The Seattle Mariners may be one of the worst teams in baseball this season, but they are still holding their players to a certain standard.
Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times reported Saturday that Mariners outfielder Mallex Smith has been benched by manager Scott Servais for repeated mental mistakes on the basepaths and in the field.
“We’ve got to be smarter. It’s part of the game,” Servais was quoted as saying. “You can be very, very talented and skilled and produce numbers, but part of any game at the professional level, you have to think the game, you have to understand the game, you have to know the scoreboard and the situations like that. And those are areas he struggles at.
“You can talk about it, and you can say, ‘I get it, I get it. I’m sorry. My bad,’ but that only goes so far,” added Servais. “And after a while, you say, ‘let’s take a little break,’ and that’s where we are at.”
The 26-year-old Smith is batting just .236 with five homers and 31 RBIs this season but he does leads the league with 34 stolen bases. That said, Smith is also tied for the league lead in times caught stealing with eight.
Servais benched a player last season for similar reasons as well, so it is easy to see the culture that he is trying to build despite all of the losing.
