Happy Service Time Manipulation Day Seattle Mariners Fans
Taking bets
Now the wait begins in earnest. After the doubleheader sweep of Baltimore on April 15, the Seattle Mariners no longer have a control-the-player reason to keep Kelenic at Minor League Camp. Taylor Trammell is a fun dude, probably the life of the party, but he can’t handle big-league pitching.
It’s no secret the M’s sorely miss Kyle Lewis and his power bat. But right now, we can officially start the pool for when Kelenic gets called up. My guess he arrives in the third week of May. Partially because I want to be wrong, and he comes up earlier; also partially because it’s logical to give Kelenic two weeks of AAA before calling him up.
Kelenic, part 2
Mariners Manager Scott Servais said he wants to keep Logan Gilbert’s innings down for 2021. The team intends on bringing him up later in the year. I still don’t understand this philosophy, but this could be another service time manipulation effort, especially if they wait until the halfway point of the season where Seattle will retain all three of Gilbert’s option years.
To go with the theme, if he only pitches half a season in 2022, then the Mariners could keep control of his contract through 2028. It seems a bit shady, but with the Kelenic shenanigans, I wouldn’t be surprised.
In closing
Either way, happy service time manipulation day. The proper way to celebrate would be to give the person of most value in your life a gift and tell them that they can’t open it until Kelenic gets called up. That’s what I’m going to do for my wife, and she’s going to love it.
The opinions in this article are the opinions of Joe Swenson, the writer. The humor is also the humor of Joe Swenson. While Joe Swenson doesn’t often write satirical articles, he can often be found providing satire throughout the Mariners social network universe.
Jerry Dipoto told SiriusXM's @JimBowdenGM that the #Mariners' plan for top pitching prospect Logan Gilbert this year is designed around him pitching mostly in the majors. "We built an inning model for him where we would slowly ramp him up roughly starting in late April, early May
— Brent Stecker (@BrentStecker) April 12, 2021
Joe Swenson is a life-long Seattle sports fan, award-winning playwright, author, director, producer, and co-host of the sports podcast In The Clutch.