A few hours after he met with the media on his first day back in Mariners camp, Dee Gordon wanted to make sure his words weren’t misconstrued.

In 2019, MLB’s 30 teams combined to throw 732,473 pitches. Some went where they were intended, others did not. Some were thrown with conviction, others with regret. And one ended Mitch Haniger’s season.

In terms of clubhouse real estate, Kyle Seager now inhabits an exclusive location.

In past years, the first day of full-squad workouts has often been greeted by cooler temperatures, cloudy skies and even rain. Tuesday, though, as the Mariners held their first full-squad workout of 2020, the Phoenix area offered the perfect cliché of what spring training weather is supposed to be: blue skies, warm-to-hot sun and temps nearing 80 degrees.

Left-hander Justus Sheffield and righty Justin Dunn are two pitchers the Seattle Mariners will be counting on in their starting rotation in the future.

Perhaps years from now, if his potential turns into production, it will be this anecdotal offering that helps outline the reasons for his success. It’s not an uncommon story in baseball, a sport in which failure is found far easier than success on a daily basis. A touted prospect struggles to live up to lofty expectations and is demoted to fix what is broken, remembers what made him successful, restores his confidence and resumes his progression back to the big leagues where he remains for the rest of his career. For Justus Sheffield, the ending to his tale has yet to be written. He’s experienced only the struggles and the setback. But the Mariners hope, and he said he believes, that the rest will begin to fall into place this season.

The Mariners’ main goals for Yusei Kikuchi’s first season in Major League Baseball were to keep him healthy and help him adjust to the increased intensity and competition compared to the Nippon Professional League in his native Japan, and ups and downs were expected. Still, it became obvious that what transpired in 2019 just wasn’t going to work moving forward.

There was no frustration in Friday’s early morning hours at the Mariners’ spring-training complex, only acceptance and sympathy for outfielder Mitch Haniger and his latest hindrance from full health.

Mitch Haniger’s return to the Mariners for the 2020 season has been delayed by yet another surgery. It was yet another unfortunate issue for the Mariners’ best player.

The man-child has returned a man.

The last time Taijuan Walker had set foot in the Mariners’ spring training clubhouse was April 2016. But on Wednesday morning, as Mariners pitchers and catchers reported for their physicals, Walker was back in the place where he appeared in his first major league camp.