The Mariners brought Michael Arroyo to the majors to see what he could do. So far, they haven’t really let him do much at all.
Since Seattle promoted him from Triple-A Tacoma on September 6, Arroyo has started one game, taken four plate appearances and spent the rest of his first big-league stint watching from the bench. He opened with an 0-for-3 showing at second base in a win over the Athletics, then logged a pinch-hit appearance Tuesday, sat out Wednesday and was parked again Thursday.
That’s not much of a trial. It’s barely a glimpse.
Arroyo’s minor-league line gave the Mariners a reason to call him up in the first place: an .830 OPS with 18 home runs and 17 stolen bases as he moved from Double-A to Triple-A this season. Tacoma still had games left on the schedule through September 20, so the at-bats were there if Seattle wanted them. Instead, the club took them away and hasn’t exactly replaced them with meaningful reps.
Dan Wilson has framed Arroyo as a right-handed hitter who can help at second base or in left field, either in the lineup or off the bench. That sounds reasonable on paper.
The problem is the actual lineup card. Cole Young is already handling second base every day, and Randy Arozarena is in left field.
Seattle knew playing time would have to be manufactured somehow, but it promoted Arroyo without showing much interest in making that happen.
Wednesday’s game made the situation even harder to explain. Texas started left-hander Cody Bradford, the kind of matchup that would seem to tilt toward a right-handed bat.
Arroyo still stayed on the bench for the full game. Seattle won 3-2, but the result didn’t answer the larger question: why is Arroyo here if he’s not going to play?
The “versatile” label is supposed to help a player find his way into the lineup. In Arroyo’s case, it has done the opposite. He can move around the field, and somehow that seems to make him easier to leave out.
Lazaro Montes has had a very different September. Seattle has managed his playing time, and he has sat through some matchups and mixed in several bench appearances, but Thursday was his fifth start since being promoted September 1, with a brief hip injury also part of the picture.
In 19 at-bats, Montes has already hit two home runs, including a 474-foot blast that set the longest homer at T-Mobile Park in the Statcast era. He also came off the bench Wednesday and doubled.
That doesn’t settle everything about a 21-year-old hitter, but it gives the Mariners something real to work with. He’s seeing major-league pitching, adjusting and making himself part of the conversation.
Arroyo and Montes signed with Seattle in the same international class, climbed the system together and reached the majors five days apart. Montes was the one who called Arroyo to tell him he’d been promoted.
Since then, the two have taken very different paths. One is getting a chance to prove himself.
The other keeps waiting for one.
Seattle may still be mathematically alive, but these games are about more than squeezing out one more favorable matchup. They have to matter for 2027, too.
Maybe Arroyo would struggle if the starts came in bunches. That would still tell the Mariners something. Or maybe his bat would force Wilson’s hand.
Either way, a 21-year-old prospect doesn’t rise through two levels in one season just to sit there. The Mariners spent months looking for a place for Arroyo, finally called him up and then stopped searching. If they want the audition to mean anything, they need to actually hold it.
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