The Seattle Mariners come to the trade deadline with a 57-52 record and find themselves tied for the last American League wild card spot. Their actions over the last week have shown that they are all in on a 2025 playoff push. The team has addressed two of the three needs that they faced heading into the deadline, and they are still working on the third. Here is a look at their moves.
While this is a temporary fix, Josh Naylor is a big upgrade at first base. The Mariners’ first base options have not produced this season. Luke Raley was hitting .220 when he went on the IL. First base is not utility man Donovan Solano’s best position. Plus, he has no power and is only hitting .243 this season–way below his career average. Seattle traded Rowdy Tellez to the Texas Rangers after he hit only .208 in 62 games.
In Naylor, they receive a cheap, expiring contract and a run producer who can hit for average and power. For the season, Naylor is hitting .288 with 12 home runs, 60 RBI, and a surprising 15 stolen bases. He is making $10.9 million and should be inexpensive to re-sign if they want to bring him back.
Seattle gave up 25-year-old lefty starter-turned-reliever Brandyn Garcia and 21-year-old righty starter Ashton Izzi in the deal. Garcia was blocked as a starter with the Mariners’ excellent rotation and has not looked great in four major league relief appearances (3.1 innings, four walks, one strikeout, 10.80 ERA). Izzi has a 6.02 ERA in 13 starts in High-A ball.
The Mariners have not had an offensive threat at third base since they traded Eugenio Suárez to Arizona before the 2024 season. Seattle has gotten next to nothing at third out of rookie Ben Williamson this season. He is slashing .253/.294/.310 with one homerun, 21 RBI, and five steals in 277 at-bats. Suárez returns a better hitter than when he left. He leads all MLB hitters with 87 RBI, and he has the fourth-most homers with 36. Suárez has cut down on his strikeouts since setting new career highs in each of his previous seasons in a Mariner uniform.
To get Suárez, Seattle gave up corner infielder Tyler Locklear and relief pitchers Hunter Cranton and Juan Burgos. Lockyear, 24, has hit .316 at Triple-A this year with 25 doubles, 19 homers, 82 RBI, and 18 stolen bases in 98 games. Cranton is a 24-year-old righty who has a 0.90 ERA in ten combined games in Rookie and Single-A league play this season. Burgos has a 0.87 ERA in 25 minor league relief appearances and a 4.05 ERA in four MLB games with eight strikeouts in 6.2 innings.
The Mariners’ pitching has been a strength for the last several years. Their rotation has dealt with its share of injuries this season, but they are mostly healthy now. Bryce Miller should be back in a couple of weeks, but Logan Evans has been an adequate fill-in. Luis Castillo, Bryan Woo, and Logan Gilbert have all been solid, and George Kirby has improved since a poor start, winning four of his last five starts. Most likely, Seattle will add to their exceptional bullpen before the deadline since Gregory Santos is still out with knee issues.
The Mariners know that they only have so much time with this starting rotation. The time to strike is now, and they have in acquiring Naylor and Suárez. Adding those two bats to a lineup that already has Julio Rodriguez, Cal Raleigh, and Randy Arozarena makes them a force to be dealt with. They are taking their shot this year, and this gives them, perhaps, their best chance to hold off the hard-charging Texas Rangers. Justin Hollander and Seattle’s front office are telling their players that they are doing all they can to support them. Now the players need to take that to heart and leave it all on the field.
The question now becomes, win or lose in 2025, what happens in 2026? Will the Mariners re-sign Naylor and/or Suárez and run it back again? Those holes will still be there in 2026 if they don’t. I think that Seattle needs to commit to both for at least another year. The Astros have pitching, but their offense is lacking, and their best hitters are aging or injury-prone. Christian Walker and Jose Altuve are on the downside of their careers. Yordan Alvarez has missed extensive time three out of the last four seasons. They were desperate enough to reunite with Carlos Correa, whose health was a big enough issue that they let him go in the first place.
This is the Mariners’ window to make a deep playoff run. The Astros are without Alvarez, Jeremy Pena, Isaac Paredes, and nine of their pitchers. The Rangers are a different team from their 2023 World Series team, despite many of the players remaining the same. Seattle is all in at the right time. Now the pressure is on Texas and Houston to make the changes to hold them off.
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