Look at the New Mariners!

Now that the Winter Meetings are over we can look at what Seattle Mariner general manager Jerry Dipoto has done over during the off-season. We can see that he has been a busy man.

He says that he is done basically as far as changing the regular lineup; however, he plans a few more changes with the bullpen and they could happen within in the next couple days. Like I did before I now will put on my report card as far as these new Mariners. Some of it will be hard since I am like a lot of Mariner fans I do not know who some of these players are especially in the bullpen. I had to do a search on all these guys when the Mariners made these acquisitions to see whether they were good or so so. What I did find out I have liked what I have seen happen. Of course, we really won’t know until next season is underway and it may take until mid-July. I am sure some will work out while others will not; so now position to position.

First we will look at the catcher’s position. The Mariner’s had to make changes there because of the poor performance last season at the positon as far as hitting goes. The Mariners found that starting catcher Mike Zunino who was into his second season in the major leagues was really not ready to perform as an everyday catcher as far as the hitting. He was in a slump throughout the season and at the end of August was batting around .160 and was sent down to triple-A Tacoma to finish out the season. When the season was over he was not called back up in September, and instead was sent to Arizona to work on his hitting. The Mariners should have sent him down back in May; however, they had no other catcher to replace him on a regular basis. We will have to see if he can recover this coming season and return to the Mariners. The Mariners first signed Chris Iannetta who Dipoto knew in his time with the Angels. This last season he had a poor season; however, the Mariners hope that he can recover to be the player he had been before, and that Zunino if needed can spend time in Triple A this coming season. The Mariners also went out and got Steve Clevenger from the Baltimore Orioles in the trade for Mark Trumbo. Backup catcher Jesus Sucre who was on the Mariner roster most of last season will return to see if he can make the roster. Personally I think the Mariners should have played Sucre more last season when Zunino was struggling hitting. Though Sucre was not hitting very well either he did much better at the end of August and into September when he got a chance to play more. Chances likely are that Sucre will share catching duty with Zunino while playing in Tacoma unless he is traded. Iannetta will start out the season as the regular catcher; however, unlike last season Clevenger will catch more often than Sucre did. How much will depend on the performance of Iannetta. In regards to Iannetta he is signed to a one year contract so if he is not performing well the Mariners can let him loose and make Clevenger the regular catcher unless Zunino is ready by that time; whatever the case the catching position will be in better hands this coming season.

Next we look at the first base position. Logan Morrison who played the major time at first base until September along with shortstop-utility player Brad Miller and reliever Danny Farquhar was traded to the Tampa Bay Rays after the season. Actually it was the first trade that Dipoto made. Just before the Winter Meetings Mark Trumbo who was figured to be the first baseman next season was traded to the Baltimore Orioles. At the time the purpose was to dump his salary; however, at the winter meetings the Mariners traded with the Milwaukee Brewers for Adam Lind in exchange for three minor league pitchers. Lind will be in the last year of his contract next season so he will want to perform the best he can going into free agency. We hope the Mariners will be able to take advantage of it. Most likely will be with the Mariners for the one season; he hits primarily good against right handed pitching and not as well against left handers. He is a left handed hitter so he should be able to take advantage of hitting home runs beyond right field. He did say after being traded to the Mariners that he enjoys playing in Safeco Field. He played several seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays. He is figured to be platooning at first base, and now the right handed hitter figures to be Jesus Montero. This would all depend on how Montero plays during spring training or the Mariners bring in another right handed bat to play first base. I am rooting for Montero since he did a good job in Tacoma last season. He really worked hard to improve his play and that includes playing first base. Whether he plays first base or not will depend on his fielding and if he can hit breaking pitches; he has the power the Mariners could really use. If he is on the roster he may be used at designed hitter as well when Nelson Cruz is in the field. The best for the Mariners though is if he can play first base. If not the Mariners will have another player who will be able to do so. We will see an improvement at first base over last season as well.

Going around the bases we now look at second base. Robinson Cano will be returning as the second baseman. This coming season should be an improvement since the first half of the season he had a terrible time and may have been the reason the Mariners ended up having such a bad season. The second half of the season Cano was much different and he played more like his old self. We found near the end of the season the reason he struggled was that he had been injured and he had surgery when the season was over. The Mariners should be a better team if Cano has a good overall season.

At third base Kyle Seager also struggle during the first half. Not necessarily as bad as Cano but he had trouble driving in runs and his fielding was good but not like in 2014. Like Cano though he picked it up in the second half of the season. The reason this may have happened when the Mariners changed the lineup and Seager batted second in front of Nelson Cruz. Both Seager and Cano hit much better when they moved Cruz to third in the batting order. The Mariners should be a better team again if Seager can go back to having a consistent season like he had in his previous seasons before 2015. I expect to see that since most players do have one season where they slump. A major problem last year the Mariners had many players who slumped.

Ketel Marte is the starting shortstop for the Mariners right now. He had a good second half of the season after coming up from Triple A. The Mariners found their leadoff hitter as well for the remaining of the season. Most likely he will be batting second in the lineup this coming season. We can only hope that he really is prepared to be the regular shortstop and not go into a slump like Mike Zunino did last year. The Mariners have three candidates right now to backup Marte and be the utility player. We have Christ Taylor who spent a month in May as the regular shortstop; however, his hitting was not good enough so he was returned to Triple A when Marte was brought up. Another candidate is Shawn O’Malley who had a really good time playing for the Mariners in September after spending the season in Triple A. What makes O’Malley a good candidate is that he has speed and he can play the outfield as well as the infield. If he is on the roster he not only backup at shortstop he would at second, third and centerfield. The third candidate the Mariners made a trade with the Milwaukee Brewers and acquired Luis Sardinas. He spent some time with the Brewers as their starting shortstop so if Marte does slump he likely would take over the shortstop position. We do hope that Marte can hold onto the position for 2016. What I like about him is that he is a patient hitter and is willing to take walks. If he is the shortstop likely he will be moved to second in the batting order. The advantage of him hitting second is that he does have contact and is able to bunt very well too. Whatever the case the shortstop position should be better than last season.

Since this report card has been long I will write next time about the outfield, designated hitter, and the pitching. Go Mariners!