It’s been a constant struggle to fill out this site with any sort of consistency or regularity. We joke that it’s because we don’t really care or that the bad/inconsistent content is the brand but the reality has a lot more to do with the state of our schedules and the state of the Mariners. With that said, here’s an attempt to carve out a regular, simple feature. 

Monday Morning Mariber will look to touch on things that occurred during the Friday-Sunday dead period. This first one is following a traditional “Three Up, Three Down” format. If you have any thoughts on what you’d like to see or be interested to read more/less on, let us know.

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The start of the 2022 Mariners season has felt like an epilogue to the 2021 season. Weird scheduling quirks? You bet. Disquietingly familiar stretches of offensive blackouts? Oh yeah. A delirious and humorous combination of luck, quality starting pitching, and lockdown relief leading to one-run victories and an annoyed opponent? You know it. Getting blasted in defeat to ensure that run-differential is forever in the red? Oh hell yeah.

There is absolutely nothing to be learned by the first three games of a baseball season. If we’re applying the culturally-omnipresent football analogy to it the Mariners are at the first commercial break of the first game of the season. Anything worth noting for, at minimum, the first month of the season will come with an implied parenthetical that reads (REMEMBER: IT’S TOO EARLY TO DRAW MEANINGFUL CONCLUSIONS YET). All the observations for a while are categorized as one-offs, moments that my mind registered as worth noting. My mind is nothing special, but I have watched and played a whole lot of baseball. You can decide for yourself if you think that has value.

All that really matters is it’s Monday morning, the Mariners are 2-1, and their pythag says they should be 1-2. Creation is as the Creator intended. Let’s look at a few things.

Good Maribers

Logan Gilbert looks for real

It feels like forever that we’ve been hearing about all the great things the Mariners player development staff has been able to achieve. Up until now the lion’s share of that success has been noted in Baseball America farm rankings and breathless Twitter accounts, but Logan Gilbert’s first start of the year may provide a glimpse of a potentially dominant future.

After spending the offseason refining and revamping his secondary pitches Gilbert had an outstanding first start against a quality Minnesota lineup, with 7 strikeouts over 5 innings pitched. With a slider and curveball that flash increased tightness, a changeup with absurd run, and a 97 MPH fastball Gilbert has probably the best pure stuff of any Mariner starting pitcher right now. Add in an increase in perceived velocity thanks to his 9’10” frame, and perhaps a new ability to replicate arm slot and the pieces are in place for the Mariners vaunted farm system to graduate its first legitimate star. 

The safe shores of Cal Raleigh

The Mariners’ decision to carry three catchers is, frankly, bonkers. It seems likely that the situation will be short lived one way or the other, simply because the team has other needs (INF/OF) and players theoretically returning (Kyle Lewis) that will necessitate change. The best case scenario for the team is that Cal Raleigh establish himself as the backstop of the present. His first start on Friday could not have gone much better in that regard. 

Yes his lone hit was thanks to cue-balling a curveball into the netherregions of the shift. However, Raleigh also drew two walks, did not look overmatched at the plate and, crucially, acquitted himself extremely well behind it. In the ninth-inning of a one-run game Raleigh repeatedly blocked balls in the dirt with the tying run on base. He appears to have quickly earned the trust of staff ace Robbie Ray, and simply looks like the team’s most complete backstop. 

The team will not be looking for All-Star production at catcher this year. If Raleigh can put together a 90 wRC+ with league average defense they will take it. Tom Murphy slots in as a perfectly acceptable backup catcher. That leaves Luis Torrens most likely on another roster, and I will risk Freezing Cold Takes-ing myself by saying that’s probably where he belongs. Raleigh should be the guy until he shows he’s not.

The Time of Mitch

One does not simply come back from a year and a half off after having a baseball go full chain chomp on one’s gentleman area. In any year where Trey Mancini does not exist it’s hard to imagine that Mitch Haniger’s 2021 doesn’t win him Comeback Player of the Year. Still, his walk rate was down and his defense took a big step back from the 2018 glory days. Over 30 and with a body that has been through hell, it was fair to question how repeatable such a performance might be. It still is. THAT SAID the man looks stronger than last year. He is moving easier, and he is blasting the ever-living hell out of mistakes. 

Haniger’s future in Seattle is highly questionable. He’s a free agent after this year, the team is probably still dreaming the All Outfield Teen Dream of Jarred Kelenic/Kyle Lewis/Julio Rodriguez, and he appears to be approaching that period of a player’s career where the combination of experience and worldliness leads to some, ah, disillusionment with Jerry Dipoto and the organization’s practices. For all these reasons and more he is probably the closest thing an online Mariner fan has to a personal avatar on the field. This season is his to show us, himself, and all the world what that nut-busting foul ball robbed us of. He looks ready to do so.

Bad Maribers

Eugenio Suarez Stuck in Quicksand

The Mariners’ decision to move on from Kyle Seager was made for a variety of reasons both on and off the field. One of the very obvious ones was that having an everyday 3B in his 30’s 100% selling out for power in order to carve out league average offense is not a skillset you want to bet on moving forward. The team needed an upgrade at the position. 

Now I’ve warned you above about how early it is but to my eye Suarez’s skillset doesn’t look appreciably different than 2021 Kyle Seager. Primarily, his bat speed appears to have slowed from his heyday, leaving him with less reaction time, and increasingly dependent on his ability to guess pitches and/or wait patiently for ones he can handle. He still has power (his flyout Sunday was a home run in literally any other MLB park), but there’s reason for concern about what else he has. Throw in an, at best, average-ish glove at 3B along with a contract that pays him through 2024 and Seattle could rapidly find itself in a bit of a hot corner pickle.

If the Mariners had re-signed Kyle Seager to a three-year contract after last year I doubt many would have been particularly enthused. Suarez’s underlying skills are the concern and, to my eye, they appear to be waning.

Jarred Kelenic is Still Sad

Look I don’t think Kelenic is a bust. The Dustin Ackley comps are silly both because they’re extremely different players and Dustin Ackley wasn’t nearly as bad as all of you like to pretend he was. People struggle to reconcile with the idea that guys like Ackley and Mike Zunino can be Top 5 draft picks, have middling-to-ok careers and still be wild success stories in the grand scheme of the sport. This is the nature of baseball and prospects. If you’re just getting here I have news about what you can expect from Baseball’s Number One Farm System moving forward.

THAT SAID, Kelenic just looks…..off. One of the calling cards of his profile coming up was a broad set of skills that kept the probability of a total flameout low. When you can do it all you can find any number of ways to carve out a career. Since that time Kelenic has continued to fill out his frame. At this point, at 22, he’s full-on a bulk monster. It’s clear his priority has been adding strength to his frame which, combined with a disastrous first season in centerfield has dwindled his paths to a career to, primarily, “slugging corner outfielder.” 

That is all fine. Plenty of players have very good careers as slugging corner outfielders. The kid will not be 23 until July. It could take him 2-3 more seasons to really get his feet under him and he could have a fantastic major league career. But the dual-edge nature of hype is fickle, and Kelenic clearly and visibly feels the pressure. He needs to find some barrels, relax, and hopefully settle in quickly. 

The swing looks fine. The approach looks fine. Let’s hope the results look fine, and soon.

Major League Baseball Presents Home Run Derby Ft. Marco Gonzales

Let the record show that this space adores Marco Gonzales. He’s a great dude, a proud Mariner, a conscientious and thoughtful Seattle citizen, a fiery competitor, and he has had a fantastic career. Regardless of Tyler O’Neill’s recent Hulkout the trade that brought Gonzales here has been nothing short of tremendous.

But the dingers, y’all. Lord have mercy the dingers. Marco has always had stuff that requires near-perfection in concept and execution to regularly get out big league hitters. When he’s on it’s vintage Jamie Moyer-esque. When he’s off it’s still like Jamie Moyer but……….ah……..y’know. 

Marco was objectively awful in the first half of 2021 before largely righting the ship by the end of the season. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait until July before he gets right. The Mariners’ rotation is already far too thin to absorb all the holes those dingers will blast through it.

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You can follow Nathan on Twitter at @nathan_h_b. Additionally he appears on the Ian Furness show on KJR 93.3 FM every Monday at 1:10 PM with Chris Crawford and Kevin Shockey. Please be nice. He is doing his best.