While the Mariners were officially eliminated from postseason contention on the second-to-last day of the regular season, the club saw many positive developments throughout the 2023 campaign, including the emergence of and as capable big league starters and the emergence of as a quality regular in the outfield. Perhaps most noteworthy for Seattle going forward, however, is the offensive breakout of a player whos already been with the club for several years: shortstop . Seattle was widely viewed as a potential landing spot for one of the 2022-23 free agent cla ss marquee shortstops: , , , and . was among those who urged the Mariners to jump into the fray of the middle infield market last offseason, and for understandable reasons. Not only had the clubs one-year deal for second baseman proved to be a disappointment- the veteran slashed just .238/.301/ Elfrid Payton Jersey .311 in 602 plate appearances with Seattle that year- but Crawford was in the midst of a difficult year as the clubs primary shortstop. The 2022 campaign started off extremely well for Crawford, as the lefty slashed .340/.435/.546 in the first month of the season. Unfortunately, Crawford scuffled the rest of the way, slashing just .221/.317/.287 the rest of the way. Crawfords brutal performance at the plate through most of the year can be attributed to power numbers that were nothing short of dreadful. He hit just two home runs over his final 117 games in 2022, and his BABIP over that stretch was just .254 thanks to extremely poor quality of contact. Crawfords 2% barrel rate, 85.1 mph average exit velocity, and 29.7% hard-hit rate were all in fifth percentile or worse among qualified hitters last season, . Though Crawford was a solid defender at shortstop the previous season, defensive metrics indicated Crawfords lack of production last year included his glovework, as well: among 37 qualified shortstops last year, Crawfords -11 Outs Above Average was second lowest. Given Crawfords down season in 2022, calls for the Mariners to pursue a franchise shortstop were understandable. As such, from president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto early this past offseason that while the Mariners would pursue the coming cla s of shortstops, his great preference was to acquire a player willing to play second base were puzzling to some. Ultimately, the club with Milwaukee to bring in second baseman as Crawfords partner up the middle rather than sign one of the four star shortstops, none of whom ended up moving to the keystone with their new clubs this year. The deal for Wong proved to be a blunder, as the 32-year-old slashed a dreadful .165/.241/.227 acro s 67 games with Seattle this year before being on the day of the trade deadline this year. Despite that major mi step, Crawfords managed to make the clubs deference to him as the regular shortstop look perfectly reasonable as he developed from an average everyday player to the fifth most valuable shortstop in the majors this season. Crawfords defense didnt return to form, as his -8 OAA still placed him in the bottom five among qualified shortstops this year. The 28-year-olds bat, on the other hand, saw some major improvements. Perhaps most obvious among the improvements to Crawfords offensive output this season is his walk rate. While Crawford has generally been better than average at drawing free pa ses in his career, he took that to another level in 2023. Crawfords staggering 14.7% walk rate this season was the fourth-best figure among qualified major leaguers, trailing only , , and while finishing just ahead of and . That sort of elite company in terms of plate discipline is made all the more impre sive when you consider Crawfords strikeout rate. While the 19.6% figure was actually his highest since 2019, only Soto struck out le s often in 2023 among the aforementioned group of five hitters surrounding Crawford. Indeed, Crawford and Soto are two of just seven hitters in the majors this season with strikeout rates below 20% and walk rates above 12%, joined by the likes of , , and . In addition to top-tier plate discipline, Crawford improved his power output significantly in 2023. While he didnt become an elite or even average slugger at the plate, his power numbers still saw considerable improvements acro s the board relative to last year. His barrel rate more than doubled to 4.8%, he added more than three mph to his average exit velocity, and his hard-hit rate jumped from the fifth percentile among qualified hitters in 2022 to the 21st percentile in 2023, an impre sive feat over the course of just one season. Put together, Crawfords improvements at the plate saw him slash an impre sive .266/.380/.438 with a wRC+ of 134, a 31-point increase from his roughly-league average 2022. Crawford slugged 19 home runs, up from last seasons six, to raise his ISO from .093 last year (sixth-worst among 130 qualified regulars) to .172 (72nd among 133 qualified regulars). By measure of wRC+, Crawford went from being the 14th-best offensive shortstop in 2022 to being this years second-best, trailing only . The Mariners would still do well to improve at the keystone headed into 2024; the keys to the position figure to be handed over to (78 wRC+) and (96 wRC+) without any external additions. With that being said, the clubs position up the middle has substantially improved relative to where they were this time last year, as Crawford has provided Seattle with an impact player to slot into their middle infield mix while the Mariners prepare for 2024 with a return to the postseason on their minds. Willy Hernangomez Jersey