Mariners fans should be knocking wood amid shockingly injury-free spring

If you’re a Mariners fan, you’ve probably learned not to talk about good health in March. You just note it, lower your voice, and move on like you didn’t jinx anything. Because in Seattle, spring training optimism has a habit of getting checked the moment you start feeling comfortable.

And yet… here we are. It’s early March, and the Mariners’ injury board is almost suspiciously calm. “Injury-free” might be a reach, sure, but compared to the way last spring started to wobble, this year’s version feels like a small miracle.

Mariners are quietly winning March the only way Seattle actually cares about

The only two real speed bumps right now are the two you can actually stomach: J.P. Crawford’s right shoulder soreness and Bryce Miller’s left oblique inflammation. And the key part is that, as of now, neither one has turned into the kind of cascading problem that changes how the whole camp feels.

Crawford already checked an important box on Tuesday by getting back into a Cactus League game as the designated hitter after missing time since Feb. 20. He didn’t do anything flashy — 0-for-1, drew a walk, scored a run — but that’s kind of the point. The Mariners are treating it like a “monitor it, don’t rush it” situation, with Dan Wilson saying they’ll keep building and that there’s no set timetable for him returning to the field yet. Translation: no panic, no urgency, no need to play hero ball this early into 2026.

Miller’s situation is similar — annoying, but not alarming. The Mariners found inflammation in his left side after he felt it during his spring start, gave him a platelet-rich plasma injection, and laid out a deliberately slow plan: no throwing through the weekend, light catch after, and a re-evaluation seven days from the update. The Mariners don’t believe it’s serious, and they’re a lot more comfortable knowing it isn’t arm-related, especially after Miller’s elbow issues last year.

However, Mariners fans should be knocking wood anyway. We’ve seen how quickly this can flip. It was right around this time last year (March 7, 2025) that George Kirby’s shoulder inflammation became a “likely starts season on the IL” headline, even with an MRI showing no structural damage. 

And across MLB right now, it’s not exactly a calm landscape. The league’s daily injury churn is already thick, and the hamate situation alone has become its own mini-epidemic. 

So yes, knock on wood. But also recognize the underrated truth hiding in plain sight — the Mariners being mostly upright and functional in early March is part of the good vibes. Not the only reason. Just the one that usually gets taken away first.