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Seattle Mariners slugging outfielder/DH Nelson Cruz left June 22’s game against the Kansas City Royals due to a pelvic injury. He would return to the lineup the following day, the team announced.

Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon described the injury following Monday’s game, via Andrew Erickson of MLB.com, “I’m not sure how to describe it, but his pelvic bone kind of popped out of place and he had some discomfort.” 

Dustin Ackley replaced Cruz in the seventh inning of Monday’s game. Cruz went 0-for-2 before exiting with what was initially thought to be a hamstring injury prior to McClendon’s clarification.

He recently suffered back spasms that forced him to leave a June 9 game and miss the following tilt against the Cleveland Indians.

Cruz has been atop the American League home run chart for much of the 2015 season, enjoying a successful first year with the Mariners, which are struggling in the AL West. He is currently second in the AL with 19 home runs. For the season, Cruz is hitting .313 and has driven in 44 runs. 

Last season, in his only year with the Baltimore Orioles, Cruz led the league with 40 home runs and was fourth with 108 RBI. The big year helped him pen a four-year, $57 million deal with the Mariners in December 2014.

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A disappointing Seattle Mariners team will have to play much better in the second half of the season than it did in the first half to have any shot at making the postseason.

Through 70 games, the Mariners sit at a lowly 32-38. That’s 8.5 games behind the surprising Houston Astros in the American League West, and six teams currently stand between Seattle and the second wild card.

On paper, this looked like the Mariners’ best chance to make the playoffs or even win the World Series, so it’s hard to be too optimistic about the club at the moment. While there’s still time for the Mariners to go on a hot streak and get back into it, it isn’t early in the season anymore.

There are a few key takeaways from the first 70 games of Seattle’s 2015 campaign, and most of them aren’t positive.

The pitching looks to be set up nicely for the present and future…

Once again, the Mariners’ pitching staff has found ways to be successful despite dealing with multiple injuries. After a rough first few weeks of the season, Seattle starters have climbed to fourth in the AL in ERA and fifth in strikeout-to-walk percentage.

Apart from two uncharacteristically bad starts earlier this month, Felix Hernandez has again been spectacular. An even more encouraging sign is the development of some young pitchers.

The biggest concern of the early season was Taijuan Walker looking completely lost on the mound. However, Walker has been dominant over his last five starts, posting a 2.06 ERA in 35 innings with 38 strikeouts and just three walks.

Roenis Elias has also been solid for the most part since being called up in late April. In 11 starts, Elias has a 3.56 ERA (4.44 Fielding Independent Pitching), has decreased his walk rate by 1.3 percentage points since last year and flashed dominant upside by allowing two runs in seven innings with 10 strikeouts and no walks against Houston on Friday.

James Paxton also had a nice stretch in May although it is definitely time to be worried about his injury history. If those four can stay healthy (a huge “if” for any pitcher), the Mariners should be in good hands for the foreseeable future.

A nice surprise has been Mike Montgomery, who has looked like a capable back-end starter since being pressed into action. It’s just four games into Montgomery’s career, but so far, he’s done a nice job of mixing up his pitches and avoiding hard contact to make up for his lack of overpowering stuff. The Mariners need Montgomery to pitch well, as he represents just about the only pitching depth in the minor league system.

The bullpen has struggled a bit more at times than last year. There is some good news, as Carson Smith appears to be the new closer, a role he should keep for a long time.

…While the offense is still a problem

This looked like the year the Mariners could finally have the offense to match the pitching. Instead, Seattle has scored the second-fewest runs in the AL to go along with owning the second-worst OBP.

Looking at individual stats, the poor output is a bit hard to figure. Nelson Cruz has been one of the best hitters in the majors, Seth Smith has been good, and five regulars own a weighted runs created plus (wRC+) above 100.

However, three spots in the lineup have been black holes, and the bench has been woeful, as was expected. Seattle also has been awful hitting with runners in scoring position whether that’s bad luck or some organizational failure.

The biggest culprit has been Robinson Cano, who owns a 73 wRC+ and minus-0.2 WAR. Everyone expected the Cano deal to become a terrible contract at some point but certainly not in the second year.

If Cano continues to play like this, the Mariners can forget about the playoffs this season, and they’ll be in huge trouble for years to come.

There was nothing wrong with adding Rickie Weeks or trading for Mark Trumbo on an individual level. However, it’s becoming frustrating to see the Mariners continue to focus on the same player type: right-handed, high-power, low-OBP hitters with no defensive abilities. Unless the offense improves, the Mariners could be looking at changes at the top and another lengthy rebuild.

It’s time to move on from Dustin Ackley and be worried about Mike Zunino

Ackley and Zunino were two of the biggest question marks in Seattle’s projected everyday lineup heading into the season. Both have a lot of untapped potential at the plate but haven’t proved much in the major leagues yet.

For a time last year, Ackley remembered to hit to all fields and put up offensive numbers reminiscent of his rookie season. That hasn’t carried over to 2015 at all, as Ackley has a .190/.250/.310 line in 61 games.

Ackley is now nearly 2,200 plate appearances into his career with a 89 wRC+, and it might be time for the Mariners to just move on. A former top prospect who can play multiple positions fairly well might have at least a minimum amount of trade value, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if Ackley was elsewhere after the deadline.

Zunino isn’t nearly as long into his career, and he’s fantastic on the defensive side, so it isn’t time to give up on him yet. But it is time to be worried, as Zunino was supposed to make major strides this year with another season of experience under his belt.

Instead, Zunino has been worse almost across the board, with a .158/.230/.300 line. A walk rate that is nearly doubled is at least something, but Zunino is striking out over 4 percentage points more.

Ideally, Zunino would be in the minors right now, getting the development the organization denied him for no apparent reason in 2013. However, the Mariners have no other catcher in the system who could possibly start in the big leagues, a major knock against the front office.

All stats via FanGraphs unless otherwise noted.

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Even the great ones stumble. So there’s not necessarily cause for panic in Seattle after Felix Hernandez turned in another rough outing Friday night.

But man, that was one rough outing. 

Hernandez endured easily the worst start of his brilliant 11-year career, surrendering eight runs on five hits and recording just one out in a 10-0 blowout loss to the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park.

It was a historic night for the ace right-hander, though not the kind he’d prefer, as ESPN Stats & Info noted: Since 1969, only 11 other pitchers have been tagged for eight earned runs or more without getting at least two outs.

So you brush it off and move on. Some days you don’t have it. That’s baseball, and other platitudes.

Except this isn’t the first time recently that King Felix has looked more like a commoner. 

On June 1, he coughed up seven runs in 4.2 innings against the New York Yankees. Coming into that start, he owned a 1.91 ERA. Now, after Friday’s debacle, it’s ballooned to 3.38.

That’s still a respectable mark. And overall, Hernandez is having a typically stellar season. But two shaky appearances—admittedly sandwiched around a seven-inning, one-run showing June 6—have got to set off at least a few alarm bells for the Mariners. 

The most obvious, and troubling, explanation is that Hernandez is battling an undisclosed injury. The only other time he lasted just one-third of an inning was in 2007, when he exited with an elbow strain.

Maybe he is dealing with some phantom ailment. But it hasn’t popped up in any unconfirmed whispers, let alone reliable reports. He tweaked his ankle May 17, but manager Lloyd McClendon declared his ace to be “fine,” per Jayson Jenks of the Seattle Times.

The stuff showed up for Hernandez briefly Friday when he rung up touted Houston rookie Carlos Correa with a knee-high 91 mph fastball on the outside corner.

Mostly, though, he made location mistakes, and the ‘Stros, to their credit, made him pay.

Take the two-run shot Jason Castro smacked to extend the lead to 8-0 in the first. Catcher Mike Zunino wanted a fastball down, Hernandez left it up, and the left-handed Castro launched it the other way, over Minute Maid Park’s cozy left field porch.

That’s life in the big leagues, where a few inches can mean the difference between resounding success and stunning failure. 

Speaking of which, Hernandez wasn’t helped by his defense, as MLB.com‘s Greg Johns and Brian McTaggart spelled out:

Before the Astros teed off on Hernandez with the two first-inning homers, the Mariners’ ace got in hot water with some shoddy fielding contributing to the mess. Utility man Willie Bloomquist, making his fifth start of the season at shortstop, was slow on a throw to first as Jose Altuve turned a routine grounder into an infield single leading off the game.

Later, Hernandez himself made a bad throw on a play at the plate, which was definitely on him but not an indictment of his pitching.

It’s entirely possible this start and the one against the Yankees were outliers, anomalous blips in what will otherwise be a predictably dominant season for the five-time All-Star and 2010 American League Cy Young winner.

Hernandez, after all, has lasted at least seven innings eight times this season and threw a complete-game, four-hit shutout on May 27. Don’t bet your college tuition on the King staying down.

“I think it’s a lot of luck,” Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira said after he launched a grand slam off Hernandez June 1, the sixth time he’s taken the M’s stud deep, per Newsday‘s Erik Boland. “He’s a great pitcher. I’ve faced him so much. There’s very few guys that for 10-plus years you face on a regular basis. He’s one of them. I’ve just gotten a couple good pitches to hit.”

If Hernandez takes the ball next time and reverses his luck—and offers up fewer pitches to hit—he’ll calm a lot of nerves in the Pacific Northwest, where fans are already plenty anxious about the fourth-place Mariners.

But if he gets whacked around again, this stumble will start to feel more like a fall.

All statistics current as of June 12 and courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.

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Before the 2015 season started, the Seattle Mariners were praised by many for their impressive pitching staff. With its first two picks in this year’s MLB draft, the Mariners boosted their rotation by adding more depth.

With the 60th overall pick in the draft, Seattle selected Peachtree Ridge High School (GA) pitcher Nick Neidert, per Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times. Many scouts took notice of Neidert due to his intriguing fastball and plethora of accolades at the high school level. During his senior season, he received Perfect Game USA first-team All-American honors and ended up signing his collegiate letter of intent to play at South Carolina this coming fall.

Twelve picks later, the team selected another impressive pitching prospect in Oregon State right-hander Andrew Moore. Over his three-year career at OSU, Moore anchored one of the best pitching staffs in all of college baseball. Moore received first-team All-Pac-12 honors in 2015 after posting a dominant 7-2 record to go along with a stifling 1.91 ERA.

While the picks may seem impressive on paper, some Mariners fans have responded negatively on social media due to the team’s underwhelming offense this season. Despite having star second baseman Robinson Cano and designated hitter Nelson Cruz, the Mariners rank 29th in MLB with just 196 runs scored through 57 games this season.

Some fans have questioned the first two picks by the Mariners, but some have been impressed with the team’s selections. Prep Baseball Report supervisor Nathan Rode pointed out Neidert‘s unique skill set.

Some fans were concerned about whether or not Neidert would play college baseball at USC instead of opting to play for the Mariners organization right away.

Charleston Post and Courier reporter David Caraviello was one of the first to clear the air on Neidert‘s signability.

What separates Neidert from most high school baseball prospects is his ability to throw a fastball that tops out at 96 mph. Perfect Game USA scouting coordinator Brian Sakowski said Neidert‘s fastball is impressive despite his small stature.

Similar to Neidert, Moore was seen as a reach by some due to questions about his signability. Despite being viewed by some as unready for the professional level, Moore has decided to sign with the Mariners and forgo his senior season, per Divish.

Some fans believe that Moore was taken far too early in the draft.

Contrary to fan opinion, Oregon State head coach Pat Casey said the Mariners’ selection of Moore will help the team win games for years to come.

While pitching was not seen by many as an immediate need for the Mariners, the team clearly wants to build on its strength rather than address glaring weaknesses. It is unclear right now how each of these pitching prospects will fit into the mix in the future, but there is no doubt Neidert and Moore bring a lot to the table.

Follow Curtis on Twitter: @CalhounCurtis

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With Miguel Montero and David Ross both available at catcher for the Chicago Cubs, Welington Castillo became surplus to requirements, and the team traded him to the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday.

Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports first had the report:

The Cubs went on to confirm the deal via their Twitter account.

Castillo, 28, didn’t exactly make himself indispensable in Chicago, hitting just .163 with two home runs and five RBI in 24 games. In Seattle, he’ll battle with Jesus Sucre to back up starting catcher Mike Zunino, who has had his own struggles this year (.179 with five homers and 11 RBI). Zunino did hit 22 home runs last year and is considered the future at catcher for Seattle. 

Sucre is hitting just .067 on the year in six games, so Castillo appears to be an instant upgrade behind Zunino. While Castillo isn’t the best hitter, he hit 13 home runs and added 46 RBI last season for Chicago in 110 games. Seattle won’t need to rely on him that often, however, and it will be glad to upgrade its catching depth.

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For the first time in several years, the Seattle Mariners are in win-now mode at the major league level rather than looking more toward the future.

The graduation of many top prospects, particularly on the pitching side, has left Seattle’s farm system a little thinner than it has been previously. While the Mariners in no way have a bad farm system and haven’t been trading away too many prospects, most of the exciting young players are in the majors.

Still, Seattle entered the year with several prospects who were worth keeping an eye on. D.J. Peterson and Patrick Kivlehan appeared not all that far off from appearing in the majors, while top prospect Alex Jackson figured to move up to more advanced levels.

For many of Seattle’s top 10 prospects as determined by MLB.com, the season has gotten off to a disappointing start. Others like Ketel Marte and Edwin Diaz could soon be moving up prospect rankings.

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The Seattle Mariners entered the 2015 Major League Baseball season with championship aspirations, but their inconsistent play has them toward the bottom of the American League standings.

Before the season, ESPN’s Buster Olney (h/t SB Nation) predicted that the Mariners would face the Pittsburgh Pirates in this year’s World Series. However, things haven’t gone as planned for Seattle so far in 2015.

The team ended April with an unimpressive 10-12 record. The Mariners began the month of May with a 1-5 record, including a sweep at the hands of the American League West-leading Houston Astros.

The team returned home for a nine-game home stand and seems to be back on the rise. The Mariners have a 6-4 record in their last 10 games, including a sweep of the Oakland Athletics.

After an up-and-down start to the season, here are a few storylines that have taken shape for Seattle so far in 2015.

Pitching has been a glaring weakness instead of strength

The biggest thing that made the Mariners a legit World Series contender this offseason was their elite pitching staff. However, the team’s starting rotation and bullpen have been less than satisfactory so far this season.

Felix Hernandez has proven why he’s one of the best pitchers in the game today, with an impressive 6-1 record and a 2.30 ERA. Hernandez also recently passed Jamie Moyer for the franchise record with 2,115.1 innings pitched. Even the great ones fall, though, as Hernandez struggled with his command early and often in a 4-2 loss to the Boston Red Sox on Saturday.

The team’s highly touted young pitchers have demonstrated both inexperience and erratic play so far this season. Taijuan Walker, 22, has looked inconsistent this season since allowing just two runs in 27 innings pitched during spring training. James Paxton, 26, has allowed 4.15 runs per nine innings pitched this season after entering 2015 with high hopes.

Last season, the Mariners bullpen was widely considered one of the best in the major leagues, led by All-Star closer Fernando Rodney. This season, the bullpen has squandered many leads late in games, and Rodney hasn’t capitalized on his opportunities. Rodney has recorded an abysmal 5.65 ERA so far this season, including a 5.87 ERA against right-handed batters.

The pitching staff has also suffered key injuries so far this season. Hisashi Iwakuma, one of the best No. 2 pitchers in the league, suffered a right lateral strain on May 12 and is on the team’s disabled list until possibly late June. Relief pitcher Tyler Olson suffered a right knee contusion on May 3 and isn’t due to return until later this month.

On the positive side, the pitching staff struggled early last season before the team’s red-hot performance after the All-Star break. If Seattle hopes to earn its first postseason bid since 2001, its pitching staff will have to turn it around.

Nelson Cruz and J.A Happ worth every penny

The Mariners made arguably the biggest move this offseason in acquiring Cruz as a free agent from the Baltimore Orioles. Cruz has continued his impressive play with a .340 batting average, 15 home runs and 30 RBI so far this season.

Cruz has also demonstrated great clutch hitting this season, with two walk-off hits so far. The Mariners needed an impact bat this offseason, and Cruz has contributed in a variety of situations.

The 34-year-old Cruz also fills a hole the Mariners have attempted many times to fill since former designated hitter Edgar Martinez retired after the 2004 season. Though it is almost inevitable that Cruz’s impressive statistics will drop, there is no doubt he is an early American League MVP candidate.

Starting pitcher J.A Happ has looked like this season’s version of former Mariner pitcher and 2014 American League Comeback Player of the Year Chris Young. Through his first seven starts, Happ has a 3-1 record and has limited big-play opportunities with a .416 ground-ball percentage.

The Mariners acquired Happ through an offseason trade with the Toronto Blue Jays for outfielder Michael Saunders. Considering the fact that Saunders has only played nine games for the Blue Jays this season, it looks like the Mariners got a bargain in Happ.

Happ has been one of the few bright spots on the team’s pitching staff so far this season. Currently slotted in as the team’s No. 5 starter, Happ may move up the rotational ranks if he continues his hot start.

Though Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik’s moves this offseason have so far been viewed as the right ones, don’t be surprised if the team isn’t done making moves before the MLB trade deadline in July.

Robinson Cano looks lost

When the Mariners signed Cano to a 10-year, $240 million deal in December 2013, the team hoped he would bring his consistent power to a lineup in need of a big bat. Though Cano’s batting average dating back to the beginning of last season has been impressive, his power is clearly not the same as it once was.

Cano has totaled just 15 home runs and a .403 slugging percentage through 194 career games with the Mariners. Cano has struggled this season with just one home run and a .253 batting average through 37 games.

He also has a career-worst .169 strikeout percentage, his highest since the 2011 season. Cano has also struggled with runners in scoring position, with just 11 RBI to begin the year. During a May 15 interview with 710 ESPN Seattle, via Brent Stecker, Cano spoke about his slow start this season.

“I want to do better than what I’m doing right now,” Cano said during the Danny, Dave and Moore show. “I want to go out there and help the team win every single game.”

What should give Mariners fans confidence is the fact that other perennial All-Stars have struggled around the league this season. Pittsburgh Pirates’ star outfielder Andrew McCutchen is hitting just .233 this season after three consecutive seasons with a batting average of .314 or better.

While Cano hasn’t had the best start to his season, there is almost no question he will turn things around. Cano has been a notorious slow starter over his 11-year career, and it looks like this year will be no different.

Follow Curtis on Twitter: @CalhounCurtis

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Prior to this year, Nelson Cruz has been known as strictly a power hitter. He averaged 27 home runs per season from 2009-2013 and then made the most of his one season in Baltimore by leading the league in round-trippers last year.

His game-changing power is what earned him a four-year, $57 million contract last December, but in his first 36 games as a Mariner, he has still shown plenty of power—he leads the MLB with 15 homers—but he is also displaying tremendous skill in other areas at the plate.

First off, it must be noted that opposing pitchers are throwing Cruz fewer good pitches. So far in 2015, he is seeing only 43.9 percent of pitches in the strike zone, which is a career low, but he has adjusted admirably. 

His O-Contact%, which measures the percentage of times a batter makes contact with a pitch out of the strike zone, currently sits at a career-high 63.2 percent. The rest of his hitting metrics are similar to his career average.

So Cruz is seeing fewer pitches in the strike zone so far this season, but he is overcoming that by expanding his zone a bit and finding a way to be productive with pitches out of the strike zone.

That is a testament to the strides he has made in his overall hitting approach. He continues to be among the most feared power hitters in all of baseball, even in pitcher-friendly Safeco Field in Seattle.

As far as the best hitter in baseball right now, it is hard to argue against what Nelly has done to this point.

He leads the MLB with 15 home runs—an achievement that is even more impressive due to the fact that he plays all his home games in Safeco Field—and 30 RBI. He has also maintained a .340 batting average, which is among the best in the game.

Cruz also leads the league in slugging percentage, OPS, OPS+, wRC+ and total bases. His .466 wOBA ranks third in the MLB, per FanGraphs.

And it’s not like Cruz is getting lucky with cheap home runs, either. He is making them count, as he is tied with fellow power stalwarts Giancarlo Stanton and Edwin Encarnacion with six no-doubt home runs, according to ESPN Home Run Tracker.

He has been one of the most productive players in clutch situations, too. He has two walk-off hits this year—one off of flamethrower Neftali Feliz and one off of Junichi Tazawa— each one coming with two outs and two strikes, and in games where he had struck out at least twice in that game.

But he’s bound for plenty of regression after this hot start, right?

Not according to his manager, Lloyd McClendon, who believes greener pastures still lie ahead for the 34-year-old Dominican, specifically in the home run column. McClendon said via Mariners Musings of MLB.com:

To be truthful, I don’t think he’s gotten hot to the point where it’s just ridiculous. He’s grinding at-bats out and getting his hits, he’s going the other way. If they make a mistake, he’ll hit it out. But I’ve seen him to the point where he’ll get hot and hit good pitches out of the ballpark and that hasn’t happened yet.

I think home run hitters, when they get hot, they hit home runs in bunches and he hasn’t done that yet. His have been spread out. A few here and a few there. He did have a streak where he hit [six] in five days or something like that, but there’s a big streak in there that hasn’t come out yet.

Cruz is hotter right now than any hitter in the game except maybe Bryce Harper, and if his statistics stay consistent and his manager proves correct, he should easily add another 40-homer season to his resume and may have a shot at American League Most Valuable Player, an award that has been hogged by Miguel Cabrera and Mike Trout for the past three years. 

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The first five weeks of the 2015 season have been filled with surprises for the Seattle Mariners.

Offseason acquisition Nelson Cruz has been on a tear nobody could have seen coming and is currently leading the majors by a healthy margin with 14 home runs. Cruz has really helped Seattle stay afloat during a rough stretch of play.

Seth Smith and Logan Morrison have provided some value at the plate, other parts of the offense have struggled at times, the starting rotation has been shaky behind Felix Hernandez and J.A. Happ and the bullpen has been poor after an outstanding 2014 season.

All of that has resulted in a 14-17 record through 31 games. The good news is that the Mariners are ahead of the Oakland Athletics and within striking distance of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, but a 5.5-game deficit to the Houston Astros is significant, even if Houston is unlikely to keep this pace up.

The rest of the season will surely offer some storylines that would have seemed highly unlikely just a month ago.

Brad Miller spends most of his time in the outfield—and is successful

There were rumblings during the offseason that Miller might work on learning other positions and becoming a sort of super-utility man. The addition of Rickie Weeks and the wrist injury to shortstop competitor Chris Taylor seemed to postpone that idea, at least until later in the summer.

Taylor’s return, the injury to Austin Jackson and the ineffectiveness of other outfielders have changed the situation again. The Mariners have been getting Miller some time in the outfield and intend to play him there, at designated hitter and occasionally first base this season, according to Shannon Drayer of 710 ESPN:

It’s unclear how much Taylor will hit at the major league level, but the team understandably likes his defense (and baserunning) a lot more than Miller’s. While Miller has good enough range for the shortstop position, he’s been far too prone to throwing errors.

Miller has the athleticism and arm to be successful as an outfielder, potentially even in center field. Coach Andy Van Slyke deserves a lot of credit for turning Dustin Ackley into a plus-seven DRS left fielder in 2014, and Miller has an even better physical skill set for the position.

Don’t expect Miller to flat-out take someone’s job in the outfield, but the Mariners can rotate around and get him plenty of playing time. With any consistency at the plate, Miller will be a valuable piece for the rest of the season.

Logan Morrison has his best season in the majors

On April 28, Morrison owned a .149/.197/.194 slash line with one home run. A .212 BABIP and great defensive plays to rob Morrison of multiple home runs in the first month didn’t help matters.

One hot stretch later, and Morrison owns a much more respectable 94 wRC+ with five home runs, including a walk-off on Friday to begin a three-game sweep of the Oakland Athletics. There are reasons to believe Morrison’s numbers should only continue to get better.

Morrison’s struggles early on went beyond the typical BABIP woes. According to Baseball Savant, Morrison ranks seventh in the majors in average exit velocity off the bat and ranks right up with some prolific power hitters.

Hitting the ball that hard is eventually going to help Morrison’s average and slugging percentage. Morrison’s strikeout numbers are also the best of his career in what’s quickly becoming a relevant sample size, and he’s still drawing a healthy number of walks.

It’s easy to forget that Morrison was great in the second half of 2014 after missing significant time due to injury early on. If he stays healthy (a huge “if”), Morrison is primed for a big season as a critical part of Seattle’s offense.

Franklin Gutierrez gets meaningful playing time

Perhaps the biggest question of the early season is what to do with Ackley. Ackley has been unable to sustain his hot July and August from last season, batting .192/.217/.346 with a 54 wRC+ so far.

Those numbers even come with the caveat of being largely shielded from left-handers. As good as Ackley‘s defense is, a team with ideas of contending can’t have such a black hole in the lineup.

Add in Jackson’s injury (and uncertainty about his performance at the plate), a slow start from Justin Ruggiano and a minus-0.1 WAR total from Weeks so far, it becomes clear that Seattle needs outfield help. There aren’t many good options within the organization—apart from one familiar face.

Franklin Gutierrez is off to a .324/.457/.554 start with four home runs in Triple-A Tacoma after missing over a year with gastrointestinal problems. That has put him on the team’s radar, according to Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune:

Nobody is expecting Gutierrez to get back to his 2009 levels, and he’s been injury-prone on top of a difficult medical condition to deal with. But he could provide some short-term help as a fourth or even fifth outfielder, something the Mariners will be needing soon.

All stats via FanGraphs unless otherwise noted. 

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Hisashi Iwakuma was one of the Seattle Mariners‘ better starting pitchers in 2013 and 2014. The 34-year-old has gotten off to a rocky start in 2015, though, and now he’s headed to the disabled list.

Continue for updates.

Iwakuma Diagnosed With Grade 1 Lat Strain, Expected to Miss 2-4 Weeks

Saturday, April 25

The Mariners announced that Iwakuma is expected to miss two-to-four weeks with a grade one strain of his right lat.

On Friday, The Mariners announced that Iwakuma will go on the 15-day DL. Seattle called up Lucas Luetge from the Tacoma Rainiers to replace him.

Through three starts this year, Iwakuma is 0-1 with a 6.61 earned run average. Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times noted that Iwakuma’s velocity has been down a bit, which might help explain his early struggles. Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon doesn’t buy into that theory.

“I’m not overly concerned with velocity,” McClendon said. “I’m more concerned with command than velocity right now. He’s leaving too many balls in the middle of the plate and working behind on too many hitters. And that’s what we have to get straightened out. The velocity will come.”

Once Iwakuma returns to full health, he might retain the command that helped make him so effective in the past.

Seattle will certainly have a big hole in its starting rotation with him out.

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