Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - The Mariners' 2020 Vision

Episode Date: July 24, 2020

The first regular season game for the Seattle Mariners is tonight! D.C. Lundberg tells you just who made the opening day 30-man roster. There's an injury to a key player to discuss, and one big surprise: Who was left off the opening day roster? Which non-roster invitee wound up making the team after making splashes in both Spring and Summer Camps? 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.

Thank you for tuning in to Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Here's your host, D.C. Lundberg. Baseball is back, ladies and gentlemen. First games were last night. Everyone else begins today, including the Mariners. Welcome to this season kickoff edition of Locked-on Mariners, ladies and gentlemen, part of the Locked-on podcast network, or T-L-O-P-N-R-E. Tlopin. Please remember to download,

rate and subscribe to Locked-on Mariner's on Google Podcast, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, or whichever podcasting app that you personally care to use. Ask your smart device to play Locked-on Mariner's podcast

or any Tlopin program. Follow this show on Twitter at L-O-U-U-Sournerners and follow me on Twitter at D.C. underscore Lundberg. L-U-N-D-B-E-R-G is the spelling if you're scoring at home. Yesterday morning, ladies and gentlemen,

the mirrors announced their final 30-man opening day roster. I wish I could have gotten an episode up yesterday during the day when this information was fresh, but I have a day job, so I couldn't. However, there are some surprises on the final version of the roster, some who came out of nowhere to make the club, and some injury news as well. We'll start with the latter, and it affects the last. and it affects the catching situation.

Starter, Tom Murphy, was placed on the 10-day injured list on Wednesday with a broken left foot. He had fouled a ball off of this foot on July 14th in an intra-squad game, but the injury was initially just believed to be a bruise. The problem persisted and an MRI revealed the broken bone in Murphy's foot. This leads to an interesting situation. Murphy's backup is Austin Nola, who was a 29-year-old rookie lap. last season as a utility infielder. He had come up through the minor leagues primarily as a shortstop,

but began catching in 2017 while in the Marlins chain. Nola has caught all of four games at the big league level. Behind Nola on the depth chart were three non-roster invitees, minor league free agent Joe Hudson, minor league rule five draft pick Brian O'Keefe, and prospect Cal Raleigh. None of these are very good options at the major. League level. Hudson missed time in spring training before everything was put on ice and was also one of the late

arrivals to summer camp having just been cleared to play last week. However, he's the only one of the three with Major League experience as the 29-year-old has seen very brief cups of coffee with the Cardinals and Angels. The other two have never played above double A ball. I'll talk more about the catching situation in the second half of the show when I break down. the M's opening day roster. The surprise move for me was the omission of Jake Fraley. He did not

make the Mariners 30-man roster, ladies and gentlemen. Many had assumed that he would be one of the starting corner outfielders. Instead, the Ms will only carry two outfielders on its roster. This also means that Kyle Lewis will man

right field as the other outfield options are all infielders. That's not to say that they're capable outfielders, but Lewis and center fielder Malix Smith have much more experience roaming the outfield and your weakest defensive outfielders usually patrols left. Mitch Hanager, or of course, Manager, is on the 45-day IL as he is still recovering from a couple of surgeries that occurred earlier in the year to correct a sports hernia problem. I'd be surprised to see him at the big league level at all this season, honestly.

They're moving them along slowly, as they probably should be doing. No reason to rush him. I will name each and every person on the M's 30-man roster in B-block, but first the Mariner's trivia question. M's manager Scott Service was himself a big league catcher, with which team did he play the most games? Answer following a word from CBDMD. It doesn't matter if you are a professional athlete, a state-at-home parent,

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Once again, that's CBDMD.com promo code locked on MLB for 25% off your purchase of superior CBD oil products, from CBDMD. Answer to the Mariners trivia question. Scott Service spent 11 seasons in the major leagues with the Astros, Cubs, Giants, and Rockies. Though he spent six years in Houston, he played the most games as a cub,

416 games in his four years in Wrigley Field. More Locked-on Mariners after this. Now time for the second half of Locked-on Mariners. Once again, your host, D.C. Lundberg. Yes, indeed. Thank you very much. J.M. Lockdown Mariners is back. Talking about the M's opening day roster. We talked about the catching situation a little bit in A-blocked

and also talked about the outfield situation. In this half, we'll go over each position group and tell you just who exactly made the opening day roster. We'll start with the pitchers. Of the 30 people on the roster, 17 are pitchers. That's a lot of pitchers. I'll go in alphabetical order and speak about some of the more notable names. Dan Altevilla made the Big League roster, as did Brandon Brennan, Nestor Cortez,

Justin Dunn, Carl Edwards Jr., or Carl's Jr., or maybe I'll start calling him the famous star. Marco Gonzalez, Kendall Graveman, Zach Groz, Yucay, Kikuchi, Matt McGill, Nick Margievich, Anthony Masevich, Johann Ramirez, Brian Shaw, Justice Sheffield, Taiwan Walker, Walker and Taylor Williams. The Mariners rotation will feature Gonzales, Graveman, Walker, Kikuchi, Sheffield, and Dunn. Wait, that's six pitchers. Yes, because of the weirdness of this season and the short prep time leading into it after Camp reconvened, the Ms will have a six-man rotation.

Graveman and Walker are free agent acquisitions who are coming off surgeries. Sheffield and Dunn are both rookies who performed poorly at the big league level last season. But Sheffield was very sharp in camp with improved control and a new pitch. He's replaced his four-seem fastball in favor of a two-seamer, which has a lot more movement to it, and misses the meat of hitters' bats. His four-seamer was pretty straight and easy to lock into. Altavilla is out of minor league options, so this may be his last chance. He's shown good stuff, but has not shown a propensity to control it. If he hasn't turned the corner this season, he could wind up being DFAed. Let's hope he does turn that corner and let's hope he has a great season.

Brian Shaw was signed as a Major League Free Agent yesterday. He's a 32-year-old nine-year major league veteran who spent his first seven seasons in Cleveland's bullpen where he put up some pretty good numbers. He struggled his last two years in Colorado, however, posting ERAs above five in both seasons. Yoshihizaheano is a free agent acquisition. He's on the 10-day injured list. He was a candidate to be the closer.

We'll see him sooner rather than later at the big league level, I'm sure. We touched on the catchers already. Austin Nola is going to be your starter until Tom Murphy returns. The backup will be Joe Hudson, who was the only other catcher in the M's player pool with Major League experience. Brian O'Keefe and Cal Raleigh were both passed over to fill the catcher position on the taxi squad. Joe Odom was added to the 60-man player pool yesterday, and he will be the catcher on the taxi.

SACSI squad. He split time last year between AA Arkansas and AAA Tacoma. I will skip the infield and go to the outfield, which we already spoke about. Malix Smith and Kyle Lewis are the two outfielders listed on the roster, and they will start in center and right field respectively. Now for the infield group, from which we will get a platoon of sorts in left field. Evan White is your first baseman. He's making the jump this year from AA to the majors, and the Mariners are confident that he's ready to make said jump, even offering him a major league contract last offseason.

Up the middle, you've got Shedlong Jr. and Carl Crawford at second base and shortstop respectively. The Ms are hoping to develop these two as a double play combination at the big league level. Third base will again be manned by Kyle Seeger, one of the sole veterans on the roster. The backup infielders are an interesting group, as they are all capable of playing the outfield as well. Returning are Dylan Moore, who played every position last year except catcher. Tim Lopes, who played the corner outfield spots in addition to his normal infield duties. He tore up spring and summer camp, ladies and gentlemen. And the other returning backup infielder is Dee Gordon, who the Mariners originally acquired to play center field, but he's

really a second baseman. Gordon got some work in left field in summer camp and could see some action out there in addition to spelling long and Crawford in the middle infield. Gordon wants to start. He has started in the past and been successful, and he's still a capable big league starter. But with the M's wish to develop the youngsters at the position that Gordon plays, he's relegated to the bench, but he could still see maybe three starts a week at various positions. The final spot went to a minor league free agent who was a non-roster invitee to spring training. He had been in the Washington Nationals chain and was their organization's minor league player of the year twice. And he's got one of the coolest names in baseball. I speak of course

about Jose Marmolejos. He impressed the M's with his bat in both camps and also surprised them with his glove in left field, showing them some versatility, which the M's may not have known that he possesses. Marmonejos hit three. 315 last year in triple A ball with a 542 slugging percentage. If he gets off to a hot start, he might wind up seeing more time than originally planned split between left field, first base, and D.H. Your designated hitter is last year's lone Mariner All-Star representative, Daniel Vogelback. The taxi squad will be comprised of catcher Joe Odom, as we noted earlier. infielder Sam Haggurty, who could also play the outfield,

and pitcher Taylor Gilbo. First game is tonight, ladies and gentlemen. I will be back tomorrow morning to recap the M's first regular season game of 2020, and I will be joined by guest panelists, Jason Seaver, Donald Duck, and a stack of blueberry pancakes. This is one show you will not want to miss, ladies and gentlemen. So download, rate, and subscribe to Lockdown Mariners on Google Podcast, Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher Radio,

or whichever podcasting app that you like to use, so that you never miss an episode. Follow the show on Twitter at L.O. underscore Mariners. Follow me on Twitter at DC underscore Lundberg. Also tomorrow, we will have another edition of Diamond Quiz. So we've got two episodes coming at you tomorrow, ladies and gentlemen. And yesterday, Thursday, I was on Locked on Hockey Jeopardy, on Locked on Anaheim Ducks,

posted by my very good friend Jason Hernandez. How well did DC do on a hockey trivia show? Hmm, you've got to listen to find out. We had a blast recording it, and it absolutely comes through in the recording. It's a good listen, so check out Locked on Anaheim Ducks, Locked on Hockey Jeopardy,

featuring Jason Hernandez, the host, and me, and also Jason Burke of Locked on A's and Gabrielle Starr from Locked-on Red Sox. That is all for today, ladies and gentlemen. Enjoy the game tonight, and we will be back here tomorrow. This is Joey Martin saying join us back here next time for another edition of Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network.