The Mariners announced their Opening Day roster, with a few moves of note. Shortstop J.P. Crawford will start the season on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to March 22nd, due to right shoulder inflammation. Seattle also selected the contract of catcher Mitch Garver, a move that was previously reported. Fellow catcher Andrew Knizner cleared waivers and elected free agency, which opened a 40-man spot for Garver.
It doesn’t appear as though Crawford is slated for a lengthy absence. His shoulder has been sore for most of spring training but being healthy for the Opening Day roster seemed possible until recently. Adam Jude of the Seattle Times reports that Crawford feels he’ll be back in just a few weeks and that Leo Rivas is likely to man the position in the meantime. Ryan Bliss got a roster spot due to Crawford’s absence and could factor in as well.
On the cathing side of things, the Mariners signed Knizner to a one-year, $1MM deal back in December. It seemed like he would be the backup to Cal Raleigh this year but Garver lingered unsigned into the second half of February, allowing Seattle to bring him back via a minor league deal. Garver didn’t have a great spring, putting up a .192/.290/.346 line, but Knizner’s .172/.226/.207 performance was even worse.
It seems the Mariners quietly put Knizner on waivers a couple of days ago and no one claimed him. Since Knizner has at least five years of major league service time, he has the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency while keeping his salary commitments. He’ll be paid $1MM this year regardless. If he signs somewhere else, another club would only have to pay him a prorated league minimum salary of $780K, with that amount subtracted from what the Mariners owe.
Photo courtesy of Matt Kartozian, Imagn Images
It would have been nice to keep Knizner as our #3 in Tacoma but if another team picks him up for the full year, we’ll only owe him $220k instead of $1 mill.
It was his choice to elect free agency
Let’s hope Big Dump stays healthy sheesh
Sorry to read about JP in his walk year. Bliss is a bit of a surprise – thought it would be Mastrobuoni because of his flexibility around the diamond. As for Knizner, I suspect he’ll just join the police of backup catchers currently available for a minor league deal.
Oops. Just saw that Mastrobuoni is on the IL, too.
Surely he was the preferred choice if healthy.
They may try to sneak him through waivers while he’s on the IL.
It’s funny that this could actually work out well for Seattle.
We could use a RHB in the IF. Miles is a lefty
That really doesn’t matter when you’re talking about a short-term bench role. Bliss was the choice because of Mastrobuoni’s injury. He (Bliss) was the only real option as he was the only other infielder on the 40 and with some experience.
It will be interesting to see if they place Mastro on waivers. There’s a good chance he’d clear and could be outrighted. But when JP’s back, Rivas will slide back into a bench role and Bliss will be optioned, barring another injury or setback.
Not gonna bring up emerson to play SS??
They really should, he is soo much better than those 2 alternatives!!
it doesn’t make sense to bring him up if he isn’t going to stay. If JP was going to be out longer they may have went with Emerson, but for 2 weeks it makes way more sense to survive with Rivas/Bliss and keep developing Emerson who has basically played nothing more than double A
Mastrobuoni should return one of Bliss or Rivas will be send down.