THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Saturday, Nov. 26, 2016
In case you missed it — and with an early press deadline on Wednesday and a little bit of turkey on Thursday — the Seattle Mariners got a little better, it appears, on Wednesday.
How much so, and who they’ll miss the most, remains to be seen.
IT WAS announced Wednesday night that the Mariners sent pitcher Taijuan Walker and shortstop Ketel Marte to the Arizona Diamondbacks for shortstop Jean Segura, outfielder Mitch Haniger and left-handed pitcher Zac Curtis.
Granted, the move might not work out well as far as the rotation goes as Walker appeared likely to be a key piece of the rotation that includes Felix Hernandez, Hisashi Iwakuma, James Paxton and Nathan Karns for the foreseeable future. But as Marte continued to struggle with hitting, fielding and injuries, the move seems to make a lot more sense than at first glance.
Segura hit .319 with 20 home runs and 63 runs batted in for Arizona last season, and led the National League with 203 hits.
How many times did the Mariners struggle to find a clutch hit late in the game last season?
Not saying that Segura is the savior by any means, but a change of scenery might have been the best for Marte to continue his career.
Same goes for Walker, who has shown flashes of things to come in his brief time in Seattle. He’s also been demoted to the minor leagues and had a few injury problems that have really hampered his growth.
The trade could wind up biting both teams when the season starts. As it appears now, the Mariners are trying to do whatever they can to make sure their playoff drought ends sooner rather than later.
CHANCES ARE, the Mariners will need some more pieces than Segura and recently acquired Carlos Ruiz to compete for the American League West championship in 2017.
But you can’t help but feel they’re getting a lot closer to doing that now than at the end of last season.
The addition of Danny Valencia via trade with Oakland doesn’t hurt either, with him having the ability to play a variety of different positions on the field. Shawn O’Malley can do the same, whether that be the infield or outfield at times when the team was without Marte or Leonys Martin last season.
Things are looking up for the team for the first time in quite a while it seems, and why not, with a healthy Robinson Cano, Kyle Seager and Nelson Cruz in the lineup.
DON’T FORGET, the Chicago Cubs won a World Series championship earlier this month after 108 years, something those fans had been starving to see happen for a lifetime.
While I hope it doesn’t take that long for the Mariners, hopefully fans will remain patient, so matter what happens in the coming seasons.
Chances are, that while their team was the favorites to win it all, you couldn’t tell a Cubs fan they were going to hoist that championship trophy this year.
The Mariners might not do it anytime soon, but they appear closer than they were this time last week.
Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at (208) 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JEPressSports.