Early Cactus League Thoughts

The Mariners have a couple of games in the books. Here are some thoughts.

The Seattle Mariners have five new starters in their lineup, and the bullpen will have a different look. But in Peoria for six weeks we see everybody.

From Julio Rodriguez and Cal Raleigh, to the newcomers — Mitch Garver, Luis Urias, Luke Raley, Jorge Polanco, Gregory Santos, among others — and those returning home… welcome back to Seattle, Mitch Haniger.

While spring training is for getting in the work, it’s also for checking out players, so let’s do that.

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• Haniger still has the most ridiculously balanced power swing in baseball:

Fun to see Haniger back in a Mariners uniform. The more he stays healthy the better, of course, but I’m banking on exactly ZERO from him in 2024. Everything he brings is gravy.

• Ty France indeed is in better shape this year, and it’s apparent in how much less difficult it looked Saturday for him to run. He’s still slow, but it didn’t look difficult for him to run like it did in 2023.

• Cade Marlowe might be too closed in his setup and his hands dropped Saturday. Just a one-day thing, probably, and it’s Day 1, so …

• France, at least Saturday, had a little shorter, more shallow hand load, and he may be starting with his hands a little lower and with more angle. Something to watch. Loading hands deep can impact swing path and plane, and make it difficult to get to velocity and cover the zone.

• Taylor Trammell, noticeably, is trying to be shorter to the ball. This was easy to see in his first PA Saturday versus lefty Sammy Peralta. His swing remains too uppercut to make consistent contact.

• If you’re watching swings and bat angles — such as J.P. Crawford’s bat wrap — where the barrel is when the pitch is released is the key. Where the batter sets up originally doesn’t matter at all. Cole Young is a good example of this. Watch where his hands and the bat head are initially versus release.

• Seby Zavala, an offensively-challenged backup catcher, is primarily — and maybe as close to exclusively as possible — going to start versus left-handed pitchers. Watch his lower half versus lefties this spring versus when he faces right-handed pitchers. It’s backwards. We’ll tak in April.

• Jackson Kowar showed all three pitches Saturday; mid-90s four-seamer, relatively straight, above-average changeup with some sink and a little armside fade. His slider is his third pitch, and he’s generally better off using it early in counts to steal strikes and in the dirt, as he did to the second batter he faced Saturday versus the White Sox. His inning is a good example of what he can be if he throws strikes and keeps his fastball out of the hitting zone.

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• There’s a world where Nick Solak makes the big club before Sam Haggerty, though neither appears likely barring injury.

• Samad Taylor probably has a leg up on both, although he too is unlikely to break camp with the Mariners unless there is an injury involved. Taylor’s ability to play second, center, and left, plus steal a base, is intriguing enough, but he may be every bit the hitter, too.

• One of the flags on Tyler Locklear is how he handles hard stuff in and we saw that battle Saturday in his first PA. At trigger point he’s violently wagging the bat north-south and he dives in toward the plate a bit. Another thing to watch in 2024 as Locklear pushing toward the majors. There’s plenty of bat speed and it’s plus raw power. He’smy No. 10 prospect.

• Lock did flash that all-fields pop, however, with the shot off the wall in right field. That’s his game, but he can pull the ball for big power, too. In his final PA Saturday, he fought off a tough two-strike slider away and served a 1-2 breaker into right field for a single. As they say, hitterish.

• Jonatan Clase, my No. 18 Mariners prospect, has every physical tool you’d want in a young player, including 70 or better speed and enough strength to get to average power. But his right-handed swing is years away, and he doesn’t profile well in center despite his speed. He also chases more than Smokey. He’s further away from showing viable MLB-level plate skills than most seem to think. One comp from a scout on Clase’s bat is Rougned Odor.

• Cole Young just keeps Cole Younging. He’s my No. 2 prospect and I think some are sleeping on his chances to get to consistently average power. And yes, he’s a better shortstop than Crawford.

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• I’m optimistic about Blake Hunt’s bat, despite modest numbers and scouting reports to match. He seems to track the breaking ball well and it’s at least average bat speed with some solid-average plate coverage. We’ll see what he does with a longer-than-average swing.

• My No. 38 prospect Peyton Alford, a 26-year-old lefty reliever, took the loss in the Saturday game. His delivery was off balance and as a result probably fiund two dozen different release points. The stuff, though, is big-league quality, including a top-of-zone four-seamer, and he stays closed to generate deception.

• Lefty Jhonathan Diaz is a reliever.

• Ryan Bliss stands too far from the plate and as a result has no chance to cover the outer edge versus velocity.

• Cal Raleigh has not reached his ceiling. Repeat after me: Cal Raleigh has not reached his ceiling.

• It still looks like Dylan Moore is trying to chop the tops off of small trees.

• Cody Bolton’s breaking ball has a chance to be good, and his changeup looked good Sunday.

• Michel Chavis swings hard.

• Luke Raley stays in pretty well versus lefties. He has a chance.

• It’s easy to see why the club is very optimistic about Dominic Canzone.

• Brett de Geus gets really good run on his 94 mph two-seamer and I think his curveball has a real shot.

• We have a Kaden Polovich sighting!

• Sean Poppen is interesting. Sunday it was a 93-96 mph two-seamer with late run, and he’ll use that in on lefties to come back and catch the plate under the hands, and to get in on right-handed batters. His slider had depth and two-plane break, and he showed he knew how to bury it. It’s a three-quarters slot creating some funk out of his hand.

• Harry Ford faced a pretty good big-league reliever in Eli Morgan Sunday and worked a full count before swinging through a fastball. He didn’t look overmatched despite never playing above High-A.