Mariners Show Just Enough to Believe (A Little): Cheap Offseason, Decent Results

The Mariners start to the year record wise looked mediocre, however there is a shared optimism currently with the fanbase. The offseason certainly was not an optimistic time for Mariners fans. With their highlights being 37-year-old Donovan Solano and bringing back Jorge Polanco who hit just .213 in 2024 while hitting much below league average with a .651 OPS. To put it bluntly, Mariners Ownership was cheap. Adam Jude of the Seattle Times reported the Mariners had a whopping low 16 million dollars to spend in the offseason.

With the pitching staff being considered by most the best in the American league, the main holes were at third base, second base, and the DH spot having no reliable production.

With bringing back Polanco, the Mariners announced he would be changing positions from second base to third. This was shocking since the Mariners still needed to fill second base, and Polanco, on the wrong side of 30, has not had much MLB experience at the new position. This meant the M’s were going to give under the radar prospect Ryan Bliss some run at second.

The start to the season has been mixed results from the team. As we lie now the M’s are 11-10 after starting off a little slower than usual. The underlying offensive numbers, however, have been quite pleasant. They are hitting the ball out of the park more, currently 7th in the MLB in Home Runs. They also are striking out less, something the club has really struggled with over the years. Usually, the more you swing and miss, the harder you hit the ball, resulting in more Home Runs. The team is also top 5 in walks, with JP Crawford who led the AL in 2023 and Randy Arozarena leading the way.

Randy Arozarena

However, the team is still bottom five in batting average. Walking is great, but it's hard to drive in runs when the runner is on first. The new first base coach Eric Young Jr. has a new philosophy to let the kids run. Seattle is 1st in the league in stolen bases, which gives the team more opportunities to score.

It’s strange we have made it this far without saying the name Julio Rodriguez. He is a known cold starter at this point and lots of the baseball media including Talkin Baseball, Foul Territory and more emphasize that if the Mariners want to start to hit more, that Julio needs to be at the forefront. But that hasn’t really been the case, Julio has hit .185 with a .663 OPS. Not great by any means, but believe it or not, it has been slightly better than years past.

The reason the narrative hasn’t been surrounding him is because newly extended Cal Raleigh has been dominating headlines, and rightfully so. The “Big Dumper” already has 8 home runs, second in all of baseball and is doing so in big moments. Him and Randy Arozarena have seemed to have stepped up to be the big moment guys this year, something the team has lacked for a while.

Cal Raleigh hits a home run

Other offensive highlights have been Dylan Moore and Jorge Polanco. Polanco being the main surprise here. He has been a spark, hitting the ball hard and looking like his re-mariner self. The only issue being that he is battling through a hip injury and is limited to only hitting left-handed as a DH. Moore, a role player for the Mariners since 2019, has not been in an everyday role before. This is because Seattle has been bitten by the injury bug early. Bliss, who looked promising in his start with the team, tore his bicep in a swing and had to get surgery. Victor Robles, who was an offensive juggernaut for the team in 2024, dislocated his shoulder early on as well and is out 12 weeks. This leads to guys like Moore and Miles Mastruboni getting everyday at bats. While this certainly isn’t ideal, to their credit they have put up some solid numbers so far in their respective seasons.

New manager Dan Wilson has also had some online criticism in his bullpen management. Relievers like Eduard Bazardo and Carlos Vargas have been thrown into high leverage roles many times, and let up big runs. It seems like if a reliever has just 2 or 3 good outings, they get to set up the 8th inning in a 1 run game. It is troubling wondering why players like Colin Snyder, who pitched very well last year, and Gabe Spier aren’t used more in those high leverage scenarios. On the other hand, All-Star closer Andres Munoz has been nails, his newly acquired “kick-change” seems to be throwing hitters off balance and keeping them on their toes.

The starting pitching seems to be keeping the club above water. Logan Gilbert has looked great in his first couple starts with Bryan Woo also looking good. Woo’s fastball in particular has been excellent, his 2 seamer has tons of movement while allowing not many walks. Bryce Miller and Luis Castillo have struggled a bit, but expectations are that he will rebound soon since most of the guys have only made 2-3 starts. The real boost the M’s need is George Kirby, who has not pitched this year due to shoulder inflammation. Kirby is near an Ace and walks batters less than anyone. The pitchers they have started like Hancock and (the other) Castillo have just not been as productive and require the offense to be on their A-Game.

Bryan Woo during an elite pitching performance

All in all, Seattle fans should be fairly pleased with the product they have seen on the field. But it is not seen as super sustainable, having role players start daily and have guys like Rowdy Tellez and Mitch Garver getting frequent at bats, considering their respective OPS+’s of 53 and 48 being lower than the speed I drove on the highway today. The M’s are 7-3 in their last 10 which has the fanbase optimistic, but time will tell to see if this is the year the Mariners can get back to the Postseason.

I want to give a huge thank you to my good friend Soren for being the author of this post. He has tremendous insight into the Mariners and the sport of baseball that I do not, and was kind enough to share his talent for this analysis. I really appreciate the support!

Thank you all for reading, please share your feedback with us in the comments of this post. Stay tuned for new posts as the Seahawks head into the NFL draft and the Sounders prepare for the Club World Cup!