Seattle Mariners Open Tryout 2016 from Everett Herald on Vimeo.
EVERETT — For some it’s a last-chance effort to reclaim what remains of a fading baseball career. For others it’s a chance to catch a scout’s eye and perhaps draw interest for the future.
And, for at least one player at this past Saturday’s open tryout held by the Seattle Mariners at Everett Memorial Stadium, it’s a chance to continue moving forward after overcoming an addiction.
The Mariners hold open tryouts every two years or so. Saturday’s event drew about 20 athletes, who displayed their skills under the watchful eyes of Jeff Sakamoto, the Mariners’ Northwest scouting supervisor.
While the chances of securing a professional contract from an open tryout are infinitesimal, they aren’t zero. Perhaps the best-known example is the story of Jim Morris, the former high school science teacher who signed after an open tryout with Tampa Bay at the age of 35 and later pitched for the then-Devil Rays.
Disney immortalized his journey in movie “The Rookie.”
“For us to be able to sign a guy it’s gotta be a guy who could step right in and play at (Class A) Everett or play in (rookie-league) Arizona right away,” said Sakamoto, a Redmond native who played at Oregon State and now lives in the Portland area. “That’s the reality of the situation that we don’t have a lot space to be able to develop guys. We need to find that guy that is able to step right in and play at that professional level.”
Players were timed in the 60-yard dash on the football field adjacent to baseball stadium before moving over to the diamond for infield and outfield drills and batting practice.
Jared Wade, a 2015 Marysville Pilchuck graduate and a current Columbia Basin College outfielder, displayed a strong arm from right field, and former Mount Rainier star shortstop Andrew Larsen-Pulver stood out among the infielders.
Larsen-Pulver, 24, was an All-Seamount League shortstop at Mount Rainier High and played at Green River Community College before an opiate addiction waylaid his career. Larsen-Pulver said he has been clean for a year and wanted to give the game another shot.
“I heard about this tryout (Friday),” Larsen-Pulver said. “I thought I’d show up and see if I could still hit it. I feel like I did all right, especially for not playing for a year. Infield went solid and I felt like I squared up some baseballs.”
Leelund Perry, 24, an Everett native and switch-hitter, “didn’t play much” in high school but still wanted to give it a chance.
“Just come out here, have fun and see what happens,” Perry said. “When I was a kid and I was about 5 or 6 years old, we’d wait until the second or third inning to go by and we’d sneak in (to Everett Memorial). I said, ‘I’m gonna go down there, I’m gonna try, I’m gonna play someday.’”
After the position players finished hitting, the focus shifted to the pitchers who gathered in the bullpen down the third-base line.
Journeyman right-hander and Lacey native Brandon Boyle, 24, pitched at River Ridge High School before embarking on a baseball odyssey that has taken him all over the country. He spent two years at Lower Columbia College before heading to the University of South Alabama for one season, then finished his college career at Lewis-Clark State.
Boyle has played for the Everett Merchants of the Pacific International League and had stints in the now-defunct Mount Rainier Professional Baseball League, and the Frontier League in the Midwest.
“I’ve been around. I’m definitely not even close to giving up,” Boyle said. “If I don’t find anywhere by March or something next year I’m just going to pack up all my stuff and go to the Midwest. I told people, ‘I’m going to hit every tryout possible and put together a little road trip and see what I can do.’”
Boyle can throw both his fastball and slider from two different arm slots. He said he once topped out at 94 miles-per-hour in junior college, but generally sits in the 88-91 mph range with his fastball.
Six-foot-six southpaw Jason Salers also has Frontier League experience. He was a unique case at the tryout because he’s actually spent time in a major-league organization. The Spanaway native signed with the Philadelphia Phillies out of Tacoma’s Pierce College in 2010 and was briefly with the Williamsport Crosscutters, the Phillies’ short-season Class A New York-Penn League affiliate before he was cut.
The 28-year-old, who works as a personal trainer in Auburn, pitched for the Frontier League’s Lake Erie Monsters in 2014 and is now pitching for the Northwest Honkers of the PIL.
“I don’t even know if they even look at me if I don’t have some kind of experience,” Salers said. “That kind of helps. And then our manager in the PIL (David Sauter) will kind of put feelers out for indy-ball teams and stuff too, and say, ‘Hey, this guy’s played at a high level. At least give him a shot.’
“I try to ride that as much as I can, and being left-handed (helps). If it wasn’t for that and being left-handed, I would have been done six or seven years ago.”
Salers, whose repertoire features fastballs of the four- and two-seam varieties, a curveball and a changeup, said he topped out at 86 in his bullpen session Saturday.
“There were some guys with some talent (Saturday),” Sakamoto said. “There were some tools that we saw that are professional grade tools. Not a lot, but you never know when some guys are going to pop a good throw or show some power, and that’s what we saw today. It was fun.”
No one was signed directly after the tryout, but Sakamoto said the organization would be in touch if they decided anyone was worth pursuing.
Follow Herald Writer Jesse Geleynse on Twitter @jessegeleynse.
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