Inbox: Will Gamel be a factor next season?

I keep hearing about how high the Mariners are on Ben Gamel, but other than being a defensive upgrade, I’m not sold on his bat. What does the Mariners’ brass see in his potential? — Paul E., Salt Lake City, Utah

Jerry Dipoto feels Gamel has done everything possible the past two years in Triple-A for the Yankees to show he’s ready for a Major League opportunity. The 24-year-old hit .300 and .308 those two seasons for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and was the International League MVP last year when he posted a .365 on-base percentage, scored 80 runs, had 26 doubles, five triples, six homers and stole 19 bases in 116 games.

Gamel gets on base, runs well, plays good defense and is a left-handed hitter who had even better numbers against lefties than righties the last two years, which makes him a solid candidate to play every day if he can produce as hoped. The youngster put up just a .200/.289/.325 line in 40 at-bats in his month with the Mariners, but don’t put much stock into such a small sample size in his first real MLB exposure. He’ll get a chance to play a lot this spring and see where that leads.

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Will the offseason “hitting summit” be an annual thing? — Chris K., Silverdale, Wash.

Last year’s initial gathering of the franchise’s young hitters in Arizona went so well that the Mariners have added a similar “pitching summit” from Jan. 9-12 at the team’s facility in Peoria. That will be followed by this year’s “hitting summit” from Jan. 13-16. The idea is to get four solid days of instruction for most of the team’s top young players and Minor League prospects with manager Scott Servais and the Major and Minor League coaching staffs, so the players know exactly what they should be working on heading into Spring Training and beyond. Whether this turns into an annual event remains to be seen, but the club certainly felt it went well last year and helped set a tone that carried through the organization.

Do you see the Mariners re-signing Tom Wilhelmsen? — Christopher P., Gig Harbor, Wash.

I …

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