Mariners: 3 Players Who Won’t Be Back Next Season

The Seattle Mariners have an exciting young roster, with a few stellar veterans sprinkled in between, and most players from the 2021 team will return next season. However, some veteran players didn’t quite live up to their expectations this season, and it’s unlikely we’ll see them in a Mariners uniform come Opening Day.

Several factors come into play when deciding if a player should make the roster: What’s their contract status? Do they have trade value? Do they have a long-term future with the team? Would their departure cause significant locker room demoralization?

The players on the next few slides are all players who had bright moments during the 2021 season, but ultimately didn’t do enough to prove they should factor into the Mariners’ upcoming plans. It’s always tough to see players leave the franchise (some more than others), but as Scott Servais likes to say, “you gotta perform to stay in this league”.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at three Mariners players who we likely won’t see in the teal and blue next season:

Note: I’m omitting Kyle Seager from this list, as we’ve already written about his looming departure at least 67 times this month.

Tom Murphy is well-regarded by Mariners pitchers for his deep understanding of the organization’s overall pitching approach and ability to develop a strong rapport with the pitching staff, but other deficiencies in his game have created a cloudy future for him in Seattle.

Murphy fell outside of the top 30 catchers in MLB this season with a 4.3 defensive (DEF) rating, according to Fangraphs, while rookie Cal Raleigh posted an impressive 5.9 DEF rating in just 43 games. Offensively, Murphy’s .202/.304/.350 slash line and OPS+ of 84 (where 100 is league average) doesn’t help his case.

Murphy is arbitration-eligible next season and would be expected to make $1.75 million; if the Mariners don’t find a willing trade partner for Murphy this offseason, I don’t believe they will tender him that contract. Whether Seattle develops Luis Torrens’s catching abilities (which I believe they should prioritize), or tap into the free agent market/trade market for catchers, Seattle will be better off finding a platoon-mate for Cal Raleigh behind the plate elsewhere.

Jake Bauers will fall victim to a “too many cooks in the kitchen” scenario in Seattle this offseason, as the Mariners are stacked in the outfield with Kyle Lewis, Jarred Kelenic, Mitch Haniger, Taylor Trammell, Jake Fraley, and potentially Julio Rodriguez all expected to see playing time next season.

Bauers, a 26-year-old outfielder/first baseman acquired from the Cleveland Indians in the early part of the season, primarily served as a left-handed pinch-hitter and late-inning defensive replacement during the course of his Mariners tenure. While his defense was impressive, his .220/.297/.275 slash line at the plate doesn’t merit him a roster spot moving forward.

However, Bauers’s status as a former top-100 prospect and his relative youth could make him a relatively attractive trade piece this offseason. If the Mariners were to shop Bauers on the trade market, he could return at least a decent minor league catcher who could replace Carter Bins, a promising young catcher traded at the trade deadline for starting pitcher Tyler Anderson.

With Bauers under pure team control for one more season, Seattle doesn’t need to release him if they don’t want to offer him anything more than the MLB minimum of $570,500. So, we could see him at AAA Tacoma to begin the season, but it’s unlikely he will appear in Seattle.