3 Things To Improve All 30 Teams — The Seattle Mariners
The Seattle Mariners finished the 2021 season with a record of 90–72, good enough for 2nd place in the AL West, but not good enough to end their now 20 year playoff drought. Looking to build upon what most viewed as a surprising contending year for the young Mariners, let’s see what we can do to help them.
1. Help Robbie Ray Build Off His Career Year
The Seattle Mariners brought in reigning AL Cy Young winner Robbie Ray on a 5 year, $115 million deal earlier this off season. The 1 time All Star is a power pitching lefty who currently holds the all time record for career K/9 with 11.2. Needless to say, Ray is a power pitcher who looks to strike guys out first and foremost.
With a career ERA of 4.00 with 1,290 strikeouts and a 110 ERA+ over 1,035.2 innings and 189 starts, Robbie Ray is starting to look like a late bloomer. He has shown flashes in the past of greatness pitching to a 2.89 ERA in 2018 over 162 innings, but last year was by far his greatest performance yet. Over 193.1 innings and 32 starts, Ray carried a 2.84 ERA with 248 strikeouts, a 154 ERA+, and a 1.045 WHIP. Ray led the AL in starts, ERA, innings pitched, ERA+, and WHIP, and led all of baseball in strikeouts.
Coming into his age 30 season, Ray looks to build on that performance. Keeping Ray around 100 pitches or less an outing and going every 5th day would go a long way toward helping him stay on track and putting up numbers similar to last years. Should he continue what he did in 2021, he would add 3 wins to the Mariners total.
2. Coax Kyle Seager Out Of Retirement
Speaking of guys having career years, in 2021, in his age 33 season, 3B Kyle Seager hit a career high 35 homeruns. The rest of his numbers weren’t that impressive. A .212/.285/.438 line with 59 walks and a 100 OPS+ isn’t great, but throw in the 35 homeruns and league average defense at third and you’ve got someone that helped the Mariners surprise the world. Then, on December 29, 2021, he retired.
Seager isn’t the only athlete to retire in the past 6 months. If you haven’t heard, Tom Brady retired in February. If you also haven’t heard, Tom unretired at the beginning of March. Tom Brady will be 45 once the NFL season starts and he plays in a sport where he gets forcefully tackled to the ground by men twice his size 50+ times a year. If Tom Brady can play football at 45, and still be one of, if not the best QB in the sport, Seager can come back at the age of 34 and play baseball.
Having the distinction of playing his entire career in the city of Seattle, Kyle has not played October baseball once. He has been extremely durable throughout his career as he has only played less than 150 games 1 time, not counting 2020. The Mariners should do whatever it takes to have him suiting back up and coming out of retirement to get back on the field and help them make a run at the playoffs one more time. A 1 year, $12 million deal should be enough, and should he sign, their win total would not increase or decrease, which is a win in the long run.
3. If You Rush Kelenic, It Will Never Happen
Jared Kelenic was taken with the 6th pick of the 2018 draft out of high school by the New York Mets. He came over to the Mariners in December of that year as a part of the trade that sent Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz to New York. He immediately became the Mariners top prospect and the countdown was on for his arrival in the Majors.
Kelenic made his long awaited debut for the Mariners on May 13, 2021. Batting leadoff against the Cleveland Guardians, he went 0–4. It was the start of what was to be a disappointing season for Jared Kelenic. Having a line of .181/.265/.350 over 377 plate appearances and 93 games is not ideal when you’re a top prospect trying to live up to the high expecatations that have been placed upon you. The one thing he did show, however, is that he can take walks as he was walked 36 times, and he’s got some pop with 14 homeruns.
The Mariners and Jared are definitely looking for him to improve those numbers for the 2022 season. However, the Mariners should take all of the pressure off of his shoulders and hit him lower in the lineup until he proves, against Major League pitching, that he can be succesful. Should he turn it around this year, he would add 4 wins to the Mariners total.
Robbie Ray keeping up his 2021 production, Kyle Seager pulling a Tom Brady and coming out of retirement to rejoin his former team, and Jared Kelenic turning things around from last season and show good production at the plate would add 7 wins to the Mariners total. This would give them a record of 97–65 which would have won the AL West in 2021.
This has been the 25th entry in our series in which we take a look at all 30 teams individually and see what we can do to help them improve year over year. Previous entries include the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Atlanta Braves, the Baltimore Orioles, the Boston Red Sox, the Chicago White Sox, the Chicago Cubs, the Cincinnati Reds, the Cleveland Guardians, the Colorado Rockies, the Detroit Tigers, the Houston Astros, the Kansas City Royals, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, the Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles, the Miami Marlins, the Milwaukee Brewers, the Minnesota Twins, the New York Yankees, the New York Mets, the Oakland Athletics, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the San Francisco Giants, and the San Diego Padres. Follow me on Twitter @TroyBrock1993 for updates and other sports musings. Next up will be the St. Louis Cardinals!
