M’s top 4 catchers are all hurt (updated)

Update: The Mariners just announced that Chris Giminez has been placed on the 15 day DL, and that Josh Bard has been recalled and will start in tonight’s game. No word yet, on who was removed from the 40 man roster so that Bard could be added.

2nd Update: The Mariners designated left-hander Edward Paredes, thus removing him from the 40 man roster to make room for Bard. Parades was shelled early and often in Tacoma at the start of this season, and was demoted to AA Jackson. He’s 1-0 with a 4.70 ERA in 15 innings with Jackson.

The headline sort of says it all. The M’s go into today’s finale with the Braves with more on their minds then simply trying to avoid the sweep. Like, who’s going to catch all those Felix Hernandez fastballs?

Miguel Olivo was pulled from last night’s game with leg cramps, and seriously needs a day off as well as more regular rest.

Chris Giminez strained an oblique mussel in last night’s game, and had to tough it out since he was the last catcher on bench.

Adam Moore hurt his knee back in April and had season ending surgery. His career appears to be in jeopardy, as it is unclear if his knee will allow him to continue catching, and his bat isn’t good enough to play elsewhere on the field.

Josh Bard, who would be obvious choice to come up and catch for the Mariners, was injured last Saturday in a game for the Rainiers. According to Mike Curto, the voice of the Raniers, Bard had his toe nail ripped off, lots of blood, pain, etc. He’s not the DL and is technically day-to-day, but it doesn’t appear that he’s going to be able to play for at least a few more days.

Currently, the top uninjured catcher in the organization is Jose Yepez, a 30 year old minor league journyman who’s never made it to the majors. It would appear likely that he gets to make his major league debut soon.

It is likely that Olivo was able to get hydrated and will start in today’s game, and the M’s will risk not making a roster move and hope that Giminez in fine in a couple days. It’s also possible that Giminez lands on the DL in order to make room for either Bard or, more likely, Yepez, to be added to the roster.

Complicating matters slightly is that neither Yepez nor Bard are on the 40 man roster, so an additional roster move will have to be made in order to call up either catcher. My rather uninformed guess would be that Matt Tuias0sopo is the unfortunate victim of the roster crunch.