Mariners rookie Colt Emerson homers in his Ohio homecoming
CLEVELAND – Since his hometown, New Concord, sits on the eastern side of Ohio, Colt Emerson gets to have multiple homecomings.
When the Mariners played in Pittsburgh earlier in the week, a large group of family and friends made the drive east from the little town of under 2,500 people to PNC Park, many getting to see him play in the big leagues for the first time.
"It was such a surreal feeling," he said. "I was so grateful for the community showing that they got my back. And getting to see everybody and give back some time and be able to sign a ball or a card for a young fan or young kid from my hometown, that was the most special thing."
It got even more surreal on Friday night when Emerson yanked a solo homer to right field in his first at-bat.
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With the Mariners playing Cleveland over the weekend, many people in that same traveling party traveled west to see him play at Progressive Field as well.
"A bunch of people," he said. "There's gonna be a whole community here, because there's even more Guardians fans than there were Pittsburgh fans."
The experience in Pittsburgh was great, but there was also a special feeling of being back in his home state. At this time three years ago, he had just graduated from John Glenn High School.
"This is going to be my first time playing in Ohio in pro baseball," he said. "Being here is special."
Emerson's grandfather was a big Guardians fan and Emerson remembers as a young kid seeing the glass windows of the suites down the third-base line.
"I remember seeing the sun glimmer off those, and just being like, ‘This field is like so futuristic,' he said. "That's kind of just the one thing that stood out and just seeing the city behind and you've got the KeyBank building."
When he was in Pittsburgh, people brought him baked goodies like chocolate chip cookies, which he devoured. He was hoping for some more.
"I don't expect them, but they are always welcome," he said.
A first-round pick in 2023, Emerson signed an 8-year, $95 million contract earlier in the season. He is the Mariners' shortstop of the future.
"I'm just so grateful to be here, if 10-year-old me could see me sitting here, see me on the field tonight," he said.
What was 10-year-old Colt Emerson like?
"I was serious about the game," he said. "You can ask anybody, I took the game so seriously, just because I wanted to win, I wanted to play well. There was no better feeling than hitting the double, winning a baseball game. I love to compete. So yeah, 10-year-old me is the same as me now."
Batting order changes
The Mariners rolled a very different looking batting order for Friday night's series opener against the Guardians. With lefty Joey Cantillo getting the start for Cleveland, manager Dan Wilson went with this lineup:
* Randy Arozarena, LF
* Julio Rodríguez, CF
* Cal Raleigh, C
* Dom Canzone, DH
* Josh Naylor, 1B
* J.P. Crawford, 3B
* Rob Refsnyder, RF
* Cole Young, 2B
* Colt Emerson, SS
Why the change and is it a sign of things to come against other lefties?
"It's a little bit matchup driven," Wilson said. "(Cantillo) has got a little bit different look in terms of his splits and how he approaches things. So just a little different look tonight, but in general, I think we're always trying to maximize what we can do with our lineup and put guys into the best positions to do that, so we'll continue to look at it as we go.
Over his career, Cantillo, who uses a changeup and a more traditional breaking ball, has reverse splits, meaning that left-handers are actually better against him.
In 667 plate appearances, right-handers have posted a .225/.301/.382 slash line with a 26% strikeout rate while lefties have a .260/.350/.418 slash line with an 11% strikeout rate.
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This story was originally published June 26, 2026 at 11:36 PM.