It’s been four months since the Seattle Mariners last played a baseball game. Four months may seem like a long time. A lot happened: the holidays passed, various roster changes were (and weren’t) made, Rick Rizzs announced his impending retirement, the Seahawks won the Super Bowl, almost all of the Winter Olympics took place…et cetera. Yet despite everything that has happened, only 123 days have passed since the last Seattle Mariners baseball game.
“123 days” seems like a lot less time than “4 months”. I don’t know why – maybe just a quirk of human prejudices and perceptions. For most of the last month, I had been identifying more with the “4 months” side of things. It seemed like forever since we had baseball. To have gone from each day punctuated with the joy of the 2025 Mariners to each having no clear punctuation at all…well, they call it the dark middle of winter for a reason.
Today, however, it was as if baseball had never gone away. From the moment this morning the Mariners released the first 2026 lineup card, to the final pitch that non-roster guest Nick Davila delivered to close out the ninth inning, today was a continuation of the excitement, joy and momentum of 2025. The Peoria Sports Complex looked and sounded like it was at capacity. Almost no patch of grass in the outfield was unoccupied, and every exciting moment on the field was responded to with a chorus of jubilant cheers.
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It helped that the Mariners’ starting lineup was mostly made up of their actual scheduled Opening Day lineup. The same can’t be said for pitchers, as the team looks to upgrade its big league staff more slowly. Non-roster invitee Dane Dunning took over for Seattle. Dunning, who projects to be a (hopefully unnecessary) depth piece for the Mariners this year, ended up pitching 1.2 scoreless innings after dodging traffic early on. His fastball, which last year averaged over 90 MPH, sat around 89 MPH for most of the day. Having full Statcast numbers in spring training this year is fun. However, as I look through Dane Dunning’s February 20 book on speed and vertical rupture, searching for meaning, I realize that the availability of this data may not be optimal for my mental health. Verdict: Dunning looked good.
The rest of today’s pitching staff for Seattle consisted mostly of Guys on the Pile. One of the highlights was newcomer Cooper Criswell, acquired from the Red Sox in the offseason. Criswell, a soft-throwing right-hander, forced three strikeouts in two innings, including a particularly nasty one from Manny Machado.
Another familiar face was Troy Taylor, who is looking to bounce back from a disappointing 2025. Taylor’s speed was excellent: he was already surpassing last year’s average speed of 96. Less awesome was a hanging sinker that Romeo Sanabria hit 416 feet over the center field fence.
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Right-hander Alex Hoppe, who the Mariners also acquired from the Red Sox this winter, had a doubly disappointing afternoon. A dinger delivered to Jose Miranda might have been bad enough, but the broadcast team called Hoppe a complete sicko: apparently his favorite player growing up was Jack Flaherty? First of all, Flaherty is literally 30 years old and Hoppe is 27 years old, so I really don’t know when he would have idolized Flaherty. Second, even if the timeline made sense, Hoppe is probably the first person to idolize Jack Flaherty.
Fortunately, the hitters on the Seattle side were much more interesting than the pitchers. Luke Raley, Julio Rodríguez, Josh Naylor, Leo Rivas and Dom Canzone each recorded hits in their first game (Raley had two). Canzone made a flashy play in right field, setting up for a downfield drive to save Dunning’s first run. But the real story today is young people. Specifically Michael Arroyo.
Arroyo, a 21-year-old second baseman who, even today, revealed to practice at third base and in the outfieldwatched the first pitch thrown to him. It was a change on the corner, called a ball. The Padres contested and the decision was overturned. Arroyo fouled out on a second change to go down 0-2. A third change happened right down the middle, and Arroyo took it the other way. It seemed somewhat harmless from the start, but the ball was carried and carried and carried. 406 feet later, Arroyo had recorded Seattle’s first home run of 2026.
Star prospect Colt Emerson immediately hit a ball almost exactly in the same spot, but it died before reaching the fence.
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Arroyo’s next at-bat saw him hit another hard ball in the same place. This one fell before the fence, but Arroyo stayed upright at second base for a double. Not a bad performance for the 67th ranked prospect in all of baseball.
The final effort today that I wanted to highlight was from fellow Top 100 hopeful Lazaro Montes. In box scoring, Montes’ day didn’t look too impressive: 1 for 3 with a single and a strikeout. The single, however, was one of the hardest you’ll ever see.
The bat in question was against Padres flamethrower Mason Miller, who we all know well from his years with the Athletics. Montes started by going 2-2 against Miller – an impressive feat in itself. Miller responded by dialing up a 101.5 MPH fastball, which he lost control of. The resulting errant throw nearly decapitated Montes, who had to move out of the way. With a slight smile on his face, Montes returned to the box and committed another 101.5 MPH fastball. Miller tried to change stance with a slider, which Montes pulled for a line drive single to right field. Talk about the 21-year-old’s Big League stuff.
Countless NRI vs. NRI battles later, the Mariners found themselves standing with a 7-4 advantage over the Padres. Of course, the game made no sense. But aren’t all games useless in the long run? Everything, even?
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With the meaning ultimately left as an exercise for the reader, I hope you enjoyed seeing the sunlight today, even if it was through a laptop or TV screen. There are less than five weeks until opening day and less than three until daylight saving time. We succeeded.
