The former American League Championship Series MVP has had success in the postseason before, but he feels this year's Seattle Mariners club is 'different'
SEATTLE — When the Seattle Mariners acquired left fielder Randy Arozarena via a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays on July 26, 2024, he had yet to go a year without playing in the postseason.
Since Arozarena made his major league debut with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2019, every single season of his career extended into October.
Arozarena's performance has always risen with the bright lights of October. He was traded by the Cardinals to the Rays before the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season, and made history that year.
Arozarena hit .377 (29-for-77) with three doubles, a triple and 10 home runs with 14 RBIs in the 2020 playoffs. His hits and home runs set MLB records for the most in a single postseason, and he was named the American League Championship Series MVP.
For his career, Arozarena has scored 23 runs in 33 playoff games and has hit five doubles, a triple and 11 homers with 17 RBIs and has slashed .336/.414/.690 with a 1.104 OPS in the playoffs.
"I think (playoff Randy) is the same Randy," Arozarena said in a news conference after a team scrimmage via translator Freddy Llanos on Wednesday. "I just go out there and compete. In those situations, things have always turned out (well) for me. I think the only difference is the competition. ... You get to the point where, in a few more games, someone has a chance to win the championship. But overall, I think it's the same Randy."
Arozarena's streak of postseason berths ended in 2024. He and the Mariners missed out on the playoffs by one game.
This year, Seattle and Arozarena got over the hump and the franchise won its first division title since 2001.
Arozarena, for his part, put up one of his better seasons in years. He scored 95 runs in 160 games and hit 32 doubles, a triple and 27 home runs with 76 RBIs. He slashed .238/.334/.426 with a .760 OPS and stole 31 bases in 37 attempts. Arozarena's home runs and games played set a single-season career-high. His steals were the second-most in his career — one shy of his personal best set in 2022.
Even extending to his tenure with Tampa Bay, which included the 2020 squad that made it to the World Series (before ultimately falling in six games to the Los Angeles Dodgers), Arozarena believes this year's Mariners club is different than teams he played on previously in his career.
"I think, what this team has, even from the team I was a part of that went to the World Series — this team is just different," Arozarena said. "Everyone in that clubhouse has the mentality of wanting to keep going forward, keep winning. I think that's gonna be key. I think that's gonna be key for us to continue having success."
The two-time All-Star, despite having less service time in the majors than other players on team such as Luis Castillo, Jorge Polanco, Mitch Garver and Eugenio Suarez, has more playoff games under his belt than any other member of the roster. Garver and fellow outfielder Victor Robles both have rings from previous stops in their careers with the Texas Rangers and Washington Nationals, respectively.
Arozarena's experience, coupled with the experience of Robles, Garver and team hitting coach Kevin Setizer and assistant hitting coach Bobby Magallanes, will help the franchise as it attempts to do something it's yet to done since it was established in 1977 — make (and win) a World Series.
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