Victor Robles is back. He's been back, technically, for a while: Robles, who missed most of five months after nuking his shoulder on an incredible catch back in Seattle's 10th game of the season, returned to the Mariners outfield for the end of August. However! I would argue that Victor Robles—the beloved underachieving baseball goober, the tragic dashing scallywag whose all-or-nothing style nothing'd itself out of favor for an organization that once earnestly viewed him as a superior prospect to literally Juan Soto—has not truly returned to baseball until he has done something bold and risky and produced either an incredible highlight or a devastating blooper.
He put an unfamiliar spin on "bold and risky" down in the minors, back in August, during a rehab assignment at Triple-A Tacoma. Robles's body has always had a weirdly magnetizing effect on baseballs thrown by a pitcher to a catcher. In 2019, his first full season in the majors, Robles was plunked 25 times, second-most in the majors. He managed to finish eighth in hit-by-pitches in 2021 despite playing only 107 total games. In a half-season with the Mariners in 2024, Robles managed to get plunked 10 times in 262 plate appearances; for frame of reference, last season the Chicago White Sox were plunked 43 total times in 5,869 plate appearances. Our guy gets hit an awful lot.
In a Tacoma game on August 19, Robles was nailed by a fastball from Las Vegas pitcher Joey Estes. Robles, true to form, had already been plunked four times in 14 at-bats, including twice in a game earlier that week against the same team, and including once already by the same pitcher. This chin music was evidently the final straw. On the play, Robles was ruled to have swung at the pitch, although the motion looked more like a reflexive, defensive motion. Robles first dropped his bat, and then picked it up and hurled it at Estes. After he was ejected, Robles marched into the Tacoma dugout, lifted a box that appeared to be full of some sort of squeezable nutrition product, and chucked it out onto the field. Robles apologized after the game, and was suspended by MLB for 10 games.
This is not what we want to see from our poor wayward lad. Nor, really, has been his performance now that he's back in the majors, producing a grody .675 OPS, running into a couple outs, and doing an adequate-but-wobbly job out in right field. Still, it's been good to have him back out there, if you're into that sort of thing. Also, not for nothing, the Mariners have gone a powerful 16–2 with him in the lineup since his return.
Saturday he had a much happier, much more characteristic Victor Robles moment. The Mariners were holding a two-run lead with one away in the ninth inning over the dreaded Houston Astros, who are just a couple of games back for the division lead. The Astros had two men on, and the Houston crowd was on its feet, smelling blood against Seattle closer Andres Muñoz. Astros third baseman Carlos Correa reached out and punched an 0-1 slider into shallow right, where it seemed destined to land for a bloop single, drive in a run, and put the tying run on third. Astros outfielder Jake Meyers certainly thought so, and tore ass around third. Not so fast, buster!
A pink-accented Robles came soaring in just in front of a sliding Julio Rodriguez, yoinked the ball just inches above the turf, popped to his feet, and calmly lobbed the ball back to the infield, where the Mariners successfully doubled-off the stunned Meyers, who never even bothered to attempt to return to second. Aaron Goldsmith's call of the play for Root Sports Northwest was so loud that it could be heard clearly on the Astros television broadcast. Astros manager Joe Espada, who'd been ejected earlier in the game, said he too thought the ball would land. "Robles made a heck of a play," he told the Houston Chronicle. "At least from my view, it looked like that ball was going to fall. But obviously, it didn’t."
Hell no it didn't! That's Victor Robles out there! And his body didn't even explode! Everything is coming up Mariners.
