Mariners have 2 obvious cuts to make for their playoff roster

The Seattle Mariners face one of those tough but inevitable postseason realities (and one that Mariner fans are thankful they have to make): cutting down the roster by two players for their playoff roster. In this case, the front office will likely go with the two obvious choices: Harry Ford and Luke Jackson.

The Mariners have to get their roster down from 28 players to 26 for their upcoming matchup with the Detroit Tigers in the American League Division Series. According to Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times, they are likely to go with 14 position players and 12 pitchers. The team ended the regular season with 15 position players and 13 pitchers, so one of each has to go.

It is possible that Bryan Woo will have to be left off the ALDS roster. The All-Star righty has been dealing with inflammation in his right pectoral since September 19, and his recovery has been slower than the team had surely hoped. Yet he could be ready to go for a possible Game 5 next Friday, and Daniel Kramer of MLB.com posits that the Mariners could want to include Woo as an "option deep in the series over any alternate reliever they might consider carrying."

Mariners should spare Harry Ford and Carlos Vargas from ALDS roster

If the Mariners do include Woo, Jackson is the best cut to make on the pitching side. It's between him and Carlos Vargas, and the appeal with Vargas is that he can handle bulk innings as needed. He appeared in 70 games this season and covered 77.0 innings. Even if Vargas (3.97) and Jackson (4.06) had about the same ERA for the regular season, Vargas was the better strike-thrower of the two.

Ford, though one of the most intriguing names on the bench in September, has always been seen as more of a future piece than a present contributor. There is the question of whether to keep him on as an emergency catcher behind Cal Raleigh and Mitch Garver, but the reality is that Ford barely played in September.

Seattle’s run in September was nothing short of electric. They went from fighting for position to seizing control, winning games with both dominant pitching and clutch, timely hitting. Their 17–1 stretch not only vaulted them past Houston to win their first AL West title in 24 years, but also paved their way to the AL’s No. 2 seed. This is the type of baseball and hot streak that transforms a talented roster into a legitimate World Series contender, and every roster spot suddenly feels magnified under the playoff spotlight.

That’s why the way the Mariners handled Ford seems questionable at best. Yes, he’s young, raw, and unproven at the big-league level. But the Mariners never truly gave him a chance to prove whether he could help in October. Instead, they continued to prioritize Garver, whose tenure in Seattle has been flat-out disappointing. He was signed before the 2024 season to be a steadying force in the middle of the order, but to say he's fallen short of expectations in the last two years is an understatement, emphasized by his .209/.297/.343 slash line with nine homers in 87 games this year. In an offense that has often needed an extra spark, his lack of production has been glaring.

Let's be honest, once October comes, the backup catcher will likely rarely see the field, thanks to Raleigh's dominance this year, but Garver has given you virtually nothing. And nobody’s saying Ford would have been a lock to outperform Garver, but the Mariners missed an opportunity to at least test the theory. Playoff baseball often rewards the bold, and there’s a real case that Ford’s upside, whether with his bat, athleticism, or energy, was worth the gamble.

Instead, Seattle chose the safer, more conventional route. As the Mariners look towards their postseason track that now carries legitimate championship aspirations, the Garver-over-Ford decision could linger as a “what if” for a fan base that’s suddenly thinking bigger than just participating in October baseball.