Mariners place J.P. Crawford on 7-day concussion injured list
SEATTLE – The Mariners will be without their most valuable player for at least a week.
Shortstop J.P. Crawford was placed on the 7-day concussion injured list, retroactive to Thursday.
Seattle recalled infielder/outfielder Sam Haggerty from Triple-A Tacoma to take Crawford’s place on the active roster.
Haggerty was held out of Tacoma’s game on Thursday at Cheney Stadium as the Mariners awaited the results of the Crawford’s concussion tests.
“Unfortunately, J.P. Crawford is going to be out,” manager Scott Servais said. “If everything checks out, he could hopefully come back at seven days versus the standard 10 days, but we’ll have to wait and see. We’ll really monitor his symptoms and where he’s at. He is feeling a little bit better here yesterday and today, but we have do the right thing here and make sure he’s fully 100% before we put him back in the lineup.”
Crawford suffered the concussion in the fourth inning of Wednesday’s win over the Padres. He collided with third baseman Eugenio Suarez while they both tried to field a ground ball off the bat of Fernando Tatis Jr.
Replays showed Crawford’s jaw hitting Suarez’s shoulder, knocking him to the ground. He remained in the game after talking with an athletic trainer and manager Scott Servais. But a few innings later, he started to feel the effects of the collision, and the Mariners removed him from the game.
“He didn’t feel good,” Servais said. “He stayed in the game after he got hit. He felt a little woozy right away, but thought he could play through it. A couple of innings later he was like, ‘My head is pounding.’ We thought let’s do the right thing. He couldn’t go anymore so we made an adjustment after that.”
In 107 games with the Mariners this season, Crawford is batting .266 (102 for 384) with 63 runs, 26 doubles, 10 home runs, 38 RBI and 68 walks. He leads the team with a .379 on-base percentage. Crawford ranks second in the American League in walks (68) and third in on-base percentage (.379) this season.
“It hurts,” Servais said. “J.P. has been our guy in the middle of everything, not just the middle of the field making the plays defensively, but he’s been awesome at the top of our lineup. So you’ll see a little bit different look to our lineup here over the next several days.”
Dylan Moore got the start at shortstop for Friday’s series opener vs. the Orioles while Julio Rodriguez moved back into the leadoff spot. It’s possible that Jose Caballero could start at shortstop.
Haggerty played sparingly in the first two months of the season, appearing in just 24 games and getting 48 plate appearances, posting a .190/.292/.238 slash line. He lost playing time to Caballero after also going on the 7-day concussion injured list.
“It’s not deal, but sometimes that’s the role that you have in the big leagues,” Haggerty said. “And you’ve got to do as good as you can do.”
Given the chance to play every day with the Rainiers, Haggerty put up quality numbers. In 39 games with Tacoma, he posted a .319/.406/.584 slash line with 12 doubles, four triples, eight homers, 29 RBI, 18 stolen bases, 24 walks and 32 strikeouts.
“Haggs is playing really well,” Servais said. “I know he was probably a little disappointed when he didn’t get called up after we made some moves at the trading deadline. But a guy like that is very valuable in your organization. We know what he can do. Last year, he had an awesome year, especially against left-handed pitching. We face a lefty tomorrow to start the game so there’s a good chance he’ll be in the starting lineup somewhere.”
Big Dumper’s big dingers
Cal Raleigh’s two-run homer in the eighth inning of Wednesday’s win over the Padres gave him 19 homers on the season.
With his 27 homers in the 2022 season and the 19 this season, Raleigh’s 46 combined homers lead all MLB catchers with the most homers hit since the start of the 2022 season, ahead of Salvador Perez of the Royals (40) and Will Smith of the Dodgers (38).
The 46 homers are the most in club history over a two-season span, surpassing Mike Zunino, who hit a combined 45 homers between the 2017-2018 season.
Six-man plan in the future
Jerry Dipoto, Mariners president of baseball operations, said on his weekly radio show on Seattle Sports 710-AM that the team was planning to go to a six-man pitching rotation with Emerson Hancock joining the group prior to Bryan Woo going on the injured list.
“Our intention was after the off days to go to a six-man rotation for a period of time, which would help us to manage the innings for our young starters coming down that last month and a half or so of the season,” he said. “And we still would like to do that. We’ll look at what happens here over the next couple of weeks with Emerson in the rotation.”