Peguero up, Gutierrez to DL

The Mariners continue their attempt to break their own record of most corner OF/DH on a roster at one time, and have added another member today. Carlos Peguero takes Franklin Gutierrez's spot on the 25-man roster after Gutierrez put the finishing touches on yet another injury, finally severe enough to knock him off the roster.

Gutierrez hurt himself diving for a ball in center field last night and was forced to leave the game in the 4th inning.

The Mariners now have one player who can play center field in Endy Chavez, and while Michael Saunders is eligible to return from the disabled list on Friday, there's been no guarantee he'll be able to. In the mean time, the Mariners will juggle Peguero, Bay, Ibanez, and Morse in the remaining outfield spots.

Peguero has seen time with the big league club in each of the past two seasons, and holds a 70 OPS+ with a gaping 38.7 K%. He's looked clueless at the plate and is easily fooled and exploited, but has Dinger Appeal™. He can hit the ball a very long ways when he hits it, which is rare. He's also a sideshow in the outfield and has a tendency to take routes akin to Family Circus, so get Yakety Sax queued up for the highlights.

Down in Tacoma, Peguero has compiled an unimpressive .246/.351/.426, worse than his lines from the past few years. Peguero perennially tantalizes because of his light tower power, but simply does not have the pitch recognition skills to be more than a wild guesser at the big league level. Peguero has been drawing an abnormally high amount of walks so far (14.9 BB%), but it seems unlikely he has transformed himself.

Eric Thames has been murdering the ball in Tacoma (1.036 OPS), but for one reason or another the team has chosen to keep him on the farm, despite being better than Peguero in nearly every aspect possible.

It's another set back for Gutierrez, who had once again hoped to put his health issues behind him. Hamstring injuries have a tendency to linger, and with Gutierrez's track record for recovering from injuries, he could be out for an extended period of time. It would be an understatement to say this is an extremely disappointing turn of events after Guti flashed nice power and looked strong to start the year.

Long live Dinger Appeal™. Godspeed, Guti.