Mariners will use their youth, athleticism to ‘push the envelope’ on the base paths

Get ready to see a lot more activity on the bases this season at T-Mobile Park.

Midway through their slate of spring training games, the Seattle Mariners continue to pace all clubs — both Cactus League and Grapefruit League — in both stolen bases (21) and attempts (30).

The Mariners have a clubhouse bursting with youth and athleticism this spring — contrasting last season’s power-heavy group — and plan to use it to their advantage.

“We have one of the quickest teams in the league probably,” Mariners shortstop J.P. Crawford said. “We don’t have those big home run name guys in our lineup, so we’re going to have to manufacture runs other ways.

“Stealing bags, playing scrappy like that, we’ve got to play like that. It’s our game.”

Seattle carried the stolen base champion last season in center fielder Mallex Smith, who led the majors with 46, but infielder Dee Gordon was the only other player on the roster to swipe more than 20, finishing tied for 16th in the big leagues with 22 bags. Utility player Dylan Moore was third on the team with 11.

But, this season, the Mariners have more speed to offer.

“We’re more athletic up and down the lineup,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “It’s not just a pocket of 2-3 guys. If you think how we put lineups together last year, we tried to group those guys together, and if one or two of those guys got on base it was really exciting and you put a lot of stress on the other team.

“This year it might be more balanced up and down the lineup.”

Not everyone is a burner like Smith and Gordon, but first baseman Evan White is quick, and so is second baseman Shed Long, Crawford, outfielders Kyle Lewis and Jake Fraley, and utility players Moore and Tim Lopes.

Moore leads Seattle with five stolen bases this spring, while Crawford, Gordon and Long each have two, and 10 more Mariners — some who are still in camp, and others who have been optioned out or reassigned to minor league camp — each have one.

“We’re kind of a different team this year than we were last year,” Moore said. “We have a lot of speed and we want to utilize it. Spring training is a place you can go practice and see what you’re good at, what you’re not good at. So, just run, run, run until you figure out what’s good for you.

“It creates runs, and you win ballgames if you create more runs than the opponent, so that’s what we’re trying to do. We might not hit as many homers as we did last year, but we’re creating runs in other ways. This is one of those ways.”

Indeed, the Mariners don’t have the power profile they did last year, losing three of their top five home run hitters. Designated hitter Daniel Vogelbach is back after leading Seattle with 30 homers last season, and third baseman Kyle Seager had 23, but Omar Narvaez (22), Domingo Santana (21) and Edwin Encarnacion (21 with the Mariners before he was traded in June) are all gone.

So, small ball will be the name of the game most nights.

“Some games if we’re down a couple runs we shouldn’t just automatically stop running,” Servais said. “And we won’t stop running during the season. That’s a way for us to create opportunities to score runs. We have to continue it.

“The baseball rule book, or the unwritten rule, ‘Oh, you don’t run into outs when you’re down,’ this and that — we have to take a few chances to try to create more opportunities.”

Servais said he’s seen a concerted effort out of several players who are paying more attention to how they’re approaching base running. Crawford is taking bigger leads than last season, and Seager — though not usually a stolen base threat — takes perhaps the biggest leads on the team to keep pitchers off-balance. Lewis is another long, athletic player Servais can see as being productive on the base paths.

Not that most of these players on Seattle’s roster are gunning for 40 stolen bases this season, but their athleticism helps in situational spots as well — like advancing from first to third, or scoring on a double or long single.

“It’s something we spent a ton of time talking about in camp,” Servais said. “We are going to continue it the next few weeks. It’s a big priority for me to make sure we hit and talk about all the different situations that come up.

“First and third — what’s our first and third offense look like? When we do have a guy on first with the green light and just takes off, what is that guy on third doing? We need to prep more on that versus in the past where we would just sit there and think, ‘OK we are looking for a double or a homer.’ That’s not necessarily going to be the case.

“We are going to take more chances. We are going to push the envelope. I do want teams when the play us to over their advance reports and say, ‘These guys are going to run like crazy. It’s a bunch of young guys … and you have to stay on your toes.’ That’s a good thing. That will be the report on us.”

This story was originally published March 11, 2020 at 9:41 AM with the headline "Mariners will use their youth, athleticism to ‘push the envelope’ on the base paths."

Lauren Smith

The News Tribune

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Lauren Smith is a sports reporter at The News Tribune. She has covered high school sports for TNT and The Olympian, as well as the Seattle Mariners and Washington Huskies. She is a graduate of UW and Emerald Ridge High School.