Mariners Spring Training: The 5 hottest hitters right now

Mariners Hitter #3: Jose Marmolejos

Jose has had a quiet but impressive Spring Training. His teammates have been hitting big home runs left and right which is why you haven’t heard much of Marmolejos’ name.

Through 11 at-bats, the first baseman has five hits, one double, and one RBI. Yeah, nothing too flashy but it’s progress for Jose. Put together, he has a .455 batting average, .455 OBP, .545 slugging, and 1.000 OPS.

An important detail in his stats, Jose has only struck out once this Spring. In his rookie season (2020), he struck out 27.8% of the time. For context, Khris Davis, the perfect home run or strikeout example, strikes out 27.8% of the time (career).

I acknowledge that it has only been six games and 11 at-bats, but that already seems like a huge improvement. But, when a player switches their hitting approach, there can be tradeoffs.

As of now, Marmo has only hit one double in exchange for plate discipline. So, I wonder if he is taking more of a contact hitter approach to start the Spring. But I could also be entirely wrong and this could just be a bad sample to come to conclusions.

Regardless, Jose Marmolejos is one of the hot hitters right now at Mariners camp. I looked forward to seeing how he progresses/digresses as we get closer to Opening Day.

Now onto hitter #4.