MLB.com's assessment of Mariners' 2024-2025 offseason sounds like a broken record

The more the Seattle Mariners remain inactive during the offseason, the more the fans' frustration mounts. This team needs offensive additions, particularly at first, second and third base. There was hope the Mariners would acquire Gavin Lux in a trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers, but Lux was dealt to Cincinnati on Monday.

Now, the Mariners shortcomings are being noted on a national level. On Sunday, Brent Maguire of MLB.com listed eight teams with the most work to do in the new year. At the top of his list was the Mariners.

"For a Mariners team that averaged 88 wins a season from 2021-24 but fell just short of the playoffs in three of those seasons, the lack of activity has been interesting -- especially for a team assembled by the always-aggressive Jerry Dipoto. In fact, Seattle hasn’t signed a single player to a Major League contract this offseason ... The story remains the same for a Mariners team that features an elite rotation, stellar bullpen and an offense that struggled to score runs last season."

Maguire lists Ha-Seong Kim as an option at second base and says trading one of the teams' quality starting pitchers for a bat would be a smart idea, something that just about everyone has suggested at this point.

Adding Kim would be a solid signing for the Mariners, even with his injury concerns. He's coming off a 2.6 bWAR season with a .700 OPS. Given the Mariners' recent history at second base, Kim would be an upgrade, albeit marginal, for this team on offense. Last year was a down year defensively for Kim (0.9 dWAR), but he won a Gold Glove in 2023 and was far better than that dWAR mark in 2022.

Recently, the Mariners were listed as a suitor for Yoan Moncada. The once-promising third base prospect has overcome numerous injuries with the Chicago White Sox throughout his career. When healthy, he can be a solid player, but adding Moncada won't get Mariners fans super excited.

All in all, the team's passive approach has gotten them to this point with so many underwhelming candidates as the remaining options. And now that the national media has noticed and continued to criticize, the M's better hope the outside noise isn't correct in assessing this is not a 2025 playoff team.