SURPRISE, Ariz. -- Dominic Canzone's first full season with the Mariners didn’t work out as he or the club hoped it would.
He earned a spot on the Mariners’ Opening Day roster last year after an impressive spring, but between injuries and offensive struggles in limited opportunities, Canzone never quite found his footing, hitting .196 while posting a 28.2% strikeout rate. He spent most of the second half with Triple-A Tacoma, after being optioned at the end of August.
The results that the outfielder has proven he can produce multiple times over in the Minors -- which led the Mariners to acquiring him from the Diamondbacks in the Paul Sewald trade at the 2023 Trade Deadline -- simply weren’t there.
But so far this spring, the results have been evident, which is an encouraging sign for Seattle. Canzone has four hits in 15 at-bats, including three doubles. But perhaps even more important is the quality of contact Canzone is producing, which hasn’t gone unnoticed.
“The thing about Dom is that when his barrel finds the ball, it comes off of there,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “He has some great power to all fields. And I think when he thinks about more middle of the field, it makes him a better hitter, and we’ve seen it down here in camp, he’s hit a lot of balls out toward center field. He’s got a lot of pop in there. Making contact, staying consistent with it has been a big focus for him down here in camp.”
Each of Canzone’s hits this spring have registered an exit velocity over 100 mph -- and even his outs have been loud -- including a 114.8 mph double against the Guardians on Monday, which is the second-hardest-hit tracked ball of his career. He credits the work he’s done with Mariners senior director of hitting strategy Edgar Martinez, who has helped him maintain a middle-of-the-field approach.
Yes, it’s a small sample size, but it’s promising for the 27-year-old Canzone, who hopes to play a more impactful role with the Mariners in 2025.
“Through the approach standpoint of sticking to what you do best, just trying to be a gap-to-gap hitter instead of a home run hitter,” Canzone said. “It’s easy to get caught up in that stuff, especially if you’re struggling you want to try to make up for it. So just sticking with the process and trying to hit line drives.”
J-Rod goes deep twice
Hungry to build off his productive second half of last season, Julio Rodríguez looked like the kind of player he was during stretches of last season on Wednesday night against the Royals at Surprise Stadium.
Rodríguez blasted a pair of solo home runs, one to left-center field in the first that came off the bat at 108.2 mph and another to right-center in the fourth at 106.5 mph that traveled 389 feet.
“I’ve been getting more reps,” Rodríguez said. “Earlier in spring there was more live BPs than games, but now I’m having more at-bats early on.
“It’s always good getting reps. The more you train, the more you expose yourself out there -- I think it’s better to start the season.”
Rodríguez only logged one multihomer game last season, at Texas on Sept. 20. He hopes to regain the type of power output he had in 2023, when he hit a career-best 32 homers and owned an .818 OPS.
“Just trying to get good pitches, trying to put good swings on the ball and just trying to bring what I’m practicing to the game,” Rodríguez said. “It’s been feeling good -- it’s been feeling really good.”
Miller continues to bring the heat
Bryce Miller saw a noticeable uptick in velocity across the board in his first outing of the spring against the Giants, averaging 96.8 mph on his four-seam fastball, a 1.6 mph jump compared to last season.
Whether or not the right-hander was just excited to be back on the mound and facing hitters after a standout 2024 campaign is uncertain, but that trend seemingly continued in Miller’s second start against the Royals on Wednesday.
In 2 1/3 innings of work, Miller gave up three runs -- two of which came on an MJ Melendez homer to right field in the second inning -- and struck out a pair, landing 25 of his 37 pitches for strikes. His fastball was once again up from last year’s average at 96.4 mph, a 1.2 mph increase.
“I think the action on everything was really good,” Miller said of his outing. “Moving forward, next week I’m going to focus on getting the fastball at the top a little better.
“Overall, I think everything feels pretty good."