Seattle Mariners: Braden Bishop, Dylan Moore to make 28-man roster

The Seattle Mariners are currently in the process of finalizing roster cuts for their trip to Japan, and two young noteworthy names have (unofficially) cracked the extended 28-man squad.

Tomorrow is the big day—the Mariners will jettison the Arizona desert to begin their 2019 regular season campaign in Tokyo. They’ll be taking rookies Braden Bishop and Dylan Moore along with them.

Tuesday night, Robert Bruno of NorCal Baseball tweeted out a letter penned to he and colleague Tony Crivello from Bishop, a former understudy of theirs, sharing some pretty big news about the future of his career in baseball:

That news, of course, is that Bishop will break camp on the Mariners’ Major League roster. The University of Washington alum has yet to play past Double-A, and will be the first Mariners positional prospect to skip Triple-A since Jaime Bubela did in 2005.

Bishop wound up in this position in part by his excellent spring, hitting .346 with three home runs and 10 RBIs. But the opportunity likely never would have presented itself if not for an untimely elbow injury to the Mariners’ starting center fielder Mallex Smith.

Therefore, Bishop’s time on the roster will likely be short-lived as Smith closes in on his return sometime in early April. After a quick taste of life in the MLB, Bishop will make his way to Triple-A Tacoma to see more consistent playing time and continue his development.

Moore, on the other hand, will be up with the Mariners for the foreseeable future as the team’s utility man. This spring, Moore was in a battle for the spot with Kristopher Negrón, who has been waived by the team and outrighted to Triple-A Tacoma. The move also opens up a spot on the Mariners’ 40-man roster for Ichiro.

The versatile Moore didn’t necessarily outperform Negrón at the plate, though he showed an ability to play all four infield spots well and comes seven years younger than the latter.

Due to Kyle Seager‘s hand injury that will hold him out for at least the entire month of April, Moore will likely serve most of his time at third base to start the season. Moore played 56 games at the position in the Brewers’ organization last season, committing 10 errors.

Both Moore and Bishop are unlikely to see action in the Mariners’ two-game set against the A’s in Tokyo, barring unforeseen circumstances, though they could appear in the preceding exhibition matches with the Yomiuri Giants on March 16 and 18.