The Seattle Mariners officially missed out on one of their biggest offensive priorities on Saturday morning, as veteran infielder Jorge Polanco officially signed a two-year deal with the New York Mets. The deal is worth $40 million and leaves the M’s with some real questions for the rest of the offseason.

As is usually the case, many things are true, so let’s examine this from all angles.

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On some level, this had to have caught the M’s off-guard. We had heard Polanco connected to other teams, but never the Mets.

Presumably, losing out on Pete Alonso earlier this week spurred them to action. Polanco was never expected to get $20 million a year, so the financial level this went to had to have caught them by surprise also.

Look, I championed the Jorge Polanco Fan Club for all of 2025. I loved the way he played and the memories he provided. That said, he’s 32 and going on 33. He had an injury-plagued 2024 and there’s no guarantee he can replicate his health — or performance — in 2026 and beyond. I get why the Mariners didn’t want to go to this level annually. And in their case, his position fit wasn’t clean, either. They could have made some combination of DH and second base work, but it would have impacted Cole Young and Cal Raleigh’s DH ability also. Were all those questions worth $20 million a year? Probably not.

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Polanco’s representation wanted a three or four-year deal. Given the health and age questions, the Mariners wanted to go two years. However, clearly, the way to get Polanco’s people off the idea of a three or four-year deal was to pay more money in those two years. It seems as if this $20 million could have been too rich for the Mariners, but new reporting from Daniel Kramer of MLB.com indicates the M’s final offer was “very competitive,” and that Polanco was also swayed by family efforts.

Whether or not the Mariners wanted to give Polanco this exact deal or not, they are now forced to get uncomfortable in another way. Are they prepared to pay $150 or $200 million for Alex Bregman or Bo Bichette? How about $350 or $400 million for Kyle Tucker? How about the prospect capital required to trade for Brendan Donovan or Ketel Marte? Do they want to go into the season with the uncertainty of Cole Young AND Ben Williamson/Colt Emerson at third?

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We will have to see, but this much is clear: The Mariners offense is not as good today as it was at the end of 2025, and with Polanco off the board, there is pressure to find the next impact move.

We’ll have much more on the upcoming episode of the Refuse To Lose podcast, which will come out Monday night.

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