Mariners settle on bargain contracts with Randy Arozarena, George Kirby at deadline

The Seattle Mariners approached 2025 with a number of notable players that are arbitration-eligible for the upcoming season. Two key pieces of their rotation in Logan Gilbert and George Kirby are both Super Two players, and Cal Raleigh is entering his first season of arbitration. However, the elephant in the room without question seemed to be Randy Arozarena.

Acquired at the trade deadline, Arozarena is easily the most expensive player for the Mariners to deal with in arbitration. After all, that's why the Rays got rid of him in the first place.

MLB Trade Rumors predicted a $11.7 million salary for him in his third arbitration year, and givenSeattle's tight payroll, Arozarena's payday was destined to determine a lot about how much room the Mariners will have to play with for the rest of their 2025 roster.

Thursday was the deadline for teams to either settle on contracts with their arb-eligible guys or to file opposing arbitration figures and head to a hearing. Fortunately, the Mariners settled with Arozarena on a one-year contract that is honestly a bit of a bargain.

Mariners settle with Randy Arozarena, Logan Gilbert, and others to avoid arbitration

While Arozarena is still getting paid pretty handsomely for 2025 at $11.3 million, that does represent a bit of a savings versus what many thought he would get.

The same is true with Gilbert, who also settled before the deadline and got $7.625 million when others had predicted him getting north of $8 million. At this point, every dollar saved could actually matter this offseason.

George Kirby's $4.3 million arbitration settlement is $1.2 million lower that MLB Trade Rumors predicted and, given his performance in the Mariners' rotation, he is an absolute steal at that price. Cal Raleigh's settlement with the Mariners came in right at projections for his first arb year at $5.6 million. Raleigh has been a revelation since 2022 in averaging 3.6 rWAR a season and 30 home runs a year, although it would be nice if he could pull his batting average up into the .250's somewhere.

What this all means for the Mariners offseason is unclear. Despite having a very obvious need to add some offense, Seattle has essentially stood pat while obvious free agent fits signed elsewhere. While it is fun to think that some of these savings in arbitration could change that, the actual dollars involved here suggests that we could see more of the same the rest of the way until the Mariners prove us otherwise.

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