Mariners Solid Infield

Being Tuesday March 7 the Seattle Mariners have an off day in the Cactus League Spring Training schedule. Of course some of the players will get in their regular routines. The infielders will likely take grounders and many will take batting practice. Nothing will take place in the afternoon and some will relax and go play golf or spend time with their families.

It does look like the Mariners will have a solid infield this year. We expected that Robinson Cano and Kyle Seager would be their normal selves going into training camp. Jean Segura who the Mariners got in the trade from the Arizona Diamondbacks we expected to be an upgrade from Ketel Marte. He had a really good season last year and he does look he will have a good one for the Mariners even if he doesn’t hit as well as he did last year. Defensively he will be an upgrade over Marte. This could make a difference of at least a couple of games. Going into the off-season it did look like the Mariners would go after a shortstop because Marte did not look like he was ready to play regularly in the major leagues and he may have to do a Mike Zunino by going back to the minor leagues for a season. The question was who the Mariners would get to replace him since they did not have a solid player on their roster to replace him or in the minor leagues. We thought that Dipoto would go after acquiring Cozart the shortstop of the Cincinnati Reds who they tried to get before the trading deadline in July instead they went for a younger shortstop that had his best season so far in the major leagues. The Mariners had to give up TaiJuan Walker who we have heard for several years being their top pitching prospect and also included Marte going to Arizona as well. It made perfect sense since there is no room to have Marte except for depth at shortstop. Actually second base could be his best position however he won’t play for the Mariners for several years because of Robinson Cano. The Mariners also picked up Mitch Haniger who looks like he will be the regular right fielder for them at least at the beginning of the season.

The other position the Mariners had to do something about in the infield was first base. After the season we knew that neither Dae-Ho Lee nor Adam Lind who became free agents would return. They were adequate last year but not players that looked to be long term answers at first base. Before the trading deadline the Mariners picked up Daniel Vogelbach from the Chicago Cubs for pitcher Mike Montgomery. Vogelbach had a good minor league career in the Cubs system however they had regular first basemen already there so the Mariners decided to pick him up and on the positive side he is young as well. The Mariners did not have much in their farm system at first base either. Only D.J. Peterson a former first round pick is even close to playing in the major leagues and he may be a year away if he is at all. He probably plays this year with Tacoma as added insurance at the position. Dipoto  could trade Peterson as well since he has done so with other high draft picks that the Mariners had before he arrived on the scene. Vogelbach is a left handed hitter who is looking better at first base defensively than when he came up to play sparingly in September. Dipoto and manager Servais both said that he would have to improve defensively at first base to have a shot playing this year. The Mariners went out and traded for Danny Valencia who played third base last year primarily with the Oakland A’s. He doesn’t have any experience at first base going into this season however expected to play as much as possible depending on how Vogelbach does. Valencia will play some third base when Kyle Seager needs a rest and probably some left and right field depending on how everything works out in the outfield as well. Right now it does look like Vogelbach will be the regular first baseman especially against right handed hitters while Valencia will get in action against lefties. It may not be the same platooning the Mariners had last year with Lee and Lind though.

The Mariners offense and defense both looked improved over last season. Seager should have a better season this year at third base along with Cano having another solid season at second. Segura and the team of Vogelbach and Valencia should be an improvement at first base as well. We will see but things will be better. Next time I will look at the outfield and the progress there. The regular season begins just under four weeks on April 3. We will have more answers in the weeks ahead. Go M’s.