Two key Mariners facing notable absences.
The Mariners’ offense is already reeling, and they’ll now be without two prominent hitters for significant stretches in the season’s second half.
General manager Justin Hollander tells the Mariners beat that shortstop J.P. Crawford, who was placed on the 10-day IL with a fracture in his hand, will miss at least four to six weeks, via Adam Jude of the Seattle Times. A timetable for Julio Rodriguez, who landed on the IL along with Crawford due to a right high ankle sprain, will be reevaluated in a week or so. That doesn’t shed much light on a return date for Rodriguez, but it seems clear he’ll miss more than the 10-day minimum with his injury.
Neither Crawford nor Rodriguez has performed up to their personal standards in 2024 — a large reason that Seattle’s lineup has been among the least-productive in the sport. Crawford is playing excellent defense at shortstop but is hitting just .204/.299/.347 on the season. For a player who batted .262/.352/.384 over the three prior seasons — including a career-best .266/.380/.438 just last season — it’s a major downturn in performance.
As for Rodriguez, he’s been about average at the plate this season (.263/.315/.372), but that’s still a precipitous fall for a hitter who burst into the majors with a .279/.338/.495 batting line and 60 homers through his first 287 games. Rodriguez swatted 32 big flies just last season but only has 11 on the year in 2024. His isolated power (slugging minus batting average) sat at .216 in 2022-23 but has plummeted to .109 this year. The timing of his injury is particularly difficult, as Rodriguez looked to finally be getting hot at the plate this month. In his past 48 turns at the dish, he’d delivered a scintillating .409/.469/.750 slash with four homers and three doubles.
With Crawford shelved, the Mariners will likely turn to Dylan Moore and Leo Rivas as their top options at shortstop. Moore’s .230/.307/.425 output against lefties is a solid enough mark, though virtually any defensive metric will agree that he’s stretched too thin playing shortstop on a regular basis. Rivas could take up the larger side of a platoon, in theory. He’s only had six big league plate appearances to this point in his career, but the switch-hitter is batting .288/.440/.397 in 195 plate appearances as a left-handed hitter this season.
In the outfield, Rodriguez’s loss stings even more. The Mariners can go with an alignment of Luke Raley, Victor Robles and Mitch Haniger on most days, with Cade Marlowe and Jonatan Clase as options on the bench. No one from that group can replicate the production of a healthy Rodriguez. For now, the team will hope for good news at his reevaluation, but it’s hard to imagine this pair of injuries won’t impact the Mariners’ outlook at the trade deadline.
Seattle was already known to be seeking a significant upgrade for a lineup that currently ranks 28th in the majors both in runs scored (389) and on-base percentage (.298). The Mariners are actually tied with the Guardians for the 12th-most homers in MLB, but their bottom-of-the-barrel OBP has led to a disproportionate number of solo shots. Seattle has an elite rotation and the makings of an
excellent bullpen now that Gregory Santos has rejoined the mix, but the lack of bats is a glaring issue that was already expected to dictate their deadline trajectory. Now, with Crawford and Rodriguez out for a significant period, it seems all the more likely that the Mariners will strive to bolster the lineup in a meaningful way.
