Brock Rodden has wasted little time making himself useful for the Mariners.
Since getting the call to Seattle last week, the infielder has given the bottom of the lineup a jolt, and the early returns have been strong enough to stand out even amid a roster in motion. The Mariners are still chasing October at 61-68, sitting third in the American League West, four games back of the Houston Astros and three games out of the final wild card spot. With the club trying to manufacture a late push, Rodden has become one of the quieter but more interesting additions.
His arrival came as the corresponding move when former top prospect Colt Emerson landed on the injured list with a wrist issue. Emerson drew most of the attention, but Rodden has made sure he hasn’t been an afterthought.
“He's a gamer,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said in a pregame interview Friday at T-Mobile Park. “I think we all knew that.
We saw it a lot in spring training, but that's how he plays. What he has done since he's gotten here has been very similar.
(He's) come up with some big hits, got a huge hit for us and picked up a couple RBIs there in the Houston series, and then, in Milwaukee, continued to swing the bat well. What he's done defensively has been very good, as well.
Losing Colt obviously at (shortstop) was a tough blow. But Brock, what he's done so far, has been really good for us.”
Through 28 plate appearances in seven major league games, Rodden has hit .250/.321/.417 with a .738 OPS. He has two doubles, a triple and three RBIs.
Even in the games where the box score doesn’t show a hit, Rodden has still managed to leave a mark. In Seattle’s 6-5 win over Chicago on Friday, he went 0-for-4 but reached on a throwing error and scored.
He also came within inches of a home run twice, with both right-handed fly balls dying on the warning track in left field. Later, batting left-handed, he sent another deep drive 323 feet into right field before it dropped a foot short of the warning track.
Any one of those swings would have been his first big league homer and his first hit at T-Mobile Park.
Seattle’s front office has made clear that Emerson remains the shortstop of the future. Jerry Dipoto’s public comments after the injury pointed toward relief and reassurance, with the belief that the former first-round pick’s issues are tied to his wrist. That leaves Rodden in a trickier spot long term, because Emerson is still penciled in as the starter at shortstop once he’s healthy.
For now, though, Rodden has done enough to make the question worth asking. If he keeps producing like this, the Mariners may not have much of a choice when it comes to keeping him in the mix beyond this season.
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