Seattle Mariners News: Hart Activated, Smoak to Minors
By Todd Pheifer
The Seattle Mariners are making moves, though they aren’t the most exciting transactions. Perhaps in the long run these will turn out to be key decisions.
Corey Hart was activated, inserted into the starting lineup at DH, and prompty went 0-for-3 with an RBI via sacrifice fly. Hart is now hitting .204 for the season. Frankly, I’m not expecting a ton from Corey Hart, but hopefully I am wrong. The first key will be to stay healthy.
Justin Smoak was the other player that was activated, and he was sent to Tacoma. Whether he ever returns from Triple-A will be interesting to see.
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Manager Lloyd McClendon stated that “Smoak will eventually return as a starter with the Mariners.” You have to assume that the only way Smoak comes back is if Logan Morrison gets hurt and the Mariners don’t want to play musical chairs with the first base position or rely on Willie Bloomquist.
Given that Smoak was hitting .208 before he got hurt, it is hard to fathom a momentual turnaround at the plate. We’ve seen this movie before, and we know how it ends. Smoak has experienced success in spring training, but that never seems to translate to the regular season.
Sadly, Smoak just isn’t a particularly good hitter. It may be time move on.
Maybe Smoak makes it back because McClendon likes him, but it would not be a shock if this was the beginning of the end for the Smoakamotive. At some point teams have to admit that it just isn’t working.