Mariners get their champion back, walk off Phillies 6-5

Photo by Stephen Brashear/Getty ImagesIn late September of 2022, I wrote an article titled “The Mariners Need Their Champion Back” about Mitch Haniger detailing how streaky a player Haniger is; something that surprised me given how steady a presence he’d been on the fledgling new-look Mariners for quite some time. It’s an article I’ve been thinking about for most of this season, waiting for the Mitch Haniger who looked so sharp at Spring Training to emerge, and eventually beginning to feel like maybe, this time, he wouldn’t; maybe this time there would be no bounce-back from the slump for a player on the wrong side of the age curve, that maybe even Mighty Mitch’s legendary work ethic and unquenchable intellectual curiosity about his craft might have met its match in Father Time.

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