More Inevitable Roster Cuts

Finally, the pitchers are getting whittled down. Gone today are Chris Smith, Charlie Haeger, Dan Cortes, and Manny Delcarmen. With all due respect to this quartet though, I wonder who goes next. These aren't terribly interesting cuts.

Chris Smith looked like AAA depth all along, and now he officially is.

Charlie Haeger, a longshot to begin with, was hurt to start spring training.

Dan Cortes couldn't throw strikes.

I suppose Manny Delcarmen is a little bit interesting, but he struggled to find the strike zone in camp too. If he stays in the M's system, they might want to think about stretching him out as a starter, just to see what happens. The odds are that it won't work, but he has three pitches he can get over the plate, and he doesn't have the kind of velocity to overpower batters anymore. At the very least, starting might help Delcarmen better develop ways to induce weak contact.

Honestly though, less than a week into the Cactus league schedule, I didn't see any of these guys making the roster. What's more interesting to me is who hasn't been cut.

Steven Baron, the 20-year-old catcher, is still around. At this point, why is he getting such a long look? He has had a great spring, but he's not making the roster. Is the "big league experience" that valuable for him?

Getting back to the pitching though, guys like Denny Bautista, Cesar Jimenez, Justin Miller, and Chris Seddon are still around. I haven't seen anything from them that makes me more excited about their prospects than the guys that got cut today. Are they going to be reassigned in the next few days, or do the M's want to take longer looks at them?

What about dark horses like Fabio Castro and Tom Wilhelmson? I'm starting to believe that the M's are seriously considering them.

How about Josh Lueke? He's the last prospect standing, this side of Michael Pineda of course (nice piece by Dave Cameron on why he should go to AAA, by the way). How close are the M's to facing the controversy that would come with Lueke on the opening day roster?

Where does Jose Flores stand? Are the Mariners serious about giving the raw Rule 5 draftee a shot? He has survived multiple rounds of cuts now.

Ken Rosenthal reported that Garrett Olson is on waivers now. Is that a sign that he is one of the next to go, one way or another? It would make sense with the roster numbers, and some of the other guys still in camp.

The most interesting thing about today's cuts is that the Mariners are running out of uninteresting cuts. They have to start making some tougher decisions at some point.