The Mariners, once again, got eliminated from post-season contention in the final week of the regular season, and it never felt at any point like they stood a chance during the second half of the season. The first half of the season the team was overachieving while the rest of the league was struggling. The Mariners had a 10 game lead over the Astros before falling apart completely.
All off-season, and pre-trade deadline, the fans and media were clambering for management to go find some bats. Instead the Mariners signed a bunch of washed up veterans (as they always do), and the team unfortunately faltered offensively and defensively. Jrod didn't show up statistically until the last month of the season and the rest of the team struggled mightily, outside of Cal Raleigh who had an amazing season.
The lone bright spot this season was the firing of Scott Servais. I've been calling for this for years and it's about time management got rid of him. Unfortunately a lot of his assistants stayed and the replacements are 1995 Mariner veterans with no caching experience. While the team finished strong, it was too little too late. I still went to a game to show my support for the firing, but this offseason needs some serious bats and infielders if they plan to make a push. I won't hold my breath.
I still believe the Mariners need to bring in an actual manager with actual championship coaching experience. The Mariners need a guy who 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. We'll see if Dan Wilson and Edgar Martinez can have a good season but I still saw similar blunders at the end of the season. Bad defensive plays, awkward pitching changes, and lots of strikeouts. Perhaps a whole offseason building the roster and chemistry they desire will change things around.
Credit: AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson
Last year I saw the Mariners actually regress, and that is not want you want to see as a fan whose team made the post-season 2 years before. Instead of signing a big name middle infielder and bat to be DH, they rolled with guys like Garver, Rojas, Haniger, Polanco, and Urias. Most of these guys are off the roster going into the off-season because of how horrible they were. Most were replaced mid-season by AAA callups and mid-season trades.
On top of the bad free agents in the lineup, the Mariners also allowed their bullpen to regress yet again. The year they made the playoffs 2 seasons ago, they had a top 10 bullpen in MLB. This latest season they were middle of the league. They dealt with multiple key injuries and players underperforming, but relying on those injured players was a bad bet. The Mariners starters only go for 5-7 innings max and Servais replaced starters with the bullpen with runners on too often, which resulted in a lot of inherited runners scoring.
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 (again)
The focus from Dan and Edgar needs to be with OBP and manufacturing runs via sacrifices and putting the ball in play. Once again the M's were middle of the league on OBP. They had the most strikeouts in the league and set a franchise record for striking out. This was after they told the fans that the focus this off-season was on eliminating strikeouts (an excuse used to justify getting rid of their best hitters). 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 (again)
We will see how Dan and Edgar do as coaches. They finished the last month of the season on a decent note as the Mariners had a better W/L ratio under Dan than under Servais. It still wasn't enough to come close to making the playoffs. Their lack of coaching experience makes them wild cards but also elicits hope as they can learn and improve as they go. However, we need to see them consistently making the right strategies and decisions to match their players and stadium.
3) Roster Improvements (again)
The Mariners need to replace a couple key positions and bolster their bullpen for next season. They have key decisions to make in the entire infield. They also have a couple RP spots to consider. The only thing they have is a stacked rotation, but that wasn't enough to help them this season.
I'm skeptical that the Mariners will make any big moves after hearing the GM and owner consistently tell fans the same story, which has had the same results. 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 (most have been let go already so here's the remaining list).
- Justin Turner - starting 1B/DH, JT came mid-season via trade in hopes of bolstering the lineup. Unfortunately he was terrible defensively and offensively he regressed. Given his age I wouldn't be shocked if he retired or had a homecoming in LA. - ($13M/yr, should not re-sign)
- Yimi Garcia - Yimi was a RP who came in and helped Seattle but was up and down to end the season before getting hurt. They shouldn't re-sign him as his WAR was less than 1 and he's hurt. - ($5.5M/yr, should not re-sign)
- Jorge Polanco - Jorge was one of the "big" off-season acquisitions that resulted in mediocrity. He was hurt for a month mid-season, and was up and down from there. Some games he was on fire, while other games he struck out a ton and played average defense. Overall he was ok but not great. - ($5.1M/yr, already gone)
- Josh Rojas - Rojas was a surprising early season league leader in hits and average. Then he fell off as teams figured him out. He couldn't hit at all after that, and his defense was average at best, which is not good for the hot corner. He still had an above average season given he wasn't supposed to be the team's starting 3B. - ($3.1M/yr, already gone)
- JT Chargois - Chargois was brought in mid-season via trade to bolster the bullpen. Similarly to other RPs, he had bright spots and bad spots. Overall he underperformed and wasn't worth the trade as he had a less than 1 WAR. - ($1.3M/yr, already gone)
- Austin Voth - After decent playoff season in Baltimore, Seattle brought in Voth to bolster the middle of the pen. Unfortunately he extremely underperformed and had a negative WAR. - ($1.2M/yr, already gone)
- Sam Haggerty - There was a time where Swaggerty was a potential future utility player for the Ms but he's been very inconsistent and often injured. Unfortunately he never lived up to his hype and is more of a AAA caliber player. - ($900k/yr, already gone)
- Luis Urias - he was so bad that he was already release by the Mariners before free agency decision even began.
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:
- 1B: The Mariners don't have a starting 1B entering next season, but there are some huge names available in free agency such as Christian Walker, Pete Alonso, Paul Goldschmidt, Anthony Rizzo, and Connor Joe. There's rumors they're targeting Carlos Santana who would basically be the same type of player Turner was at 40 years old. Hopefully they get someone younger like Alonso, Walker, or Joe.
- 2B/SS: The Mariners don't really have an all-star middle infielder. J.P. is often injured and has regressed as a player. He's never lived up to the hype of the future star SS that was promised. At 2B the Mariners have nobody right now. The Mariners need to serious look at signing a major middle infielder or trading one of their many SP's for one. They can roll with J.P. at 2B or SS and pickup someone else who's willing to play the other spot.
- Some FA available are Gleyber Torres, Kyle Farmer, Nicky Lopez, Whit Merrifield, Willy Adames, Ha-Seong Kim, Jose Iglesias, and Paul Dejong. I'd like to see them make a push for Ha-Seong if they can and move him or J.P to 2B.
- 3B: The Mariners are also short a starting 3B with Urias and Rojas being gone. Bregman is best available in free agency but nobody wants him on the team. I'd like to see a trade here as Rojas is actually the second best FA available and they let him go. Perhaps the Alec Bohm trade rumors are true but every team is interested in him.
- RP: The Mariners had a top 5 bullpen in 2022 and then dropped to middle of the pack in 2023 & 2024 after losing arms. The M's are now lacking good consistent arms outside of Munoz. Getting Brash back could help but he missed an entire season after a bad injury so it's difficult to know if he'll be back to his old self. They're going to need to replace Chargois and Garcia. They also have some guys who are mediocre who could be replaced easily. There are 27 RPs available in FA with a WAR of 1 or higher.
- DH: 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 Mitch Garver or Justin Turner. They need someone who can hit consistently, or someone younger with upside. There's many free agents available at DH and other positions that could rotate with DH. If they go with Garver again then it'll be disappointing. Maybe they can package Garver in a deal to another team start or mid-season.
- OF: The Mariners have great depth in the OF currently but they also have some guys who are injury prone. I wouldn't be surprised if they added depth to platoon with Haniger, Arozarena, Robles, and Jrod. They could also swap these guys to DH occasionally to get them some rest.
In a nutshell, the M's need a new infield and some relief pitchers so they can try and make a run at the division this season. The Astros have been slowly regressing as time is catching up with their aging and expensive players. 2025 may be the last chance for the Ms to win the division before they have serious contracts to consider with their pitchers and catcher.