April 20: The Mariners announced that Lewis has been reinstated from the injured list. Braden Bishop was optioned to their alternate site in a corresponding move.
April 19: The Mariners will activate center fielder Kyle Lewis from the 10-day injured list prior to their game against the Dodgers on Tuesday, manager Scott Servais told Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times and other reporters.
Lewis hasn’t made his 2021 debut yet as a result of a deep bone bruise he suffered in his right knee toward the end of spring training. The injury has so far prevented Lewis from building on a terrific 2020 season in which he won American League Rookie of the Year honors. Lewis took home the award after slashing .262/.364/.437 (126 wRC+) with 11 home runs in 242 plate appearances and succeeding on five of his six stolen base attempts. He was also quite durable last year, missing just two of the Mariners’ 60 games.
Even without Lewis, the Mariners have come racing out of the gates this year with the AL West’s leading record (10-6). They’ve done so in spite of below-average offensive production from Taylor Trammell, who has filled in for Lewis in center. Trammell has hit .152/.278/.304 (77 wRC+) with 23 strikeouts in 54 trips to the plate. Trammell has swung a better bat since a rough 1-for-13 start to the season and is regarded as one of the club’s top prospects, however, so he could still factor into the equation in left field even with Lewis back in the fold.
Good news for Baseball, kid’s got a ton of potential. Happy for M’s fans too they have bright future. Beat of Luck Go Sox see you in the 2024 ALCS
Best*
White or red?
Ugh. I can never remember that…. white? Yessssss
An Ace Ventura reference, nice!
White Sox*
They’ll get there long before 2024 dude.
The playoffs yea but their prime no
The fact that Trammel’s slash line is that bad but is still 77 wRC+ really tells you how slow offenses have been to start the season.
I had the same thought. It looks like there’s one too many 7’s.
League average OPS so far this year is .701. Last year it was .740 and .758 in 2019.
Ugh, those numbers are sad. I know it’s a matter of personal taste, while for teams it’s a matter of efficiency, but I’d love to see more balls in play, more stolen bases, and fewer strikeouts.
I’ve kind of wondered if we’ve gotten to the point where we are undervaluing the guys who drive the gaps, rack up like 30-40 doubles a season and are essentially put the ball in play more. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to see a whole bunch of Billy Hamilton’s, guys who are lightning fast but can’t get on base to save their lives, but take for example a guy like Bryan Reynolds. He isn’t powerless and can hit 15-20 home runs in a full season, but he had 37 doubles in his rookie season. He reminds me of a Michael Brantley, another player who fits that mould of high-contact, decent power, racks up a ton of doubles.
Like David Fletcher? I think we’re definitely under valuing contact guys.
Fletcher doesn’t really have any power. He makes consistent contact, just not very hard contact. So far, he’s only had one season with a wRC+ above 100, that being last year. Still a solid player given his defensive value.
Peak Kevin newman
Look no further than Matt Carpenter’s downfall. 2013-14 he was a doubles machine. Then he changes his swing and has never been the same hitter
2015-2018 Matt Carpenter was pretty darned good. Are you referring to a 2018 swing change?
2015 is when he himself admitted he changed his swing to get more power. This has caused him to be an incredibly streaky player and not the great leadoff man he once was
Misspelled Kelenic.
Zero reason Kelenic should be called up
Other than he’s probably the best LF on the roster? None whatsoever.
Chester- not probably. ImO it’s a Certainty, he’s def the best LF on the roster right now. This current lineup is crying out for his (BA) 70 grade Hit tool, his Speed, 60 grade Power and elite OB skills. His pitch recognition skills and savvy AB’s are exactly what we needed vs LAD
The Mariners have the best 1-2 in the AL, there is not a better 1 and 2 hitter tandem in the AL than Haniger and France. Their combined OPS is higher than any other AL teams 1-2 hitters. The M’s desperately need to lengthen the lineup by adding Kelenic AND Lewis. It’s more of a long shot but hopefully Julio is also added to that lineup in Aug or Sept.
I feel like a lot of Mariner fans let Jack Z’s mistakes handling the systems top prospects influence their judgement on the proper time to promote JK. I hear many fans say JK shouldn’t come up because we don’t want a repeat of Zunino or Smoak etc.”
We needed Dustin Ackley’s 70 hit tool too…
I think you left a ‘not’ out of that statement. Kelenic makes the M’s much better!
The one month wonder returns.
Wish the kid all the best, but so far Taylor has looked like the one month blunder… I have to imagine M’s fans are ecstatic to have Lewis ready!
2 for 2 tonight with a hr, double and 3 rbi in the 4th inning.
Nice! Rooting for him to do well for the M’s!
How many months has he played?
62… percent of one, if we are speaking of Trammell.
Trammell looks over matched. I suspect he will be sent down as soon as the minor leagues begin play. The M’s don’t want that to happen to Kelenic. I suspect that we’ll see Marmo in left quite a bit once Lewis arrives.
Instantly hits a hr and 2b against the dodgers
He was overmatched in AA in 2019. Hard to expect positive results from a player that couldn’t get it done in the minors.
My understanding is that he changed his swing at the very beginning of the 2019 season which made his stats look bad. Idk he definitely flashes plus skills. It’s going to come down to how he handles/bounces back from failure. Mental makeup
I like TT’s chances. He’ll need to make some adjustments but there’s immense talent there. Lewis himself has some swing and miss issues .
Hopefully they play him next to Lewis and let Marmoles ride pine. As long as Trammell isn’t completely overmatched the next couple weeks—give him a chance to work through it.
WAJGH- “couldn’t get it done in the Minors?” Trammell? You might want to go back and see his numbers from his first two seasons in the Reds system. Firstly the Reds bumped him up a level in his first assignment to see if he could handle better competition- he excelled, so much so that he was promoted again. After killing it in those first two levels he was now the Reds overall number one prospect. Becoming the Reds best prospect is the epitome and definition of “getting it done in the Minors.”
He wasn’t overmatched in AA as much as he was dealing with the huge pressure of coming to a whole new Org as the Reds No 1 prospect (and the recent MVP of the All Star Futures Game). Put yourself in his shoes. In fact you’re seeing him deal with that same (top prospect expectations) and pressure on the MLB stage.
There’s a ton of pressure on you when you’re traded but coming over as a No 1 prospect? That’s rough. New coaches, new programs, new ways of doing EVERYTHING!
“He wasn’t overmatched in AA as much as he was dealing with the huge pressure of coming to a whole new Org as the Reds No 1 prospect (and the recent MVP of the All Star Futures Game).”
Did the dog eat his homework too?
Top prospects perform. If they don’t, they are not a top prospect until they DO perform. Trammell was overmatched in AA. The numbers do not lie. That is a fact. Asking him to be ready in the major leagues two years later with very little in-game development is asking a lot.
Your excuses are putrid. The real issue is Trammell needs more work in the minors not just because he isn’t ready for the major leagues, it’s because he hasn’t proven anything at the top levels of the minors.
Pressure. Yes, everyone has pressure. If he’s not handling the pressure then you have validated my point while simultaneously destroying yours.
Putrid- hahaha, hyperbole? Misunderstood adjective? Yes and yes! So my observations are rotting or decaying? They’re repulsive? You may want to be invested less in people’s opinions if you really feel like my observations are putrid to you haha.
Prospects are not equal to numbers off a page. Every person deals with adversity in their own way and each time Trammell has dealt with adversity he has pulled through it. Case in point- the BA drop from his switch to the pitchers park in 2018 (and 19’ for that matter) was balanced out by increasing his walks, i.e. his OBP didn’t take as big a hit as his BA which allowed him to Steal 20 bases in 126 games. Not quite his 41 SB production in 2017 but still good production.
Later in that 2018 season he dealt with the adversity by excelling vs the games top pitchers in the AZFL where he brought his numbers back up to the levels that earned him No.1 prospect status. Trammell followed up the drop in BA and increased K/out’s after his 2019 AA season (in a new Org) by winning the LF job coming out of Seattle’s camp. He was the best player in Seattle’s camp and completely surprised the FO and fan base with his performance showing numbers that were again parallel to his first two seasons in the Minors. You could say his MLB debut for the LF job came out of LF haha.
Here are 5 additional facts for you. Feel free to completely disregard them or choose to describe them as “dog ate my homework excuses” 1. We have played 18 games with 144 games to play. It is far too early to know who or what you have in a player. 2. MLB is on pace to break the all time record for K/out’s for the month of April- Trammell is one of many players w high K/o rates. 3. MLB has also changed the properties of the baseball again, w the seams being higher which helps pitchers who have good off speed pitches. 4. The one type of pitch that a rookie will struggle with in his first year? Yep, an off-speed pitch. 5. Trammell has faced more FB heavy pitchers as of late which is why he has improved slightly. For ex: his HR and RBI double off (the filthy) Dustin May in his 2 for 4 night accounted for half the M’s 4R’s in the win over the LAD.
Over the past 2 weeks he’s put up 6R 3 HR’s 7 RBI’s w a .211 BA. Not All-Star production by any means haha but proof he is improving along the way. If you owned any fantasy teams you’d see that his R’s HR and RBI numbers are better than a lot of good players who were drafted in the top 10-15 rds. I don’t understand why people are so quick to write off players after 18g’s.
Mariners might arrive a year or so before we all thought. Lots of young talent coming up.
“And I took that personally” – Taylor Trammell
Good news. Ms most def could use his bat. Haniger and France cant carry everything.
France left last nights game due to an arm injury. Hope it’s nothing major
The guys coming up in the pitching department look great. Hurt to lose Paxton but honestly the guy wasn’t going to be healthy come down the stretch if they are still in it anyways.