Mariners insider offers a polarizing solution to an overlooked offseason problem

With the 2025 season now officially over, the focus moves to what the Seattle Mariners need to do during the coming months in order to once again compete for a World Series next year. They have never been closer to turning this dream into a reality, and what they do during the winter will give fans at least some idea about how committed ownership is to completing this journey,

As you would expect, various local media outlets have shared their ideas on what the Mariners need to do, including Adam Jude of The Seattle Times. He suggested five offseason moves the M's need to make, including the most obvious one of re-signing Josh Naylor.

Jude advised the Mariners should also re-sign Jorge Polanco and trade Luis Castillo, two moves which we can objectively understand. He also mentioned an idea which has been gaining traction in trading for Tarik Skubal, but SoDo Mojo's Tremayne Person has already written about why the M's would be best to avoid this particular temptation.

Mariners do need bullpen help, but ...

It's the fifth move Jude mentions which we're going to focus on, with him advising of the need to sign a proven high-leverage reliever. This is undoubtedly a priority after the trade deadline addition of Caleb Ferguson proved to be a failure, along with the playoffs highlighting the shortage of quality bullpen options at the Mariners' disposal.

However, we're not entirely sold on Jude's suggestion that the Mariners should bring in Devin Williams on a one-year, $10-million free-agent deal as a short-term solution. The main reason for this is because as elite as the righty was out of the bullpen between 2020-24, he's coming off the worst season of his Major League career in 2025.

After spending his entire professional career with the Milwaukee Brewers, they declined the 2025 option on Williams contact and subsequently traded him to the New York Yankees last December. What followed was a rough year for the two-time All-Star, as he produced career worsts with a -0.3 WAR, 4.79 ERA and 85 ERA+, while also suffering from a 5.3 mph spike in his average exit velocity.

In fairness to Williams, as pointed out by Jude, his underlying data remained strong. As per Baseball Savant there were plenty of percentile rankings in the 90s for the 31-year-old, including ranking in the 99th percentile for Extension and Whiff%, as well as the 97th percentile for Chase% and K%.

Devin Williams still remains a polarizing solution

However, there still remains enough doubt with Williams that you have to believe there are better bullpen solutions out there for the Mariners. In addition, as per Gary Phillips of New York Daily News, the two-time NL Reliever of the Year has said he wants to close next season.

This is clearly something that's not going to happen in Seattle, not with a certain Andrés Muñoz currently serving as the Mariners' closer and coming off a career year. Plus, Williams was demoted from the role for a while during this past season with the Yankees due to his loss of form, only returning to the position following a hamstring injury to Luke Weaver.

Just to be clear, no disrespect is meant to Jude with what is a well thought-out list, and we wouldn't go as far as calling it a disaster if the Mariners did decide to make a move for Williams. Ultimately though, we do believe there are better options out there in the quest to solidify the bullpen heading into the 2026 season.