If Brock Rodden wasn’t on your radar before this week, he is now.
The Mariners rookie made a loud first impression Friday night in Houston, collecting his first big league hit and driving in two runs late in Seattle’s wild 10-7 loss to the Astros. For a moment, it looked like Rodden had helped author one of the more memorable debuts in club history.
Down by a run in the eighth inning with two aboard, Rodden pulled a ground-rule double into the right-field corner at Daikin Park to score pinch-runner Weston Wilson and tie the game at 5-5. After the game, he called the moment “really special” and said, “Just running down the line, I was just hoping it would stay fair. It was getting close to hooking foul, so just grateful that it stayed fair.”
Rodden wasn’t finished. After Victor Robles ripped an RBI triple for his third hit of the night to put Seattle ahead 6-5 in the 10th, Rodden followed with a fly ball to Astros left fielder Taylor Trammell that brought Robles home for an insurance run.
The Mariners needed more than that. Houston answered with five runs in the bottom of the 10th, capped by Christian Walker’s walk-off homer, and the comeback sent Seattle home with the loss.
Even so, Rodden’s debut gave the Mariners something to hang onto.
“It was unbelievable. I had so much fun out there,” Rodden said. “I was definitely a little nervous at first, but after a few pitches went in the zone, I was back to playing baseball like always.”
A 2023 fifth-round pick out of Wichita State, Rodden is ranked as Seattle’s No. 19 prospect by MLB Pipeline and No. 18 by Baseball America. The 5-foot-7 switch-hitter hasn’t drawn the same buzz as some of the bigger names in the organization, but he’s put together a solid minor league track record.
In 298 games across four seasons in the minors, he posted a .270/.349/.451 line with an .800 OPS. This season at Triple-A Tacoma, he hit .262 with 19 home runs and an .841 OPS in 92 games.
Rodden gets another crack at building on that debut Saturday, when he is again in the lineup at shortstop and batting ninth for the Mariners in the 4:10 p.m. game in Houston.
The Mariners also made a roster move Saturday, claiming right-handed pitcher Troy Watson off waivers from the Detroit Tigers. Watson, 29, will report to Triple-A Tacoma, and his addition fills Seattle’s 40-man roster.
Watson was a 15th-round pick out of Northern Colorado by the Blue Jays in 2018. In Triple-A this season, he is 4-3 with a 2.89 ERA and one save in 21 games, including 12 starts.
Seattle also adjusted its lineup for the middle game of the series. Brendan Donovan is batting leadoff for the first time since returning from the injured list last week. Donovan missed nearly three months with a left groin muscle strain and has gone 5 for 29 (.172) since being activated, dropping his season line to .248/.344/.389 with a .733 OPS in 33 games.
Recently acquired outfielder Taylor Ward remains out of the lineup for the third straight day. He had quad tightness when he was held out for Thursday’s series finale in New York, according to Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times.
Saturday’s Mariners Radio Network broadcast will be available on the Seattle Sports app as usual, but the terrestrial radio feed will air on 770 AM in the Seattle area because it overlaps with coverage of the Seahawks’ first preseason game. The pregame show begins at 3 p.m.
In Other News...
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Kade Andersons Mariners Debut Put One Pitch Under Immediate Scrutiny
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One layer of that adjustment is the baseball itself. The majors use a different ball than Double-A, with changes in composition and stitching that can alter pitch movement, including spin and vertical break, and pitchers making that jump often see subtle changes right away in how their offerings carry or finish. For a young arm like Anderson, that makes his first outing less of a verdict than a starting point, with one pitch in particular now under the kind of scrutiny that can shape the conversation around his next turn. [Read more 🡒]