Ranking Mariners' Positional Needs 7 Weeks Out From Trade Deadline
Despite winning four of their last five series, the Mariners find themselves in a difficult position to project, entering June 13 fourth in the American League West at a record of 27-33. They currently sit behind five teams for the league's third and final wild-card spot and are either losing or have already lost their head-to-head tiebreaker with two of them.
This, of course, doesn't mean much at the end of the day. The season is still 62.9 percent incomplete, with 102 games left on Seattle's schedule. Things can—and will—change over the coming days, weeks and months, bringing the final picture more into focus. But for now, we're merely painting with broad strokes.
As such, we have no idea whether the Mariners will be buyers, sellers, a bit of both or neither when the trade deadline rolls around on August 2. And it's likely that, barring another disastrous stretch of losing or a remarkably extensive win streak, we won't know the answer for another five or six weeks.
But let's assume for a moment that Seattle, which has a 6-5 record in the month of June, continues to stay involved in the postseason race through the summer. What will general manager Jerry Dipoto need to target in order to push his club over the top and end its well-documented 20-year playoff drought?
Taking cost of acquisition, the viability of upgrading and other circumstances into account, let's rank the Mariners' five biggest positional needs with 50 days to go until baseball's trade market closes.
1. Starting Pitching
Well, duh—everyone needs pitching. But the Mariners have been wanting to add another starter since before MLB instituted the lockout last December and it's not hard to see why. While Logan Gilbert has made great strides from year one to year two, Robbie Ray has noticeably regressed, Marco Gonzales and Chris Flexen have been wildly inconsistent and George Kirby is bound to hit an innings cap at some point this season. Seattle needs to bolster its rotation and it doesn't have many in-house options at the moment, especially with Matt Brash being converted to the bullpen. There should be plenty of options to choose from, but depending on what Dipoto particularly wants, he'll have to pony up at the bargaining table.
2. Corner Outfield
Corner outfield help is generally one of the easiest and least expensive things to find at the deadline, and it should be again this season. The Mariners are currently running a right field platoon of Dylan Moore and Taylor Trammell while Jesse Winker continues to jog in place following his unexpectedly slow start to the season. Although both have provided some decent contributions as of late, Seattle is not getting the consistent production and probability it needs out of those spots. Counting on Justin Upton to provide a spark or the oft-injured Mitch Haniger to return on time and immediately perform at a high level is not a viable plan either.
3. Relief Pitching
The Mariners are carrying a nine-man bullpen at the moment, but how many of those relievers can manager Scott Servais realistically put 100 percent of his faith in? Three? Four? No matter the number, it's become clear that upgrades will be necessary if the team truly sees itself as a postseason contender. Thankfully, similar to the corner outfield spot, there should be no shortage of possibilities to help fill out Seattle's ranks this summer. But even with Diego Castillo's recent hot stretch and the return of Erik Swanson, Dipoto may not have the luxury of waiting until deadline day. This is a unit in need of serious—and immediate—repairs.
Offensively Inclined Depth
Right now, the Mariners are typically heading into games with a bench featuring three of Moore, Trammell, Abraham Toro, Cal Raleigh, Luis Torrens and Sam Haggerty. That means three of those names are also guaranteed to be in Seattle's lineup on a given night, putting the team at a pretty severe disadvantage more often than not. Those six are currently running a combined batting average of .197 with an 8.6 percent walk rate. For a club with postseason aspirations, lacking depth on the offensive end is just not sustainable whatsoever.
5. Catcher
This would be much higher on the list if not for the fact the catching market is a barren wasteland. Aside from Cubs catcher Willson Contreras, who's bound to net a stunning return in this climate, we may not see another big-name backstop change hands this summer. The Mariners are also not in as bad of a situation as it may seem, ranking 12th in the majors in catcher fWAR (0.9) at the time of this writing. Not to be overlooked: Raleigh and Torrens have made some offensive improvements in recent days, and Tom Murphy is expected to return at some point after going on the injured list with a shoulder injury. If anything, Murphy may be the big addition Seattle makes at the catcher position this summer.
