Mariners Are Already Getting Too Familiar With Brendan Donovan Injury Scares

Brendan Donovan has been productive, but Seattle is already holding its breath too often.

Brendan Donovan (33) throws to first base during the seventh inning against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. | David Frerker-Imagn Images

Brendan Donovan leaving Friday night’s game would not be that big of a deal on its own. Stuff like that happens over the course of a long season. But for the Mariners, the frustrating part is that this is already starting to feel familiar.

Donovan has been exactly the kind of hitter the Mariners needed him to be when he’s on the field. Through 18 games, he had slashed .304/.437/.518 with a .955 OPS, and he had already started to look like one of the useful hitters every good lineup needs. This latest scare lands with a little more concern than a standard day-to-day update.  

Donovan exited the Mariners’ 5-0 loss to Texas before the top of the fourth inning because of left hip tightness. Dan Wilson said the club would know more after seeing how Donovan felt the next day. On its own, that’s manageable news. Maybe it ends up being nothing more than another brief interruption. But this is already coming after Donovan dealt with right groin discomfort earlier this month and then missed more time last weekend while fighting through an illness.  

Another Brendan Donovan Scare Leaves Mariners In A Familiar Spot

We just got done talking about how the Mariners infield was finally starting to look whole. J.P. Crawford was back. Donovan was back. For a minute, Seattle’s preferred alignment actually looked like it had a chance to exist in peace instead of in theory. That was the appeal. It was about what his presence did to the shape of the entire infield and lineup.  

And now we are doing yet another early-season Mariners infield shuffle. So far, the beginning of Donovan’s Mariners tenure is picking up a stack of warning labels that nobody really wanted to see this soon. Groin scare. Illness. Now hip tightness. None of those by themselves have to be a huge deal. Collectively, though, they create that uneasy feeling where a player can be productive and helpful and still somehow feel unavailable more often than you’d like. That’s a lousy combination for the Mariners who brought him in to make life feel steadier.  

Donovan is not the problem here. In fact, that is exactly why this keeps feeling bigger than a routine injury scare. The Mariners need him in the lineup. The uncomfortable truth is that once injuries start clustering around one area of the roster, depth starts sounding a lot better in conversation than it does in practice. Leo Rivas can fill in. They can patch it together for a few days if needed. But we have already seen how quickly solid roster depth can start to feel a lot less convincing once another regular is missing. It was the same when Crawford was out, and it is still true now.  

Hopefully Donovan wakes up, feels better, and this turns into another brief early season speed bump nobody remembers. The Mariners would love that. But until that actually happens, it’s fair to say Seattle is already getting a little too familiar with Brendan Donovan injury scares, and that is not exactly the kind of early trend anybody had in mind when this fit looked so promising.