Mariners notes: Crawford talks extension, Rodriguez’s double fuels Saturday comeback
On a day late in the 2021 season, J.P. Crawford stood alongside Mariners chairman John Stanton and the now-retired Kyle Seager, who manned third base for parts of 11 seasons.
Seager, the longest-tenured Mariner at the time, looked to Stanton with a brief, but powerful statement: “J.P. is the new leader of this team.”
Crawford was dubbed the “heart and soul” of the team by coaches, and the “emotional leader” by teammates. He’s consistently vocalized his desire to take the Mariners back to where they haven’t been since 2001: the postseason. And over the next five years, at least, he’ll have the chance to do it.
On Friday, hours before the dawn of the 2022 season, Seattle announced they had extended the Gold Glove-winning shortstop to a five-year extension worth $51 million.
“I love Seattle,” Crawford told reporters. “I’ve loved it ever since I put on the jersey for the first time. I’ve really wanted to stay here ever since then. So I’m really happy for this opportunity.”
Before Friday’s news, it was clear to Crawford that he was considered the team’s shortstop of the future. Upon conclusion of the 2021 season – and the entrance of a free agent period with perhaps the deepest shortstop signing class in the sport’s history – team President of Baseball Operations Jerry Dipoto told Crawford that he wouldn’t pursue another player for the position. The job was always going to be his; Friday’s deal solidified it.
“It says a lot about trust, and I just want to thank him for trusting me,” Crawford said. “This is my team, it is permanently (my team) now, and I’m ready to lead these guys. It means a lot ... this is the craziest shortstop free agency class there has ever been.”
Crawford’s deal ends after the 2026 season. It wipes out future arbitration and buys out two free-agent seasons after his rookie contract would have ended. The 27-year-old will earn $6 million in 2022, followed by $11 million in 2023-25 and $12 million in 2026. It’s a signal that Crawford remains a focal point on an improved Seattle team whose competitive window is officially open.
“It’s a fun way to kick off our season,” said Dipoto, who imagines a scenario where Crawford plays “more games at shortstop than anybody in the history of the Mariners,” per MLB.com’s Daniel Kramer. That record is held by Alex Rodriguez (790), though Crawford (487) needs only 303 more games to catch him.
JULIO’S FIRST HIT PROPELS SATURDAY SEATTLE COMEBACK
Once Julio Rodriguez had coasted into second base with a stand-up double, Twins infielder Jorge Polanco made sure to save the baseball tucked away in his glove. Polanco looked to Seattle’s dugout, and tossed the ball to Mariners third base coach Manny Acta, who was sure to preserve the newest piece of baseball history.
Seconds earlier, the ball had connected with Rodriguez’s bat. He led off the ninth inning and ultimately scored the tying run in Saturday’s come-from-behind win. More specifically, it was the 21-year-old’s first major league hit, after starting 0-for-7 with five strikeouts.
“I wanted to get something going for the team, honestly,” Rodriguez said. “Doesn’t matter, force a walk, base hit, double, whatever.
“I know the double was pretty cool, but that run definitely mattered the most to me.”
But the hit – and the baseball itself – mattered, too. On Sunday morning at a team breakfast, Rodriguez told Mariners radio broadcaster Rick Rizzs he would give the ball to his father, one of several family members in attendance for the team’s opening series.
Over the course of his first career eight at-bats, Minnesota pitchers welcomed baseball’s third-ranked prospect with consistent breaking balls, some manager Scott Servais says Rodriguez has never seen before.
“And that’s what he’s gonna get,” Servais told reporters. “He’s gonna continue to get (breaking balls) until he lays off and makes some adjustments, and he will. But again, at that moment, you’re not worried about your first hit. You worry about getting on base, and all of a sudden, big things happen.”
Mariners legend Edgar Martinez – who may know a thing or two about hitting doubles to left field – congratulated Rodriguez on his first hit and the team on Saturday’s 4-3 win. “Great game today, comeback are confidence builders,” he wrote on Twitter. “@JRODshow44 congrats on your first big hit, many more to come … your natural talent and attitude will take you far in this game.”
Minnesota attacked Seattle’s bullpen and grabbed a 3-2 lead in Saturday’s eighth inning after outfielder Byron Buxton turned on a 101-mph offering from reliever Andres Munoz and blasted a no-doubt two-run home run to Target Field’s third deck.
“Buxton’s that kind of player,” Servais said. “He jumped all over the fastball, and when it left the bat, I don’t know what direction the stadium’s in, but I thought it was gonna land in Wisconsin. That was a bomb.”
But after Rodriguez responded with a leadoff double in the ninth, J.P. Crawford moved him to third base on a productive groundout. With two outs, Adam Frazier drove a double to left-center that scored Rodriguez and put Frazier, then the leading run, on second. That’s when Ty France poked a two-out single through the infield and scored Frazier to reclaim a recently-lost lead, 4-3.
“There’s no panic with this team,” France told reporters. “One through nine, we can get it done. And we trust each and every guy, whoever is stepping up to the plate.”
Reliever Diego Castillo twirled a 1-2-3 ninth inning to earn his first save of the season, and Seattle moved to 2-0. They lost Sunday, 10-4, but can snag a series win on Monday, pending a victory.
SHORT HOPS
▪ Mitch Haniger hit two home runs in his first three games of an early season, including Friday’s first-inning blast that provided enough offense for a 2-1 win. “It felt good,” Haniger told reporters, who recently worked through a swing adjustment after an admitted Spring Training slump (6-for-32). “You’re just trying to work hard in the cage every day, and (waiting) for things to click, and it’s only a matter of time,” Haniger said. “Definitely felt good to start off on a good foot.”
▪ In three games, J.P. Crawford leads the club in batting average (.375), on-base percentage (.545), and co-leads in defensive assists (5).
▪ After throwing 52 pitches in his first two innings, Logan Gilbert rebounded to retire ten straight and whiff seven batters in 5 ⅓ innings of one-run ball in Saturday’s 4-3 win over Minnesota.
▪ Tom Murphy’s opposite-field home run at Target Field traveled 423 feet, more than any opposite-field home run hit this season as of Saturday, per team baseball information coordinator Adam Gresch. In the entire 2021 season, only 12 opposite-field home runs were longer.
▪ Marco Gonzales lasted two innings in Sunday’s season debut after allowing six hits, six runs (two of them earned), and three home runs in Seattle’s first loss of the season. Gonzales, 30, walked two and struck out one.
▪ Rookie starter Matt Brash, currently sixth on MLB Pipeline’s list of top Seattle prospects, earned the final slot in the team rotation and pencils into Tuesday’s series opener with the Chicago White Sox.
ON DECK
Seattle (2-1) looks to Monday for a chance to win their opening series behind the arm of Chris Flexen, who earned a team-best 14 wins last season and looks to build on a year in which he whiffed 125 en route to a 3.61 earned run average.
They’ll head to Chicago for a three-game visit with the White Sox before returning for Friday night’s home opener against Houston.
This story was originally published April 10, 2022 at 6:53 PM.
