Seattle Mariners Team Preview

The Seattle Mariners enter the 2020 season with longest playoff drought across the four majors sports. They haven’t made the playoffs in 18 straight seasons and barring some unforeseeable miracle, that streak will continue in 2020. After a last place finish in the American League West, the Mariners are hoping to just build some kind of foundation for the future. It’s unclear whether they have the talent but that’s what this year will be all about: finding those building blocks and adding to them.

SEATTLE MARINERS ODDS

TO WIN WORLD SERIES: +50000
TO WIN AL PENNANT: +15000
REGULAR SEASON WIN TOTAL: 67.5 WINS

OFFSEASON CHANGES

This offseason, the Mariners made a few subtle transactions but nothing big enough to completely flip the organization around. The Mariners gave Marco Gonzales a contract extension for four years and $30 million, which is the best move for the pitching rotation after losing Felix Hernandez this past offseason. Taijuan Walker has made a return to Seattle for the 2020 season as the Mariners signed him to a one-year deal in attempt to fill Hernandez’s spot for the time being. The Mariners also signed long time veteran Carlos Gonzalez to a minor league contract as the 34-year-old was with 2 MLB organizations during the 2019 season. Mitch Haniger was signed back to the Seattle Mariners after missing over half of the 2019 season due to injuries. The organization has invested in some young prospects over the recent years and have 5 prospects in the Top 100 for this upcoming season.

IF THINGS GO RIGHT…

They’ll record an 80-win season and that’s if absolutely everything goes right during the course of the season. For this upcoming season, the Mariners just don’t have the roster to be able to compete with a difficult American League West division with the teams like the Houston Astros, who have won the AL West title for three straight years. This is a team that finished 23rd in team ERA, so if their pitching staff does somehow improve and their bats are alright, maybe they get into the neighborhood of .500.

IF THINGS GO WRONG…

The Seattle Mariners will surely find themselves at the bottom – or near the bottom – of the AL West standings as we have seen many times before. The Mariners can use this 2020 season to try and get some young prospects playing time allowing them to develop into great players who have a will to win for the organization. Guys like Shed Long Jr. look like they’re on the rise but is there enough talent here beside him? A rebound year from Mitch Haniger would help but the former All-Star missed most of 2019. If he’s not back to his former All-Star level, this team won’t make much progress.

The organization has been in this position for a long time and it’s hard to see how anything changes in 2020. They started 13-2 last year and then won just 55 games the rest of the way. To be fair, we’re probably looking at something similar in 2020. 68 wins might even be high if things go wrong.

Get the latest MLB baseball odds and information–follow BetOnline.ag on Twitter!

BetOnline.ag on Instagram–Follow for the latest odds, stats and information!