Alex Bregman is showing Mariners what they're missing with scorching spring

At no point during the 2024-25 offseason were the Seattle Mariners seriously connected to Alex Bregman in free agency. And now, the only place to see him in Mariners colors is in fans' dreams.

Here's hoping those dreams are pleasant ones. Because for Mariners fans, to watch what Bregman is doing this spring for the Boston Red Sox is akin to a waking nightmare.

Though the ink on his three-year, $120 million contract — yeah, the Mariners were never going to do anything like that — is barely dry, Bregman already looks worthy of every penny. He has been dominant for Boston in the Grapefruit League, entering Monday with a 5-for-10 line and six RBI.

Meanwhile in Mariners camp, Jorge Polanco is only just making his Cactus League debut on Monday. Though it's been over a month since he re-signed on a one-year, $7.75 million contract, he needed extra time to get game-ready as a result of offseason knee surgery.

As for whether Polanco, who only had a .651 OPS in 2024, is truly a viable solution at third base, well, that's a question only time and non-phony psychics can answer.

Just as a reminder, Bregman would have been perfect for the Mariners

Unlikely though a union between the two sides always was, one couldn't help but look at Bregman and the Mariners in the early stages of the offseason and think, "Hmmm, yes, that would work."

Third base was a weakness for Seattle amid an 85-win 2024 season that left the team just short of the playoffs, producing a .643 OPS, 12 home runs and 2.6 rWAR. Even in a down year for the Houston Astros, the 30-year-old Bregman had a .768 OPS, 26 homers and 4.1 rWAR.

This, of course, is not to mention a more specific quality of Bregman's that the Mariners could have used in 2024. He has been among the top 10 percent of hitters at avoiding strikeouts every year since 2018, whereas Mariners hitters fanned a league-high 1,625 times last season.

Alas, Mariners fans are now powerless as they watch the two-time All-Star put these tools to work in Red Sox camp. His professionalism has also had a palpable impact, for which Boston can thank its lucky stars. The last thing it needs is two unhappy third basemen.

Signing players like Bregman shouldn't be impossible for the Mariners

In highlighting the Mariners as a plausible, if unlikely fit for Bregman in December, Matt Snyder of CBS Sports wrote that the team needed to be in "aggressive, win-now mode."

That was spot-on in theory. However, we eventually learned via separate reports from Daniel Kramer of MLB.com that the Mariners weren't sold on Bregman's hitting profile at T-Mobile Park (which is fair enough, actually) and that the team had a budget of just $15 million to spend on outside help.

It actually came in under that, with Spotrac putting Seattle's free-agent spending at $11.25 million.

Yet even if the Mariners' failure to sign Bregman is not surprising, it is still symbolically frustrating. Beyond its obvious win-now window, this is a franchise that also has ample resources. The Mariners pulled in $396 million in revenue in 2023 alone, according to Forbes, which ranked ahead of more free-spending teams like the New York Mets and Los Angeles Angels.

It is some comfort that FanGraphs gives the Mariners a 57.2 percent chance of making the playoffs anyway, but a team with arguably MLB's best starting rotation and a generational star in Julio Rodríguez frankly deserves better. And for this, fans can and should direct their consternation firmly in the direction of owner John Stanton.