SeaSide Thoughts: Mariners split the week for Mom!

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After an impressive run where the Mariners won six straight series, with a few coming against teams with legitimate championship aspirations, the M’s were brought back down to earth up in the Great North.

After a disappointing end to their series win streak, Seattle came home and got back to their winning ways, taking two out of three from the Oakland A’s. Not only did Seattle widen their gap on the surprisingly competitive A’s, but they also were able to take advantage of a terrible sweep the Colorado Rockies just handed the Rangers. As we head past Mother's Day, Seattle is a flawed team, but also a first-place team with a lot of potential.

SeaSide Thoughts: Week 7

Minnesota isn't messing around

The Minnesota Twins, winners of 17 of their last 20, have the look of an AL title contender. In their series victory over the Mariners, the Twins outscored the M’s 26-15, and likely would have swept Seattle if not for a late Cal Raleigh grand slam, and some more Josh Rojas heroics to stave off a four game sweep.

Since their hot streak, they have roared back into a competitive AL Central race, have an offense that has five players who are posting an OPS+ above 117, and a decent rotation that has a dominant bullpen to carry the load.

The Twins had some players that I was very interested in trying to poach all winter and this summer, but they now look more like a team Seattle could face in October, than a deadline trade partner.

Oakland isn't good, but they have some pieces

While I don't expect Seattle to go 12-1 against the Athletics this season, it was another good series win against a divisional opponent. With the win, the Mariners now move to 6-3 against the AL West, and have not played the lowly Mike Trout-less Angels.

It will take more blue-chip talent for the A’s to climb out of the mess their ownership has put them in, but that doesn't mean the cupboard is empty. On the lineup side, Abraham Toro is having his best season yet and may turn into a valuable depth piece for a contender at the deadline.

The real star though, has been Brent Rooker. After making his first all-star game last season, the twenty-nine-year-old OF/DH has only gotten better in 2024. Through 30 games, Rooker is slashing .292/.380/1.012 with 10 home runs and six doubles. Rooker, who has shown Seattle some love, was an absolute menace during the three-game series and looks to be a real problem going forward.

He provides some of that “light-tower” power that is needed to overcome whatever limitations T-Mobile Park brings, and he's under contract through 2027. While he would come at a massive cost with trade assets, he is also arbitration eligible after the season, which could begin the motivation by Oakland to move him. I don't expect a deal to get done this summer, but he's a name to watch over the next two years.

The return of Woo…we think?

The last start by Emerson Hancock will likely be his last with the team for a while. After giving up four runs in four innings, Hancock was pulled in what ended up being Seattle's lone win in Minnesota. The young prospect has had some good to great moments this season, filling in while Bryan Woo got healthy and ramped up, but he's also been playing with fire.

His baseball savant page shows a depth starting pitcher who probably has been affected by injuries to the point we may never see his full potential. I still think there's a path where he could be a real contributor, but his best value moving forward could be as trade bait. We all saw the Jim Bowden trade involving Hancock for Pete Alonso. That's a deal I probably say yes to, and pretty quickly, but I also don't know how realistic it is. He's a name to keep an eye on at the deadline, or if someone gets hurt.

Which leads us to Woo. Woo was absolutely fantastic and electric in his first start of the season until back-to-back 88 mph fastballs and a wince brought everything to a halt. Woo was removed after 62 pitches, but supposedly he is fine? Scott Servais mentioned that this has been happening to Woo after long offensive innings where he has to sit for an extended period of time.

This is a situation to monitor. The Mariners will likely never equal their historic pitching run, but they are a better overall unit with Woo in the rotation over Hancock. If he can stay healthy, and show what he did in 4+ innings against Oakland, this team could run away with the division, if the offense clicks.

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