Mariners face lineup decisions with Randy Arozarena, Justin Turner on board

SEATTLE – The large crowd expected to fill T-Mobile Park for Friday’s homestand opener vs. the Philadelphia Phillies will finally get to see the Mariners’ trade-deadline acquisitions for the first time in person.

The trades for outfielder Randy Arozarena and first baseman Justin Turner give the daily lineup a different and more experienced look while the additions of relievers Yimi Garcia and J.T. Chargois, who is expected to be added to the roster on Friday afternoon, does add some experienced depth to the bullpen.

While those additions brought a level of excitement to the clubhouse and to some sections of the fan base, the Mariners are still in a state of roster uncertainty and mild chaos due to injuries and poor production.

The recent road trip ended with a disappointing 3-2 loss to the Red Sox in extra innings. Outfielder Victor Robles, who has been one of the Mariners’ hottest players in the past month, was held out of the game due to discomfort in his hip flexor area. Second baseman Jorge Polanco, who has also seemed to come out of a prolonged slump, was removed from the game due to continued knee discomfort. In the eighth inning, reliever Gregory Santos, who missed most of the season with a lat strain and also tweaked his knee in a game recently, left the game after feeling discomfort in his biceps following a pitch.

While the expectation, or perhaps hope, is that Robles and Polanco can still keep playing with injury maintenance, the situation surrounding Santos is less certain.

“We’re banged up right now a little bit,” M’s manager Scott Servais said after Wednesday’s game. “We’ve got some guys that are trying to play through some things. We’ve got a day off (Thursday) and we really need it.”

The Mariners are already without shortstop J.P. Crawford (broken finger) and center fielder Julio Rodriguez (high ankle sprain), who both went on the injured list on the previous homestand.

“You need all these guys, but there’s things you have to grind through and there’s adversity, whether it’s through injuries or whatnot,” Servais said.

The expected return of Rodriguez and Crawford is still undetermined.

“I can’t give you a timeline quite yet,” said Jerry Dipoto, Mariners president of baseball operations. “Julio will be quicker than J.P., I assume. I would hope we’d see Julio sooner than later. They too are energized by picking up a couple of new guys that add some personality to a team that was in a tough spot for the last 30 days. We needed a little bit of juice.”

Mariners General Manager Justin Hollander is expected to give an injury update before Friday’s game and may have a more detailed update on the growing number of injured players.

For now, Dipoto can only daydream about a lineup with the pieces available.

“It’s gonna be a heck of a lot more fun than it was before with a lineup that includes J.P. and Julio with Justin Turner, Randy Arozarena with the trending version of Victor Robles that we’re getting right now,” he said. “I think we are already seeing really positive signs for where our club is at right now.”

The Mariners do have some other conundrums, specifically with how they will use the designated hitter position. They are using Mitch Garver and Mitch Haniger at DH with catcher Cal Raleigh getting his “days off” in that spot. They also want to get Turner a game or two a week at DH to keep him healthy.

With his season-long struggles at the plate, and the recent revelation of disparaging behavior and threats toward him on social media, Garver is just trying to survive through what is admittedly the worst season of his career.

He’s went from a full-time DH to a part-time DH and backup catcher. But could his plate appearances diminish to being only as a backup catcher?

The Mariners have used the lineup with Garver at catcher and Raleigh at DH nine times this season. But there comes multiple risks with not having a third catcher on the roster. Earlier this season, Garver took a ball off his wrist and had to come out of the game. Raleigh, who started at DH, moved to catcher and the Mariners lost their designated hitter position early in the game, forcing starting pitcher Luis Castillo to hit and going to the old National League-style of game strategy.

The Mariners don’t have a third catcher on their 40-man roster. Seby Zavala is still playing in Triple-A Tacoma, but their roster doesn’t set up well to carry a third catcher.

Because Garver and Haniger haven’t performed as expected this season, and have seen their playing time diminish, an argument could be made that with everyone healthy, the Mariners’ best lineup to roll out would be with Turner as the designated hitter, Luke Raley at first base and Arozarena, Rodriguez and Robles in the outfield.

As for reinforcements, they don’t have to all come from within.

While the MLB trade deadline has passed, teams can still make minor league trades to acquire players. Per the collective bargaining agreement, a player who has been on a minor league contract all season and hasn’t been on a 40-man roster during the season can still be traded. Instead of player swaps, usually these deals will be for cash considerations. If the Mariners want to add a third catcher who isn’t Zavala, they could go this route.

Teams can still make waiver claims on players designated for assignment. The Mariners are always monitoring the waiver wire, willing to claim potential players who could help them, particularly ones with minor league options remaining. It’s likely they’ll remain active in those transactions.

Teams can also still sign free agents. That market will always have new faces from veteran players who have been removed off 40-man rosters and eschew minor league assignments.

For example, the Astros recently designated reliever Rafael Montero for assignment. A one-time Mariner, Montero has struggled this season, posting a 1-2 record and 4.70 ERA in 41 appearances with 23 strikeouts and 19 walks in 38⅓ innings pitched.

In the second year of a three-year, $34.5 million contract and owed $11.5 million for next season, Montero won’t get claimed off waivers by a team. Once he clears, he can be outrighted to Houston’s minor league system or opt for free agency. If Montero chooses free agency, any team, probably not the Mariners, believing it could fix his command issues could sign him for the prorated MLB minimum with the Astros paying the rest of what is owed for this season and next.

Last season, the Angels placed eight veteran players on irrevocable waivers in late August, hoping teams would claim them and pay what was remaining on their MLB contracts. The Mariners made a similar move with Ty France earlier this season.

While it was an extreme situation, there is a chance that budget-conscious teams playing out the string may follow that path again in the coming weeks.

There is a deadline with that strategy. Any player acquired after Aug. 31 is not eligible for the postseason.

So any teams playing the Angels’ waivers game will need to put their players on waivers before then if a contending team hopes to have them for the playoffs.