Seattle Mariners 2023 Season Comes to Disappointing End

The Mariners disappointing season came to an abrupt end. The Mariners, once again, got eliminated from post-season contention in the final week of the regular season, after their promising 2022 season and anticipation from fans to return to playoffs.

Last season I was very critical of the team's bad coaching, ownership, and management. I still feel the team is winning despite the coaching and team management. The obvious holes from last season were not addressed at all and the Mariners decided a few bad free agent signings in the off-season, and a very bad mid-season trade, would somehow improve the team's chances. Instead it completely killed the morale of the fans and players.

I still believe the Mariners need to bring in an actual manager with actual championship coaching experience. For instance, Kris Negron won a championship as the head coach of the Rainiers and should be given a chance. I believe he understands how to build a lineup, how to position the defense on every play, when to pull pitchers, and who to put in for key situations. I no longer believe the team supports Servais. As the season was nearing an end several players came out against the coaching in frustration to some questionable calls, mostly involving pitching decisions. The one thing he had going for him was being a players coach, but if he's no longer that either I'm confident that he needs to go.

Credit: MLB.com

Last year I focused on relief pitching, defense, coaching, and finding an all-star middle infielder in free agency as target areas for the Mariners to focus on. I saw the Mariners actually regress, and that is not want you want to see as a fan whose team made the post-season the year before. Instead of signing a big name middle infielder and bat to be DH or corner OF, they signed a handful of washed up players in Wong, La Stella, and Pollock. By the end of the season none of those guys were still on the team because of how awful they were. Additionally, they traded their closer Seawald to a team who is now in the World Series. If they simply kept their closer they most likely would've made the playoffs. 

Let's dig in to how the Mariners can shake off a bad season and make a championship caliber team in 2024. 

1) Getting On Base and Moving Base Runners

In 2023 the M's improved from .230 to .242 and were middle of the league on OBP. While this is an improvement from the previous season, but it's still not good enough to be a playoff contender. They had the second most strikeouts in the league and the plate discipline needs to be an off-season target. Additionally, the Mariners were horrible at sacrifices and lost multiple extra inning games because they were unable to score the free runner on 2nd. 

2) Coaching

Coaching comes down to developing the talent, improving the team, and making the right decisions during key moments. I believe the Mariners have done a very good job at developing their talent and a horrible job at improving the team and making good key decisions. 

Like I say every year, Servais has a history of making bad decisions when it comes to starting lineups, defensive substitutions, sacrificing runners over, defensive alignments, and management of pitchers. 

The team's struggles against better teams, lack of consistency, and inability to manufacture runs when they need to, really comes down to the manager. Servais needs to focus more on small ball. Good teams know how to get on base and move runners, which is 100% on the coaching staff who'd rather lead the league in strikeouts just to have a few home runs. 

3) Roster Improvements

The Mariners need to replace a couple key positions and bolster their bullpen for next season. They have key decisions to make in corner OF as well as 2B. They also have a couple RP spots to consider, along with needing a reliable closer. 

I'm skeptical that the Mariners will make any big moves after hearing Dipoto tell fans that we are lucky to win 53% of our games and insinuated that he has no consideration for making big acquisitions. Dipoto says the same thing every year and it scares any potential major players from signing with Seattle, which is why they always have to get players via trades.

Players Who are Free Agents: Who to re-sign and who to let go

• Teoscar Hernandez - starting RF, Teo was one of the best hitters on the team but given how expensive he is ($14M), the amount of strikeouts he has, and the fact he's UFA, I'm shocked the M's didn't trade him mid-season for someone with team control. - (should let go)
• Tom Murphy - backup C, Murphy is injury prone and streaky. The M's can find a better backup C. - (should let go)
• Didi Gregorious - backup SS, he hardly plays and is barely major league quality. - (should let go)
• Tommy Milone - SP, Milone is more of a AAA player and should be let go. (should let go)
• Dominic Leone - RP, Leone is a terrible relief pitcher that you only want to use in blowouts to eat up innings. - (should let go)

What should the Mariners do to replace the few pieces that are leaving, as well as bolstering their lineup to be more successful and make a championship run? Here's a few areas they can look at: 

Weak or Missing Positions: 

• 2B/SS: The Mariners don't really have an all-star middle infielder. J.P. is teetering on the edge of being an all-star and opposite of him has been a revolving door of sub-par players. The Mariners need to serious look at signing a major middle infielder or trading one of their many SP's for one.

• RP: The Mariners had a top 5 bullpen in 2022 and then lost multiple big arms in the off-season and via trades. for the second straight season and will be keeping a majority of their relievers if they want. The M's are now lacking good consistent arms outside of Munoz and Brash who are incredibly overused.

• Corner OF: The Mariners are most likely losing Teoscar and don't have any suitable backups in the corner OF outside of a couple mediocre players in Kelenic and Canzone. There will be a bunch of good OF free agents and potential trades available should the M's finally be willing to pay some big name hitters. 

• DH: I have to admit the M's revolving door of below average hitters at DH needs to stop. They need to find a big bat in free agency who can hit in cleanup. No more experiments like Mike Ford. They need an every day bat who's either a solid DH, or is a very good hitter at a position where the M's have better defenders. 

In a nutshell, the M's need a new coach, they need a couple good bullpen arms and a couple big bats, and ownership/GM needs to utilize the plethora of extra SP's they have to go get some of those solved if they can't find it in free agency.