The Seattle Mariners might not have known what they would get out of Nelson Cruz when they signed him for the 2015 season, but they are sure excited by what he has done so far this year.
On Monday, Cruz launched his 14th home run on the season, while also driving in his 26th run in just 26 games so far. He also leads the majors in both categories, while batting .340 on the season. The only downfall to his early surge is that the Mariners are four games under .500 and no one else on their roster is batting any where near .300.
Cruz also has ten more homers then the next guy which would be Logan Morrison (4), and a stunning 13 more than Robinson Cano, who has just one on the season.
The irony is that Cruz is looking like he will have a monster year in Seattle to back up his breakout season with the Baltimore Orioles in 2014, when he launched a career best 40 home runs and drove in 108 batters, but the club may not be contenders in their division.
The only other player on the Mariners roster enjoying a great season so far is righty Felix Hernandez, who is 5-0, with a 1.73 ERA, and 44 strike outs in 41.2 innings.
If Cruz and Hernandez can somehow ignite the rest of the club to follow suit, the Mariners may put together a special season. It is still early, but no team wants to ruin such great production, even this early in the season.
David Conde
David is the Co-Founder and Executive Editor of Legends On Deck®, as well as a Co-Host on Legends On Deck Podcast. David was a Senior Editor for MetsMerizedOnline.com, MetsMinors.net and Contributor for Hardballchat.com that spanned from 2010 to 2014. David made his MLB Debut as a writer in June 2014, while covering the NY Mets at Citi Field, for MetsmerizedOnline.com. David also coaches baseball for ages 13-15, a Babe Ruth League team in his local community. David's passion is coaching the game he loves to the future Legends of Tomorrow as well as making available a website that people can have fun sharing and reading. David is also passionate about his career as a Mortgage Loan Officer which allows him to help many families reach their dreams of owning a home. Connect with David via his Social Media pages as he loves to chat all about baseball.
