Orioles’ Mark Trumbo credits time with Mariners for recent success

Mariners pitchers Wade Miley and Steve Johnson were able to do something Tuesday that not many pitchers have been able to this season so far: Shut down Mark Trumbo.

For just the third time this year, Trumbo failed to reach base in a game. While he has cooled off a bit after a blistering start to the season, Trumbo is still hitting .299/.353/.576, a considerable jump from his career line of .253/.304/.465. He gives a lot of credit for the recent success to work he was able to get in during his time as a Mariner last season.

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“I think it is really just an extension of some of the adjustments I saw with Edgar last year,” he told Dave Sims on the Mariners radio pregame show. “I think I kind of saw a noticeable difference the way I was attacking some of the pitches and making more solid contact than I had in the past. I just kind of tried to do the same principles that he showed me, wrote some stuff down. Obviously there’s new influences here, but I’d say overall it’s the same stuff I was doing later last year.”

After a slow start to his short Mariners career, going 11 for 79 for a .139 average and .361 OPS in his first 82 plate appearances, Trumbo settled in and hit .302/.358/.490 the rest of the season. Rather than take him to third-year arbitration where he was projected to earn near $10 million, Seattle traded him to the Orioles for Steve Clevenger, C.J. Riefenhauser and ultimately salary relief – dollars they could put elsewhere. The move in the end could prove to be a huge benefit for Trumbo, who will be a free agent following the 2016 season. Hitter-friendly Camden Yards is a great place to put up numbers in your walk year.

Turns out another Mariner helped him prepare for that, too.

“I tried to take a lot of mental notes watching Nellie hit,” Trumbo said of Nelson Cruz, who came to Seattle after a stellar year with the Orioles. “He obviously did really well here and he’s done really well in Seattle. I understand this park can play favorably to hitters and it’s kind of exactly the type of place you would want to be at this point of my career.”

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