Seattle Mariners players to watch in Spring Training, part two
By Brittany Wisner, edited by Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA - With the Seattle Mariners as an organization making their way down to the Peoria sports complex as Spring Training is now upon us, it’s reasonable to wonder what to look for with this team considering the disappointment in how little the front office had to work with in terms of added payroll due to ownerships close-fisted ways. There is undoubtedly great talent within the Mariners organization, whether that be at the big league level already or the strong prospect pool that Seattle has collected over the years. Unfortunately due to the lack of outside spending, the organization will need to rely on their internal talent to produce or see strong improvement if the Mariners are going to make any sort of noise in the AL West, let alone the rest of the American League. Here are a few players that CSS Mariners writer Brittany Wisner has her eyes on as Spring Training gets underway.
Cole Young
Given the state of the Mariners’ roster, Cole Young is perhaps the most obvious player to monitor closely this Spring.
Young, who was Seattle’s first round draft pick in 2022 and ranked as the no.2 prospect in their system last year, comes into Peoria as a potential solution to the mess that is the Mariners’ second base situation.
After an underwhelming offseason (which has been documented extensively and won’t be rehashed here), Seattle enters this season with a giant question mark at the second base position. As the roster is currently constructed, manager Dan Wilson will have the choices of Dylan Moore, Ryan Bliss and Leo Rivas to fill the 2B spot on his lineup card. The former of those options is a gold glove utility man who excels as the first man off the bench but has historically struggled once thrust into an every day role. The latter are unproven pieces who both made their major league debuts in 2024 and have a combined 157 plate appearances between them.
Barring unprecedented performances from one or all of those three, the Moore-Bliss-Rivas tandem seem to be serving as a stopgap until Cole Young is ready for the big leagues. The Mariners consider Young their second baseman of the future; however, when he will be ready to take on that role is unknown. Some scouts have indicated they believe Young would most benefit from spending the entirety of the upcoming season in Triple-A Tacoma. To perhaps the contrary, President of Baseball Operations Jerry Dipoto stated in early December that Young was “ready to go;” although, the extent to which he is “ready” was not made clear.
Young was still productive in 2024 but did see a downtick from the .848 OPS he posted the year prior with Single-A Modesto and High-A Everett. In his 552 plate appearances last year in Double-A Arkansas, Young slashed .271/.369/.390 for a .759 OPS.
It is not entirely uncommon for a prospect to see his production drop in Arkansas where the Travelers play in what is considered a pitcher-friendly park. However, the decline in slugging percentage still raises valid concerns about Young’s readiness to compete at the big league level.
How he shows up to camp – both physically and mentally – and handles himself against big league pitching may help indicate whether or not fans will see Young make his major league debut in 2025.
Seattle Mariners shortstop J.P. Crawford during the teams June 13th, 2024 game against the Chicago White Sox at T-Mobile Park. (Photos by Rio Giancarlo for Circling Seattle Sports)
J.P. Crawford
Let’s cut to the chase – 2024 was a bad year for J.P. Crawford.
After what could be considered a breakout year in 2023 where Crawford slashed .266/.380/.438 and produced a career-high 4.9 fWAR, the Mariner shortstop posted the worst numbers of his big league career in 2024: a .202 batting-average, .304 on-base percentage and .321 slugging percentage. His .625 OPS ranked 25th out of 27 shortstops with at least 450 plate appearances.
Of note, Crawford did miss 55 games last year with two stints on the injured list. He suffered a Grade 1 right oblique strain in late April and a fractured pinky finger would send him back to the injured list in late July. It is certainly possible that these injuries affected his performance at the plate, by either hindering his mechanics or simply just preventing him from ever settling into any sort of a groove.
On the other hand, it can be noted that some of Crawford’s offensive metrics did not take a significant dip in 2024, as one might expect given his lack of production. In fact, he remained nearly the same in many categories, even improving in some.
Per baseball savant
While metrics like exit velocity and hard hit rate have never been a large part of the shortstop’s game, his swing decisions, ability to work counts and capitalize on mistakes have been paramount to his success.
Although an increased strikeout rate of 3% is not all that significant, other marks like overall swing rate, whiff rate and first pitch swing rate tell a more complete story. While his quality of contact may not have decreased, Crawford was overall swinging more frequently and whiffing more frequently. Not a good recipe for success for a player with his profile.
One can hope to see Crawford improve in these areas this year and frankly it is vital to the Mariners’ success that he does. With plenty of holes in the infield already, Seattle cannot afford one more at shortstop. It will be interesting to see how Crawford comes into camp and if his play is more a reflection of ‘23 J.P. or ‘24 J.P.
Logan Evans
Logan Evans is someone to watch as the potential “next man up” for the Mariners’ starting rotation.
Evans, a sinker-heavy pitcher with elite extension, wasted no time displaying exactly what it was that Seattle saw in him when they drafted him in the 12th round in 2023. While his college numbers were rather underwhelming – he posted a 5.88 ERA and 1.510 WHIP his junior year at the University of Pittsburgh – Evans has seen success since joining the Mariners’ minor league system.
Last year in double-AA Arkansas, Evans posted a 3.20 ERA with 98 strikeouts and just seven home runs allowed in 107 innings pitched. His stuff looked so good that the Mariners’ legitimately considered him as a potential addition to their big league bullpen, even going so far as to move him into the Travelers’ bullpen in early June. While that experiment did not pan out – Evans was moved back to his starter role and Troy Taylor got the call instead – it spoke to the confidence that Seattle has in his ability to compete at the major league level.
One area of improvement for Evans will be his tendency to walk batters. The organization will likely want to see him cut down last year’s walk rate of 9.4% before being considered for the big league squad.
In a similar manner to that of Bryce Miller and Bryan Woo, it would take an injury to the starting rotation – or, a trade from the rotation – for Logan Evans to get the call. Both of those scenarios are well within the realm of possibilities and it is quite possible we see Evans in a Mariner uniform at some point in 2025.
Seattle Mariners centerfielder Julio Rodríguez during the teams August 28th, 2024 win over the Tampa Bay Rays at T-Mobile Park. (Photos by Kevin Ng for Circling Seattle Sports)
Julio Rodríguez
The Mariners organization has constructed their roster in a manner where the entire ship either floats or sinks with Julio Rodríguez. Other deckhands and engineers may be employed to help steer things in the right direction, but if Julio does not perform, the water will slowly overtake the deck and surge through broken windows until the ocean swallows it whole.
“As Julio goes, so go the Mariners.” Because of this, I will always have one eye on Julio come Spring Training.
While statistics and plate appearance outcomes are not necessarily anything to squabble over in February and early March, mechanical changes and overall approach can be. Last offseason, Rodríguez worked extensively with his private hitting coach to make a number of swing changes. Those changes seemed to work early-on in Spring Training, but it wasn't long into the regular season before it became clear that an issue was present. The superstar centerfielder was frequently off-balance, falling into the opposite batters box after swinging under or over a pitch.
Rodríguez was posting a .675 OPS when Edgar Martínez came on board in late August. The new hitting coach for Seattle spent extensive time with Julio, reportedly adjusting his hands back a few inches in his stance. Martínez also emphasized driving the ball up the middle and the opposite way, messaging that seemed to resonate with Julio in particular. Rodríguez finished the season with a .902 OPS over Seattle’s last 34 games.
I am eager to see if Julio once again made swing changes this off-season and, if so, if those changes align with what drove him to finally see success at the end of 2024.
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