Mariners Moose Tracks, 4/1/22: Robbie Ray, Mike Zunino, and Jacob deGrom

Happy April everyone! Let’s get the day started with some links.

In Mariners news...

• Start your day off by watching this feat of athleticism again.

• It comes as no surprise, but the M’s have named Robbie Ray as the Opening Day starter. He’ll be followed by Logan Gilbert, Marco Gonzales, Chris Flexen, and a mystery fifth starter.

• Here’s who the M’s will be facing off against when they open the season in Minnesota.

• Sam Dykstra at MLB hyped up the Mariners farm system as we head towards the 2022 campaign.
• Joe Odom is back as organizational catching depth.

Around the league...

• The Royals have exercised the contract option of manager Mike Matheny, keeping him around through 2023.
• Brian Cashman said that the Yankees would have won the World Series in 2017 if not for the Astros’ cheating. Andy McCullough at The Athletic has the story. ($)
• Kyle Glaser at Baseball America spoke to scouts to get a list of 20 players who are impressing at spring training this year. ($)
• Greg Amsinger at MLB Network listed his top 9 impact rookies for 2022, and I think some people might be drinking too much Kool-Aid on Julio.

• Mike Petriello and Will Leitch drafted every MLB team by how likely they are to win the 2022 World Series.
• The Yankees have decided to air 21 of their games this season exclusively on Amazon Prime, angering many fans.
• MLB and the MLBPA (bet you hoped to never hear those words in tandem again) agreed to a series of rule changes for the 2022 season, including expanded April rosters and the return of the extra-innings ghost runner.
• We’ve got another rule change. Never really considered this honestly but I think it’s a smart move.

• Congratulations to Mike Zunino, who will be inducted into the University of Florida Hall of Fame!

• You just can’t stop the trade market.

• Jacob deGrom’s descension into an injury-prone player has been really sad to see.

• The Phillies have hired Jimmy Rollins as a special assistant to the front office. How many of these people does a team have at any given time? Seems like just a nebulous role that you could just have 50 of if you wanted.

Anders’ picks...

• This is an exciting announcement, but I’m curious why they’re moving it back just two days. What’s two days going to allow them to do?