor's rosters reverse roles who would be better at the other's job. I think Bryce Miller would tell you that the mayor's pitchers hitting would be better than the mayor's hitters pitching.

Well, let me ask you this. Are they facing each other? I assume so. Like is Bryce Miller hitting and like Julio is pitching? Like is that? Or are they facing other, like in other teams major leaguers? Because that changes things that we're talking about. Other teams made the position player pitching has the advantage over the pitcher hitting because if the pitcher is trying to hit against like Mason Miller,

probably not going to go that well. But if the pitcher is trying to hit against, you know, I mean, Jake Croner was a bad example because he can actually throw his pitcher back in the day. They're going against like, you know, Felix for mean or whatever. that's not even a real player anymore, Freddie for me, then like, yeah, I would give the advantage to the pitcher hitting

because most of these guys played baseball, like they didn't just pitch, right? They were the best shortstop on their team where they were the third baseman who also pitched or whatever. Like most of these guys didn't give up hitting entirely until college.

And so they're still good athletes. They still are baseball players. And if you're going to, you know, groove them batting practice fastballs, I bet Bryce Miller and Brian, we could put together an impressive batting practice. I'm not sure if Logan Gilbert could, to be fair.

Just something about Logan swinging a bat that does not look like it would be natural whatsoever. But yeah, like pitchers are pretty good athletes. I think they could swing it. I think they could essentially like if you're throwing them the game equivalent of BP, I think they would put on a bit of a show. But if they're having to face like real major league pitchers, then I'd rather have the hitters pitch to the real major league hitters because the Velo would be so low and we've seen it, right?

Like Revos up there just like throwing these moon balls and whatever. So yeah, it kind of depends on the context. But if they're facing each other, like if they had this wacky spring game where they just flipped rolls, I would take the Mariners pitchers to win that game over the Mariners' singers. Same. Same. Yeah, because I mean like, has any Mariners position player pitched in their pass? Maybe.

I don't know. I can't think off the top of my head of anyone like pitched in high school or college. We lost back a couple of the big leagues. Yeah. But I mean like actually actually pitched. I don't think so. I mean, I'm sure at some point they have like people pitch.

You're a really good little league. Are you going to pitch? You're going to play shortstop. You're going to. But like if you, if you ask Bryce Miller, Bryce Miller would tell you with a straight face that you could probably hit like 30 home runs in a season. If you give him 600 played appearances.

I think if he was being honest with himself, I bet I could hit at least 200. But yeah, you'd probably tell you, yeah, I could hit 30. I'd give Cal run for his money. But I'd be inclined to buy into his confidence more than I'd be inclined to buy into the confidence of any marriage position player pitching if they were going head to head against one another. So I mean, I don't know. Maybe Julio's got a nasty like spike change or something that we don't know about. I don't, I don't know.

But yeah, I'll take the Mariners pitch. against the Mariners hitters if they were going to play each other with reversed roles. All right. Well, that's going to do it for a show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Locktime Marrars podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. And once again, if you never miss an episode, it's time to make it official. Join the Lockdown Every Day or Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members, only Discord, and more.

All bill for our most loyal fans. For Colby Patnode, I'm Tadengazales. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L.O. underscore Maris. You can follow me at Tadangazales and Colby at C-Pat 11 and CPAT-1. We're also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB Colby, and the show at Lockdown Maritors. You can also find us on Instagram at Lockdown Maritors. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you next time.

Peace.