If you took a look at Tuesday’s Mariners lineup and did a double take, you can be forgiven. J.P. Crawford and Cal Raleigh have returned to the lineup, both activated off the IL today, but the Mariners are still down some players, with Randy Arozarena and Josh Naylor both battling some minor injuries. Luke Raley is also out of tonight’s lineup with back tightness.
UPDATE, 5:40 PT: Justin Hollander just stopped by the media workroom to announce that Randy Arozarena’s MRI showed more inflammation than they expected, and he’ll go to the 10-day IL. Connor Joe has been pulled from Tacoma’s lineup but as Tacoma is away (Salt Lake), the organization is summoning Curtis Washington Jr. from Everett, who are at home today, in order to cover the short bench. It’s a bummer to lose Arozarena, who has been one of the team’s most productive hitters, for any amount of time, but what a cool moment for Washington, who has been a long-term minor-league grinder for the Mariners and is one of the nicest guys in the organization, consistently winning community service awards from the team.
Arozarena is still sidelined with the hamstring injury he sustained while attempting to beat out a grounder to first base; Justin Hollander describes him as day-to-day, but says Arozarena will have an MRI today to make sure there’s nothing more serious at play. Naylor is dealing with a bruised shin, but according to Hollander what’s really keeping him out is a sore wrist. He is also day-to-day.
Meanwhile, the team is still without Brendan Donovan, who has returned to Seattle from the Mariners’ complex in Arizona to begin a running progression, as well as continuing to do baseball activities like hitting, throwing, taking ground balls, all things he was doing in Arizona. The running progression will begin linear, running in a straight line, and then progress to base running and lateral movement over the next week. Hollander says he expects the running progression to take 10 days to two weeks, maybe more towards the later end of that timeline as the running piece is the piece the team is most concerned about given the nature of Donovan’s injury. Hollander added that the expectation is for Donovan to be much more “multi-positional” than he was prior to the injury, playing all over the field including the outfield.
Donovan’s one-time replacement, Will Wilson, has also hit a snag in his rehab process and is being pulled from his rehab assignment. Wilson, who has been on the IL since May 2 with a fractured thumb, will visit with one of the team doctors over the next couple days and if the team doesn’t think his injury is progressing, he’ll have season-ending surgery.
Rob Refsnyder’s knee is still an issue, but is better enough that he’s come off the daily injury report. There will be no IL stint for him at this time.
The pitching isn’t as beaten-up as the position player side, but the Mariners suffered two significant losses to the bullpen on their road trip. Cooper Criswell has a pec strain that Hollander describes as a grade of “one, one-plus”; he will be down three to four weeks before getting another MRI and then build back up from there depending on what the MRI shows, putting him back after the All-Star Break at the earliest. Matt Brash’s lat strain isn’t in the same area it was last time – it’s higher up, which creates concerns about the strain impacting his shoulder, and also lengthens the timeline for his return. Per Hollander, “more showed up on the MRI this time,” but he still describes it as a grade one strain. Similar to Criswell, he’ll be down for a few weeks before being re-imaged. Hollander said to treat Brash’s return like a “trade deadline upgrade.”
In better bullpen news, Carlos Vargas, who had a similar injury to Brash, has begun a throwing program. Vargas’s rehab has been a complicated one; he’s currently on track to return around the same time as Brash and Criswell.
“I’ve really never seen anything like this on the position player side,” said Hollander. “Every day feels like a little bit of a juggling act.”
Today that juggling act will see the recently-activated J.P. Crawford make his first start at third base since September of 2018, when he played third base in a Mets-Phillies game but was pinch-hit for in the sixth inning. He’ll join Cal Raleigh, who gets the start behind the dish.
In order to make room for the returning veterans, Patrick Wisdom and Jhonny Pereda were both optioned to Triple-A. It’s a tough break for Pereda, who made a strong impression during the time he was with the club, but is squeezed out of a roster spot with the two other catchers. “The quality of his at-bat was unbelievable,” said Hollander. “He was fantastic. He’ll be back.”
