The Mariners’ offseason isn’t just about finding a manager or patching holes in the lineup. It starts with something a lot less glamorous: deciding which players are actually worth the money and roster spots.
That part matters more than usual in Seattle. The club has unfinished business everywhere - player development, the offense, the bullpen, the future of Logan Gilbert - and every contract choice feeds into the larger reset. The Mariners can’t keep carrying replaceable pieces, and they can’t assume prospects will magically solve every opening.
Some of the calls are easy. Andrés Muñoz has an $8 million club option for 2027 that can rise to $9 million with a games-finished escalator, and that’s a bargain for one of the game’s best late-inning relievers.
Yes, he blew 10 saves. But the view here is that it was more of an anomaly than a warning sign.
His stuff was better than in most seasons, even if his mistakes got punished more often.
The bullpen’s instability only strengthens that case. Seattle needs fewer questions around Muñoz, not another one in the ninth inning.
Víctor Robles is the cleaner cut in the other direction. His $9 million club option comes with a $500,000 buyout, and declining it should be simple.
The Mariners took the shot after his 2024 resurgence, but injuries and limited production never let that bet pay off. There’s no reason to lock in another $9 million.
Pay the buyout and move on.
Bryce Miller sits in a trickier spot. Seattle can pick up his $6.075 million option or pay a $15,000 buyout and send him back to arbitration, where he’s projected at $3.9 million.
Declining the option doesn’t mean the Mariners are walking away from him. It just means they’re choosing the cheaper path to keep him after an injury-interrupted season.
That savings is about $2 million, and for a club working with Seattle’s budget, that’s not pocket change.
Then there’s the arbitration group, which is bigger and more expensive than it first looks. The Mariners have 15 arbitration-eligible players, including four members of the rotation.
Those four alone are projected to cost $34.3 million. That’s a hefty number, but it’s also the price of developing good pitchers and keeping them once they reach this stage.
The bill has been building for years, and Seattle can’t use it as an excuse to avoid improving the offense.
Brendan Donovan, projected at $6.1 million, is an obvious tender. His defensive versatility and ability to move around the lineup make him exactly the kind of player this roster needs while several spots remain unsettled. The only real question is whether he can stay on the field.
The same logic applies to Matt Brash at $1.8 million and Gabe Speier at $3.3 million. Good relief pitching is hard to find, and both have roles worth keeping.
Luke Raley, projected at $3.1 million, is more debatable. He could still be useful as a matchup bat who can handle the outfield and first base, but he also fits the profile of a non-tender candidate.
Dominic Canzone, projected at $3 million, is another complicated one. He’s shown enough offensive upside to justify a tender, but Seattle has to decide whether it truly sees him as an everyday player. If the answer is yes, keeping him makes sense.
This is also where the Mariners need to be tough about the edges of the roster. Eduard Bazardo, Jose Ferrer, Carlos Vargas and Michael Rucker are all inexpensive, but together they represent multiple bullpen and 40-man decisions for a team that needs more certainty in both places.
Seattle doesn’t have to non-tender every reliever. It does need to improve the pen. Carrying all four may not be the best use of space.
Bazardo is projected at $1.5 million, Ferrer at $1.6 million and Vargas at $800,000. Their cases should come down to role, options and whether the organization sees a real path to improvement.
The sense here is that all three will stick. Patrick Wisdom and Rucker are closer to the cut line.
Wisdom’s projected $1.1 million salary isn’t the issue; fit is. Rucker, projected at $800,000, is in a similar spot.
Cooper Criswell, projected at $900,000, brings enough cheap pitching depth to at least warrant consideration. Even so, roster utility still has to matter. The Mariners can’t keep everyone and still expect to reshape the team.
The tender deadline is November 27, and by then Seattle ought to know which players have a defined purpose and which are just taking up space.
Gilbert’s case is the biggest one of all. His projected $15.4 million salary for 2027 is a strong value for a frontline starter, but this is also his final season of club control.
If he’s willing to stay, ownership needs to make a real offer. If the gap is too wide, the front office has to decide whether one more year of Gilbert is worth more than the bat he could bring back in a trade.
That doesn’t mean the Mariners should rush into moving him. A pitcher of Gilbert’s caliber leaves a massive hole. It only makes sense if the return directly fixes the lineup with young, controllable offense - not distant prospects and not a pile of maybes.
Keeping him for one more season is defensible if Seattle is ready to go for it in 2027. Keeping him while building another incomplete offense would be the wrong blend.
Beyond that, Randy Arozarena, J.P. Crawford, Taylor Ward and Hoby Milner are on track for unrestricted free agency after the World Series.
That would strip two outfielders, the starting shortstop and a veteran lefty reliever from the roster. Seattle may want to bring back one or more of them, but none are automatic.
So the Mariners head into the winter with holes in the outfield, at shortstop and all over the bullpen. Prospects may fill some of that space, but that shouldn’t stop the team from adding more competition.
The easy calls are mostly obvious. The arbitration class is pricey but manageable.
What really matters is what Seattle does after the obvious work is done.
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