Morse Makes Team, Who Else?

I was writing about some other M's tidbits while watching the Mariners play the Cubs, but some breaking news came about so it's time to shift gears.

I had read some discussion in the Seattle Times forum about Bill Bavasi calling Mike Morse "a lock" to make the ballclub on radio, and now Shannon Drayer has confirmed it.

Bavasi probably jumped the gun a little bit, because some announcements were expected after the game, according to Seattle P-I's John Hickey.

The bench picture is starting to clear up, as Willie Bloomquist, Jaime Burke, Miguel Cairo and now Morse have all been guaranteed spots. Morse looked as if he still had a spot to earn today, going 3-for-4 with a big home run.

Whether or not Seattle chooses to carry Greg Norton or Charlton Jimerson will likely depend on reliever Brandon Morrow's status. The aforementioned forum discussion mentioned that Bavasi may have hinted that he would go with the 11-man pitching staff, though Hickey had this to say today:

One thing manager John McClaren said is that right-handed reliever Brandon
Morrow is not, repeat not, headed to the disabled list. there has been some
suggestion that Morrow, who missed two weeks mid-camp, wasn't quite ready to be
Seattle's eighth-inning guy, but the Mariners seem to think otherwise.

McClaren?

While Hickey and the Tribune's Ryan Divish took this to mean Morrow will be with the big club, I still think he'll start in the minors. Divish updated his post around 9 pm after seeing Morrow upset in the locker room, speculating that he was sent down. Greg Norton and Charlton Jimerson are certainly hoping Morrow isn't on the Opening Day roster, because there is no spot for either of them if Seattle goes with a 12-man pitching staff.

Now that Morse is on for sure, who makes the club if Morrow doesn't? At this point Jimerson makes more sense to me. Morse's outfield defense is pretty shotty, so he would probably be more of a spot starter while Jimerson would be a good late inning defensive replacement for Raul Ibanez or Brad Wilkerson. However, McLaren's fondness for Norton is well documented so it wouldn't be too much of a surprise to see him make the team, though the defense would suffer.

No news as far as the Dickey vs. Baek battle. Churchill of Prospect Insider rambles on in the comments section about Seattle trying to slip Dickey through waivers or trying to work a trade with the Twins in an attempt to justify their rumor from a couple days ago. Divish, in the aforementioned blog update, thinks that Baek will take Morrow's spot on the rotation. While I could see this happening, I think it would be foolish and pointless to carry two long relievers in the 'pen.

I'll update the bottom of this post tonight if anything else is announced, so keep checking back. I have a feeling that there will be official announcements regarding Morse and Morrow, though Dickey vs. Baek and Norton vs. Jimerson should still come down to the wire.

Update 10:20 pm PST: Ryan Divish and Geoff Baker report that Brandon Morrow has been optioned to AA West Tennessee and Jeremy Reed has been optioned to AAA Tacoma. It seemed apparent that Morrow would start in the minor leagues after having control issues since experiencing "dead arm syndrome" while in Arizona. Manager John McLaren said the team chose Tennessee because of the warmer weather.

The Reed move is no shock, as he had the slimmest chance of any outfielder to make the team. He'll return to Tacoma where he led the PCL in hits last year. There is no future for Reed in Seattle, and it appears that Bavasi is doing the nice thing and trying to trade him to a better situation, something that he is known for doing.