SEATTLE – Rust vs. rest.
Would you rather keep playing to maintain your timing and rhythm or get a reset and some needed rest after a grueling 162-game season?
What matters more?
It’s a debate to some and a narrative to others. Is it a real issue, or is it results-based analysis? The opinions might be colored by past experiences – good and bad.
When Major League Baseball implemented an expanded postseason featuring three wild-card teams before the 2022 season, it meant that the top two division winners in the American League and National League would earn byes through the first or wild-card round of the postseason.
As part of that change, the opening-round matchups were increased to best-of-three series. It meant that the four teams receiving the byes would have a five-day break from the final day of the regular season to the first day of division series.
Five days without games feels interminably long for baseball players, who have trained their bodies and minds for daily preparation and performance. It becomes a habit. The All-Star break is only four days without games and players often find themselves restless on that final day, often working out on their own.
By virtue of winning their division for the first time since 2001 and finishing with the second-best record in the American League, the Mariners will try to figure out how to get some rest without feeling rusty when they open the American League Division Series on Saturday at T-Mobile Park.
Even before they clinched the division title Wednesday and locked up a top-two seed in the AL playoffs, the Mariners front office and coaching staff started to brainstorm ideas about how to handle having five days off between Game 162 and the start of the division series.
“I lived through it,” said Jerry Dipoto, Mariners president of baseball operations. “In 2014 with the Angels, we had a bye, and we didn’t manage the rust very well. We got swept out of the division series by the Royals. Momentum does carry a lot of weight in any short series, for sure.”
As general manager of the Angels in 2014, Dipoto watched as his team, led by AL MVP Mike Trout and a still-productive Albert Pujols, rolled to a 98-64 record, earning the top seed in the postseason and a bye. The Angels’ last game of the regular season was Sept. 28. They opened the ALDS vs. the Royals, who pulled off a stunning come-from-behind win over Oakland in the wild-card game, on Oct. 2 at Angel Stadium.
The Angels lost the first game, 3-2, in 11 innings. They managed just four hits, including one after the sixth inning with Trout and Pujols going 0-for-8 with two walks.
The two teams played 11 more innings the following day with the Royals scoring three in the top of the 11th to win 4-1. K.C. completed the sweep two days later at Kauffman Stadium with an easy 8-3 win.
Were the Angels rusty, or were the Royals simply better? Kansas City would advance to the World Series, losing to the Giants and then return to win the World Series the following season. The Angels led baseball averaging 4.77 runs per game in the regular season but scored a total of six runs in 31 innings in the postseason. Trout had one hit in the series – a solo homer in the third game – while Pujols had two hits, including a solo homer in Game 3. The Angels haven’t been back to the postseason since that failure.
That 2014 season also featured the Giants defeating the Pirates in the NL wild-card game, defeating the top-seeded Nationals in the NLDS in four games, including the first two games in D.C., and rolling all the way to the World Series title.
Under the new postseason format, there have been some uneven results when it comes to teams with the bye. In 2022, the National League’s top two teams – the Dodgers (111-51) and Braves (101-61) – each lost in the divisional round to wild-card winners, prompting some to decry a change to the scheduling. But there were no division-series upsets in the AL that season with the Astros (105-56) and Yankees (99-63) advancing to the championship series.
In 2023, the Rangers and Diamondbacks, both wild-card qualifiers, rolled all the way to the World Series. Texas knocked off the top-seeded Orioles in the division series, sweeping Baltimore 3-0. After sweeping the Brewers in the Wild Card Series, Arizona swept the second-seeded Dodgers (100-62) in the division series, 3-0. The Phillies, who also won a Wild Card Series, beat the top-seeded Braves (104-58) in the division series.
Last season, only one of the top seeds made an early exit. The second-seeded Phillies were upset by the Mets in the division series while the Dodgers, Guardians and Yankees all won their division series.
The Mariners don’t want to be added to that list of top-two seeds bounced out in a five-game series.
Hitting coaches Kevin Seitzer and Bobby Magallanes, who were with the Braves during those postseasons, offered some insights.
“In Atlanta, we did it several different ways,” Seitzer said. “And the last one I felt like was the best. We had a day off, then workout the next day and then it was the full deal. When the wild-card games started, we played intrasquad games the same day.”
But in 2023, the Braves decided to make intrasquad games more real by inviting fans and going through a full-game experience, including a public address announcer, walk-up music, video board and umpires. They felt the intensity of the intrasquad games in past postseasons had been lacking.
“We challenged our guys to bring it,” Seitzer said. “Guys got lots of at-bats. The intensity was there. It was missing in years prior. We didn’t do as well as we wanted in the postseason, but we were ready.”
The Mariners will follow a similar schedule this week:
• Monday – off.
• Tuesday – team workout; not open to the public.
• Wednesday – intrasquad game starting at 2 p.m.; gates open 1 p.m.
• Thursday – intrasquad game starting at 5 p.m.; gates open 4 p.m.
• Friday – team workout; not open to the public.
“We want to try to maintain some level of normal intensity,” Dipoto said, noting that they worked to rest players during the weekend series with the Dodgers. “We want to turn the volume on in a big way when we get to midweek and not cruise into the weekend, thinking that this is a vacation. Because it’s back on in the biggest way it will ever be.”
The Mariners will treat the intrasquad games like a regular game in terms of their daily preparation for a regular-season game, including on-field pregame work like batting practice.
To make the intrasquad games seem more real, they will open the lower bowl of the stadium to fans. There will be a general admission price of $10, which will go to the Mariners Care Foundation. Concessions and the team stores with postseason apparel will also be open.
“I loved the idea of having the fans in the stands,” Dipoto said. “The easiest way to create energy is by leaning into your fan base. Every one of our players is going to play hard. They’re all going to do their work. None of them is going to skip away from the day. That’s just not how this group’s wired. But the way you create energy is with fans, with buzz, with noise in the ballpark, and I do think that that is going to be a critical piece of what we do. I hope the people show out. I think they will.”
To help with those scrimmages and to remain ready for a possible need in the postseason, the Mariners are bringing in more than 10 players for a “taxi squad” for the week with some of them remaining with the team as it advances.
Per multiple sources, the list includes:
• Ben Williamson, 3B.
• Colt Emerson, SS.
• Samad Taylor, IF/OF.
• Rhylan Thomas, OF.
• Collin Snider, RHP.
• Michael Fulmer, RHP.
• Troy Taylor, RHP.
• Logan Evans, RHP.
• Casey Legumina (Gonzaga), RHP.
• Austin Kitchen, LHP.
• Nick Raposo, RHP.
But to catcher Cal Raleigh, it isn’t about the structure of what is being done over the five days to get ready for the postseason as much as it is the responsibility of each player to bring the right focus and intensity to stay ready.
“For me, what I’m going to preach to the clubhouse is just (stay) ready, stay strong,” he said. “I think in this situation, it’s just trying to make every day as normal as possible, stay in the same routine. Don’t take any more off days than you need. Obviously, some guys are more banged up than others, but I would just try to stay in that same game shape – seeing velocity, seeing arms, keeping your arm moving and trying to normalize as much as you can.”
Even though he served as DH in three of the last four games of the season, Raleigh finished the season with 1,072 innings caught – most in the AL. He knows he will likely catch every inning of the postseason. He also feels like his body gets more sore and tired with inactivity. He plans to enjoy Monday and then go back to full work the rest of the week.
“To me, motion is lotion, staying in that routine, staying moving, staying strong. making sure you get your workouts in and doing everything you need to do, trying to stay as crisp as possible,” he said.