Mariners rookie Colt Emerson to have season-ending wrist surgery this week

Ryan Divish, The Seattle Times on Aug 24, 2026

Published in Baseball

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SEATTLE — A rookie season that started with hope and possibility for the Seattle Mariners shortstop of the future will end prematurely due to injury.

General manager Justin Hollander announced on Monday afternoon that shortstop Colt Emerson will undergo season-ending surgery on Wednesday to repair a displaced tendon in his left wrist.

Dr. Donald Sheridan, an orthopedist in Scottsdale, Ariz., that specializes in hand and wrist injuries, will perform the procedure.

“He will be ready for the season next year,” Hollander said. “There are no concerns on that.”

Hollander did say that Emerson will have a different offseason. He won’t be allowed to swing a bat for most of the offseason while his weight training will be modified to protect the wrist.

Emerson, who turned 21 in late July, made his much-anticipated MLB debut as the Mariners top prospect on May 17. He took over the starting shortstop duties in early June.

But after producing an .884 on-base plus slugging percentage over his first 22 games that included five doubles, a triple, six homers and 14 RBI, Emerson started to struggle with fastballs, particularly in the upper part of the strike zone.

Over his next 47 games played and 160 plate appearances, Emerson posted a .169/.214/.216 slash line with a double and two homers. Perhaps more concerning was the 59 strikeouts in that span. In his final full game played, he struck out four times vs. the Yankees.

Following the series finale in New York, Hollander, manager Dan Wilson and president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto met with Emerson to inform him he was being optioned back to Triple-A Tacoma to work on his swing and regain his confidence. It was during that meeting that Emerson disclosed the wrist pain he’d been trying to play through over the last few months.

He asked to get more tests on the wrist before reporting to Tacoma. Understanding that Emerson rarely complained about health issues, the Mariners placed him on the injured list instead and sent him to Arizona to meet with Sheridan.

The current wrist issues initially started in the early days of spring training when Emerson tweaked it during an on-field workout. He eventually went to see Sheridan to get it checked out. Given the option to play through the issue with treatment or have surgery, Emerson quickly declined any procedure. Discomfort in the wrist wasn’t completely new and something he had managed in the past.

Given his workload in the spring while trying to make the opening day roster, Emerson played through some of the discomfort. It continued to linger for much of spring and became an issue after he started the season with Triple-A Tacoma. He received a cortisone shot in the wrist on April 19 and missed five games with the Rainiers. The shot provided temporary relief, but wasn’t going to completely fix the problem.

“My understanding is that a lot of guys deal with this,” Hollander said. “The tendon can get displaced from the sheath of tissue that holds it down. Some guys it affects them more than others … just where the tendon is and what it’s resting on.”

Hollander mentioned that J.P. Crawford, who is also on the injured list, is dealing with a similar issue and recently had an injection in his wrist. Crawford is expected to be activated from the injured list on Tuesday. He worked out pregame on Monday after returning from a three-game rehab assignment with Tacoma.

During his time at the MLB level, Emerson missed a handful of games at various points due to back spasms and wrist discomfort. But he never let on how much it was bothering him at the plate as he continued to struggle to hit MLB pitching.

“Different guys have different pain thresholds,” Hollaner said. “My belief is that Colt Emerson has a really high one, and he played to the point until he felt like it had crossed the threshold of being smart for him to continue to play.”

While the Mariners would’ve liked Emerson to be more proactive in his communication, it also gives them a level of relief in understanding that his struggles at the plate have a glaring reason behind them.

“It … gives me some comfort to understand what happened during his time here,” Dipoto said after Emerson went on the IL. “He just wants to compete. He wants to contribute. It’s hard to hit with a bad wrist, and it’s especially hard to hit with a bad wrist when you’re trying to play against a level of competition you’ve never played before.

“Colt Emerson’s never had a problem with contact (in the minor leagues). He’s never had a problem with velocity, and we saw things happening that didn’t make sense. And this actually might make sense of it.”

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