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jesse rogers
multiple authors
PEORIA, Ariz. – Boxes have started piling up in front of empty lockers at the Peoria Sports Complex.
A pile of fan mail is waiting julio rodriguez To answer, while a sequence of open gears sits andres munozPlace of. Those items will not be disposed of until seattle mariners‘The stars returned 2026 World Baseball Classic.
And it’s not just their All-Star center fielder and closer (along with the superstar catcher) cal raleigh) missing spring training. Seattle’s organization sent a total of 18 players to the tournament – the most of any team in Major League Baseball – including a quarter of its entire 40-man roster.
M’s president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto joked over the weekend, “It’s overwhelming to the point that we wonder if the feds know the league consists of 29 other teams.” “We have a very diverse roster, and it shows in the tournament.”
The atmosphere in the Mariners camp has changed since the full team reported last month, with their players representing countries hoping to compete until the final days of Cactus League play.
“It’s definitely a little different,” the veteran catcher said. mitch garver It was said. “There are definitely some pieces missing in this locker room. But this clubhouse was so tight last year that we’ll be able to find that groove right away when they come back.”
With so many Mariners competing, it’s hard to turn on a WBC game and not see it. It has provided entertainment for his teammates in camp – and just a little consternation for the manager and front office.
“saw [Byron] buxton Get an elbow injury,” manager Dan Wilson said last weekend. “It’s every organization’s nightmare to see something like that happen. That always happens. But you can’t go into a competition cautiously.”
Dipoto also rejected the idea that the front office is watching the game with bated breath, even though that sentiment existed in some corners of the game when the event began nearly 20 years ago. Now, there is a prevailing belief that the benefits outweigh the risks – even from a front office that has been burned before.
“This happened to us in 2017,” Dipoto said with a sigh. “We signed drew smiley. He was pitching five innings in the WBC and throwing 95, 96 miles per hour. And we felt like the cat that ate the canary. And about two weeks later he had Tommy John surgery. And this can happen to anyone.
“Your fingers are crossed, just like when your kids are first learning to drive. They get out and you think, ‘Dude, please get back safely.’ This is my wish for all those who have passed away. And when you’re watching a game, you can’t help but have him in the corner of your mind.”
Dipoto, Wilson and the coaching staff are also taking a close look at how guys are performing — not for results but to assess where they would be compared to if they were still in camp. It’s not as easy on television, but at least they’re getting an idea of March’s performance in high-leverage moments.
“gab spear Throwed 11 strikes on 14 pitches, and that’s what you want to see,” Dipoto said of one of his relievers’ performances. “And like Arizona, if a ball leaves the ballpark, that’s where it is. But what you want to look for is execution, throwing the ball where you want in the strike zone, working forward – all those good things.”
What the team loses by leaving its stars out for a few weeks, it gains in opportunities for others. Garver is an example. Re-signed after the start of camp — and shortly before Raleigh left to play for Team USA — Garver is getting more looks than he would have if the 2025 American League MVP runner-up was getting ready for the season ahead of him on the depth chart. The same applies for other catchers in the newcomer Andrew Knizner and passengers jackson reitzWhich under normal circumstances may not be in the camp at all.
“It was great to be around Cal for three weeks,” Reitz said. “We [catchers] Remember him here. “I’m just trying to enjoy being in this room.”
By early February, Dipoto had an idea of what his camp would look like:
“I said it [top prospect] Colt Emerson early in spring training: ‘My bet is you’ll lead the Cactus League in plate appearances. You’re going to get opportunities.”
Emerson doesn’t top all players’ lists – but he is second on the team with 23 at-bats.
For a very short period of time – before the players left for the WBC – it was difficult to actually bat or even get a place in the clubhouse. In preparation for the mass exodus, Dipoto enlarged his spring roster. He included 77 players, estimating it to be one of the most ever for the Mariners.
“I think we had more than that in 2019 when we were in the first year of our rebuild,” he said. “We just spread it out and went maybe a layer deeper into what we were doing with our invitations. We signed a few more free agents on the minor league side, knowing that we had an opportunity to provide that. And that opportunity may not have leaked in the regular season, but for this seven-week period, if you’re a minor league free agent and you know you’re getting a full run in spring training with all the reps, you’re in. You take it. Will take.”
The sheer number of players in camp created a more difficult task than usual for Mariners clubhouse staff Chris DeWitt and Joe Van Vleck. It is his responsibility to ensure that all 77 players are in the locker room.
“Well, first of all, we only have 75 lockers,” DeWitt said, smiling. “We had to add lockers a few times. And the only two numbers available were 0 and 77, so Garver got the number 77. It’s the new highest number.”
As Wellek said, “When we bring a veteran in late into camp, you don’t want to put him in a makeshift locker. connor joe And Mitch Garver was late, so we scrambled.”
But the biggest difference from normal spring training is something that can’t be replicated remotely or covered by substitutions to fill out the lineup or solved with a few extra jersey numbers: team bonding time.
“It’s more about what you lose in the clubhouse,” Wilson said. “It’s not the work or the batting. It’s about missing a part of your family for a short period of time. That’s the hard part of the WBC. The camaraderie. Getting to know some new people.”
Garver agreed.
“A lot of the guys who left are the heartbeat of the team, so there’s been a change in energy,” he said. “But it’s also nice because there are people there that we wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to spend time with.”
As the teams are eliminated in the WBC next week, players will return to the Mariners camp – some with bragging rights after a deep run and everyone with stories to tell about their tournament experience. That’s when spring training will start to get back to normal – just in time for the regular season to start.
“The camp was really big because Dan knew WBC was going to happen,” said the experienced newcomer. Rob Refsnider Said. “So, it was a big, big camp, and then it got really small, really fast. Hopefully, some of these guys won’t be back until the end of the camp. It means the WBC went good for them and their country.”
