Major League Baseball is Back… Mariners fans Rejoice!

Go hug your loved ones. Grab your glove. Grab a ball. Baseball is back, as the MLB and the MLBPA have agreed to a deal. The Mariners are back, and the 2022 season is officially underway once again.

So, what does this mean for the Seattle Mariners?

It sounds like they are still going to try and play 162 games, and are going to have a fair amount of doubleheaders. There has been talk about the length of those games, and from the reports that were seen earlier on the 10th, it sounds like they are going to try and make them 9-innings games each.

It’s going to be a lot of baseball, and it makes for the third year in a row where the season is going to be “different”. Don’t be surprised to see extra players called up from the minors to make spot starts, or even a 6-man rotation for a while. They are cutting 2 weeks or so from the start of the season, but they aren’t cutting any games. That’s going to be a lot of baseball.

Yeah, I started that paragraph off the same way I finished. It’s a big part of this season, and people need to realize that there aren’t really going to be off-days this year. Injuries are likely going to jump a bit.

But let’s stay happy. Baseball is back, and we are finally going to get to see the Mariners play legitimate baseball.

No more video clips of Divish sneaking in at-bats from the prospects. No more off-site videos of the players working together just to get work in.

They are actually going to be able to get together and play. This means that we finally get to see Robbie Ray in a Mariners uniform. That we get to see Adam Frazier in a Mariners uniform. WE GET TO SEE JULIO!!!

Also, it’s going to be exciting to see what all happens in free agency. Supposedly, it’s going to happen on the night of the 10th. Yeah, the same day that the agreement was signed. It makes sense. The season is supposed to start in 4 weeks, on April 7th. That isn’t a lot of time to get things done.

Funnily enough, it’s still two weeks shorter for FA to finish, Spring Training to start and finish, and the season to actually start than it was for the owners to ever submit an offer or actually talk to the players. That was 42-43 days, depending on where you look.

Is Kris Bryant going to sign? What about Story, Suzuki, Rodon? Are they going to go after some other unknown bat? Castellanos? Freeman? What’s going to happen with the rotation? Are they going to try and get one of the last remaining top-level pitchers, or are they going to go out and try and make a trade to shore up the rotation?

There are a lot of questions left to be answered, and not a lot of time to answer them. One thing is certain though…

BASEBALL IS BACK. GO MARINERS!