Mariners 2023 Report Card: Wildly varying opinions from the folks here at Sodo Mojo

Trevor Pedro: Mariners earn a B- for the 2023 season

The Mariners came into this season with some considerable hype and rightfully so. They were coming off a second consecutive e 90-win season. They had a franchise icon who won the American League Rookie of the Year award. Their pitching was deep and their bullpen was strong. Jerry Dipoto swung a trade for noted slugger Teoscar Hernandez and filled out around the edges (AJ Pollock, Kolten Wong) to raise the floor of the team.

Well, the latter didn’t work and it was a huge determant to the team realizing their goal of making a deep playoff run.Because of the failures of Hernandez, Pollock, and Wong, General Manager Justin Hollander was forced to leverage the trade market by shipping closer Paul Sewald to Arizona for new platoon players (Dominic Canzone, Josh Rojas). It is safe to say the Mariners would’ve made the playoffs with Sewald on the roster.

They blew September late-game leads against Cincy, New York, Chicago, Texas, and Los Angeles. That is AT LEAST five winnable games right there. If Pollock and Wong actually performed up to the back of their baseball cards Sewald would still be here and the Mariners would be celebrating another playoff appearance. It’s always hard to put the onus on a small set of moves (or lack thereof) because baseball is a TEAM game. However, this group of transactions put the nail in the coffin of the 2023 season.