PITTSBURGH, Pa. -- On Wednesday, Seattle Mariners' infielder J.P. Crawford made an excellent leaping catch at third base. Also on Wednesday, Crawford threw away an easy throw to first in which he had plenty of time to complete the play.

And that kind of sums up the transition so far for Crawford to third base. A longtime shortstop who has the most games played at the position in team history, Crawford has been the team's primary third baseman for most of the last 10 days since coming off the injured list before last Tuesday night's game against the Baltimore Orioles.

Crawford has made some breathtaking plays at third, showing that he has the ability to play the position, but there have been growing pains as well. Crawford made two errors in Tuesday's 3-2 win over the Pirates, throwing a ball up the first base line on the run and booting a ground ball that he tried to play off his left knee rather than get in front of.

Speaking before Wednesday's eventual 11-1 loss, Mariners' skipper Dan Wilson spoke about Crawford's selflessness in moving to third base in order for Colt Emerson to get more regular time at shortstop, and he spoke about the on-the-job training that he's getting at the new position.

Before Wednesday's game, we also got ESPN MLB Insider Buster Olney's opinion on the 'Refuse to Lose Territory' podcast:

"Yeah, and we have to remember he didn't have an offseason to do it. To do this sort of change in the middle of a season is more difficult.

That's why a lot of veteran players, quite frankly—and part of the reason why I was impressed with JP taking this on in the middle of a season—a lot of veterans would feel like, "I don't want to be embarrassed. I need a full offseason to prepare.

If you tell me I'm going to be playing third base going forward, tell me in November so I can have the offseason to adjust to that."

He didn't have that. He's making this adjustment on the fly.

And you mentioned, yes, he's on the left side of the infield in his entire career, so he's going to be adept in making that change. But, man, the examples that we've seen of shortstops moving to third base where there's a difficult period—I mean, you're talking about some Hall of Fame-level players.

Cal Ripken, one of the greatest shortstops of all time, and then the Orioles moved him to third base. He struggled. Alex Rodriguez, when he got traded to the Yankees and Derek Jeter was there and he agreed to play third base, it was kind of ugly at times early on in the process because the timing is different, the speed's different, the angles are different.

I'm sure that JP's out—I know this. I saw him in Baltimore. He's out there every day working, taking ground balls, Perry Hill hitting him ground balls, the staff working with him, and he'll get better at it.

He has looked really smooth in certain moments."

The Mariners are 41-40 at the halfway point of the season. They lead the American League West over the Athletics and Texas Rangers.

The Mariners will send right-hander Bryce Miller to the mound on Thursday morning against former top prospect Bubba Chandler. First pitch is 9:35 a.m. PT.

You can listen to the latest 'Refuse to Lose Territory' with Buster Olney of ESPN here. You can also watch the episode in the player below: 

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