Rookie infielder Jose Caballero’s initial call-up to the Mariners’ roster was expected to be a short-term stint to provide some depth while utilityman Sam Haggerty dealt with a concussion, but he’s parlaying that opportunity into a larger role. As Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times writes, he’s already made a strong impression on manager Scott Servais.
“From the day he showed up here, he was not in awe of anything,” Servais said of Caballero, going on to praise the 26-year-old’s baserunning, on-base ability and defense. “…He understands how to play and he doesn’t back off.” President of baseball ops Jerry Dipoto had similar praise, telling Corey Brock of The Athletic that Caballero “has been terrific in every way.”
Caballero has indeed impressed, surging out to a .276/.371/.431 batting line with a pair of homers, three doubles and a 6-for-6 showing on the basepaths through his first 24 games (70 plate appearances). He’s had a bit of good fortune on balls in play (.333), but even if his average took a slight step back, an 11.4% walk rate would keep his on-base percentage plenty strong.
The plate discipline hasn’t been a small-sample fluke, either; Caballero has a career 13% walk rate in the minors and has chased pitches off the plate at a lower rate than the average big leaguer thus far in his young career. Statcast also credits him with 92nd percentile sprint speed, so there’s good reason to believe he can keep swiping bags at a high rate of success.
Caballero’s immediate strong play further shines a light on the mounting struggles of veteran second baseman Kolten Wong, whose .177/.259/.208 batting line (108 plate appearances, 40 wRC+) ranks among the worst in baseball. Wong’s 20.4% strikeout rate is the worst of his career, and he’s making hard contact at career-worst levels as well (85 mph average exit velo, 24% hard-hit). Statcast ranks Wong in the fifth percentile of MLB players or lower in each of hard-hit rate, average exit velocity, barrel rate, expected batting average, expected slugging percentage and expected wOBA. His once plus sprint speed is down to the 37th percentile as well.
In the wake of such a miserable start to the season, Wong has already begun to cede time at second base to Caballero. The rookie has made five starts at second base since Wong’s name was last penciled into the starting lineup. Wong has been on the bench, but the Mariners will have to figure out how to align their infield and bench mix before long. Mariners GM Justin Hollander told reporters yesterday that utilityman Dylan Moore could be reinstated from the injured list during the team’s current homestand (Twitter link via Divish).
Moore, who over the winter signed a three-year, $8.875MM contract that bought his final arbitration seasons and one free-agent year, has yet to play in 2023 due to oblique and core injuries. He’s played in four minor league rehab games, however, and the team apparently believes he could be back on the big league roster with only a few more. The current homestand runs through May 31.
The 30-year-old Moore has had an up-and-down run with the Mariners since debuting in 2019, alternating between poor and strong showings at the plate on an every-other-year basis. He’s a career .208/.317/.384 hitter, though as evidenced by a .255/.358/.496 showing in 159 plate appearances in 2020 and a .224/.368/.385 line in 255 plate appearances last year, he has plenty of on-base ability and some pop in his bat. Moore has 35 home runs and 65 steals in 381 career games, and he’s drawn outstanding defensive ratings at second base, third base and in both outfield corners.
Seattle’s bench currently consists of backup catcher Tom Murphy, the aforementioned Haggerty (who has had minimal playing time so far) and struggling veterans Wong and AJ Pollock. Barring an injury elsewhere in the lineup, it’s likely someone from that bench group will be displaced by Moore’s return. Haggerty has minor league options remaining, and that route would preserve more depth, but he batted .256/.335/.403 last season in 201 plate appearances, showing plenty of defensive versatility himself. The Mariners will have to weigh that against the poor starts of both Wong and Pollock in determining their preferred course of action.
The Mariners are also anticipating a return to health for some important bullpen arms (Twitter links via Divish). Closer Andres Munoz and righty Penn Murfee are both expected to join the Mariners on their upcoming road trip, which runs from June 1-11. Munoz has been throwing bullpen sessions, and Murfee has responded well to a platelet-rich plasma injection. Both will need quick tune-ups on minor league rehab stints, but they’re only a matter of weeks away.
Munoz, 24, broke out as one of the best relievers in baseball in 2022 when he pitched to a 2.49 ERA with a stellar 38.7% strikeout rate against a 6% walk rate. He averaged a whopping 100.3 mph on his heater, and his 21.6% swinging-strike rate trailed only Edwin Diaz among all big league pitchers with at least 50 innings pitched.
Murfee, meanwhile, has pitched 82 1/3 innings of 2.73 ERA ball dating back to last year’s MLB debut. He’s fanned 27.9% of his opponents against an 8.3% walk rate without displaying the type of platoon splits that many fellow sidearmers tend to carry. Lefties have batted just .210/.297/.305 against Murfee, while right-handers have posted an even more dreadful .165/.232/.303 slash.
Great read, guys. Thanks for the Mariners write up. Caballero is a beast out there. He plays with an intensity/ferocity that’s missing from most young guys today. Love watching him play.
Now, let’s go get an everyday, cleanup-5 hole hitting, actual threat to pitchers DH!!! And we’ll be locked and loaded for another run.
I feel Dipoto makes mostly good moves, but trading for Wong was not one of them. I felt acquiring Ha Seong Kim from the Pads was a much better move and the Pads have a gazillion 2b/ss types, so he probably could have been acquired at a similar price point as Wong and is FAR cheaper in salary.
I don’t think the padres would have wanted Winker
Although Wong has not been good so far, I still don’t think of it as a bad move. It cost them nothing as Winker was not returning to the team no matter what and Toro had fallen out of rotation completely. Wong has been a good player basically his whole career so hopefully he pulls his head out but its not a move that cost the M’s any prospects or useful players and no contract commitments beyond this year.
Why would SD have traded Kim this offseason? They’re in win-now mode and he’s a necessary piece in that. His versatility is nice for ensuring days off for regulars since he’s a plus defender at two positions and solid at a third, plus he has an average bat. All that on a reasonable salary.
That’s easier said than done. The Padres had no need for Winkler and Wong was expendable. Also, it was a great move by Dipoto getting a starting 2B with some speed and little pop for Winkler who stunk up the place.
No one could see the epic slide from Wong across the boards.
How did Kolten go so Wong?
What is it about Seattle that ruins guys who were good lefty hitters like Wong and Winker?
I wish I knew, dude. But we’re talking about a hitter curse that goes back to the early 2000’s. This is where hitters come to die.
Scott Spezio. Jeff Cirillo. Look at Adria Beltres numbers before and after Seattle. Chone Figgins. Rich Aurilia. Brad Wilkerson. Crazy Carl Everett. Crazy Milton Bradley got pushed over the edge by the sea air up here.
We fans up here, we literally watch with our very own eyes, home run balls absolutely DIE once they get into the outfield. I’m telling you, in April, may, it’s so hard to get one out on a 50 degree wet night outside, with salt in the air.
That’s a big part of it, for sure. The atmosphere here in the beginning and end of the season just isn’t ideal for hitting. The Kingdome protected us from that, and that’s part of why we were one of the best hitting teams of the 90’s, only to become the place where good hitters come to retire.
You sure got that right. A curse: Seattle, where hitters come to die.
To be fair about those 90’s teams, 1/3 of the lineup was made of Hall of Famers. Including 2 that are arguably in the top 10 is major league history.
Well plus it was the steroid era where you saw guys like Paul sorrento and David Segui putting up numbers that would make current mariners blush.
Arguably top 10 all time.
Griffey and who?
A-Roid
A guy name ARod. You don’t have to like him but how do you deny he wasn’t one of the greatest hitters of all time.
Alex Rodriguez, Martinez, Buhner, Ichiro (although he debuted in ‘01). But point being those 90s-early 2000s M’s had some HoF bats consistently in the middle of the lineup. Maybe not too 10 all time but Giffey, Rodriguez, Martinez, Buhner alone is about as tough as it gets.
slund24,
I simply had a brain fart. I was thinking about Edgar and Ichiro, somehow forgetting ARod. He certainly had his issues, but his performance was stellar.
Let us not forget the mighty Kevin Mitchell.
Hitting a few homers in the Cincinnati sandbox for 1 year, hardly makes you a “good hitter” and I would argue that Wong & Winker never were.
@mlb fan: Umm, only Winker played in Cincinnati. Wong never did.
Wong doesn’t hit homeruns anywhere, so that comment obviously was mostly about neither being any good and Wong needing a new team every year.
One does not have to hit home runs to be a good hitter. In fact, a lot of home run hitters are notoriously bad hitters overall.
@mlb fan: How much do you actually know about Wong?
He played in St Louis for eight years and Milwaukee for two. That’s hardly “needing a new team every year.”
@mlb fan- Bruh, what are you talking about? Wong spent most of his career with STL and was traded to Mil. in 2021. Where he signed a 2 year deal and was traded to the Mariners in his final year. Wong was never a power guy but he averaged .260 10HR and 14 steals.
That was better production than what the Mariners had been getting. It just didn’t pan out.
I don’t know what the hell happened to Wong, but Winkler was like the band 4 non Blondes, a one hit wonder. Looks like playing in Cincy inflated his numbers.
Winkler had a worse season last year and somehow he’s worsened this year.
Winkler had a pretty good year actually. I think he even won some acting awards. After all though, he’s still the Fonz.
Winker, well, that’s a different story.
Trammel will be sent down for Moore, end of story.
Either that or one of Wong or Pollock get some time off to attend to some sort of nagging injury. At some point they may just release Pollock as the cheaper of the two.
I would predict Haggerty as he is struggling and could use some everyday play.
Wrong! Haggerty has looked terrible this yr – and his slash line from last year was so good ONLY because he was primarily used against LHP. Caballero plays 2B, 3B and SS. D-Mo also plays multiple INF (and OF) pos. They won’t keep 3 INF/UT types in D-Mo,Haggerty and the loser of the Cabby/Wong sweepstakes
If you looked at how Haggerty hits LHP you would see why
The OBP in the article and possibly the plate discipline blurb on Caballerlo are wrong
I sure do like Caballero.
When he first came up, I called him The Cowboy, because of a mistake I made in translation of Caballero, but I still think of him that way.
He is a keeper. And as Sodomojo says, a “beast out there.”
He was giving ATL fits on Sunday, stealing 3 bases – though d’Arnaud was in and not Sean Murphy.
As much as it wouldn’t bother me to see Wong let go, his past body of work will at least keep him on the bench, not to mention the 8mil left on salary for this year, Jerry will keep him still, they will send down Haggerty cause he still has options, beside he isn’t hitting much and he has really show no power. Cabby is showing a lot of go play and power in that bat! He stays. Besides let DM get his feet under him off bench and let his ease into playing to see how he does. There just is no real reason that they don’t continue to give all the time to cabby!
Haggerty being a .226 hitter and sucking for five years might have something to do with it as well. I think it’s amazing that he has been in MLB that long.
He has less than 100 mlb plate appearances in 4 of those 5 years.
Because he sucks.
Wouldn’t be surprised if Wong is gone before the month ends. Tis the season of cutting underperforming vets.
Caballero seems to have earned the 2B job in Seattle. Wong has been bad and offers no versatility. At least when Adam Frazier struggled offensively he offered defensive flexibility.
Pollock is the cheaper to cut but the sad part is 7 of his 12 hits are for extra bases so there’s some thump in the bat if he can make contact
Jerry was wrong to get Wong.
Sea-mari-fan –
I disagree, had Wong put up similar numbers from last year the trade would have been a steal. The Mariners would have gotten more production from 2B than last year and all it cost them was Winkler.
I saw Wong way back in his AA Springfield Cardinal days. Looked like a good up-and-coming player. Never quite developed into the hitter the Cardinals hoped for, but he was a brilliant fielder. At 32, his decline seems early. Too bad.
You don’t need a comma after “either,” Steve. And “meanwhile” should be at the start of the sentence, not set off with commas after the subject one word in.