'Fire in the belly': Mariners hungry for postseason return

PEORIA, Ariz. -- The first full-squad workout isn’t until next week, yet most of the Mariners’ position-player nucleus had descended upon the Peoria Sports Complex for Spring Training when camp officially opened for pitchers and catchers on Thursday.

Players are always hungry at this time of year, particularly among contending teams. But the early energy this spring is reflective of Seattle’s stinging end to the 2023 season, when it was eliminated on the penultimate day and finished as the top American League team outside of the postseason.

“I think it speaks to the number of players that are early,” manager Scott Servais said. “We still have a very young team. We've got guys that have a lot to prove yet. But certainly with the way our season ended, it was a sour note.”

The Mariners finished 88-74 and in third place in the AL West, then they watched the two teams directly ahead of them in the standings -- whom they had the chance to surpass in a 10-game sprint to the finish -- duel in a seven-game AL Championship Series, with Texas edging Houston en route to the World Series title.

“It was hard to watch the playoffs play out the way they did, with two teams in our division getting to the Championship Series and one winning it all,” Servais said. “So there's certainly fire in the belly here, so to speak.”

Can the experience of coming just short help fuel that fire?

“You hope it does, but you never want to have that,” Servais said. “We'd love to be in the postseason every year. I thought we should have made it last year, but we didn't. You’ve got to move on from it. Today's Day 1 of starting fresh and figuring out how we get back in.”

Julio Rodríguez jetted straight to Arizona after attending the Super Bowl in Las Vegas, where he described in passing on Thursday how the competitive environment made him all the more hungry to get started with his own season.

Mitch Haniger also hit the backfields boasting optimism after returning to the Mariners via a January trade with the Giants. After missing a huge chunk of the season with a fractured right forearm, Haniger is healthy and eager to return to a familiar environment. After all, he was the lone position-player holdover from before the rebuild in 2019 who helped end Seattle’s 20-year playoff drought in 2022.

J.P. Crawford arrived last year “pissed off” at how 2022 ended in an ALDS loss to Houston, so there’s clearly motivation for the Mariners’ unofficial team captain to build off a career year and get back to the postseason.

The same goes for Cal Raleigh, who spoke sternly of the team’s shortcomings at season’s end last year and who has been in the Valley for most of the winter after buying property in the area.

“It's great to see everybody here early,” Raleigh said. “That's always a good sign. Obviously, we don't have to report for another week or so, but it's a good sign. It's good that people are getting in the training room, getting in the weight room, getting acclimated.”

It’s not uncommon for position players to arrive ahead of schedule, as many -- like Raleigh -- either reside or spend extended time in Arizona in the offseason. The same goes for many on Seattle’s coaching staff, including new hires Brant Brown (offensive coordinator and bench coach) and Tommy Joseph (assistant hitting coach), who’ve drawn rave reviews from Servais and his staff for their early impact.

“Inviting players to come down and work with them to start developing that relationship, it's really important,” Servais said. “And everybody thinks Spring Training is too long, but when you're dealing with new coaches, maybe there are some new ideas you want to get with those people as soon as you can to get the ball rolling, and that's what our players have done.”

The pitchers are obviously here, too, with bullpen sessions underway immediately after their physicals were conducted on Wednesday. That group has been the backbone of the roster ever since the rebuild, and it’s expected to once again lead the Mariners in 2024.

But it’s their supplementary cast of hitters -- a group that was formidable but also inconsistent one year ago, leading to a major roster overhaul this winter -- that has taken center stage in Arizona early, sheerly from a perspective of presence.