Mariners notebook: Spring training schedule released

Programming note: As you may have noticed by now, I am on vacation. I will be back with near daily blog posts next Monday, including observations and interviews from a couple of Arizona Fall League games I attended last week. Should anything major happen on the Mariners front before then – and with the free-agency frenzy starting tomorrow, it could – I will be sure to check in here on the blog and update accordingly.

For now, the Mariners have released their spring training schedule. Pitchers and catchers will report to Peoria, Ariz. on Feb. 20 and will play the annual charity game against the Padres on March 4. There will be 16 home games for the Mariners, three of which will be played under the lights. The Mariners will have split-squad games on March 7 and 26 and off days March 16 and April 2.

Like last year, the Mariners will stay in Arizona for the final two days of spring training and play the Rockies on Friday, April 3 in Peoria and then Saturday, April 4 at Salt River Fields in Scottsdale. They then will return to Seattle for the season opener on Monday, April 6 against the Angels.

Tickets for all home games go on sale Jan. 10 and a full spring schedule can be found on the Mariners’ website.

Notes

• The Players Choice Awards will be announced at 5 p.m. today on the MLB Network. Felix Hernandez is a candidate for American League Pitcher of the Year and Chris Young is up for Comeback Player of the Year.

• While the Mariners do not have any candidates for the qualifying offer, teams that do have until 2 p.m. today to issue qualifying offers to impending free agents to ensure they get draft-pick compensation should that player sign with another team.

• Today is also the deadline for teams to reinstate players from the 60-day disabled list. The Mariners took care of this last week by moving Willie Bloomquist back to the 40-man roster, which now is at 34.