Don’t Count On Seeing Hannahan Again
Heading into spring training, it looked like Jack Hannahan was going to be the team’s utility infielder, playing a couple of times per week and offering the team some decent depth in case one of the regulars needed a day off. Then, he pulled his groin. He missed all of spring training, and then got sent out on a rehab stint with Tacoma. At the the time it started, Wak said they’d like to get Hannahan about 50 at-bats before they brought him back.
Well, he’s got nearly 50 at-bats, and there’s no indication that he’ll be rejoining the Mariners this week, or any week in the near future. In fact, Jack Hannahan may not be in the team’s plans anymore.
The smoking gun here is the Josh Wilson promotion. They would not go to the hassle of putting him on the 40 man roster, then risk having to pass him back through waivers to just fill in as the utility infielder until Hannahan reached the 50 AB mark. The decision to call Wilson up from Tacoma after Sunday’s game means that he’s here for a non-trivial amount of time. They’re not swapping out Hannahan for Wilson.
So, the only other path back to the roster for Jack Hannahan is by taking the roster spot of Ken Griffey Jr (not happening) or Mike Sweeney. While this would improve the team, they’d still lack a first baseman who can give Kotchman a day off against tough lefties or a right-handed bat to pair with Bradley at either LF/DH against LHPs. In reality, given the current roster, the guy who replaces Sweeney on the roster should probably be a right-handed hitting OF/1B/DH type. And that, obviously, is not Hannahan.
The other indication that the team isn’t planning on bringing him back has been his usage down in Tacoma. He’s played in 11 games, starting nine at 3rd base and two at DH. They have made no attempt to groom him as a utility infielder, and even with Wilson promoted on Sunday, he was back at third base last night, with Chris Woodward getting the start at shortstop.
Barring an injury to Figgins or Lopez, I don’t think we’re going to see Hannahan back with the Mariners any time soon. The rehab portion of his assignment is, for all intents and purposes, over – now, he’s just been demoted back to being a Triple-A guy again.
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Daren Brown was talking about playing him at second or short last Wednesday in the TNT. They also said Hannahan was fully healed at this point.
Bummer! I thought having a pretty good glove lefty utility guy was a good idea…..
So he’s probably now a part of Z’s Acme Trade-a-Player kit? Wonder if where they’re playing him in Tacoma gives any hint of who they might be baiting a hook for.
If you’re baiting your hook with Hannahan, what in the world are you fishing for? Goldfish?
Dave-
I don’t know the logistics behind it, but they did play Langerhans a game at 1B down in Tacoma (RF and 1B are the only two positions he logged time). So he might be called on to spell Kotchman in a pinch? Or there’s always Lopez, with a Figgins/Josh Wilson shuffle.
Bummer about Hannahan, though. He would be an obvious choice to take over third and let Lopez play 1B on occasion. I considered Jack the most polished and comfortable looking replacement player we have outside the Seattle clubhouse.
Alas, another victim of Uncle Sweeney and Grandpa Griffey taking up both the spare bedrooms in the house.
Why? Have the Mariners seen something from Hannahan that they do not like? Is this similar to the Garko situation when the M’s looked at the player and decided, “Nope, this won’t work”?
Why would you think Hannahan has any trade value to speak of? How would playing him at 3B in AAA enhance his alleged trade value?
As Dave wrote, the M’s need a righty to compliment Kotchman. And I don’t think the M’s want to shift Lopez around all over the place after giving him a new position this spring.
If we need a first baseman, Lopez can play 1st and Hanahan can play 3rd, as he has in Tacoma.
But with an OPS of only .701 in AAA, I don’t think he’s ready to be promoted yet.
I suppose Hanahan’s best chance to get back to seattle is if something happens to lopez. We all know hes the antithesis of the type of hitter the organization wants, and he has gotten off to a horrid start. It would be nice if he had hit a little to start the season to give him some semblance of trade value. You talked about our leash with griffey, what about the organization’s leash with lopez? i know they have invested a little money in him, but with Ackely, Truinfel and figgins, it doesnt seem theres much room for him in the organization going forward. and certainly hanahan can match what lopez has accomplished with the bat so far while providing a defensive upgrade at third. it seems if pitching and defense is your strategy, its better to take the ace glove who cant hit, not the average glove who cant hit.
Well, get enough goldfish together and you’ve got enough for a pet store….
Well, dang. I have an irrational fondness for Hannahan.
He hardly has any trade value at all, so he must be simply emergency injury protection for the infielders. Which has to kind of suck for his morale, being in a kind of AAA purgatory indefinitely.
So where does Tui play now that he’s back in Tacoma? I figured he would take over at 3B, and Hannahan would play more between 2B/SS. Are they going to move Tui around so they can maintain his efficiency in a utility role?
M’s need a RH IF/OF? Isn’t that Tui? Who else is out there other then Dye?
I was wondering about the Josh W move myself, with Hannahan so close to being ready and the Josh not being on the 40-man.
I’ve never been enthralled with counting on Hannahan as the backup SS. Jack Wilson seems minor injury prone, plus Wak keeps pinch hitting for him (with 643 Mascot … but let’s stay on topic). Having a RH hitter to put into the lineup in place of Kotchman against a lefty is another advantage, with Lopez moving over to 1B.
The only problem is aroung the clubhouse, where Josh will keep being mistaken for somebody’s son, perhaps the love child of Mike Sweeney and Nicole Zaloumis.
LF last night.
It’s interesting that, with all of Tui’s struggles as an infielder the last couple of weeks, they play him in LF so that Hannahan can play 3B. Sounds more like the one being groomed as a utility guy is Tui.
A bench of wilson, moore/johnson, langerhans, griffey and hannahan is solid. Sweeney, go away!
This is similar to what happened with RRS last season, where he went to Tacoma to rehab but ended up staying a while due to various circumstances.
At 50 PA none of the hitting stats are particularly meaningful. If he was a slugger sent down to work on his hitting there might be cause for concern, but that’s hardly the dealbreaker for a guy who is expected to be a defensive sub / utility guy.
Well, someone in the org liked Tui enough to stick him on the 25 man coming out of Spring Training last year. He’s by far the youngest of the bunch (six years younger than Hannahan or Langerhans) so that’s both a point in his favor and a reason to give him more time in Tacoma to work on things.
Whatever the case, at least this organization understands you can get utility infielder production without paying over a million a year for it.
As long as Langerhans is in the lineup tonight, I’ll be happy.
To me this team seems to having a glaring need for Luke Scott, or a player with roughly the same skill sets. I was also intrigued when Brock and Salk brought up Corey Hart, but I’m not sure how realistic getting him would be. I’m not sure if either are left or right handed, but both would be a big boost over Sweeney. Another guy that be nice is Ronney Paulino. He would sevre as the emergency Catcher, emergency outfielder, and Kotchman’s backup. He would be our bench pinch hitter on days Jr. starts. I’d like any of the three, but not sure what the asking price for any of them would be.
As for Hannahan, I’d like to see him called up again. I would like him to be the 14th hitter and replace Colome, but I guess Wak wasn’t fond of the 6 man bullpen. I was a bigger fan of Jack than Josh, but Wilson is probably the better SS.
Well, have a look through the list. There’s a lot of “Do not want!” guys on there (even before you consider most had no real spring training). None of them look to me like better options than Garko (who was released — at least in part — because of his fielding, don’t forget). If Zduriencik does find that kind of a guy, it’ll probably be from another roster — some team that has a now-surplus vet who was keeping a seat warm for a prospect stashed in AAA for service time reasons, etc. But I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Tui’s future in Seattle is as a 1B/3B/LF/RF platoon/bench bat. The Ms have a need for that right now, but Tui needs more time in the outfield first. He has the abilty to be an average-slightly above average corner OF. Give him a couple months and he should be getting close to ready for that type of role. And he could hold that role for the next five years.
Hannahan is a career corner infielder, primarily a third baseman. It would’ve been a bit of an experiment this spring to turn him into a reliable middle infielder. It didn’t happen because of the groin. Though he’s healed enough and back on an active roster it might be too soon to try experimenting with him again. It might be a little while longer before they want to subject his groin to the efforts of mastering two semi-unfamiliar positions. He says he’s fine (what player in his position wouldn’t?) but I’d like to hear the doctors and trainers verify that he’s 100% before I subjected him to a new position.
If he doesn’t shift off of third base in a couple of weeks we’ll know that either the M’s have already seen enough in drills and have gone another direction or they’ve got other ready players they’ll use as back-up middle infielders (Josh Wilson, Woodward, Vazquez) now. And, we will need him if Lopez or Kotchman get hurt or traded.