{"id":119565,"date":"2026-04-20T13:06:53","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T17:06:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=119565"},"modified":"2026-04-20T13:06:53","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T17:06:53","slug":"changing-up-the-mariners-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/04\/20\/changing-up-the-mariners-defense\/","title":{"rendered":"Changing up the Mariners Defense"},"content":{"rendered":"

So far, baseball in Seattle has been a roller coaster. The highs have been great, and the lows have been frustrating. With the way that they have played, being only a few games out of first is a blessing to say the least. There have been some new additions to the roster this season, in new positions and old ones that have not looked fantastic. If these players continue in the direction they are going, then there will need to be some changes on the defensive side.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Issues<\/strong><\/h2>\n

There are some visible issues on the field defensively. To start things off, Brendan Donovan<\/a> has looked uncomfortable at third base. He has played third base before but is mostly known for his outfield and second base utility roles. Donovan leads the team right now in errors. He has looked better as the season has gone on, but it is not ideal. The other big question in the field is Randy Arozarena<\/a>. Since coming to the Mariners, he has been the starting left fielder without question. However, over the last year or so, he has not looked fantastic in left field. He misreads balls, jogs to get them, throws, and seems like he can be a liability out there sometimes.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Solutions<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Both Arozarena’s and Donovan\u2019s bats are much too important to take out of the lineup<\/a>. They are probably the two best and most consistent hitters on the roster. A solution that can fix these troubles in the field is setting Arozarena as the all-time designated hitter. Then you can move Donovan into left field. He is familiar with the outfield and can benefit the team from there. Then comes the question of what to do at third base. This is where the Seattle Mariners can call up the long-awaited star prospect, Colt Emerson<\/a>. They can even rotate the position platoon-wise, like Dan Wilson loves to do, and if it works, they can stick with it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Additions and Subtractions<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Mariners need to figure out what kind of team they want<\/a> on the field and stick to it. Although they love to use the platoon method and switch the lineup around with a lefty and righty pitcher, there are better and worse players right now. Luke Raley<\/a> is having a fantastic start to the season and needs to play every day. Arozarena is fantastic at the plate but struggles on the field. Donovan can fix the issue on the left, and Emerson looks as ready as ever in Triple-A Tacoma. With Victor Robles out<\/a>, Rob Refsnyder<\/a> has been playing a lot more often and still struggling; this takes at-bats away from key players who are hitting very well.<\/span><\/p>\n

Seattle pitching is third in the league in opponent runs per game, fifth in opponent average, third in opponent total bases per game, and fourth in home runs given up per game. The pitching is doing fantastic, but the defense struggles, and changing the lineup multiple games a week does not help. These solutions could help this team, or maybe they wouldn\u2019t. But what is known is that the best hitters will help the team win. These players have strengths and weaknesses; they just need to know how to use them. This season is still very early, and they could turn everything around without any changes. But there is not much success in using the same formula, expecting a different outcome.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Main Photo Credit: David Frerker-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So far, baseball in Seattle has been a roller coaster. The highs have been great, and the lows have been frustrating. With the way that they have played, being only a few games out of first is a blessing to say the least. There have been some new additions to the roster this season, in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5781,"featured_media":119628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,1071,35],"tags":[5815,6478,1856,6370,2462],"class_list":["post-119565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mariners","category-mlb","category-news","tag-brendan-donovan","tag-colt-emerson","tag-luke-raley","tag-rob-refsnyder","tag-victor-robles"],"modified_by":"Augustus Oswald, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5781"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119565"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":119630,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119565\/revisions\/119630"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}