SeaSide Thoughts: 5 reasons to still believe in the Mariners

It'll take more than a few wins to wash away the horror show that was the first 16 games of the Seattle Mariners 2024 season, but the last few days have been a good start.

A dominant 9-3 victory on Monday that saw the offense finally wake up and George Kirby’s precision and return to dominance was followed by a 3-1 win on Tuesday that saw the pitching continue its return to greatness, while the offense did enough and the defense was superb, giving Seattle their first series win of the year.

As the Mariners go for the Wednesday matinee sweep, it feels like the tide is slowly turning. This team has a long way to go to get to the World Series potential that I truly believe they have, but there's been some recent trends that has me believing the M’s are about to go on a run and show they will be a serious challenger in 2024.

5 reasons to still believe in the Mariners

Haniger looks like 2021 Haniger

I wrote about it in our opening week SeaSide Thoughts about how great it was to have Mitch Haniger back, but I didn't anticipate Mitch Haniger being 2021 Mitch Haniger!

Before Tuesday, Haniger was posting an OPS+ of 160, and that will only rise after going 2/4 with a big RBI single late to give the Mariners a 3-1 lead. Haniger is now slashing .300/.382/.882 with 3 HRs and 12 RBI.

Before the season, the hope was that Haniger could help the team as a veteran depth piece, but instead, he has been carrying the offense. While this is probably not ideal, it has become a necessity with the Dominic Canzone injury and the curious case of Luke Raley not getting playing time.

If Seattle can get their offensive stars cooking, and pair them with this version of Mitch Haniger, the offense can still be a really good lineup.