Julio Rodríguez and Curt Casali activated as Mariners near full health

The Seattle Mariners have activated OF Julio Rodríguez and C Curt Casali off the 10-day injured list. To create space on the active roster, Seattle designated C Luis Torrens for assignment and optioned OF Jarred Kelenic back down to Triple-A Tacoma.

The move puts the M’s about as close to full power as they’ve been all season. Mitch Haniger, Julio Rodríguez, and Jesse Winker can once again roam the outfield healthily simultaneously, hopefully continuing their collective strong play in the past couple months. Casali’s role will be direct supplanting of Torrens, as a right-handed hitting catcher who can provide more stable, veteran backup play in support of Cal Raleigh. Raleigh’s workload has been extensive, leading to signs of fatigue and wear, so Casali’s veteran skill set and familiarity with former teammate Luis Castillo will hopefully be a balm.

For Kelenic, it’s an unsurprising outcome, as the lefty clubbed a homer off Gerrit Cole’s changeup but otherwise struggled with big league off-speed in the past two weeks. His book is far from finished, but he’ll need to continue improving much like Taylor Trammell’s 2021 campaign, hopefully leading to better tidings in the near and far future. For Torrens, it’s likely the end of the road in Seattle, as the mid-20s backstop has shown enough in his big league career to entice a claim on waivers from at least some catcher-needy club. If it is the finale, a walk off hit in extra innings is a marvelous final major memory against the Yankees, and hopefully he can rekindle his 2021 success elsewhere, or perhaps even with the M’s.