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Seattle Mariners Offseason: How Aggressive Will Team Be Before Lockout?
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- Seattle Mariners Offseason: How Aggressive Will Team Be Before Lockout?
Brady Farkas and Buster Olney speak on the 'Refuse to Lose Territory' podcast.
Absolutely everybody is assuming that Major League Baseball will go into a deep freeze this winter.
The current Collective Bargaining Agreement ends on Dec. 1 at 8:59 p.m. PT, and at that point, the owners are expected to lockout the players, putting all business of baseball on hold.
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As a result, the Seattle Mariners have about one month to make moves that will improve the team for 2027. Seattle went just 76-86 this past season, missing the playoffs one year after getting to the American League Championship Series.
How the Mariners choose to handle the one month before the lockout will be fascinating to watch. Will the M's be aggressive, as they were before the last lockout (signing Robbie Ray), and sign players under the current financial system? Or, will they sit back and wait for the lockout to end so they have a clearer idea of what the financial rules are moving forward?
And what about trades? How aggressive will teams want to be on that front? It all remains to be seen.
Regardless of how they handle it all, it's clear that the Mariners have many holes to fill. They need a more reliable bullpen, they need more offense, especially with Randy Arozarena and JP Crawford now free agents, they need more team speed, and they need to not be one of the worst defensive teams in the sport.
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It seems like a lot of heavy lifting for one offseason, especially one as truncated as this one expects to be, so how do the M's go about getting things done?
We spoke to ESPN MLB Insider Buster Olney on the most recent 'Refuse to Lose Territory' podcast.
"First and foremost, I think what they have to do is read what's going on in the market and respond early because of this unusual situation with the lockout looming.
You know, I've heard that there are a number of teams that basically are, the feeling is that they're not going to do a lot of baseball business before the lockout begins because they don't know what the financial system is going to be at the back end, and they don't want to lock themselves in the deals. Now, that's speculation.
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Once they get into the month, in the end, the agents, if they want to get a player signed who has some demand, they can make that happen.
And so if the Mariners have one strategy as they begin the month of November, where their feeling is, you know what? We're going to sit back and wait. If, in fact, guys start coming off the board in what is generally speaking a thin market, I think they've got to respond and come out of their bunker if that's what they're going to do. If they're one of the teams that, generally speaking, is going to be more conservative, that's the most important thing."
The Mariners have tended to be a trade-happy team, so they can always look to make moves on that front, but that requires another side to want to make moves as well. Last offseason, the Mariners acquired Brendan Donovan from the St. Louis Cardinals . Before 2024, they acquired Jorge Polanco from the Minnesota Twins and also traded Ray to the San Francisco Giants in a deal that brought back Mitch Haniger.
And in addition to trying to make moves to help the roster, the Mariners have still yet to hire a manager to replace Dan Wilson. That decision should be coming this week.
