Victor Robles’ injury opens a door for more playing time for a now-healthy Canzone
Dominic Canzone is the first to note that the circumstances of his recall to the big-league club are unfortunate. “Losing Vic [Robles] is just devastating for us,” said Canzone, meeting with the media before Tuesday’s game. “A great teammate, great person, I can’t say enough about that guy, what he does on the field for us, off the field.”
But the fact remains that Robles’ injury opens a door for Canzone, who saw his playing time diminished and then vanished after the Mariners picked up Robles last June. However, it’s a plight Canzone, maybe even more than others, is sympathetic to: Canzone also suffered an injury early last season when he crashed into the wall at T-Mobile Park while making his own spectacular catch, damaging his AC joint and knocking him out of competition for a month.
That was followed later in the season by another month-long absence, this time a right adductor strain, again suffered in the outfield, this time a diving catch. Once healthy, Canzone returned briefly to the big-league club before being optioned back down, but he never recaptured the strong start to his season, although he turned in a solid—but not eye-popping—performance at Triple-A Tacoma.
Now Canzone is back, fully healthy and another year experienced.
“[It feels good], getting back in the groove, getting healthy, knowing that I’ll be ready for anything, and just trusting my ability more.”
He also knows himself better as a hitter, and has made some mechanical changes, as well.
“I’m a line drive hitter, so the balls will go out if I swing at the right pitches. Just focusing on trying to hit line drives is the biggest thing…More of an up the middle approach, not striking out as much, putting the ball in play. And just kind of getting back to what us hitters do well and what is unique to us.
So for me, trying to stand me up a bunch over the last year and a half, which didn’t work as well as I’d like to, so just getting back to what I was doing with Arizona, which is a little bit more in my legs and lower to the ground. So we’ll see how that works.”
Here’s how Canzone set up when he was with Arizona:
And here’s his setup after he came to the Mariners: much more upright.
Both stances feature a leg kick, but with the lower stance, Canzone says he feels more able to be on time and have an up-the-middle approach. “Just being more balanced. I was a little rocky with the leg kick last year and it caused me to be a little off-balance, head kind of going up and down, not seeing it as well.”
Here’s how the stance looked this spring: not quite as pronounced as during his time in Arizona, but definitely less upright than in 2024 with Seattle.
But beyond the mechanical changes are the mental ones. Canzone has been working with Mariners mental skills coach Adam Bernero about finding the right mindset and not putting too much pressure on himself to come through, especially when the team isn’t “grooving as well as we’d like to” on offense.
“I think more than anything, it’s just trusting your ability. I think every ball player kind of goes through that, especially when they struggle up here: are you good enough? You start questioning yourself a little bit.”
Year Three with Seattle is about learning to quiet those questions and focus on gratitude, enjoying every day as a gift, especially now.
“It’s obviously hard when you’re struggling…but just enjoying every day, no matter how it goes. It’s an absolute blessing to be up here. So just enjoying every day up here.”