Mariners Moose Tracks, 9/1/23: Ronald Acuña, Chris Getz, and Cole Ragans

Good morning everyone! We’re rolling into the final (full) month of the regular season. Let’s enjoy this stretch of Mariners baseball as they push for a division title. Here’s what you need to know today.

In Mariners news...

• In case you missed it, the Mariners traveled to New York in style.

• Daniel Kramer wrote about the historically-close AL West division race as we enter September.
• Anyone looking to kick off the holiday weekend with a watch party? (FYI: This tweet was made yesterday, so “tomorrow” is today.)

Around the league...

• The players placed on waivers have all found new homes, with Lucas Giolito, Reynoldo López, and Matt Moore all landing with the Guardians, and Harrison Bader and Hunter Renfroe making their way to the Reds. Mike Clevinger, Carlos Carrasco, and Randal Grichuk went unclaimed.
• The White Sox announced the promotion of Assistant General Manager Chris Getz to full-time General Manager, much to the chagrin of Sox fans who were hoping for a real organizational change.
• The Mets also made some pretty significant front-office shakeups in the middle of a disappointing season, including the firings of the Director of Player Development and the Director of Pro Player Evaluation.
• Ronald Acuña became the first player to ever post a 30-60 season following his grand slam in yesterday’s game.
• Matt Heckman at Pitcher List released a fantasy-focused list of the top 100 prospects, notable for including 7 Mariners and noting an 8th as an honorable mention. For those wondering, the fantasy-focused ranks emphasize the potential for homers and steals more, with no emphasis on defense or plate discpline, which explains why Jonatan Clase is so high in this list — lots of steals! — without being present in most regular prospect lists.
• J.J. Cooper at Baseball America reported that Triple-A baseball is making some tweaks to the pitch timer and strike zone as the season winds down. ($)
• Zach Crizer at Yahoo! pondered the very strange Padres, who are good at playing baseball but bad at winning games.
• Have you heard of Cole Ragans? If not, now is the time to get familiar with the Royals’ breakout starter recently acquired for Aroldis Chapman. Ragans had among the most impressive months of August of any starter in baseball.