Jose Marmolejos’ MLB debut with Mariners was 9 years in the making
Jose Marmolejos’ smile widened as he thought about running out onto the field at Minute Maid Park.
Minutes after finishing up his cage work Friday afternoon in Houston, he sat in front of a Mariners backdrop and spoke on a video call with reporters based back in Seattle, eagerly anticipating stepping out of the dugout as a Major League Baseball player.
“Right after this interview here I might go out and check it out,” he said. “I’m just taking it all in — enjoying every single moment.
“I’m going to live the moment. Don’t think about the past or the future — just live in the moment as of right now.”
A moment nine years in the making.
After spending much of the past decade playing his way through the minors, Marmolejos was named to Seattle’s 30-man roster Thursday.
The smile on his face when he was told he would break summer camp with the big league club was “as big as anybody’s I’ve seen in a long time,” manager Scott Servais said.
It only got bigger when the 27-year-old utility player was told Friday he would be the Mariners’ Opening Day left fielder.
“I feel blessed,” Marmolejos said. “I feel so thankful about this. Making the team was a very big blessing, and finding myself in the lineup Opening Day is just amazing.”
Marmolejos signed with the Nationals as a free agent nine years ago when he was 18, and started a long climb through their minor league ranks.
Though he said he initially signed as an outfielder, he primarily played first base while in Washington’s system, appearing in 548 games there across nine seasons. His appearances in the outfield ticked up the past three years while playing in Double- and Triple-A, and he’s recorded 184 games, mostly in left field, in the outfield since his professional debut in 2011.
Though a promotion to the majors never came with the Nationals, Marmolejos just kept working.
“I was thankful to have the opportunity to at least play every day throughout my minor league years,” he said. “That’s a blessing. There was not a year where I didn’t play, so that helped me a lot to keep going and going.
“There’s a lot of things that are not in my control, but the things I have in my control, I try to do those things and just keep going forward.”
He signed a minor league contract with the Mariners as a free agent last winter, and was invited to big league spring training in Arizona, where he hit .233/.281/.600 with three doubles, a triple, two homers and eight RBI in 14 games before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down camp.
“Honestly as soon as I came to the Mariners everybody was on the same page, just trying to get better, and I felt like there were a lot of opportunities,” he said. “They were throwing me the games, and giving me the confidence to show what I can do.”
The belief the Mariners had in Marmolejos this spring made a positive difference, he said.
“I needed that, and everything clicked from there,” he said.
He continued to impress as a versatile defensive option during three weeks summer camp, and his bat started to heat up near the end, earning him the spot on Seattle’s Opening Day roster.
“He couldn’t be any happier,” Servais said. “It is a grind. A lot of these guys, you know, they’re not all first-round draft picks and they all don’t just fly through the minor leagues.
“But, that’s the beauty of our game, it really is. Once you have an opportunity, some guys just have to grind through it, prove themselves at every level. Sometimes it takes going to a new organization to get an opportunity, and it’s a great spot for him here with us right now.”
It didn’t escape Marmolejos that his Major League Baseball debut Friday night would be much different than most.
No crowd in the stands. Manufactured noise pumping through the stadium’s speakers. A visitor’s clubhouse set up for social distancing as club’s continue to adapt to new health and safety protocols amid the pandemic.
But, none of that could take away from this long-awaited moment.
“It’s still very special — it’s still a long way coming,” he said. “Just talking to my family and talking to my friends and everything, it’s just a dream come true.”
This story was originally published July 24, 2020 at 6:33 PM.
