Seattle Mariners: Tempering Your Expectations with Rookie Kyle Seager

Wednesday afternoon may have become the boiling point where Jack Zduriencik had seen enough of a struggling offense and made a move to make a move.

Getting the call from Tacoma is 23-year-old Kyle Seager, a former teammate of Dustin Ackley's at North Carolina. Many expected Ackley to shoot through the minors, but that thought wasn't really shared in regards to his childhood pal.

Zduriencik and manager Eric Wedge have already made it known that Seager will play at that hot corner for the M's immediately and moving forward. Seager played third in college, before being moved to second in the Mariners organization, so there won't be a huge learning curve.

Amid all the excitement from those tired of seeing Chone Figgins, even in a cameo role, there should be some caution. Seager played extremely well for Triple-A Tacoma, but the sample of 12 games where his numbers were partially a byproduct of a high BABIP on line drives in a hitter friendly league tells us he should come down to earth a bit.

Obviously, no one expects the kid to hit nearly .500 out of the gates in the big leagues.

So what do the Mariners expect from him?

Honestly, I believe at this stage Zduriencik's front office is tired of waiting. They're tired of waiting on Chone Figgins. They're tired of waiting for the trade market to open up with something that makes sense.

They're tired of what they have, so they're trying something new.

This isn't to say that Zduriencik knows Seager will be a flop in his first go around. I don't think he'd call the kid up if he didn't think he'd be an improvement. But the real problem is that the decent upside results we can reasonably expect from Seager is only a minor upgrade to a majorly flawed offense.

Kyle Seager probably shouldn't have to be thrusted into a massively important four-game series with the season on the line. The faith in Chone Figgins and others on the roster is so low, though, that the club has turned to a rushed rookie to help in any way he can.

Seager might come up and hit .300 in his first week. He might only hit .200 in his first week. It's a rushed experiment at a time where the team needs something—anything, really—and this is what they've done.

The rookie has a good approach at the plate and won't embarrass himself in the field, but temper your expectations. This is still a really bad offense and the player being added isn't going to solve that mystery even if the best case scenario happens.