The Seattle Mariners find themselves in quite a quandary.
After missing out on the postseason once again in 2024, the organization knows that it desperately needs to improve its offense. According to Bleacher Nation’s Michael Cerami, Seattle is acutely aware of this and is prioritizing offensive upgrades to its infield this offseason.
However, the Mariners so far remain unwilling to deal away from what is widely considered to be its most marketable asset: a stable of superb, young, and team-controlled starting pitching.
After falling short of the playoffs again this season, Seattle’s president of baseball operations, Jerry DiPoto, admitted the team’s shortcomings in a talk with reporters but said that trading away any of the team’s four youthful starters in Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryce Miller, and Bryan Woo, was “Plan Z.”
Seattle has been on the outside looking in of the playoffs in 22 of the past 23 years since back-to-back runs to the American League Championship Series at the turn of the century, but DiPoto’s comment appears to remain company strategy in the Emerald City.
Speaking with MLB.com’s Daniel Kremer, Seattle general manager Justin Hollander reiterated that the team is still loathe to trade away any of its “Big Four,” no matter how such a trade could address its offensive needs.
“If you remove something for your club and you add something of equal value, you haven’t moved the ball forward,” Hollander told Kremer. “We’re looking to move the ball forward.”
Such a philosophy could point to the Mariners possibly looking to move veteran starter Luis Castillo for an impact bat. However, with Castillo making between $24-$25 million on average through at least 2027 and having just turned in his least dominant season since coming to Seattle in 2022, any return from trading the team’s former staff ace could be muted.
Still, Hollander remains adamant that dealing Gilbert, Kirby, Miller, or Woo remains a last resort.
“It’s tough to imagine scenarios with moving our young pitching, that we move our ball forward and not just rearrange things,” Hollander said. “And we’re not really looking to rearrange, we’re looking to get better.”
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