The easy answer ? This team has more talent than any roster the Mariners have assembled since 2001. That’s why these Mariners have a real shot to win the World Series.
More than that, though, there’s a spirit and a camaraderie among these Mariners – a sincere belief and determination that they can win it all this fall.
Eugenio Suárez summed up that sentiment rather neatly (and ruthlessly).
“We made the playoff a few years ago, and obviously we had a really good team that year. But this one is – it’s more special,” the veteran third baseman said. “This is the kind of group that you want to be part of. You have everything. You have young talent, people with experience, veterans. And more important, we all are like family here … and we are hungry to win.
“Our goal, our mentality, is to go outside, fight with somebody, punch somebody in the face and kill ’em. We want to win and we want to send a message that this is a really special group.”
It’s a versatile group, too, with a mix of youth and experience, with some star power and a strong support cast, with big arms and bigger aspirations.
The Mariners have a bye this week before they host the winner of the AL Wild Card series between Detroit and Cleveland, in the first two games of the best-of-five AL Division Series, starting Saturday .
Here’s why this Mariners roster is equipped to make a deep run in October:
The lineup
In Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodríguez, the Mariners have two superstars to anchor the heart of their lineup.
And from every spot in the order, they have the ability to hit the ball out of the ballpark. Sure, home runs are important in any game at any time of the year. But those big swings carry greater weight in October.
The Mariners hit 238 home runs during the regular season, the third most in MLB behind the Yankees (274) and Dodgers (244).
Seattle also stole 161 bases, the third most in MLB behind the Rays (194) and Brewers (164).
“We have power up and down the lineup. We have speed up and down the lineup. We have on-base presence up and down the lineup,” club president Jerry Dipoto said. “… I’m biased, but I think it’s as deep as anybody’s lineup in baseball. We can beat you in a lot of ways. And I think the way you win in the postseason is you pitch, you finish games and you hit the ball out of the ballpark. And we can do those things.”
At the trade deadline, the Mariners re-acquired a fan favorite, Suárez, to play third base, and in the other corner they acquired Josh Naylor, who quickly became a new fan favorite. They’ve given the Mariners lineup, and clubhouse, added quality and depth.
“It’s a ton of fun here,” said Naylor, who advanced to the ALCS with Cleveland a year ago. “Everyone here is super cool, super hardworking, including the coaching staff. They push us to go hard every day. It’s a very determined group. They want to win so badly – not just for themselves but for each other and for the city.”
The switch-hitting Jorge Polanco has become one of the most important, and most underrated, players in the lineup; Dominic Canzone’s breakthrough has been one of the most pleasant surprises of the season; and in J.P. Crawford, the M’s have one of baseball’s best No. 9 hitters.
When Victor Robles is healthy enough to play right field, the Mariners also have one of MLB’s most dynamic outfield defenses with Rodriguez in center and Randy Arozarena in left.
Arozarena will be a wild card for the Mariners in the playoffs. He’s been a fixture at the leadoff spot since the trade deadline, but Arozarena fell into a deep slump in September (with one home run and 36 strikeouts in 100 at-bats).
As a rookie in 2020, Arozarena helped lead the Tampa Bay Rays to the World Series when he hit 10 home runs in 20 games, an MLB postseason record. In 128 playoff plate appearances, Arozarena is hitting .226 with a 1.104 OPS.
The rotation
There remains some uncertainty as to when Bryan Woo will be available, but the club has maintained confidence that their 25-year-old ace will be able to pitch through inflammation in his pectoral muscle.
Outside of that, there’s little question that the Mariners will lean on their starting pitching through the playoffs, particularly veteran Logan Gilbert, Luis Castillo and George Kirby. (Bryce Miller is expected to work out of the bullpen).
Mariners starters ranked No. 2 in the AL in strikeout rate (23.7%) during the regular season (and No. 1 in lowest walk rate, at 6.7%), and that strikeout rate jumped to 26.5% over the final two months, the best in the league. Like home runs on offense, swing-and-miss stuff becomes even more vital for pitching staffs in the postseason.
“For us to go win a World Series, that group is pivotal to what we do,” Dipoto said. “It’s so much a part of our identity, our personality, to go throw the six or seven innings, to hand the ball to your leverage bullpen and then keep managing games the way we have through the years, and I feel like we are situated to do that.”
Castillo has been a steadying force this season, particularly in the first half as the Mariners navigated injuries to Kirby and Gilbert, who each missed about two months with the first significant injuries of their careers.
But the rotation began to hit its stride in September and there’s reasonable expectation that the starting staff can carry the Mariners deep into October.
“This team is obviously built off starting pitching,” Raleigh said. “And we’ve got four or five guys out there that we feel really confident in to go out there and give us good outings and to do what they’ve been doing.”
The bullpen
In an ideal playoff-game scenario, the Mariners would love to get five-plus innings from their starter, turn to high-leverage arms Eduard Bazardo, Gabe Speier and Matt Brash, and then close the door with Andrés Muñoz.
That’s the formula.
“Our pitching in ’22, the last time we were (in the playoffs), was pretty damn good,” Dipoto said. “I think our bullpen is maybe more seasoned to deal with what we were dealing with. In 2022, I felt like our bullpen really ran out of gas toward the tail end. And one of the fortunate aspects of this last week or so has been that we’ve been able to take it a little bit easier on some of those leverage guys.”