[jaa36]

AG: Welcome back to The Wheelhouse, everybody. Once again I'm Aaron Goldsmith, and here with me as always is Jerry Dipoto. Jerry, it's been a while.

JD: It sure has, Aaron. Thanks for doing this.

AG: No, thank you, Jerry. Well, a month into the season. The Mariners stand at 14-11, which is good enough for first place in a lackluster AL West. What are your thoughts on the team thus far?

JD: You know, I'm pleased with where we're at. You can't argue with first place. We went through a rough stretch near the end of the month, but overall, it's been a pretty good month.

AG: The M's looked absolutely dominant in the middle of April, reeling off an eight-game winning streak, sweeping two division rivals, the A's and the Angels, in the process. What was the team doing right during that week and a half?

JD: Pretty much everything was clicking. The pitching was excellent, with James Paxton throwing 12 1/3 scoreless innings over two starts, and Mike Leake with one run over 13 innings. And in all the other games, our starters at least kept us in the ballgame. And we got offense from a lot of different places- Tim Beckham, Mike Ford, Jean Segura. The whole streak was really a team effort.

AG: One of the biggest differences so far between last season and this season has been the glut of injuries in the first month. Tell us a little bit about what's happened and what the plan is to get the team healthy.

JD: It's been difficult. We know that it's incredible rare for a team to get through a season as cleanly as we did in 2018, but this has been a tough start to the year. Nellie Cruz banged up his knee and missed all but the first week of the season. We expect him to come back next week, but he didn't have the most mobility to begin with, and I do worry we won't see quite the same Nellie as we've seen the last few years. And Nick Rumbelow, who was so good for us out of the bullpen last season, has some inflammation in his elbow. He could be out a while- we anticipate about two months- which leaves a big hole in our bullpen. And that's not including Tomas Telis, our backup catcher, who tore a quad and is out for six weeks.

AG: That's a lot to get through. But I suppose with any adversity comes some opportunities for other players. A couple of Mariners have made their debuts this season, and have played pretty well!

JD: You bet. Tyler O'Neill came up in part to fill in for Nelson, and he's hit well, mostly against left-handed pitching. And Casey Gillaspie got an opportunity last week when we sent down Ryon Healy, who really got off to a rocky start this season. So for now, we've got Mike Ford, Gillaspie and O'Neill all sharing time at DH and first base. When Nelson comes back, Tyler will probably go back down to the minors, but he's gotten some quality at-bats with our team so far.

AG: The bullpen carousel has been spinning pretty quickly, in part because of two extra-inning games in which the next day's starter had to be pressed into duty. The first one was a 13-inning game against Texas in which James Paxton recorded his first career save. The second one was a 16-inning affair in which the Rangers returned the favor, this time with Marco Gonzales taking the loss. Is this the downside of Scott Servais's pull-the-starter-early strategy?

JD: Well- yes and no. It's possible we would have won the second game if we had let James Paxton go a little longer, but he was already at 98 pitches by the time Scott pulled him in the sixth. And our bullpen was already gassed. I'm not sure there was much else we could have done in that one. Plus, I think we've won a lot of games we otherwise wouldn't have by taking our starter out early. Now, the downside of using our bullpen so heavily, coupled with the extra-inning games and the injuries, is that we've had to go deeper into our pool of reserves than I would have hoped at this time of the season.

AG: You're up to 18 pitchers already, with Tyler Thornburg set to make his debut. And Jairo Labourt lost to the waiver wire, with John Gant potentially to receive the same fate.

JD: We're just trying to get some arms that are fresh and ready to pitch. I don't know why this was so much easier last year!

AG: In typical Jerry Dipoto fashion, you found a way to swing a deal in the first month of the season. A little surprising that you were able to acquire a guy like Blake Snell for Rob Whalen, wasn't it?

JD: You know, Blake was a pretty good prospect a few years ago with the Rays, and actually wasn't too bad with the Yankees last year either. I'm not sure why New York was willing to get rid of him, but their loss is our gain. Blake gave us a few good innings out of the bullpen already, and he'll definitely be back with the big club soon as a left-handed pitcher who can start and relieve, and most importantly, still has a minor-league option this season.

AG: Now, I've been dying to ask you about this for the whole podcast, but for me, the most interesting storyline of the Mariners season is, will Dee Gordon somehow find a way to steal even more bases this season?

JD: He's certainly on his way! Somehow Dee managed to pick up 33 steals in the first 25 games of the season. I don't think even he can keep up that pace, but he might get even more than the 117 he got last year. I think for this month, we ran into a lot of teams with catchers that didn't have the strongest arms, so it may be a little harder to exploit the defense in the next month or two.

AG: I would say one of the biggest disappointments of this season so far has been Robinson Cano, hitting just .246, no home runs so far, and playing really only against right-handed pitching. What's going on with Robbie? Is his hypertension acting up?

JD: Yeah, I think so. He really would likely benefit from medically-sanctioned treatments for his hypertension. High blood pressure is truly a silent killer.

AG: Meanwhile, a couple of relatively recent additions have helped out the offense quite a bit. Kevin Pillar off to a strong start once again. And Tim Beckham, hitting .325 with a team-leading four home runs in part time play.

JD: Tim's been a terrific addition, and just a great story, that he's finally put things together so late in his career. He'll be getting plenty of starts at second base this year, especially against left-handed pitching.

AG: I wanted to take one listener question before you go, Jerry. This one coming at you from Kyle in SeaTac. Kyle's question is, what devil magic can you come up with to combat the Mariner first base black hole vortex? It seems like anyone who plays first base for the Mariners is good before they come here, then plays badly, then is good again when they leave.

JD: It's a good question. Many a first baseman has succumbed to this affliction previously, including Justin Smoak, Logan Morrison, Kendrys Morales... I could go on. Ryon Healy was good, until he wasn't. Daniel Vogelbach is Vogelbad. Mike Ford has been really solid so far, so maybe he'll break the curse, or maybe he'll go 0 for his next 73.

AG: A surprisingly candid answer, Jerry, thank you. Well, any thoughts as we head into May?

JD: No, we're just going to try to keep on winning series, I guess.

AG: OK, Jerry. Well, thanks for being with us, and we'll see you next month on The Wheelhouse.