Back on April 13th Mike Morse made an awkward diving attempt at a flyball in shallow right field.  He landed hard on his shoulder, and was placed on the 15-day disabled list shortly after with a dislocated shoulder.  Well, Morse isn’t about to come back after just 15 days.  It was announced today that Morse had surgery yesterday to repair a torn labrum.  He will likely be out for the rest of the season (6 months). 

Morse didn’t really have a spot on the team this season.  His outfield defense was embarrassing and Seattle has several other reserves on the roster that play better defense at Morse’s infield positions.  His Seattle Mariners career will likely be prolonged because of this injury, since he may have been designated for assignment upon returning from the 15-day DL.  Now Seattle won’t have to determine what to do with Morse until next year’s Spring Training.  I wish Morse the best and hope that one day he’ll catch a break.

The big issue now is what Seattle will do with the empty roster spot.  I’m assuming Morse will be transferred to the 60-day DL, opening up a 40-man roster spot.  I suppose the organization could chose not to transfer him in order to protect their prospects.  Wlad Balentien was added onto the 40-man roster way too soon and now only has one remaining option year because of it. 

Seattle would likely be making the same mistake if they promoted a top prospect, especially guys that haven’t reached AAA yet like Michael Saunders, so they may opt to promote someone who is not detrimental to the future success of the franchise.  Charlton Jimerson comes to mind.  Jimerson was recently removed from the 40-man roster after being designated for assignment and re-signing earlier this month.  Seattle could add him to the 40-man, call him up as a fourth outfielder again if needed and if they need to DFA him again, so be it.  Other low-risk/low-ceiling options would be RHP Jon Huber, LHP Jake Woods, veteran 3B Mike Kinkade, and possibly even Tug Huelett.  If Seattle does go with a upper echelon prospect for the spot it will likely be one already at the AAA level.  Matt Tuiasosopo comes to mind, but I don’t see him playing in the major leagues for a couple more seasons.

In other news, Frank Thomas may be on the verge of signing with the rival Oakland A’s.  There was an article on Yahoo! Sports about it earlier, but it has since been removed, so nothing is official yet.  It seemed as though the A’s had the most interest in Thomas, so this makes sense.  If this deal goes through, the A’s become slightly upgraded, but I still don’t buy into them being AL West contenders.