Ben Williamson was lined up for a return to Seattle this weekend, only it won’t come the way anyone expected. The Rays infielder is dealing with a right hamstring injury, and what was supposed to be his first trip back to T-Mobile Park may now turn into an IL situation instead.
The injury happened two days before Tampa Bay opened a three-game set in Seattle. Williamson pulled up while running out a grounder in the ninth inning at Coors Field, then needed help down the dugout steps and was later seen on crutches. A long-awaited homecoming suddenly turned into a medical update and some brutal timing.
For Williamson, this was supposed to be the first time back at T-Mobile Park since the Mariners traded him in the offseason. Seattle selected him 57th overall in the 2023 Draft, then moved him quickly through the system as one of those older college picks the club believed could advance fast.
He made his big league debut in April 2025 and went on to play 85 games for the Mariners, hitting .253/.294/.310 with one homer and 21 RBI. Even if the bat never really popped, the glove did - he carved out a reputation as one of the better defenders at third base.
The offense, though, pushed the Mariners in a different direction. Williamson’s profile fit the glove-first, contact-oriented mold, but Seattle needed more production at third. That’s why the club eventually turned to Eugenio Suárez.
Williamson was then sent to Tampa in the 2026 offseason as part of the three-team trade that brought Brendan Donovan to Seattle. Donovan was the key piece from the Mariners’ point of view, and the logic was straightforward: Seattle wanted a proven, versatile bat who could fill multiple roles. Williamson, meanwhile, looked like a natural fit for the Rays.
That made this weekend’s series feel like it had real potential. There would have been a neat little circle-closing moment in watching Williamson step back onto the same field where his major league career started, only now in a visiting uniform.
Former teammates would have been on the other side. Coaches and stadium staff he knew would have been around.
Mariners fans would have had a chance to greet a player they watched rise quickly. And there was never any reason for hard feelings; Williamson didn’t choose the move.
He already flashed what a matchup against Seattle could look like after the trade. On July 11, he had a career-high four hits against the Mariners, including an RBI double, in Tampa Bay’s 6-1 win. The next chapter was supposed to play out on the same dirt in Seattle.
Instead, the timing went sideways. Williamson’s homecoming should still happen eventually, but this weekend won’t be the version anybody imagined.
Baseball doesn’t hand out perfect reunions on command. Sometimes it just lands on the wrong date.
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