It's World Series or bust for Mariners after Eugenio Suárez blockbuster

Though the Seattle Mariners are five games over .500 and positioned to qualify for the American League playoff field, the truth is that they haven't played well for the bulk of the year. That nine-series win streak from April and May is still doing a lot of heavy lifting.

And yet here we are on the morning of July 31, fully confident in this team's ability to take a World Series drought that has been active since 1977 and sweep it into the dustbin of history.

The Mariners have used the trade market to progressively get stronger over the last week. First it was Josh Naylor. Then it was Caleb Ferguson. And then on Wednesday night, not long before the clock struck midnight on the East Coast, it was Eugenio Suárez in a blockbuster deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

And just like that, the Mariners got their man and changed everything for how the rest of their season should go.

The Mariners might be the World Series favorite in the American League

Even as recently as this week, there were indications that the Mariners were pivoting away from Suárez to fill other needs at, ahem, let's say more reasonable prices. This was sensible in the abstract...but it also put the team at risk of making an unforgivable unforced error.

Whereas other teams merely wanted Suárez, the Mariners truly needed him. Third base had been their biggest offensive black hole, specifically by way of producing five home runs all season. If Ben Williamson wasn't making a nice play in the field, there just wasn't much to see from Seattle third sackers.

It made all the sense in the world that Suárez would emerge as the Mariners' No. 1 target. And now that he's back in Seattle for the first time since he was unceremoniously shipped to Arizona two winters ago, it's time to party like the Mariners have never partied before.

Offensive upgrades don't come much more obvious than this. The 34-year-old Suárez is well established as one of the best pure power hitters in Major League Baseball, with 312 home runs to show for his 12-year career and 36 just for this season. There are only five homers standing between him and Cal Raleigh (41) for the MLB lead.

Suárez and Raleigh instantly form the best power-hitting duo in all of MLB, and the presence of Naylor, Julio Rodríguez and Randy Arozarena only further heighten the potential of this lineup for the remainder of the season. Naylor is an All-Star-caliber hitter at first base, and Rodríguez (8 HR since July 11) and Arozarena (13 HR since June 30) are both on a power binge.

“I felt good, even going into today, but even better now that Geno is here. And it’s no knock on any guys that are in the clubhouse right now. It’s just how good Geno is and what he brings to the clubhouse and what he brings on the field every day, and the consistency,” Raleigh said Wednesday, per Tim Booth of The Seattle Times.

It is now on the pitching to shape up and be more consistent, and things are already progressing in the right direction there. Through Seattle's mound staff has not resembled the powerhouse that it was in 2024, it does have a seventh-ranked 3.60 ERA since June 13 and is close to being back at full strength with Bryce Miller nearing his return from an elbow injury.

As Suárez, Naylor, and Ferguson are all on expiring contracts, there's pressure on the deals for all three to pay off now. The Mariners making the playoffs for only the second time since 2001 would be akin to a silver medal. The goal must be for the gold of the Commissioner's Trophy.

To this end, only the New York Yankees (8.5 percent) and Detroit Tigers (8.4 percent) have better odds at FanGraphs of winning the World Series than the Mariners (7.7 percent) among AL clubs. Neither of those two clubs is playing especially well. And while the trade deadline won't come and go until 3 p.m. PT on Thursday, neither has upgraded to nearly the degree the Mariners have.

As the Mariners have somehow retained all eight of the prospects they have in MLB Pipeline's top 100, it is only after a slight hesitation that one can say it's "World Series or bust." President of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto clearly hasn't forgotten the future, even as he's sought to fortify his team for the present.

There should nonetheless be no mistake that a big swing is in progress. Hopefully, it will connect. And even if it doesn't, it's the kind of swing the Mariners won't regret taking.