Roster Expansion Stuff
With the arrival of September 1st on Tuesday, the rosters will expand and the M’s will inevitably bring a few kids up from the minors to finish the season in Seattle. Over the last 24 hours or so, there have been a few developments that will probably affect who comes up and who doesn’t.
First, Branyan’s bad back and Griffey’s bum knee means that they probably won’t wait until Tacoma’s season ends to bring up Mike Carp – he’ll almost certainly be up on Tuesday. Who will be joining him?
Not Brandon Morrow. He left his start on Saturday night with “arm tightness”, and while the team is calling it precautionary, you have to believe the M’s will be careful with Morrow down the stretch, especially considering how well the rotation is doing without him. They’re not going to force an opening for him to pitch on the big league squad if he’s not 100%.
Garrett Olson will be coming back up, however, and Jason Vargas may as well, though the team won’t want to raid Tacoma too badly since they still have a season to finish. The team usually brings up a third catcher, though with neither Jamie Burke or Adam Moore on the 40 man roster, that isn’t a certainty this time. The 40-man roster is full, and with Silva set to rejoin the team at some point during the next month, they will already need to clear a spot for him – they’re not likely to want to open up another spot if they don’t have to.
Expect Matt Tuiasosopo to get called up once Tacoma’s season ends. Since he missed a few months, they’ll want him to play as much as possible, and he’ll have a better chance to do that in Triple-A than he will in the majors.
So, that brings the final tally to something like this: Carp/Olson on Tuesday, Vargas and Morrow TBD, Tui after Tacoma’s season ends, and that may be it. Don’t expect a big group to join the team when rosters expand, especially with Morrow’s status now up in the air.
The two other “prospects” I’m curious about are Chris Shelton and Brad Nelson. It seemed like Chris did well in a small sample size sort of way when he was up. I remember Dave has suggested Brad as a prospect before he got picked up by Seattle. Have they graduated from prospect status? Or are they behind Mike Carp and the next major league job is his to lose?
I guess I haven’t been following this stuff as closely as I thought. OK, if Silva is coming off the 60-day DL (didn’t realize players did that in one season), does remain with the team for long? Can we find a buyer or are we going to release him?
Then regarding Adam Moore, he’s not on the 40 man roster now? Shouldn’t we expect him to be put on the 40 man roster during the winter to protect him from the Rule V draft? So what other moves does that portend (I think that’s the right word) or require?
Rule 5.
There’s no one going to take Silva on, and the M’s aren’t going to release him. Despite my continual annoyance with him, the team’s best path (unless they know he’s totally done with no chance of recovery) is to try and get him some Batista innings for the last month and then go into next year hoping they can get some reasonable work out of him in the rotation. Then if they’ve got too many pitchers around, maybe someone takes him for less than 100% of his remaining salary.
And hey, the quantity of anonymous quotes in M’s stories should go up, that’s something.
Shelton’s a victim of the 40 man squeeze. They’re not going to release a player they have interest in keeping in order to let him get 20 or 30 at-bats in September.
Moore will go on the 40 man at the end of the year, yes, but by then, guys like Bedard, Batista, Chavez, Beltre, Branyan, Griffey, and Sweeney won’t be, since they’re all free agents at years end. The M’s will have the ability to add Moore without ditching one of the members of the current 40 man then.
One thing I’ve always wondered, and you mentioned it already, is how much finishing the AAA season matters to the big league club when it considers which guys to bring up in September. Tacoma’s in a virtual tie for first, playing for a playoff spot…does this matter at all to the Mariners? Or is it a minor consideration at best?
It matters. Teams want to have good relationships with their affiliates, and they aren’t going to just completely tear a minor league club apart that’s in a playoff chase.
The major league team still comes first, so Carp and Olson will probably come up to help patch some holes, but they won’t promote half of Tacoma’s roster just because they can – they’ll let them finish out the season.
we’re a couple of front-office regimes removed, but I remember one instance where the Mariners spoke very highly in leaving prospects down in the minors during playoff races… including not taking John Halama immediately in the Randy Johnson trade so he could pitch with New Orleans on a playoff team. Personally, I don’t think it should matter one bit. If they should be down in Tacoma, leave them there. If their play has warranted a callup to see what they can do over the last month, give them the entire month.
Question though… the Mariners aren’t bringing back Batista for 2010 anyway… why not just open up a roster spot by releasing him?
If they were going to release Batista, wouldn’t they have done it already?
I didn’t realize Chavez was a free agent at the end of this year. Does he have a future with Seattle?
Is it that time of year already?
Why does it seem like 90% of Mariner fans think that Endy Chavez is with the team after this off-season? I’ve seen way too many people list him in their rosterbation posts.
Anyway, would Moore missing out on playing time this year hurt his chances to start next year on the roster or are the Mariners fed-up with Johjima to the point where a decent spring training from Adam would get him the nod and Joh the boot?
Also, Tuiasosopo. A good bet to be the Mariners 3B next year or (short of Beltre miraculously coming back) do Hall and Hannahan have that relatively locked down?
Thoughts?
Sorry for the grammatical errors. It’s late, I’m going to bed.
Not necessarily — sunk cost and negative WAR or not, it’s useful to have a guy you can throw out there when you don’t care if he gets torched or hurt or whatever. But now they have Silva coming back, and the job of “highest salary for least return” can only have one occupant…
Yeah, it’s weird, but this just seems to be a blind spot for everybody. I’ve had to correct several people in person on this point too.
LaHair.
They gotta bring up LaHair.
(expects to have to dodge a chair any time now)
And regarding Endy Chavez…well, yes, everybody who points out that he’s a free agent after 2009 is correct.
But even when spring training ’10 hits, he’s going to be just smack in the middle of that lengthy rehab, with about 4 months of it to go.
There’s a real possibility he won’t play at all in 2010.
But, by that same token…Seattle probably has just as much chance as anyone of signing him when (and if) he’s fully healthy to help a team.
And there’s the rub: his game was/is predicated on speed. If his knee doesn’t come back, a ton of what value he brought to a team goes hasta la bye-bye.
But all indications are that he likes Seattle. He got more at-bats here than he probably would have seen anywhere else.
I really hope Chavez can come back- and that we wind up needing him. Not that I’m not liking Langerhans, but Endy’s very easy to root for.
I’ll lay good money that Robert Manuel gets called up after AAA is done.
If the M’s do decide to just call up the aforementioned players, then what’s the reason for not bringing up other guys on the 40 man? Is there something I’m missing? I don’t understand the harm in bringing up Thomas, LaHair, Vega, etc. unless it’s service time related. Though I’d find it hard to believe that the team would make an effort to stop any of those guys’ clocks.
That would be bad news because that means Michael Saunders is either injured or is being a bust.
I can’t see Chavez as being part of the big picture, with Ichiro!, Guitierrez, Saunders, Langerhans and parts of Hall et al taking up outfield time.
I can’t remember how this goes, but isn’t there something special about service time for September callups, perhaps it doesn’t count in certain circumstances?
Tui and Hannahan/Hall would be the most likely depth chart at 3B going into next srping, unless Beltre somehow falls into the bargain basement this winter.
I like Endy, but no way I see bringing him back as a possible contributor. We’ve got Saunders, and he will have lost speed. Maybe he gets some sort of deal simply so he can use Mariners medical resources to rehab. But then, shouldn’t Royals have taken on that liability, too? 🙂
Any sense of why Tui isn’t going to the Arizona Fall League? Seems like after missing so much of the season but hitting well of late, it would be a natural to give him the highest level competition and the most at-bats possible.
The harm is potentially destroying Tacoma’s season…. just to have a bunch of guys sit around on the bench in Seattle. Better for them, and better for the Rainiers, for them to get regular playing time in AAA.
Seattle actually has very little incentive to bring Endy Chavez back on board in 2010.
First off is the status of the injury, but probably more important is the fact that the Mariners are stocked in the outfield with players that surpass him in talent level. Both Saunders and Langerhans are similar (if not quite as elite) defensively, but both are far and away bigger offensive threats then Endy could ever hope to be.
Endy was a great signing at the start of the season when the Mariners didn’t have any options, and injury aside, his 2009 went about as well as could be hoped.
Like Griffey however, the 2010 Mariners have passed him by, and he’d probably have far more value–and a better chance at a major league spot, on a team with less outfield defense already penciled in.