Mariners 2023 Recap: Re-visiting 4 Negative Pivotal Moments from this Season

3. Mariners Sell at the Trade Deadline

Despite being well within the AL Wild Card race and being just six games back in the division, the Mariners made the decision to be sellers at this year's trade deadline. The marquee trade sent reliable closer Paul Sewald to the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for Josh Rojas, Dominic Canzone, and Ryan Bliss. The underwhelming return haul of two position players with OPS+ figures below 80 and an infield prospect felt like the front office giving up.

Other moves included sending AJ Pollock and Mark Mathias to the Giants for cash or a player to be named later, shipping infield prospect Mason McCoy off to the Blue Jays for Trent Thornton, trading pitching prospect Logan Rinehart to Baltimore for Eduard Bazardo, and designating Kolten Wong for assignment.

There wasn't effort made to bolster a relatively weak lineup or support an injury-ridden starting rotation. Unlike last year which saw the arrival of Luis Castillo, no big names joined the locker room and it felt like management had little to no faith in the roster's ability to make a deep postseason run or make the postseason in the first place. Ultimately the team did pretty darn well and missed out on the playoffs by a hair, but the lack of support from ownership really didn't help.