Mariners 2022 Report Cards: Grading the season for Carlos Santana

At the end of June, the Mariners made a deal with the Kansas City Royals. They sent over William Fleming and Wyatt Mills for Carlos Santana. Neither prospect was very well heralded, and it was a low-risk move to try and get a veteran on the team who could hopefully provide a bit of leadership, some power, and maybe some clutch hits here and there that you see from an aging vet.

It’s a good thing they weren’t looking for defense or average, because they got neither of them from Santana. But like I said, that isn’t really what they were looking for.

Carlos Santana gets a C+ for the Mariners this season

He’s honestly one of the harder guys to grade for the Mariners. If you take a look at his stats…

• .192/.293/.400. 79 Games, 255 AB, 15 HR, 0.5 WAR, -0.5 dWAR, 101 OPS+

You can see that his value pretty much came from his power. 15 HR in just 255 AB is pretty good, especially for a 36-year-old that is past his prime. He walked a lot also, which really helped. That was about all he did though, as he had just 26 singles on the season.

However, it seemed like every time that the Mariners needed a big hit from someone, it was Santana coming to the plate. And most of those times, he was coming through when it mattered and driving people in, or even hitting a walk-off home run.

It wasn’t just the regular season, either.

During Game Two against the Blue Jays, Carlos Santana came to the plate in the 5th inning with the Mariners down 4-0. He would hit a double to get Frazier to 3rd, who would later score that inning to make it 4-1. Then in the 6th, the Mariners were looking dead in the water as they were down 8-1. A few singles and a wild pitch would make it 8-2, and there were two runners on for Santana. Being down six didn’t sound good to him, so he homered to cut the deficit in half.

That was the big-time spark that the Mariners needed, and we all know what would end up happening as the Mariners completed one of the biggest comebacks in the history of playoff baseball.

It seemed like Santana was involved in big-time plays all season. He was a negative defender whenever he had to play at first base, and didn’t do much at the plate. When he did decide to put the bat on the ball, it was normally in clutch situations. Mix that together, and I’m giving Carlos Santana a C+, and a big thank you for the 2022 season.