Getting To Know The Seattle Mariners’ September Call-Ups
Let’s get this out of the way right away: I like Shawn O’Malley, and thought at the time of his signing that he profiled best as a member of the Mariners’ opening day lineup. That didn’t happen, of course, as the M’s made the widely-predicted move of sticking with Willie Bloomquist as their punchless utility guy. It didn’t pan out, and now months later O’Malley gets his chance with the big league team.
One thing we know about O’Malley: he’s coming up largely to be Brad Miller‘s backup in center field. We know this because the Mariners told us so. He’s usually a middle infielder, but is a capable defender pretty much everywhere. The glove makes him a valuable player even though he can’t really hit. The Mariners need valuable players, and so O’Malley’s arrival seems overdue.
In Tacoma this year O’Malley’s got a .297/.345/.413 slash, which sounds nice enough but is really just good for league average in the PCL. His slash line in 16 big league PAs is .188/.188/.188, which at least suggests some potential room for improvement, though nothing is guaranteed. Most importantly, his presence suggests that Ketel Marte and Miller are unlikely to back each other up on their days off. The commitment to Miller in center and Marte at short seems real now that O’Malley is hanging around.
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