Next Season

With 5 games to go to the end of the season and the Seattle Mariners, after losing 4 games in a row, all blowouts by the 2 best pitchers and next 2 best pitchers, are 3 games behind Kansas City for the second wildcard team. In short, their season is done.

The team ran out of gas 10 games from the end of the season losing series to Oakland and Houston they should have won and getting blown out by Toronto. The manager is faced with shutting down 3 of their 4 best pitchers for next season, one he already shutdown and two more who have had 3 bad games in a row.

So, what's left? Nothing except the off season trades and acquistions. They need two more pitchers on par with Young and Paxton to make 6 starting pitchers the manager can mix and match better and give the main pitchers more rest days.

They need a first baseman who can play like Morrison and Smoak and hit like both of them combined so the manager doesn't have to decide which is hitting better that day. The manager need consistency from the first baseman.

They need a better DH than Morales who hit under .250, far less than his career. He isn't worth the few good, timely hits he gets because he misses too many opportunities to bring in runs. The new DH should be a solid right hand hitter who can occasionally play.

They need their infieders to hit better than .250, something few of them did (most under .250 all season). The manager needs to make it clear they either hit better or get benched or sent down to triple A. Make them earn their spot on hitting and defense.

They need a solid right hand hitting outfielder. Denoforia was supposed to be that as he hit .275 in San Diego but he didn't even hit .250 with the Mariners. They need to strong right hand hitters to balance Cano and a left hand hitting first baseman.

The one thing they should not do is get players at the end of their careers. They never play to their career average (eg. Corey Hart, Kendry Morales) and don't offer anything positive for the team except just another player trying to get a salary for another year.

After that, they need to replace their closer Fernando Rodney. Good as he is, he's too inconsistent and too often almost loses games to barely win them. He won a lot but too often made it harder than it should have been for a good closer giving teams too many chances to win.

After that, nothing else. Just win like the team which won 116 games.