The Seattle Mariners are staring at a compressed offseason with the clock already ticking toward baseball’s expected shutdown.
The current Collective Bargaining Agreement expires on Dec. 1 at 8:59 p.m. PT, and once that happens, the owners are expected to lock out the players and freeze the sport’s business side. That leaves Seattle with roughly a month to get work done before everything goes quiet.
And there’s plenty to do. The Mariners finished 76-86 this season, missing the playoffs a year after reaching the American League Championship Series.
They enter the winter with a roster that needs help in several places: a steadier bullpen, more offense, more team speed and a defense that won’t rank among the worst in the game. Randy Arozarena and JP Crawford are now free agents, adding to the list.
The bigger question is how aggressive Seattle wants to be while the current rules are still in place. The club could try to move quickly, the way it did before the last lockout when it signed Robbie Ray. Or it could wait and see how the labor situation shakes out before committing to anything significant.
That uncertainty extends to the trade market, too. Teams around the league may be hesitant to make bold moves before the lockout, and that could shape what Seattle is able to do.
On the latest “Refuse to Lose Territory” podcast, ESPN MLB Insider Buster Olney said the Mariners need to pay close attention to how the market develops and react early because of the unusual timing.
"First and foremost, I think what they have to do is read what's going on in the market and respond early because of this unusual situation with the lockout looming.
You know, I've heard that there are a number of teams that basically are, the feeling is that they're not going to do a lot of baseball business before the lockout begins because they don't know what the financial system is going to be at the back end, and they don't want to lock themselves in the deals. Now, that's speculation.
Once they get into the month, in the end, the agents, if they want to get a player signed who has some demand, they can make that happen.
And so if the Mariners have one strategy as they begin the month of November, where their feeling is, you know what? We're going to sit back and wait.
If, in fact, guys start coming off the board in what is generally speaking a thin market, I think they've got to respond and come out of their bunker if that's what they're going to do. If they're one of the teams that, generally speaking, is going to be more conservative, that's the most important thing."
Seattle has usually been willing to work the trade market, and that remains one avenue for improvement. Last offseason, the Mariners landed Brendan Donovan from the St.
Louis Cardinals. Before 2024, they acquired Jorge Polanco from the Minnesota Twins and also sent Robbie Ray to the San Francisco Giants in a deal that brought Mitch Haniger back.
There’s also another major piece of business still unresolved: the managerial opening. The Mariners have yet to hire a replacement for Dan Wilson, and that decision is expected this week.
In Other News...
Mariners Quietly Address Two Roster Needs Before Free Agency Opens
With free agency and the roster cutdown deadlines approaching, the Mariners have started to quietly shape their 40-man picture with a pair of waiver claims that fit the kind of low-risk, depth-building moves front offices make this time of year. Seattle added outfielder Grant McCray and right-hander Isaac Mattson, giving itself a little more flexibility while also taking a look at two players with enough talent to merit a longer evaluation.
McCray brings an outfield profile that could give the Mariners another option to develop, while Mattson offers the kind of arm clubs often try to sort through in the offseason. The broader significance here is less about immediate impact than about what these moves say about Seattles priorities: preserve roster space where possible, add competition where it makes sense, and keep searching for useful pieces before the winter market fully opens. [Read more 🡒]
Mariners Are Taking A Huge Gamble With Their Next Manager
The Mariners are moving toward one of the boldest managerial hires in the sport, with Daniel Kramer of MLB.com reporting that Jason Kanzler is expected to take over as the clubs next manager. At 36, Kanzler would immediately stand out around the league as one of baseballs youngest skippers, and his background comes from the player-development and hitting side rather than from years of managing in the dugout.
Kanzlers rsum includes time as a hitting coordinator for the Astros and as the Cubs director of player development, which gives Seattle a different kind of voice at the top of the clubhouse. The appeal is obvious enough: a modern, development-minded approach from someone the organization believes can grow into the job. The unanswered question is how quickly that leap from behind the scenes to the front of the dugout will have to happen. [Read more 🡒]
Mariners Just Opened A Bigger Randy Arozarena Decision
The Mariners have put a familiar offseason checkpoint in front of Randy Arozarena by extending him a $23.15 million qualifying offer, a move that keeps the door open for a return while also protecting the club if he winds up elsewhere. Arozarena now has a decision to make, and the expectation around the industry is that he will turn down the one-year deal as Seattle weighs whether it wants to push harder on a longer-term arrangement.
For the Mariners, the real question is bigger than the qualifying offer itself. If Arozarena departs and lands a deal worth more than $50 million guaranteed, Seattle would be positioned to collect a compensatory draft pick after the first round of the 2027 draft, but the front office still has to sort out whether it prefers to keep working toward a reunion or start planning for a lineup without him. That makes this less like a procedural move and more like the opening of a much larger roster conversation. [Read more 🡒]