Mariners will include an external field prospect Taylor Trammell on his Opening Day list, manager Scott Servais told Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times (everything Twitter links) and other reporters. Trammell was not only part of the squad, but Servais that Trammell will be the starter both in the left and in the central field, depending on the health of Kyle Lewis. Another notable prospect of Seattle in Justin Dunn won the sixth initial job, said Servais, while Rule 5 chooses the Draft Will Vest he was also part of the team and will work outside the Mariners’ bullpen.
The 35th overall choice of the 2016 draft, Trammell is ready to make his Major League debut after having already been part of two major negotiations in his young professional career. Trammell was originally crafted by the Reds, who sent it to the Fathers as the only piece San Diego received at the end of the three-team blockbuster in July 2019 that he saw Trevor Bauer from Cleveland to Cincinnati, while notable as Franmil Reyes, Logan Allen, and Yasiel Puig they were part of the five-player package acquired by the Indians. After a little over a year in the San Diego agricultural system, Trammell was on the move again, dealt with Ty France, Luis torrens, and Andres Munoz to the Mariners for Austin Nola, Austin Adams, and Dan Altavilla.
It is naturally unusual to see a top 100 prospect negotiated twice in so many years before he even started his career in MLB, and that may explain why Trammell fell closer to the bottom of the minor league talent ranking in the past four years (he reached the # 11 for Baseball America and # 16 for MLB.com, both before the 2019 season). Trammell hit a solid, but nothing spectacular .270 / .363 / .406 in 1799 plate appearances on the smaller ones, but only a .234 / .340 / .349 cut over 514 PA in Double-A. According to the MLB Pipeline scouting report, Trammell “was a little happy in 2019, which led to more hitting and mistakes, but he still made a ton of strides and showed the bat’s premium speed.”
Trammell worked to correct his swing at the Alternative Fathers and Mariners’ training sites in 2020, and clearly Seattle was impressed enough to allow Trammell to bypass Triple-A and equip himself directly in the major leagues. While Lewis’s injury was certainly a factor in the Mariners’ decision, Trammell was already gaining a lot of buzz to make the team even before Lewis’s collision with the wall, and was seen as a potential starter in the left field. Although scouts are confused about whether Trammell may or may not be a central long-term option, he can certainly handle the position on a short-term basis while Lewis recovers.
The other interesting drawback to the Mariners’ decision is that if Trammell remains on the active list, he will gain enough service time to reach the free agency after the 2026 season, while holding Trammell for a few extra weeks would allow M’s to gain a seventh year of control. team about their services. Of course, length of service is a particularly controversial issue in Seattle, following comments made by former President / CEO Kevin Mather during a rotary club address, when he spoke openly about keeping young people as Jarred Kelenic and Logan Gilbert in minors long enough this year to delay their service clocks. Trammell was also indirectly referred to by Mather, when he noted that while the Mariners had several of their best candidates working at the alternate training site last season, “there was no chance that you would see these young players at T-Mobile Park. We were not going to put them on the list of 40 men, we were not going to start the service point clock. “
Dunn already has a year and 20 days of accumulated service time over two seasons and 52 1/3 innings for the Mariners, and the righty will now enter the Seattle rotation for the second year in a row. A prospect highly praised on its own merits, Dunn and Kelenic were the awards for the commercial package received from Mets in the Robinson Cano/Edwin Diaz exchange. Dunn has a 4.13 ERA as a major league player, although with almost as many walks (31) as eliminations (38), Dunn’s advanced metrics indicate that some good luck has been invested in this respectable ERA.
Vest was a 12th round pick for the Tigers in the 2017 draft, and the southpaw has an ERA of 3.88 and an elimination rate of 25.6% at 132 1/3 innings in Detroit’s agricultural system, working exclusively as reliever. According to the provisions of the Rule 5 Project, Vest must remain in the squad of the major league of the Mariners for the entire season in order for Seattle to retain its rights permanently; otherwise, the M’s must offer it back to the Tigers for $ 50,000.