I am struggling to write about Mitch Haniger.
The player most emblematic of my own experience here at Lookout Landing, and over the near-decade since college graduation has returned to the Seattle Mariners. He is a source of joy. He is diminished. He has credibility and can be a through line between a clubhouse and a front office and coaching staff that spent too much of last year seemingly out of sync and out of trust. He occupies an opaque location on this current roster, too reputable to be easily diminished to a bench or short side platoon role for the likes of an unproven Dominic Canzone, Cade Marlowe, or Taylor Trammell.