4 Takes: Big Seattle Mariners questions about offseason and 2025

The hot stove is starting to fire up for the Seattle Mariners’ offseason, allowing us to move on from 2024 and set our sights on the 2025 campaign.

Justin Turner proved Seattle Mariners need his veteran presence back

We put together a list of three questions, and four of us here at Seattle Sports shared our takes: SeattleSports.com writers Brent Stecker, Zac Hereth and Cameron Van Til, as well as Brock and Salk’s Lyle Goldstein, who you may also know as one half of the Marine Layer Podcast.

Answering 3 big Seattle Mariners questions

• 1. What’s the Mariners’ biggest offseason need, and who is a fit to help fix it?

Lyle Goldstein: It is indisputable that the greatest area of need for the Mariners is impactful bats on the infield. Which position, or positions, is what can be debated. And to me, that position is third base. While not ideal, the Mariners can piece together the right side of the infield if they choose. Luke Raley can man first base, and a variety of guys have the ability to play second base (Dylan Moore, Ryan Bliss, Leo Rivas, Josh Rojas if he slides back to second base, and eventually Cole Young at some point in 2025). At third base, there are not many internal options outside of Rojas, who posted just a .555 OPS from May 15 until the end of the season. The road block here is there are not a wide variety of intriguing external options at third base either. A position that was as deep and star-studded as almost any in baseball for at least a half-decade has now done a 180. There is of course Alex Bregman, but due to the financial commitment that will come with signing him, paired with who his agent is (Scott Boras) and how Mariners fans have made him feel less than at home over the last four years with thunderous boos, the former Astros All-Star very well may not have Seattle on his radar. Once you get past Bregman, the best remaining option, and likeliest for Seattle, is to trade for Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm. An All-Star in 2024, Bohm hit .280 with a .779 OPS, a 115 WRC+ and strikes out a measly 14% of the time. With the Phillies seemingly putting him on the trade block and two years of club control remaining, the Mariners should absolutely look to Bohm as a headline priority to fill that void.

Cameron Van Til: The Mariners’ two biggest immediate needs are second base and third base, with the club finishing 21st or worse in OPS at both positions this past season. In an ideal world, they could sign a premier slugging third baseman and slide Josh Rojas over to second. However, the third base market is incredibly thin this year behind former Astros star Alex Bregman, who likely wouldn’t want to sign with Seattle and play in a city where he’s long been a villain. That brings us to second base, where 27-year-old Gleyber Torres is an ideal option. The two-time All-Star posted a 112 OPS+ in his seven seasons with the Yankees, including four seasons with 24-plus homers. Even in a down 2024 campaign, he still hit .257 with a .709 OPS. Contract projections vary widely for Torres, but he’d be cheaper than some other popular free-agent targets for the Mariners, such as coveted first basemen Pete Alonso and Christian Walker.

Zac Hereth: The infield. Seattle needs to upgrade at first base, second base and third base. A trade may end up being the best route here, but I think the Mariners should be all-in on getting second baseman Hye-Seong Kim from the Korean Baseball Organization. Kim will be 26 next season and should be relatively inexpensive. He has a career .304 average in eight KBO seasons and is coming off a year where he posted a .326/.383/.458 slash line with career bests of 11 home runs and a 10.9% strikeout rate. He gives the Mariners a high-contact, left-handed bat at a position of need and can provide some insurance at shortstop. Kim has also played some left field in his career, which could be helpful if top prospect Cole Young shows he’s ready to crack the big league roster at some point in 2025, or if Victor Robles regresses to back towards his production from before coming to Seattle.

Brent Stecker: A bat. I don’t even care what position they play at this point. Perhaps the best possible outcome for the Mariners this offseason would be signing switch-hitting slugger Anthony Santander, who is coming off a 44-homer season with the Baltimore Orioles. Does he play a position of need for the Mariners? Sure doesn’t! Does it matter? Not really! Slot him in as your usual designated hitter, give him some time in right field to get the other outfielders time off their feet, maybe throw him at first base a few times a month (he has 13 career MLB appearances at the position). He might be redundant position-wise with Luke Raley, but, like, whatever man. Just get more good bats.

• 2. Should the M’s trade one of their starting pitchers for a big-time bat?

Goldstein: Not unless they sign Roki Sasaki. Which now is more plausible after it was announced this weekend that he will be posted by his NPB club in Japan, the Chiba Lotte Marines, and free to sign with all 30 big league teams. That being said, Sasaki will in all likelihood join countrymates Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Los Angeles to help form the Dodgers into even more of a juggernaut. Otherwise, the Mariners can’t afford to trade from their rotation. Those five starters are the backbone of their team and why they have been so competitive over the last two seasons. Make no mistake, the Mariners have more exciting minor league arms on the way that are not far off from big league ready (such as Logan Evans, Brandyn Garcia and Michael Morales). But relying on an unproven arm to step right in and fill a rotation spot with no prior big league experience is unwise for a team in a contention window that will not be open forever. If they want bats, they need to hand out the checks to sign one, not execute an addition-by-subtraction acquisition by dealing a starter.

Van Til: It’s a fascinating debate, but I firmly believe the Mariners should keep their starting rotation intact. Starting pitching is the most valuable commodity in baseball, and likely no other franchise has a better collection of young rotation talent than Seattle. The Mariners led the majors by sizable margins in both starting pitcher ERA and WHIP in 2024, and they did so with a rotation consisting of four pitchers age 27 or younger. It’s incredibly hard to assemble something like that, so when you strike gold, you hold onto it. Furthermore, pitching health is extremely volatile. The Mariners’ top five starters combined for 149 starts in 2024, but it’s far from a guarantee they can duplicate that next season and beyond. The best way to hedge against that is to have as much starting pitching as possible. So as tempting as it may be to deal from their rotation, I think that’d be a mistake.

Hereth: No, but they should be open to it. What the Mariners have in their pitching staff is something special, and when you have a group like that in any sport, the last thing you want to do is break it up. And as Cam mentioned, health is no guarantee. But if somebody wants to overpay for one of those starters with multiple offensive upgrades, the Mariners should do it. They probably have a better shot of luring a quality pitcher to Seattle than a bat in free agency (perhaps Shoreline native Blake Snell, a two-time Cy Young winner who has made it pretty clear he has interest in playing in his hometown). Plus, the organization’s track record shows it can get more out of pitchers than they’ve previously shown. It’s not crazy to think Seattle could take a flier on a veteran pitcher and strike gold.

Stecker: Yes. Just go for it. The cache of young, All-Star-caliber pitchers is the Mariners’ best asset, and trading one presents their best chance at bringing in the kind of bat the offense has needed for several years now. Yeah, it would hurt to trade George Kirby, Bryce Miller or Bryan Woo – for the record, do not touch Logan Gilbert – but I think the Mariners need to take a chance. Emerson Hancock may not be near the same level of those other pitchers, but would it be the worst thing in the world if he was Seattle’s No. 5 starter? I don’t think so. There’s also prospect Logan Evans banging on the door of the big leagues. And most importantly, we learned when the Mariners signed Robbie Ray coming off of a Cy Young Award that it’s a lot easier for them to convince star pitchers than star hitters in free agency to call T-Mobile Park home. So I say take the leap, get the best possible deal you can for one of those pitchers – again, not Gilbert – and figure out the rest from there.

• 3. Which Seattle Mariners prospect has the best chance of playing a key role in 2025?

Goldstein: This is Cole Young’s category to lose. Not only is there a clear need on the infield, and at second base specifically, but he is closer to MLB-ready than any Mariners hitting prospect. After a tough April, which is perfectly normal for a 20 year old playing his first month in Double-A, Young went on to finish the year very strong. While he did hit the struggle bus again for a bit in July, Young put up an .899 OPS in May, a .726 OPS in June, an .838 OPS in August and a .950 OPS in September. Daniel Kramer of MLB.com also reported this past week that Young is likely to begin the 2025 season in Triple-A Tacoma, putting him one step closer to the T-Mobile Park infield dirt. Some arms have a chance to make their presence felt in 2025 (Logan Evans, Brandyn Garcia, Michael Morales), but the challenge for them will be finding innings within the best rotation in baseball. With Young, he is right on the doorstep, plays a position of need, and the club has built their roster over the last couple of seasons with the mindset that he will be the long-term solution at second base. Next year should be a significant stepping stone on that path for the former first-round pick.

Van Til: Right-handed pitcher Logan Evans. Due to injuries, teams typically need six or seven starting pitchers to make it through a season. There’s also the possibility that Seattle pulls the trigger and trades one of its five starters. In either case, Evans might be poised to leapfrog No. 6 starter Emerson Hancock for next-in-line status. The 6-foot-4 Evans burst onto the scene with a standout first full pro season in 2024, showcasing an electric arsenal while posting a 3.20 ERA over 107 innings at Double-A Arkansas in the hitter-friendly Texas League. The Mariners even briefly experimented with transitioning Evans to the bullpen to provide reliever help at the major league level, but the 23-year-old ultimately returned to his starting role. Still, it was a vote of confidence that seems to indicate Evans could be nearing the majors.

Hereth: Tyler Locklear. It’s hard to see any of the Mariners’ top prospects making much of an impact at least early on next season. However, Locklear is further along in the organization than any of the team’s other top prospects and is probably the first person up if Seattle needs help at first base or designated hitter. He showed he needed more seasoning during 16 games in the big leagues in 2024, but his power potential could have a needed impact if he shows improvement making contact. The caveat here is that if the Mariners invest anything significant in an everyday first baseman, Locklear’s lack of positional versatility could get in the way of playing time in the majors.

Stecker: No one’s going to see this answer coming. Troy Taylor. Yes, the reliever who made his MLB debut with the Mariners in August, appearing in 21 games with a 3.72 ERA, 1.138 WHIP and 25 strikeouts to seven walks over 19 1/3 innings. Now, Taylor may not be considered a prospect anymore next year, but let’s not split hairs. The Mariners can always use a new leverage arm, and Taylor’s first foray in the big leagues was impressive and showed there’s real promise in him coming out of the bullpen. Taylor may not be as exciting of a name as others, but if there’s anybody who could be a breakout rookie in 2025 for Seattle, I think it’s him.

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