Mariners: Jake Fraley gets his first hit of Spring Training

Jake Fraley is one of the biggest mysteries for the Mariners right now. He has a solid minor league career, but has not been able to perform at the big league level yet. With a big 2021 ahead of him, he was off to a rough start 0 for 15 start in Spring Training. But, in yesterday’s game against the reigning champions, Jake Fraley gave fans a glimpse of who he can be in the future.

Jake Fraley hits a double off of Trevor Bauer

In his first at-bat of the game, he had a tough task ahead of him: facing the 2020 NL Cy Young Award winner Trevor Bauer. After a long first inning for Bauer, the Marners gave him a scare again in the second inning.

After Jose Marmolejos reached first base on a single, Jake Fraley stepped in a belted a ground-rule double to put runners on second and third base. This was his first of Spring Training so it must have felt good for the Mariners outfielder. It must have felt even better that he hit it off of an elite pitcher.

Jake Fraley homers for the Mariners

The former prospect is known for his sneaky power and he showed it last night. In the top of the fourth inning with two runners on base, Fraley took Nick Robertson deep. And when I mean deep, I mean deep.

Jake pounced on a 0-1 pitch and drove it well over the right-field wall to give the Mariners a 4-2 lead. That home run ended up being the last runs scored by Seattle, which eventually led to a tie.

Learning lessons

Fraley has been disappointing, to say the least, and even made it to my 5 coldest Mariners bats list from this morning. Not only has he struggled to get hits, but he’s also struggled to put the ball in play. He is tied for most strikeouts on the team with seven.

Let’s hope his game against the Dodgers is the spark of confidence he needed to get back on track. He put in lots of work this offseason and even slimmed down.

The Mariners want to give him a chance, and it’s a question of whether he can capitalize and prove that he deserves to stay in Seattle because the clock is ticking.