3 Mariners players who may not be back after 2021

“The only constant in life is change” -Heraclitus. “The only other constant in life is Sodo Mojo writing that your favorite Mariners player might be traded or cut” -Willie Keeler

During this season and next offseason, the Mariners’ front office will have some very hard decisions to make about some key contributors on the team. In one case there is even a decision to be made about a potential Mariners Hall of Fame member.

Of course, there are many players on expiring deals who may not be back but I am looking at 3 specific players that don’t have expiring deals or have options on their contracts.

One player you might think would be one of the 3 is Yusei Kikuchi, however, he is in a spot that almost guarantees he will be a Mariner for 2 more years. Kikuchi’s contract has a team option that will have to either be picked up or declined following next season, and unless Yusei pitches like Cy Young, then it is hard to imagine he will get that 4 year $66 million extension that is on the table.

If the team option is declined, 2022 turns into a 1 year $13 million player option which, if he is not good enough to get his team option picked up, he will be accepting. Maybe he declines if he has an ok/decent season in favor of trying to sign a multi-year deal or go back to Japan.

Now, let’s look at the three players who have a big chance of not being with the Mariners in 2022.

Mitch Haniger

Mitch Haniger in my mind is the least likely of the three on this list to be gone in 2022. Haniger is heading into a weird season where he is recovering from multiple injuries and surgeries that kept him out for half of 2019 and all of 2020.

However, right before all of the injuries in 2018, he had a batting line of .285/.366/.493 with an .859 OPS that led him to his first and only All-Star Game and the 11th place in the MVP vote. So why would Mitch be gone before the 2022 season starts?

Most likely it is because he might not be a part of the plan in the Mariners front offices’ minds as he is only under team control for one more year after 2021, and in that case they could trade Haniger especially if the Mariners are not competing at the deadline and he is having a repeat of his 2018 season.

Haniger could also have a really bad 2021 season. I certainly hope he doesn’t and don’t think he will, based on what Jerry Dipoto said recently about his fitness, but being out of baseball for two years could lead to poor performance and then the Mariners could non-tender Haniger at the end of 2021 as they would not want to pay his third year of arbitration salary.

Luis Torrens

Luis Torrens just came over last season from the San Diego Padres in the Austin Nola deal as the lowest value player in the trade, as he was behind the likes of Taylor Trammell, Ty France, and Andres Muñoz. However, he has a real chance to be the backup catcher for the Mariners for 5-6 years.

If he can avoid injury he is also pretty much guaranteed to be in a platoon role with Tom Murphy to start the 2021 season, as Jerry Dipto recently said. The reason that he is “pretty much guaranteed” to be on the roster and given a chance is that he has no minor league options left. That means that if the Mariners want to send Torrens down to the minors for poor performance or to bring up top-catching prospect Cal Raleigh, he will have to clear waivers.

So, Torrens is heading into a real make-or-break season. He performed well last year for a 24-year-old catcher who is expected to be a backup with a .696 OPS which was a 96 OPS+ (Just slightly below average). But, if he stumbles this year Cal Raleigh is waiting in the wings to take over his spot and Torrens will be somewhere else after being claimed off waivers.