Shed

Long

Long Jr. signed a minor league contract with the Orioles back in February and spent most of the 2022 campaign recovering from a stress reaction in his right shin. The 26-year-old former prospect has hit .216/.284/.376 with 12 homers and eight steals in 417 plate appearances at the major-league level since 2019.

Long Jr. signed a minor league contract with the Orioles back in February and is coming off a stress reaction in his right shin that ended his season last September. The 26-year-old infielder could factor into the Orioles’ position player mix at some point later this summer.

Long will presumably be invited to the major league side of spring training whenever it opens, though he is rehabbing from surgery for a stress reaction in his right shin and may not be available right away. The versatile 26-year-old showed well as a rookie with the Mariners in 2019 before then batting just .184/.250/.325 in 249 plate appearances for Seattle between 2020-2021. He’ll try to breathe new life into his career in Baltimore.

Long will become a free agent following the conclusion of the World Series. The 26-year-old had some initial success with the Mariners in 2019, but he’s struggled the last two seasons while battling a stress fracture in his right shin. He had a second surgery on the shin last week and his agent, Nate Heisler, said that his client will be 100 percent for spring training. Long shouldn’t have trouble finding another organization willing to roll the dice on him.

The procedural move clears a 40-man roster spot for the Mariners to summon righty reliever Jimmy Yacabonis from Triple-A Tacoma. Long will miss the remainder of the 2021 campaign due to a stress reaction in his right shin.

Uh oh. Long had surgery to correct the same injury last September and didn’t make his season debut until June. It’s not clear at this point how long the ailment might sideline him this time around.

Bauers was in the lineup to replace Jake Fraley, as Fraley is dealing with illness. Shed Long is starting in left in their place. More information on why Bauers is out of the lineup should be available shortly.

Long Jr. got the Mariners on the board with a two-run double off righty Alex Cobb in the fourth inning. The 25-year-old infielder is hitting .208/.256/.442 with 12 runs scored, four homers and 16 RBI across 83 plate appearances.

The two-run blast came off Toronto’s ace Hyun-Jin Ryu and traveled an estimated 402 feet with an exit velocity of 107.4 miles per hour. Long has been struggling at the plate recently, hitting just .213 over the past 30 games, so it may take a bit more than an isolated home run to get him out of this funk.

Servais indicated that Long was benched for not “busting it out of the box” on his ground out in the fifth inning. The lesson extended into the M’s second game on Sunday, where Long was also held out of the starting lineup. You’d better believe that Long is going to hustle out every ground ball from here on out. Expect him to return to the lineup on Tuesday against the Blue Jays in Buffalo.