Nori Aoki’s Future With The Seattle Mariners Looks Bleak

Out of all the Seattle Mariners‘ offseason signings and trades, no player looked like a safer bet than Nori Aoki, who signed a one-year, $5.5 million contract this past offseason. His average was between .285 to .288 in each of his last three seasons while playing for three different teams (Milwaukee Brewers, Kansas City Royals and San Francisco Giants) and he was expected to continue at that pace. He has only hit .245 so far for the Mariners in 2016.

It seems that the Mariners have finally had enough, as Aoki was sent down to the minors this last week. Unfortunately for Aoki, it will be a long climb back up. The Mariners gave the reason that Aoki has been struggling against left-handed pitching and he is being sent down to work on his consistency.

That is fine and all, but why would the Mariners put the time into a player who is most likely leaving after this season instead of giving a shot to someone a bit younger and more embedded in the organization? Unless Aoki forces his way into the Mariners’ plans, his being sent down to the minors might as well have been the end of his time with the team.

Aoki was brought in to be a sort of Ichiro Suzuki type player. His consistency, fielding and base running have been anything but. I am pretty sure every Mariner fan would gladly give up Aoki for Ichiro at this point. In all honesty, the Mariners trading Aoki might be the best-case scenario, but getting someone like Ichiro for him is never going to happen.

One plus for Aoki, and a big minus for the Mariners, is that Boog Powell has recently been suspended for 80 games for a failed PED test. If I were to have guessed a month ago who was the next to crack the Mariners’ outfield it would have been Powell, but that isn’t happening now. Unfortunately for Aoki, there are plenty of options for the Mariners’ outfield right now, such as Alex Jackson (who has been struggling a bit himself).

With Aoki not in the majors anymore, Seth Smith, Franklin Gutierrez, Adam Lind and Dae-ho Lee will all see more time in the lineup. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but with the way the Mariners have been dealing with injuries lately, it might be wishful thinking that the current group will last for the rest of the season. The Mariners need to start thinking trades, and Aoki might have just made himself the most expendable trade chip on the team.