With less than two weeks remaining until Opening Day, the news is starting to churn out for Seattle. Randy Arozarena has returned to camp following a stint with Team Mexico at the World Baseball Classic.
With less than two weeks to go Opening Day, the news is starting to come fast and furious for the Seattle Mariners.
Here's what you need to know from Saturday, March 14:
Arozarena returns to camp
After a run with Team Mexico at the World Baseball Classic, outfielder Randy Arozarena is back with the team in Peoria, Ariz. However, Arozarena elected not to speak with the media about the incident involving him and catcher Cal Raleigh from earlier this week.
Instead, Arozarena released a statement, as noted by Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times:
“We didn’t get the results we wanted with Team Mexico, but I’m glad to be back in camp with my teammates. The WBC is behind us now, and I don’t want anything to take away from the Mariners. I’m focused on the season and helping this team compete for a World Series.”
On one hand, it's nice to have Arozarena back, as he's a big part of what the M's do offensively. It's also nice that he's focused on helping the M's achieve the ultimate goal of winning the World Series. However, it would have been nice if he had taken the opportunity to speak with the media and apologize to Raleigh for what he said after Monday's game. Raleigh took the high road on Tuesday in a conversation with the media.
Without doing that, the speculation about his relationship with Raleigh will continue to run rampant. And the longer the story stays a story, the more questions there will be about the impact on the M's clubhouse.
Roster moves
The Mariners made multiple roster moves on Saturday, trimming the spring training roster down to 48. There are 34 players from the 40-man roster, 13 non-roster invitees and one player on the 60-day injured list.
Intriguing lefty Robinson Ortiz was sent down to Triple-A Tacoma while superstar prospect Kade Anderson was sent to minor league camp. Joining him are catcher Brian O'Keefe, pitcher Randy Dobnak, infielders Will Wilson and Patrick Wisdom and pitcher Guillo Zuniga.
Anderson had a solid spring, leading most people to speculate that he could make his major league debut later this season. The No. 21 prospect in baseball, per MLB Pipeline, he was 1-1 with a 6.43 ERA, striking out nine in seven innings. He walked three and allowed one home run, which was against former M's outfielder Teoscar Hernandez on Friday night.
Emerson goes deep
Speaking of home runs on Friday night, how about the first spring training blast for M's superstar prospect Colt Emerson?
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