Seattle Mariners: Taylor Trammell Should Be The Opening Day Left fielder
Joe Swenson
|
A Unique Situation
This puts the Seattle Mariners in a unique situation where they might have too much talent at a position to create an opportunity for one of them to be an everyday player. With Kyle Lewis entrenched in center for now and Mitch Haniger the opening day right fielder, will there be enough at-bats to justify keeping both rookies on the big league roster at the same time?
Then there are the perennial Four-A players Jake Fraley and Braden Bishop. Eventually, the M’s will run out of options for these two, and they will find themselves playing for another team that might have an opportunity for them. For now, it looks like Trammell knocked one or both off the roster.
With the need for a sixth starter not there until late April, the Mariners could stick to eight relievers and hold off on the sixth starter until then. This would create an opening for one more bat and buy Trammell some time to prove himself to be a big-league caliber outfielder and bat.
Bottom Line
The bottom line is that with Trammell’s attitude and performance this spring, he earned a spot on the opening day roster. Trammell has a tremendous qualitative value that could turn into a really strong quantitative value for the entire team. In a results-driven world like Major League Baseball, his impact on the Seattle Mariners could be as valuable as his own production.
Joe Swenson is a writer, director, and producer for Broken Arts Entertainment www.brokenartsentertainment.com. He is also a co-host for the “In The Clutch” podcast.