Ranking the Best Shortstops in Seattle Mariners History

Mariners #2: JP Crawford – 5.5 fWAR

According to Fangraphs, JP Crawford is 3.1 fWAR behind Omar Vizquel for second-place in the team’s history at SS. That’s the exact number that he had in 2021, and he projected out to a 2.97 in 2020 if he played a full season. He will be entering his age-27 season in 2022, and it’s widely accepted that ages 27-29 are a player’s prime.

Is it that hard to imagine that 2022 will be his best season yet?

I’m not saying he is going to go out there and drop a 7.0 fWAR or anything crazy like that. However, if we checked back at the end of the 2024 season to see that Crawford had combined for a 10-15 fWAR over those three years, I don’t think it would surprise anyone.

He’s showing more power, the ability to hit a bunch of doubles, and his batting average keeps going up. If the Mariners end up with a dangerous lineup (a real possibility), then there are going to be more opportunities all over. Not only would Crawford have a chance for a few more RBI, but I think he has a real chance at eclipsing 100 R this season. It’s starting to get too much into a 2022 expectations article, so let’s look at last year instead.

2021 was the first year of Crawford’s career that he was above a 100 WRC+ (He was 103). He also just missed getting into the positive OFF ranking on FanGraphs, with -0.2. As always, Crawford shined defensively, ranking 5th in DRS and 2nd in OOZ (out of zone plays). It was a big reason he had a 3.1 fWAR last year, the 3rd best non A-Rod mark ever.

If you’re wondering why I keep saying non A-Rod mark, well…