Has the AL West changed on the Mariners this offseason?

The Seattle Mariners have had a quiet offseason thus far, but the same can’t be said for their competition in the AL West.

That doesn’t necessarily mean Seattle’s division rivals have all gotten better, though.

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That’s certainly not the prevailing feeling when it comes to the Houston Astros, who have won seven of the last eight AL West titles including the last four straight. The Astros traded three-time All-Star right fielder Kyle Tucker to the Chicago Cubs last week for slugging third baseman Isaac Paredes, pitcher Hayden Wesneski and high-ranking infield prospect Cam Smith. While the pull-heavy Paredes could have a lot of success with Houston’s notorious Crawford Boxes in left field, his addition signals that it’s unlikely that the Astros will reunite with free agent third baseman Alex Bregman, and the departures of both Bregman and Tucker have to be seen as positives for Houston’s rival in the Pacific Northwest.

Yahoo Sports senior MLB analyst Jordan Shusterman, who is one-half of the popular Cespedes Family BBQ team and co-host of the Baseball Bar-B-Cast podcast, joined Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy on Tuesday and spoke about how the rest of the AL West looks around the Mariners. And when it comes to the Astros, he’s one who sees the Tucker trade as only a good thing for the M’s – at least for now.

“I think Houston’s decision to trade Kyle Tucker could prove smart in the long run, but let’s be real – you don’t have to face Kyle Tucker anymore when you face the Astros. That’s a win,” Shusterman said. “That’s a massive success for the Seattle Mariners, no matter how good Cam Smith is in 2027, because the Mariners are trying to win right now and the Astros are their main competition and they just traded away their best overall player. That is something that should be taken into consideration.”

The Astros aren’t the only team that’s been busy in the division, though. In fact, the Mariners, who finished second in the division this year with an 85-77 record, could be feeling new pressure in the standings from both the Athletics and Los Angeles Angels. Both of those teams lost over 90 games in 2024, but they have also made notable additions in recent months. The A’s have been shoring up their pitching staff by signing Luis Severino and trading for Jeffrey Springs, while the Angels have added a number of veterans, most notably former Mariners left-hander Yusei Kikuchi.

Shusterman is buying into one of those teams more than the other.

“The A’s are obviously trying to improve. You saw that they had a very legitimate lineup and played very reasonably well over that second half last year and now are trying to add pitching,” he said.

As for the Angels?

“Realistically, the Angels, every year they say, ‘Alright, this is the time we’re going to win.’ They don’t really deserve the benefit of the doubt. I understand they continue to try and add talent to raise their floor – and in theory their ceiling. But they’re coming off 99 losses so they’re not a team I’m going to factor in very seriously.”

There’s one more team we’ve yet to mention: the Texas Rangers, who are just a year removed from winning the World Series but scuffled to a 78-84 record in 2024. Texas has done more than the Mariners this offseason, including a trade for third baseman Jake Burger, but it still has one glaring problem.

“Texas is the team I’m still skeptical of just because their pitching – they had so much to replace,” Shusterman said. “I know they brought back (Nathan) Eovaldi, but that bullpen, I mean, talk about dire straits. Like, they still have so much to do on the mound that makes it hard to take them especially seriously.”

Taking that all into account, what’s the overall assessment of Seattle’s AL West rivals? Well, even though it seems like the Astros are becoming less and less like the team that won two World Series in a six-year span, they still look the Mariners’ biggest competition – especially if they keep busy with transactions.

“You look at Houston trading away their best player, I think they’re still going to add,” Shusterman said. “The winter’s not done yet, and I think by the time we get to spring training, you’re still going to be in a situation where you look at the Astros’ roster and you say, ‘OK, they still look like the favorite’ – or Texas is if they do decide to spend a little bit more. And the fact that the A’s are no longer going to be a pushover, that’s a serious thing to consider as well, because that was obviously the case for the last few years and you can’t say that anymore.”

Hear the full Bump and Stacy conversation with Yahoo Sports’ Jordan Shusterman in the podcast at this link or the video player near the top of this post. Catch Bump and Stacy live from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays on Seattle Sports.

More Seattle Mariners offseason coverage

• Mariners’ trade deadline pickup returns to former team
• Drayer: Mariners’ needs haven’t changed, but path to fill them is murky
• The Mariners have a new minor league affiliate team
• Morosi dives into idea of Mariners trading Castillo for Boston’s Casas
• Who Seattle Mariners could take with No. 3 overall pick in MLB Draft

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