Rowland-Smith: Who will be odd man out in Mariners’ logjam at 1B/DH?

The Mariners have four players on their active roster who, in a vacuum, would probably have first base listed as their primary position.

And they’re all hitting.

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Jay Bruce’s .188 batting average is plenty palatable right now thanks to his .919 OPS and MLB-leading seven home runs.

Three-time All-Star Edwin Encarnación has a .316/.458/.632 slash line, and with four homers in 10 games appears on his way to an eighth straight 30-homer season.

Ryon Healy is off to a great start at the plate mainly filling in at third base for an injured Kyle Seager, hitting .288 with three homers, four walks, eight doubles and 12 RBIs.

And Daniel Vogelbach has been the biggest surprise of all, crushing five home runs and four doubles while maintaining a .500 average, .621 on-base percentage and 1.984 OPS in eight games.

That’s also creating a bit of a problem for the Mariners, albeit a good one to have. With so many players hitting so well, how do you handle playing time? And it’s only going to get tougher when Seager returns from hand surgery in May or June.

Former MLB pitcher Ryan Rowland-Smith, a Mariners analyst for 710 ESPN Seattle and ROOT Sports, told Danny, Dave and Moore on Tuesday that one of those players is more likely than the rest to end up playing elsewhere as a result of Seattle’s depth.

“I still think Edwin would be that odd man out, especially once Kyle Seager comes back – not in a bad way,” Rowland-Smith said. “But this is a chance to offload either him or Jay Bruce, and I think it would be Edwin because you can get a lot for him – a couple months into the season a team doesn’t have to pay him as much.”

According to spotrac.com, Encarnación has a base salary of $20 million this year plus a $20 million club option for next year that comes with a $5 million buyout if it is not picked up. That hefty contract makes him not as moveable as the Mariners might hope, and likely is the prime reason he wasn’t flipped by Seattle general manager Jerry Dipoto after being acquired from Cleveland over the offseason. But as Rowland-Smith pointed out, the longer the season goes on, the less another team would be on the hook to pay the veteran slugger if he was traded. And with his track record and continued production, Encarnación would be a big boost to any team in the postseason mix looking for offensive help.

But could the Mariners’ lineup afford losing Encarnación’s bat?

“It’s pretty crazy to want to dismantle that,” Rowland-Smith said of the production Seattle is getting out of the combination of Encarnación, Bruce, Vogelbach and Healy, “but you have to do something, especially when Kyle Seager comes back. Vogey stays where he’s at, Jay Bruce stays there, Ryon Healy you probably platoon, and Edwin you try and flip him for… who knows?”

While the M’s have been committed to a rebuild and adding prospects to their farm system, trading Encarnación might present an opportunity to help out the 2019 team without taking away from the rebuild.

“They might flip him for a starting pitcher or relief help,” Rowland-Smith said.

You can hear the full segment with Rowland-Smith in the player embedded in this post or in a podcast version at this link.

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