The final series of the season for the Seattle Mariners will be without one of their rookie utilitymen. INF Brock Rodden was placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to September 23rd, with left patella tendon inflammation. Correspondingly, Seattle activated INF Leo Rivas to fill the role for the final weekend of the regular season.
The move concludes what’s been a difficult debut for Rodden. After a spark of hot initial play on Seattle’s brutal August road trip, the diminutive switch-hitter
cooled at the plate and struggled to compensate defensively. Despite impressive power in the minors, Rodden didn’t manage to get the barrel to the ball consistently in Seattle. His year concluded with a .197/.306/.279 line, a 77 wRC+ and -0.4 fWAR in 72 plate appearances and 30 games. Good plate discipline and switch-hitting helped him run a healthy walk rate, but he’ll enter his age 27 season in 2027 trying to find better timing against big league arms.
Much of what’s been said of Rodden could apply to the 28 year old Rivas in 2026. A good showing in Seattle a season ago did not translate forward, with the M’s sorely needing depth he struggled to provide early in the year. Losing favor to several debuting youngsters, Rivas was more competent in his return to the bigs back in August, but will likely receive sporadic play at most in the final few games of the regular season.
