The longest-tenured player on the Mariners exited the game to applause from the home fans in what could be his final game with the team.
SEATTLE — On Sept. 26, 2019, Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Felix Hernandez walked off the mound to a standing ovation from the home crowd at T-Mobile Park.
On the field during the game, watching the applause for Hernandez's final outing was shortstop J.P. Crawford, who was acquired by the team in a trade with the Philadelphia Phillies on Dec. 3, 2018.
That deal represented the first domino in a years-long rebuild for the Mariners that resulted in them breaking their 21-year playoff drought in 2022 and making it closer than it ever has to the World Series, Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, in 2025.
Now, almost seven years to the day Crawford saw "King Felix" walk off the mound to applause, the veteran shortstop received the same treatment in front of a sellout crowd of 44,761 people.
Before the sixth inning began in the final game of the season between Seattle and the Los Angeles Angels, the longest-tenured player on the team was subbed out for Leo Rivas and walked off the field to a standing ovation from the crowd at T-Mobile Park.
Crawford, who was fighting back tears as he walked off the field, will be a free agent after this season.
"That's my brother, man," M's center fielder Julio Rodriguez said after the game Sunday. "Even before I got to the big league club and I got to play with him ... we always had a great relationship. But after I started playing with him, he became my brother. It's definitely uncertain what's gonna happen with him but he knows I'm in his corner and we're always gonna be brothers."
If 2026 does mark the end of Crawford's tenure in the Pacific Northwest, it's been a tumultuous one.
The season began with the unofficial "captain" of the clubhouse on the injured list due to right shoulder inflammation. He made his season debut April 2.
Crawford had two more stints on the IL with a right hand contusion (June 8-16) and left wrist inflammation (July 30-Aug. 25). In between his stints on the IL, the veteran saw the team bring up his replacement, top-10 baseball prospect Colt Emerson, who signed an eight-year, $95 million contract extension with the team before making his debut..
The team showed respect to Crawford by having Emerson play third base rather than his natural position of shortstop, but the 31-year-old approached the team of making the move to the hot corner and have Emerson play third.
Emerson, who was playing the year with a displaced tendon, struggled in his rookie year with the injury and underwent season-ending surgery. That led to Crawford returning to his natural position of shortstop.
The veteran finished his final year with a slash line of .221/.335/.352 with a .687 OPS in 116 games and hit 12 doubles and 14 home runs with 40 RBIs. His last homer was a two-run shot in the second-to-last game of the season against Los Angeles on Saturday.
Crawford has reiterated amidst the short-lived position change and in separate interviews that he wishes to return to Seattle, which was part of the reason he made the decision to move to third — to show, as he has his whole career, that he's willing to do what it takes to help the team.
Time will tell whether or not the team chooses to bring Crawford back. But if Sunday was his final game, the "captain" will be walking away from the team with the flowers he deserved.
"Really difficult to put into words," Starting pitcher Bryan Woo said in a postgame interview Sunday. "(Crawford's been) one of the veterans and captains of the team from the moment that I walked in the clubhouse. It's everything from the way that he sets an example with how he shows up everyday and the things that he's about, showing the young guys how to be a true professional. The person that he is, the father that he is, the teammate that he is, all that stuff. ... I think Seattle and the city, the team, the organization, the fans, everybody, he means so much. He was a true, true, huge piece in the turnaround of this organization."
