What better way to start the new Mariners thread than with the news of Cal Raleigh, our beloved Big Dumper, and currently the best catcher in baseball, who is finalizing a 6-year and 105 million extension with the team. Signals for this deal started 6 months ago when Raleigh fired Scott Boras as his agent, implying he wanted to remain in Seattle long term. Now it's (almost) done. Opening day on thursday at home against the Nowhere Athletics. I'll write some sort of season preview in the next few days but it will probably say the same as last year, as the 2024 team returns almost with no changes at all. GOMS.
Opening day is here!! The Mariners open the season tonight against the Athletics and of course I'll miss it because of work. But that's fine. There are 161 more games. The expectations are the same as the past few years: Make a run at this thing. For the past 4 years the Mariners have fallen short of the playoffs by one game 3 times. The other one, they actually made it. The general belief is that one full year of Dan Wilson as manager and HOFer Edgar Martinez as Hitting Coach will finally make us take that one last step we've been missing. If this is not the best rotation in baseball, it is at least top 3. Logan Gilbert, fresh from a career year, has been named opening day starter and ace of the rotation. He has to be in the Cy Young conversation, but I'm afraid of East Coast Bias. Luis Castillo started to decline at the end of last year but he's still a solid number 2. George Kirby will start the season on the IL but once he comes back he'll be awesome again. Finally the youngsters Miller, Woo and Hancock would be number 3 or even number 2 in almost any other team. The bullpen will remain strong and will get better once Matt Brash returns from TJ surgery (no pun intended) in a couple months. Andrez Muñoz will settle as the best closer in baseball, or at least in the AL if Ohtani decides to become a closer. He developed a change up over the winter to go along his 103mph fastball and 90+ mph slider that M's hitters themselves have described as the filthiest pitch they have ever seen. As hitting goes, strikeouts have to go down. For two years in a row Mariners hitters have lead the league in strikeouts and it hasn't been even close. Julio Rodriguez can't afford to have another slow start of the year. .500OPS in april/may just won't cut it no matter if it jumps to .900 once the summer starts. New millionaire Cal Raleigh will remain the cornerstone. If he could juuuust improve that .218 avg he'd be in the HOF conversation already but he's clutch, bats for power from both sides, and is a platinum glove winner. You can't steal a base off the Big Dumper but that won't stop other teams from trying. JP Crawford, Jorge Polanco and Mitch Garver must have bounce back years. They were incredible in 2023 (Garver for the Rangers WS run) but awful in 2024. Rowdy Tellez won the 1B job in spring training coming out of nowhere and he could be the 1B/DH we've been looking for since Nelson Cruz left. The bar is too low, he only has to be half decent. As usual, the biggest question mark is who will play 2B. Seems like Ryan Bliss will get the nod for opening day. He showed glimpses in the limited time he got last year. If he struggles, expect Utility gold glove winner Dylan Moore to take over, but we know what he is at this point. Finally the OF...Randy Arozarena is another one who needs a bounce back year. Maybe after being settled in his new home he can improve. Victor Robles signed a "prove it" deal over the winter...let's hope he can repeat his awesome 2024. And Julio...Julio is Julio. He has to have an MVP type of year for this team to succeed. If you're scoring at home, that's 3 Mexicans in the opening day roster (Muñoz and Tellez by birth, Arozarena is cuban born but became a Mexican citizen a couple years ago). I can't wait. Let's do this!! Happy baseball season.
In order to avoid repeating myself all season and clog the storage in the server, just assume I use this meme after pretty much every Mariners win: Another comeback win. 1 down, 161 to go.
