In what seems to be the "throw spaghetti on the ceiling and see what sticks" approach to left field, the M's went out and picked up Jody Gerut on a minor league contract with an invitation to Spring Training. The curious thing about Gerut is he very well could be the starter in left field on opening day or he could be cut and playing in the system of some other team. Both outcomes are probably equally as likely. That tells you how fluid the left field situation is for the M's.
Gerut is an interesting player. His 2003 rookie campaign was actually quite good with a .279/.336/.494 line and 22 HR's in just 127 games. He was fourth overall in the rookie of the year voting, getting beat out by the likes of Rocco Baldelli and Angel Berroa, so I guess he should just be happy he's still around.
Just two seasons ago, he was a 3.1 WAR player with the Padres, hitting .296 with 14 home runs, 46 runs, and 43 RBI in only 100 games. And then he turned into a pumpkin and was terrible in 2009 and even worse in 2010. There are some indications that he was just getting a raw deal in the luck department (.239 and .231 BABIP vs. a .279 career) but in general, in a brief stint last season, he was striking out a ton, the balls he did hit were smashed into the turf (61% ground ball rate - even Ichiro was at 57%), he was reaching for more balls out of the zone and making contact far less than he used to.
But last year was just 32 games in the bigs, prior to that, he was tearing up the minor leagues with both the Brewers and Padres, so it's not like he is mailing it in quite yet.
It's also worth noting that when he was a rookie his manager was Eric Wedge.
Gerut has a history of being good and stinking horribly in cycles. So who knows, maybe this is a rebound year for him and we'll get a little lightning in a bottle.
Jody Gerut. Mariner Outfielder. Maybe.
6 comments:
I would rather see the Mariners platoon Gerut and Michael Saunders than to put Milton Bradley out there. I thought for sure the M's would have eaten the rest of his contract for '11 and just called it a wash after his arrest. One could only wish though.
Robert - Gerut bats lefty so platooning him and Saunders probably doesn't make much sense. There are a lot of options for LF, but here's hoping that Saunders finally learns to hit lefties worth a damn and wins the job outright. He should be the guy.
I've said it before, but I swear Bradley still being on the roster is a smokescreen for Lueke likely making this team.
Gerut had a really nice year for the Padres a couple years back. He was then shipped off to the Brewers in exchange for the PR smokescreen that was Tony Gwynn Jr.'s return to San Diego.
I liked Gerut. But like you say... he seems to go in cycles.
He hit the first dong in the history of Citi Field... are the Mariners opening any parks this year? Eh...
Your bitter rival to the south.
AJM
Beats the hell out of Bradley. A bigger question for the M's OF in my mind is Frankie. What direction is he going offensively?
AJM - oh you cursed Padres! Our rivalry is unparalleled!
Yeah maybe Gerut can tap into some of that 08 magic.
Jim, I think Guti should have the same general power and stolen base figures while hitting something closer to .260. But with his defense if he can do that it makes him awfully valuable.
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