We have a roster!
The team arrived in town on Sunday afternoon and we are now able to tell you that the Rainiers Opening Day roster looks like this:
Pitchers (13): Jonathan Aro, Casey Coleman, Justin De Fratus, Paul Fry, Mayckol Guaipe, Steve Johnson, Cody Martin, Blake Parker, James Paxton, Donn Roach, David Rollins, Adrian Sampson, Joe Wieland.
I believe the starters are Paxton, Wieland, Sampson, Roach, and Martin. I will confirm this and have a rotation for you as soon as I can.
Catchers (2): Mike Zunino, Steven Lerud.
The Mariners third catcher in spring training – Rob Brantly – was placed on waivers over the weekend and is in a ten-day holding pattern.
Infielders (6): Mike Baxter, Ed Lucas, Efren Navarro, Shawn O’Malley, Tyler Smith, Chris Taylor.
Lots of flexibility here. All can play multiple positions, with Baxter, Navarro, and O’Malley each able to play outfield as well.
Outfielders (4): Dario Pizzano, Boog Powell, Daniel Robertson, Stefen Romero.
Robertson and Romero are coming off of real strong spring training performances.
Notable Omissions: Jordan Pries, Sam Gaviglio, Steve Baron, D.J. Peterson and Leon Landry are all at Double-A Jackson. Top pitching prospect Edwin Diaz is there too, as well as speedy outfielder Guillermo Heredia. Pitchers Forrest Snow and Brad Mills are both staying in extended spring training – Mills had an injury during camp. I’ll get more info on Snow’s situation soon – he may just be waiting for a spot to open up in Tacoma.
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The Mariners start at 1:00 – it’s an ESPN game. Below is a whole lot of reading material. Go M’s!
Links:
- The Mariners finalized their opening day roster.
- A grid with all four Mariners minor league affiliate rosters can be found here.
- Donn Roach had a terrific spring, capping it off with three scoreless innings on Friday. He tossed 15.1 consecutive scoreless innings during Cactus League play.
- The centerpiece of the Seattle Times Mariners preview section is about the “baseball bromance” between Jerry Dipoto and Scott Servais.
- Larry Stone is optimistic about the long-term with Dipoto and Servais.
- John McGrath is also optimistic about the Mariners, even though he is concerned about the bullpen.
- As you know, the Mariners brought in a ton of new players. Ryan Divish breaks down five key new players.
- Divish has three reasons the Mariners will win and three reasons they won’t.
- The News Tribune has five questions – and some answers – about the upcoming season.
- A healthy and motivated Robinson Cano is the key to the Mariners season.
- Rookie manager Scott Servais is happy with the way his first spring training went. He is eager to start the regular season.
- Ketel Marte is excited about his first major league opening day.
- Felix Hernandez‘s postseason clock is ticking.
- Controlling the strike zone will be an emphasis all season long.
- In this notebook from Saturday, Bob Dutton reports that top prospect Alex Jackson will open the season in extended spring training with a likely return to Everett in June. Also, two older Cuban players were released: LHP Misael Siverio and infielder Dayner Moriera.
- A complete list of minor leaguers who the Mariners released at the end of spring training can be found in Baseball America’s minor league transactions.
- USS Mariner’s marc w writes about three risky areas for the Mariners.
- The great TNT Diner* has a look at places to eat around Safeco Field. Even better, she has a look at the new food options at Cheney Stadium.
- Settle down for a bit and enjoy this gem: Stone visited Donora, Pennsylvania – hometown of Stan Musial and the Griffey family.
- Jayson Jenks has a brief travel guide if you want to do a trip with the Mariners – or visit Cooperstown for the Griffey induction.
- John McGrath has a fun one on how people have been saying that baseball is dying – since 1868.
- We also have McGrath’s first power rankings of 2016, and a preseason things-to-watch list.
- Ex-Rainiers outfielder Jabari Blash has made the San Diego Padres opening day roster as a Rule 5 Draft pick. He homered twice in a Padres exhibition game in El Paso.
- Logan Kensing – who pitched for Tacoma the last two seasons – has made the Detroit Tigers opening day roster.
- Ji-Man Choi is another recent Rainiers player who has made the major leagues. He breaks camp with the Angels.
- Here’s a goofy but kind of fun PCL By The Numbers story from MiLB.com.
- Colorado Springs is bracing for the loss of the Sky Sox.
- The Rainiers new Wiffle Ball field opens on Thursday. Wiffle Ball enthusiast Nolan Arenado will not be present.
We’ll be back with a Rainiers opening series preview on Wednesday.
*if you are on Twitter and live in Tacoma and eat food, you must follow @TNTDiner.
Booth, Justice and the American Pastime 
Has Baxter converted to playing first base full time? I thought he had been almost exclusively an outfielder in the majors.
He’ll play 1B and OF this year, it seems.
What a horrible write up on the Sky Sox, people will come to minor league baseball when it is promoted well. The failure of the team to draw isn’t because there is a MLB team in Denver, it is because the team didn’t do enough to support baseball in town.
As far as Tacoma goes the writer mentions the Rainiers as if they are a near failure as well. They don’t even take into account the fact that Cheney Stadium seats less than the top half of the league averages. Even if the Rainiers sold out every game they would be still be bottom half. The reason the Rainiers don’t have a high average is simply that the first half of the season has a lot of bad weather, not because fans are more likely to go to Mariners games.
If putting a triple A team near an MLB team is bad business why did the River Cats lead the league in attendance. Don’t blame the Rockies for lack of fans in Colorado Springs, blame the team for not promoting baseball.
I agree that the comparison to Tacoma was kind of dumb – we’re doing just fine here, thanks. I think it just comes down to San Antonio being a much larger market than CSP. Both Sacramento and San Antonio have been considered possible MLB expansion cities in the past. Anyway, we’ll see how it goes – SA hasn’t put a shovel in the ground yet.