Former Mariner Cameron rejoins club as coach

SEATTLE -- Former Mariners center fielder Mike Cameron, who played four seasons in Seattle in the middle of his 17-year Major League career, has been hired by the club as a special assignment coach to work with the organization’s outfielders on defense and baserunning.

The 46-year-old from Georgia had some of his top MLB moments during his time with the Mariners from 1999-2003, including an All-Star season in 2001, a Gold Glove Award in 2003 and a four-home run game in 2002.

Cameron met with Mariners manager Scott Servais and the Seattle staff when the team was in Chicago two weeks ago and agreed to an advisory role that began Friday when he started working with the Double-A club in Arkansas.

The role is similar to what former catcher Dan Wilson and first baseman Alvin Davis have been doing in recent years, spending time both with the Major League club and the Minor League affiliates.

Cameron has been retired since 2011, but was looking to get back into the game now that his son, Daz, is older and playing Triple-A ball as the Tigers' No. 5 prospect, per MLB Pipeline.

“Mike obviously had a great career and really good run here with the Mariners for awhile,” Servais said. “It’s a great opportunity to bring somebody with a ton of experience into the organization from an outfield, base stealing, hitting home runs aspect and all that stuff. He’s had quite a career. I’m glad to have him on board.”

The Mariners added a number of top outfield prospects to their system last winter and Cameron will be asked to help some of those players as well as stop by Seattle now and then.

“We may see him, though most if it will probably be at the Minor League level,” Servais said. “We certainly have some interesting outfield prospects that he could help out a lot. I think the timing is right for him. The fit is good for us. Hopefully he can help.”

Mallex Smith working on his swing
Center fielder Mallex Smith was given a second straight day off Friday to work on his timing at the plate with hitting coach Tim Laker after going 3-for-34 over his last 11 games.

Smith has posted a line of .088/.205/.118 with 12 strikeouts and five walks since April 14, dropping his season marks to .180/.275/.270 in 24 games. After missing most of Spring Training with an elbow injury, it’s not the start the 25-year-old was looking for after a strong 2018 campaign in Tampa Bay.

“Mallex is out of whack right now,” Servais said. “We need to try to some things. Often times when players get traded and are on different teams, it takes a while for them to build trust with those guys and them to trust us. I had a good talk with him today. I said, ‘Here’s what I see. I think Tim Laker sees the same thing.’

“It’s easy to identify the problem, now how are we going to fix it? That’s what coaching is. I told him 'you need to be open and if you don’t like it, give us some feedback.' It’s a give and take. But he understands it. He wants to get going again. This guy can hit. He’s got a track record of hitting, he knows the strike zone, we just have to get him back on the right page.”

Injury updates
After 10 days of down time, Mariners starter Wade LeBlanc has now played catch for the past three days in a row as he works toward returning from a strained right oblique. LeBlanc is expected to miss 4-6 weeks, but continues saying he expects to be back on the short end of that spectrum.

“It’s going really good,” LeBlanc said. "As long as there is zero pain, we’ll keep moving forward. It’s all very positive.”

Reliever Hunter Strickland, who is on the 60-day injury list with a right lat strain, is further away from returning. But the 30-year-old recently went to New York to receive a PRP injection to help speed up the healing process and said everything is progressing well with his rehab program as he aims for a midseason return.