PEORIA, Ariz. \u2014 All week, the anticipation has been palpable at Mariners spring training. Folks are excited to see these guys, maybe more than any M\u2019s squad since the late 1990s or early 2000s.<\/p>\n
The buzz is the real, the talent undeniable.<\/p>\n
Some 1,800 people showed up Thursday to watch the Mariners run through morning drills in the Peoria Sports Complex back fields, a chance for fans young old to catch a close glimpse of Cal Raleigh or Julio Rodr\u00edguez.<\/p>\n
Another 1,500 fans turned out Friday morning as the Mariners worked out ahead of their Cactus League opener against the San Diego Padres on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Baseball, finally, is here, and 9,956 fans welcomed its return, the largest crowd ever for a Mariners spring opener at Peoria Stadium.<\/p>\n
Michael Arroyo quickly gave them a chance to cheer.<\/p>\n
One of the Mariners\u2019 top prospects, Arroyo slugged a 406-foot, opposite-field home run in his first at-bat of the spring. It was a two-run blast off Padres lefty Jagger Haynes in the second inning, and it set the tone for the Mariners\u2019 7-4 victory over their Peoria neighbors on a pleasant afternoon.<\/p>\n
In his next at-bat, Arroyo sent another drive the other way, a 103.3-mph blast off the bat that landed on the warning track and resulted in a stand-up double.<\/p>\n
Kid can hit, that\u2019s for sure.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy game is just let the ball come to me and try make contact,\u201d Arroyo said, via team interpreter Freddy Llanos. \u201cI just try to hit the ball as fast as I can in whatever direction it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 21-year-old Arroyo got the start at second base Friday in part because he\u2019s scheduled to participate in the World Baseball Classic next month for Team Colombia, and he figures to get extra at-bats to prepare over the next week.<\/p>\n
The Mariners\u2019 No. 1 prospect, 20-year-old Colt Emerson, was also in the lineup for Friday\u2019s Cactus League opener, starting at third base and batting ninth. He went 0 for 2, but did send a long drive to the warning track, 379 feet from the plate, on the first pitch he saw.<\/p>\n
M\u2019s president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto has maintained that the young prospects will get ample opportunities to prove themselves this spring, and that\u2019s held true so far.<\/p>\n
Throughout the minor leagues, Arroyo has never graded out especially well defensively at second base, and he sits well behind the likes of Cole Young, Leo Rivas and Ryan Bliss in that regard.<\/p>\n
Arroyo did misplay a ground ball to his backhand in the first inning Friday \u2014 not an easy play, but one major league teams would want their second baseman to make.<\/p>\n
Hitting has always been Arroyo\u2019s carrying card, though, and there\u2019s a reasonable chance he could hit way into a major league promotion at some point this year.<\/p>\n
Where he ends up playing on the field is an open question.<\/p>\n
The Mariners view Young as their second baseman of the future. They acquired veteran Brendan Donovan to play third base, though his ability to play all over the field is part of the reason the Mariners coveted him so much this winter.<\/p>\n
Arroyo has taken some reps this spring at third base. Left field could wind up being his future home, and it\u2019s possible Arroyo could be the Mariners\u2019 left fielder to open 2027, if Randy Arozarena winds up signing elsewhere in free agency next winter.<\/p>\n
We might be getting ahead of ourselves there.<\/p>\n
But, then, Arroyo might be playing his way into the big-league conversation sooner than some expected.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mentality is always set on, how do I get better?\u201d he said. \u201cThe team decides where they want me to play and where ever I play I\u2019m just going to go out there and give it my best.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PEORIA, Ariz. \u2014 All week, the anticipation has been palpable at Mariners spring training. Folks are excited to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-493485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}