Camp Cut, Iwakuma Embarrassed

The signing never made much sense to me anyways.

The Mariners cut Shawn Camp today in an attempt to give a couple of bullpen spots to better pitchers. Lucas Luetge is starting to look more and more like a real possibility. Other candidates include Ruffin, Wilhelmsen, Delabar, Ramirez, and Jimenez. The Mariners admitted they expected to break camp with Camp (laugh it out), but after impressive performances from the younger pitchers on the club, Camp began to look somewhat old and outdated. The move shouldn’t garner any colorful emotions as Camp was never all that exciting anyhow.

In other news, Wedge and his brass have informed Iwakuma that his performance to date has earned him a spot pitching from the bullpen. Wedge stated that the rotation will include Felix Hernandez, Jason Vargas, Hector Noesi, Blake Beavan and Kevin Millwood. Beaven is an unexpected addition, but not shocking considering he has pitched moderately well this spring. Even though Iwakuma won’t be a starting pitcher to begin the year, Wedge is still allowing him to pitch an exhibition game in Japan; a kind gesture. Just because Iwakuma isn’t a starter now doesn’t necessarily mean he won’t end the season as one. Injuries happen and it is a rarity for any team in today’s game to keep an entire rotation together for the whole season.

So the Mariners opened up two spots when cutting Camp and Kuo; one has been filled by the disappointing-to-date Iwakuma and the other is still up for grabs. The real loser here is likely Furbush who could be destined to start the season in the minors. An unexpected turn of events to be sure, but that is what is so fun about Spring Training, it never quite turns out the way we think it will. This team is starting to look a bit different than I had envisioned three weeks ago.