Colt Emerson was slated to spend Sunday afternoon playing in front of a few thousand fans at Cheney Stadium in Triple-A Tacoma.<\/p>\n
Instead, the Seattle Mariners\u2019 top prospect ended up making his MLB debut<\/a> in front of a nationally televised audience on NBC\u2019s \u201cSunday Night Baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n Mariners call up top prospect Colt Emerson to make MLB debut<\/a><\/p>\n After a whirlwind afternoon that included a quick drive up Interstate 5 to T-Mobile Park, the 20-year-old Emerson started at third base and batted ninth in the Mariners\u2019 series finale against the San Diego Padres. In doing so, he become the youngest Mariners player to make his MLB debut since franchise legend F\u00e9lix Hern\u00e1ndez at age 19 in 2005.<\/p>\n Emerson\u2019s promotion on Sunday coincided with third baseman Brendan Donovan being placed on the 10-day injured list with a left groin strain \u2013 his second trip to the IL for the same injury in less than a month.<\/p>\n \u201cThis wasn\u2019t on my bingo card this morning,\u201d Mariners general manager Justin Hollander said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know that BD was going to be on the IL, \u2026 but we want to do the right thing for Colt, and we also want to do the right thing for the Mariners.\u201d<\/p>\n Emerson, a consensus top-10 overall prospect<\/a> in baseball, was widely expected to make his MLB debut at some point this season. It was seemingly only a matter of when \u2013 especially after Emerson further proved his readiness with a strong first month and a half in Tacoma.<\/p>\n Given the need for an everyday third baseman in the wake of Donovan\u2019s health issues, the Mariners felt the time was now.<\/p>\n \u201cThis period will give (Emerson) some runway,\u201d Hollander said. \u201cThis is not a 15-at-bat or a 20-at-bat tryout to see if he\u2019s capable of taking the job and running with it for the rest of the year.<\/p>\n \u201cI have zero concerns that he\u2019s emotionally ready to handle it, that he\u2019s mature enough to handle the day-to-day of the major league life. He certainly has the tools and skills to go compete at this level.<\/p>\n \u201cYou never really know with a young player until they get out there and show us what they can do, but we do have all the confidence in the world that he can go take the job and run with it.\u201d<\/p>\n Emerson, a first-round draft pick by the Mariners in 2023, has rocketed through Seattle\u2019s system.<\/p>\n Back in March, Emerson signed a reported\u00a0eight-year, $95 million contract extension<\/a> with the Mariners. At the time, it was the largest-ever deal for a player who had yet to reach the majors.<\/p>\n Emerson followed that with a strong showing in Tacoma, where he slashed .255\/.347\/.469 with seven home runs, one triple, eight doubles and an .816 OPS in 38 games this season.<\/p>\n Along the way, Emerson continued to show maturity beyond his years. According to Hollander, that was evident again when Emerson found out he was being called up.<\/p>\n \u201cColt (was like), great, I\u2019ll be right there,\u201d Hollander said. \u201cLike, he was very matter of fact. There was no jumping up and down, no celebrating. It was like, I\u2019m going to go pack my bag, I\u2019ll head right up. He\u2019s just wired that way.\u201d<\/p>\n Ultimately, Emerson has been billed as the Mariners\u2019 shortstop of the future. But with veteran shortstop J.P. Crawford currently entrenched there, Emerson\u2019s more immediate home has figured to be third base \u2013 even if Donovan was healthy.<\/p>\n Donovan, a Gold Glove utility player in 2022, has plenty of positional flexibility, having manned every position except catcher and center field during his five-year career in the majors. So, if Emerson takes hold of the third base position, Donovan could move into more of a utility\/designated hitter role.<\/p>\n Hollander said he doesn\u2019t have a timeline for Donovan\u2019s return, but hopes he can resume baseball activities in two to three weeks.<\/p>\n Donovan\u2019s initial IL stint for his left groin strain was from April 18 to May 7. He also missed games earlier this season due to a right groin issue and a hip problem. He then reaggravated the left groin strain earlier this week during Seattle\u2019s series against the Houston Astros.<\/p>\n Hollander said the injuries are likely related to Donovan undergoing sports hernia surgery this past offseason.<\/p>\n \u201cBetween the off-season surgery and the groin strain, it\u2019s definitely related,\u201d Hollander said. \u201cI\u2019ve talked to the (club\u2019s high performance) staff. They feel strongly that when you have the core surgery, you\u2019re more susceptible to groin strains and core muscle strains after that for a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n Donovan will receive a platelet-rich plasma injection for his groin strain, as well as a different injection in his adductor, according to Hollander.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the most important thing we can do is make sure that we\u2019re putting him in position to go out there and feel good every day,\u201d Hollander said. \u201cClearly, we need to take a step back based on how he felt yesterday after the Houston series and how he feels this morning.<\/p>\n \u201cWe did some scans this morning and he\u2019s inflamed, it\u2019s irritated and it\u2019s back to where it was when he went on the IL the first time. So we need to get it right.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet while it\u2019s another setback for Donovan, the runway is now officially open for Emerson.<\/p>\n \u201cHe doesn\u2019t have to come in here and do anything different than he\u2019s always ever done,\u201d Hollander said. \u201cAs (we) told him this afternoon, go have fun, go be yourself, go have fun, and the rest will take care of itself.\u201d<\/p>\n More Seattle Mariners coverage<\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0Seattle Mariners Injury Update: Latest on Cal Raleigh and more<\/a>
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\u2022\u00a0Salk: How Seattle Mariners can replace Cal Raleigh\u2019s production<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colt Emerson was slated to spend Sunday afternoon playing in front of a few thousand fans at Cheney…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-678272","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\/678272","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=678272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}