Mariners Set Opening Day Roster
Your 2018 Seattle Mariners have their lineup, rotation, and bullpen all set for March 29th, opening day. All 25 spots have been filled, although three of those spots originally belonged to someone else, who unfortunately went down with injuries.
We'll start by breaking down the 25-man roster, starting with the pitchers.
Rotation:
1.) RHP Felix Hernandez
2.) LHP James Paxton
3.) RHP Mike Leake
4.) LHP Marco Gonzales
The rotation will originally be a 4-man rotation, as the Mariners have a lot of off days throughout the first couple weeks of the season. Pitching coach Mel Stottlemyer Jr. will be keeping a close eye on the starters to make sure they're able to go on schedule. Starting opening day will be RHP Felix Hernandez, who failed to pitch over 100 innings last year, the first time that's happened to the king since 2005, the year he made his debut. Following Felix will be LHP James Paxton, who was having a breakout season last year, but injuries limited him to just 136 innings of sub-3 ERA baseball. the third spot in the rotation will go to RHP MIke Leake, who had a 2.53 ERA in 5 starts after the Mariners aquired him last season for 22-year old SS/2B Rayder Ascanio. The fourth spot will go to LHP Marco Gonzales, who the Mariners traded top prospect Tyler O'Neil for in a late July trade.
Bullpen:
Long Relief: RHP Casey Lawrence
Long Relief: LHP Wade LeBlanc
Left- Handed Specialist: LHP Mark Rzepczynski
Middle Relief: RHP Dan Altavilla
Middle Relief: LHP James Pazos
Middle Relief: RHP Nick Vincent
Setup: RHP Juan Nicasio
Closer: RHP Edwin Diaz
The bullpen is anchored by closer Edwin Diaz, who had 34 saves last year. Juan Nicasio, who just signed a 2-year, $16.5M contract this offseason, will be handling duties in the 8th to get the ball to Diaz in the 9th. Nick Vincent, James Pazos, and Dan Altavilla will all be middle relievers to start the year, while Mark Rzepczynski will be the guy tasked with getting tough left handed hitters out in key situations. Wade LeBlanc and Casey Lawrence will both be tasked with providing multiple innings out of the bullpen, and both are candidates to make some starts once a 5th starter is needed.
Lineup:
CF Dee Gordon
SS Jean Segura
2B Robinson Cano
DH Nelson Cruz
3B Kyle Seager
RF Mitch Haniger
1B Ryon Healy
C Mike Marjama
LF Ichiro Suzuki
Bench:
OF Guillermo Heredia
UTL Andrew Romine
1B/DH Dan Vogelbach
C David Freitas
The lineup will see some significant upgrades as the Mariners have acquired Dee Gordon, formerly a 2B/SS and converted him to play CF, and 1B Ryon Healy, who formerly played 3B/1B/DH for Oakland last year before being traded for reliever Emilio Pagan.
Now that the 25-man roster is set and ready to go, here are the guys who are injured and aren't ready for opening day.
Disabled List:
LF Ben Gamel
C Mike Zunino
RHP Erasmo Ramirez
RHP David Phelps (60-day)
LF Ben Gamel, C Mike Zunino, and RHP Erasmo Ramirez will all begin the season on a minor league rehab assignment in Tacoma, and they all have already mostly healed up from their injury and will hopefully be back to Seattle before the end of April. It is unsure what moves will be made to accommodate their returns, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. RHP Davis Phelps, who figured to be a large part of this year's bullpen, will undergo Tommy John surgery and will miss the entire 2018 season.