Breaking Down the Mariners Lineup Order
By Nick Lee
The Mariners have a brand-new lineup in 2017 full of new faces and new hope. Let’s run through the nine spots in the batting order to try and make sense of all this change.
Scott Servais released the Mariners lineup for Saturday’s initial Spring Training game against the San Diego Padres at 12:10pm PST. It looks a lot like the Opening Day lineup most people have penciled in. Let’s break down who is in the Mariners lineup and why the order is how it is.
1. Jarrod Dyson, LF
It was clear that the Mariners wanted a speedy table-setter at the top of the lineup. The hope is that man will be Dyson. He certainly has the speed (once clocked at over 21 MPH) to do so. The question will be can he hold his own at the plate enough to be an everyday player?
The leadoff hitter is one of the most important positions in baseball. As we saw last year, there is a huge difference between Robinson Cano, Nelson Cruz and Kyle Seager hitting with two outs and nobody on base and with multiple baserunners. Dyson’s job will be simple: do “whatever it takes” (see what I did there?) to get on base.
2. Jean Segura, SS
Your number two guy is usually similar to a leadoff hitter, with maybe more extra-base hits in his repertoire. Segura fits the bill. He has speed, as most shortstops do (58 stolen bases in the last two seasons) but has a bit more pop than Dyson (.867 OPS last season and a .716 career clip, compared to Dyson’s .678 career OPS).
It may be unrealistic to expect 20 home runs again for him this year. However, as the Mariners number two hitter, he is key to the mentality of “get ’em on, get ’em over, get ’em in.” Once Dyson is on base, at worst, Segura needs to find a way to get Dyson in scoring position.