One did not necessarily lead to the other, of course, unless you believe in the motivating factor of roster transactions.
The minor move is that Chase De Jong was sent back down to Tacoma – a day after going 4 scoreless innings in relief of Ariel Miranda – in favor of Chris Heston, another spot starter/long reliever type. Obviously, this was through no fault of De Jong’s, but simply because after pitching 4 full innings, he wasn’t going to be available in relief again for a few days. And, with this rotation (specifically with guys like Gallardo, who got the start in yesterday’s game), you never know when you’re going to need an extra reliever.
Also, not for nothing, but De Jong and now Heston are merely keeping this spot warm until Steve Cishek works his way back into MLB playing shape, which is probably a week or so away.
The major move made yesterday was the DFA of Leonys Martin. That’s a pretty tough pill to swallow. I wouldn’t say he was a fan favorite or anything, but I’m sure the fans liked him enough. He played great defense and he had a good run at the plate just last season. It seemed like just a matter of time before he’d pick it back up at the plate and at least be passable in the everyday lineup. But, thanks to the Mariners losing 3 in a row in Oakland – and starting off the season 1-9 on the road heading into yesterday’s game – time is exactly something the Mariners DON’T have a lot of. This season is going down the toilet in a hurry, and we can’t sit around waiting for all of our slumping hitters to get their collective shit together. In that sense, you could say the DFA of Leonys Martin is just as much about the entire team as it is about Martin’s own deficiencies. Which, I’m sure, made the move that much more hard to swallow. Because, while the fans liked him enough, the players and the coaching staff adored this kid, and I’m sure the move was as painful as it gets.
The thing is, I’m not super convinced it’s a moved that needed to be made. Right now, we’re a team with just three outfielders, that is, until Jean Segura comes back from the DL, which should be any day now. When Segura returns, you’ve got Motter who can play there too, but he’s a utility guy who can play anywhere. He’s also the only guy on the roster who can back up at any infield position (assuming Mike Freeman gets sent back to Tacoma upon Segura’s return). For all intents and purposes, Danny Valencia becomes your traditional fourth outfielder, but I don’t think we’ve seen the last of him at first base either.
See, the corresponding move with the Leonys Martin DFA is the calling back up of Dan Vogelbach, who hit .309/.409/.473 in Tacoma, with 3 doubles and 2 homers in 16 games. The talk is, for now, Valencia rides the pine while Vogelbach gets to start every day. THIS is a move that’s been about a week overdue, but again, I don’t know if it needed to be made at the expense of Martin.
Here are my concerns:
- I’m not convinced Guillermo Heredia is an everyday player
- I’m not convinced Dan Vogelbach is ready (or will ever be ready) for the Major Leagues
- What do we do if Jarrod Dyson gets injured for an extended period of time?
- I also lowkey have my doubts about Taylor Motter, as it feels like the other shoe is about to drop anyday now, and we’re in for an extended stretch of no hitting and lots of strikeouts
The Heredia thing, I think, sort of goes without saying, but let me try to elaborate. I think he’s okay. I think he’s a fine fifth outfielder, maybe. He’s been a big help in the early going, and right now I’d say he’s DEFINITELY playing better than Leonys Martin. But, I think long-term, Heredia isn’t much more than a Quad-A player. The speed is great, don’t get me wrong, but he doesn’t seem to hit it out of the infield very much, and he can’t rely on infield base hits and bunts alone! He walks about as often as Mike Zunino, which is to say hardly at all, and if he’s not pulling his weight in OBP, I don’t see him adding a whole lot of value with his bat. He needs to be walking a ton and stealing a ton of bases for him to be an everyday outfielder for us.
The Vogelbach thing, I’ve been harping on for a while. I just don’t know if he has it. He’s still pretty young though, so I don’t know if it’s necessarily fair to expect him to have it right out of the gate. I think he’s going to struggle at least in this early going, which means he’ll fall back into the platoon they’d planned for him and Valencia in the first place. You gotta figure, at some point, Valencia is going to start hitting for us, and the more he does that, the more he’s going to see the field. At which point, you’ve sort of got Vogelbach here as a lefty pinch hit bat off the bench. Is that worth giving up on Leonys Martin?
Because, yeah, what if Dyson has to go on the DL for something? Wouldn’t it be nice to have Martin there, with everyday playing experience? Without Martin, I guess you slide over Heredia, and maybe call up Ben Gamel as an extra outfielder. Is that a better situation than what you would’ve had with Martin?
And, if everything else works out, Vogelbach takes the first base job and runs with it, and the rest of our infield stays healthy, that means Motter effectively becomes your left fielder. But, does increased playing time for Motter equate to decreased production at the plate? You figure pitchers are going to figure him out EVENTUALLY. Does he have what it takes to re-adjust? Or, will he flail along and watch his strikeouts skyrocket?
To counter all of my hemming and hawing, you’re probably right to ask: what would I have done differently?
Well, for starters, do we REALLY need 8 relievers? I think it was a smart idea to kick off the season, as the starters generally need some time to build their arms up and get their innings-counts up to snuff, but I feel like we’re there now. Granted, Paxton and Miranda gave us some pretty shitty starts in that Oakland series, but it’s not like the bullpen has been notoriously over-worked or anything! For the first three weeks of the season, they’ve split a pretty average workload among 8 people instead of 7 (more, really, when you count the guys coming and going from Tacoma). There’s only been the one extra-innings game, in the third game of the season. They had a huge homestand and one day off, with another off day scheduled today (and the next two Mondays to boot). We could have EASILY made it through the next few days (or however long it will take for Segura to come off the DL) with just 7 relievers. Then, when Segura is ready to return, we send Freeman down like planned, and keep going with a full bench and lots of different lineup options.
Facing a right-handed pitcher? With Martin in the fold, you can go: Segura, Haniger, Cano (L), Cruz, Seager (L), Vogelbach (L), Zunino, Dyson (L), Martin (L), with over half your lineup batting from the left side. Facing a lefty? You can go Segura, Haniger, Cano (L), Cruz, Seager (L), Motter, Valencia, Zunino, Heredia, with Heredia in center and Motter in left. I dunno, I’m just spit-balling here, but with Martin you’ve got extra speed on your bench, another lefty hitter for late in games, and extra defense in case the unthinkable happens. Instead, you waive him for nothing and hope no other team picks him up, and that he’s willing to play for you in Tacoma until it’s time to call him up again. Seems like a longshot.
***
As for yesterday’s game, it was an 11-1 Mariners victory, to salvage at least not getting swept by the fucking A’s. For what it’s worth, the Mariners are now 5-9 against the American League West, which obviously is far from ideal. Also, the Mariners are tied for last in the division with the Angels at 8-12, good for third-worst in the entire league.
Motter hit a grand slam and Cruz hit a 3-run homer. They combined for 9 of the 11 RBI. Vogelbach had his first hit and RBI of the season, and played just fine at first base. Seager had a minor hip issue that kept him from starting, but he was available to pinch hit if needed. Considering he wasn’t, it’s nice that he has these back-to-back days off heading into the Detroit series.
On the pitching side of things, we finally got a good start out of Gallardo, going 6.1 innings, giving up 1 run on 4 hits, with 1 walk and 7 strikeouts. Zych, Scrabble, and Scribner wiped out the later innings with no damage done.
So, the Mariners need to figure out how to win on the road. Remember last year, when it was the opposite, and the Mariners had trouble winning at home in the early going? They were 1-5 in their first home series last year, whereas they were 8-4 on the road and would go on into May 18-7 on the road before coming down to Earth. How far down? The 2016 Mariners finished 7 games over .500 at home, and only 3 games over .500 on the road. That’s because most teams, by and large, are better at home than they are on the road. So, you could sort of see a turnaround in the 2016 Mariners’ home record coming, even if it did take a while. Which means the hot start on the road was VERY much to their benefit, and a big reason why they were able to stay in contention for so long.
This year, the Mariners are 6-3 at home, and now 2-9 on the road. That’s pretty terrible, because while you would expect the Mariners to be good at home, it’s also not inconceivable that the Mariners might be this bad on the road. In an ideal world, I think you want the Mariners to hover around .500 on the road, and be really good at home; in this world, it’s going to take A LOT of winning to get back to .500 on the road, and it’s going to take maintaining a lot of winning to stay really good at home. None of this bodes well, and it’s starting to become clear to me that 2017 is going to be a lot like 2015, 2010, and 2008. Recall those were all years where we were coming off of winning seasons, with heightened expectations, and collapsing under the weight of said expectations. Same team, different GM/Manager combo. God I hope I’m wrong.