Stacy: As Mariners honor their greats, can current stars get going?

The Seattle Mariners will unveil the 50 greatest players in franchise history Saturday. While the entirety of the list is still under wraps, among them will presumably be some of baseball’s all-time greats — Ken Griffey Jr. and Ichiro — as well as local fan favorites like Kyle Seager and Mike Cameron.

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Interestingly, the list will include current players. And the fact you could quickly name a handful who would deserve to be on it speaks to just how confounding this season has been.

Cal Raleigh is arguably the best Mariners catcher ever, having already surpassed Dan Wilson in career WAR. Julio Rodríguez is one of the team’s best center fielders (going to be tough to surpass Griffey there, but that’s true for any player anywhere). Logan Gilbert has already reached 1,000 career strikeouts and is already fifth all-time in career strikeouts in franchise history. They’re not even the only three who could be on it — we already surmised Luis Castillo will be on it (though not present, as he’s been traded to the Chicago White Sox) and there’s a case to make for Andrés Muñoz, Randy Arozarena and George Kirby.

Think about that. That’s seven players for whom you could make a case, and they’re all here at the same time in the primes of their careers; just two of them, Castillo and Arozarena, are older than 30.

And yet here in early August, the Mariners are five games under .500 and in third place in the worst division in baseball.

What happened? And can these great players — the ones who will likely be honored on Saturday — help the team through a tough series against the Tampa Bay Rays at the same time? Or lift them through an incredibly hard August schedule?

The only thing certain is that the Mariners are going to squander the opportunity unless two of them in particular, Rodríguez and Raleigh, find a way to dig themselves out. One of those two — Raleigh — has been dealing with an oblique strain and timing issues all season, and his average against fastballs in particular has plummeted from a record-setting 2025.

A difficult reality for the team and its fans to swallow is that there may be no fix for Raleigh this season, but that doesn’t mean there’s no help for the Mariners.

One answer? A hot stretch from Rodríguez. Impossible to guarantee, but possible nonetheless. Rodríguez has three homers in his last 15 games, a far cry from the slugging this team depended on last season but still better than an abysmal June. He’ll need more extra-base hits and stolen bases, though; he’s got two stolen bases since July 1, and his last double was July 22. But he’s as healthy as you can be in August and has been more consistent than Raleigh. Also quietly improving is Josh Naylor, who’s still woefully without slugging but is hitting .268 with just 15 strikeouts over his last month.

Another possible area for reinforcement? Top pitching prospect Kade Anderson seems ready to debut, and Yahoo Sports’ Jordan Shusterman thinks the M’s can kill two birds with one stone by calling up Anderson and sending Emerson Hancock, one of their better starters, to the bullpen. Return to the piggyback, anyone?

“I have to imagine, especially with Luis Castillo out the door now, it feels like the organization is really banking on having Hancock move to the bullpen and having Anderson be that fifth starter,” Shusterman said during an interview on Bump and Stacy on Wednesday.

Here’s a bit more from Shusterman on that potential move.

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