Carson Smith Optioned, And The Bullpen Is All But Settled
The Seattle Mariners cut nine players from big league camp earlier today, giving them 29 guys still in camp. But they lost their to-do list, and they were sure it had one more thing on it. What could that have been? And then they remembered:
RHP Carson Smith optioned to Tacoma
— Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) March 29, 2015
Bad decision. Smith is one of the best relievers on the team. He’s better than Yoervis Medina, at least. But he’ll be starting the year in Tacoma, as many had expected. While this is a sub-optimal move it’s also not the end of the world.
Smith is young and lacks big league experience. Okay, so he had a September cup of coffee, and yeah, he was lights-out, steal-your-breath dominant during that stretch. But if you’ve got a crowd and you want to keep as many guys as possible, you could do worse than to send the rookie down. Makes sense, kind of.
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The news here is really that the Mariners still like Medina better than the rest of us. We see walks, they see… strikeouts, and not the accompanying walks? Medina walks guys. So does Fernando Rodney, they’ll argue, but Rodney is also excellent. Medina isn’t. This seems a little strange.
Inevitably someone in the bullpen will falter or get hurt, and when they do, Smith will be in the majors. I still expect him to be in Seattle more often than Tacoma this season, and when he’s up he has the ability to be one of the best relievers around. Like with Elias, Smith represents a quality depth option that most teams just don’t have. That’s exciting.
Still no word on whether Erasmo Ramirez is being considered for a bullpen spot. He probably isn’t, but it still wouldn’t be too much of a surprise. Tyler Olson doesn’t become a Tampa Bay Ray if he can’t crack the opening day roster, you know. But from where we stand it seems likely that Olson will take the spot that was supposed to go to David Rollins.