George Kirby strong in final spring tune-up against White Sox, Mariners prospects take center stage at Peoria

A day of the present and the future

Today’s big-league Mariners game against the White Sox wasn’t televised, nor was it broadcast on Seattle radio stations as today’s coverage was devoted to the Mariners’ “Spring Breakout” game featuring a matchup of the Mariners-Padres prospects, making up for a rainout of the highly-publicized game the week before. So what we know about the game at Camelback must, sadly, be surmised from the box score: George Kirby pitched a strong six innings, allowing just one run on three hits, walking one and striking out seven. Meanwhile, the Mariners did what they’ve been doing all spring and racked up some early offense, taking a 6-0 lead in the third inning. It was names like Leo Rivas, Morgan McCullough, and Seby Zavala alongside regulars Ty France and Dominic Canzone—who hit his fourth home run of the spring in that inning—but the overall effect was the same.

They tacked on another run in the fourth, as France, who had worked a two-out walk, scored on a wild pitch (that pitch must have been not just wild but downright feral to let France hustle home from third), and one more in the eighth thanks to a Jared Oliva RBI double. My apologies to Oliva, who I did not even realize had made the move from the Pirates, where he was a promising but inconsistent prospect.

Meanwhile, the pitching staff just didn’t have to ruin the beautiful sandcastle of runs/run prevention built for them by Kirby and the offense, and they did not. Trent Thornton gave up a run in relief of Kirby in the seventh, but Austin Voth and Collin Snider both worked shutdown innings; Voth was especially impressive, striking out two and not allowing a hit. Mariners pitching struck out 10 and walked one while the hitters struck out six times but walked five. Mmm, that’s some good zone-controlling!

Over in the prospects game, there was a pronounced lack of zone-controlling, as the Padres prospects downed the Mariners prospects, 13-10. Starter Logan Evans started off the game strong, striking out the side after opening by hitting the first batter he saw, but struggled to command his stuff in the second. Evans has big, volatile stuff: a two-seamer that hangs out in the mid-90s and has a ton of armside run, as well as two different sliders: a sweeper and one that functions more like a cutter, diving in on lefties with some strong vertical break. It’s a really exciting arsenal even if he struggled with it today.

The Mariners offense worked the team out of a 7-1 deficit in the fourth against Padres 2022 first-rounder Dylan Lesko. Tyler Locklear opened the inning with a single, and then Lazaro Montes walked. Aidan Smith singled, and the Mariners took advantage of some sloppy defense by the Padres to score both those runs. Ryan Bliss, making up for an error earlier where he cost Evans a potential inning-ending double play, hit an RBI groundout to draw the Mariners closer.

Lesko came back out for the fifth inning and the Mariners got to him again: again, the young Mariners hitters were patient, with walks to Harry Ford (as expected) and Montes, taking his second walk of the day, followed by Smith getting hit by a pitch and Bliss taking a bases-loaded walk to bring the score to 7-5. Then it was Tai Peete’s turn to make an impact:

A sac fly from Jonatan Clase would give the Mariners an 8-7 lead; sadly, that’s the last time they would lead during this game, as Brody Hopkins and Jeter Martinez, both pitching in televised games for the first times in their professional careers, struggled with command. Like Evans, Hopkins and Martinez have tons of potential and big stuff they’ll work on harnessing with assignations to full-season ball. Hopkins is especially interesting: he’s super tall, with long levers, and has a funky release point with a live, whippy arm. His stuff moves a ton, and he got stung trying to get back in the zone when Padres prospect Tirso Ornelas ambushed a fastball (the Mariners ran two lines of players through this game, giving almost all of their Top 30 position players a chance to play; the Padres used a more static lineup) for a three-run home run to give the Padres a lead they’d never relinquish.

Martinez also struggled to command his stuff, missing catcher Harry Ford’s glove entirely at times, but looked sharper in a second inning out, despite allowing the Padres to build their lead up further. He got swings and misses on his secondary stuff, though; an encouraging development as he continues to refine his arsenal beyond his big fastball.

Assorted standouts:

• Harry Ford caught this entire game, working with all his different pitchers and calming their butterflies. In addition to his single and walk at the plate, he also had a just-missed caught stealing and an actual caught stealing:

• 2023 draftee Ben Williamson can really hit, going 2/2 at the plate with two singles after getting into the second half of this game. He also flashed some leather, making an incredible running pick and strong throw at third. Williamson was slowed by an injury last year, but look for him to have a big year this season.
• Luis Suisbel can also really hit, hopefully enough that concerns about his age go by the wayside. He’s gotten stronger and more athletic this off-season, but is still getting most of his playing time at first base.
• Aidan Smith getting walked and hit by pitch annoyingly robbed us of the chance to see him hit more, but add him to the “can really hit” list. Smith looks like he’s shot up a few inches since being drafted, and this year it’ll be fun to see if he can add more power to his contact-oriented game.

• Jonatan Clase has seen a lot of his playing time shifted from center to left field, probably because that’s one of the softer areas on the big-league roster, especially defensively. All spring we’ve heard about how much he’s improved his outfield defense, which he put on display today: