Mariners Hitters I’m Most Excited About After 2021 Season

The 2021 Mariners season was full of stellar performances by a bunch of dudes we knew, and some we hadn’t even heard of before the year began (I’m going to assume you’re a bold-faced liar if you claim you knew about Abraham Toro before that trade).

One thing I love about baseball and this edition of the Mariners, in particular, is that you never know who is going to shine in the biggest moments. During the Cano/Cruz years, you knew if we were going to have a chance, one of those two was going to have to deliver. In 2021, we had grand slams from guys like Jake Fraley, Dylan Moore and Shed Long. These “little guy” moments are part of what made this last season so fun to watch.

As we look ahead to what many expect to be a pivotal year in the rebuild, I want to talk about the position players I’m most looking forward to watching in 2022.

Note: I’m excluding Mitch Haniger , JP Crawford, and Ty France because we know what to expect from those dudes.

It was so good to see JK turn it on during the last month of the season; I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little concerned after his initial call up. The most encouraging thing for me was watching his strikeout rate drop from 38.5% in July to around 25% from August-September.

Watching the Mariners play do-or-die baseball over the last two weeks of the regular season was as nerve-wracked and excited as I have ever been since I’ve been following the team. A big part of the reason why was the energy the players brought each and every night, and no player brought more energy than Mr. Kelenic. He wears his emotions on his sleeve and has the desire to win, and that’s infectious.

Kelenic is #1 on my list because he is one of the faces (if not the face) of this rebuild, and if the Mariners are going to compete in the AL West long-term, you’d have to think he would be a big part of the reason why. If he can pick up where he left off in September, he will quickly wash away any lingering fears about his ability to produce at the big-league level.

Kyle Lewis comes in at #2 for me partially because I’m excited to see what the outfield will look like with him healthy, and partially because Kyle Lewis just makes baseball look fun. He brings the kind of energy to the outfield that JP brings to the infield.

What I’m most curious to find out is whether his body can hold up for a full season. He had a major knee injury coming out of college and dealt with a bone bruise on the knee all of last year. When healthy, he’s obviously a huge boost to the offense, providing another great right-handed power bat to the middle of the lineup. But “when” is the big question, as he has missed more games than he has played since the Mariners drafted him in 2016.

The biggest question for me is whether Lewis will be available to play 120-150 games in center field each year. His track record does little to induce confidence that he will, but the spark he provides when he is healthy is enough to keep his window of opportunity open longer than it would be for others.

It could be a slow start as he attempts to shake the rust off after another injury-plagued 2021 season, but if he can come close to replicating what he gave us in the 60-game sample in 2020 over the course of a full season, it will paint a much clearer picture of what the outfield will look like for years to come.

The sting of losing Kendall Graveman seemed like it would over-shadow anything Abraham Toro could contribute to the Mariners after they traded for him in July. Less than a month into his tenure with Seattle, Toro had the fans behind him 100%. He put an exclamation point on what was one of the most impressive starts to a Mariners career we have ever seen when he took the aforementioned Graveman deep for a go-ahead grand slam against his former team.

Toro cooled off significantly toward the end of the year, but given all Dipoto gave up to get him, it would seem he figures into the future plans for this ball club. I’m most excited to see where he fits in next year and what kind of production they can get out of him over a full 162. His defense at second felt a bit shaky (especially after watching Dylan Moore field at a clip of .987 over 66 games at the position) but considering it isn’t his natural position, that doesn’t feel too concerning.

What I’m really curious to see is whether he will remain the everyday guy at 2B or whether they shift him back over to 3B where he might be more comfortable defensively. I’m sure free agency will play a factor in deciding his role in the infield, but I’d imagine Servais will make it a priority to get him regular at-bats regardless so he can continue to develop at the big-league level.

While his stats are below average and he is about as inconsistent as they come, Dylan Moore’s athleticism allows him to be the ultimate Swiss army knife in the field, and he’s also shown flashes at the plate. I’m probably in the minority, but I would love to see Seattle give him a shot to play every day as they did with Toro last year, although limiting him to one position would not be getting the most out of his versatility.

I think if given a shot, he has a chance to fill a Joey Wendle-type utility role that the Mariners have been lacking for a while. Having a utility guy that can fill in anywhere to give different position players a day off their feet is an underrated luxury that not a lot of teams have. It’s even more of a luxury when your UTIL provides plus WAR (D-Mo registered 0.9 WAR in 2021, and 2.8 over his career), minimizing the drop-off from your everyday guy.

Whether he ends up as an everyday guy in a utility role or primarily sticks at one position, I think the only way to maximize his strengths is by keeping his glove in the field as often as possible and giving his bat a chance to get hot.

Honorable Mentions: Cal Raleigh, Taylor Trammell, Julio Rodriguez