FanSided

4 Mariners who have surprised us this year

The Mariners had high expectations this year. WIth a core group of top level players, who stepped up the most this year and surprised Mariners fans.

By Tanner Vogt |
Seattle Mariners v Chicago White Sox
Seattle Mariners v Chicago White Sox / Jamie Sabau/GettyImages
3 of 5
Next

After breaking the 21 year playoff drought expectations were high coming into 2023 for the Mariners. They made big moves to acquire key contributors like Luis Castillo and Eugenio Suarez that carried the pitching staff and offense. A young crop of Mariners prospects like Julio Rodriguez, George Kirby and Logan Gilbert helped push the Mariners into the playoffs where they made a lot of noise.

Coming into 2023, guys like Julio Rodriguez, Luis Castillo, George Kirby and recently acquired Teoscar Hernandez would be counted on to lead a hungry team eager to prove that it wasnt just a one year fluke and that this team will be a perrenial playoff and World Series contender. They would count on what seems like a strength every year, the bullpen, but would need some other guys to step up and make contributions. Let's look at who those guys were that stepped up and who surprised Mariners fans the most this year.

JP Crawford - .264/.381/.426 15 HR, 15.1 BB%, 131 wRC+, 3.7 WAR

The Mariners, fan appointed captain, and most obvious surprise this year is J.P. Crawford. Nobody on the Mariners and, perhaps in all of baseball, took a bigger step forward this year. J.P. has been a fairly average shortstop for the Mariners since arriving from Philadelphia but was the heartbeat for the young Mariners team. But J.P. wanted to prove he was more than an average shortstop and, boy, did he show everyone just how good he can be. He worked with Driveline Baseball in the offseason to rework his swing and approach and he has put himself in the elite category of shortstops.

He is top 20 in fWAR in the American League regardless of position. He is also 2nd in wRC+ among qualified shortstops, only to Corey Seager, in all of baseball, leading guys like Bo Bichette, Francisco Lindor, Xander Bogaerts and every single other shortstop you can think of not named Corey Seager. Thats how good J.P. has been. I think all of us thought J.P. had more in the tank but were unsure if he would ever reach his full potential as a Mariner. We have seen J.P. step up his game to an elite level and become one of the best shortstops in all of baseball. He has been the biggest surprise for the Mariners this season while being one of the most consistent bats in the lineup. He has been a key cog in the lineup and will

Cal Raleigh - .235/.314/.472 27 HR, 10.2 BB%, 117 wRC+, 4.2 fWAR

Cal Raleigh had a very up and down year in 2022. He opened the year on the roster before being demoted as he struggled mightily at the plate. An injury to Tom Murphy forced Cal back onto the big league club and he took the job and ran with it. He was a stable behind the plate giving the Mariners pitching staff a great receiver that they could have confidence in. He also destroyed opposing pitching, setting the Mariners single season home run record for a catch with 27.

He hit .211/.284/.489 and that is a very good year for a catcher, especially with who the Mariners have had to deal with recently. But going into his second year Cal has stepped up big time. He has played in 124 of the 140 games so far and is 1 home run shy of tying his club record from last season. His walk rate is up over 10% and his strikeout rate is high at 28% but he has cut it down by almost 2% from last year. His slash line is much improved to a .235/.315/.470 slash line. His xWOBA is actually 10 points higher than last year. Not to mention, his defense is borderline elite. He leads this pitching staff and they trust him in part by his 88th percentile framing ability. Many of us expected Cal Raleigh to be among the top group of catchers in baseball, but there is a legit argument that Call Raleigh has been one of the 2 best catchers in all of baseball.

Logan Gilbert - 13-5, 3.61 ERA, 167 IP, 171 K's (9.2 K/9), 30 BB's (1.6 BB/9)

The Mariners pitching staff is anchored by Luis Castillo and George Kirby, but where their strength lies is in their depth. Coming into this year their rotation went Castillo, Kirby, Ray, Gilbert, and then Marco Gonzalez with Bryce Miller and Bryan Woo waiting in the wings. With injuries to Ray and Marco everyone was forced to step up. Gilbert has really stepped up with an injury plagued and young staff. He is 2nd in innings pitched only behind Castillo and significantly cut down on the walks while improved the strikout numbers. His fWAR is top 15 in baseball and is right there with Luis Castillo.

His ERA and xFIP are right there with George Kirby as he has shown to be right there, maybe just a tick behind Kirby and Castillo at the top of the rotation. After losing Ray, a workhorse that has averaged over 190 innings pitched the last 2 years, they needed someone to step up and eat innings and be a constant in the rotation. Gilbert has developed a splitter that has made him much more effective this year and he has surprised us all with his consistency (completing 6+ innings in 18 of his 26 starts this year). Gilbert is the #1 on probably 2/3 of the rotations in all of baseball and has taken steps forward to show just how valuable he is to this rotation.

Justin Topa - 64 G, 2.47 ERA, 58 1/3 IP, 52 K's (8.0 K/9), 15 BB's (2.3 BB/9)

In the Jerry Dipoto/Scott Servais era, the bullpen has regularly been a strength. Dipoto and Justin Hollander have shown an ability to take guys that have been cut or DFA'd, or former top prospects and turn them into valuable and sometime high leverage relievers. The Mariners acquired Justin Topa in the offseason and out of camp, he actually started in Tacoma. He was recalled pretty quickly on April 9th and never looked back. The Mariners have a system and it is damn good at identifying guys with certain traits, spin rates, arm slots etc. that they can work with or tweak and make them very effective. Before this year Justin Topa had thrown a combined 18 1/3.

This year he has thrown 58 1/3, the most in any single season in his professional career since 2014 when he was used as a starter in A ball. Topa doesn't have the elite strikeout numbers like guys such as Andres Munoz or Matt Brash, but he has been dependable and effective, posting a sub 1 ERA in both July and August with 27 appearances between those 2 months. The Mariners needed another bullpen arm to step up and no one has been more of a pleasant surprise than Justin Topa.

These four young players make up a strong supporting cast for superstars Julio Rodriguez and George Kirby.

Next
Home / Mariners News