Salk: 2 things about the struggling Mariners are true at once

It’s a couple weeks into the Seattle Mariners’ season and we are forced to use those dreaded words once again: It’s early.

Three encouraging things MLB insiders said about the Mariners

I can’t believe I’m having to say those words. I never wanted to say those words this year, and I honestly, truly didn’t think that we were going to have to. So it’s when you need to start thinking through two things being true at once.

It is early. The Mariners are not done. They are not toast. Things are not over. The way they’ve played for the previous two weeks is not necessarily indicative of how they’re going to play for the next 20 weeks that are left in this season. Those two things are not necessarily the same.

At the same time, the way they’ve played for the first couple weeks of the season is awful, and I recognize it. They’ve not played well at all. They haven’t hit, they haven’t pitched in key moments, and maybe most importantly and disturbingly, they haven’t played clean baseball. They’ve made way too many mental mistakes, they’ve made way too many physical mistakes, way too many fielding mistakes, and all of those things get exacerbated when you’re not hitting – and we all know they’re not hitting.

Brendan Donovan working through ‘growing pains’ at 3B

So both of these things are true at once. The Mariners have looked awful to start the season. I’m not going to try to tell you anything other than that. Do I think that it is necessarily a sign that they’re going to be awful for the rest of the season? No. I think Cal’s going to hit better. I think Julio’s going to hit better. I think Josh Naylor and others are going to hit better, and I think there’s still some really good days ahead of the Mariners.

But I’m also willing to recognize that this year is different from last year. And the fact that they have huge expectations heaped upon them, and the fact that you don’t just get to start at the finish line, you don’t just get to start where last year ended up, means that the beginning of this year does matter a little bit more. We talked about that before the season began.

Point of the matter is this: It is still too early to panic, but it’s not too early to worry, and it’s definitely go-time for them to start figuring it out.

This post is a transcript of the video at the top of the post. It is edited for clarity. Catch Mike Salk weekdays from 6-10 a.m. on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk.

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