Monday Morning Mariber is a weekly collection of thoughts on the Mariners week that was, with a focus on the weekend games. It is a format still finding itself, and as such you are welcome to let me know if there’s something you would like to see in it. 

The Birth of the Seattle Mariners

They say deaths come in threes, and so it was Sunday afternoon. Jesse Winker swung at a 3-2 slider in his kitchen and his bat died. The murderous baseball fled the scene at a speed that wouldn’t get it ticketed on the interstate (71.9 MPH) before it died as well; settling into fat, lazy space between second and right field. Adam Frazier fled the death and slid safely into home while fans and players roared. Jesse Winker backpedaled from it all a lone white dot against a green background, a swarm approaching him, and so occured our third death: My cynicism.

Covering this team for as long as I have is exhausting. There really is not any other way to put it. Writing and creating around this franchise in a way that doesn’t simply try to relay facts, or analyze details, but wants you to know what this all is, and what it feels like to experience as a fan could only be a hollowing-out experience. I’ve bottomed out plenty of times, questioning why on earth I keep spending my time this way.

I know many people find the tone and focus of what I say here and on Twitter to be a drain on their personal experience with the team. But I will stand by it, or at least most of it. My perspective these past seven years or so has not been particularly cheerful or optimistic, but it is one that I have come by honestly and openly. I have wanted you to share in what this is to me, one way or the other. Many of you have come along for the ride, and we’ve made something really fun out of whatever the hell this team has been. Now, after a glorious, deliriously fun and raucous 7-2 opening homestand, we need to acknowledge what that was may be dead. We may have something new here.

They are simply a damn fine baseball team, and denying that is putting personal ease and habit ahead of clear evidence. I can tell because they draw walks, and they don’t strike out, and they hit for power, and they have an actual honest-to-god complete lineup more nights than not. The starting pitching features the 2021 AL Cy Young Award Winner, and he has the third best stuff in the rotation. The bullpen has a man that throws a ball 103 miles per hour, and that is not his best pitch. Thus far nearly every player they needed to hold onto big jumps in 2021 have just gone and taken big jumps again. J.P. Crawford and Ty France have played like superstars.

They don’t need magic, or one-run bullshit, or chaos ball, or fun differential, or any of that other stuff. They create what they need through nine innings of willful intent, and a sneaking (and rapidly growing) suspicion that they are better than whoever they are playing. I know they are good because I have watched the Mariners my entire life, and they look nothing like the Seattle Mariners.

Change is funny, because it starts from within but is so often motivated by external forces. The Mariners simply winning was never going to be enough for me to feel joy again. The Mariners won 90 games last year, and frankly it was largely annoying as hell because it reinforced so many of the bad habits this organization has built up over the past 20 years; frugality, low expectations and smaller goals, conflating luck for skill, etc. No, the Mariners being in first place 10% of the way through the season (with the American League’s best record and run differential tyvm) wasn’t going to start the detoxification process, washing out decades of Rick Whites, Lollabluezas, Jerry Dipoto quotes, spurned loyalties, and on and on.

What has done it for me this homestand, what has broken through, is that no matter how haunted I may be by the past (and to an extent always will be), no one on this roster or in those stands gives one damn about any of that. The Mariners of the past do not exist for them. Fans that filled the stadium the past nine games reflect a new generation of fan, one that grew up not with year after year of failure and empty promises, but with a steadfast belief that this plan was good, that it was going to work, and that what they are experiencing is simply what was always going to happen, because the plan is doing what it was intended to do.

I cannot share in all of that. I will always have to wipe away spirits to see the present clearly. But who cares? The 2022 Mariners and their fans are none of that, and they are none of me. They are chanting players names on Wednesday nights against Texas, treating home runs in April like playoff victories, and building a new bond between region and team every night. They are potentially something brand new; a fresh, squalling babe born clean of their ancestors’ sin. They are a gift, and I will not let one more day pass letting myself miss out because of wrongs done by their predocessors. We are here now, and only now. Today is our gift, tomorrow our hope. Goms.

Three Up

Julio Rodriguez is More than We Dreamed

The numbers are not there yet. I do not know when they will get there. It could be this week. It could be 2024. Whenever it arrives however, it is going to be something we haven’t seen here in 20+ years. After being afforded 16 games to watch Julio Rodriguez against major league competition it’s not the strikeout rate (40.3%) or low wRC+ (61) that stand out. What is glaringly, searingly, just-stared-directly-at-the-sun-after-20-years-underground blindingly obvious is that the man’s tools make him one of the most physically gifted baseball players alive.

The center field defense I was extremely nervous about coming into the year? It’s ~fine. Imperfect but fine. The speed? Oh my holy god the speed is so ridiculous. Julio moves like someone transplanted a Bugatti Veyron’s guts into an F-350. I have not seen a Mariner make the yellow stuff trickle down infielder’s legs on routine ground balls like this since 2001 Ichiro. 

Even while largely being a negative on offense, Rodriguez does at least one thing a game that nearly defies belief. One day it’s cutting of a ball in the gap, pivoting and trebucheting a strike to second while moving his tonnage at about 250 MPH in the opposite direction. The other it’s forcing a shortstop to rush a bad throw, immediately stealing second, and then scoring on a single. Still another it’s (hopefully) putting the “umpires are out to get Julio” narrative to bed by drawing a game-breaking walk on a 3-2 pitch so close to a strike that Howard Schultz got very nervous watching it.

The second, and I mean the second he figures out his offensive game he will be the best player on this team by a wide margin, and one of the best in the American League. There hasn’t been a ceiling this high in Seattle since we were 10-counting Karl Malone at Key Arena. I cannot believe how talented this dude is.

Eugenio Suárez Would Like to Invite Me to a Crow Dinner

There was a big to-do this past week in media circles about the need to circle back on Kyle Seager since Suárez is having a great start to the season. I don’t think anything too much needs to be said on it that hasn’t already been said. I’m certain part of my hesitancy to enjoy Suárez or buy into him is because he’s replacing an all-time franchise player and one I think has gotten far too little credit for his play both in the media and with the fans, but that’s on me for dragging a bias into this just as much as those who come at this from the opposite side of that bias.

The simple fact is Suárez is crushing the baseball right now. He’s hitting .255/.359/.527 and holding down third just fine. He can (and I believe likely will) drop so far off from his current play and be the upgrade over 2021 Kyle Seager we were all clamoring for all winter. He’s making me look very stupid, and what could be better? The Mariners win, a few people get some laughs at my expense, and Suárez sells Good Vibes Only shirts for the marketing department. Keep raking, Geno.

The Incendiary Displays of Ty France are Not legal in the Lower 48 States

Look I do not know who gave Ty France all these fireworks, and I do not want to know. He used the government-authorized stuff to put on a hell of a show last year, but it’s clear that wasn’t enough for him. I dunno if he mail-ordered these things from the same places that Tom Brady gets his monthly infusion of kitten blood or not, but good LAWD the man has gone full 2012 SAN DIEGO FOURTH OF JULY on the season’s first month.

The past two series in particular revealed pitchers who’d simply had enough of making an honest effort to get him out, preferring to take a “screw it he’s getting on anyway” approach as they threw fat pitch after fat pitch to Seattle’s phat first baseman. He was more than happy to oblige them. The man has a 238 wRC+. His slugging percentage is north of .650, and his strikeout rate is under 11%. If you see him DO NOT APPROACH as you may spontaneously burst into flame.

Three Down

“Bullpen” “Depth”

The Mariners got hit with Covid this past week in a bad way. In addition to a good portion of the coaching staff and announcing crew Paul Sewald, the 2021 team’s best reliever, went on the Covid IL. With the continued absence of Ken Giles due to a naughty finger tendon, Sergio Romo out with “old”, and the team cautiously keeping real-life Death Star Andres Munoz from throwing back-to-back games, the week saw the Mariners rolling out the back end of their pen far more than we’d all like.

I do not have anything against Anthony Misiewicz, Matt Festa, or Yohan Ramirez but they are not the arms this team can trust in close and late situations game after game. The team’s only loss of the week came via the squandering of a 5-0 lead to Texas (with 2021 stalwart Drew Steckenrider on the hill) and the heartburn was in full burn over the weekend against the Royals. The team needs Sewald, Romo, and Giles back healthy and fast, particularly with the schedule rapidly getting harder.

The Matt Brash Express is Causing Confusion and Delay

Everything about the ideological concept behind Matt Brash screams opulence. “Oh I was out antiquing and simply found this starting pitcher that throws 99 MPH with a slider that bends through more dimensions than Doctor Strange. What a lark!” Teams don’t simply just find guys that end up with some of the nastiest raw stuff in the sport. Through three starts, however, Brash has shown that concerns about Seattle’s starting pitching depth may not be all that crazy.

The primary issue is Brash has, apologies for the Canadian swears here, no gall durn clue where he’s throwing the baseball. His walk percentage (17.2%) is the highest in the American League (min. 10 IP). Not only does this drive up his pitch count and keep his outing relatively short it is doing a number on his strikeout rate as well (K%+ of 88, or 12 points below league average). 

Brash is young, his career even more so, and his minor league numbers don’t indicate this much command trouble. But even the best stuff is going to have trouble generating regular swings and misses from the best hitters alive, and all the best hitters alive are very inconveniently grouped into MLB. He’s going to have to prove he can be much, much more efficient and soon, or it’s pray the Mariners Arm Factory is ready with a new model to play around with.

The Secondary Player in the Eugenio Suárez Trade is Struggling eh?

I don’t think this is fair but the team had a hell of a good week, and the entire concept here is “Three Up Three Down” so guess what Jesse Winker that means you and your 79 wRC+ and one extra base hit get the nod.

Winker is off to an enormously frustrating start to 2022. Everything about his process looks fantastic. He has walked significantly more than he has struck out (15/9 BB/K). He looks every bit the player that sat at the feet of Joey Votto at the top of a Nepalese mountain for so many offseasons, soaking in all that sagely advice. He’s running a .182 BABIP that will obviously improve significantly. We’ve already got snuff films of all his just-missed dingers.

A potentially real concern is that power has never really been Winker’s bit and, while it’s very early, the ball appears to be dead again. Given his defense is pretty much exactly Well He’s Not Gonna Kill You Out There the Mariners are going to need some pop from their new left fielder, and pretty soon. I’m pretty confident they will, but also Al Martin yada yada.

The Weekly “Mariners Tweet that Made Me Laugh Most Embarrassingly in Front of My Family” Award

Let’s do last week again but instead make it this week. Go Mariners folks.

You can follow Nathan on Twitter at @nathan_h_b. Additionally he appears on the Ian Furness show on Mollywhop Mondays on KJR 93.3 FM every Monday at 1:10 PM with Chris Crawford and Kevin Shockey. Please be nice, he is going his best.