Seattle Mariners: The Dipoto Dilemma – Vets vs Rookies
Not enough time
In reality, Seattle’s prospects need to play because they haven’t shown enough yet to make good decisions about them.
Some of you may eagerly point out that Kyle Lewis is the reigning Rookie of the Year. That both Evan White and J.P. Crawford won gold gloves. So, Seattle knows what it has with them and that they’ll only get better. Does Seattle? Let’s look at the 2020 season compared to a typical baseball season.
Last year consisted of 60 games or two months’ worth of normal MLB regular-season games. Sure, the M’s finished only a few games out of the playoffs. But again, lots of teams can be good for two months, then fall flat on their faces.
Learn from mistakes
For example, the 2019 Mariners started the year like gangbusters. They were blasting every pitch they saw over the fence. Daniel Vogelbach (remember him?) looked like he might be the Mariners’ first baseman of the future or, at the very least, their DH. Then the league caught up with the M’s, and the team stunk horribly.
Dipoto is smart. When he says (paraphrasing) that the young players need to play, so the team has a better sense of what areas need improvement and what areas don’t. Players like Lewis, White, Ty France, Jose Marmolejos, Dylan Moore, and Luis Torrens have less than a full MLB year of experience. Any smart GM or fan would realize that there is not enough experience to decide those players. The sample size isn’t big enough.
Many of the Seattle Mariners’ young players show great promise. They got a taste of MLB success and failure in 2020. This winter, they’ll be better prepared for the upcoming 2020 season. That includes being better prepared for what the opposition does against them. Remember,
Lewis started to struggle towards the end of the year. Was that struggle because opponents figured out his weaknesses, simply just a slump, or a lack of protection around him in the batting order?
These young players need more time to grow and develop. They won’t be getting the necessary development at Triple-A anymore.