Mariners Predictions for the 2023 season from the Sodo Mojo Staff!

IT'S ALMOST HERE! We are just a couple of days away from the start of the season, and the Mariners are preparing to kick off the season in Seattle against the Cleveland Guardians. It's a time when power rankings and predictions are coming out... so we decided to join in the fun.

A handful of the contributors decided to send in their predictions for what they think is going to happen in the 2023 season for the Mariners. I think this might be the most optimistic realism that has surrounded the team in a long time. We are coming off the first playoff berth since 2001 (Massive sigh of relief here), and I think fans are trying to figure out how to deal with this newfound optimism.

Sure, there are a handful of people out there, arguably the vocal minority, who are still uber-negative. You'll see comments about "Whenever expectations are high, the Mariners suck. 92 loss season incoming" or something along those lines. Who cares. Treat those people like Jesse Winker did practice and just ignore it.

Things are good. Shoot, things may be GREAT in Seattle right now for the Mariners and their fans. We have an incredible pitching staff, the offense is a lot deeper than people realize (albeit with potential holes still), and we have a young and fun team.

Mariners Prediction: Justin Churchill

The Seattle Mariners are coming off their best season since 2001. So, naturally, we would expect them to only get better from here on out, and that's exactly what I think will happen. The Mariners will finish their 2023 season as a wildcard team again, as the Houston Astros will still win the division, but, the gap between the two is a lot smaller this time around. The whole season the AL West should be between those two teams. In the last two seasons, they have finished 90-72. I think in 2023 the Mariners finish 94-68 and make the ALCS.

Mariners Prediction: Brandon Willman

I predict the Mariners will go 95-67 and finish second place in the AL West, but first place in the Wild Card standings. Their season will end with a 4-2 series loss in the ALCS to the Yankees. My bold prediction for the season is that the Mariners will have four All-Stars in Julio Rodriguez, Jarred Kelenic, Robbie Ray, and Luis Castillo. Teoscar Hernandez and Ty France will be left off the team, despite having seasons on the cusp of making it.

Mariners Prediction: Christine Navarro

I write this after the game where we saw several Mariners hit home runs in the game against the Cincinnati Reds. Because the Mariners’ new players complement the ones we already have, I have high hopes for this team. Having just watched the World Baseball Classic, however, I know there are many good baseball players out there.

I predict that the Mariners will win 95 games this season, five more than last year (and hoping for additional wins!) I have great confidence in our pitching staff, starters, and relievers. I believe that we have stronger batters and fielders this year with good players to share positions, rest players, and be ready to step in with injuries. I expect us to win more games against the Astros and Athletics and continue to battle it out with the Rangers’ new pitchers and a healthy Mike Trout on the Angels.

Mariners Prediction: Tyler Zornes

Bold prediction: Luis Castillo, Robbie Ray, and Logan Gilbert will all finish top 10 in Cy Young voting. The Mariners rotation was pretty stellar last year, and that was with Robbie Ray having a "down" year post-Cy Young campaign. Luis Castillo was an incredible addition last year, and he looks to continue that momentum into the 2023 season. Gilbert and Kirby are both youngsters coming off incredible full seasons where they showed a ton of progress. The sky is the limit with those two.

That just leaves Marco Gonzales or Chris Flexen. These 2 are very similar in my mind in that they can both eat a lot of innings and can be a very solid #5 in your rotation.

Bonus: Kelenic starts the most games in the field out of any player!

Record: 94-68. AL West Champs

Mariners Predictions: Curtis Christianson

I think that the Seattle Mariners will have another very successful season in 2023. They are coming off of back-to-back 90 win seasons and I think another one is in the cards. I predict they will win 90-95 games this season because this is the best squad they have had to start a season in quite possibly my entire 20 year lifetime. In 2021, Evan White was hitting cleanup on Opening Day and the outfield consisted of Jake Fraley, Taylor Trammell, and Mitch Haniger. The Mariners have certainly upgraded significantly since then, but they have also left themselves plenty of room for young players to exceed expectations.

Even though Jarred Kelenic has not been a quality player at the big league level yet, giving him one more opportunity to see if he can stick is a great idea. He has upside higher than any veteran they could have brought in to play in the outfield. If Kelenic shows improvement and is close to an average hitter then this team is going to go places in 2023. I think Kelenic will improve, but we will see if those improvements take him from bouncing between Triple-A and the big leagues to real contributor. 

The Mariners also have lots of young depth that can come up and help the team. Bryce Miller, Emerson Hancock, Taylor Dollard, Isaiah Campbell, Travis Kuhn, and Prelander Berroa could all come up and contribute this season. There will most certainly be one that we don't see coming, but these players offer upside that players that will be on the waiver wire just don't have. I expect some or all of these young pitchers to appear at the Major League level in 2023. 

Overall the Mariners should have a very successful season in 2023, and I think it will be a very fun one. They have a shot to overtake the Houston Astros in the American League West. It is incredibly difficult to win a World Series, including nearly everything going right for a team, and since the Astros are coming off of a lot going right for them, hopefully, some regression from them and growth from the Mariners narrows the gap between the two rivals.

Mariners Predictions: Chris O'Day

Everyone else has kept it short. I'm gonna go a bit longer, cause I started getting into it. Here we go. Should I be the one to bring things down at the end? A bit of nervous pessimism to potentially ground us in reality? Everyone so far has predicted wins in the low-to-mid 90s. It would make sense to go that old-school fan route of expecting a down year, something in the 80-85 win range, and missing the playoffs.

OR I COULD GO ALL IN!

Yeah, that sounds a lot more fun. 101 wins. They win the division. The Mariners end up with 4 players hitting 30+ homers with Julio, Geno, Teo, and Dumper all surpassing the mark, and Ty France barely misses out with 27. Even Kelenic gets close with 24. Julio finishes 3rd in MVP voting, but still posts a .302 BA with 33 HR and 37 SB. Geno brushes off the glory years in Cinci, and blasts 43 HR and hits .247.

Then, we have the pitching staff. Oh boy, does this get me excited. I love pitching more than anything else in sports I think. The Mariners have some studs, and it's evidenced by the Cy Young odds. Castillo, Ray, and Gilbert are all better than 20-1 to win, and having three guys in the top 10-12 for Cy Young odds at the start of the year is amazing.

Let's go all in on Gilbert. He finishes 2nd in Cy Young voting this year, dominating the competition all year WITHOUT the rough stretch that he had against the Yankees in those back-to-back starts last season. Remember that without those, he would've had an ERA under 2.7. Between the zero-zero slider, the splitter, an added year of experience, and the further emergence of Walter, Gilbert turns into the leader of the rotation.

Robbie Ray ends up second in the American League in K's with... 244. Kirby continues to get better, posting a 3.14 ERA. Bryce Miller comes up and gets about 12-15 starts, cementing himself in the conversation for 2024 as one of the Mariners starters. Oh, and Luis Castillo misses about a month, but dominates otherwise posting a 2.88 ERA.

The Mariners win the division, and then it's time for revenge. We play the Guardians in the first round. They knocked the Mariners out of the ALCS back in 1995 (I still remember this), and we beat them 3-1 to advance to the ALCS for the first time since 2001. Do you remember who we played then?

The Evil Empire. The Pinstripes. The Yankees.

That's who we play again. They knocked us out of the ALCS in both 1997 and 2001. The third time ends up being the charm, and the Mariners return the favor and beat them in 6 games, just like the Yankees did to the Mariners in 2000. All of a sudden, it's the first World Series appearance in the history of the Seattle Mariners.

The opponent ends up being the Atlanta Braves. In a way, the Mariners seem to be trying to replicate what the Braves are doing with scouting, early extensions, and some big trade splashes.

It's a hard-fought series. Thanks to getting that 101st win by the Mariners that they earned by finishing the season 8-2 against TEX-HOU-TEX, they have home-field by a game. Game 7. Seattle. Bottom of the 7th, and Ty France rips a ball down the RF line to score Jarred Kelenic from first. The Mariners go up 4-3. Sewald shuts them down in the 8th. Munoz comes in to close it out, and gets Albies to pop out to center, and Julio goes wild as he catches the ball to earn the Mariners their first ever World Series Win.

Ladies and Gentleman, your 2023 World Series Champion...

THE SEATTLE MARINERS!