Vest, Servais have homestead chemistry

SEATTLE -- Will Vest’s road to the big leagues culminated with his debut in the Mariners’ dramatic 8-7 Opening Day win over the Giants on Thursday. The apex of that path came when he received word that he’d be breaking camp with the team, and that news was delivered by none other than his childhood neighbor.

That neighbor would be Seattle skipper Scott Servais, whose Houston-area home while playing for the Astros in the 1990s was adjacent to Vest’s. Vest and his siblings turned their backyard into a sandlot of sorts, and the Mariners' manager regularly found himself throwing balls back over their shared fence after the youngsters roped “homers” onto Servais’ grass.

That toddler from 20 years ago is now a Rule 5 Draft pick trying to prove himself in the Majors to the very neighbor who witnessed that youngster’s passion for baseball at such a ripe age.

Servais relishes the opportunity to personally share the news with players that they will be getting called up to The Show, and that one-on-one with Vest was particularly special given their quirky connection.

“I said, 'You came a long way from the little kid in diapers hitting balls into my backyard,'" Servais said. "It's crazy. Small world. Baseball is a really small world."

In front of his wife, parents, two brothers and a few childhood friends, Vest was thrown into a “buffet” in his first big league outing Thursday. He entered in the top of the eighth and his first batter was one of the icons of his adolescence: Evan Longoria, whom Vest struck out looking in a full count with a 95.6 mph fastball on the outside corner.

Vest admired Longoria while coming up as an infielder during his teenage years, and he revealed that he has a signed photo hanging in his apartment of the three-time All-Star from his days at Cal State Long Beach.

Vest then gave up a double to Wilmer Flores, walked Buster Posey and surrendered a run on an error by J.P. Crawford, but he was able to escape two runners on by inducing a lineout from Mauricio Dubón. The Mariners then rallied for six runs immediately after and walked it off in the 10th.

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“I wish I had a couple of pitches back. I was a little erratic, I would say,” Vest said. “But I felt like I kind of settled down towards the end and was kind of happy to get out of it with minimal damage.”

Vest came to Mariners Spring Training as a raw product with a fastball that sits in the high-90s and a “wicked, dive-bomb” changeup. The early results were mixed, with Vest surrendering a combined eight runs over a three-outing stretch. But he finished strong by going scoreless in his final six Cactus League appearances.

His Rule 5 status means that he must remain on Seattle’s 26-man roster for the duration of the regular season or he can be offered back to the Tigers. In that vein, the Mariners wanted to extend his audition.

Vest plans to attack the opportunity with a simplistic-yet-firm, goal-oriented approach instilled by his father. After not being invited to Detroit’s alternate training site last season, Vest was determined to make it to the big leagues in 2021.

The other goals? Get his weight to 210 pounds, which he’s accomplished, and throw 100 mph, which he’s still a few ticks off from. But he has two of his three objectives down.

The unwritten one is sustainability. Vest wants to remain in the Majors, and the Mariners will give him an opportunity to do so for the early leg of the season. Thursday represented a low-leverage situation given the five-run deficit that he entered the game with; that’s probably where he’ll get the most looks in these first few weeks.

“He is athletic. … The more athletic they are, the quicker they are to make adjustments along the way,” Servais said. “So I think there's a very bright future for him. Again, he's a young player. ... He's got a long ways to go, but we liked it. We’ll continue to give him opportunities.”