The Mariners have shut down 24-year old lefty swinging 1B Mike Carp for the rest of the year due to a partially torn plantar fascia in his right foot. Carp played in 14 games for the Mariners this year and he was 7 of 37 (.189 avg, .512 OPS) with 1 run scored. He has now played in 35 games in his first two years with the Mariners and he is 24 of 91 (.264 avg, .732 OPS) with 8 runs scored, 1 homer and 5 RBIs. This injury comes at a bad time for Carp as Justin Smoak is tearing the cover off the ball to end the year.

27-year old lefty swinging 1B Casey Kotchman has always had a good glove. The Mariners were expecting him to hit around .270 with a handful of homers but that just hasn’t been the case so far this year. Kotchman has played in 124 games for the Mariners this year and he is 90 of 414 (.217 avg, .616 OPS) with 37 runs scored, 9 homers and 51 RBIs. The Mariners have tried to replace Kotchman a couple of times by adding Russell Branyan and Justin Smoak in trades but Branyan got hurt and Smoak was ineffective before getting sent to the minors. With the Mariners likely in a slight rebuilding mode next year I just don’t see Kotchman on the team.

28-year old righty closer David Aardsma wasn’t near as good as he was in 2009 this year, but he still was decent. Aardsma has pitched in 53 games (0 starts) for the Mariners this year and he is 0-6 with 31 saves, a 3.44 ERA and a 1.17 WHIP. He has now pitched in 126 games (0 starts) in his two years in Seattle and he is 3-12 with 69 saves, a 2.90 ERA and a 1.17 WHIP. Aardsma has been a really nice find for the Mariners as he was not that effective in his career before getting to Seattle. He pitched in 128 games (0 starts) in his four years before coming to the Mariners and he was 10-3 with a 5.29 ERA and a 1.65 WHIP.

The Mariners were content to go into this season with 26-year old righty swinging catchers Rob Johnson and Adam Moore. They thought that one of them would step up and take the starting job but neither did as they have both sucked this year. Johnson has played in 61 games for the Mariners this year and he is 34 of 178 (.191 avg, .574 OPS) with 24 runs scored, 2 homers and 13 RBIs. Moore has played in 52 games for the Mariners this year and he is 30 of 177 (.169 avg, .459 OPS) with 11 runs scored, 4 homers and 12 RBIs. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Mariners signed a veteran to start at catcher next year with Johnson and Moore going back to the minors.

26-year old righty swinging 3B Jose Lopez played in 312 games in 2008+2009 for the Mariners in which he was 358 for 1,257 (.285 avg) with 149 runs scored, 42 homers and 185 RBIs. That led the Mariners to believe that they could count on him for power and run production. But in 2010, Lopez fell into the team slump the Mariners are in (minus Ichiro). Lopez has played in 137 games this year for the Mariners and he is 129 of 545 (.237 avg, .590 OPS) with 43 runs scored, 7 homers and 50 RBIs. I think that when Don Wakamatsu switched positions for Lopez and Chone Figgins right before the season started that it screwed both of them up.