Randy Arozarena's apology wasn't the only thing that saved his spring for Mariners

If you were looking for someone to present as the definition of Winston Churchill's iconic phrase about a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, you could do worse than Randy Arozarena. He is simultaneously one of the most talented, fascinating and frustrating players on the Seattle Mariners roster.

In some respects Arozarena is a walking, talking contradiction. He's good enough to be named MVP of the ALCS and sometimes doesn't bother to even swing at pitches. Someone who plays the game with one of the biggest smiles on the field, but apparently doesn't have much of a sense of humor. A high energy player who will take mid-game selfies with fans, but has also been called one of the quietest people in the clubhouse.

The Randy Arozarena-Cal Raleigh fallout was a dumb lingering controversy for the ages

As such, maybe we shouldn't have been that surprised by what happened during the World Baseball Classic game between Team USA and Mexico. Or more specifically Arozarena's profanity-laced rant afterwards to the assembled media, when he had a go at Cal Raleigh for not accepting his handshake request, despite reportedly knowing beforehand not to ask for one.

Handshakegate was one of the dumbest and most unnecessary controversies during the spring, which only just came to a conclusion over the weekend when Arozarena apologized for the whole incident. Raleigh never actually had an issue with his mercurial teammate, but still reiterated there were no hard feelings and even went as far as saying they were both sorry.

This is the kind of thing you expect from the classy Raleigh, who is the main leader in the Mariners clubhouse in every sense of the word. As for Arozarena, plenty of people believe he was probably told by someone that he needed to say he was sorry — we're thinking Manny Acta — but irrespective, this wasn't the only thing which saved his spring.

Mariners need the best version of Randy being Randy as they chase that elusive World Series berth

Of equal importance was that the two-time All-Star finished spring training in fine form, going 5-for-13 with two home runs and five RBI in his last five games. This was desperately needed after batting just .154 with one RBI during the WBC for Mexico and not during much for the Mariners early on in spring training.

This followed an ice-cold end to last season with the Mariners, as Arozarena saw a .823 OPS through July dip to .680 in August, .596 in September and then down to just .574 during the playoffs. As such, his form to close out Cactus League action was almost a necessity, with the added encouragement that he smoked some balls throughout spring training with an exit velocity north of 100 mph on 10 of 25 tracked batted balls.

This is a likely the 2021 AL Rookie of the Year's final season in Seattle, so it's imperative he puts his best foot forward for the benefit of showcasing himself to future potential employers as a free agent next winter. This can only benefit the Mariners as they search for that elusive World Series berth, because he's a player with 30-30 upside who can take over and win any game when he's showing the more positive version of Randy being Randy.