Mariners needed J.P. Crawford back at shortstop even before Colt Emerson's downfall

It's been a strange season for a Mariners team predicted by many to win the AL pennant, but presently uncomfortably under .500. Cal Raleigh has followed up his historic 60 home run campaign with the worst season of his career, Andrés Muñoz has gone from a two-time All-Star to an unreliable closer, while Rob Refsnyder completely lost his hitting mojo versus lefties before being released. To top it all off, it turns out the M's desperately need the oft-criticized J.P. Crawford back at shortstop.

We appreciate this sounds strange about a player who plenty wanted replaced by Colt Emerson at shortstop early into this season. Certainly, Emerson did represent a defensive upgrade over someone who had become a liability at the position, with Crawford's 2020 Gold Glove Award now representing an almost taunting memory. However, sometimes it's about looking at the bigger picture and the overall ramifications, in this case replacing a veteran with a more talented but younger player with no big league experience.

As much as Crawford had become a declining defensive asset at shortstop, he still provided value in other ways as a leader who was extremely popular in the clubhouse. In this respect, it's intriguing to note that the Mariners are 32-25 this season in games that he started at The 6. By contrast the team is 25-41 in all other games, whether he has played at another position or been out through injury.

Plenty will automatically put this down to merely being a coincidence and we do get that sentiment. However, consider that Crawford has 10 home runs and a .794 OPS when playing at shortstop, compared to zero home runs and a .440 OPS at third base. Again, plenty will want to dismiss this as just a coincidence, yet we would contend there's more to it, because the contrast in productivity cannot be disputed.

J.P. Crawford out at shortstop and out of sorts for the Mariners

Crawford deservedly got credit for offering to move to third base to facilitate Emerson taking over at shortstop, offering a prime example of his leadership and willingness to do what's best for the team. At the same time, it's entirely possible that the 2013 16th overall draft pick felt distracted and/or diminished in some way by the move. This makes even more sense when factoring in that prior to this season, 882 of his career 906 starts in the majors had come at shortstop.

The obvious irony in this is that it still doesn't change the reality of Crawford no longer being any good at shortstop. However, maybe there's something to be said about the overall harmony for everyone when he's at the position. No matter that Emerson is the superior defender, his offensive slump wasn't helping the Mariners, irrespective of how much he was impacted by the just announced left wrist tendon inflammation which has sent him to the 10-day Injured List.

Long-term, the projections still point to Emerson being a tremendous and successful all around talent, but this is about the here and now. The Mariners need all the offensive help they can get with them sitting dead last in the majors for runs per game and their playoff hopes fading fast. Which is why Crawford can't come back from his wrist injury soon enough and return to shortstop, defensive limitations be damned.

And yes, that's something we never thought we'd say about the 31-year-old Crawford in a season which just continues to get stranger and stranger.

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