After letting Teoscar Hernández enter free company with out a lot as a qualifying supply and subsequently buying and selling each Eugenio Suárez and Jarred Kelenic, the Mariners have misplaced three hitters who supplied above-average offensive manufacturing in common taking part in time final season. Suárez and Hernández completed second and third on the crew in RBI (trailing solely famous person Julio Rodríguez), whereas Kelenic led the crew in slugging proportion and remoted energy till he fractured his foot in mid-July.
The crew’s finest choices at third base and the nook outfield positions now embrace Luis Urías, Cade Marlowe, Dominic Canzone, and Taylor Trammell, three unproven 26-year-old outfielders and a former high prospect who struggled tremendously in 2023. These 4 mixed to hit simply .204 final season with a .666 OPS and 87 wRC+ in 515 PA. Veteran utility gamers Sam Haggerty and Dylan Moore can even cowl the outfield and infield corners, however neither is way more than the quick facet of a platoon given their profession numbers towards right-handed pitching.
With all that stated, it’s no shock Seattle is trying so as to add a number of place gamers this offseason, in keeping with supervisor Scott Servais (per Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times). In spite of everything, the Mariners are ostensibly competing with the Astros and Rangers for the AL West crown, but when they’re going to win in 2024, they’ll want an offense to assist their deep and proficient pitching workers.
The Mariners are not thought to be in the running for Shohei Ohtani, however they could possibly be match for nearly each different impression bat on the free agent market. They’ve additionally been linked to varied commerce candidates, together with, most recently, Randy Arozarena and Isaac Paredes of the Rays.
It stays unclear how a lot cash president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto has to work with this winter, though he has managed to clear a big quantity of wage and he expects the payroll to extend in 2024 (per Adam Jude of the Seattle Times). It’s additionally laborious to guess what commerce chips the Mariners will probably be keen to half with. Getting into the offseason, it appeared virtually inevitable that they’d commerce one in every of their younger beginning pitchers to enhance the offense. Nevertheless, after sending Marco Gonzales to Atlanta as a part of the Kelenic commerce, Seattle has much less of a logjam within the rotation, and Dipoto says the possibilities of the crew buying and selling one other pitcher are “much less possible” than they had been earlier than (per Jude).
That stated, if the Mariners are critical about buying and selling for Arozarena, Paredes, or one other middle-of-the-order bat, they’ll have to make a reasonably candy supply, and fortunately they nonetheless have an abundance of arms to deal from. Luis Castillo, George Kirby, Logan Gilbert, Bryan Woo, and Bryce Miller would make a robust beginning 5 to open the season, however finally Robbie Ray will return from Tommy John rehab and Emerson Hancock will pressure his approach again to the majors. An excessive amount of pitching depth is rarely a foul factor, but the Mariners may be smart to commerce from an space of energy to bolster their depleted lineup.
