On Monday, Seattle Mariners executive Jerry Dipoto went on MLB Network and said that top prospect Colt Emerson is "as close as they come" to a major league promotion.

Whether that means one week or one month is not necessarily important. What's important is that Emerson is going to be in Seattle soon and he'll have a chance to impact the Mariners as they go for a second consecutive American League West championship.

The No. 7 prospect in baseball, Emerson is still just 20 years old. He's hitting .265 at Triple-A Tacoma with a homer, five RBIs and two stolen bases.

While the prospect of bringing Emerson up is exciting, there are some roster questions for the M's to think about in advance of that promotion. How will it all work?

Let's take a look at some options, as we discussed them on the most recent 'Refuse to Lose' podcast.

As of now, Joe is on the roster because Victor Robles is hurt. It's unclear if Robles will be back before Emerson is ready to be promoted. The first choice is to clearly have Robles just take the place of Joe, meaning another would have to happen to promote Emerson.

If Robles is still out, the Mariners can bring Emerson up for Joe, and then deal with additional questions when Robles is ready to return.

The assumption, I think, has been that when Emerson comes up, Rivas will be sent down to Triple-A, but is that really true?

When Emerson comes up, the Mariners will have left-handed hitting infielders: Emerson, Cole Young, JP Crawford, Josh Naylor and Brendan Donovan. Do they really need five lefties there? Or would the defensive versatility, speed and switch-hitting ability of Rivas make sense to have in a bench role?

Now 28 years old, Canzone has two minor league options available, meaning he can also be sent down freely if the team wants to keep Rivas. We examined more of this on the podcast:

"The assumption, I think, has been that Leo Rivas gets sent down once Colt Emerson comes up. I am not convinced that that is going to be the case, and here is why—and we saw a good example of it, a good precursor to the example of it, on Monday against the Astros.

Mitch Garver caught, Cal Raleigh played DH, and then as a result, Luke Raley was in right field and Dominic Canzone was on the bench. So right now, in the battle between Raley and Canzone, Raley is winning it. For right now, the battle of Raley versus Canzone—Raley is winning the battle.

So let’s play it out further. If Colt Emerson is here, Cal Raleigh catches, Colt Emerson is at third, Randy Arozarena is in left, Brendan Donovan is the DH. Well, the battle of Raley versus Canzone is being won by Raley. So then Raley goes to right field and Canzone is back on the bench—and what exactly is the point of having yet another left-handed hitting outfielder on the bench?

When this team’s healthy, this team will have Julio Rodriguez, Victor Robles, Rob Refsnyder, Luke Raley, Randy Arozarena, and Brendan Donovan—all six of them—that will be capable of playing the outfield. Do you really need Dom Canzone there to be the seventh outfielder, and to be a guy who is, you know, not even starting at that point in the role we expected him to start at—DH against right-handed pitching?

I’m not convinced that Dom Canzone won’t be the guy sent down when Colt Emerson comes up. I know that Dom Canzone has power. I know that Dom Canzone’s underlying metrics are fairly good. Dom Canzone is hitting .206 with a .289 on-base percentage, and now he is not consistently playing in the role that we thought he was going to play in—DH against right-handed pitching...

Leo Rivas gives you the ability to have a right-handed-hitting infielder. Not to mention, he also runs well. He also is generally solid defensively. He can play the other defensive positions—second, short, and third. That, to me, seems more valuable than Dom Canzone."

--Of course, things can change: Perhaps Canzone gets hot again, forcing a different conversation. Perhaps someone gets injured, which changes the calculus entirely.

But as they say, "the show is today," and for today, these are the questions and conversations that we are having.

The Mariners will take on the San Diego Padres on Tuesday night at 6:40 p.m. PT. 

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