Wild Facts Wednesday: The Mariners Newcomers stand out

Every week in baseball there are always some weird things that happen. Whether it is a position player pitching (Jesus Sucre was the best by far) or a player having some unfortunate luck at the plate; it is guaranteed that something interesting or weird is going to happen.

In part, it’s what makes baseball fun and exciting. Even though they have been playing the game for 130+ years, there still seems to be events every year that happen for the first time. We aren’t going to see them every week, but we are going to see some wild and weird things happen.

With that, I have decided to analyze what happens each week and report the findings of my research. For my new series here on Sodo Mojo, I will be giving a few weird facts or stats that I have found from the past week of Mariner baseball. Fortunately with “Chaos Ball”, I’m sure to find some interesting statistics and facts each week. This week’s focus was on some of the newcomers: Robbie Ray, Jesse Winker, and Eugenio Suarez.

Eugenio Suarez came over alongside Jesse Winker from the Reds this offseason. The Mariners sent off a mix of prospects and MLB guys in the deal (Justin Dunn, Jake Fraley, Brandon Williamson, and Connor Phillips), and most people around the league felt like the Mariners easily won the deal.

Suarez has quiet power. Not that it sneaks up on people, but that there are very few who realize that from 2018-2021, he led the entirety of major league baseball in home runs!

Eugenio “Good Vibes Only” Suarez had an interesting first week as a Mariner. That power showed up in the series in Minnesota… sort of. Luck was typically not on his side, especially at the plate (as seen below).

Speaking of bad luck, Suarez really got the short end of the stick in Minnesota when he hit a ball 442 ft to dead center field that would have been an HR in any other park in the MLB.

Hopefully, the luck for Suarez gets better over the coming weeks! Next, we will be checking in with Jesse Winker.

Jesse Winker has had a reasonably interesting week so far like some of the other newcomers with the Mariners. At the plate, he has not been extremely effective hitting the ball, but it has actually been what he has done without hitting the ball that is very telling. So no, we do not need to worry about Jesse Winker Though he has only 2 hits in his 18 plate appearances, it is important to remember that it is not always about the hits!

Another interesting fact that I found was how successful Winker has been at the plate over the last 162 games. Being in the top 6 with the names that are in this group is phenomenal. Let’s not overreact to his lack of hitting in the first 4 games.

Those are some incredible names to be grouped with. Winker rakes, and he went 1-3 with two more walks in the series opener against the White Sox. It sure would be nice to see them drive some runs in, especially in support of the next guy on the opening edition of weird Wednesdays.