Mariners Spring Training Update (02-18-2014)

On Monday, position players reported to Peoria for physicals, The King and The Fresh Prince had their first Spring Training bullpen sessions and optimism filled the air. Spring is indeed, in full swing.

The one notable absence from Mariner camp was that of Robinson Cano, who already had a physical when he signed his monster deal back in December. But he will have a press conference today when he arrives at camp.

As for the bullpen sessions: All eyes were on Taijuan Walker, who had been experiencing some shoulder soreness last week. Well, after 25 pitches, everyone breathed a heavy sigh of relief as he looked good and more importantly, felt good.

"It felt great. Really good. I was just excited. I wanted to keep throwing. — Taijuan Walker"

The team did limit him to a five-minute bullpen session as opposed to the 10-minute one the others were subjected to. New pitching coach Rick Waits said he saw what the club was hoping to see in Walker’s first outing.

Walker, Felix Hernandez and Yoervis Medina were the only pitchers to throw bullpens on Monday, as the remaining 32 pitchers in camp had already worked one or two sessions in the first four days of camp. They skipped today in anticipation of live BP which begins with position players coming to the field, today.

As for some of those position players. Brad Miller packed on some muscle this offseason tweets Ryan Divish.

We will have highlights from today’s action tomorrow morning as well as more pics from Peoria.