Baseball America Declares Most Pressing Need For Seattle Mariners
The Seattle Mariners' offseason plans were dealt another big blow on Jan. 3 when Hye-seong Kim declined an offer from the team in favor of one from the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Removing all rumors and speculation, that makes Kim the second player the Mariners were confirmed to extend a contract offer to who chose to sign elsewhere. The other was first baseman Carlos Santana, who turned down a longer contract and more money from Seattle in favor for a third career stint with the Cleveland Guardians.
The Mariners, in their pursuit of Santana and Kim (and self-inflicted payroll restraints), have lost out on solutions at first and second base like Josh Naylor, Paul Goldschmidt, Christian Walker and Gleyber Torres. They also put possible conversations with free agent Justin Turner on the back burner in favor of discussions with Santana.
After failing to sign Kim, it's hard to envision where Seattle goes from here. The Mariners' salary problems aren't going anywhere and they still have three spots in the infield they need to fill.
The staff of Baseball America put out an article on Jan. 2 going over a need every team needs to address before the 2025 season begins, and the article reaffirmed Seattle's need for a first baseman:
We all know that the Mariners’ ballpark suppresses offense, but Seattle has so far done nothing to improve the glaring lack of scoring that doomed them last year. There’s still time, but Seattle needs to find one or two more regulars to plug into a lineup that’s three hitters short of ideal.
There seems to be three options in play for the Mariners: they can pick up discussions with Turner and bring him back to platoon with Luke Raley, like they did post-trade deadline in 2024. They can clear up salary via trade and sign Alonso or they could give Tyler Locklear a longer stint on the major league roster and have him be Raley's partner.
Grand slam for Justin Turner.
— Howard Cole (@Howard_Cole) August 3, 2024
pic.twitter.com/49uruxJldz
Seattle is running out of time to make significant moves as spring training begins in just over one month. And there's not a clear avenue in site.
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