Mariners Moose Tracks, 4/25/25: Kumar Rocker, Josh Winckowski, and the MLB Draft

Another key AL West pitcher goes down.

Hello everyone, and happy Friday! The road trip is finally over, and the M’s return home triumphant to begin a three-same set against Miami. You probably knew that already. Maybe there will be some things in here that you did not know.

In Mariners news...

• Jake Reiser at Over the Monster covered yesterday’s series finale from the Red Sox fan perspective.

Around the league...

• Young Rangers right-hander Kumar Rocker is headed to the injured list with right shoulder impingement.
• Major League Baseball announced its bonus pool allotments for the 2025 MLB Draft, and your Seattle Mariners are the owners of the sport’s largest pool.
• Kiley McDaniel at ESPN wrote up four young draft prospects who are making their case for the No. 1 overall selection. ($)
• The Rangers are sitting right on the edge of the luxury tax threshold, and some player contract escalators could push them over.
• Jacob Roy of Over The Monster wrote in defense of the Red Sox’s decision to throw Josh Winckowski to the wolves while the Mariners were running away with the game early on Wednesday night.
• They say that if you go to a baseball game, you’ll see something you’ve never seen before. That was certainly true for Chattanooga Lookouts fans who watched a shattered bat fragment make contact with a batted ball before the shortstop could make a play on it.
• Angels players are reportedly very unhappy about their recent travel schedule, reports Sam Blum at The Athletic. ($)
• Joon Lee dares to ask why sports leagues make their products so inaccessible.

Anders’ picks...

• I’m not going to talk about the Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders starting yesterday because I utterly failed at obtaining one. I hope some of you out there were more successful than I! But, the delayed gratification will make my crushing you all in Mario Kart all the sweeter.