Seattle Mariners 40-Man Injury Update

Heading into spring training one of the key factors to a successful season was going to be the overall health of the roster. Most of the concern surrounded the fragile rotation with eyes firmly fixed on each and every James Paxton and Felix Hernandez pitch. Now, three weeks into the 2018 campaign all hell has broken loose and you can’t find a single position without an injury. Mariners baseball.

Two weeks away from Opening day and the Mariners have several key players on the 40-man roster spending more of their time in the training room than on the field. If you haven’t seen the list of injuries, let me introduce you to Mariners beat writer for the Seattle Times, Ryan Divish. He put together a nice little summary for us.

If you aren’t up for clicking the link, here’s the list:

• Ryon Healy, 1B (hand)
• Erasmo Ramirez, SP (lat strain)
• Ben Gamel, OF (oblique strain)
• Felix Hernandez, SP (forearm)
• Nick Rumbelow, RP (shoulder)
• Marco Gonzales, SP (hand)
• Robinson Cano, 2B (hamstring)
• Nelson Cruz, DH (quad)
• Andrew Romine, UTL (shoulder)

And just in case looking at that list doesn’t hurt enough, let me spell out the impact for you. Eight of those nine players were expected to be on the Opening Day roster and Rumbelow had an outside shot. Even worse, seven of those players are starters, whether it be on the field or in the starting rotation. Could it get any worse? Well… Divish released that list at 9:03 am. By 9:03 pm the Mariners had lost two more starters to injury.

Newly signed Ichiro Suzuki, who the Mariners picked up one week ago to the day, didn’t even get an at bat in last night’s game vs the San Francisco Giants before being taken out due to a leg injury.  A 44-year old problem? Maybe. A Seattle Mariners baseball problem? Most definitely.

A few innings later, starting short stop Jean Segura was experiencing tightness in his hamstring and was also removed from the game. Night game, cooler weather problem? Maybe. Seattle Mariners baseball problem? Most definitely.

Now, before getting too carried away it is important to note that out of the now 11 players on the 40-man roster sitting out due to injury, eight are currently on track to be back by Opening Day.

"Well technically, Cruz, Cano, Felix, Healy, Romine, Gonzales and likely Ichiro and Segura are all still tracking to be ready for opening day. -@RyanDivish"

So we’ve got that going for us. We’ve also got skipper, Scott Servais ensuring us the most recent injuries of Ichiro and Segura are minor:

"Don’t expect those guys to be out long. We’ll know more tomorrow. It’s just where we are at in spring training. Like I said, it’s the heightened awareness of what’s happened around here the last few days, those guys felt something and decided to come out. -Scott Servais"

But really, does that make anyone feel any better? Certainly not me. After a 2017 that saw injuries to just about every pitcher on the roster as well as Cano, Segura, Haniger, and others I am simply exhausted from all of the injury updates.  This year was supposed to be… no, we NEEDED it to be different. The playoffs were in sight and all we were asking for was a little bit of health. Okay, maybe a lot of health, but either way it didn’t feel like a whole lot to ask. Apparently, we were wrong.

As of today the current list stands as:

• Ryon Healy, 1B (hand)

• Erasmo Ramirez, SP (lat strain)

• Ben Gamel, OF (oblique strain)

• Felix Hernandez, SP (forearm)

• Nick Rumbelow, RP (shoulder)

• Marco Gonzales, SP (hand)

• Robinson Cano, 2B (hamstring)

• Nelson Cruz, DH (quad)

• Andrew Romine, UTL (shoulder)

• Ichiro Suzuki, OF (leg)

• Jean Segura, SS (leg)

Next: Mariners Sign Ichiro, Say Winning Not Priority

The injury situation has gone from frustrating to comical. Honestly, it’s hard to look at that list and not laugh. So, what’s left for us fans to do at this point? Take my advice and hope like hell the regulars are back to 100% by March 29th, grab a cold one, and lay into the Twitter refresh button as you wait to find out who’s next. Mariners baseball.