M’s 1B Lind returns to Toronto for first time as opponent

Published 7:30 pm Thursday, July 21, 2016

TORONTO — Asked about his first trip back to Toronto, where he spent the first nine years of his major-league career, Seattle Mariners first baseman Adam Lind hesitated a moment before offering a correction.

It’s not his first trip back.

“My wife’s from there,” he said, “and I own some property there. So I’ve been back.”

I meant to the Rogers Centre.

“I was on the field last year around Christmas,” Lind recalled, “for Disney on Ice.”

Wait a minute. You were what…?

“I was just watching,” he laughed, “but I saw all the same people who work there, you know. I got to see the security guards for the clubhouse and people like that.”

OK, but this will be Lind’s first trip back as an opposing player. He was traded to Milwaukee after the 2014 season for right-hander Marco Estrada, whom the Mariners face in Friday’s series opener.

The Brewers didn’t play last year at Toronto. So after moving on to the Mariners in a December 2015 deal, this marks his first time back as an opposing player. And, yes, for Lind, Toronto will always be special.

“It’s very cosmopolitan,” he said. “Very chic. Progressive. I learned a lot, I matured a lot there, you know, off the field. Being from a small town (in Indiana), there’s a whole other world out there. I feel like I began to accept that when I was up there playing.”

Lind’s first season in the Northwest has been a mixed bag. While he has 15 homers and 43 RBI in 76 games, he also is batting just .231 with a .264 on-base percentage and a .449 slugging percentage.

All three slash numbers are well below his pre-2016 career averages of .274/.332/.466.

“Well, my batting average stinks,” Lind said. “My on-base percentage stinks. I’d say the other numbers are adequate.”

The biggest surprise is his slash numbers aren’t much different against left- and right-handed pitchers. The Mariners acquired Lind for three minor-league players because he had a long history, as a left-handed hitter, of pulverizing righties.

Even so, Lind has a number of big hits, including six three-run homers. Two were walk-off blasts that erased two-run deficits.

“It’s why you play,” he said. “Moments like that are the best part of the season.”

Lind’s solo homer Wednesday pulled the Mariners out of a one-run hole in the eighth inning against the White Sox. The Mariners then won 6-5 in 11 innings on Leonys Martin’s walk-off homer.

Club officials like to point to the combined production by Lind and Dae-Ho Lee at first base — the two have combined for 27 homers, 80 RBI and a .249 average.

But Lind, 33, is also about to test free agency for the first time as he winds up a seven-year deal that he signed with Toronto prior to the 2010 season. His first season with the Mariners is likely to be his only season with the Mariners.

It might not even be a full season.

On Wednesday, the Mariners acquired Dan Vogelbach, a 24-year-old first baseman/designated hitter with significant power, from the Chicago Cubs in a four-player trade. Like Lind, he is a left-handed hitter.

While the Mariners optioned Vogelbach to Triple-A Tacoma, general manager Jerry Dipoto made it clear that he believes Vogelbach is major-league-ready.

“He rakes,” Dipoto said. “He rakes everywhere he’s ever been. He’s an elite strike-zone controller with above average power. He has absolutely tormented right-handed pitching, especially this year in the (Pacific Coast League).

“He’s really put himself in position to be an impact player. Whether that starts next week, next month, some time in September or 2017 is yet to be determined, but we like the long-term value.”

That suggests Lind is on the trading block as a short-term rental for another club in search of a left-handed power bat. With the Aug. 1 non-waiver trading deadline fast approaching, such a deal could come at any time. Or not at all.

The Mariners appear willing to keep Vogelbach at Tacoma until the rosters expand in September if they can’t swing an acceptable deal for Lind.

If traded, Lind isn’t sure how he’ll react. When traded previously, the deals came in the offseason, which minimized any disruption.

“You’re traded,” he recalled. “Well, I still went to bed in my own bed. Nothing changed at that particular moment. It’s not until maybe a week before spring training, you’re packing, and you realize you’re heading somewhere else.”

For now, all Lind can do is wait. But also, for now, that waiting comes in Toronto.