The longest spring training in Mariners history will end with two games in Las Vegas on April 3 and 4, and by then they might actually have their whole team in place.
Because the World Baseball Classic runs through most of March, spring training will run a week longer than usual in 2009. However, because of the WBC, the Mariners may spend much of their camp without a handful of key players.
Right fielder Ichiro Suzuki and catcher Kenji Johjima are on Japan’s preliminary roster, and other Mariners who could play in the WBC are third baseman Adrian Beltre (Dominican Republic) and pitchers Felix Hernandez (Venezuela) and Ryan Rowland-Smith (Australia). The WBC runs March 5-23 and, because anyone playing in it will be working out with their nation’s team before the tournament, it could be late March before they would join their major league teams.
Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu would prefer to have his entire team together from the get-go at spring training because he and his coaches have a lot of getting acquainted to do.
But is it that big a deal?
You’ve got to figure guys like Ichiro, Beltre and even Hernandez are savvy enough to make sure they’re ready for the season when they’d return to the Mariners. Same for Rowland-Smith, although because he would go into spring training ready to join the starting rotation for the first time, it would be nice to have him pitching through much of the camp under new pitching coach Rick Adair. And besides, it’s not until the last week of spring training when teams typically play all their starters together in exhibitions.
Johjima would be the biggest concern. The Mariners badly need him to put together a strong season both offensively and defensively, and a short stint with the club in spring training isn’t exactly what the team needs. Wakamatsu, a former catcher, would like to spend as much time as possible helping Johjima fix the defensive side of his game, particularly pitch selection. And hitting coach Alan Cockrell no doubt doesn’t want to wait until the last 10 days of March to get a first-hand look at a player whose hitting success is one of the more critical needs of the team.
Thankfully for the Mariners, spring training runs longer than ever next year. The Mariners will play a franchise-record 39 exhibition games, with their final Arizona game on April 2 before playing two in Vegas on April 3 and 4 against the Colorado Rockies. The Mariners begin the regular season on Monday, April 6, at Minnesota.
By then, hopefully, Wakamatsu and his staff will know what makes his players tick, and vice-versa.
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