Last Friday night, I was back at my old Everett Memorial Stadium stomping grounds, filling in on the Everett AquaSox beat. Although I was ostensibly there to cover the AquaSox’s doubleheader against the Eugene Emeralds, I was struck by one fact that had little to do with the outcome:
Kyle Lewis was still there.
The Seattle Mariners’ first-round pick from June’s amateur draft, who began his professional career with Everett, was still with the AquaSox more than three weeks into the season, and that provides the first clue about the new regime’s philosophy regarding the promotion of its minor-league players.
This is an important issue to those of us here in Everett. One of the best things about having a minor-league affiliate of the local major-league team is that it provides the opportunity to see the players before they ever reach Safeco Field, in a setting where they’re more accessible for both the media and the fans. We get to say we got in on the ground level of the trendy tech start-up. We’re the cool kids who saw a band play a small club before it began selling out stadiums.
But that only works if Seattle’s best prospects actually pass through Everett.
I began covering the Sox for The Herald in 2004, which means I had the chance to see the team operate under two previous general managers, Bill Bavasi and Jack Zduriencik. Those two had strikingly different approaches toward promotion in the minors, both with regards to their top prospects and the organization as a whole. Therefore, I couldn’t help but be curious about how things would work now that GM Jerry Dipoto and farm director Andy McKay are at the helm.
When Bavasi was the Mariners’ general manager from 2004-08, the Mariners were all about pushing their players up the ladder as quickly as possible. This manifested itself in two ways.
First, the organization’s top prospects usually bypassed Everett completely. The Mariners made four first-round draft picks during those years, and only one of those ever set foot in the Northwest League. That one player, 2005 first rounder Jeff Clement, spent all of four days with the Sox before being sent on his way. It always baffled me why the organization chose not to introduce its top prospects to the fans who, if all worked out developmentally, would be cheering them in Mariners jerseys in the future. But rarely did we get that opportunity.
Second, even players who weren’t on the top-prospect lists were pushed aggressively. If a player had a good week or two, chances were he’d soon be on his way to the Midwest League. The idea was to challenge the players as much as possible, but it meant we never really got to know the good ones. It’s no coincidence that the Sox finished with some awful records in those seasons.
Things changed significantly when Zduriencik was Seattle’s GM from 2008-15. Zduriencik took a decidedly more patient approach with his minor-league players, at least at the lower levels. That meant most of Seattle’s top prospects found themselves in Sox uniforms at some point. Of Zduriencik’s six first-round selections, four played for Everett. The Sox also tended to get almost all of the team’s high collegiate draft picks.
Those players stayed in Everett longer, too. In 2012, first-rounder Mike Zunino spent a full month with the Sox, despite dominating the league from the moment he arrived at Everett Memorial Stadium. He he compiled an obscene 1.210 OPS in 29 games. The following year, first-rounder D.J. Peterson did the same, pounding the ball for a full month with the Sox as he drove in 27 runs in 29 games. Last year, 2014 first-rounder Alex Jackson spent the entire season with Everett.
That philosophy was reflected in the standings, with Everett making four playoff appearances, including winning the 2010 Northwest League championship, a feat the Sox hadn’t accomplished since becoming a Mariners affiliate in 1995. The winning gave fans a reason to follow the team, rather than just the players.
Therefore, we have a major stake in how Dipoto and McKay operate. Will they be more like Bavasi, sending us back to the dark days of short stays for stars and mediocrity on the field? Or will they be more like Zduriencik and give us the chance to truly absorb Seattle’s future?
If Lewis and the rest of this year’s roster provide the pattern, then fans at Everett Memorial Stadium can let out their collective breaths. It seems we’re still going to get our chance to observe the Mariners’ best young talent with the Sox.
We’ve seen the Mariners commit to sending their top college draft picks to Everett. Of Seattle’s first eight picks in this year’s draft, seven were selected out of college. All seven began their professional careers with the Sox.
We’ve seen the Mariners show a willingness to allow those high draft picks to season at one location. As of Monday, all seven of those high picks out of college were still with Everett, nearly a month since the season began.
It’s a small sample size, and McKay’s own words suggest it won’t necessarily always be this way.
“There’s no formula (for promotion),” McKay said. “To me it’s when it’s just obvious, when I go to a game and I just feel this guy is at the wrong place. If I have to think about it, he’s not ready. The moves that we’ve made to me were those type of moves. Andrew Moore in the Cal League, we were hurting him by keeping him here. Edwin Diaz in Double-A. I always go back to my experience with Colorado where we had a Triple-A team my first year there and we had (Nolan) Arenado, (DJ) LeMahieu, (Corey) Dickerson, (Charlie) Blackmon, and I remember sitting there thinking these guys are in the wrong league. When I feel that strongly, that’s kind of the criteria. But there’s no formula there.”
Yet the early indications are promising for those of us in Everett. And hopefully it means that in the future, when we make that jaunt down to Seattle to see the Mariners, we’ll still be able to say, “Hey, I remember seeing that guy when …”
For more on the Seattle sports scene, follow Nick Patterson on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.
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