10:34PM: Haniger suffered a Grade 2 sprain, manager Scott Servais told MLB.com’s George Richards and other reporters. There isn’t yet a timeline on Haniger’s recovery, as Servais said “we’ll have to wait to see how he responds to treatments and get the swelling down, get range of motion back and see where it takes us.”
3:52PM: Just a day after being reinstated from the COVID-related injured list, Mitch Haniger has been again placed back onto the 10-day IL. This time, Haniger has been sidelined by a right high ankle sprain. In the corresponding roster move, outfielder Stuart Fairchild has been called up from Triple-A.
Haniger suffered the injury in his first at-bat last night, rolling his ankle after fouling a pitch. After hitting a single, Haniger had to be replaced on the basepaths by pinch-runner Abraham Toro. An MRI was scheduled for today on Haniger’s ankle, but an IL stint seemed likely even if the injury was relatively mild.
If the MRI reveals a more serious injury, Haniger could miss quite a bit of time, which would be a serious setback for both the outfielder and the Mariners as a whole. Between this ankle sprain and two missed weeks recovering from COVID-19, Haniger has only 36 plate appearances thus far in 2022, so the Mariners have largely been without one of their best hitters.
Another lengthy injury absence also wouldn’t help Haniger’s future market value, as he is slated to hit free agency after the season. Haniger has been at times mentioned as a possible extension or trade candidate for the M’s, though the possibility of a trade would seemingly diminish if this high ankle sprain keeps him sidelined for most or all of the pre-deadline period. Haniger is unfortunately no stranger to the IL, having missed over half of the 2019 season due to a ruptured testicle, and then all of the 2020 season due to surgeries related to a torn adductor muscle.
The Mariners have Jesse Winker, Julio Rodriguez, and Jarred Kelenic lined up as the starting outfield, but all three have struggled badly to begin the 2022 season. Kyle Lewis is still working his way back from knee surgery, and was expected to see mostly DH duty until his knee is fully back up to strength. Between Lewis’ health and the fact that neither Rodriguez or Kelenic have done much of anything at the MLB level, Haniger’s veteran bat was seen as a big stabilizing force in Seattle’s outfield.
Utilityman Dylan Moore figures to get more playing time with Haniger out, plus the Mariners could use Adam Frazier in left field rather than at second base. Billy Hamilton and Steven Souza Jr. are two familiar veteran names at Triple-A, but most immediately, Fairchild will now get another look at the big league level. Fairchild made his Major League debut by playing 12 games with the Diamondbacks in 2021, and the Mariners acquired Fairchild earlier this week after the D’Backs designated Fairchild for assignment.
Bad news.
The team suddenly seems snake-bit; nothing is going right.
Frazier and Winker are duds so far.
The two heralded newcomers, Julio and Kelenic, are mostly struggling.
Maybe Ray can win it all by himself today, I hope so.
Jrod has been hitting well for over a week now hits in 6 out of the last 7 games. .844 ops over that time.
A week!? Get going on the HOF plaque, Cooperstown!
Gotta start somewhere? Dumb comment.
No. He is supposed to come up and be Mike Trout right away, obviously.
Well, Mike Trout hit ..220 as a rookie……so he kinda is being Mike Trout..
dannycore20 hours ago
Jrod has been hitting well for over a week now hits in 6 out of the last 7 games. .844 ops over that time.
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Not really. Over his last 7 games, he has a .739 OPS, despite a .389 BABIP. Over his last 4 games, he has a .564 OPS despite a .333 BABIP. Sometimes you actually do need some AAA ABs.
….or MLB quality umps.
I saw that article. Even if Julio got an extra couple of calls his way, what would his OPS look like? He is #2 in Ks in all baseball. And it’s really early, but he hasn’t made any progress. He had a 17/4 K/W in his first ten games, and 13/3 in his last ten games.
That said, the Mariners probably don’t have any alternatives at this point.
it’s more than a couple of extra calls…30% of his total strikeouts have been on bad calls. If we remove those ABs from the equation he’d be hitting .~.240-250 right now …not amazing but well above league average (.233)..
His K% would also drop to around league average.
About that Julio guy….. 450 foot bomb says he can hit
yeah his wRc+ is now at 88….factor in the 30 point hit on his average from those bad calls and he’d be right around league average for OPS/wRC=
I know it’s not that simple, but he’s probably performing just a tad below a league-average hitter right now skillwise. once you factor in the bad calls.
plus he’s turned half his singles/walks into doubles with a SB…..
if he can be a league average hitter while displaying waaaay better speed and defense than advertised…..I’d say it would be an a solid debut at his age. Providing value in different way than expected but raising his ceiling actually.
@Joe Brady….if you balanced out the calls to league average his OPS would be right at league average.
Yet the M’s still have one of the best offenses in baseball
Pending free agent, lets spend the season on the DL and see if it works out for me
Even if there was a choice, there’s no DL.
Dont judge a player by his stats …use your eyes….Winker can hit , Julio can hit and if Kelenic develops some patience at the plate he too will hit
Sure, why judge hitting based on actual performance when you can rely on subjectivity.
No, numbers still count.. The difference between those three is that Winker has a somewhat lengthy history of hitting. He doesn’t hit lefties, but you can work around that. Kelenic & Julio don’t have that type of history. Right now, Kelenic is on pace for 266 Ks in 600 ABs. Julio is on pace for 247 Ks in 600 ABs.
They are #3 and #5 in K% in all of baseball. And offsetting all those strikeouts are a total of two HRs between the two of them.
If you want, you can simply search all the Adell posts I’ve written over the last three years. The MLB is a brutal place to learn how to hit. That’s what the AAA is for.
remove the bad calls and Julio is right at league average for Ks…not too worried about him once the umps get their heads out of the ass.es.
Julio is a very young guy, and he is an improving young guy. He’s starting to catch up to major league pitching. The future is definitely bright for him. Kelenic I’m not so sure about. He really needs to spend more time in AAA ball.
A month ago people were laughing when I said the Mariners were more likely to be short-handed in the OF by May than worrying about finding enough ABs to go around.
May 1 and they are calling up a waiver-claime with 15 career ABs to fill-in in the OF. How it goes….
I remember those conversations in these very comment sections. The Mariners were NEVER set at outfield, and now it’s showing.
They should have gone all out for Seiya Suzuki. He’s tearing it up. I never understood their talk about the outfield, either. A potential star who can’t stay healthy; a former rookie of the year who can’t stay healthy, and highly heralded but unproved young guys.
something so tragic about this fella.
I read that Kyle Lewis had meniscus damage and that’s why he’s missed basically an entire season. If true how is that possible? I had both reconstructive knee surgery followed two years later by a scope to repair damaged meniscus and I was walking on the knee in a week after the scope while the reconstruction of my knee kept me down for months. The recovery time after the scope for getting back to sports was literally four to six weeks maybe a week or two longer but he’s missed a full season. Am I missing something?
I’m guessing you’re not a professional athlete.
Everyone gets bad calls, everyone gets favorable calls. Get your mind away from that, it’s just silly. Things even out in the long run. Just ask Jerry Seinfeld.
right….so when you are in the top 1% for worst calls called against you, you can expect your average to rise as it balances out. His .200 average isn’t indicative of his talent because he’s been getting worse calls than 99% of the league..
And of course, right on cue, Julio goes 3/4 and is now hitting .234….one tick ABOVE leage average if you can believe that.
Ruptured Testicle is one of my fav bands.
If Kelenic busts, the storied history of Mariners top prospects will only grow.
If Julio busts, it may be time to fold the franchise.