The Mariners are down to 11 games, and the math has already done the hard part: at 70-81, even a perfect finish only gets them to 81-81. That still leaves Seattle needing a ridiculous chain of help around the American League. After Monday’s 6-4 loss to an Angels club that came into the night with 93 losses, pretending 11-0 is a real path forward just doesn’t pass the smell test.
So the rest of this season isn’t about rescue. It’s about extraction. If the Mariners want these final games to mean anything, they need to treat them like an early look at 2027.
One obvious call stands out immediately: Donovan should not be pushed back onto the field. The latest public update on him still had him dealing with dizziness and nausea when trying to do baseball activities, and he’s appeared in only 39 games this season. At this point, Seattle isn’t playing for anything important enough to justify squeezing a few more appearances out of a player still working through concussion recovery.
Even if Donovan clears the concussion protocol before the season ends, the payoff is hard to see. Eleven games won’t tell the Mariners anything meaningful about his long-term fit.
They’d only be asking him to return for games that carry almost no competitive value. He wants back because that’s what players do.
The organization has to be the adult in the room and let him finish recovering healthy.
The younger bats deserve a different kind of runway. Seattle gave Michael Arroyo another start Monday, and he answered with a single and a stolen base.
Lazaro Montes, meanwhile, was kept out of the starting lineup against left-handers and used as a substitute once a righty came in. That kind of split usage should be over now.
Arroyo and Montes ought to start against both right-handed and left-handed pitching. Especially with Montes, the whole point of having him in the majors is learning how he handles the tough stuff, not shielding him from it.
His minor league splits against lefties weren’t strong - .163 in Double-A and .258 in Triple-A - which is exactly why these last games should be about facing that weakness head-on instead of leaning on the same old platoon habits. Seattle will get more out of regular starts than out of scattered plate appearances.
There’s a defensive evaluation to be done too. Cole Young, Arroyo, Montes and Brock Rodden all come with questions Seattle will eventually have to answer.
The final 11 games give the club a low-risk window to start sorting through those options. Young should keep getting time at second base.
Arroyo should work there as well, while also getting looks at another position. Montes needs more innings in right field.
Rodden should see third base often enough to matter.
The same development-vs.-results balance applies on the mound, starting with Kade Anderson. His Monday outing wasn’t pretty on the surface - five runs, seven hits, 4 1/3 innings - but he also didn’t walk anyone and struck out five.
That’s the kind of line where the box score matters less than the assignment. Seattle needs to know how he responds now that opponents are beginning to adjust.
As long as the workload plan allows it, Anderson should stay on a controlled schedule. The emphasis should be on pitch efficiency, the quality of his secondary pitches, deception, and what he does after hitters see him the first time through the order.
Emerson Hancock is a separate case. He threw his second bullpen session on September 13 and is set for another on September 16, after which Seattle will decide on his activation, role and timeline.
That session ought to settle the question. If he’s fully healthy, maybe a limited appearance or two gives the Mariners a look at how his arsenal plays in relief.
But if there’s any real risk of another setback, a bullpen cameo would be the wrong move.
The bullpen itself also needs more honest testing. Michael Rucker and Eduard Bazardo combined for three scoreless innings Monday after the Angels had already done their damage, and that was fine work given where things have gone lately. But their roles still aren’t settled.
With Matt Brash done for the season, Seattle needs to learn whether anyone else can give Andrés Muñoz real late-inning support in 2027. Can one of these relievers close when Muñoz needs a night off?
Can any of them be trusted to bridge the gap to the ninth inning? That requires more than handing out soft landings after the game has already tilted away.
The Mariners should use the remaining schedule to see how these arms handle inherited runners, one-run margins and back-to-back days when the workload allows it. Rucker, Bazardo, Carlos Vargas and the rest of the group need to be judged in situations that actually resemble the jobs they’d have on a competitive team. Bazardo may still fit in next year’s bullpen, but past success shouldn’t buy automatic leverage.
And then there’s the schedule itself. Nine of Seattle’s last 11 games are against the Angels and Rockies, with the other two against Houston.
On paper, that should offer a chance to stack some wins against losing teams. But the Mariners have already shown how little that kind of opportunity can mean when they don’t handle favorable matchups consistently.
An 8-3 finish would make the record look a little better. It still wouldn’t tell us much if the veterans keep taking most of the plate appearances, the young hitters stay protected from uncomfortable matchups, and the bullpen pecking order never changes.
If Seattle answers even two or three of those questions, these final 11 games will have done something useful.
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