Mariners notebook: Final month a tryout for Brad Miller in center field

HOUSTON – September will be a month of evaluations for a number of Mariners and perhaps no one will be watched closer than Brad Miller. Seattle needs a center fielder and he could be the answer. How much can be learned in the next 29 games?

“I think we feel if Brad Miller plays most days out in center field, we will have a pretty good feel of whether or not he will be capable of manning that position in 2016,” interim general manager Jeff Kingston said Tuesday on the pregame show, “or is that something that we really need to go out and seek to upgrade in the offseason?”

It was a year ago when Miller earned the endorsement of outfield coach Andy Van Slyke for a possible move. While Miller has always seen himself as a shortstop and a shortstop only, Van Slyke saw him tracking balls in the outfield during batting practice and liked what he saw. Van Slyke liked what he saw even better when he put Miller through some drills in late September. Talks of a move were quashed in the spring but the option was re-examined when Chris Taylor was called up earlier this season. Now a serious look will be given.

Kingston discussed what the team would be looking for in particular from Miller to get a feel for whether or not he could make the move quickly.

“The jumps he gets on balls, the instincts he has reading the ball off the bat and just his overall route efficiency,” Kingston said. “How efficient is he at tracking balls? Is he doing a lot of S-curves or is he doing a lot of straight lines? We know he is fast enough. How are his instincts and can he be efficient enough running after balls?”

Kingston won’t just rely on the eye test and word of coaches for the evaluation. With MLB.com’s Statcast now giving the team new data, jumps can be timed and rated much more accurately than they ever have been before. It is a smaller sample size but Kingston believes they have enough time to make a good evaluation and determine if center field is a need in the offseason.

Lineup!

Ketel Marte, SS
Kyle Seager, 3B
Nelson Cruz, RF
Robinson Cano, 2B
Franklin Gutierrez, DH
Seth Smith, LF
Mark Trumbo, 1B
Brad Miller, CF
John Hicks, C
Roenis Elias, LHP

M’s make first wave of September call-ups

The first wave of September call-ups are here, in uniform and available if needed Tuesday night. Joining the Mariners from Triple-A are right-handers Tony Zych and Jose Ramirez, infielder Shawn O’Malley and outfielder Stefen Romero. We should see three or four additional call-ups when the Rainiers’ season ends next week.

AFL rosters announced

Arizona Fall League rosters were announced Tuesday. The Mariners will send the following players to join the Peoria Javelinas: left-handers Paul Fry, James Paxton and David Rollins; Zych; infielders D.J. Peterson and Tyler Smith; and outfielder Tyler O’Neill.

Paxton is scheduled to pitch the entire fall-league schedule with the hope being that between fall league, rehab starts, a couple of instructional-league starts and regular-season starts, he will be able to amass around 130 innings for the year. He will not pitch in winter ball.

Players heading to winter ball include Romero, James Jones, Jabari Blash and Vidal Nuno. They will pitch in Venezuela for the Tigres de Aragua, a team that bullpen coach Mike Rojas will manage.

Note

• Paxton is scheduled to start for Tacoma on Wednesday. He is on the same schedule as Taijuan Walker, whom manager Lloyd McClendon said would be skipped in the rotation sometime soon.

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