Reliever Casey Sadler has found a home in the Pacific Northwest and with the Mariners
Casey Sadler said he had never been so excited to pack up an apartment and travel across the country in the middle of a baseball season.
When the Mariners claimed the reliever off waivers on Sept. 5, less than a week after the Cubs designated him for assignment, Sadler was not only headed for a fresh start. He was heading home.
“It’s been a crazy ride,” Sadler said on a video call with reporters this week. “I can’t explain how that felt when we got the call. It’s just amazing.”
Sadler, who found Seattle a few months before the Mariners found him, was now playing for his new hometown team. The 30-year-old was born in Oklahoma, also attending high school and college there, but had resided in Florida for much of his baseball career — he played in the Pirates, Rays, Dodgers and Cubs organizations before the Mariners — until he and his wife decided to move to the Pacific Northwest this spring.
They bought a house in the Snoqualmie Valley area east of Seattle in May, when baseball was shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, to be closer to family. Still with the Cubs then, Sadler had no idea his new offseason home would also become his home during the season.
“It’s surreal,” he said. “I think when we purchased, from that point we were like, ‘Man, it would be really cool to play here. What an opportunity that would be.’ And, with baseball you just never know. Things can go unexpectedly — good or bad.
“Thankfully the Lord blessed us and we’re able to stay at home and play for our hometown team now. That’s pretty cool. Pretty special.”
It’s been a refreshing experience, Sadler said, and that has showed on the mound. Entering Friday’s series opener against the Padres, he has appeared in three games for Seattle, and hasn’t allowed a run across 5 2/3 innings while striking out eight.
He’s also retired 17 of the 19 batters he’s faced — including the past 13 consecutively — has allowed only two hits and hasn’t walked a batter.
“Everything feels good,” Sadler said. “Timing is good. Just enjoying being around some younger guys, feeding off their energy and just being able to pitch is just refreshing.”
Sadler has a 6-1 record and 3.56 ERA in 55 games in parts of five major league seasons dating back to his debut in 2014, and a 2.14 ERA with two teams in 33 games in 2019, but struggled to find his footing early with Chicago this year, allowing six runs with eight walks to nine strikeouts in 10 appearances.
“Going through that whole DFA process kind of gives you time to think and be like, ‘OK, where do I go from here? What do I do? Where do I need to get back to?’ ” Sadler said. “And, I really just focused on what I accomplished last year and the mentality, the mindset, and tried to tap back into that. And it seems to have found it’s way back, so I’m very excited about that.”
Living in the Mariners’ home city has helped him settle in well, too, especially in such an odd season for baseball.
“Every little bit of comfort or normalcy that you can draw from I think is going to help,” he said.
Sadler, one of the more veteran relievers currently in Seattle’s bullpen, has also embraced where the club is at, as it continues to build toward the future with a young group.
“I’m seeing a lot of guys that want to learn,” Sadler said. “A lot of guys that want to take every opportunity and maximize it. It’s actually really refreshing. I don’t have a whole lot of service time, but I feel like an older veteran guy.
“And just to be able to pass some of the little knowledge that I’ve learned, playing with some of the guys that I’ve had a chance to play with, onto these guys, and just be there if they ever have any questions or even just (as) a sounding board of, ‘Hey, this is what I’m thinking. I just need to kind of talk through some things’ — it’s really refreshing. I love to teach the game and I love to talk baseball.”
SAN FRANCISCO TO SAN DIEGO
The Mariners begin their second consecutive “home” series on the road Friday night in San Diego.
“We’re the Globetrotters,” Mariners manager Scott Servais joked on his daily pregame video conference Friday from Petco Park. “We travel around the globe and play wherever they need us.”
Both the Mariners’ series in San Francisco earlier this week — they were swept in two games — and their three-game set in San Diego were relocated to California due to the lingering wildfire smoke impacting the air quality in the Pacific Northwest.
Before the smoke descended on the region, the Mariners were scheduled to play a lengthy final homestand that included games against the A’s, Giants, Padres and Astros as they continue to battle for the second playoff berth out of the American League West.
That 10-game homestand has now been cut in half — though the Mariners have been the “home” team playing at their opponents’ sites — assuming the Mariners due return to Seattle by Monday for their upcoming three-game series against Houston.
“It’s disappointing, but it’s the world we live in in 2020,” Mariners starter Nick Margevicius said postgame Thursday. “I don’t think anybody is preferring to go to San Diego. I think everyone would rather play at home, but at the same time, we’ve got to adjust. Everyone was planning to play 162 games, too, and we don’t get that opportunity either. It’s a challenge, for sure, thinking you’re going to be home and you’ve got to go on the road again, but we’ve just got to bring our best every single day and try to get some wins.”
The Mariners played three games in San Diego at the end of August, winning the first night and splitting a doubleheader to wrap up the trip.
“It seems like we were just here,” Servais said. “It’s been a wild ride we’ve been on, but guys are at the ballpark, they’re getting their pregame in and we’re getting ready to roll.”
FAMILIAR FACES
Friday night’s opener at Petco Park marks the first time the Mariners could see the handful of players they traded to the Padres at the deadline last month.
Catcher Austin Nola is starting behind the plate for San Diego in the opener and batting third after hitting .220/.319/.439 with three doubles, two homers, eight RBI and five walks to 11 strikeouts in 12 games since joining the club.
Former Mariners reliever Dan Altavilla is also on San Diego’s active roster and could appear in the series. Reliever Austin Adams, who Seattle also dealt in that trade, remains on the 60-day injured list recovering from ACL surgery last fall. Reliever Taylor Williams, who was traded to the Padres in a separate deal, was optioned to the club’s alternate site last week.
Two of the players the Mariners received in their seven-player trade with San Diego, catcher Luis Torrens and infielder Ty France, are starting in the series opener. Torrens is catching and batting seventh, while France is the designated hitter and batting fifth.
Since joining Seattle, Torrens is hitting .294/.385/.471 with three doubles, a homer, four RBI and five walks to seven strikeouts in 10 games, while starting all 10 behind the plate.
France is hitting .292/.370/.500 with two doubles, a triple, two homers, six RBI and six walks to 12 strikeouts in 13 games while appearing at DH (six games), second base (five) and third (two).
