3 awful spring training performances Mariners fans are overreacting to before Opening Day

As those of every club ought to by now, Seattle Mariners fans should know better than to obsess over spring training statistics. Yet the truth is that it's often hard not to, particularly when said statistics hint at ill omens for the season to come.

Right now, for example, you're not alone if you're worried about how Randy Arozarena, J.P. Crawford and Logan Gilbert have performed this spring.

The first two are meant to be key components of the 2025 lineup, while Gilbert is the ace of the rotation. The three of them not coming through in the regular season simply can't happen if the Mariners are to make good on their quest to return to the playoffs.

Yet fear not. This is the part where you can leave your concerns at the door, as we're about to get into why there's no good reason to worry about Arozarena, Crawford or Gilbert.

Why Randy Arozarena will be fine

Spring Stats: 8-for-30, 0 HR, 2 RBI, 9 K

This is not what the Mariners wanted to see from Arozarena this spring, and there is something ominous about how this is not his first rodeo as a spring straggler. He had a .680 OPS for the Tampa Bay Rays last spring, and it portended a 69-point drop in his OPS from 2023 to 2024.

But does anyone remember Arozarena in the spring of 2021? Probably not, but the .545 OPS he had that spring didn't portend anything. That was the year that, hot off his star turn in the 2020 playoffs, he went off for a .815 OPS, 20 home runs, and 20 stolen bases en route to winning the AL Rookie of the Year.

Three more 20-20 seasons have followed for Arozarena since then, and he's not yet at a point in his career where Mariners fans should be worried about age taking a toll on his abilities. He just turned 30 on February 28.

Further, Arozarena is hitting the ball just fine this spring. The average exit velocity on his tracked batted balls is 91.0 mph, up from his average of 90.3 mph in 2024.

Why J.P. Crawford will be fine

Spring Stats: 5-for-24, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 9 K

Unlike Arozarena, Crawford had a terrific spring in 2024. He tallied 15 hits in 44 at-bats for a .341 average, with exactly as many walks as strikeouts.

Just like Arozarena, however, Crawford suffered regression from 2023 to 2024 anyway. It certainly didn't hurt that he was banged up for much of the year, yet his OPS dropped all the way from .818 down to .625 all the same.

Yet as much as Crawford's spring performance might seem to hint that he hasn't snapped out of it, Daniel Kramer of MLB.com covered how the 30-year-old came to camp healthy and refreshed. He merely needed to find his swing again, and he sure seemed to with his blast of a homer on Sunday.

The charge that Crawford put into that ball isn't an outlier. He's another guy whose exit velocity is up this spring, and significantly so. After hitting the ball at an average of 87.6 mph in 2024, he's at 90.9 mph for the spring.

Why Logan Gilbert will be fine

Spring Stats: 5.1 IP, 4 R, 5 BB, 8 K

As for Gilbert, discerning Mariners fans might recognize his spring performance as a tale as old as time. And that really isn't much of an exaggeration, even if the 27-year-old is only in his seventh spring training with the Mariners.

Gilbert has a 6.09 ERA for his spring career, so the 6.75 ERA he has this spring isn't totally out of the ordinary. We also know that he's tinkering with his arsenal, notably by working on some kind of sinker and a new curveball.

As for the ace's velocity, it's just fine, thank you. His tracked fastballs have averaged 97.3 mph, up from 96.6 mph in 2024.

Gilbert will take his next Cactus League turn on Friday afternoon opposite the Cleveland Guardians, with first pitch scheduled for 1:05 p.m. PT. As such, it is very possible that his inclusion on this list will not age well.