The Mariners broke camp in 2021 with a high ceiling and low expectations. The current iteration of the team was besieged with injuries.
J.D. Martinez, the team's de facto star, broke his knee cap while sliding into second base on a pinch-hit double in the 11th inning, just three games into Spring Training. He was expected to miss the next four months. The news got worse just days later, when pitcher
Justus Sheffield suffered a fractured elbow, sidelining him at least eight months. That was Sue Falsone's first week on the job as the team's new head trainer.
The experts were once again predicting a last place finish for the Mariners in the AL West, but there was some unexpected good news on the eve of the start of the regular season. Baseball America, which had routinely rated Seattle towards the bottom of its annual minor league system rankings, surprisingly ranked the Mariners as #1.
Center fielder
Tre Fletcher, Jerry Dipoto's first-round pick in 2020, was rated as the #2 player in all of the minors. It was a small measure of vindication for Dipoto, who had fought his previous scouting director over the #2 overall pick.
Gjelt Steentjes, a 19 year-old Dutch pitcher, was rated as the #3 player according to Baseball America. In all, the Mariners had four players ranked in the top-75. And with the #1 overall pick coming Seattle's way in the June 2021 MLB Draft, the Mariners were finally starting to catch some breaks. The future looked bright for Seattle, but the present looked as gloomy as ever.
