Seattle Mariners May Report
Record: 29-27
The Mariners went 18-11 in May after a 11-16 April to finish with an overall record of 29-27. We are now 2 GB of the Astros for 1st place in the West and only a half-game out of the 2nd wild card, currently held by the Rays.
Team ranks/stats:
Starters:
After the rotation battled a lot of injuries, a couple of our starters really stepped up and played well. James Paxton already has 91 strikeouts, which leads the league, and Christian Bergman, who wasn’t even supposed to be on the 40-man roster before Phelps went down for the year, has emerged into possibly our 2nd best starter. He just came away with the Pitcher of the Month award for May as he went 5-0 with a 2.37 ERA and a 1.03 WHIP in 6 starts. Felix has a 3.23 ERA in 11 starts as well and Marco Gonzales has been a quality back end starter this year. Once Leake comes back (he’s about to start a rehab assignment in AAA in about a week), we could have a very legit rotation.
Relievers:
CL Edwin Diaz has already accumulated 1 WAR and has 17 saves, which is leading the MLB as of June 1st. Vincent and Nicasio have both been good in the 7th and 8th innings, and Bradford and Cook have been really good in limited playing time so far. LeBlanc is hurt, and when he comes back he’ll almost certainly replace Lawrence again as the long reliever, as Lawrence has really struggled in Seattle this season. Rzepczynski and Pazos have both been kind of just warm bodies in the pen that get low leverage innings or in Scrabble’s case, high leverage moments against one certain LHB. Altavilla has yet to come back after his awful start to the season, and he’s actually still struggling in AAA with a ERA over 6.
Batters:
Again, Seager and Haniger have been great, Haniger has been especially hot since moving to the 3rd spot in the lineup in place of Cano, who is still suspended for 64 more games. Vogelbach has stayed hot, as his AVG is still over .300, and while Zunino has been awful in 29 games, June is coming up, and last June Zunino hit .304 with 10 HR and 31 RBI. Zunino is due for a hot streak soon and June JUST so happens to be coming up. Healy has also struggled as well, with Vogey taking more and more starts from him at 1B. Taylor Motter also made his 2018 as Beckham went to the 10-day DL but didn’t miss any additional time. For now, Motter is back in AAA but we’ll be seeing him again at some point. On the fielding side, Mitch Haniger has yet to make an error this season, despite playing the most games in the field this season. And Zunino is breaking out as a top defensive catcher in the MLB.
Injury Report:
- In the minor leagues, SPs Hisashi Iwakuma (AAA), Ashton Goudaeu (AA/AAA), #19 prospect Anthony Misiewicz (AA), and Ljay Newsome (A) are all out for the year.
- #12 Prospect LF/RF/1B Eric Filia (AA) is also out, but for only for about 6 more weeks. Filia was suspended the first 50 games of the season for smoking pot and was tearing through AA his first couple games back but then went down with a torn ligament in his ankle.
- OF Trey Griffey, son of Mariner HOF Ken Griffey Jr. is still pursuing football, but is rumored to focus fulltime on baseball starting in 2019.
- AAA UTL Zach Shank has retired from professional baseball due to the numerous injuries he’s sustained while playing, and is taking a coaching job for the Mariners AZL team to help out the youngsters playing there.
- Robinson Cano is still suspended 64 games but is also dealing with a fractured hand that will most likely be fully healed by time his suspension is over.
- CF Dee Gordon’s fractured thumb is progressing well, and we’ll likely see him back in Seattle by mid-June, as he only has about 1-2 weeks left before he can play again.
- SP Mike Leake is also about to come back in a week, although he will need a few rehab starts in Tacoma before he is able to return so we’ll likely see him back in Seattle around late June-early July.
- Erasmo Ramirez is still out another 5 weeks or so, so he likely won’t be able to rejoin the Mariner until after the ASB after he’s made a few rehab starts.
- Wade LeBlanc is out another month or so, but a rehab assignment isn’t needed so he’ll likely be back before the ASB.
- David Phelps is progressing well and will likely be ready for opening day 2019.
Around the league:
- Giancarlo Stanton (28 HR, 69 RBI) is on pace to hit 80 HRs and drive in 196 RBIs and be worth 11.2 WAR.
- Edwin Diaz leads the league in saves with 17 and is on pace to have 49.
- James Paxton is on pace for 263 K and 8.1 WAR
- Jon Jay tied an AL record with 7 at bats in a single game
- Jhonny Peralta signed a minor league contract with the Brewers right after the season started, and tied the NL record for strikeouts in a single game with 5
- Before he was sent down in late April, Mike Marjama tied a Mariners single game record with 2 triples.
Next post will be all about the draft! I’ll post the Mariners draft results (at least the top-10 picks and then any other interesting guys I’m able to grab I n the later rounds) and possibly do a post-draft top prospects list! A couple guys in the minors have been exceptional and are starting to warrant a promotion. I also want to recap the interesting prospects who are doing well, and the guys who are doing bad. I also have some promotions I need to announce, and I’ll probably try and do all of that before I post the June report/update.