Mariners Moose Tracks, 2/12/22: Paul Sewald, Eric Thames, and Marco Gonzales

Hello everyone and welcome to the weekend! We’re preparing for potentially big news — either good or bad — today regarding the CBA. While we wait for that, here’s the latest from around baseball.

In Mariners news...

• Major kudos to Paul Sewald for showing labor solidarity!

• Keith Law at The Athletic dropped his list of the top 20 prospects in the Mariners system. ($)
• LL alum Patrick Dubuque, now at Baseball Prospectus, remembers the career of Rob Johnson and calls him the “Mendoza of our times.” ($)
• The Mariners re-signed right-hander Asher Wojciechowski to a minor league contract.
• Cade Marlowe spoke about winning his award with the M’s last season.

Around the league...

• Jeff Passan at ESPN and Evan Drellich at The Athletic each broke down Rob Manfred’s statements from Thursday and emphasized the importance of today’s offer from the owners. ($)
• Evan Drellich also reports that Major League Baseball does not want to pay minor league players during spring training because they receive “free training” during that time. ($)
• With the designated hitter now almost certainly coming to the National League, The Athletic’s staff predicted who would be the likeliest DH candidates for each NL team. ($)
• Eno Sarris at — you guessed it — The Athletic took a look at a handful of pitchers who made significant improvements to their stuff during the 2021 season. He highlights Marco Gonzales as one of those players. ($)
• The A’s have agreed to a minor league deal with former Mariner and former KBO sensation Eric Thames.
• The Chicago White Sox became the first team to mandate booster shots for their minor league players.