Where the Mariners players ranked in fWAR by position in 2023

Catcher: Cal Raleigh (4.7 fWAR) is 3rd out of 45

Cal Raleigh had a fantastic season, and I don't think there is any argument against that. Sure, maybe you want a higher batting average. Raleigh "only" hit .232/.306/.456 with a 111 WRC+, but he provided a great mix of power (30 bombs, a club record) and was a menace behind the dish, posting the 3rd highest dWAR mark on fangraphs for a catcher. He also threw out the most runners at 20, 5 more than an average catcher would get. Nicely done, Big Dumper.

First Base: Ty France (0.5 fWAR) 34th out of 53

Uggh. If you've read my stuff for a while, you know that I am a fan of Ty France, and have spoken his praises many a time. Shoot, it even went so far as projecting him to win the batting title in the past. This year was a lot different. He still got hit a ton, but he just didn't produce like the Mariners needed. When you pair that with his worst defensive season, it's not a good look. He was bad at first this year, and hopefully he goes to Driveline this offseason.

Second Base: Jose Caballero (2.2 fWAR) 21st out of 56
Second Base: Josh Rojas (1.1 fWAR) 32nd out of 56
Second Base: Kolten Wong (-1.1 fWAR) 353rd of 362. GROSS

Big ol group here, as the Mariners had three people essentially take up second base this season. First, there was literally one of the worst players in baseball in Kolten Wong. I have to eat my words here, because I said he was going to be good. He still should've been based on history, and there was nothing to portend this happened. 353 out of 362 players though? Ick.

Then, there was Rojas and Cabby. They did an admirable job, if not downright good job at second. Rojas was much better in Seattle than he was in Arizona, and Cabby was a menace on the bases and at messing with pitchers heads. 3.3 combined fWAR from those two? Amazing.

Third Base: Eugenio Suarez (3.2 fWAR) 10th of 58

Geno struck out. A LOT. However, he played great defense at the hot corner, making up for the lack of bat. There were a healthy amount of impressive plays there by him this season, and if we can get some kind of 2022 offense and 2023 defense combo, we could see a great season in 2024... somewhere in the 5-5.5 fWAR range, if not 6.0. As it was, he was still a top-ten third baseman in 2023, a fact that went unrealized by many this year.

Shortstop: JP Crawford (4.9 fWAR) T-4th of 49

Corey Seager. Francisco Lindor. Bobby Witt Jr. Those are the only shortstops that finished ahead of JP this year in fWAR. He tied with Dansby Swanson at 4.9, and that's the SS that everyone wanted the Mariners to go out and get heading into the 2023 season.

Do you know what's even more impressive? JP was the second best offensive shortstop in baseball this year, behind only Corey Seager. That's actually where the entirety of his value comes from, as he turned in a replacement level mark on defense. Maybe there is something to moving him to second if you can get a "real" shortstop, but it's definitely not going to be because his bat isn't good enough for a prime position on the field.

Left Field: Jarred Kelenic (1.2 fWAR) 26th of 61

It started off so good for Kelenic in 2023. He looked to finally be producing like fans wanted him to. He started to slow down on his torrid start, and then in a poorly timed instance of emotion, broke his foot kicking a water cooler. It happens, and it sounded like it wasn't him being a brat, but just being upset at himself. He still had a solid year, and it could be a good building block going forward for his success.

Center Field: Julio Rodriguez (5.9 fWAR) 1st of 48

5 years ago, and not a single person in the world, maybe even Julio himself, would've predicted that he would become this player. He didn't have great foot speed as a prospect at first, and was projected to be a corner outfielder with massive power. Instead, he's turned into the American League version of Ronald Acuna, a bit slower, maybe a bit less power, but also the ability to play a good center field. It was a great year, and we could see another leap in year 3 in 2024.

Right Field: Teoscar Hernandez (1.7 fWAR) 24th of 56

Teo's strikeouts and lackluster defense really bring down his WAR. You would think that the power and batting average would be enough to rank higher at the position, but when you don't pla good defense, don't walk, and strikeout 200+ times, it makes for a rough hill to climb. Teo definitely would've been one of the guys back in the day that everyone thought was amazing. Analytics tell a different story (although he is still good and fun to have on the team).

Designated Hitter: Mike Ford (0.6 fWAR) 25th of 46

Ford played about half the season with the Mariners, and actually had a pretty strong OPS+ or WRC+, whichever you prefer. Not a great batting average, but his slash was still good at .228/.323/.475. Anytime someone gets near an OPS of 800, you're in a good spot. Would a full year of Ford be worth pursuing if you could get a similar slash line for a full season? It's worth contemplating, especially since he might net you 30 HR. The 32% K rate... not so much.

Pitching is a bit different when it comes to qualifications. I decided to go with 100 IP+, which puts us at 127 candidates. That's still just about 4 starters per team. (Only 44 meet "qualified" status, which needs to be changed). I thought this would be a good number, and gets Bryce Miller into the group, although Woo and his 87 innings stay out.

Starting Pitching: George Kirby (4.4 fWAR) 11th of 127
Starting Pitching: Luis Castillo (3.4 fWAR) 20th of 127
Starting Pitching: Logan Gilbert (3.2 fWAR) 25th of 127
Starting Pitching: Bryce Miller (1.9 fWAR) 64th of 127

All three of those top pitchers actually meet the "qualified" mark for baseball, throwing over 162 innings. Maybe 2th, for Gilbert, doesn't seem great to people, but it's still a very impressive mark for your third pitcher. To know that you can throw Castillo/Kirby/Gilbert is a massive advantage. It also helps to take the pressure off of guys like Miller and Woo. To me, that Miller number is still impressive, and he flashed some great stuff this year with his Spencer Strider lite fastball.

Until September, Kirby and Castillo seemed neck and neck. If the Mariners really are going to have two pitchers each year battling for Cy Young contention, then we should be in a really good place going forward.

For relievers, we are going with 40 innings here. It's a fair amount of innings still, and gets you to 198 qualified pitchers that meet that mark.

Relief Pitching: Matt Brash (2.1 fWAR) 4th of 198
Relief Pitching: Andres Munoz: (1.3 fWAR) 31st of 198
Relief Pitching: Justin Topa (1.1 fWAR) 46th of 198
Relief Pitching: Gabe Speier (0.6 fWAR) 96th of 198
Relief Pitching: Taylor Saucedo (0.2 fWAR) 137th of 198

Brash obviously stands out here, dominating the Fangraphs leaderboards for fWAR. A 2.1 mark is incredibly impressive, especially when he doesn't have saves really, with those going to Munoz and Sewald for the majority of the season. It's the mix of appearances of strikeouts that greatly increases his worth, leading all of baseball with 78 appearances. He had 107 Ks, which was 109th in baseball. That's insane when you consider hes a reliever and only threw 70.2 innings.

Topa is the fun one. He had 1.1 fWAR, and came out of nowhere. The Mariners trusted him a lot, and he was actually T-2nd in appearances with 75, alongside Miguel Castro and Emmanuel Clase. I like that Speier had a solid mark, and that Saucedo even made the list. Yeah, he's 137th, but that's as the Mariners 5th option out of the pen. To get worth from 5 relievers? That's a really good sign.

The Mariners had a ton of good players this year. Expectations were high, and they didn't meet them, but the run of good luck and chaos ball had to come back and bit them at some point. Stay tuned for a review of the Mariners as a whole, and see how this year's team compares to the ones from the past two seasons.