Buy me some peanuts and — grasshoppers? An MLB team is adding a crunchy concession

You’re excused if you feel the need to bug out a little at the news: The Seattle Mariners of Major League Baseball are introducing toasted grasshoppers to its list of concession items.

The news, first announced Friday by the Mariners, gained traction on Saturday when it was reported by ESPN. Costing $4 a cup and covered in chili lime salt, the hoppers can be eaten alone or in tacos, the franchise reports. A major selling point? The insects are gluten free.

The Mariners, who open the home portion of their schedule on Monday at Safeco Field, are not strangers to strange menu items. The club was one of the first in the MLB to offer sushi, in part because the team was owned by Nintendo, a Japanese company, until 2016, per ESPN.

The team employs award-winning local chef Ethan Stowell to help craft its menu.

“We don’t want to just have traditional ballpark fare, we want to do some other stuff,” Stowell told MyNorthwest. “There’s definitely some things we do that we like to kind of experiment with.”

While the prospect of bugs for dinner, much less as a ballgame snack, may strike many as odd, 80 percent of the world’s population eats insects as part of their regular diet, per PBS. In particular, grasshoppers are most popular in Mexico, where they are called Chapulines.

The Mariners have one player from Mexico, pitcher Yovani Gallardo, while Seattle’s population is 6.6 percent Hispanic.

“We don't expect to sell a lot of (grasshoppers), but it's a fun thing to offer and it's an authentic,” Mariners spokesperson Rebecca Hale told ESPN.

On social media, the news was met with plenty of backlash, but some support by adventurous fans who said they would give it a try.

ESPN reporter Darren Rovell conducted an informal poll asking his followers if they would try toasted grasshoppers, with 40 percent saying they would.

However, perhaps the most serious point was offered by a minor league baseball team in Greensboro, North Carolina. This poor team, which is an affiliate of the Miami Marlins, is called the Greensboro Grasshopers. Awkward.

This story was originally published April 8, 2017 at 10:21 PM with the headline "Buy me some peanuts and — grasshoppers? An MLB team is adding a crunchy concession."