CINCINNATI — Michael Mariot had a deadline — if he didn’t get signed by an affiliated minor league team, a team in Mexico or a team in Asia by June 9th, he was going to retire.
He’d thought about retiring after a 2022 season that saw him play pitch for two Triple-A teams and in Taiwan, but his wife encouraged him to give it one more shot.
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Mariot, 34, had 44 games under his belt in the big leagues and two wins and two saves on his ledger from his time with the Royals and Phillies, but he hadn’t stepped on a big-league mound since October 2, 2016.
Since pitching in Philadelphia against the Mets in the final game of that season, Mariot’s lived up to his soundalike surname by appearing all over the world, pitching for 12 different teams, five big-league organizations, and in six leagues that were either unaffiliated or in another country and in three foreign countries.
He signed on for one last shot, joining the Cleburne Railroaders of the independent American Association of Independent Baseball, a league whose website boats “We play for the love of the game” — which tells you all you need to know about the salary structure.
Mariot and his wife decided that if he didn’t get an offer by his deadline, they were going to Hawaii to visit family. He booked flights and a hotel — on points, one of the few benefits of his nomadic lifestyle — leaving on June 16. The last day to cancel his trip without penalty was June 9, so that was the day. If nothing happened by then, he’d pitch June 10 for Cleburn in Gary, Ind., and then again the next week at home before hanging them up.
Of course, it was on June 9 that the Cincinnati Reds called and offered him one last shot.
Monday evening, Mariot strolled into the interview room at Great American Ball Park, sat at a table with a microphone and saw several reporters and TV cameras waiting for him.
“Fourteen years (in professional baseball) and this is the first time I’ve sat in one of these,” Mariot said as he sat down following the Reds’ 6-3 victory over the Mariners on Monday.
On a team that has been beset by injuries and dealt with an outbreak of COVID that, together, required a total of 23 transactions over the course of four days, Mariot was just the latest addition to a Reds team fighting for its spot in the wild card race.
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Not only that, Mariot would be counted on against one of the hottest teams in baseball, the Seattle Mariners, in what would amount to a bullpen day. After two perfect innings from opener Tejay Antone, a scoreless inning from Sam Moll and another inning from Daniel Duarte, Mariot’s name was called to hang on to a 5-1 lead.
“I forgot how much it made my heart race,” Mariot said. “The second I heard my name, my heart started pounding and I just started throwing.”
Mariot gave up a homer to DH Mike Ford in the fifth, but that was the only run to go along with four hits and a walk in 2.2 innings. He had two strikeouts, one of maybe the hottest player in baseball, Julio Rodríguez, and the other of former Red Eugenio Suárez.
Mariot was the 62nd different player used by the Reds this season, just four shy of the record of 66, set last season when the team lost 100 games.
“These are really extra special (wins), it feels like so many players, so many pitchers have contributed,” Reds manager David Bell said. “There’s been a lot the last few days and today feels like an organizational win.”
Bell said as difficult as it has been to see what the team’s gone through the last four days, it was special to watch Mariot’s moment.
“At some point in the next couple of days, I want to have him take me through the whole journey,” Bell said. “But what a reward at the end of it. I would imagine it makes it all very worth it.”
The Chattanooga Reds
The Double-A Chattanooga Lookouts’ rotation to start the season included Andrew Abbott, Connor Phillips, Christian Roa, Sam Benschoter and Joe Boyle. Lyon Richardson joined the rotation at the end of the month when Abbott was promoted to Triple-A.
It wasn’t until June 8 that right-hander Carson Spiers got a chance to start for the Lookouts and he made a relief appearance as recently as July 22. Spiers was scheduled to start for the Lookouts Saturday, but was scratched as he was needed to start for the Reds against the Cubs on Sunday.
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Because of all the injury issues and four players on the COVID-19 injured list, the big league team has started Richardson, Abbott, Spiers and Antone in its last four games and Connor Phillips is slated to start Tuesday. Of those five, which constitutes a full turn of a five-man rotation, none appeared in the big leagues this season before June 5, when Abbott made his debut. Three of those started the season in Double A, Richardson started in Low A and Antone was on the IL and didn’t pitch in front of paying fans until last month.
“I can’t imagine what the Triple-A team is going through now, they’ve got to be so short,” Bell said after Monday’s win.
Phillips will be the 16th Reds player to make his big-league debut this season and the 23rd rookie. The same number the team used in 2022. Spiers was the 15th.
Facing the Cubs instead of Pensacola Blue Wahoos, Spiers struggled in his first two innings, needing 27 pitches to get through a one-run first and 35 to get through the two-run second.
“I felt like the adrenaline wore off in the third and then it was go time, basically,” Spiers said. “That’s easy to say because it was a clean inning, but I really felt like my pitches were more sharp, whether that was being more out in front of them (on the release) or just being more comfortable on the mound. The third inning was definitely where I need to be.”
Spiers started the third by striking out Cody Bellinger and then Dansby Swanson before getting Seiya Suzuki to ground out. That took just 15 pitches, enough to earn him another inning. The fourth had two more strikeouts and a fly out.
He finished the game with seven strikeouts in four innings, evidence that his stuff is plenty good enough against big-league hitters.
“He’s got a four-seam, two-seam, a cutter, a changeup and slider and in all our meetings before the game, he said he’d throw anything and everything, he just wants to mix and move,” catcher Tyler Stephenson. “It’s pretty easy after that.”
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Spiers got 10 swings and misses in hours four innings and had whiffs on four of his five pitches, all but the sinker. He did, however get three called strikes on his sinker.
Tiebreakers
By splitting the series this weekend against the Cubs, the Reds improved to 7-6 against Chicago this season, earning Cincinnati the tiebreaker advantage against their divisional rival.
The Reds also own the tiebreaker against the Diamondbacks, but the Brewers, Giants and Phillies own tiebreakers over the Reds.
After Monday’s games, the Reds are tied with the Diamondbacks for the final wild-card spot, although they remain behind them in the loss column. The Marlins, off Monday, are a half-game behind the Reds and the Giants are a game back after losing to the Cubs on Monday.
The Reds split six games with the Marlins, so it would go to the team’s intradivision record. If that’s the same, it goes to the interdivision record, the games in the league but out of the division.
The Reds are currently 18-25 against the NL Central with nine games remaining against division teams — six against the Cardinals and three against the Pirates.
The Marlins are 18-21 in the NL East. Miami has six games remaining against the Mets, three against the Braves and Phillies. Miami also has seven games remaining against the Brewers.
Warm welcome
Among the many moves on Friday, veterans Harrison Bader and Hunter Renfroe made it to Cincinnati in time for the doubleheader against the Cubs. Before the first game, Bader spoke to reporters at his new locker in the Reds clubhouse, back near the team’s showers and nestled between several pitchers.
Since Great American Ball Park opened in 2003, position players have mostly been at the other end of the locker room, closer to the doors leading to the tunnel and dugout. At the end of the room is a pair of lockers on each side, with the rest of the lockers in a row perpendicular to the Boardwalk and Park Place of the clubhouse.
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When the ballpark opened, Ken Griffey Jr. occupied the two lockers to the left of the hallway and Barry Larkin the two to the right. For those who have been around a while, there’s a pretty clear timeline of the team’s veterans based on who occupied the double lockers.
Griffey’s was handed down to Javier Valentin. It has since belonged to Ramon Hernandez, Jay Bruce, Zack Cozart, Tucker Barnhart and Mike Moustakas before its current resident, Tyler Stephenson.
Larkin’s locker was passed along to Joe Randa before belonging to the likes of Rich Aurelia, Jeff Connie, Scott Hatteberg, Scott Rolen and then its current occupant, Joey Votto.
Regardless of who owned that pair of lockers, that person always owned both lockers — until Friday.
After seeing Bader at the other end and with no other lockers available, Votto invited Bader to take over his other locker. Renfroe was doubled up with Stephenson on the other side. Stephenson and Votto both still have the outside corners, but they just don’t have as much room.
It’s good to be closer to their new teammates, but as much as anything, the symbolism meant a lot to Bader.
“I was down all the way over there and it made me feel like part of the team,” Bader said.
Bader spent the majority of his career with the Cardinals before being traded to the Yankees last year at the deadline and then to the Reds this season, so he’s seen Votto plenty over the years, although he didn’t really know him personally.
“There are certain guys in the league you don’t have to play with to have so much respect and admiration for him,” Bader said. “He’s one of those guys that I’ve had that respect for from afar and now being directly next to him in really his clubhouse, his territory, is just awesome for me.”
The week that was
What a week it was. By simple math, the Reds went 4-4 since last Monday, including Monday’s victory against the Mariners. They went 3-4 against a pair of teams ahead of them in the wild-card standings. That said, splitting the series at home against the Cubs with the number of issues the Reds had with injuries and illness was a feat in itself. The Reds walked off the Cubs in the second game Friday and Saturday.
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The week ahead
The Reds welcomed back familiar faces in Eugenio Suárez, Luis Castillo and Luke Weaver as the Mariners came to Great American Ball Park for two more games after Monday afternoon’s affair. The Mariners will also see their fair share of players they’re familiar with in Jake Fraley and Stuart Fairchild, as well as former Mariners minor-leaguers Noelvi Marte and Connor Phillips. Phillips will make his big-league debut Tuesday. After an off day on Thursday, the Cardinals come to Great American Ball Park to finish off the team’s penultimate homestand of the season.
Injury updates
• RHP Graham Ashcraft (right great toe stress fracture) will be out at least two weeks, Bell said.
• 1B Joey Votto (left shoulder discomfort) has ramped up his hitting both in the cage and on the field. There’s still no definitive timeline for his return.
• 2B Jonathan India (left foot plantar fasciitis) is running and could be ready for a rehab assignment in a week or so.
• IF Matt McLain (right oblique strain) will miss at least two weeks, but there’s hope he’ll be able to return by the end of the regular season.
• IF Kevin Newman (left oblique strain) should begin a rehab assignment in the near future.
Minor League Roundup
• Triple-A Louisville (68-62): OF Jacob Hurtubise was the organization’s Minor League Player of the Month, hitting .352/.520/.507 in 24 games between Chattanooga and Louisville. He also had three doubles, four triples and 13 steals. Promoted to Triple A on Aug. 23, he’s hitting .412/.546/.529 in 11 games and 45 plate appearances at that level. He has a double and a homer among his 14 hits and has seven walks with just three strikeouts and has been hit three times.
• Double-A Chattanooga (68-57): Sunday, OF Blake Dunn hit his 22nd home run of the season and stole his 50th base. According to Doug Gray of Redsminorleagues.com, Dunn is just the second player in Reds minor-league history since 1960 to steal 50 bases and hit at least 20 home runs. Gary Redus hit 24 home runs and stole 54 bases for Triple-A Indianapolis in 1982. Dunn hit eight of his homers and stole 19 of his bases at High-A Dayton before hitting 14 homers and stealing 31 with the Lookouts. He’s been caught just seven times. Overall, he’s hit .320/.426/.536 and has bested his Dayton numbers in Chattanooga, where he’s hitting .347/.436/.582 in 320 plate appearances, 118 more plate appearances than he had in Dayton.
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• High-A Dayton (64-62): Going into the final series of the season, the Dragons are 2.5 games out of first place in the Midwest LeagueEast Division.
• Class A Daytona (54-69): OF Ethan O’Donnell, the Reds’ sixth-round pick out of Virginia in July’s draft, hit his first home run in Sunday’s loss to Dunedin. In 18 games with the Tortugas, the 21-year-old left-handed batter is hitting .329/.426/.508 with three doubles and two triples to go along with his homer.
(Elly De La Cruz and Spencer Steer celebrate Monday’s victory. Dylan Buell / Getty Images)