Mariners Moose Tracks, 2/17/17: Bench Players, Greg Maddux, and Bill Self

Good morning everyone and happy Friday! Some news has been trickling out of Mariners camp lately. In this piece, Bob Dutton suggests that the team might consider taking two of Shawn O’Malley, Taylor Motter, and Mike Freeman for Opening Day rather than one of Ben Gamel and Guillermo Heredia.

The idea for the M’s is that by taking two utility infielders, they can be more flexible with the roster and have built-in backup plans for Dan Vogelbach and Jean Segura. The only problem is that the M’s bench outfielders then become Danny Valencia and O’Malley/Motter.

The plus side to having three center fielders starting in the outfield is that any of them can replace Leonys Martin on an off day. But for a team that wants to be more athletic, I find it hard to believe they’d be satisfied playing an infielder in the outfield with any sort of regularity.

I understand the desire to develop Gamel and Heredia in the minors. This plan might be part of that. But I simply don’t think it’s worth it for the team to sacrifice the athleticism on the field for those guys to get developmental time in Triple-A.

Feel free to weigh in with your thoughts on the matter as well. Otherwise, here’s the rest of the day’s news.

In Mariners news...

• Matt Eddy at Baseball America took a look at pitching prospects who excel at throwing to weak contact. The list includes two M’s and one former Mariner.
• Edwin Diaz has some pretty fancy-lookin’ shoes.

• Ryan Divish wonders if the hometown reliever Nick Hagadone has a shot at a bullpen spot with the Mariners. The lefty has gone through a hell of a journey to get to where he is now.
• Jason Churchill feels pretty confident in the M’s bullpen as it currently stands.
• You asked for it, so here’s some more video from Mariners camp.

Around the league...

• Former Mariners infielder Nick Franklin continues to be quite the interesting guy. He was apparently an Uber driver during the offseason.
• Rob Manfred backed off the idea of starting extra innings with a runner at second base.
• Greg Maddux punk’d Kris Bryant at batting practice the other day. It was pretty awesome.

• The Good Phight wonders which of the Phillies and Braves is further along in the rebuilding process.
• Grant Brisbee takes a look at some questionable decisions that contending teams made this offseason.
• Travis Sawchik thinks the Royals should give Salvador Perez more days off in order to preserve him for a whole season.
• David Laurila at Fangraphs talked to Angels GM Billy Eppler about his plans to fix the team.
• Apparently late Tigers owner Mike Ilitch paid Rosa Parks’ rent in secret for a number of years.

Anders’ picks...

• Scientists may have figured out how to bring back the woolly mammoth.
• This is an old video, but: BILL SELF FOR FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN!