Mariners’ Nelson Cruz on playing hurt, learning how to hit in 2016

Nelson Cruz dealt with some obvious wrist pain during the Mariners’ playoff push late last season. And while Cruz has downplayed it as something anyone would do in that situation, the 36-year-old designated hitter acknowledged to “Danny, Dave and Moore” on Wednesday that he was swinging through a pretty serious injury.

“The last 13 games was painful,” Cruz said. “But like I say, it was like a playoff atmosphere. When you’re in that situation, you just want to play. It doesn’t matter what kind of pains you have. After the season was over, they do an MRI and I find out I had two broken tendons. So, I guess I was working, I was doing good.”

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Good, indeed. As 710 ESPN Seattle’s Brent Stecker wrote earlier this month, Cruz grimacing through his 40th and 41st homers of the season on Sept. 25 were among the most memorable moments of last season. In general, he finished on a tear, recording 14 hits, including six home runs, over his last nine games.

And Cruz certainly wasn’t just productive at the end of the season. He produced a .287/.360/.915 slash-line, with 43 home runs and 105 RBIs in 2016. He also walked a career-high 62 times.

How has he managed to improve despite being on the deep end of his mid-30s?

“I think I learned how to hit last year,” Cruz said. “… It sounds weird, but it feels like I know what I’m doing.”

Other highlights from the conversation:

On his comment during the World Baseball Classic that the Mariners may be the only team better than his Dominican Republic squad: “I believe it. It was a joke but it’s true. I think as a team we have a lot of players that can do different things. We’ve got speed, we have guys who can play defense, we have pitching, we have guys who can hit the ball out and we have personality. So you put everything together and it’s a great team.”

On his role in the outfield: “I don’t know, I have no clue. We have really good outfield so probably gonna be really short … I love to play there. I understand my role. I guess two years ago, I don’t do that good (offensively) when I was DH’ing because I want to play in the outfield and last year I was kind of like, OK, I know I’m not gonna play that much. Just embrace your role and just focus on what you can do to help the team. So wherever they need me, I’m gonna be there.”

On staying healthy: “Every year I find stuff to help me through the years and I just pick those stuff and keep it and try something new and just develop myself to stay healthy.”

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