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Edit: You guys, I just posted about which pitchers are out of options over at USS Mariner!
In light of this morning’s new that the Mariners have brought back their designated hugger, it seems appropriate to look over the list of NRIs, which runs like this.
Non-Roster Invitees
Pitchers B/T Ht Wt DOB
37 Jesus Colome R/R 6-2 240 12/23/77
33 Chad Cordero R/R 6-0 225 03/18/82
76 Josh Fields R/R 6-0 185 08/19/85
65 Nick Hill L/L 6-0 190 01/30/85
39 Mike Koplove R/R 6-0 160 08/30/76
66 David Pauley R/R 6-2 210 06/17/83
52 Yusmeiro Petit R/R 6-1 255 11/22/84
71 Mauricio Robles L/L 5-10 160 03/05/89
63 Chris Seddon L/L 6-3 220 10/13/83
64 Steven Shell R/R 6-4 225 03/10/83
30 Levale Speigner R/R 5-11 170 09/24/80
Catchers B/T Ht Wt DOB
41 Eliezer Alfonzo R/R 5-11 220 02/07/79
26 Josh Bard S/R 6-3 225 03/30/78
72 Steven Baron R/R 6-0 195 12/07/90
74 Luis Oliveros R/R 6-1 205 06/18/83
48 Guillermo Quiroz R/R 6-1 215 11/29/81
Infielders B/T Ht Wt DOB
59 Tommy Everidge R/R 6-0 240 04/20/83
60 Brad Nelson L/R 6-2 265 12/23/82
16 Josh Wilson R/R 6-0 175 03/26/81
6 Chris Woodward R/R 6-0 190 06/27/76
Outfielders B/T Ht Wt DOB
17 Corey Patterson L/R 5-10 175 08/13/79
61 Mike Wilson R/R 6-2 245 06/29/83
Of course, you can add Sweendog to that list too now. So what of this? In sheer numbers, it’s a little bit short on prospects relative to what you get most years, but there are also a fair number of interesting arms that are already on the 40-man due to this winter’s Rule 5 protections.
So what have we here? Of the pitchers, I would be most excited about Robles, recognizing full well that he will be among the first cuts in camps, he’ll hopefully get into a game before he does get reassigned, providing us a video glimpse and potential perspectives on where he’s at now. There are other interesting arms in there as well, headlined by Fields, who probably won’t break in this spring, but has a chance should the M’s need a setup type down the road, and Hill, who will probably miss out on being the lefty in the ‘pen only to get him starting in Tacoma. Colome is also kind of interesting as a power arm with command issues, but remember that he gave up a home run to Ronny Cedeno last year. Ronny Cedeno. The others are fringe setup men or fifth starters/swingmen of varying abilities. Shell could surprise among that group as he’s working his way back, and Petit is a major league pitcher and all, but mostly these guys will be filling out the Tacoma rotation.
The catching crew is, as usual, is numerous by virtue of there being so many pitchers around. So you have the usual suspects of Mariner-for-life Luis Oliveros and two-time Mariner-approaching-pension Guillermo Quiroz. Most interesting may be Steve Baron, whom you could argue probably negotiated the NRI into his contract, but then again the alternative probably would have been someone like Travis Scott or Blake Ochoa, and Baron looks really nice behind the plate. Alfonzo and Bard will be the vets fighting to push Moore back to Tacoma. I’d put better odds on Bard, and wouldn’t put it past the M’s to give him a little more time in Tacoma. It would be his first option year anyway, so it doesn’t matter a whole lot.
The infielder crop is also a bit thin. Where we might’ve been looking at Everidge/Nelson as our two-headed monster at first (I’d say Orthrus for lack of a third member of the group, but no one would get it), we’re now looking at Kotchman/Garko, which is probably better. The two should be fun in Tacoma though. There’s also the lesser Wilson as a backup infielder in case of emergency and Chris Woodward, who is probably just biding time until he inevitably gets picked up by the Red Sox as all our veteran quad-A infielders inevitably do.
The outfield crop is also small, by virtue of the fact that we have Byrnes/Bradley/Gutierrez/Ichiro/Saunders/Langerhans/Halman/Carrera all kicking around on the 40-man. The M’s are going to be eager enough to see what they have on that front that any more outfielders would be a mess, as they wouldn’t get playing time and would only steal it from more likely contributors if they did. Wilson, who I now think of sort of as a lesser, right-handed Joe Dunigan, had a messy year last season in which he only made it into 66 games and OPSed .664. Patterson is the ML vet around who is there if other backup CF options fail to pan out and they need speed or something. Both those things seem somewhat unlikely.
That’s a hardly exhaustive rundown of what there is available to look at. Ordinarily I might be mildly disappointed at the lack of prospects in the group, but I think that on the whole the team is likely to provide so much to talk about that no one will find this to be lacking. It’s startling because this is one of the first years in a while, perhaps as long as I’ve been working this gig, that I felt like I could say that.
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