There were a few teams that were left staring at the final standings wondering how the post season could have slipped through their fingers by such narrow margins. The Diamondbacks lost out on a tie breaker. The Mariners were a win away.
Seattle’s eighty-five victories left them on the outside looking in as both Kansas City and Detroit ended up at eighty-six. The Tigers had to run them down in September.
Of course at some point the Mariners weren’t thinking wild card. In june they enjoyed a full 10 game lead over the the eventual AL West winning Astros.
Manager Scott Servais Fired
As August was running out and the losses mounted, panic set in and president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto fired long time manager Scott Servais in favour of Dan Wilson.
“Collectively, we determined that our organization needed this,” Dipoto said. “We needed to do something to create a different theme, a different vibe in our clubhouse. I’m not trying to throw Scott under a bus at all here, but I do think we needed a new voice.”
While the team rallied to go 21-13 under Wilson it wasn’t enough and you didn’t have to dig hard to find where the problem was.
Top pitching staff
The starting rotation was top notch and incredibly durable. The top five starters Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryce Miller, Luis Castillo and Bryan Woo made one hundered and forty-nine starts. Add in sixth starter Emerson Hancock and that’s every start but one.
Add in the decent bullpen led by Andrés Muñoz and you had the least scored upon team in the majors (607 runs allowed) and a combined team ERA of 3.49. They just didn’t score enough.
Twenty-first in runs scored
It didn’t help that star centerfielder Julio Rodríguez had a miserable first half but it wasn’t all on him. The Mariners had less than league average hitters at six different positions.
They did add outfielders Randy Arozarena and Victor Robles in season last year. Having Arozarena for a full season will help but can Robles, a .247 career hitter come close to his .328 over 77 games again?
The off season priority had to be additions to the batting order and there have been none. There have been plenty of rumours of the team dangling starter Castillo:
"The Baltimore Orioles and Seattle Mariners have talked before and in recent days about a potential [Luis] Castillo trade to Baltimore…"
– @jonmorosi on #MLBNHotStove pic.twitter.com/nvIf3sFIDc
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) January 6, 2025
Castillo is still a Mariner and the offense looks no better, meanwhile the teams around them have taken steps forward.
The Rangers have strengthened their order with a couple of moves (Joc Pederson & Jake Burger). The Tigers added second baseman Gletber Torres and reliever Tommy Kahnle and keep talking to both third baseman Alex Bregman and pitcher Jack Flaherty.
The Royals traded for Jonathan India before signing Carlos Estévez for the back end of their bullpen. Meanwhile Mariners fans sit and wait.
