Dee Gordon misses second Mariners start with injury. So how about more Seager at 2B?
Dee Gordon missed his second consecutive start at second base because of a sprained ankle.
Seattle Mariners manager Scott Servais said Gordon would be available if needed as a defensive replacement or a pinch runner, but they wanted to give him one more day to recover.
“He isn’t quite 100 percent yet,” Servais said before Sunday’s series finale against the Blue Jays, with the Mariners trying to end a five-game losing streak and stave off the bleeding after falling 2.5 games behind the Athletics for the second American League wild card spot.
“You trust your guys. They know their bodies better than anybody. He’s still sore, though, and I think it bothers him in the batter’s box more than anywhere else. We’ll give him the day.”
Servais first thought Gordon would only need to miss Saturday’s game.
Gordon suffered the injury in the ninth inning of Thursday’s loss to Toronto when he stepped awkwardly on second base to catch a throw for a potential double-play ball from Kyle Seager. He rolled his ankle and had to be helped off of the field.
Seager at 2B?
Gordon’s absence has set off a chain of unique lineup and defensive adjustments.
For starters, how about Seager playing second base?
Yes, the 30-year-old was told to head to head there in the ninth inning Saturday night and that was the first time he’s played that position since Sept. 22, 2012. Andrew Romine started Saturday’s game at second base, but he was pulled for pinch-hitter and catcher Chris Herrmann in the bottom of the eighth.
The Mariners’ only other bench player was outfielder Guillermo Heredia, not counting the injured Gordon. So Herrmann entered at first base, Ryon Healy moved to third for just the second time this season — and Seager played second.
“He always talks about how he’s a middle infielder at heart, so he had no problem with it,” Servais said. “I just didn’t know he hadn’t been over there since 2012. We had to break that up a little bit.”
Seager played the middle infield throughout the minor leagues. So he said he’s still a middle infielder.
“I feel like I am mentally,” he said. “It’s just the physical part that eludes me.”
And with all the Mariners defensive shifts, Seager sometimes ends up as a third baseman playing shortstop, anyway, like his brother, Corey Seager, the Dodgers’ injured shortstop.
Since 2012, Seager has played 893 games at third base for the Mariners, four games at designated hitter and one game at shortstop (in 2015).
“He does love that,” Servais said.
But the Mariners have been working on some other options at third base. Servais said he’d have no hesitation running Healy out there if needed late, but also Robinson Cano had been working at third in the Dominican Republic.
Servais said Cano is back in Seattle now with his Aug. 14 return date from his 80-game suspension approaching, but Mariners have yet to indicate when Cano will begin a rehab assignment, and when Servais was asked Sunday, he said it would be “real soon.”
Cano or Healy at third would mean less time for Seager, who entered Sunday with the lowest batting average of his career (.228).
Seager was asked about his thoughts on Cano working at a position he’s locked down for the Mariners since 2011 with a Gold Glove award and an All-Star appearance on his resume.
“I mean, it’s not a bad thing,” Seager said. “Anything we can do to get him in the lineup is going to be a good thing. The situation that we’re in, we got to get to the playoffs, first and foremost. But having that versatility is going to help everybody.”
Seager’s last game at second base was a Sept. 22, 2012, game against the Rangers when Alex Liddi was at third and Justin Smoak was the Mariners’ first baseman, not the Blue Jays’. Some other players in that lineup – Casper Wells in right field, Michael Saunders in left, Franklin Gutierrez in center, Jesus Montero at catcher, Luis Jimenez DH and Brendan Ryan at shortstop. None were batting over Montero’s .261.
So it’s possible to have a worse offense than this 2018 one of late.
Span leading off
Gordon’s injury also had the Mariners slotting 34-year-old Denard Span at leadoff in Sunday’s lineup. Span has spent the majority of his career batting leadoff, but he hadn’t hit leadoff in a game since was with the Rays earlier this year, and he went 2-for-3 against the Red Sox.
Span has batted at every spot in the lineup, 1-9, this year between the Mariners and Rays.
“He’s one of those unique guys who can probably hit at any position in the lineup,” Servais said. “Good of a guy there to have as anybody to keep the other guys in their spots.
“I told him he’s hitting leadoff and he said, ‘Well, I haven’t done that in a while, but no problem.’”
Segura’s struggles
Jean Segura batted leadoff in Saturday’s loss.
But since the All-Star Game, when he probably should have been the game’s MVP over the Astros’ Alex Bregman, Segura entered Sunday with a slash line of .200/.224/.273. He was batting .330 approaching the All-Star break and that was down to .308 entering Sunday.
So, why is the hit machine not hitting?
“Jean’s swing is so short and he doesn’t have a big load or moving parts that it’s odd to see him struggle for an extended period of time because he controls the barrel so well – he knows where the barrel is and he knows how he can square it up,” Servais said. “But I can’t say that mechanically he looks different. He kind of looks the same to me, and (hitting coach Edgar Martinez) backs that up with looking at video and stuff.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Team stuff. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/quadsquad?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#quadsquad</a> <a href="https://t.co/K2qfZ2Ev98">pic.twitter.com/K2qfZ2Ev98</a></p>— Marco Gonzales (@MarcoGonzales_) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarcoGonzales_/status/1026272236510969856?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Pazos velocity
James Pazos has averaged about 4 mph less on his fastball since the end of June, according to Fangraphs.
And that helped lead to back-to-back doubles in the ninth inning of the Mariners’ 5-1 loss on Saturday night. He allowed three runs (all unearned) and a home run in Thursday’s loss.
Since July 13, Pazos has allowed seven runs (four earned) in 5 2/3 innings over eight appearances. Compare that to his previous 36 appearances before the All-Star break – he had allowed six runs over 31 1/3 innings (36 appearances) with a 1.72 ERA.
But he’s gone from averaging 94.6 mph on his fastball in the latter span to 90.9.
“It ticked down before the All-Star break and then we gave him some time down hoping it would come back,” Servais said. “I think health-wise he feels OK. I think mechanically he’s off.
“Pazos does it so differently in his delivery, that’s what makes him effective. He’s very deceptive, but because it’s not a very clean, athletic-looking delivery the timing is really important, much like with James Paxton.”
Which is why Servais said they’ve been focusing on having Pazos throw more sliders since the life on his fastball hasn’t looked the same since the first half of the season. Servais said Pazos would be unavailable to throw in Sunday’s game.
On tap
Left-hander Wade LeBlanc (6-2, 3.95 ERA) starts the Mariners’ series opener in Texas against the Rangers, who will start left-hander Martin Perez (2-4, 6.50 ERA) at 5:05 p.m. Monday at Glove Life Park.
The game will broadcast on Root Sports and 710-AM radio.
This story was originally published August 5, 2018 at 12:51 PM.