{"id":659668,"date":"2026-04-02T22:27:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T22:27:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/659668\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T22:27:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T22:27:22","slug":"mariners-notes-crawford-emerson-shortstop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/659668\/","title":{"rendered":"Mariners Notes: Crawford, Emerson, Shortstop"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Mariners recently signed a record extension<\/a> with infield prospect Colt Emerson<\/a>. President of Jerry Dipoto spoke to members of the media in the wake of that deal. Per Daniel Kramer of MLB.com<\/a>, Dipoto said that J.P. Crawford<\/a> will remain the club\u2019s shortstop this year. If Emerson is recalled to the active roster at some point, he will likely play third base, which will bump Brendan Donovan<\/a> into a utility role.<\/p>\n

Though the Mariners signed Emerson to that long-term deal, they immediately optioned him to Triple-A Tacoma. That\u2019s an unprecedented sequence of events but it also has some logic to it. Emerson is 20 years old and only has ten Triple-A games under his belt so far. The Mariners clearly believe in his long-term future but he is still a prospect and they will have to make the choices that they feel are in the best interest of his development.<\/p>\n

They also have a fairly crowded infield at the moment. Crawford started the season in the injured list due to some shoulder inflammation but he was reinstated today. Fellow infielder Ryan Bliss<\/a> was optioned to Triple-A Tacoma as the corresponding move. Crawford will retake his shortstop position with Cole Young<\/a> at second and Donovan at third.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Emerson will force his way onto the roster at some point via his bat, since his offense is his true calling card. He went from High-A to Double-A to Triple-A last year, slashing .285\/.383\/.458 along the way. His 11.8% walk rate and 17.5% strikeout rate were both a few ticks better than average and he hit 16 home runs, despite being very young for each level.<\/p>\n

His defense has generally been considered a bit behind his offense. He has made strides in recent years and many evaluators think he has a chance to be a serviceable shortstop, but it\u2019s understandable that the Mariners would opt for Crawford for now. Crawford\u2019s defensive reviews are mixed, with Outs Above Average putting him at minus-29 for his career while he\u2019s been credited with five Defensive Runs Saved. Despite that imbalance, he has almost 8,000 big league innings at the position, while Emerson has none and is questionable at the spot for now.<\/p>\n

Crawford is slated for free agency after 2026, so perhaps Emerson will get a crack at the shortstop job next year. That is perhaps another reason to keep him in Triple-A for now, as he will have greater ability to continue getting reps at shortstop in the minors. His third base experience is also still fairly limited, so he\u2019ll need to keep working at that spot as well, if that\u2019s his current path to a big league job.<\/p>\n

As for Donovan, his potential move is another illustration of why he was such a perfect fit for the Mariners this offseason. His versatility means that he can be moved around the diamond depending on what happens with other guys. Young only hit .211\/.302\/.305 last year and therefore wasn\u2019t a sure thing at second base, while Emerson seemingly had some small chance to break camp at third.<\/p>\n

Young went on to hit .281\/.349\/.667 in spring and seize the job at the keystone. He has carried that over in the season so far, as he\u2019s currently sporting a .320\/.346\/.520 line. That pushed Donovan to third base for now, though his outfield experience means Emerson could push him to the grass at some point. That could take playing time away from the Luke Raley<\/a>, Dominic Canzone<\/a>, Rob Refsnyder<\/a>, V\u00edctor Robles<\/a> group, depending on how things go between now and then.<\/p>\n

Dipoto also expressed broad openness to doing more extensions. \u201cI can\u2019t tell you that there\u2019s any likelihood we\u2019ll get anything else done in this season, but it won\u2019t be because we\u2019re not interested,\u201d Dipoto said, per Adam Jude of The Seattle Times<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s always an open door.\u201d It was recently reported<\/a> that the Mariners have broached the subject of contract extensions with both Logan Gilbert<\/a> and Bryan Woo<\/a>, though it doesn\u2019t appear the club got close to an agreement with either pitcher.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Matt Kartozian, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Mariners recently signed a record extension with infield prospect Colt Emerson. President of Jerry Dipoto spoke to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,4492,22897,1400,3918],"class_list":{"0":"post-659668","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-brendan-donovan","10":"tag-colt-emerson","11":"tag-j-p-crawford","12":"tag-ryan-bliss"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116337472904719419","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}