Brad Miller is Coming Up
Ryan Divish has the news from Tacoma.
Brad Miller will join the Seattle Mariners tomorrow for the Cubs series
— Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) June 28, 2013
In Miller’s final game for the Rainiers, he hit a home run to extend his hitting streak to 22 games. Not bad.
I won’t spend too much time talking about Miller, since I just wrote that the Mariners should make this move a few days ago. All the reasons why I think it’s time for Miller to join the Mariners now are in that post. I’m glad they agreed.
Divish noted in a subsequent tweet that Brendan Ryan will move into a backup role (for real this time), with Carlos Triunfel heading back to Tacoma to open up a spot on the 25-man roster. Miller will take over as the starting shortstop, Ryan will serve as the backup, and Triunfel will play regularly at Triple-A. This is the best alignment of talent the Mariners have right now. Expect Triunfel to return whenever Ryan gets traded to a contender, which will probably happen closer to July 31st.
The Mariners will also have to add Miller to the 40 man roster. If they want to keep everyone in the organization, they could put Jesus Sucre on the 60 day DL, since he’s already 20 days into his DL stint and it doesn’t sound like he’s anywhere close to returning. If they go with the DFA option, I’d guess that Lucas Luetge would be the most vulnerable, though the Mariners could also potentially DFA Aaron Harang and replace him with Erasmo Ramirez. My guess is that that’s the move that’s going to happen sooner or later, so since they’ll need a 40 man spot tomorrow, Harang is scheduled to go Saturday, and Erasmo could take that spot on regular rest, they might just make that move now in order to not have to DFA anyone else.
We’ll find out tomorrow who is leaving the 40 man to make room for Miller, but the main point is that he’s now the Mariners starting shortstop. He might not have the defensive chops to stay there long term, but the best way to find out is to see how he handles the position for the rest of the year. His bat is going to be a legitimate upgrade, and if he can cut down on the errors, the Mariners long running search for a shortstop of the future may be over.
I’ll take it.
But really, I’ll take anything at this point. THE FUTURE IS NOW!
Yay!
Looking forward to seeing the kid play.
Hopefully Tijuan Walker is deemed ready soon as well. Perhaps Ackley, Smoak, Franklin, Miller, Seagar, Zunino and Saunders will all hit well the rest of the season and then we can start talking about playoffs next season.
Oh but it’s so nice to dream…
At least it’ll be something to look forward to.
Hopefully Tijuan Walker is deemed ready soon as well.
Given how many of our pitching prospects seem to stumble at the AAA level (and how exposed Maurer was when he skipped it), I’d feel pretty good seeing him get a few months of dominance before I endorse that move. A 2014 arrival makes an awful lot of sense for Walker.
There’s no reason to rush Walker. He’s going to be on an innings limit that will force him to shut down before the end of the season anyway, and he’s a 20-year-old who has one Triple-A start. I’d have no problem leaving him down there for the rest of the season.
Ramirez, Hultzen, and Maurer are the three starting pitchers that you can expect to see in Seattle at some point over the next few months. Walker can wait until next year.
Yeah, whatever is best for the team obviously.
BTW Marc’s piece on Tijuan was interesting… before it disappeared. 😀
Was at the Rainiers game tonight. He was 2/4 with a homer. Fun to watch him swing
I agree with Westside guy.
Hultzen got the start tonight in Tacoma… 6 innings, 6 K’s, 2 hits, 0 runs…
Good to see him back out there.
Erasmo for Harang on Saturday, and Hultzen for Bonderman or Saunders next month. Looks like they are finally harvesting their crop of prospects.
If Miller can stick and produce it will be a big step to building a core of cost controlled players. The move to bring up Erasmo should be made sooner than later.
And let’s be honest, after how the FO decimated team defense this offseason anyway, arguing that Miller shouldn’t be called up because of his defense is kind of like arguing a firefighter who smokes shouldn’t be allowed to fight wildfires.
If the M’s are out of it for 2013, and we most assuredly are, then playing the young guys at the cost of wins may hurt the chances of Z’s return as well as Wedge’s. Z’s return is still something I’d like to see… if he can get some better input on how to handle DL situations better and get better hitting results from the young players in the minors. The latter comes from careful hiring of coaches that fit a team philosophy, hopefully based on OBP & getting opposition pitcher’s into high pitch counts, all through the program. I would support a 2 year extension of Z NOW. That way he can concentrate on the future and ignore any need to play older guys.
As to Wedge… I have no faith in the guy, but a replacement now is not a good plan… unless a sure-fire replacement presents itself. (Like, if you had a choice between Wakamatsu or Showalter for example.) Still, if Wedge is willing to put an emphasis on a playing young kids and teaching them how to win in the long run, we should find him sufficiently satisfactory for the remainder of the year. W/L should not be his measure, but how often he starts Raul, Endy & Bay on the same day. None of those 3 will likely bring anything at the trade-deadline and working to make that happen should be a non-factor. Morse is toast as far as I can see. He is redundant, with Kendry’s the far better option. Morse is an injury waiting to happen on defense. Use the remaining games to see if MSaunders, Ackley, Miller, Smoak & Erasmo (WTF?) will help long-term. Trade BRyan while he still has value, if he even does. He will not be happy on the bench. Long-term we need CF &/or RF, and both need to hit LHP as Ackley and MSaunders are LHB. Smoak is still a conundrum, and few options look good by way of trade at 1b. Resign Morales if he is healthy at year’s end to DH.
Get Capps started on a change now! …and get Stephen Pryor healthy.
Snuffy-
Interesting plan, with the only flaw I can see being that if you extend Z now, and NOT Wedge, then you give Wedge the message he’s a lame duck manager… And that’s probably not good for the team, especially the young players brought up in the next few months.
I would rather see us extend Z for two years (AND start the search for his replacement over that time) and then replace Wedge with an interim guy, from within house, a company man that gets the message “the next 3 months are high level training for the young guys”.
START now to facilitate the change you’re talking about– “get on base, make ’em pitch to you… defense, defense, defense”, per se– so that when you hire a new manager in the offseason he knows the program and buys into it, if he wants the job.
But for now an interim guy who understands player strengths and weaknesses and can emphasize what’s good in each guy, AND teach them to work around/avoid/conceal their weaknesses. (ie, Both areas where Wedge is awful.)
Ironically, I think that path has a better chance to turn the season around AND WIN, then sticking with the Wedge and gritty vets w/ fingers crossed.
I’m going to the game on Saturday for my birthday, and I’ve been trying to think of a way not to get Haranged. I was hoping they’d bring Erasmo up, send maybe Beaven down and put Harang/Bonderman/Saunders in long relief. I’m sure my day would go much better watching Erasmo than the Haranotang. This sounds like a great opportunity, get it done! PLEEEEEEEASE!!!
Best case scenario: both Miller and Ackley produce as Franklin continues to do so as well. Wedge still gets the axe and a new MGR is brought in to turn these ‘kids’ into something which resemebles a team.
In the mean time, and if nothing else, these types of promotions make the M’s watchable again.
Agreed. I haven’t been watching much lately but I’m definitely interested in seeing what Miller can do with the bat and the glove.
Should get really interesting once Hultzen and Erasmo get the call. At this point I can’t bring myself to watch a game, with the M’s 12 games below .500, started by Saunders, Harang or Bonderman.
Why was Marc’s piece on Walker taken down? It had cool photos and everything.
I’m guessing he pulled it down temporarily so Tijuan didn’t have to share the spotlight with Brad Miller.
We all know that Wedge is not a great Manager. We all know that Z has made some really questionable trades and FA signings, especially lately. But it seems to me the real problem here is the way the Mariners evaluate and develop players here. Look how much talent we have traded/given away, and look how poorly a lot of our so called can’t miss prospects have missed in the last 5-10 years. I think the problems here aren’t with whomever happens to be our Manager (a really good team can make an average Manager look pretty darn good) or our GM. Yes neither of them are worth bragging about but…
I have been a fan since day one of the Mariners, never been to a game but never miss one on TV if I can help it. At my age I have high hopes they will some how become a contender again. Maurer should never have started the season with the team. AAA is where he belonged!!!.
Just one of Wedges many screw ups. I hope and pray that he does not hold Miller out for any reason like he did Ackley.
Our season is long gone so lets give these young players as much MLB seasoning as they can get the rest of the year. This will bode well for the start of 2014.
As the other AAA players get ready,bring them up also.