Henry Roldán
The Seattle Mariners are trying to quickly revive their poor early-season offense by announcing the signing of experimented outfielder Justin Upton.
As announced by the team itself on their social networks, Upton signed a major league contract for one season and will report immediately to the team’s extended spring training in Arizona.
Upton was released by the Anaheim Angels days before the Opening Day, even though he still had one season left on his contract with them. Thus, Anaheim will have to pay him the remaining 28 million dollars from his contract, while Seattle will pay him the corresponding minimum.
For his part, the manager of the Mariners, Scott Servais, was happy with the signing of the outfielder in a statement given to MLB.com, but did not want to advance any date of a possible release of Justin Upton.
“We’ll give him an opportunity when he’s ready. We don’t have a date, timeline. I think that’s a communication between him, where he’s at, because he’s a veteran and he knows when [it’s], ‘OK, I’m good to go.’ But we’ve got to give him time to get up and running.”
Scott Servais on Justin Upton
The Mariners’ offense has not been what was expected of them after several acquisitions in the preseason, especially their outfielders and the designated hitter position. So far this season, the outfielders have combined for a .218/.285/.326 offensive line with nine home runs, while the designated hitters have a .155/.252/.331 line with six home runs.
What Justin Upton can Bring to the Seattle Mariners in 2022
Even though the four-time All-Star and three-time Silver Slugger has dented his offensive output in recent seasons, the 34-year-old Mariners believe Justin Upton can still put up interesting numbers in the Major Leagues.
In addition to being able to help out in the outfield, Upton knows what it’s like to spend playing time as a designated hitter. Also, although he has never played in the position officially, on several occasions the experienced player was practicing at first base with the Angels, so he could be used in that position in case of an emergency.
During his long MLB career, Upton accumulated 324 home runs and 1,000 RBIs, this after achieving seven seasons with at least 25 homers and two seasons with 100 or more produced.
His best year was in 2017, after between the Detroit Tigers and the Angels he hit 35 home runs, produced 109 runs, recorded 44 doubles, and averaged .273 with the wood.
