Randy Arozarena Made The Mariners Smile
The Seattle Mariners have reached the stage of a busted season where they are just hunting around for reasons to smile. This was a 90-win team last season, one that came within a George Springer dinger of advancing to the franchise’s first ever World Series. Now they are crud. More specifically they are stuck three games back of the resurgent Houston damned Astros in their division; a couple of games back of the final American League wild card with four teams ahead of them; six games below a .500 record, with a Mets-like run differential; and their best player is having a campaign every bit as remarkable for its historic suckitude as his 2025 breakout was for its excellence. The Mariners are alive, in a very technical sense, but it’s a grim, degraded kind of life, one calling out for the sweet merciful release of death.
On Saturday they gave a start on the mound to 22-year-old hotshot prospect Kade Anderson. The southpaw was drafted third overall just a year ago, made his professional debut at Double-A and sailed through 18 breezy-to-dominant starts, started the All-Star Futures Game, and is now in the majors. Anderson has redeemed with startling efficiency all the pre-draft chatter about him being big-league ready right out of college, but he is also basically not at all what this team needs right now. The Mariners carry the third worst slugging percentage in baseball and the second worst OPS, and Statcast says they are the second-worst team by wOBA. They’re underperforming their expected numbers, but the point is that what the Mariners need is someone who can whack the ball around, preferably accompanied by six of his best ball-whacking buddies. Seattle has an excellent pitching staff: Their starters have pitched to the league’s fifth-best WHIP and eighth best ERA. Anderson is nice to have, but if he can’t sock some huge dingers, his once-every-five-days ass is not likely to reverse Seattle’s fortunes. They’ll have to get creative just to get him regular turns on the bump.
“I think we continue to talk about that and see what will make the most sense for us going forward,” said manager Dan Wilson, of possibly moving to a six-man rotation or pairing starters in a “piggyback” arrangement, once the injured Bryan Woo returns. “Once we get Bryan slotted in, we’ll be able to figure out exactly how we’re going to proceed there.”
In any case, Anderson was solid Saturday. He was strong through five innings but gave up back-to-back homers in the sixth when Wilson sent him out to face the top of the Cubs lineup for a third time. He was pulled at 81 pitches, and was at that point in line for the loss. It could’ve been worse: In the top of the third inning Miguel Amaya cranked an Anderson fastball high and deep to left, where it sailed down just beyond the outfield wall but somehow into the outstretched glove of Randy Arozarena, who had timed his leap perfectly to take away the home run.
“I thought it was way gone,” said Anderson, of the robbery. “I’m honestly grateful that ball stayed in the park.” The catch alone would have made it a good day’s work for Arozarena, who had already blasted a solo dinger to center to stake Anderson to the first lead of his major-league career.
Arozarena wasn’t finished! He came up again with two down in the ninth and the Mariners trailing by a run. Teammate Leo Rivas was on first. Chicago’s Jacob Webb got ahead of Arozarena with a slider, and then threw him another. It was supposed to dip out of the strike zone away, but did not. It wasn’t that bad of a pitch, but Arozarena clobbered the shit out of it.
Arozarena is so cool, man. When the ball cleared the outfield wall he lost his mind, as one does, with arms and fists flying and chains and helmet flopping all over the place, but then he caught the eye of first-base coach Eric Young Jr. and flowed smoothly into a little choreographed two-person celebration. Imagine having the presence of mind, amid the adrenaline surge of having won a baseball game basically all by yourself, at home, with your team’s final out, to bust out a bitchin’ dance routine. That’s true greatness. Arozarena’s teammates soaked him to the bone when he’d completed his trip around the bases.
Cal Raleigh went 1-for-3 with a walk, and is now batting .158 on the season. Sorry!
