Last year, it might have been Mitch Haniger, then the Mariners’ longest-tenured player. Or later in the season, maybe Carlos Santana, who only spent a few months in Seattle after coming over at the deadline but who arrived with postseason experience and the personality to command a clubhouse while serving as a conduit from the coaches.
Both those guys are gone now, leaving behind a young team in Seattle with plenty of dynamic potential and players who could get there eventually, but no current clear leader in the locker room.
So when the Mariners lost a lackluster game to a short-handed Yankees club to fall to 35-37 and 10 back in the division, it wasn’t a player who finally decided enough was enough.