Mariners announce more roster moves ahead of the regular season

As the countdown towards opening day continues, the Mariners made some spring training moves to reduce their roster to 40 players.

Wednesday was disappointing for the Mariners, as they saw their three-game winning streak ended by the Chicago Cubs. Seattle took an early 1-0 lead in the second inning, before Chicago came back to claim a 6-2 victory.

However, the result is secondary to what the Mariners are trying to achieve as they continue towards opening day next week, on April 1. With this in mind, they have made several moves to reduce their spring training roster size to 40 players.

Executive Vice President and General Manager Jerry Dipoto made announcements on Tuesday and Wednesay, to confirm that a total of eight players were being re-assigned to minor league camp. These moves included right-handed pitchers Robert Dugger and Matt Magill.

Other players being moved were infielder Sam Travis, outfielders Luis Liberato and Dillon Thomas, as well as infielder/outfielder Jack Reinheimer. The roster re-assignments were completed with catchers Jose Godoy and Cal Raleigh.

With the moves, the Mariners now have 34 roster players, five non-roster invitees and one player on the 60-day injury list. By position, the roster breaks down as follows:

• Pitchers (19+3+1)
• Catchers (2+0)
• Infielders (5+0)
• Outfielders (5+2)
• Infielder/Outfielders (3+0)

Who to keep an eye on

The five remaining non-roster invitees include pitchers Brady Lail, Paul Sewald and Drew Steckenrider. They are joined by outfielders Jarred Kelenic and Julio Rodriguez.

Kelenic is arguably the most intriguing player of the five non-roster invitees and appears to now be fully recovered from his knee sprain. He has shown what he is capable of, despite just 15 at bats prior to Thursday’s Cactus League game versus the Oakland Athletics,

In total, Kelenic has five hits, two homers, four RBI, three walks and a team best OPS of 1.244. He should be on the Mariners’ Major League roster sooner than later this year.

Andres Munoz is the player on the 60-day injury list, after undergoing Tommy John surgery due to a right elbow injury. Unfortunately for the pitcher, he recently suffered a setback in his recovery.

As such, Munoz is unlikely to contribute much in 2021, although he is still worth keeping an eye on. He has the potential to be a top level reliever and could be an option as the future closer for Seattle.

The Mariners still need to get their roster down to 26 players for opening day. As such, it will be interesting to see what moves they make next, ahead of their first regular season versus the San Francisco Giants.

With opening day nearly here , where is your confidence level at regarding the Mariners? What kind of success do you predict for them in 2021? Let us know in the comments section below.