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Seattle Mariners outfielder James Jones had a night to remember Monday against the Houston Astros, as he became just the second player in franchise history to record four hits and three stolen bases in the same game, per MLB Stat of the Day.

Unsurprisingly, the other player to accomplish the feat in an M’s uniform was future Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki, who registered four hits and four steals in a July 20, 2004 game against the Boston Red Sox.

Batting second and starting in center field, Jones started his historic game in rather inconspicuous fashion with a flyout to left field. It was the last time he’d be retired all night, as each of his following four plate appearances ended with a single.

After his first base knock in the third inning, Jones stole second base then proceeded to also swipe third before ultimately being stranded. He again stole second base after a fifth-inning single but was once again stranded in scoring position.

Jones didn’t get much chance to run after his third hit, as the next batter, Robinson Cano, smashed a three-run homer to extend the M’s lead to 8-3 in the seventh inning.

Jones got another opportunity in the ninth inning, and while he made the most of it with a base hit, Cano proceeded to single on the first pitch of the following at-bat. Jones perhaps could’ve tried to steal third base, but with a five-run lead in the ninth inning, it wouldn’t have been in good taste.

The 25-year-old rookie hasn’t brought much to the table in terms of power this season, but he finished the month of June with 12 steals in 12 attempts while also posting a .292 batting average. Still in search of his first career home run, Jones has proved to be a demon on the basepaths, if nothing else.

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For the first time since 2010, the Seattle Mariners will have a position player representative at the All-Star Game.

Robinson Cano will be making the trip to Minnesota on July 15 to play in his fifth consecutive All-Star contest. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, he will join teammate Felix Hernandez, who would be making his fourth straight appearance.

Cano and Hernandez have been virtual locks since the beginning of the season, but they may not be Seattle’s only representatives. The Mariners have two other players who have an outside chance of making the team.

After that, nobody else is realistically in the picture. But based on their season numbers, competition at their respective positions and voting results, four Mariners are candidates for the 2014 MLB All-Star Game.

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It’s been difficult to get a grasp on the Seattle Mariners in 2014, given that the club hasn’t been at full strength much of the season.

They only recently got prospect Taijuan Walker back into the rotation, while fellow youngster James Paxton remains sidelined by injury, robbing the rotation of two of its most talented and important pieces.

Offensively, while Robinson Cano, the team’s biggest offseason addition, has remained a fixture in the lineup, fellow newcomers Logan Morrison and Corey Hart have been limited by injury and have provided mediocre production when they are in the lineup.

Still, the Mariners remain in the playoff hunt.

General manager Jack Zduriencik has some work to do before his club can rest easy, with adding another potent bat to the lineup and perhaps another starter to the rotation the biggest tasks before him.

While a recent guest on 1090 The Fan’s Steve Sandmeyer Show, Zduriencik said that he has some payroll flexibility and would be shocked if he wasn’t able to swing at least one deal between now and the non-waiver trade deadline on July 31, according to co-host Jason Churchill.

Keeping up with things over the next month can prove to be a difficult task, even for the most ardent Mariners fan.

That’s where Bleacher Report comes in, as this tracker will be where you can find the most up-to-the-minute rumblings about the Mariners, along with analysis and everything else that comes with it.

While the post date will always show as July 1, simply click to the next slide to see the latest from the rumor mill in the Emerald City.

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For the first time in a number of years, the Seattle Mariners may consider being buyers at the July 31 MLB trade deadline.

The Mariners have been both buyers and sellers at the deadline at various points in their history, although they have been hesitant to pull off major blockbusters in the past decade, with some noteworthy exceptions. Just like any team in the league, the Mariners have attempted to shore up the present while mortgaging the future or vice versa through trades, changing the course of the franchise.

This season’s Mariners need only look to franchise history to see the kind of impact that deadline deals can have. Midseason trades helped set up Seattle’s first-ever run of success in the 1990s and early 2000s, but have also contributed to Seattle’s downward spiral ever since.

Everyone remembers the Mariners giving away Jason Varitek, Derek Lowe and David Ortiz for little return at the deadline. But Seattle also acquired Randy Johnson, the best pitcher in team history, through a midseason trade.

Ten such trades have shaped Mariners’ history more than any other, ranked based on impact they had on the team for better or worse and what the club may have looked like if they didn’t occur. This only takes into account in-season trades, so Erik Bedard and Horacio Ramirez don’t appear.   

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Lloyd McClendon has had a relatively successful first 57 games as manager of the Seattle Mariners, leading the club to a 29-28 record, including its first winning month since July 2013.

Despite dealing with a starting rotation decimated by injuries, McClendon has managed the Mariners into contention for a Wild Card spot through two months of the 2014 season. In general, it seems like McClendon is more equipped to steer Seattle towards success than Eric Wedge and his other predecessors.

One thing McClendon has opened himself to criticism about is his lineup construction. McClendon has been stubborn to make needed changes and is a little too eager to run out platoons at the price of keeping superior hitters out of the lineup.

McClendon’s lineup construction may have already cost the Mariners a few wins, and further tweaks from the optimal lineup will continue to hurt the team if they continue.

The big mystery of the first month of the 2014 season was McClendon’s insistence to bat Abraham Almonte consistently in the leadoff spot. Almonte led off for the Mariners in 23 games, running a .198/.248/.292 line before being demoted on May 4.

Almonte had all the signs of an old-school manager’s pet project. He possesses an interesting skill set, including the speed and aggressiveness that’s typically associated with a leadoff hitter.

But it became clear after several weeks that batting a rookie with nearly seven times as many strikeouts as walks was not conducive to fielding a successful lineup. Keeping Almonte in the lineup for another couple of weeks to see if he could bring anything to the table was fine, but batting him in the leadoff spot was only going to hurt him and the team as a whole.  

That experiment came at the expense of reduced playing time for Michael Saunders, an above average hitter in terms of OPS+ over the past two seasons and a plus defender on the corners. Saunders is hitting .279/.329/.456 in 2014 and has helped the Mariners climb to the top half of the majors with 4.18 runs per game since receiving more playing time.

Since then, McClendon has mostly run out the best available lineup, apart from a few choices. James Jones (.281/.330/.375) and Saunders have energized the Mariners at the top of the order, helping everything else fall nicely into place and giving the Mariners an ideal order that there is no need to tweak.

But then, in the first two games of a three-game series with the Detroit Tigers, McClendon made a few strange choices.

Granted, McClendon’s hands were tied due to Robinson Cano missing four games with a hand injury and the Mariners still managed to split the two games, to give him some credit. But it’s a bad process to run out such a lineup, and the results will eventually suffer if such decision-making continues.

The lineup for the May 31 game was just bizarre. McClendon talked to Greg Johns of MLB.com before the game about stacking the lineup with right-handed bats.

“I know [Drew] Smyly‘s pretty good. He’s tough on left-handers. This year, they’re hitting .122 off him. That’s hard to ignore. I’m just trying to put as many right-handers in there as we can and hopefully we’re successful with it.”

He’s right about Smyly being dominant against left-handers, but the rest of that quote doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. It makes it sound as though McClendon is throwing in righties just for the sake of supposedly favorable matchup platoons rather than considering the pieces involved. That is backed up by some of his selections for that particular game and others over the past couple of weeks.

There’s absolutely no reason Jones and Saunders, who have two of the top-four wRC+ marks on the team, should be left out of the lineup. They are the club’s two best outfielders and likely were the two hottest available bats coming into the Detroit series. Both would have produced more than any possible replacement, regardless of opposing pitcher handedness.

Jason A. Churchill of Prospect Insider highlights that Saunders has actually been better against left-handed pitching in a small sample size this season.

Despite this, Saunders is being benched once or twice a week, mostly against lefties. If the Mariners want to field the best lineup possible every day, Saunders needs to be included.

McClendon is also misusing Stefen Romero by tossing him in as a right-handed bat just because the club is so overloaded with lefties. Romero has actually shown a reverse platoon split over the past two seasons, including a .801 OPS against righties in Triple-A in 2013, compared to a .688 OPS against left-handers.

So far in his major league career, Romero has 73 at-bats against lefties and 39 against righties, and he has struggled mightily as a result. Romero has the skill set of an interesting prospect, but he is not being given the chance to succeed.

Another concerning emerging trend has been the use of Endy Chavez, particularly at the top of the lineup. The 36-year-old posted a .617 OPS with Seattle last year and owned a .636 OPS with Tacoma in 2014 before being called up May 30 and starting four consecutive games, batting first or second in three of them.

You can make an argument that Chavez shouldn’t even be on the team, but playing him that often and batting him at the top of the order when he does play doesn’t make much sense. Chavez isn’t going to give you more production offensively or defensively than Saunders, Jones or Dustin Ackley. Even backups like Romero or Cole Gillespie provide more upside and a better chance to win.

Finally, it’s well past time to move Kyle Seager into the cleanup spot in front of Justin Smoak. Seager raised his OPS to .857 Monday night with a double, two triples and this three-run blast against the New York Yankees.

With the one-game outburst aside, Seager has been a better hitter this year and in previous seasons than Smoak. While Smoak might look more like a typical cleanup hitter, he is currently mired in a strikeout-fueled slump and has the lowest OBP in the league among qualified first basemen.

Tuesday night’s lineup against Atlanta Braves right-hander Gavin Floyd features the team’s best three outfielders and Seager in the cleanup spot. McClendon needs to keep that against lefties and righties and eliminate these unnecessary tweaks that have cost the club.

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In Monday’s game at Yankee Stadium, Seattle Mariners third baseman Kyle Seager became the first player in franchise history to hit a home run, two triples and a double in the same game, per ESPN Stats & Info. 

Seager was already heating up before Monday’s contest, as he had six hits—including two home runs—over the previous four games. Still, nobody could have guessed what was coming, even in a matchup against middling Yankees right-hander David Phelps.

Seager didn’t waste any time Monday night, as he hammered a triple to left-center field to lead off the second inning in his first plate appearance of the game. The ball hit the outfield wall in the air, falling just a few feet short of a home run.

The 26-year-old third baseman had just four career triples entering Monday’s game, but he recorded his second of the night in his second plate appearance. No. 2 was far different from the first, with Seager blooping one down the left-field line, then benefiting from a mental error by Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, who thought the ball was hit foul.

Seager thus became the first visiting player since Shannon Stewart in 1997 to hit multiple triples against the Yankees at home, per ESPN Stats & Info.

Seager then flied out in the sixth inning, but bounced back strong with a double in the eighth. Finally, he delivered a knockout blow in the top of the ninth inning, extending the Mariners’ lead to 10-2 with a three-run homer to right field.

When the dust settled, Seager had improved his 2014 slash line from .258/.344/.453 to .272/.355/.505, while the three runs batted in brought his season total to 36, and a trio of runs left him at 24 for the year.

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Rookie relief pitcher Dominic Leone has earned a spot in the Seattle Mariners bullpen and could soon be moving into a more critical role for the team.

Since making his debut April 6, the 22-year-old right-hander has excelled as yet another power arm in Seattle’s bullpen. In 19 appearances, Leone has a 1-0 record with a 1.57 ERA and the peripheral statistics to suggest he should be able to continue pitching at a high level.

For a number of reasons, Leone has been used often as a long relief man or in mop-up duty. But he’s now ready to step in to a larger role and pitch in more high-leverage situations.

Leone was selected by the Mariners in the 16th round of the 2012 draft and quickly became a highly touted pitching prospect, reaching Double-A Jackson in less than a year. A starter at Clemson, the Mariners figured Leone’s fastball-cutter combo would be better suited for a bullpen role and converted him to a closer in the low minors.

They were rewarded for that decision, as Leone cruised through his first three stops, running strikeout rates around 30 percent along the way. He reached the High-A level early in 2013 and held his own with a 2.50 ERA and two home runs allowed in 29 games at hitter-friendly High Desert.

Part of Leone’s success has been thanks to increased velocity on his fastball. Early on in his career, Leone’s velocity would range between 90 and 92 miles per hour. At High Desert, he was suddenly sitting in the mid-90s and touched 97 at times, which he continues to do in the majors.

Leone talked to George Alfano of MiLB.com last year about his bump in velocity, crediting it to improved mechanics.

“I keep a consistent approach,” he said. “If you do that, the strikes will come and you’ll keep the ball down. I keep my motion fluid and my arm is getting on top.”

Leone reached Double-A shortly after and skipped the Triple-A level altogether. He was called up when Hector Noesi was designated for assignment April 6, marking yet another incredibly fast riser in Seattle’s organization.

Since then, Leone has been strong out of the bullpen and is rewarding the Mariners for rushing him through the minors. Leone’s ERA ranks 11th in the American League among relievers, bolstered by an 8.1 inning-long scoreless streak throughout most of May.  

Leone is also running an impressive strikeout rate of 27.7 percent, adding yet another powerful arm with high strikeout potential to Seattle’s bullpen. He struck out five while allowing just one hit and no walks in 2.1 innings in his most impressive outing of the year May 14 against the Tampa Bay Rays.

As it was during most of his minor league career, Leone’s most valuable pitch has been his cutter. Per FanGraphs, opposing hitters have swung and missed at the pitch 13.3 percent of the time and have only made contact at a rate of 72.5 percent.

Leone’s slider needs a bit more refinement, but it is developing quickly. He has successfully mixed in his slider on just over 19 percent of his pitches and is continuing to get better command with the pitch.

As you might expect with a pitcher two years removed from the draft, Leone’s biggest issue has been his control. Leone’s walk rate of 9.6 percent is a bit higher than you’d like to see after he struggled a bit with throwing strikes in April.

But Leone is quickly improving with that aspect and has only walked one batter over his last seven appearances. Fellow reliever Tom Wilhelmsen praised Leone’s recent approach of aggressively attacking the strike zone, via Greg Johns of MLB.com:

He’s kind of the leader by example right now. He’s doing pretty darn well for himself. He just gets in and shows strike one, strike two and is just a bulldog. He goes right after you. He’s truly fun to watch. I’m just trying to follow Dom’s lead.

Despite the instant success, Leone has mainly been used as a long reliever. He’s gone over two innings in five different appearances and has rarely been used in the late innings of close games.

That has mostly been out of necessity. The Mariners don’t really have another pitcher for long relief and the team has needed one pretty much every time Brandon Maurer has started.

But that could be changing in the next month. Taijuan Walker and James Paxton are hoping to join the team sometime in June and will be taking over two rotation spots when they do, altering the dynamic of Seattle’s bullpen.  

That is likely going to bump Chris Young out of the rotation. However, Young has pitched well enough to earn a spot on the team, particularly at Safeco Field, as Shannon Drayer of 710 ESPN points out.

Young is an ideal fit for that long relief role, potentially freeing up Leone for some more high-leverage situations.

Obviously, Leone won’t instantly become a closer or primary set-up man. But he does have enough ability already to be the third guy out of Seattle’s bullpen and set up Fernando Rodney whenever Danny Farquhar needs a day off.

Giving the inconsistent Yoervis Medina or Wilhelmsen’s innings to Leone is only going to improve the team. Leone has the most upside of anyone in the bullpen other than Farquhar and is getting better with more experience as a pro.

Just two years removed from the draft, Leone is already ready to step into a critical role in Seattle’s bullpen. He can improve the Mariners at the present moment while also being groomed as a potentially dominant reliever in the future.

All stats per FanGraphs unless otherwise noted.

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Many of the top-ranked prospects in the Seattle Mariners organization have already reached the major leagues, but a few more could be on the way shorty.

The Mariners have already had James Jones, Dominic Leone and Roenis Elias make their major league debuts in 2014, and each has experienced some success. It should be only a matter of a few weeks before Chris Taylor and Carson Smith join them to fill a couple of holes on the roster.   

Nine of these prospects stand out and should be able to reach the majors either later this season or in 2015. Prospects are not necessarily ranked by talent or upside, but rather by their expected date of arrival, major league readiness and how they can improve weaknesses on the big league roster.

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The Seattle Mariners have been searching for a reliable long-term answer at the leadoff spot for a number of years. They may have finally found one with center fielder James Jones.

Jones’ major league career is only 22 games old, but his early returns are promising. He has all the traits you want in a leadoff hitter and has already established himself as a fan favorite as one of the Mariners’ most exciting prospects moving forward.

At the very least, Jones has the physical tools to stick in the major leagues. The first thing that stands out about Jones is that he is extremely fast and has great form running the bases, as Larry Stone of The Seattle Times points out.

Such speed also gives Jones great range in center, meaning his defense could also potentially be a plus. His route running and ability to break on the ball are still question marks, but Jones has used his natural ability to make a few nice catches already, including this one on May 22 against the Houston Astros.

But speed and defense are not enough for a leadoff hitter. For Jones to be successful in the role and keep his position long-term, he has to show the Mariners an ability to get on base.

In a very small sample size of 78 plate appearances, Jones has done exactly that. He has energized the Mariners at the top of the order, compiling a line of .286/.350/.400 with four successful stolen-base attempts without being caught.

That combination of speed, defense and hitting has led to Jones racking up an impressive 0.5 WAR to begin his career, per FanGraphs. Lloyd McClendon foresaw such a start coming for Jones in an interview with Tracy Ringolsby of MLB.com during spring training.

“He’s a pretty interesting young man. He’s very talented and I really like what I’ve seen. I don’t think he’s going to knock on the door, I think he’s going to knock the door down when he’s ready to get there.”

McClendon has been absolutely right about that so far. Jones had a hit in each of his first 14 MLB starts, a club record, which put him ahead of some elite rookies in Mariners history.

Jones’ streak was finally broken last Sunday by the brilliant Dallas Keuchel, but he continues to completely change the dynamic of the Mariners order in a positive fashion. The Mariners recently have gone with Jones, Michael Saunders and Robinson Cano at the top of the lineup, which is the ideal order moving forward.

The first inning last Monday against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim was a great example of what that lineup can do. Jones beat out an infield single before Saunders reached on a bunt, thanks in part to a hurried throw from Hank Conger due to the speed on the bases.

Robinson Cano then drove in Jones with an RBI single to give Seattle a lead it wouldn’t relinquish. None of those balls was exactly hit well, but the Mariners must find a way to get runners on base in front of Cano in any way possible.

That simply wasn’t happening with the strikeout-prone Abraham Almonte and Brad Miller at the top of the order. Shannon Drayer of 710 ESPN Seattle points out that Monday wasn’t the first time that Jones has helped to create something out of nothing.

Jones probably won’t keep up this torrid pace forever, particularly at this early stage of his career. His BABIP currently stands at .345, which is likely to regress soon.

But Jones’ other peripherals look strong, and he should be able to continue to get on base. Jones showed good plate discipline in the minors and has continued that so far with a strikeout rate of 15.4 percent and a walk rate of 9 percent. Those numbers have been bolstered by an 86.4 contact percentage, a good sign that Jones is successfully adjusting to major league pitching.

Jones also isn’t going to provide much in the way of power. He had a career-high 14 home runs at hitter’s paradise High Desert in 2012 and tallied just 28 home runs over the rest of his time in the minors.

However, Jones will sprinkle in enough doubles and triples to maintain a solid slugging percentage. He has two triples on the year already, including one on May 17 against the Minnesota Twins.

The Twins did commit a defensive gaffe on the play, but few players in the majors would even think about reaching third with where that ball was hit. Seattle has been searching for a player who can create situations like that from the leadoff position since Ichiro Suzuki began to enter his years of decline.  

Dustin Ackley was supposed to be that guy, but he never really worked out as a leadoff man. Miller showed flashes in 2013 before the wheels fell off. Almonte was a failed experiment for the first month of 2014. The situation reached such a dire point last season that Jason Bay led off 13 times.

Jones looks like he could finally be the player to stabilize the leadoff role. It’s his job to lose for the foreseeable future.  

All stats per FanGraphs unless otherwise noted.

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Numerous injuries have depleted the Seattle Mariners’ rotation during the first quarter of the 2014 season, but the team has found a hidden gem in Roenis Elias as a result.

After jumping directly from Double-A, Elias has found success in his first 10 starts in the majors. The 25-year-old lefty has compiled a record of 3-3 with a 3.58 ERA and 52 strikeouts in 58.2 innings pitched so far in 2014.

The Mariners got burned last season by bringing up Brandon Maurer directly from Double-A. Elias has not only shown he’s capable at the major league level, he has also displayed tremendous upside that has earned him a rotation spot for the foreseeable future, even after Seattle is back at full strength.   

Elias seemingly came out of nowhere and broke camp with the team after an impressive spring. He rose slowly through the low minors and his statistics didn’t exactly jump off the page.

But Lloyd McClendon saw something in Elias. Jon Morosi of Fox Sports 1 points out that the Mariners have one of the best rookies in the league on their roster as a result.

Masahiro Tanaka is the obvious answer, and Yordano Ventura has been better than Elias so far as well. Other than those two, it’s hard to argue for a rookie pitcher who’s having a better season than Elias, and he will see that reflected in the Rookie of the Year vote should he continue at this current pace.

Elias made two decent starts to begin the year before notching his win April 14 against the Texas Rangers. But more important than the statistics was the fact that Elias showed tremendous raw potential in the early going.

His low-90s fastball is not overpowering but has some lively late movement. Elias’ best weapon is his arsenal of plus off-speed pitches, particularly an outstanding curveball and changeup.

According to FanGraphs, opponents are hitting .115 with 28 strikeouts against Elias’ curveball. Elias is going to be a particularly tough matchup for left-handed batters moving forward because of his biting curve, as lefties have just 11 hits and four walks to 15 strikeouts against Elias all season.

On May 1 against the New York Yankees, Elias took it to another level, becoming the second rookie ever to record at least 10 strikeouts in his Yankee Stadium debut.

Elias spoke to Greg Johns of MLB.com after the game about being in the spotlight, saying, “That’s where the adrenaline comes from. That’s when I feel good…nothing [intimidated me]. Nothing at all. It’s just baseball.”

It was an impressive display of confidence from a pitcher with no Triple-A experience and just six starts in the big leagues. Elias showed his mound presence on several occasions so far in his young career.

Elias had likely his worst outing as a Mariner on May 11 against the Kansas City Royals, but it was an impressive moment for him nonetheless. He battled through four frustrating infield hits and an abysmal Mariners defense that committed five errors during the game to surrender only three earned runs in five innings and leave with his team in the lead.

Despite being a bit wild in his latest start Thursday against the Houston Astros, Elias yielded just one run in 5.1 innings to add another solid outing. Colin O’Keefe of Lookout Landing points out that Elias’ ceiling is clearly looking higher now than it did at the begging of the year.

Elias has some things he can work on to become even better as he develops further. He has given up seven home runs, which might be a cause for concern, but Elias’ high HR/FB rate of 14 percent could regress in the near future.

The biggest thing for Elias to improve upon will be his command, particularly of his fastball, as his walk rate of 10.2 percent is higher than the Mariners would like. According to FanGraphs, Elias has given up a walk rate of 15 percent with his fastball while only having a strikeout rate of 13 percent.

Seattle will have a decision to make regarding Elias in the near future. Johns reports that James Paxton and Taijuan Walker threw simulated games last week as they progress on their rehab stints.

Both will have a rotation spot when they return, leaving the No. 5 starter as the only potential question mark. But it shouldn’t be much of a question, as Elias has clearly outpitched Maurer, Chris Young and Erasmo Ramirez and has more upside than all of them. 

Suddenly, a healthy Seattle pitching staff looks formidable top to bottom. Elias gives the Mariners a strong back end and adds another exciting young pitcher to the rotation.  

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