As we’re just about a week now from Seattle Mariners opening day, one of the big storylines we were following and tracking throughout all of spring training was the development and the potential for Colt Emerson to be on the opening day roster.

Seattle Mariners Updates: Latest on J.P. Crawford’s shoulder; Julio, Naylor back

As we sit here today, we still don’t know. He is the only young player who hasn’t been returned to minor league camp, so there’s still a possibility that he could end up on the major league team. And obviously that would grow if J.P. Crawford were truly hurt. It doesn’t look like that’s the case. J.P. is either gonna be ready on opening day or soon afterwards, so my guess is they would go with the Leo Rivas for a short time if they needed to before J.P. was ready to return.

If he’s not going to be your everyday shortstop, it’s really difficult for me to see how you are going to squeeze Colt Emerson onto the roster. If he had been unbelievable, if he had the same spring training that Julio Rodríguez did in 2022 where you just say you can’t keep this guy off the roster, he’s just clearly a major league player, then I guess you would find a way. You would move some people around and you might take some of at-bats away even from Cole Young and just say this kid’s too good.

Heating Up: Colt Emerson hits second HR of spring

But there are some major differences from when that happened with Julio. One of them, this team is expected to contend in a way that Julio team was not necessarily at the beginning of the year. And secondly, they just don’t have as much open space on the everyday roster.

If you wanted to throw Julio in center field that year, you could. It’s not like he was taking the job from somebody who was so good that you couldn’t move him out of there. Brendan Donovan should be playing every day. Cole Young, you want to see if he can play every single day. They have guys in their infield that they want to play every day, and I know J.P. can cause some polarization among fans, but the guy was a 3.8 bWAR player last year. He’s a pretty good player and is exactly what you want on a contending team as opposed to a young kid who has only played 40 games above the Single-A level.

I like Colt Emerson. He’s gonna play this year. I can’t wait to see him at the big league level. I don’t think it’s going to be on opening day.

This post is a transcript of the video at the top of the post. It is edited for clarity. Catch Mike Salk weekdays from 6-10 a.m. on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk.

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Former Seattle Mariners catching prospect Harry Ford was optioned to Triple-A Rochester by the Washington Nationals on Wednesday.

Seattle Mariners announce roster for 2026 Spring Breakout game

Ford, 23, was a top prospect in the Mariners’ organization and a top-100 prospect in all of baseball for multiple years after being selected 12th overall in the first round of the 2021 MLB Draft, but his path to regular playing time in the major leagues was blocked by American League MVP runner-up Cal Raleigh.

After a stellar showing in Triple-A where he produced a .408 on-base percentage, .868 OPS and 16 homers in 97 games with Tacoma, Ford had a cup of coffee with the M’s last season when he was called up as rosters expanded to 28 players in September. Ford appeared in eight games and went 1 for 6 with an RBI, which included a walkoff sac fly against the Los Angels Angels on Sept. 11. He added a single in his only plate appearance during the playoffs.

With Ford’s future in Seattle murky due to a lack of opportunities at catcher, the Mariners sent him and minor league pitcher Isaac Lyon to the Nationals on Dec. 6 in exchange for left-handed reliever Jose A. Ferrer, who is expected to fill a high-leverage role with the M’s.

Ford was 3 for 14 with one double, two RBIs and three walks to seven strikeouts in seven games for Washington this spring. He also went 3 for 15 with one home run and two RBIs over four games while playing for Great Britain during the World Baseball Classic.

The decision to start Ford in Triple-A means the Nationals will open the season with Keibert Ruiz and Drew Millas as their catching options.

The 27-year-old Ruiz is the returning starter and a former top prospect who was acquired in a 2021 trade that sent right-hander Max Scherzer and shortstop Trea Turner to the Los Angeles Dodgers. But he missed the final three months of last season due to lingering symptoms from two concussions suffered over the span of one month. Ruiz is signed through the 2030 season with club options for 2031 and 2032.

First-year Nationals manager Blake Butera told reporters Wednesday that Ford is still very much a part of the club’s plans moving forward.

“I told Harry today when we sent him down, he’s going to be a huge part of our future,” manager Blake Butera said via NatsJournal.com’s Mark Zuckerman. “Him going to Triple-A right now has nothing to do with we don’t think highly of him anymore. No, that’s not it. And it’s not anything he did or didn’t do right or wrong.”

Ford is Washington’s third-ranked prospect and No. 71 league-wide, per MLB Pipeline.

Three more top prospects among latest Seattle Mariners spring cuts

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SEATTLE – The Seattle Kraken saw nearly every mistake they made on Tuesday night end up in the back of their net in a 6-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Nikita Kucherov had a hat trick and two assists for a five-point night to lead the Lightning as the league’s second-leading scorer capitalized on multiple Seattle miscues.

Three goals came directly off Kraken turnovers, and the fourth came on a bad line change, and the fifth on a power play as Philipp Grubauer was repeatedly hung out to dry in goal. Grubauer allowed five goals on 24 shots, but had practically no chance on all of them.

“Our mistakes were really catastrophic,” head coach Lane Lambert said. “Obviously, some really, really poor decisions. … We’re making some mistakes here that you can’t make. I’m not even going to say they’re uncharacteristic, because apparently they are at the moment.”

Bobby McMann scored his fourth goal in three games since being cleared to join the Kraken lineup, and Jared McCann also scored for Seattle. However, they were unable to completely erase a 3-0 Tampa lead as they were unable to extend their winning streak to three games.

The Lightning looked like a well-oiled machine for the first 21 minutes of action in building their three-goal advantage.

McCann got trapped on the wall at the Seattle blue line as Gage Goncalves checked McCann off the puck and beat Grubauer off passes from Jake Guentzel and Brayden Point for a 1-0 lead.

Late in the first period, Kucherov picked the puck off the stick of Ben Meyers in the Kraken zone and buried a tap-in goal off a give-and-go with Brandon Hagel for a 2-0 lead.

Kucherov got his second less than a minute into the second period as Seattle got caught in a bad change. A stretch pass from Darren Raddysh caught the Kraken out-numbered with Kucherov serving as the beneficiary of another tap-in goal off passes from Hagel and Anthony Cirelli for a 3-0 advantage.

“They do a good job in the neutral zone,” said McMann, who played the Lightning in the Atlantic Division with the Toronto Maple Leafs. “They make it hard to enter the zone and get possession or establish a forecheck. I think that’s probably the biggest strength of the game. And then if you’re not diligent with the puck and you turn it over, I think, they go the other way pretty good and they have the skill to make it count.”

However, it took just 10 seconds for the Kraken to answer to get back into the contest on McMann’s fourth goal in three games with Seattle. Matty Beniers made a leaping stop to keep the puck in the offensive zone and set up McMann while falling to the ice. McMann sniped a shot over Andrei Vasilevskiy’s right shoulder from the left dot to cut the lead to 3-1.

McCann added a goal just as a power play expired midway through the period to trim the Lightning lead to 3-2 at the break. After generating almost nothing on the power play, McCann led one last rush into Tampa’s zone and found his way in front of goal with the puck, lifting a shot by Vasilevskiy to make it a one-goal game.

A hooking penalty on Charle-Edouard D’Astous gave the Kraken a power play chance to tie the game shortly afterward that Seattle was unable to convert. After Grubauer made a stellar save on Brandon Hagel to keep in a one-goal game, Vasilevskiy made a big stop on a Freddy Gaudreau chance to preserve Tampa’s advantage.

A missed slashing call from Hagel on Beniers allowed Tampa to turn another ‘turnover’ into a goal as Cirelli cleaned up a loose puck in front of Grubauer for a 4-2 lead.

Vasilevskiy delivered two more big saves on Adam Larsson and Jordan Eberle to prevent the Kraken from cutting into the lead before the Lightning put the game firmly away.

Hagel added a power play goal with McMann in the box for a boarding penalty against D’Astous. Kucherov, Goncalves and Hagel combined for a great passing sequence that again left Grubauer defenseless.

“These mistakes are really costing us and Grubi had no chance on all the goals,” Lambert said.

“The penalty kill goal that they scored off the rush at the end is inexcusable. You know, we can’t give that goal up. we made a mistake, and these mistakes have to stop.”

Kucherov polished off the hat trick with an empty net goal for his 37th goal of the season as he moved in front of Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon for second in the league in points at 111, trailing only Edmonton’s Connor McDavid (115). 

MORE KRAKEN NEWS FROM FOX 13 SEATTLE

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