Gilbert's last spring start has a surprise

Final days of spring training can often be chaotic when it comes to scheduling as some players find they need more work. Throw in temperatures in the low 100’s and players who missed the majority of Cactus League play due to participating in the World Baseball Classic, well, let’s just say there have been a lot of moving parts for the Mariners and other clubs in Arizona this spring.

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Then there is the matter of opponent. Teams prefer to keep their starters away from opponents they will see at the beginning of the season. To get them work, “B games” are scheduled with other teams who are in a similar boat. The Seattle Mariners found themselves in that boat with a Cactus League game scheduled against the Guardians, the team they open against, Friday evening.

The game fell on the day Logan Gilbert was to make his final spring training start, so a B game at 11 a.m. was scheduled with their complex-mates, the Padres, on Field 1 in Peoria, Ariz. The move to a B game is nothing out of the ordinary for Gilbert. It did come with a bit of a surprise, however, as Cal Raleigh showed up to catch.

“I wasn’t positive with it being 11 a.m. and we had a night game last night,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting him necessarily to be here, but he was, which is way better so we can get a feel.”

Raleigh was not originally in the lineup against the A’s in Mesa, Ariz., Thursday night but asked to DH to get going on making up for lost at-bats. It’s not difficult to see why it would be important he catch Gilbert one last time before the start of the season, but Gilbert was nonetheless appreciative, explaining he sees Raleigh behind the plate as what he called the baseline because he has thrown to him for so long. From there, it was about where Gilbert was in the present and making up for time missed with Raleigh while he was away at the WBC.

“That just feels comfortable,” said Gilbert, who threw 80 pitches on Friday. “And then sequencing-wise, I wanted him to see where my stuff’s at right now and I wanted us to get a feel for each other, what we wanted to do. Like if he saw me shake to something, he knows I feel more comfortable with that. I saw kind of what his natural sequencing was, so I think that helps out.”

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Gilbert did not use the PitchCom device he has been thinking about using in the regular season. He did, however, go to a pitch he has been playing around with for years, the sinker. It’s a pitch Raleigh has shown disdain for in the past, but was calling it on Field 1. Something perhaps learned in the WBC?

“I threw four or five and he called seven or eight. I was the one shaking them off. So, roles reversed after 10 years,” said Gilbert with a laugh. “So he likes the sinker, which he’s hated for years.”

Gilbert has reworked the sinker a bit, adjusting the grip and spiking it more. Whether or not it makes a regular season appearance or stays in the category of what Mariners pitching coaches call a “side project” remains to be seen, but Gilbert clearly enjoyed Raleigh’s willingness to experiment Friday.

“I don’t know how serious he is,” he said, “but I like the cutter a lot and I think he likes it. We both like where the curveball’s at and everything else. He did call more sinkers than I thought he would today and even called a couple changeups. We’re not going to throw the changeup. He’s always been out on everything and then today, he was very open minded today.”

Not a bad place for the opening day battery to be, but no surprise either for the two who have been together nearly every step of the way since their first fall camps following being drafted in 2018.

“He loves to be prepared as much as anybody,” said Gilbert. “I think that’s the main thing and it resonates with me. That’s kind of who I am and I love seeing him that way. That’s how he’s always been and (hitting) 60 bombs, whatever it is, nothing changes who he is as a person, so it means a lot that he would be out there.”

Gilbert’s last spring start has a surprise

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