The Yin Yang Twins: Mariners’ two big trade deadline acquisitions lengthen, balance lineup

The Big Grumper and the Big Grinner are here for the “dirty” stretch of the season

The MLB trade deadline doesn’t just shake things up around the league; it shakes up clubhouses, beaming players in and out like a Star Trek transporter. Familiar faces disappear overnight, new neighbors move in, and families are uprooted. For as overjoyed as Mariners fans were to acquire Randy Arozarena at the deadline last year, it was hard to see Randy’s wife wiping away tears while watching one last game at the Trop from Randyland, as the couple took in the game post-deadline from his fan section, the original Randyland. “This is next-level weird,” comments one of the Rays’ announcers, and yes, it is. The trade deadline is inherently weird, remixing clubhouses—and the personalities within—at times overnight.

In the Mariners’ two major deadline additions, they softened the landing by acquiring two teammates—a bonded pair, our friends at Seattle Humane might say—including one in Eugenio Suárez who had a significant tenure in Seattle before: a happy homecoming for both fanbase and player. Suárez’s first day in Seattle was predictably joyous, with him warmly greeting everyone, from former teammates to Mariners staff to stadium personnel to media members and all the fans in between. While Suárez said he loved his time in Arizona and thought he played some of his best ball there, making it hard to leave, he understands the business side of baseball. If he had to leave Arizona, Seattle—where he said the fans never forgot about him, even while he was playing on the road with Arizona—isn’t a bad place to be.

“It’s a lot easier [to be in Seattle], because they already know me. I don’t have to show anything else,” said Suárez. “I will be the same Geno, they already know who I am, and I will do my best every time to keep the good vibes not only on the field but also in the clubhouse, outside the game as well. So it’s easy for me to be who I am right now.”

As thrilled as Suárez is to be in Seattle, his joyful, ebullient presence is equally welcome back in the clubhouse, which was full of cheerful chatter in both English and Spanish before Thursday’s game, carrying over the raucous energy from the plane ride up from Sacramento where Geno made a surprise appearance.

“Everyone’s super excited to have Geno back,” said George Kirby. “He’s just one of those guys who makes the clubhouse so much lighter and more fun.”

Case in point: Suárez interrupted the pregame dugout press conference with his signature shouted “STOP IT!”, a hallmark of his previous tenure. Postgame, he was giving an interview to the media that J.P. Crawford interrupted by shouting “SEE-ATT-LLE!” in a pitch-perfect impression of the Mariners’ official post celebrating the Suárez trade. “That’s right,” replied Geno calmly, and continued on with his interview without missing a beat.

But very few reunions at the trade deadline are so seamless. More often the story is similar to that of Josh Naylor, who said he wasn’t surprised to be traded to the Mariners, just because nothing much surprises him at deadlines anymore. But the veteran, now starting a tenure with a fourth team, was able to articulate his strategy for success: how thickly he draws the line between his on-field and off-field persona.

“When you get traded it’s kind of tough sometimes, especially if you have family or people from where you got traded from,” Naylor said in a quiet, borderline monotone voice. “Moving everything is a little bit tough, organizing your life in a new city is a little bit tough, finding somewhere to live...there are things that are a little bit difficult on the human side of things. But then once the game starts, you just play the game. Once that’s over, you figure it out on the life side.”

“It’s just baseball. Whether it’s here or somewhere else, I put my uniform on, put my cleats on, go play and try to provide as much as I can, and see my family after the game. It’s the same every day.”

It’s a businesslike answer from someone deeply versed in the business of baseball. It doesn’t make a snappy teaser quote or a viral tweet. Naylor, in general, isn’t much for soundbites; his answers are compact and borderline dismissive, or lengthy and reflective. He doesn’t like taking BP (and spent two and a half minutes explaining why, and what he does instead). He doesn’t like to chat with runners when they’re standing on first base, preferring to focus on every pitch in case he has to make a play. He seemed bemused by the trident when it was handed to him for the first time. He hasn’t quite mastered the win dance.

To draw in comic strip broad-strokes, Geno is all fun. Naylor is all business. Both are here for the same reason: to help the Mariners get to the playoffs.

“I think this is going to be a special team for the Seattle Mariners,” said Suárez. “This is a team that wants to win. They made really good moves, not just me…they got [Caleb] Ferguson, who is a really good arm, I just faced him in Pittsburgh and he was nasty. This is a team that wants to win and I appreciate that they took me to be part of this journey, that’s going to be awesome for me. To win the World Series here, that would mean a lot, and I want to help them win the World Series.”

Contrasting Suárez’s big-picture view, Naylor provided a more nuts-and-bolts perspective on the stretch run:

“Baseball doesn’t get dirty in a bad way, like bad plays or anything. It gets dirty like fun, like you’re in the grind, and you’ve gotta do whatever you can to get one run, then the next run, the next run, whether it’s bunts or getting a guy over here and there. Nitty-gritty baseball. Small ball. It’s super fun to try to create runs in this type of atmosphere, in this type of pressurized situations coming down to the end of the season.

Every single team is fighting to do the same thing. And it’s great as a competitor, because I feel like you grow as an individual and as a competitor in that aspect, playing high-leverage, high-intensity baseball where everything matters. Literally every pitch matters, every out, every single swing, any one thing you can do to change the momentum of the game matters. I think that’s so much fun during the back stretch of the baseball season.”

One the one hand, an infusion of good vibes, majestic homers, big dreams, and the recent memory of the Mariners’ last trip to the playoffs. On the other hand, a hard-nosed, businesslike grinder who doesn’t want to be distracted by anything as petty as light banter at first base, who comes with over 20 games of playoff experience and a hunger for more. On one hand, the incandescent beam of good vibes, a light that warms all it touches; on the other, the dark intensity of the ultimate competitor. It feels like a situation where a team should have to choose. Instead, the Mariners have both for that “dirty” stretch run.