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Michael Marjama on making the Mariners’ opening day roster: ‘Really, what can you say? It’s awesome.’

Michael Marjama's winding baseball path has taken him from substitute teaching in the offseason to the Mariners' opening day roster as a back-up catcher to Mike Zunino

PEORIA, Ariz. — For most of March, Michael Marjama didn’t let himself think it would happen.

A spot on the opening day roster? Don’t allow yourself to get excited too soon.

Even when the Mariners optioned David Freitas — logically, the only competition he had as the backup catcher to Mike Zunino — Marjama refused to celebrate for even an instant.

“Nope, nope, nope, I will not,’’ Marjama said earlier this week in the Seattle clubhouse when asked if he understood that he had essentially won the job when the Mariners optioned Freitas to Triple-A.