The Seattle Mariners are limping to the finish line in a Hellish 2026 season.

After taking two-of-three from the Colorado Rockies last weekend, the Mariners split a two-game series with the Houston Astros on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Since then, they've lost two more games to the lowly Los Angeles Angels, who are doing their best to stave off a 100-loss season.

While it would be nice to win these games, the results ultimately don't matter. What does matter is that the Mariners - and their fans - are honoring longtime broadcaster Rick Rizzs, who is retiring after 41 years calling Mariners games.

Imagine that? Rizzs has called games for more than 80 percent of the franchise's existence. It's been an incredible ride and Rizzs deserves all the celebration and all the praise. He's going into the Mariners Hall of Fame next year.

But there is another member of the Mariners who deserves adulation this weekend: J.P. Crawford.

Now 31 years old, Crawford was drafted in the first round of the 2013 MLB Draft by the Philadelphia Phillies. Traded to the Mariners after the 2018 season in the deal that sent Jean Segura to Philly, Crawford has now spent eight years with the Mariners, first playing for them in 2019.

He's hit .247 in his time with Seattle while also posting a .340 on-base percentage. A disciplined hitter, he led the AL in walks in 2023 (94), while also hitting 19 homers that season.

He won a Gold Glove in the COVID 2020 season and has played the most games at shortstop in franchise history.

Crawford is a free agent at the end of the season and I don't discount the possibility that he's back in 2027, but there's a chance he's not, so I hope that fans recognize his contributions to the organization properly as well.

He was named one of the 50 Greatest Mariners of all-time earlier this summer, and I think there's a real chance he ends up in the team's Hall of Fame.

I said the following on the 'Refuse to Lose Territory' podcast the other day:

"For whatever warts you think J.P. Crawford has, or whatever warts he actually has, those are ultimately outweighed long term by what he's done for this franchise.

The re-imagining of the roster after 2018 was painful. It was painful to see James Paxton go, and it was painful to see the team trade away Robinson Canó, and Edwin Díaz, maybe more so, obviously. That was painful.

And when you got to 2019 and all those guys were gone, what you were hoping for was hope. And what came over the last, over the next several years was hope, was fulfillment, was competitiveness, and was a new era of Mariners baseball.

As frustrating as this year has been, as frustrating as missing the playoffs in '23 and '24 were, I think we all have to agree that the last half-decade or so of Mariners baseball has been far more enjoyable in a lot of ways than the half-decade that preceded it, and the half-decade that preceded that.

And J.P. Crawford is a huge part of that. Before there was Julio and Cal, before there was Gilbert and Kirby and Woo, there was J.P. Crawford. He was the guy at the forefront of all of it, right? Seager was still here. Haniger was still here. But the guy at the forefront of this new wave of Mariners was J.P. Crawford.

A lot of what we have watched over the last half-decade that has been exciting is built because of J.P. Crawford—kind of starting it all. He was energy when this team needed it. He was excitement when this team needed it. He was leadership when this team needed it. He rose to the top of that young group when this team needed it. And he helped start it all."

The Mariners will take on the Angels in the penultimate game of the season on Saturday night. Kade Anderson will make his final start the season coming off a historic outing against the Colorado Rockies last weekend.

The season ends on Sunday at 12:10 p.m. PT.