Seattle Mariners Stealing Bases Like It’s Spring Training 2010

Mariners GM, Jerry Dipoto, and manager, Scott Servais, have told us they want this year’s team to be aggressive on the base paths and steal a ton of bases. Halfway through spring training 2017, M’s fans are getting a taste of amazing speed not seen in spring ball since 2010.

In one of his best bag stealing seasons of his storied career, our greatest Mariners right fielder of all-time, Ichiro, took 42 bases in 2010.

On his way to one of his five 40+ stolen base seasons of his career in 2010, Ichiro was showing off his jetpacks in spring training. His eight stolen bases are the second most by a M’s player in spring training in the last decade only behind Willie Bloomquist who had nine in 2007.

With 15 games left for the M’s this spring, the team is primed to have the most stolen bases in spring ball over the last dozen years.

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If they continue at their pace through the first half of the spring season, the M’s will finish with 42 stolen bases, eight more than their second most of 34 set back in that 2010 campaign.

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Minor league speedster, Ian Miller, has led the way for the M’s so far this spring and he’s doing so as a pinch runner. Miller has come in for six games with only one at-bat, but he’s stolen four bases.

Jarrod Dyson, Taylor Motter, and Shawn O’Malley have all stolen three bases so far while Guillermo Heredia has a pair of steals.

Today, the M’s stole a team-high six bases, three in the 4th inning alone, which could just be the start of extraordinarily aggressive baserunning to come in the next 15 games.

I already believed the M’s were going to be a top-10 base stealing team this season, but now that I’ve seen what they are capable of doing, especially with Miller, who will surely be a call-up in September when teams can expand their roster, I can see them being a top-five bag stealing team.

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It may just be spring ball, but the way the Mariners are stealing bases, not only at the highest percentage this spring at .875% but with the second-highest total thus far with 21 base thefts, they are looking like they want to run their way into the playoffs.