Mariners dodge season-altering disaster with Victor Robles injury news

The Seattle Mariners were left holding their breath after Victor Robles took a pitch off his right hand on Saturday, especially with his immediate reaction indicating that he was in significant pain.

On Sunday, the team was able to breathe a sigh of relief. As reported by Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times, X-rays on Robles' hand came back negative and he's only slated to miss a couple games for the time being:

For the Mariners, the incident is both a bullet dodged and a warning of an inherent risk of using Robles as an everyday player.

HBPs come with the territory with Robles

For Robles, hit-by-pitches are less of a bug and more of a feature.

He got plunked 25 times in 2019 alone while playing for the Washington Nationals, and he recorded 10 HBPs in 77 games with the Mariners after they picked him up last summer. This latest HBP, which came via an 87 mph slider from Chicago White Sox righty Gus Varland, was Robles' third of the spring.

It's not that opposing pitchers have anything against Robles, at least so far as we know. He stands right on top of the inside edge of the right-hander batter's box, with his arms and hands hanging right over the plate. Anything inside is therefore going to have a likelihood of getting a piece of him.

The catch is obviously that there where there's risk with HBPs, there's also reward. Those 10 plunkings are part of the reason the 27-year-old Robles got on base at a .393 clip as a Mariner, in turn allowing him to join Dylan Moore as the team's only two players to steal 30 bases in 2024. It is therefore understandable that the Mariners don't necessarily want Robles to change his style.

“He’s a guy who really knows what he does and does well, and he’s an incredible teammate as well,” manager Dan Wilson said, per Divish. "He brings a lot of life to this ballclub. He’s an elite base stealer. His aggression on the bases is welcome. He’s earned that. He’s a guy that will make things happen. He impacts the game in a lot of different ways.”

Regardless, it would have been a huge blow if the Mariners had lost Robles for a substantial amount of time right out of the gate. It would have cost them not only one-third of their vaunted outfield trio, but also their leadoff hitter and primary table-setter for Julio Rodríguez and Cal Raleigh.

Hopefully, Robles will be good to go when the Mariners take on the Athletics for their season opener at T-Mobile Park on Thursday.