WASHINGTON D.C. -- After a much needed off day following a 4-6 road trip through the East Coast, the Seattle Mariners return home on Tuesday night to start a new series with the Baltimore Orioles.

While being back at T-Mobile Park is clearly exciting for the Mariners no matter what, it should be extra exciting because of who is set to return.

After missing a month of action, All-Star catcher Cal Raleigh should be activated from the injured list, as should longtime shortstop JP Crawford. Outfielder Randy Arozarena, who missed the last two games in Washington with a left hamstring issue, also has a chance to be back in the lineup.

With regards to Crawford, he's all but confirmed that he'll be activated on Tuesday, but the question is: Where will he play in the field?

A shortstop since he arrived in the organization before the 2019 season, Crawford has offered to move to third base in order to allow top prospect Colt Emerson to play there. Crawford is one of the lowest-rated shortstops in the league, and moving to third base could help prolong his career in Seattle - or somewhere else as he's a free agent after the season concludes.

Crawford was seen taking ground balls at third base over the weekend in Washington and I discussed what I saw on the latest edition of the 'Refuse To Lose Territory' podcast.

"J.P. Crawford, I think, looks pretty comfortable at third, and I think we're going to see him at third very, very soon.

Now, the injury issues are real, but I think the Mariners are going to get Cal Raleigh and Randy Arozarena and J.P. Crawford back on Tuesday. When that homestand starts, I think Cal Raleigh will be back, I think J.P. Crawford will be back, and I think that Randy Arozarena will be back as well.

And I think when J.P. Crawford plays, I think he's going to play third base.

I think a couple of things. Colt Emerson looks good at shortstop. I think JP looks comfortable at third. I think that he's had now these 10 days on the injured list to get more acclimated to it, to practice more, to see the angles, to have conversations, to work with Perry Hill. I just think we're going to see JP Crawford at third base instantaneously.

I don't know if he's going to be perfect at it. All I can tell you is he looked pretty comfortable over there. Now, there's going to be some situations he hasn't seen before. There's going to be some throws he hasn't had to make before. There's going to be some, I'm sure, some communication stuff with who's got this ball and who's got that ball between him and Colt.

It's not going to be perfect. It wasn't perfect for Jorge Polanco, and it wasn't perfect for Brendan Donovan. There will be an adjustment period for J.P. Crawford as well and some on-the-job training.

But in terms of just his positioning, his ability to field a ground ball, his reaction time, I mean, he was getting some balls peppered at him from Manny Acta. He looked as comfortable as I could expect him to look in a kind of infield-outfield practice situation.

So I think we'll see J.P. Crawford at third, and I think we'll see him there on Tuesday."

Regardless of where Crawford plays, the M's will be happy to get him back in the lineup. He's hitting just .228, but he has 10 home runs, a .356 on-base percentage and a 119 OPS+.

The Mariners and Orioles will play on Tuesday night at 6:40 p.m. PT. 

Remember to join our MARINERS on ROUNDTABLE community, which is FREE! You can post your own thoughts, in text or video form, and you can engage with our Roundtable staff, as well as other Mariners fans. If prompted to download the Roundtable APP, that's free too!