To begin the season, the club will carry 15 pitchers, three catchers, six infielders and four outfielders on the 28-man roster, while four more contributors will open the season on the injured list.
Offseason addition Robbie Ray, the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner, is set to start for the Mariners in Friday afternoon’s opener against the Twins at Target Field.
Here’s a look at the Opening Day roster:
Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Robbie Ray throws during the first inning of a spring training baseball game against the Texas Rangers Monday, March 28, 2022, in Peoria, Ariz. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) Charlie Riedel AP
STARTING ROTATION (5)
LHP Robbie Ray
LHP Marco Gonzales
RHP Chris Flexen
RHP Logan Gilbert
RHP Matt Brash
The skinny: When Seattle signed Ray to a five-year, $115 million contract back in November, general manager Jerry Dipoto dubbed him the “lead dog” of a rotation that includes two newcomers and three returners. “Seeing the last series that was played here and the fan base showing up … seeing the vision and the direction of this team and the way that it was headed ... man, I just wanted to be a part of it,” Ray said during his introductory press conference last winter. “And I could just (see) the excitement with this organization and with the city. I just wanted to behere.”
Ray struck out 248 batters in 2021, paired with a league-best 2.48 ERA in 193 1/3 innings across 32 starts. … Gonzales, who is entering his eighth big league season, and Flexen, in his fifth season in the majors, bring notable experience back to the rotation. Gonzales has now made 113 big league starts — including 106 with the Mariners the past five seasons — and posted a 10-6 record and 3.96 ERA in 25 appearances last summer. Flexen was also solid in his first season with the club in 2021, finishing 14-6 with a 3.61 ERA in 31 starts. … Gilbert, a former top pitching prospect in the organization, will look to build on his rookie season last summer, when he went 6-4 with a 4.68 ERA across 24 starts, struck out 128 and walked only 28. … Brash, the No. 6 prospect in Seattle’s system per MLB Pipeline, earned the fifth spot in Seattle’s rotation after striking out 12 and allowing one earned run in his 9 1/3 innings of work during spring training. A fourth-round pick by the Padres in 2019, he raced through Seattle’s minor league ranks in 2021, posting a sub-3.00 ERA at both High-A Everett and Double-A Arkansas before joining the active roster last September. The 23-year-old’s first appearance for the Mariners will be his big league debut.
Four more pitchers made at least 10 starts for Seattle last season, but are not longer in the rotation. Former All-Star Yusei Kikuchi, who spent his first three big league seasons with the Mariners and made 70 starts, became a free agent in November after the club declined its four-year, $66 million option and Kikuchi then declined his one-year, $13 million player option to return to Seattle. He signed with the Blue Jays last month. Justus Sheffield, entering his fourth season with the Mariners, will start the season in the bullpen after making 32 starts the past three seasons with a 5.50 ERA. Tyler Anderson, a midseason acquisition from the Pirates in 2021, elected free agency in November after making 13 starts for the club and is now with the Dodgers organization. Justin Dunn made 11 starts for the Mariners last spring before missing the rest of the big league season while dealing with shoulder inflammation. He was traded to the Reds in March in the deal that brought outfielder Jesse Winker and third baseman Eugenio Suarez to Seattle.
Seattle Mariners pitcher Diego Castillo throws during spring training baseball practice Wednesday, March 16, 2022, in Peoria, Ariz. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) Charlie Riedel AP
BULLPEN (10)
RHP Diego Castillo
RHP Matt Festa
RHP Ken Giles (IL)
LHP Anthony Misiewicz
RHP Andres Munoz
RHP Yohan Ramirez
RHP Sergio Romo
RHP Casey Sadler (IL)
RHP Paul Sewald
LHP Justus Sheffield
RHP Drew Steckenrider
RHP Erik Swanson
The skinny: It’s hard to imagine Seattle’s 90-win season in 2021 without the help of the bullpen, which locked down a league-best 33 wins in one-run games and helped the Mariners to a 14-7 record in extra innings. Once led by Kendall Graveman — who was traded to Houston in a deadline deal for Abraham Toro last July — and later guided by Sewald, Sadler and Castillo, Seattle’s relievers ranked fourth in combined WAR (7.0) last season.
That latter trio returns to the club this spring, though Sadler, after leading the majors with a 0.67 ERA in 2021, elected season-ending shoulder surgery last month. … Munoz is an intriguing piece in this group. The 23-year-old reliever was acquired in the blockbuster summer trade with the Padres in 2020. That deal also brought infielder Ty France, catcher Luis Torrens and outfielder Taylor Trammell to the Mariners. At one point Munoz was expected to miss all of 2021 following Tommy John surgery. But, he flashed triple-digit velocity during rehab appearances in September, and returned for Seattle’s final game of the season. He retired both batters he faced in his one appearance, including striking out one. “It’s one that I’d probably compare to kind of what we thought with Edwin Diaz when he showed up,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said last season. “Electric, 100 miles-per-hour type stuff.”
Seattle added veteran reliever Romo on a one-year, $2 million contract last month and also returns Matt Festa, who appeared in 20 big league games in 2019 and posted a 4-1 record and 2.49 ERA for Triple-A Tacoma in 2021. … Sheffield and Swanson, acquired together from the Yankees in the late 2018 deal for James Paxton, also open the season in the bullpen.
Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh throws the ball back to the pitcher during the third inning of a spring training baseball game against the Chicago Cubs Wednesday, March 30, 2022, in Mesa, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin) Ross D. Franklin AP
CATCHERS (3)
Tom Murphy
Cal Raleigh
Luis Torrens
The skinny: Each of Seattle’s three catchers from last season return for the 2022 season. Torrens led the group in games played in 2021, though only 35 of his 101 appearances came from behind the dish. He worked five games at first base, two more at third, and the majority of his playing time in his fourth season in the majors was at DH. He posted the best numbers at the plate of the three, slashing at .243/.299/.431 with 15 home runs. Raleigh, a rookie last season, put together a 23-game hitting streak for Triple-A Tacoma between May and June last year, making his big league debut by the second week of July. The switch-hitting backstop will look to build on his .180/.223/.309 through 47 career games. Murphy, who played a club-high 88 games behind the plate, is back for a third season with the Mariners and remains a key defensive contributor. He hit .202/.304/.350 last season.
Seattle Mariners’ Eugenio Suarez fouls off a pitch against the Chicago Cubs during the third inning of a spring training baseball game Wednesday, March 30, 2022, in Mesa, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin) Ross D. Franklin AP
INFIELDERS (6)
SS J.P. Crawford
1B Ty France
2B Adam Frazier
UTIL Dylan Moore
3B Eugenio Suarez
UTIL Abraham Toro
1B Evan White (IL)
The skinny: Crawford, now in his third season with the Mariners, is back as the leader of the infield after posting career-best numbers — he hit .273/.338/.376 — in 2021. The former Gold Glove winner also played in a career-high 160 games for Seattle last season — the most of any player on the roster. … France is back at first base after pacing the Mariners at the plate last season, when he hit a club-best .291/.368/.445 with 32 doubles, 18 homers and 73 RBI.
White, another former Gold Glove winner, opens the season on the IL after also missing much of the 2021 season due to injury. He has played 84 games with the big league club since his debut in 2020. … An All-Star last season, Frazier joined the Mariners in November via a trade with the Padres. After five-plus seasons with Pittsburgh, he was traded to San Diego last summer, and hit .305/.368/.411 with 36 doubles, five triples, 43 RBI and 10 stolen bases in 155 games between the Pirates and Padres in 2021. Suarez, another former All-Star, joins the Mariners for his ninth big league season after spending the past seven with the Reds. He hit double-digit home runs each of his seasons in Cincinnati, including 31 last summer, while adding 79 RBI in 145 games.
This will be the first season in more than a decade the Mariners will be without beloved third baseman Kyle Seager on the roster. Seager played his entire professional career in the Mariners organization after the club drafted him in the third round in 2009 out of North Carolina, including each of his 11 big league seasons in Seattle during which he appeared in 1,480 games. Seager became a free agent last winter after the Mariners declined his 2022 option, and he announced his retirement in December.
Seattle Mariners’ Julio Rodriguez swings at a pitch against the Chicago Cubs during the third inning of a spring training baseball game Wednesday, March 30, 2022, in Mesa, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin) Ross D. Franklin AP
OUTFIELDERS (4)
Mitch Haniger
Jarred Kelenic
Kyle Lewis (IL)
Julio Rodriguez
Jesse Winker
The skinny: This outfield is loaded with both young talent and proven bats, making it one of the most intriguing groups on this roster heading into season. The Mariners already had a handful of big league contributors on the 40-man roster set to return after last season, but now adds two more to its impressive outfield ranks in Rodriguez and Winker.
After missing much of two seasons with injuries, Haniger hit .253/.318/.485 in 2021 with a team-leading 39 homers and drove in 100 RBI. He slots back into his usual position in right field, though Servais has noted he will continue to get some DH days. … Winker is the other outfielder in this group with several seasons of big league experience, and was an All-Star with Cincinnati last season, hitting .305/.394/.556 with 24 home runs and 71 RBI. He’s played the bulk of his major league innings during his five-season career in left. The club’s top prospect when he joined the organization as part of a trade with the Mets ahead of the 2019 season, Kelenic opens in Seattle this year after debuting for the Mariners last May. He looks to build on his .181/.265/.350 line last season in 93 games as a rookie.
Rodriguez, the Mariners’ top prospect and No. 3 prospect in all of baseball, per MLB Pipeline, played his way onto the Opening Day roster with a sensational performance this spring. He hit 10-for-34 with 10 runs scored, four doubles, three home runs, eight RBI, three stolen bases and five walks to nine strikeouts in 14 appearances in Arizona, and the Mariners announced he would open the season with the big league club earlier this week. He has a career slash line of .331/.412/.543 in 217 games across three seasons in the minors.
Lewis was named the American League Rookie of the Year in 2020 — the club’s first since Ichiro Suzuki in 2001 — but appeared in only 36 games last spring before he was placed on the IL the first day of June and later had season-ending knee surgery. He will open the season on the IL.
This story was originally published April 7, 2022 at 10:24 AM.
Lauren Smith is a sports reporter at The News Tribune. She has covered high school sports for TNT and The Olympian, as well as the Seattle Mariners and Washington Huskies. She is a graduate of UW and Emerald Ridge High School.
