Seattle’s long Spring wait

It’s ironic that the Seattle Mariners’ web site depth chart is misconfigured today (see right), so that the outfield seems to be playing infield, because it reflects the strange suspension of competition for positions that the WBC has created. Nonetheless, there is a lot of baseball being played, with Ronny Cedeno and Matt Tuiasosopo making excellent cases for a place on the Mariners’ roster, batting .314 and .500, respectively, through Saturday.

Misconfigured

What to do with both Cedeno and Tuiasosopo is about the only major position battle going on while the team waits for its WBC contingent to return, as it seems certain that Jose Lopez, barring injury, will take second base on opening day. Tuiasosopo, only 22, may be headed for Tacoma, unless Adrian Beltre, who is easing back into playing after two surgeries (shoulder and hand) at the end of last season, goes on the disabled list. 

At first base, which I wrote about last weekend, Russell Branyan is emerging as the Opening Day starter. He belted his second and third home runs of the Spring during today’s game. The performance of Chris Shelton, who has a .630 OBP and Slugging Percentage of 1.048 in 22 at-bats in Arizona has him looking like the backup at first.

But the team is still waiting on Lopez, Ichiro, Felix Hernandez, Carlos Silva, Kenji Johjima and Endy Chavez to return from the WBC. With Jeff Clement batting only .208 this Spring, Johjima has no worries about ceding his starting role to the young catcher. Rob Johnson, another of the cadre of fine catching prospects in waiting, is hitting much better than Clement. It’s possible that GM Jack Zduriencik will give up on the Bavasi-era first-round pick, Clement. He keeps saying that every job has to be earned—Clement’s not doing the job so far.

After the jump, I’ll lay out what I think the Opening Day roster will look like. But the real actionin the battle for places on the roster won’t start until the WBC is over, when Manager Don Wakamatsu and Zdurniencik will be able to see a combination of real-world line-ups in action on the field. This is just a strawman, based on player performance to date and listening to the daily musings of Don Wakamatsu and Zduriencik. The pitching situation remains largely settled, though it’s an open issue, and not a pressing one, who will be the #5 starter, Ryan Rowland-Smith or Jarrod Washburn, assuming Brandon Morrow is on the DL (starters indicated by asterisks). With Morrow on the DL, this roster is short one player. I think Chad Cordero, who is not on this list, will be the closer by mid-season, if his shoulder recovers. That will probably mean Messenger or Walker, whomever is struggling more, will be sent down.

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