PEORIA, Ariz. — Like a college kid pulling an all-nighter to study for a test, Kenji Johjima is cramming to learn the Seattle Mariners’ pitching staff before opening day.

Johjima is doing his best to work with the entire pitching staff in the remaining eight exhibition games. He joined the Mariners on Thursday after playing for Japan in the World Baseball Classic.

He has a lot of catching, and catching up, to do before the April 6 opener at Minnesota.

There’s nobody in the Mariners’ starting rotation who Johjima didn’t catch last year. But he still needs to work with them because some have made adjustments at spring training that Johjima hasn’t dealt with.

Left-hander Jarrod Washburn, for example, is mixing more offspeed and breaking pitches into his repertoire and right-hander Carlos Silva has tweaked his mechanics.

He hasn’t caught many of the relievers who’ve gotten considerable work at spring training — David Aardsma, Chris Jakubauskas, Shawn Kelley, Garrett Olson and Tyler Walker.

Manager Don Wakamatsu said he must be careful with Johjima’s workload before opening day but also must find ways for him to work with every pitcher.

“We’ve broken out the lineup for the next seven days to make sure everybody gets work and is ready for Minnesota,” Wakamatsu said. “Catching everybody is the challenge.”

Johjima caught Felix Hernandez on Thursday and Erik Bedard on Friday, so he still has Silva, Washburn and Ryan Rowland-Smith to work with.

Then there are the relievers. When they come out of the bullpen in the next week, so might Johjima.

“The skipper mentioned that I need to learn the new relievers, so there may be situations where I’ll play the second half of the games so I can get to know the guys in the bullpen better,” Johjima said.

The key, of course, is to make sure Johjima isn’t worn out by the season opener.

“Bringing him in late, Joh can catch the relievers in some games without us killing him by catching him nine innings all the time,” Wakamatsu said.

Read Kirby Arnold’s blog from spring training at www.heraldnet.com