Seattle Mariners: Predicting the Opening Day 30-man roster
Marco Gonzales, Seattle Mariners. (photo by Udeezy via Wikicommons)
Seattle Mariners summer camp is underway at T-Mobile Park, as baseball returns from its self-imposed COVID-19 hiatus. Each Major League team submitted a player pool of 60 men. The players are in the process of getting back in game shape, while the team gets a look at who they want to take into battle this year.
M’s manager Scott Servais is charged with narrowing the group down to a 30-man squad to open the MLB season. His job is initially made easier by the makeup of players in camp. The M’s are using a different approach than most other MLB teams. They invited many of the organizations top prospects to camp. A majority of the up-and-comers will spend this season working with coaches and scouts at the Mariners’ alternate site in Tacoma.
The Mariners will likely go with 15 pitchers and position players each. Here is an early look at who will be in uniform on opening day.
Rotation
The Seattle Mariners will begin with six pitchers in the starting rotation. Among the starters, only Marco Gonzales and Yusei Kikuchi are the only two returners from last year’s team. They will headline the rotation. Gonzales had a record of 16–13 last season, with an era of 3.99. With some run support in his last two outings, down the stretch, Gonzales would have been 18–11. On September 22, he lost 2–1 to the Baltimore Orioles, then 1–0 to the Oakland A’s, September 28.
Yusei Kikuchi had a disappointing season with a record of 6–11, with an era of 5.46. It was Kikuchi’s first season in the USA after signing as a free agent from Japan. Kikuchi changed his delivery going into spring training. The team hopes he will have a better season in 2020 in his ten-ish outings. Gonzales will likely pitch the opening game since he was slated to at the beginning of spring training. Kikuchi and newcomer Kendall Graveman have been throwing during the break. They are ready to go in the two and three spots.
Highly regarded Justus Sheffield looked very shaky at times last year. He gained some composure toward the end of the season, posting a 4.38 ERA in 24.2 innings over his final five starts. Although his record was 0–0 in those games, the Mariners went 4–1. Considering the team only won 11 games the entire month, that’s a big accomplishment. Sheffield is penciled into the number four slot to start 2020.
Former 2010 M’s first-round pick Taijuan Walker, who returns to the team after three disappointing seasons with Arizona, and high rated prospect Justin Dunn round out the rotation.