Mariners: Successful Season, But Not Enough
By Ben Renner
The Mariners had their best season in years, yet couldn’t break through to the postseason. Let’s look back at 2016 and raise some immediate questions about 2017.
Statistically, the Mariners could have been a playoff team this season. I mentioned they had an elite offense and their pitching, while wildly inconsistent for long stretches in 2016, wasn’t actually that bad.
But they still couldn’t touch the Texas Rangers, who won the AL West comfortably before getting swept by Toronto in the Divisional series. The Rangers actually posted worse overall pitching numbers as a team, yet finished nine games ahead of the Mariners in the standings. The Rangers were a deeper team that brought in reinforcements at the trade deadline and had an answer to every Mariner uprising in the West throughout the year.
The Mariners fell too far behind when Felix Hernandez went down with a calf injury for all of June and couldn’t dig their way out with an infusion of talent from other teams at the trade deadline. General Manager Jerry Dipoto didn’t have the assets to make many impactful trades at the deadline, and they had no way of climbing the standings despite a hot streak at the end of the season.
The future looks bright for next season on paper. Another year of developing prospects in the new Andy McKay system won’t hurt, and I will be interested to see which role players Dipoto brings in to support the veteran star core of King Felix, Robinson Cano, Nelson Cruz, and Kyle Seager. Dipoto didn’t turn every player he brought in into gold last year, but a few players that he brought in, such as Leonys Martin, made positive contributions.
But there are already concerns for next year. Taijuan Walker, Steve Cishek, and Tony Zych are all recovering from surgery and may not be ready for Opening Day 2017. Mariners’ brass is expecting Walker to be a key cog in the rotation next year. Zych didn’t see much action out of the bullpen last season, but he has nasty stuff and could provide stability. Cishek…. could be a useful set-up man for Edwin Diaz. That’s if they all come back healthy and effective.
This year, the Mariners were at least a competent team, but they need to get healthy and find some help to return to the postseason next year for the first time since 2001.