Let’s build the Seattle Mariners their best lineup for 2022

Being a fan is fun. That’s what we keep telling ourselves, at least. Sometimes it sucks, especially when your team is struggling to put up runs. With the recent debates about where people should be slotted in the Mariners lineup, I thought it would make for a fun little exercise to try and figure out what the best Mariners lineup would be.

From the jump, I can see how that would sound very subjective. That’s why I’m going straight analytical with this. Who hits best where. So with a little bit of research, a bit of favoritism, and a little bit of fudging stuff around, I think we can likely come up with something that looks pretty good.

Let’s take the time to figure out the Mariners best lineup to fix their slump

I’m going about all of this pretty simply. Looking at how guys have done at certain spots in the lineup, and putting them in the best (or worst) spot. First, I’m not including Mitch Haniger, Abraham Toro, or Tom Murphy. They’re all injured, so it wouldn’t make sense to put them in an article about the optimal lineup when they can’t even play. Toro should be back soon, but I haven’t seen when.

I’m gonna be a little flexible with the number of at-bats in a spot to be eligible. If someone has been playing all year, like Crawford, and is one for two in a spot, I’m not going to say he should play there. However, Kyle Lewis is back, so I’m 100% adding him to this exercise.

To make it a bit more interesting, I’m going to throw out the worst lineup as well, and that’s what we are going to start with. There will be one more stat on their slash line, which is the % of at-bats that they’ve had in that spot this year. Also, I’m going to keep guys in spots they’ve hit. Otherwise, it would just be dropping France/Julio/Frazier to the bottom 3, and moving the cruddy hitters to the top.

The Worst Mariners lineup would be…

1. Adam Frazier – .256/.328/.344 – 91.2%
2. Kyle Lewis – .250/.250/.250 (8 PAs on the season, all in 7 hole)
3. JP Crawford – .180/.261/.246 – 37.3%
4. Julio Rodriguez – .214/.241/.464 – 16.7%
5. Eugenio Suarez – .184/.225/.421 – 21.9%
6. Luis Torrens – .105/.150/.105 – 26.4%
7. Jesse Winker – .250/.250/.250 – 2.5%
8. Dylan Moore – .125/.364/.313 – 37.5%
9. Cal Raleigh – .140/.246/.380 – 92.6%

That’s what could happen if everyone ends up in the wrong spot with Ty France getting a day off. Until recently when Winker got moved to leadoff, that’s pretty much all Frazier has done, so he stays there.

Everyone else has ABs in those spots. Winker stinks in the 3-hole, but Crawford is putrid there, so Winker gets pushed back to 7th, where he has played just one game. The other thing I had to do was put Lewis 2nd. He’s hit 2/3/4 in the past, so it’s not a major ask to see the 2-hole as believable.

It’s an awful lineup based on how badly everyone has done there so far this year. Let’s make people feel a bit better by looking where everyone should be slotted.

The Optimal lineup the Mariners should be using…

1. Adam Frazier (2B) – .256/.328/.344 – 91.2%
2. Ty France (1B) – .332/.406/.489 – 100%
3. Julio Rodriguez (CF) – .500/.529/.750 – 9.8%
4. Jesse Winker (LF) – .238/.261/.286 – 13.0%
5. JP Crawford (SS) – .333/.423/.583 – 38.4%
6. Eugenio Suarez (3B) – .225/.296/.575 – 24.0%
7. Kyle Lewis (DH) – .250/.250/.250 – 100% (8 AB)
8. Luis Torrens (C) – .294/.342/.324 – 47.2% (as a 9-hitter)
9. Dylan Moore (RF) – .294/.400/.588 – 37.5%

Julio’s best spot is probably 7 based on his performance, but we all want him up in the lineup, and Lewis is locked in down there for now as he gets back into playing shape. Winker is better at the 5, but again, Crawford is there because of how well he does. I put Torrens stats as the 9 hitter in the 8 spot, because I wanted to and we needed someone there.

That lineup looks a lot better to me, and it looks like it has been performing decently as well. I’m not saying that Servais should listen to me… ok, I am. It’s hard to put together a better Mariners lineup where the players have actually performed well in those specific spots. Once the team starts back up against the Astros, this is the lineup they should be using.