Mariners Moose Tracks, 7/19/21: Hector Santiago, Mariners draft signings, Starling Marte, Liam Castellanos

I’m typing these links (filling in for Anders, who does these links without fail and is so great about them and I just want to shout him out publicly for it) while watching Quick Pitch, MLB Network’s daily summation of what happened in MLB that day. So far heading into the break I’ve gotten a tease about Ohtani beating out an infield hit, aka something scores of players do across the league every day, and also him hitting his 34th home run; no mention in the teaser of the Mariners taking that series from a division rival and putting a little space between them and the supposedly-contending Angels in the standings to begin the second half; no mention of Logan Gilbert hitting a new career high in strikeouts. I know Ohtani is basically a golden goose for MLB as Manfred desperately tries to find ways to draw new fans into the game, but come on, now.

Okay, the actual recap of the game just started and MLBN has been forced to show Mariners highlights, because, well, they pretty much ran that game from start to finish, and now Logan Gilbert is getting his due and his big grinning face is up on the screen with all his stats and the host is saying “guess the Mariners knew what they were doing when they drafted Logan Gilbert” and yes, talking head on MLBN, I think they did. For more on the game that isn’t just Ohtani highlights, check out the recap from yesterday’s game.

In Mariners news:

• I think it’s important for you to know that Hector Santiago is spending his BS suspension in Hawaii with his family, because I hope that fills you with as much delight as it does me. HECTOR INNOCENT.

• Mariners prospect Eric Filia, currently playing for Team USA, provided an update from the team’s first training game:

• We’ve been updating a thread on players drafted by the Mariners last week signing their professional contracts on Twitter; now Baseball America’s Carlos Collazo has some numbers. Every player except Brian Woo (6th rounder) reported signed below slot, so it’s looking like the Mariners should have enough to go overslot on their prep selections from the first three rounds.

Around the league:

• If you haven’t been paying attention to the St. Louis Cardinals, and it is absolutely acceptable if you have not, reliever Alex Reyes has gone a perfect 24-for-24 in save opportunities since beginning his MLB career, which is an MLB record. The fact that he’s done this while walking almost 20% of batters faced makes it even more (?) impressive.
• It looks like OF Starling Marte is going to be a trade chip for the Marlins as the two sides have reportedly ended any kind of extension talks. With a good number of contention-adjacent teams needing OF help, bidding for his services should be spicy.
• If you saw Nick Castellanos wearing the shirt on the red carpet at the All-Star Game designed by his son Liam, those shirts are now available for sale in the team shop (with part of the proceeds going to charity), and Liam had a pretty cute reaction to it: