Biggest Offseason Acquisition: Michael Morse

Potential Fatal Flaw: Being not good enough to compete in their division

Ceiling: Third place in the AL West

Floor: Fourth place in the AL West

Overall: The future is bright in Seattle. There are a number of top and mid-tier prospects, from high-ceiling (pitcher Taijuan Walker) to easily projectable (catcher Mike Zunino) who will be arriving in the next two years and could very well form the core of the next Washington Nationals, so to speak.

Great teams are built on pitching. For all the excitement the Colorado Rockies generated in the mid-90s, because of their run-scoring ability, remind me how many World Series titles they won. The answer is zero.

Seattle is building a team that will be built on pitching, led by Felix Hernandez, who they signed to an extension this offseason through the 2019 season. If we’re talking about a rotation with Hernandez, Walker, Danny Hultzen, and James Paxton (if he develops a useful changeup), I’m on board.

The 2013 Seattle Mariners have improved to some extent, but I think much of that improvement talk is exaggerated a bit. Seattle is always going to have trouble scoring runs at Safeco Field. The park was last in runs scored in 2012, second to last in homers, and last in hits. Much of that has to do with how bad Seattle’s offense was. But even in their historic 116-win 2001 season, Safeco was still second to last in runs scored. The park is too expansive to build a team around offense.

And so while the offense is improved on paper with the additions of Michael Morse and Kendrys Morales, I don’t expect Morse’s power numbers to sustain at the level they were in the previous two seasons in DC and Morales is a regressed player since his horrific leg injury. The lineup is improved, but it’s like trading-in your 2004 Mitsubishi Galant for a 2006 Mitsubishi Galant in 2013. You might think you look cooler in the later model Galant, but it’s still a seven-year-old Mitsubishi.

Seattle’s rotation features King Felix at the top and a cast of characters behind him. There’s Joe Saunders, who remains an employed Major League pitcher, despite not posting a WHIP below 1.30 since 2008 and striking out only 5 batters per 9 innings in his career (as a sidebar, I’d really like to have a son who I turn into a soft-tossing lefty. That’s where the money is at).

There’s also Erasmo Ramirez, who looked like a useful pitcher in 2012, Blake Beavan, who exists, and Hisashi Iwakuma, who is 32 years old, but has enough quality stuff to eat some innings and keep Seattle in some games this year.

Basically, you just read over 400 words for me to get to this: The Seattle Mariners will finish in fourth in the AL West this year. They won’t be exciting. They might not even be watchable. But they’re improving the right way.


Predicted Finish: 71-91