Mariners pare down roster, option utility player Jose Marmolejos, reliever Bryan Shaw
While this shortened Major League Baseball season is ever-evolving, and schedules seem to change with each passing day, one event did proceed as planned Thursday.
Clubs across the league thinned their rosters from 30 players to 28. For the Mariners, that meant optioning utility player Jose Marmolejos and veteran reliever Bryan Shaw to their alternate training site in Tacoma.
Marmolejos was one of a handful of utility options the Mariners looked at during spring and summer workouts, and his production in those camps earned him a nod as the club’s Opening Day left fielder. That game was also his major league debut.
But, he’s been used more sparingly since, starting three games in left, three at designated hitter and one at first base.
While Mariners manager Scott Servais noted recently he’s pleased with how Marmolejos has swung the bat early on, and with the decisions he’s made at the plate, results haven’t followed.
In the eight games he’s appeared in, Marmolejos has hit 3-for-29 (.103) with one run scored, his first big league homer — a three-run shot in a win over the Angels last week in Anaheim — and three RBI. He’s also struck out nine times.
“Marmo had a really good camp,” manager Scott Servais said on his daily pregame video call with reporters Thursday. “Like where he was swinging the bat.
“Obviously not getting a ton of playing time here. I do like the fact that he can play left field and some first base, but just kind of where we’re at roster-wise, we needed to pare down.”
With Marmolejos in Tacoma, Dylan Moore — whose .367 batting average in eight games played was second-best on the club entering Thursday — Dee Gordon and Tim Lopes are projected to continue to share the utility role moving forward, and cycle into open spots in the outfield to supplement regular outfielder Kyle Lewis and Mallex Smith.
Shaw, who was acquired last month as a free agent, posted the highest ERA of any of Seattle’s pitchers in his four relief appearances, allowing 10 runs, 10 hits, one homer and four walks and a hit batter to just one strikeout across 3 1/3 innings.
Because the 32-year-old has accrued more than five years of service time in the majors — this is his 10th season — he had to consent to being optioned.
“Certainly the results were not what he’s looking for, so he’s agreed to go to our alternate site and work on a few things, as far as his pitch location and his pitch shaping on some of his stuff trying to get him back,” Servais said.
Shaw’s 577 relief appearances the past nine seasons lead the majors, and he had success with both Arizona and Cleveland before back-to-back troubling seasons with the Rockies the past two years.
“We sat down with him and presented a lot of information to him and it made a ton of sense,” Servais said. “He’s all in on it, so it’s an opportunity for us to try to get him on track. I think he’s still got something to offer and can help us out at some point.”
Active rosters will remain set at 28 players for the remainder of the season, according to multiple reports, instead of being trimmed to 26 in two weeks as initially planned.
Meanwhile, to give teams more options on the road as they continue to deal with impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic and other health issues seemingly attached to the short ramp up period players had, the traveling taxi squad will be increased to five players instead of three.
“I think it’s the right decision,” Servais said. “Certainly with things that have popped up with different teams. We play eight games in nine days on our next trip. If something would happen in the middle or end of that trip, you’re really without players. So, it gives you options to add guys if you need it.
“This is an abnormal year obviously so you have to be willing to make those changes and adapt and adjust, and I was glad to see the league and the (players) union agree to that. I think it’s the right thing to do.”
The Mariners leave for their next road trip following Sunday’s game against the Rockies. They head to Arlington to face the Rangers in three games before going back to Houston for three and then Los Angels to meet the Dodgers for two in a nine-day stretch.
KIRBY THROWS IN TACOMA
Mariners pitching prospect George Kirby pitched in an intra-squad game Wednesday in Tacoma for the first time this summer.
General manager Jerry Dipoto said during his weekly radio show on 710 ESPN Seattle Thursday morning the club’s first-round pick from 2019 was sitting between 97-99 mph with his fastball.
The 22-year-old had a slower ramp up than some of Seattle’s more experience pitchers during summer camp. Though he worked out at his former school, Elon University in North Carolina, during the baseball shutdown, and also did some individual work back home in New York, the Mariners took their time with his progression.
Neither he nor this year’s first-round draft pick, Emerson Hancock, appeared in a summer camp game in Seattle.
Kirby spoke with reporters on a video call Thursday morning from Cheney Stadium and estimated he threw about 20 pitches in his first outing.
“It was definitely good to get back on the mound and face a hitter,” he said. “It’s been a while. I was happy with the pitches I made. I thought my command was a little off, but given this was my first outing.
“I’ve been working on my change-up a lot just trying to get more side spin and get a good differentiation on my fastball and change-up speed. I threw in to lefties well yesterday, something I’ve struggled with.
“So, just putting little pieces together, and I thought I did well for my first time out there.”
SHORT HOPS
Rookie outfielder Kyle Lewis got a day off Wednesday after hitting 20-for-52 (.385) with a double, three homers, 10 RBI, one stolen base and five walks in his first 13 games as a starter. He continued to lead the majors in hits entering the day. … Servais said shortstop J.P. Crawford, who has started every game for Seattle this season, is also due a day off before the Mariners hit the road next week. “It is a grind, and our young guys, they’re playing well, they’re getting all their work in, but I think it’s important to give them a blow, mentally as well as physically,” Servais said.
This story was originally published August 6, 2020 at 1:32 PM.
