behind the dugout

Next stop on the non roster invitee report is the Pacific North West and the Seattle Mariners. While the Mariners. The Mariners could look to take on Chris Reitsma, Arthur Rhodes, Jake Woods or another pitcher for their bullpen and while they are deserving or a piece on them we’ll take a look at Mark Kiger an infielder out of the Oakland A’s system.

Mark Kiger was drafted by the Oakland A’s in the fifth round of the 2002 draft. After a mediocre climb though their system Kiger arrived in Double-A in 2004. He would spend the next three seasons bouncing between Midland and Sacramento for the club.

After hitting a combined .276/.366/.400 between Midland and Sacramento Kiger would make baseball history. On October 13, 2006, Kiger became the first player since Bug Holliday in 1885 to make his Major League debut in a post season game when he appeared as a defensive replacement for D’Angelo Jiménez at second base for the Oakland Athletics in Game 3 of the 2006 ALCS. He was added to the A’s roster in the ALCS after starting second baseman Mark Ellis was injured in the ALDS. The A’s also had former major leaguer Keith Ginter, but he had declared free agency shortly after the regular season ended, and the A’s would have had to sign him to a 2007 contract to use him after Ellis was injured. The A’s declined and added Kiger to the playoff roster.

Last season he spent time with the New York Mets affiliates in both Double-A and Triple-A. Combined between the two hit hit .297 with 11 homers and 52 RBI in 128 games. He did no receive a call up in September.

If you don’t believe me you can check out his page on baseball-reference.

The Mariners are set to go with the unexciting group of Willie Bloomquist and Miguel Cairo as reserves in the infield so there’s little reason to believe Kiger would make the team out of Spring Training.

Kiger has never apperared in a regular season game so we’ll look at his overall minor league stats here. In 6 seasons he has hit .273/.374/.393 with 43 homers and 280 RBI in 707 games.