Fare thee well, Logan Morrison

Yesterday, the Mariners and the Rays executed a six player trade that sent weirdly good shortstop Brad Miller, damaged but almost redeemed Danny Farquhar, and LoMo (né Logan Morrison) to Tampa in exchange for a couple of players with great pun potential and C.J. Riefenhauser. When LoMo was announced as part of the deal, I snarked tweeted:

What's it like to feel sad things about losing Logan Morrison? Is it pretty weird?

— Meg Rowley (@megrowler) November 6, 2015

I wasn't wrong, but this also isn't the full story. Because while I'm not sad we traded LoMo, I do have fonder memories of him than I thought I would. When Logan Morrison came to Seattle from the Marlins before the start of the 2014 season, a lot of us had mixed feelings, mostly because LoMo hadn't been Very Good in Miami and was often hurt. But then LoMo's 2014 looked like this, courtesy of FanGraphs:

His performance over the season was inconsistent, but improved markedly in the second half, highlighted by a flamesy September. And he wasn't Justin Smoak. Smoak who, like so many position players before him, promised so much and delivered so little. He even made Rodney's arrow celebration more tolerable, goofily tracking where it would land with each recorded save. Gosh, everything about that ritual is firmly in the past now. When Smoak's playing time in 2014 diminished from a combination of being hurt and being not very good Justin Smoak, LoMo seemed promising. His July was a painful tire fire, but August picked up, and then there was September. Just look at that aforementioned flamesy September. LOOK AT IT:

In a season full of improbable moments, in a year that had us care about baseball until the very last day, this game tying double against the Angels had the potential to be the stuff of legend, a play we looked back on with glee. Our memory of it is dampened and dimmed by the fact that your 2014 Seattle Mariners did not actually make the playoffs, but it was still a great play against a bitter rival. And that flamesy September left us hopeful that this might be the Year of the LoMo, filling an offensive hole, and perhaps offering a way forward at 1B. Spoiler, dear reader: That isn't really what happened.

The good thing about LoMo in 2014 was that he wasn't Justin Smoak. The bad thing about LoMo in 2015 was that he wasn't Justin Smoak. (Editor's note: god damn, Meg) Now this is a bit unfair; Smoak was smartly platooned a good deal of the season. And Logan Morrison can hardly be blamed for the 2015 Mariners' bizarre fascination with seeing Mark Trumbo in the outfield rather than at first base where his "stack of printer paper toppling over in a light breeze" approach to defense would probably have been far less of a liability. But where 2014 LoMo was a breath of fresh air after injury and poor play drove Smoak away as the everyday starter, 2015 LoMo was... he wasn't very good. His wRC+ against righties was 112 and his wRC+ against lefties was... 40. The Mariners as a team posted a 100 wRC+ when it was all said and done, and LoMo was good for 90. The only times he managed to hit for average and power at the same time was in May (ok, that was fun) and then again in September, when the Mariners were well out of it. The rest of the year was pretty bleak offensively. Maybe LoMo should only really play baseball in September? He was worth -.2 fWAR. One time against the A's, he forgot how many outs there were, slowed up on his way to second and got doubled off at first because counting (he did hit a walk off home run in the 11th, so that was good).

So while our lasting memory of 2014 LoMo is as a savior, our memory of 2015 LoMo looks and feels a lot more like this:

What are the signs again? Why can't you go faster? WHY ARE YOU SO FRUSTRATING? God, is Cole Hamels really on the Rangers? Still, seeing him traded away to Florida is tinged with a bit of sadness. We liked LoMo because he wasn't Smoak; we loved him a little bit because he kept the improbable magic of 2014 alive for one more day. Neither of those things proved to be enough of a reason for us to feel any particular way about him in 2016, but they aren't completely devoid of nostalgia. LoMo grew up a lot in his time in Seattle; his twitter gaffs were replaced by often funny examples of his BroMo alter ego. He mellowed some. He did not, for example, damage his own face breaking a bat out of frustration like he did in 2014. He became a father, and was pretty adorable about it.

LoMo on becoming a dad, "I didn't think anything could be better than hitting homers. This is better."

— Shannon Drayer (@shannondrayer) September 23, 2015

It wasn't very good, but it was at times not bad either. You weren't what we needed this year, LoMo, but we wish you well. May you crush the hitters' parks of the AL East. May your face, so quick to emotion and goofy grins, smile on. And may you always, always remember how many outs there are.