Before tonight’s matchup with the Yankees, the Mariners reinstated J.P. Crawford from the 10-day injured list. Seattle optioned Leo Rivas to Triple-A Tacoma to open a roster spot. Dylan Moore is starting at shortstop tonight, but Crawford will be available off the bench and could return to the lineup tomorrow.
Crawford appeared in 22 games before suffering an oblique strain in late April. He was off to a slow start, hitting .198/.296/.302 with two homers over 98 plate appearances. The left-handed hitting infielder had the best season of his career in 2023, when he popped a personal-high 19 homers with a .266/.380/.438 slash over 145 games. Crawford walked at a near-15% clip while striking out less than 20% of the time.
Moore has played shortstop in Crawford’s absence. The right-handed hitter has performed admirably, hitting .239/.316/.507 with 11 extra-base hits in 22 games. Moore has played well enough that he should stay in the lineup in a multi-positional role with Crawford’s return. In the short term, that could come at second base, where Jorge Polanco remains day to day as he battles hamstring soreness. Luis Urías has drawn in the lineup at third base in recent days, pushing Josh Rojas to the keystone.
Seattle could also mix and match more frequently at first base, although that’s not on account of injury. Luke Raley got the start there against Corbin Burnes in yesterday’s series finale in Baltimore. That pushed Ty France to the bench and allowed Dominic Canzone to draw into left field. It was Raley’s fourth start of the season at first base, in addition to his 24 starts in the outfield.
Adam Jude of the Seattle Times writes that manager Scott Servais could more frequently pencil Raley in at first base against right-handed starters. That’d allow the M’s to get the lefty bats of Raley and Canzone into the lineup while cutting into France’s playing time. France, a 2022 All-Star, slumped to a roughly league average .250/.337/.366 line last season. He’s off to an even slower start in 2024, hitting .235/.285/.359 through his first 165 plate appearances.
Raley (.297/.327/.444) and Canzone (.220/.289/.488) have made more of an offensive impact, particularly from a power perspective. The Mariners aren’t planning to utilize a strict first base platoon that’d keep France out of action against right-handed pitching entirely. To that end, he’s in tonight’s lineup against Yankees righty Marcus Stroman. Raley and Canzone are starting in the corner outfield, pushing Mitch Haniger to DH and Mitch Garver to the bench. With each of Garver, Haniger and France underperforming, Servais could trim into the playing time for any of that group to keep Raley and Canzone in the lineup.
Beyond the major league shuffling, the M’s provided an update on one of their top minor league infield talents. Colt Emerson, whom Seattle took with the 22nd pick in last year’s draft, will miss some time for Low-A Modesto. MLB.com’s Daniel Kramer tweets that Emerson recently suffered a fracture after fouling a ball off his foot and is expected to be out of action for 4-6 weeks. The 18-year-old is a consensus top 100 minor league talent. He was out to an excellent .271/.441/.414 start with more walks than strikeouts over 19 games before the injury.
I’d cut into urias’s playing time especially if polanco is hurt.
He was only getting PAs because Crawford and Polanco were out. With Crawford back, it’s a foregone conclusion that he’ll sit most nights.
I can’t wait to see the cole young and colt Emerson 1-2 infield punch, I think they have a lot of potential
Idk how harry ford can push dumper so he will probably get traded (for 1/2 season of Alonso?)
Losing Ford for a half season of Alonzo would be a tragedy.
I wouldn’t move Ford if I were Seattle. Raleigh is good but those K’s scare me a lot long term. If that dips any further you’re getting into Mike Zunino K levels….
Cal going to have 30+ homers this year where are you going to replace that?
I never understood why they wouldnt be ecstatic for this to be the battery starting next year:
Cal 112 starts at C 25 DH
Harry Ford 50 at C 40 DH
I’m not ruling out a successful position change for the kid, either. I am really excited about his talent and mental makeup. Dump is such a good catcher, so valuable as a legit 2 way backstop that you see him there for the next 10 years or as long as his body holds up. But hey, if we can limit him to 300-350 innings a year back there because of a Harry Ford luxury, I think that’s a win win scenario
300-350 *at bats. Not innings
He’ll be 22 next year and presumably start the season in AAA.
They might be more likely to see what they can do with an extension for Raleigh before they commit to any plan with Ford. Regardless, I would be surprised to see Ford before July next year.
That said, they could potentially solve their future DH issue with a time-share like that. I just have doubts about them actually being able to extend Raleigh.
What dumper has going for him on the extension front, is that he is bar none Scot Servais’ “boy” on this team. A former catcher raising his own homegrown switch hitting beast. You know there is EXTRA affinity there, he doesn’t even try to hide it at this point. And Scott and Jerry seem to be tied at the hip.
That said, we’ve been through enough nickel and diming up here that I agree with your sentiment; it’s hard to EXPECT this team to pony up when called for.
Divish seems pretty convinced that there is no chance Raleigh is re-upping with the team
I’m pretty convinced as well. I think it’s more likely they sell high on him following the 2025 season.
I’m incredibly curious how hard they’ll try.
x.com/Puck2040/status/1793373850446840274
Hey man, interesting listen regarding this topic!
I caught that. There are so many unknowns, though, especially regarding future budgets.
I have a hard time believing they would move Ford before extending Cal–which I still don’ think is likely–and if they do, I could see it being a prospect-swap, where Seattle gets a MLB-ready fielder in return.
It’s so early, though. So much could change before end of July.
Harry Ford is a good enough athlete that he could be back up catcher to Cal & play 4th OF the rest of the time. Plus…Cal’s agent is Scott Boras— M’s will be hard pressed to extend Cal in the next 3 years. Best to keep Harry Ford!
He hasn’t played any outfield yet. If they expect to see him handling a corner, they’ll need to get him innings ASAP. Any defensive changes would likely set back his debut (2026?), which is fine, given his age.
Since when does Seattle trade elite prospects for rental bats?
The M’s should be calling the Cardinals about Alec Burleson. I would hate to see him go, but he’s exactly what Seattle was looking for. Tons of hard contact, without the strikeouts. He’s finally getting comfortable and he’s hitting everything on the screws. He deserves to play everyday. The price is going up with every screaming line drive.
Great win for Seattle tonight!
Burleson seems like a natural fit for the Cards next year when Goldy leaves.
Yes, but we NEED arms. Gorman, Walker, or even Contreras could play 1B, but we don’t have that many options for the rotation. I love Burly, but eventually we’re going to have to part with somebody to get some pitching.
Cards definitely do not have pitching. I guess I’d deal Gorman over Burleson at this point but they’ll obviously need to clear a position player out soon.
I loved the Cards as a trade partner last year and over the offseason, but Seattle is not trading from the top 5 starters anytime soon, And they’re what people want. If somebody is willing to believe in Hancock let em, but he wont get you any big fish by himself, which is what Seattle desperately needs on the hitting side. I’m hoping Arizona fades and they can trade for Sewald and Christian Walker in walk years
You can add Hancock to make that the Top 6 Starters. He will surely be needed at some point with 100+ games left to play. The M’s would be foolish to trade him. He’s a good SP6!
Last year at the deadline the M’s fielded a lot of calls on young SP Logan Evans. He’s the real deal and….just like Hancock he will be needed for depth. In fact this kid is so good the word is the M’s are considering bringing him up this year! In a BP role. Despite only being drafted last yr. Why not? Let him earn the opportunity to help the team win the West.
It is tempting to want to deal Emerson. I agree that it’s in the best interest of the team to hang on to him. He still needs to prove that he can stay healthy. Despite the flash he’s shown, controllability and legit potential/floor combo at his still young age, I think in order for us to get what we need back in a deal for him: any team dealing for him would need to provide unrealistic return.
I would cry if we dealt Emerson (colt), he is our second baseman of the future and he is like Jackson Holliday with the plate discipline
(Should have specified that was talking about Herbie Hancock)
I talked about him being a target for the Mariners two years ago (and again early last season). But I don’t think they’ll target another player with questionable defense.
I wouldn’t be opposed, I just think they’re more likely to target players with more defensive value.
Those Yankees can only win 8 innings we got them now.
Luis Urias
Jorge Polanco
Seby Zavala
Moth Garver
Mitch Haniger
Ryne Stanek
Could there be a worse off season and still keep winning?
Dylan Moore should play over every single guy he added. Seattle definitely got nowhere with all those moves.
At least Raley is hot, we went from batting like 7 or 8 a week ago to 4th
Scott servais is desperate
Like I said all along there is more to Moore than meets the eye. Having him play backup is proven to be less than Moore.