Mariners' offseason must be focused on breaking free of a recent bad habit

The Mariners, in recent offseasons, have had an apparent blind spot when it comes to veteran depth. It's a problem, and it needs to be addressed.

For the 2025 season, the M's added Donovan Solano, a corner infielder. While Jerry Dipoto initially claimed he thought Solano would play both third and first base for Seattle, he was used exclusively as a first baseman. The team trusted rookie Ben Williamson, whose OPS+ was 20 percent below league average, to man the hot corner after Jorge Polanco's injury, and left Solano as a platoon first-baseman. Solano was released in August.

The team also brought in Rowdy Tellez in the 2025 offseason, a minor league signing who cracked the roster and was batting as high as fifth in the lineup by May. However, he also fizzled out and was replaced at the trade deadline by Josh Naylor.

In the end, neither of the Mariners' depth additions in 2025 made it to September on the roster.

The Mariners need to break free of their bad habit of adding bad depth pieces

In 2024, the Mariners brought in a pair of backup catchers, Mitch Garver and Seby Zavala. Garver, who was expected to also play a significant role in the lineup at DH, was worth -0.2 bWAR for Seattle over the past two seasons. Zavala did not last through the end of 2024, being sent up and down throughout Triple-A all season.

The Mariners also added Luis Urías in 2024 to platoon with Josh Rojas at third base. Urías also did not make it the whole year with Seattle, playing just 34 games before being sent down in May — though he did return as a September callup and finished the year with the team.

Okay, so 2025 and 2024 both saw Seattle whiff on their depth pieces, but what about 2023? Surely the pattern does not repeat itself again?

Do Cooper Hummell, AJ Pollock, and Tommy La Stella ring a bell?

The trio of bench pieces were supposed to give the Mariners capable veterans on their bench in 2023. None of them were still on the team by the All-Star break.

Three years in a row, the Mariners have tried to bring in veteran depth pieces for their bench. And three years in a row, they have failed. It gets worse when you consider the Mariners really weren't trying to add bench depth before 2023. In 2022, their bench was made up of mostly young players like Sam Haggerty, Abraham Toro, and Luis Torrens. In 2021, their bench featured homegrown Jake Fraley and Jose Marmolejos.

In fact, the last offseason when the Mariners were truly successful in finding talented depth pieces was 2019, when they brought in Tom Murphy as a backup catcher and Dylan Moore as a utility infielder. Murphy and Moore stuck around for years, and both provided plenty of value to Seattle over the years. Since then, identifying depth talent has been a significant blind spot.

That needs to change in 2026. The Mariners overworked their stars in 2025. Julio Rodriguez had the eighth-most plate appearances last year, with Randy Arozarena coming in ninth and Cal Raleigh in 11th. Eugenio Suárez and J.P. Crawford both cracked the top-40, meaning Seattle had five of the 40 most used players in 2025.

On the one hand, it's a testament to the durability and work ethic of their stars. On the other hand, it's an injury waiting to happen, and it might be tiring their best players out by the time the playoffs come around. Arozarena and Crawford were abysmal in the playoffs, perhaps due to their heavy workload in the regular season. Both slowed down in September and might have benefited from some rest. But the Mariners did not have anyone to give them a break.

Seattle should finally bring in productive bench pieces in 2026 to ease the load on their stars, and make sure they have a talented roster top to bottom when they reach the playoffs.