Will Jean Segura Be The Next Great Mariners Hitter?

From Ken Griffey Jr., A-Rod, Edgar Martinez to Ichiro, the Mariners have seen their fair share of hitting talent over the past twenty years. Now with the acquisition of Jean Segura, the M’s look to have their next batting super-talent  that hopes to join the ranks of all-time M’s great hitters.

Segura may not have started his career with the Mariners, and he may not finish his career in Seattle either, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t become one of the greatest M’s hitters.

It may seem a little farfetched to say something so bold before the guy has even stepped on the field in a Mariners uniform when players these days are having shorter careers and spending less time with one club, but Segura has the raw talent to do something special with the M’s, no matter how long he stays in the Pacific Northwest.

Last year with the Diamondbacks, Segura became one of less than three hundred and fifty men in the modern era to grab at least two hundred and three hits in a single season. It was his first two hundred-plus hit season, and the first in the majors since 2014, but it surely won’t be his last.

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Will Segura ever catch Ichiro’s record of ten seasons with more than two hundred hits? Probably not, but with a couple of years left in his twenties, it looks like Segura is hitting his stride at the perfect time for the Mariners.

Last season he became one of only eight players in history to record at least two hundred hits, thirty stolen bases, forty doubles and twenty home runs all in a single year. None of the other players were to do that were Mariners.

Of those eight men, Segura was the third youngest to achieve those stats, trailing Jose Altuve and Hanley Ramirez.

If, as the M’s lead-off man, Segura can notch two hundred or more hits next season as well, he will be one of just one hundred other men to have consecutive two hundred hit seasons. He would be the third Mariners player to do so; the others were Ichiro and A-Rod.

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In 2017, Segura will have his shot at the M’s history books. If he continues where he left off last season, there’s no reason he couldn’t challenge the M’s all-time greats, even if he stays with the team for just a short while.