3 Roster Moves Mariners Should Think About Making Right Now
An increasingly regressive month of May offensively has the Mariners skidding. They have lost 11 of their last 19 games, which includes a pair of brutal series losses to mediocre Blue Jays and Nationals clubs.
As the kids say, the vibes are off. Here are three roster moves Seattle should think about making to re-energize its clubhouse.
Promote Cole Young, demote either Miles Mastrobuoni or Leo Rivas
This one is pretty obvious and straightforward. Young’s process at the plate has mostly been excellent for his entire time down in Triple-A this year, but it wasn’t until this month that the numbers finally followed suit, and boy did they. The 2022 first-round pick has been one of the hottest hitters in all of minor-league baseball since May 1, slashing .370/.466/.680 with a 12.7 percent walk rate and a ridiculously low 6.8 percent strikeout rate during that stretch. He has 10 hits in his last four games, including a five-hit effort on Wednesday, and is fresh off a walk-off infield single Thursday night. The Mariners don’t have an everyday player established at second base, so the path for Young to get consistent playing time is crystal clear.
As for the corresponding move to make room on the 26-man roster for Young, it’s a toss-up between both Mastrobuoni and Rivas. Both have made their fair share of contributions this year but overall lack the means to be considered “must-haves” in Seattle. The switch-hitting Rivas has at least proven to be a thorn in the side of opposing pitchers with long, drawn-out plate appearances that helped him run an on-base percentage around the .500 mark at one point this year, so it’s possible that may give him a leg up, but the Mariners have awarded Mastrobuoni far more playing time in recent weeks.
Place Jorge Polanco on injured list
The Mariners have remained silent regarding Polanco’s health status, but it’s clear something is going on with him. For the first time in a little under three weeks, he was in Seattle’s lineup with a left-handed opposing pitcher on the mound in Thursday’s 9-3 loss to the Nationals, but he squared up to bunt on three separate occasions, including his final at-bat of the night where he dropped a bunt in front of home plate for an easy out, and overall looked uncomfortable in the batter’s box.
Polanco’s inability to hit from the right side for most of the season and how he looked on Thursday is only part of the problem, though. After being one of the best hitters on the planet for the first five or so weeks of the year, he’s statistically been the worst of the 13 hitters currently on the Mariners’ roster, slashing .136/.208/.212 with a whopping 58.8 percent groundball rate in the month of May. His presence in the lineup is actively hurting Seattle at this point and possibly hurting him further as well. It might be in the best interest of both parties to hit the pause button for the time being.
Promote Harry Ford
This could go hand-in-hand with a trip to the injured list for Polanco, but it doesn’t have to and that’s why the two moves are separate on this list. Nevertheless, Polanco being removed from the equation would eliminate one of the biggest arguments against Ford’s potential call-up and allow the 22-year old to play with regularity at the major-league level without having to entertain a position change. He could serve as the team’s primary designated hitter during Polanco’s absence and catch to give Cal Raleigh some much-needed full days off or at least some extra DH days.
Like Young, Ford has been tearing the cover off the ball down in Tacoma for the past month. He’s slashing .402/.467/.659 since May 1 and has finally found his over-the-wall power stroke with five home runs on the month, including a three-run blast that went 443 feet at 107.1 miles per hour off the bat Thursday night. Despite how enticing it might be, though, the Mariners might opt to keep Ford down a little while longer in order to not interrupt his first real stretch of power output in over a year. That said, it’s hard to ignore what he’s doing at the moment, especially with so many hitters in Seattle’s current major-league lineup scuffling.
