How ESPN’s Passan says scuffling Mariners can ‘change it up’

When ESPN MLB insider Jeff Passan joins Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk for his weekly conversation about the Seattle Mariners, the segment comes after an intro that includes an audio drop from one of the previous editions.

“I see this being the beginning of the best run in the history of this franchise,” Passan says in that intro.

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And even as the Mariners have largely disappointed to this point in the 2026 season – they go into a three-game road series against the defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday night with a 52-55 record, having lost five of their last six games to slip to third place in the AL West and two games out of a playoff spot – Passan said Tuesday he continues to sing that tune.

“Every every week I come on here and and we have that dramatic drop at the end: ‘I think this is going to be the best run in the history of the Seattle Mariners franchise.’ I still do believe that,” Passan said. “And I believe it because teams are calling the Mariners and they want to talk about (trades for Seattle’s No. 1 pitching prospect) Kade Anderson, and they want to talk about (No. 2 pitching prospect) Ryan Sloan, and they want to talk about (top outfield prospect) Laz Montes, and this group (of prospects) that’s going to be coming. All of them aren’t going to be good, that’s an unreasonable expectation, but there are going to be some stars that join this team over the next two years – like multiple.”

That’s the future, though. And while it’s an important thing to remember as the current major league team is mired in a season where it has underachieved to this point, the task at hand is still to get the M’s turned around and back in the postseason this fall. To Passan, the continued struggles of the M’s signal that change is needed – even after the team let assistant hitting coach Bobby Magallanes go last week.

It appears the Mariners aren’t considering a bigger change in the dugout. Ahead of the team going to Los Angeles, Mariners reporter Daniel Kramer of MLB.com acknowledged in an article Saturday the parallels of the situation to when previous manager Scott Servais was let go late in the 2024 season after being swept at Dodger Stadium, but wrote “sweeping changes of that caliber are not coming,” according to M’s president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto.

So how could that change that Passan says is needed come about? At a time where contending teams look to add with the MLB trade deadline, Passan wonders if subtraction on the roster could have more effectiveness.

“They just look absolutely terrible right now. And I think the most frustrating part is that – I always say this, I’ve said this on the show a million times: talent wins, talent wins, talent wins,” Passan said. “Get as much talent as you can and you’re going to be just fine. We are approaching the two-thirds mark of this season, guys – it’s going to happen tonight. The 108th game will be played and the Seattle Mariners are going to be under .500 with essentially a neutral run differential.

“How they wound up here to me speaks to something a little bit deeper, and sometimes you reach a point with a group of players where, like, you gotta change it up. You gotta change up the mix in there, and I almost wonder if it’s a matter of changing up the mix because I’m not sure that they’re going to change up the thing that they really should, which is the manager.”

The Randy Arozarena trade route

With Passan clear that he has “not gotten any sense that it is a realistic possibility” that the Mariners are considering a change with manager Dan Wilson, an alternative means of turning the tide could be a surprising trade. Host Mike Salk posed an interesting possibility to Passan as a potential fix: trading All-Star left fielder and pending free agent Randy Arozarena, much like the Boston Red Sox did in sending All-Star shortstop Nomar Garciaparra to the Chicago Cubs at the trade deadline in 2004.

The Red Sox added defensive improvements in shortstop Orlando Cabrera and first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz in the four-team blockbuster, and the team responded to the shocking move by going 42-18 over the rest of the regular season and winning the World Series for the first time in 86 years.

“So that kind of takes us down a couple of roads. One is the trade deadline,” Salk said. “Maybe (the Mariners) are not the straight buyers that we thought or hoped they would be. We’ve talked about the idea of Randy Arozarena or someone along those lines sort of playing a role, not unlike Nomar Garciaparra in 2004, where (it’s) like, hey, this mix isn’t right. Even though this guy’s one of our better players, it’s time to move on. I don’t know if that’s Randy, but is that the type of thing you’re talking about?”

Responded Passan: “That is the type of thing I’m talking about. And I don’t think that the Mariners would be crazy by any means to explore moving Randy Arozarena.”

While Arozarena is something the Mariners don’t have enough of, which is an above-average right-handed hitter, Seattle could capitalize on his strong season in order to add some new blood, perhaps in a player who could be a longer-term fit for the M’s.

“The Mariners have already two of the best right-handed hitting outfielders in baseball. You could argue that Julio Rodríguez and Randy Arozarena are two of the top five, frankly,” Passan said. “So the desire to go and get that third right-handed hitting outfielder, maybe you can do that and trade Randy, and then give Luke Raley and Dom Canzone full-time at-bats even against left-handers.

“I know that’s a perilous thing and part of the reason for Canzone and Raley’s success this year is because of the way that the Mariners have deployed them (in platoons against right-handed pitchers). They’ve done a good job of that, generally speaking. But… this is the hard part. When you see an offense that has struggled as much as the Mariners have, I think 37 runs in 10 games since the break, whereas the Washington Nationals – who admittedly have the best offense in baseball this season but just for context and perspective – have scored 70 in their 10 games.”

The idea of dealing Arozarena would be a tough pill to swallow, just like Boston’s trade of Garciaparra initially was. But at the very least it would guarantee a return for the Mariners when they’re not expecting to bring Arozarena back in free agency.

“How do you trade the guy who’s been your best offensive player this year? That’s a hard thing to do. And logically, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but he’s not coming back,” Passan said. “I would be willing to bet that Randy Arozarena will not be a Mariner next year. And so maybe you can get some value out of this and maybe that’s the thing that changes what you need.”

Hear the full Brock and Salk conversation with ESPN MLB insider Jeff Passan in the podcast at this link or in the player below. Catch Brock and Salk from 6-10 a.m. weekdays on Seattle Sports.

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