Willie Bloomquist’s career with Mariners comes to its apparent end

The Mariners designated veteran utilityman Willie Bloomquist for assignment Thursday to make room for infielder Chris Taylor, who has been recalled from Triple-A Tacoma.

BY SHANNON DRAYER

Jul 2, 2015, 1:07 PM Updated: 1:21 pm

Follow on Google News

The M's designated Willie Bloomquist for assignment Thursday, ending his second stint with the team. (AP)

(AP)

OAKLAND, Calif. – Willie Bloomquist’s second stint with the Mariners has come to an end. News broke Wednesday night that Chris Taylor had been called back to the big leagues. To make room for him, the Mariners designated Bloomquist for assignment. While there is the possibility he could clear waivers and accept an assignment to the minors, this looks unlikely as Thursday morning Bloomquist Tweeted a farewell message to the fans.

Just want to thank all of you Mariner fans for a lifetime of memories in a mariner uniform. Can't thank you enough for 7 1/2 memorable yrs!

— Willie Bloomquist (@williebloom) July 2, 2015

Bloomquist played in 622 games (21st-most in club history) for the Mariners, batting .259/.314/.318/632 while playing every position except for pitcher and catcher. What can’t be measured in the numbers is what he brought off the field. Peter Gammons Tweeted Thursday morning a story of how big an influence Bloomquist was on a future All-Star, Adam Jones.

This was not uncommon. Bloomquist has a great foundation in baseball, having played at Arizona State under Pat Murphy and coming up on a team managed by Lou Piniella. He was a rookie in a Mariners clubhouse that included Edgar Martinez, Dan Wilson, John Olerud, Bret Boone, Mark McLemore, John Mabry, Mike Cameron and Jamie Moyer, and the lessons he learned from them he passed on wherever he saw the opportunity.

He has never been a lead-by-example-only or lead-only-when-performing-well type of player. It didn’t matter if the young player he was helping could take his position and it didn’t matter the position the player played. Earlier this season I saw him spend a good amount of time talking with Taijuan Walker when Walker was struggling. I wasn’t in the least bit surprised to see that.

Ultimately it comes down to what you do on the field and this year has been a struggle for Bloomquist. At age 37 and coming off a second micro-fracture surgery, the odds were stacked against him. Limited playing time, which was part of his role, did not help and he was unable to get the bat going consistently.

If he feels physically able, I have no doubt he will seek to continue playing. For now, however, his days as a Mariner appear to be over.