Notes on the First Round of Cuts

As Keith reported earlier, the Mariners made their first round of cuts yesterday. These included Walker, Paxton, and Hultzen, but there were twelve other players to be sent down to the minor league camp as well. These players were Yoervis Medina, Forrest Snow, Mauricio Robles, Scott Patterson, Nick Franklin, Carlos Triunfel, Francisco Martinez, Johermyn Chavez, Chih-Hsien Chiang, Darren Ford, Ralph Henriquez, and Luis Jimenez.

This group contains most of what is considered to be the future of the Mariner’s organization. However, note that a couple of other young players were not sent down. Erasmo Ramirez is the most notable as Keith mentioned, but otherwise, there was Vinnie Catricala.

Catricala has hit .333 this spring and has a homerun and a double. With the Franklin Gutierrez injury, he has been given a bit of an opening, although I still think it is a long shot for him to make the club. If he is going to make the team, it will likely be as an outfielder, but he still has quite a few guys to beat out for that fourth spot in the outfield. He has already outlasted Johermyn Chavez and Chih-Hsien Chiang, both members of the 40 man roster, but I don’t think either of those guys were legitimate contenders for the opening day roster anyway.

I was a little surprised that a couple guys in this round of cuts were sent down so early. While I didn’t expect them to make the big league club, I thought that the trio of pitching prospects could have benefitted from another week in camp.

These early moves are understandable when you consider that Seattle plays their first game in Japan on March 24th a week earlier than most other teams start playing games.

Stay tuned to see who is in the next round of guys to get eliminated from the Major League roster between now and when they take off for Japan.