Why it’s SO HARD for the Seattle Mariners to just run it back!

Are the Mariners built to make it back? I love that. You’re angry. You’re upset. You’re hurting. You’ve never been to the World Series. You were so close. I mean, oh my god, you were nine outs away. Are the Mariners built to make it back? Well, you recall what the Mariners did at the deadline to improve their offense. I assume you recall that they got Josh Neller and Yueneo Suarez from the Diamondbacks. I hope you recall that. You do, don’t you? Well, guess what? They were pending free agents. They were definitionally rentals. Running it back. The concept. There are a few people that thought that I was mean to Mina Kimes. I was not at all when she wants her Mariners to run it back and I simply said no GM ever says that because no GM does that. There is no I meant a full 26 for 26 run back. There is. It doesn’t happen. The starting nine from game seven will not be the starting nine game one of 162. I promise you that. Totally normal. Totally fine. It doesn’t mean the Mariners can’t compete. But there is no way the Mariners can sign both Naylor and Suarez. The question that you should be asking is, have we seen the best of Cal Raleigh? And the answer is yes. And I’m sorry to all people in Seattle, but if you think that Cal Raleigh is going to hit 60 next year, it’s just not going to happen. It’s so rare. He’s not built like Judge. He’s not talented like Judge. doesn’t mean he’s not the MVP, which Judge should be the MVP, but what it means is the catching position, unless they start moving him into DH a little more, which they won’t, whether they move into first base, which they could, a little bit of first base, the mental toll that catching does on you. And Cal Raleigh is a well above average defensive catcher. Well above average. As a matter of fact, I believe his first passed ball did not happen until the postseason all year. and the guy plays like every game. But to expect him to do what he did this year is absolutely unreasonable. The second thing that is unreasonable is about the pitching. You remember the Mariners were the team I don’t know was it 3, four years ago where all five guys just kept starting every game. They were unbelievable. Well, the starters this year, and you watched him in the playoffs, you watched Gilbert, you watched Luis Castillo, you watched Kirby, you watched Woo give it up, but he was their best starter until he got hurt all year. You watched Miller with Oi, the spin and the speed. It’s a great starting five. I could argue persuasively that it was the best rotation in all of baseball. I would take those five over even over the Dodgers rotation frankly. Certainly over every other team that I can think of. Although when Suarez and Sanchez and Wheeler were dealing and Nola was decent, the Phillies were something else. But no, no, I would take those five. What do you do to return everybody? Keep them possibly healthy. It’s going to be more difficult than you think. Why? Because when you have pitchers who are approaching free agency, when you have pitchers who have one to two years of arbitration left, you can decide to take them all up to free agency the way the Tigers are thinking about what to do with Scubal who has one year left of arbitration. But when you’re putting your team together and thinking about the future, you can’t take an entire group of pitchers that way. You have to be judicious in what you’re going to do. You have to be smart with who you’re going to extend because the likelihood of that rotation being that intact and having that ability, it’s simply going to be difficult. The concept of the Mariners coming back and saying, “Hey, we’re pushing our chips in, the usual, we’re all in, all of that, Poppyccock.” The problem is when you go all in and it doesn’t work, you end up looking a lot like the teams who were in the 2023 World Series. It’s not to say that Texas and Arizona haven’t had interesting runs since that World Series with Texas having won. It’s cool to see the Diamondbacks try and try and try, but then with injuries be forced into sell mode, which they were, and then still they were competitive for a wild card until the final weekend of the season. The problem with teams that go allin is you’re going to pay the price and you have to decide is the juice worth the squeeze. You watch it with football teams. You watch it with what they do with their cap. You watch football teams go allin and if they win the Super Bowl, you’re fine with mediocrity for a couple years after. If they don’t win, you’re despondent beyond repair that your team cannot sniff the success that it had in a particular year. And that success did not lead to a world championship. That is the whole problem. Only one of 30 teams gets the ring. And if there’s more than one team that is doing the allin, that means that more than one team is going to get screwed and more than one fan base is going to get hurt. Do I worry that hurt is coming to Seattle? Is this the beginning of a fantastic window of competitiveness because of the makeup of their team? We’re going to wait to see. But wait to see is when we tell you something’s going to happen. If it does, fine. If it doesn’t, fine. We have an official wait to see today. The Seattle Mariners will not make the LCS next year. And Cal Raleigh will not hit 60 home runs next year.

#baseball #seattle #MLB

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43 comments

  1. All reasonable points, and I don't think most fans are expecting all of a) Cal doing exactly what he did this year, b) signing BOTH Naylor and Geno, and c) keeping the rotation exactly as is. But everything can regress and we still have 1) a well-stocked farm system and 2) an AL West that feels up for grabs next year. The M's should have been positioned for back-to-back postseasons on 2023, but so much went wrong and the Astros were still the Astros. I actually think that "running it back" minus one of Geno or Josh and minus one of the rotation can get it done in 2026. Also… who knows when there'll be baseball after 2026. I say go for it.

  3. There you have it guys. The weight of baseball rests in this guys opinion. No reason to even play next year. Just tell us who gets the trophy.

  7. Naylor is light years better overall hitter than Suarez. Geno has serious holes in his bat and an easy K victim. Plus his defence sucks. Don’t get fooled by that 8th inning when Jays manager completely screwed up bring in a guy who hasn’t been throwing strikes for the last 4 months walking everyone in a high leverage situation. By the time Erozarena got hit, Dominguez who’s commmad comes and goes himself had no choice put to throw a meatball with bases already juiced.

    Geno is NOT a good hitter unless he is crushing mistake middle middle meatballs. In playoffs pitching against good teams, you don’t always get that.

  12. Let’s see if ownership & Baseball Ops (Jerry DiPoto) opens up & spends on resigning guys like Josh Naylor & Jorge Polanco. Geno Suarez, while a great clubhouse fit & had some moments that succeeded the team, overall his numbers in Seattle weren’t good. They’ll also get rid of some guys like Luis Castillo & have some salaries off the books now (Garver, Haniger). They do have a very good minor league system that is tops in MLB. Look at the Blue Jays. In 2020 – 2023, 3 out of 4 years they were in the Wild Card but lost. Took a step back in 2024. Then this season, best team in AL & in the WS. If the Mariners can keep this contending window for the next 5 years (with a few hiccups), they could actually get further at some point & win the AL pennant.

  14. JP in his last year. Perfect for the Colt Emerson call up. Colt has nothing to prove in the minors. Say goodbye to Geno be because that is Williamson's spot. Play the kids.

  16. It was a surprise to everyone that the M's even made the deals for Naylor and Geno at all, given that the owners and the front office had become notorious for their refusal (yes, REFUSAL) to ever go the extra mile. For them to even bring one of their pending free agents this summer would be somewhat of a shocking development.

    Maybe in another 24 years, we'll get our next opportunity to fall one win short of a pennant.

  21. There's something to be said about the price you pay for not going all-in. But David… we're talking about the Mariners here. It's been 50 years of mostly mid baseball with the occasional fluke run or September meltdown thrown in. What's another decade of mid (or worse) baseball in exchange for even one pennant, let alone one ring?

  25. "The Mariners will not make the LCS next year." – says the guy who last week called Jorge Polanco "George Polanco". Seems pretty confident for a guy who likely didn't watch an Ms game all year (or he would have known how to pronounce Jorge's name).

  27. It goes to show that teams cant always purchase a championship. Teams have to acquire the right players. They aren't the same thing. The Blue Jays have several rookies in their lineup who have been producing all year. Their arguable best pitcher has only pitch 6 games in his MLB career and he is almost unhittable. That's why the Jays are where they are right now. It's the right place at the right time and money cant buy that.

  28. Remember when there were those peaceful protests and agitators/instigators snuck in, pretending to also be protesters but actually they were just trying to sow dissent and division, and tear people apart? And when confronted, they simply claimed 'hey, I'm just stating the facts, pure and simple- it's nothing personal.' Remember those guys, who had a destructive agenda, but pretended to be decent guys, and on your side?

    Huh. Don't know why this guy's videos made me of that. Weird.

  31. Cal is entering his prime and I could see him hitting 50-60 again for the next few years. He’s focused, driven, and I believe he will DH more with Harry Ford as our secondary catcher with a bat.

  36. No. The Mariners will not be good enough to make a World Series run next year. Dan Wilson should be fired. That roster should be blown up. The Mariners had an 80% chance to win the ALCS but they failed. Maybe in 2065 the Mariners will win it all.

  37. i don't know baseball very well but this sounds like the toronto blue jays when jose bautista was there. we had colourful exciting personalities but did not have enough to reach the world series.

  38. Mariners have the pitching to be competitive the question for them will be how much is Jerry and Justin allowed to do in order to make them a 90+ win team to give me a shot at winning their division.
    Or will they go cheap like the last few offseasons?

  40. Well no shit David of course Raleigh is more than likely not going to hit 60 HR next year. 30-40 HR with 90-100 RBI is what we can reasonably expect. Just like 2024. Every team would love for their catcher to give you those numbers + above average defense.

  41. I guess MVP means best hitter that can plant in the easiest position in the game. Ok. But you just stated that their starting 5 was one of the best. Who caught and managed those pitchers? ?

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