2024 Mariners Offseason Plan: Swing for Juan Soto

Mariners Step 3: Sign Adam Duvall (1yr/$7mil)

Duvall, a former all-star and World Series hero for the Atlanta Braves in 2021, had an incredible start last year for the Boston Red Sox, before a wrist injury impaired him for the rest of the season. Nevertheless, Duvall still put up a 1.5 WAR season and a 119 OPS+. He has experience playing in all three outfield spots, as well as 1st base earlier in his career. With an 85th percentile in barrel percentage, the Mariners would be adding some serious power to their lineup with Duvall and Soto.

I'll be honest, Soto is not a very good defender, although some of his RF numbers in 2022 weren't horrific, while Duvall had a solid season in his 26 games defensively in right field out in Fenway Park. While Soto is probably best suited to be a DH soon, a shared rotation of RF and DH by Soto and Duvall could make for a massive jump in production from two spots that disappointed in 2023.

Mariners Step 4: Sign OF Lourdes Gurriel Jr (4yr/$54mil)

In what would be the largest offensive free agent addition of the Jerry Dipoto era, the Seattle Mariners bring in the spectacularly solid Gurriel, who is coming off playing a key role in the Arizona Diamondbacks Cinderella run to the World Series.

Just turned 30, Gurriel just produced a 3 WAR season with a career-best 24 home runs and a career OPS+ of 115. Gurriel doesn't necessarily jump off the page with anything that he does great, but he's just pretty good at everything. Gurriel has some pop as we mentioned, doing it in a pitcher-friendly Chase Field. He doesn't walk a ton, but he has some of the very best strikeout and whiff rates in the league while ranking in the 77th percentile in hard-hit rate. When he's not being a solid hitter in your lineup, he's one of the most underrated left fielders in the game, with above-average range and a blue-chip arm that will record plenty of assists in 2024.