Mariners Report Cards: Left Field

Jarred Kelenic, Dominic Canzone, AJ Pollock, and everything in between. My report card series continues for the 2023 Seattle Mariners in left field.

Dean Rutz/Seattle Times

The left field position is another that has consistently eluded Seattle for many years at this point, probably one reason why their offense has been an issue in the past few seasons. This year we saw more bodies thrown at the position than ever before, although most of that was due to injury and severe underperformance.

Today in the left field section of our report card series we will tackle Dominic Canzone, Cade Marlowe, Sam Haggerty, Jarred Kelenic, and AJ Pollock as we set our sights on how Seattle may address the position moving forward.

Positives

If you would have told any Mariners fan at the beginning of the season that Jarred Kelenic would post a 108 wRC+ on the season, they absolutely would have taken it. There were some flashes where we finally saw the potential of Kelenic, but overall we couldn’t quite learn enough to give a definitive answer on his future.

Next year will be his second with the swing change and he seemed to grow mentally following his foot injury caused by kicking the water cooler. I am interested to see where Seattle turns moving forward, but ultimately Kelenic was somewhere around a league-average hitter and is still just 24 with tons of club control remaining.

Dominic Canzone is the second positive, with much of the same tone. We saw some good things from Canzone but ultimately he looked like a rookie for much of his time in Seattle. I think there is a good chance his minor-league production shows up in the big leagues to some extent, as Seattle has been good at identifying players of his ilk before.

Cade Marlowe also showed some flashes and looks to be an interesting piece moving forward. I have been a big fan of Cade’s game since watching him in Spring last year, and think he has a chance to be a really nice player moving forward.

Negatives

AJ Pollock was a disaster of a signing. The thought process was solid, giving Jarred Kelenic a solid platoon partner to help him try to sustain some success and grab his footing in the major leagues. Pollock didn’t receive many at-bats early on and really struggled as the season wore on.

It is possible Pollock is just cooked, but I don’t think Seattle did him any favors by sitting him while Tommy La Stella got playing time.

As much as I love Sam Haggerty and Dylan Moore, neither player should probably be getting meaningful outfield playing time moving forward. Seattle’s lack of depth has too often put one of those players in left field in meaningful games down the stretch.

They need more offensive production out of this position, and they just haven’t gotten it in a long time. I am hopeful Seattle finds a way to add multiple corner outfield pieces to go along with Jarred Kelenic and Julio Rodriguez.

There is video analysis on left field located below!