Mariners' offseason priorities point to a looming opportunity for team's No. 1 prospect

The Seattle Mariners’ season ended with a bruise and a ledger. Game 7 of the ALCS stung because this roster was built to keep playing, and for long stretches, it showed. Let that sit. Let it shape the winter. Every move should answer it going forward.

The Mariners don’t need a teardown or a rebrand; they need to replace precise pieces, keep the core’s competitive edge sharp, and turn a good system into real major-league production where the roster has the most daylight.

That daylight sits in the infield. Several key free agents —Eugenio Suárez, Josh Naylor, and Jorge Polanco — headline the first set of choices. Publicly and privately, the early drumbeat has been consistent: Naylor is the top priority among the departing group, with internal optimism that he and Polanco “appear most likely” to return.

Bring those two back and you stabilize the middle of the order. Let Suárez walk and you open an obvious lane at third base for something this organization has talked about doing for years: promoting a premium bat they believe in and living with the growing pains because the upside is worth it.

Mariners’ offseason priorities open the door for Colt Emerson

That brings us to Colt Emerson. Multiple reports have already framed third base as an open audition next spring, and Emerson’s résumé reads like a player who can make that conversation uncomfortable, in a good way. 

Across the three highest levels of the minors, he averaged a 130 wRC+ with 16 homers and a .383 OBP. Don’t expect power equivalent to Suárez, but it’s still featured. He’s currently MLB Pipeline’s No. 9 overall prospect for a reason; the bat-to-ball foundation is already big-league adjacent.

The club isn’t handing him the job, and that’s healthy. Ben Williamson closed the year in Triple-A  with the kind of finish that gets coaches’ attention: better swing consistency, more authoritative contact, more plays made on the move at third. If camp turns into an honest-to-goodness competition, that’s a win for Seattle. You want two players forcing the front office to make a baseball decision, not a depth chart decision, and right now that’s how third base is shaping up: if Emerson’s approach holds against major-league velocity and Williamson keeps elevating, you suddenly have optionality instead of a hole.

Of course, there’s a nuclear option. If the Mariners jump into the Munetaka Murakami sweepstakes and actually land him, the picture changes overnight. Murakami would slot at third (or first/DH in a rotation), push everyone down a rung, and turn Emerson’s early-season path into “force your way up when the timing is right.” 

That scenario isn’t a failure for the prospect; it’s the exact competitive environment winning teams create. Development doesn’t stop because the depth chart is crowded, it sharpens because the standard is clear.

If Naylor and Polanco return as expected, Seattle can spend the bulk of its winter capital tightening the bullpen bridge and adding one more run-creator to lengthen the lineup. Do that, and third base becomes a controlled bet on upside instead of a scramble. That’s where Emerson comes in. 

Whether he breaks with the club or arrives in May or June, the Mariners have set the table for their No. 1 prospect to matter in 2026. The heartbreak of October doesn’t have to fade; it can fuel the first real youth-movement breakthrough of this competitive window, one that turns a “close” roster into a complete one.