After playing in 57 big league games in 2015, Ketel Marte goes into the 2016 season as the Mariners' starting shortstop. Can he become the organization's shortstop of the future?
Not since the hallowed and revered days of Yuniesky Betancourt have the Mariners entered a baseball season where a largely unproven youngster was bequethed the starting shortstop job without competing for it during spring training.
Unlike the past two seasons where the opening day starting shortstop was undecided until the final weeks of Cactus League play, the Mariners head to Peoria, Arizona with youngster Ketel Marte slotted in as their opening day shortstop.