After joining the Mariners on a one-year, $5.5MM deal during the winter, left fielder Nori Aoki began the season in dreadful fashion. The former Brewer, Royal and Giant hit just .245/.323/.313 over his first 284 plate appearances, which led the Mariners to option him to Triple-A Tacoma on June 24. The demotion proved effective for Aoki, who returned to the majors in late July and has since slashed .317/.363/.468 in 136 trips to the plate. As a result, the Mariners hope Aoki sticks around in 2017, reports Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune.
“He’s been awesome,” said general manager Jerry Dipoto. “I don’t think he was ever out of our plans (for 2017). When we sent him to Triple-A, we explained to him that we were going to let him play. And whatever happens, happens.”
The Dipoto-led Mariners sent Aoki to the minors again in late August, but that trip only lasted 10 days and came on account of roster issues, per Dutton.
Whether Aoki is a Mariner in 2017 could come down to his player option. The soon-to-be 35-year-old needs another 60 PAs this season to trigger his $5MM option for next season, notes Dutton, who expects Aoki to see plenty of action during the final 15 games of the Mariners’ campaign as they try to overcome a three-game deficit in the American League wild-card race. Collecting 60 more plate trips could be difficult for Aoki, but it’s in his favor that Seattle is set to face plenty of right-handed pitchers, as Dutton writes. Aoki has slashed .292/.357/.413 and walked nearly as much as he has struck out (21 to 27) in 316 PAs versus righties this year.
“I’m doing a lot of things different,” Aoki said of his second-half success. “It’s not just one thing. I changed my bat. I changed my helmet. I changed the way I see the ball. I changed a lot of things.”
I would imagine Aoki gets a similar contract (1/$6m?)
Cruz, Martin, Heredia and Gamel seem like a solid OF base- I would likely try to add one more guy to solidify it and give some emergency depth.
They will bring back one or two of Smith, Aoki, Lind and Dae ho, as there is no need for all of them on the roster again. Only bringing back Smith makes the most sense to me as he is still a solid 2nd batter. That gives Vogolbach/Peterson a chance at first with gamel as the full time right fielder. Now that I think about it bringing back Smith and Aoki makes the most sense.
More worried about how much Gutierrez will cost. He might not be the premium field once was, but he’s one of the best 4th outfielders in the game and is going to cost more than the 1.5m he just did.
Like Aoki and all, but have to wonder if Seattle is going to look at all 3 of Gutierrez, Aoki and Smith in the offseason. I’d let Smith walk if only tried to hang onto 2.
Gotta let Guti walk. A defensive liability now who doesn’t hit righties well enough is not a better 4th OF than Heredia and Gamel, and as much as people don’t want to admit it, Nori is better than Guti. Smith, Martin, Aoki, Heredia/Gamel. Cruz to full time DH or move to 1B.
JDP has added good young players.
If you don’t look at the Trumbo trade, he had a great first season.
Totally agree, though I stand by Dipoto’s reasoning in getting rid of Trumbo. Look at his current year — .270 BAPIP, .271 ISO — there’s no way the solid average and crazy amount of home runs holds up.
Which is exactly why Trumbo’s first half — .288 average — doesn’t match his second half — .181 average.
This must mean Gutierrez is out. I would agree, this is his worst defensive year and its not going to get any better.
Sentimentality is weakness, let him go.
Trumbo’s numbers are partly from the parks he plays in on the EC but he also said Edgar helped him a lot last year. So a perfect storm of putting what what showed him and playing in smaller parks helped him. I doubt he would be close to those numbers back here.
Aoki should be brought back Guti hopefully will be brought back too.I hope they don’t bring Smith back. I know he had had a couple clutch hits and sees a lot of pitches but I am just not a fan. He is also not that good on the OF. I also wonder what will happen with Tyler O’Neill next year it is a big jump but if he has a great spring could he make the club out of AA? They have done it with pitchers so who knows how well his winter goes then spring. It is time we had a rookie make it up fast and work out. I know more than likely they take it slow with him but would be nice. Dipoto needs to fill some holes and not trade any prospects away. Build the team for ling and short term success. They have the money so spend it but wisely.
Smith is clutch. Bringing him back is a no-brainer. As much as I like Guti, he just isn’t good enough anymore. From a purely numbers standpoint, Smith is the M’s most solid outfielder.