Seattle Mariners: Predicting MLB the Show Diamond Dynasty Rankings

It’s so close, and yet still so far away. Normally, MLB the Show comes out before the MLB season starts. That wasn’t the case this year, as a combination of COVID and cross-play has pushed the release date back to April 20th, or April 16th if you purchased an enhanced version, like the awesome Jackie Robinson edition. It’s only 10-14 days away now, so let’s take a look at some of the Seattle Mariners rankings in the game.

Now, we are going to do two different versions of this, and there is a good reason why. A large part of the community plays Diamond Dynasty, and focuses solely on that. It’s like Madden’s Ultimate Team, but way better. Part of that is because San Diego Studio actually cares about a combination of the fans, the game, and making money. Not just making money. You collect cards, put them in your lineup, and rankings adjust based on how the players are doing in real life. Plus, they have legends, so rankings are a bit lower than they would be in Franchise Mode.

Franchise Mode will be the other set of rankings that we will look at. Those will be higher and will be a good list for anyone looking to go through the process of getting the Mariners back to the playoffs. Still daunting, but not nearly as difficult as it was in years past.

Here are the Diamond Dynasty projections for the Seattle Mariners in MLB the Show 21.

Rotation

• Marco Gonzalez – 83
• James Paxton – 78
• Chris Flexen – 74
• Justus Sheffield – 75
• Yusei Kikuchi – 74
• Justin Dunn – 69

Marco is a great pitcher, but due to his low Velo, he gets penalized in rankings a bit. Plus, the whole “West Coast Bias” thing we usually see surrounding the Mariners. Paxton has a higher ceiling than Marco but needs to show that he can stay healthy. With Flexen coming over from Korea, don’t expect to see him ranked too high to start the year.

When it comes to the last three, it is a combo of either needing to be shown for a longer period of time that they can pitch well, or that they actually have kept their increase in velocity and movement. If you are a collector, the Mariners are one of the teams that you should go after first. If the defense is as good as expected, the pitchers should all see a jump in their rankings.

Lineup

• Tom Murphy – 77
• Evan White – 74
• Dylan Moore – 80
• Kyle Seager – 80
• J.P. Crawford – 76
• Taylor Trammell – 71
• Kyle Lewis – 80
• Mitch Haniger – 75
• Ty France – 73

Crawford and White are both penalized a lot for their lack of offense, and will likely have black circles. This is the lowest of the five stages in Diamond Dynasty, black circle, bronze, silver, gold, and diamond. Ironically enough, both should be given Diamonds on defense after winning the Gold Gloves at their positions last year.

Lewis gets a nice bump due to winning ROY last year, and ties for the highest ranking in the lineup. Seager has consistently been near 80, and should be there again this year, although he might be given a slight downward bump due to age. Dylan Moore’s combination of average, power, speed, and utility gets him to 80 also. Haniger is the hardest to predict after his injury, and will likely be ranked a bit lower than you would expect as they wait to see if he comes back as the same, or even better.

Tom Murphy showed he might be one of the better offensive catchers in the game in 2019, hitting .273 with 18 homers in just 281 plate appearances. Don’t expect him to hit 35 homers in a season, but having a solid hitter behind the plate for the Mariners should be expected.

That leaves Ty France and Taylor Trammell. Both need to prove, sort of like Sheffield, Kikuchi, and Dunn, that they can do it for an extended period in the majors. If France’s bat plays like we expect, and hopefully like David Schoenfield predicts (scroll to #25 for the Mariners), he will jump a lot in his ranking.

Bench

• Jose Marmolejos – 75
• Luis Torrens – 66
• Jake Fraley – 71
• Sam Haggerty – 67

Torrens is low due to being young and inexperienced. Haggerty is a utility guy without much of a track record. Fraley has an okay ranking due to being a decent prospect for quite a while, but at 26, it’s time to prove it. Marmolejos has passable speed and can be a cheap card for quite a while against righties due to his good contact/power against them as a left-handed hitter.

Bullpen

• Will Vest – 64
• Rafael Montero – 73
• Keynan Middleton – 74
• Kendall Graveman – 72
• Nick Margevicius – 70
• Casey Sadler – 68
• Drew Streckinrider – 71

I love the Mariners, but there just isn’t a lot to be excited about in the bullpen. At the same time, it’s better than what they’ve had in years past. What we have is a collection of guys that have a wide gap between their floor and ceiling. They mostly end up around 70s, and could fluctuate greatly within a month or two.

If you haven’t given Diamond Dynasty a shot before, definitely do so. It’s a wonderful game mode. If you already have, you know how great it is. Make sure to create your team and check out the Mariners rankings once the game comes out.