Mariners call up 3B Ben Williamson to fortify injured infield

Dominic Canzone optioned to Tacoma, Ryan Bliss transferred to 60-day IL, Anders Jorstad sent to Cloud 9

So you say you’ve got a problem with your infield defense? Can I interest you in an elite defensive third baseman, one that Lookout Landing ranked as the Mariners’ 15th-best prospect heading into the year?

The Mariners have called up Ben Williamson and his flashy hot-corner glovework. Williamson, the Mariners’ 2023 second-round pick out of William & Mary, has long been a staff favorite here at Lookout Landing. The bat is definitely behind the glove, and he’s more patience and contact over power, having bopped just four (4) home runs over 124 MiLB games last year. The windy cavern of Dickey-Stephens Park, where he spent most of the year as an Arkansas Traveler, accounts for some of that, but hardly all of it.

Yet desperate times call for desperate measures, and with Jorge Polanco limited to DH duty and Ryan Bliss out for at least several months, the Mariners had been forced to play two of Dylan Moore, Miles Mastrobouni, and Leo Rivas on a daily basis. This will help ease that problem, with Williamson’s sharp defense providing a relatively high floor. Jorge Polanco ain’t doin’ this:

As the team heads out on a long road trip, Williamson offers more versatility at third, and also as a right-handed bat over the lefty Canzone. At the plate, Williamson has been focused on doing what the team asked of him this spring, embracing the organization’s up-the-middle approach and focusing on hitting line drives to right-center. So far, Williamson’s spray chart in Tacoma is almost perfectly balanced; he still needs to put the ball on the ground less, but he’s a high-contact player with a good sense of the zone who will battle in the box, similar to Mastrobuoni or Rivas, but with significantly better defense.

Williamson is also a good story; as a high school athlete with few prospects to play collegiately, he opted to attend the College of William and Mary to focus on getting a good education, majoring in Business Analytics. Baseball wasn’t Plan A until his college coach, Mike McRae, pulled Williamson aside to tell him he had a future in the sport, if he’d just commit to baseball fully. Realizing that baseball was “a lot more fun” than business analytics, Williamson committed himself to a regime where he added 10 pounds of muscle and honed his skills as a defensive wizard, spending hours doing the same kinds of wall ball drills Perry Hill instructs his charges to do. Williamson blossomed into a legitimate prospect, setting all kinds of school records at William and May, and was scouted by Mariners regional scout Ty Holub, who has turned up multiple hidden gems in his Mid-Atlantic region. Now he’s at the precipice of his MLB debut.

To open up the spot on the active roster, the Mariners optioned Dominic Canzone back down to Tacoma; and to open up the spot on the 40-man, they transfered Ryan Bliss to the 60-day IL while he recovers from his biceps surgery. Williamson is not be the starting lineup today, but hopefully he gets into the game at some point. At Lookout Landing, we love a debut.