Scott Servais and the Mariners will have a fine line to walk with rest management

Garver at DH means Servais will need to find a new way to rest his elder statesmen. How does he keep the lineup potent while giving guys days off their cleats?

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Seattle Skipper Scott Servais and his thoughts

We haven’t really seen this kind of Mariner set up in some time with a nearly full-time DH. We can only guess what the playing time breakdown will ultimately look like, but the Mariner Manager had a few interesting quotes to help illuminate a few things in a piece by Daniel Kramer from MLB.com.
When he asked Servias about platooning, 4th outfielder designations, and matchup rotations, he responded...

"“I think all of them may be correct...Not just me, but most managers, you ride the hot hand... There’ll be some guys that are not going to be happy every day not being in the lineup, but that's a good thing”"
Scott Servais

Scott isn’t too big on giving precise answers on these kinds of things, for instance in his spring training interview with Brock and Salk of Seattle Sports the skipper wouldn’t even name Castillo the opening day starter. Rather saying that he is “definitely one of the best 5 starters this year”. 

We do know that Servais has played the right vs left matchup rather heavily when constructing his lineups. Canzone, Raley and Rojas get most of the run against RHP, while Haniger, Urias, Moore and Taylor see more LHP. 

All in all I think this breakdown of plate appearances is likely for each platoon player:

Player

Plate Appearances

PA/Position

Haniger

450

RF

Raley

600

450 OF/150 1B

Canzone

300

Corner OF

Urias

350

3B

Rojas

500

300 3B/150 2B/50 SS

Dylan Moore and Samad Taylor probably split 250 appearances with the majority of them coming in corner OF spots. I think those splits give everybody enough rest and keep the lineup potent. I can say with confidence in any case, I trust Servais to pull the right levers. He’ll also be getting a ton of input from newcomer Brant Brown on approaching matchups. May the odds be ever in our favor.

Lots of love and GO Mariners!

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