Seattle Mariners AL West Rivals Athletics Sign Gio Urshela to 1-Year Contract
Entering the 2025 offseason, American League West rivals the Seattle Mariners and Athletics had issues with their payroll.
The Mariners had little available payroll ($15-20 million) and the Athletics didn't have enough.
Seattle has failed to acquire any starting players for its needs at first, second or third base. But the Athletics, who will play their first season in Sacramento while their stadium in Las Vegas is being built, are working to sign players to meet a necessary threshold of payroll.
The Athletics need to reach a minimum 2025 payroll of $105 million or risk a grievance being filed against the MLBPA. The A's signed starting pitcher Luis Severino to a franchise-record three-year, $67 million deal earlier in the offseason. They also traded for Tampa Bay Rays starter Jeffery Springs and added another $10.5 million through that deal.
Those deals placed the Athletics payroll at around $88.5 million. And they recently made another move on Dec. 21 by signing a player that has given the Mariners some fits in recent years.
The A's signed third baseman Gio Urshela to a one-year, $2.15 million deal. And Urshela is a player that a lot of Seattle fans probably aren't too thrilled at having in the American League West.
Urshela played for the Detroit Tigers and Atlanta Braves in 2024. The former released him on Aug. 18 and he signed with the latter two days later.
Urshela finished 2024 with a .250 batting average to go with nine home runs and 52 RBIs in 128 games played. But he thrived while playing Seattle.
According to Stathead, Urshela hit .400 (6-for-15) against the Mariners in 2024 to go with one home run and three RBIs in five games. He had an OPS of 1.067 and struck out just once in those five games.
Over the course of his 10-year career, Urshela has played 30 games against Seattle. In those contests, he had a batting average of .269 with five home runs and 14 RBIs in those games.
Gio Urshela hits his 5th home run of the year. Dan Dickerson on the call #RepDetroit pic.twitter.com/CNduSlXaCb
— Dan Dickerson Calls📞 (@dannydHRs) August 14, 2024
Outside of the Mariners, the AL West has been one of the more active divisions in the offseason.
Seattle has seen several key players for its rivals like Kyle Tucker and Nathaniel Lowe get traded away in recent days. Urshela isn't quite as notable as those two players, but he's still a veteran that can contribute to a team.
And he's also yet another addition to one of the Mariners biggest rivals.
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