Mariners: Playoffs important in minors

Minor league playoffs needed to matter.

Andy McKay stressed that belief during his interview with Seattle Mariners General Manager Jerry Dipoto, who hired McKay to oversee the organization's seven minor league teams in October 2015.

The implication was that minor league playoffs, in a general sense, didn't matter.

Even today, with the Class AA Arkansas Travelers who could possibly clinch a spot in the Texas League playoffs Monday, every affiliate across the nation is blanketed by Minor League Baseball's slogan: "Watch The Stars Of Tomorrow," not "Watch The Champions Of Today."

For over a century, the central focus of the minor leagues has been to develop players for the majors; but McKay said he and Dipoto connected on the belief that winning is an integral part of a player's development.

"It doesn't make any sense for players to play 500 games in the minors without a focus on winning and thinking that's going to work in the major leagues," said McKay, who was previously a sports psychologist with the Colorado Rockies.

"It's certainly a belief that I have held. Jerry Dipoto had the same vision."

Starting with the 2016 season, all of the Mariners' affiliates began emphasizing winning to its players, which McKay said was "just like you emphasize anything else: you reward it when it happens, you talk about it."

Travs center fielder Braden Bishop was playing for the Class A Clinton LumberKings at the time.

"You saw a lot of guys in 2016 in this organization step their game way up without really doing much to their skills, just by playing to win," said Bishop, 24, who batted .290 in 63 games with Clinton.

Each of the seven minor league affiliates made the playoffs in 2016, and the Class AA Jackson Generals and the Rookie League AZL Mariners won their league championships.

Today, the Mariners are in first place in the American League West Division, and six of the 25 players on their active roster played for one of those minor league teams in 2016.

"You have to develop guys that understand what it takes to win," Travs Manager Daren Brown said, who managed the Class AA Jackson championship team. "When you get to the big leagues, you want guys that understand what it takes to win ball games. That's part of it."

However, the structure of minor league playoffs can trip up that philosophy.

Most leagues, including the Texas League, award playoff spots by splitting its regular season in two halves, with its division winners from each half playing each other in a semifinal.

Ultimately, a minor league team can clinch a playoff spot by winning the first half, lose several of its players to team transactions during the second half, and have a playoff roster that looks completely different than the one it started with.

The 2016 Jackson Generals had 13 players on its roster during the second half that didn't start the season with the team.

The roster shift is inevitable, Travs starting pitcher Chase De Jong said, and the players have to align individual goals for advancement alongside the success of the team.

"Everybody in here wants to be somewhere else," said De Jong, 24, who is 4-3 with a 4.03 ERA. "That's the individual side of the minor leagues: It's our career and we're trying to get to the big leagues. ... You want to win every night because the quality of your play here will get you out of here. That's the nature of it. You have to play well to move on."

The Travs' Bishop said the Mariners' winning philosophy carries over to whatever affiliate you might be moved to, that "you've got to embrace the team you're on."

In 2016, Bishop clinched a playoff spot in the first half with Class A Clinton, then he clinched a playoff spot with Class High-A Bakersfield in the second half. When Bakersfield was eliminated in the California League's North Division finals, Bishop began watching Clinton as it went on to lose in the Midwest League championship.

"You're invested in it," Bishop said. "If they win, you win too. It's an interesting experience. You may not be there while that team's playing in the playoffs, but they're all still your teammates."

That type of bonding, Texas League President Tim Purpura said, is one of the positives of a system-wide winning philosophy. Purpura was the general manager of the Houston Astros from 2005 to 2007, and he said front offices sometimes hold off transactions to preserve that kind of experience.

"Typically, with a team that's contending in the first half, the major league team will kind of leave that team together to win that division title," Purpura said. "I think that happens quite often."

As of Thursday night, five of the Mariners' affiliates were either in first or second place in their respective divisions.

"You do your very best to keep teams together during playoff pushes within reason," Seattle's McKay said.

One of the exceptions was when the Mariners traded Travs outfielder Eric Filia to the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday.

Filia, who was hitting .426 at the time, was the player to be named later in Seattle's April 23 trade with the Red Sox for major-league reliever Roenis Elias.

Player to be named later transactions commonly work with Team A receiving one player while giving Team B a grouping of 3 to 4 players and giving them a certain amount of time to make its decision.

McKay wouldn't disclose the deadline the Red Sox were given, but he said "I think common sense would tell you it would have been really nice to not have Eric Filia leave right now."

Before Thursday night's games, the Travs (32-33) were a game behind the Northwest Arkansas Naturals (33-32) for the North Division title. Arkansas has until Monday night to clinch its first playoff berth since 2015, when it reached the semifinals as an affiliate with the Los Angeles Angels.

This time, its parent club demands it.

"We're all in for that," De Jong said. "We have a lot of guys in there that want to pop champagne and ultimately bring a Texas League championship back to Little Rock."

Sports on 06/15/2018

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