Rochester, Minn. – Former La Crosse Logger, Mike Marjama, made his Major League debut for the Seattle Mariners on Sunday, September 3, 2017. Marjama is the 188th former Northwoods League player to reach the Major League level and 15th former Logger to reach the "Bigs".
Marjama, who played collegiately at Cal State Long Beach, played for the La Crosse Loggers in 2010. He was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the 23rd round of the 2011 MLB Draft.
In 2010 with the Loggers, Marjama hit .286 in 69 games. He also had 10 doubles, two home runs and 37 RBI.
Marjama started his Minor League career in 2011 with the Bristol White Sox of the Rookie-Advanced Appalachian League. In 24 games, he hit .221 with two doubles and seven RBI.
Marjama split the 2012 season between two teams. He began the year in the Rookie-Advanced Pioneer League with the Great Falls Voyagers. After nine games, he was promoted to the Kannapolis Intimidators of the Lo-A South Atlantic League. Between the two clubs he hit a combined .289 and drove in 17 runs. To go along with those numbers he added seven doubles, two home runs and one triple.
The 2013 season saw Marjama back in Kannapolis. In 97 games with the Intimidators he hit .277 with 20 doubles, one triple, six home runs and 46 RBI. He also stole nine bases and scored 48 runs.
Marjama was promoted to start the 2014 season to the Winston-Salem Dash of the Hi-A Carolina League. Over 70 games he hit .266 with 16 doubles and three home runs. He drove in 17 runs, stole two bases and scored 26 runs.
Prior to the 2015 season Marjama was traded to the Tampa Bay Rays. He would play the entire season that summer with the Charlotte Stone Crabs of the Hi-A Florida State League. For the season, he would hit .302 with 22 doubles, four triples and nine home runs. To go along with those numbers, he drove in 52 runs and scored 46 times.
Marjama moved up to the AA Southern League with the Montgomery Biscuits for the 2016 season. In 73 games, he had another good year at the plate hitting .286 with 25 doubles and five home runs.
Prior to his call-up to the Mariners, Marjama had played in 72 games with the Durham Bulls of the AAA International League. Then on August 6th he was traded to the Seattle Mariners and was sent to the Tacoma Rainiers of the AAA Pacific Coast League. He would then play in 21 games with Tacoma. For the season, he was hitting a combined .249 with career highs in home runs with 12 and RBI with 63.
In his Major League debut against the Oakland Athletics, Marjama entered the game in the ninth inning as a defensive replacement at catcher. He would not come to the plate though as the Mariners won the game 10-2.
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The Northwoods League is the proven leader in the development of elite college baseball players. The 24-year old summer collegiate league is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 20 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires and front office staff, more than 180 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including two-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champion Ben Zobrist (CHC) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (BOS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET), Curtis Granderson (NYM) and Lucas Duda (NYM). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League website. For more information, visit www.northwoodsleague.com or download the Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play.