Their season came down to the wire, but the Mariners were officially eliminated from postseason contention on Sunday. They had a chance to force a Game 163 tiebreaker to determine the final AL wild-card spot but things didn't go their way. Seattle has not been to the postseason since 2001. Time to review the year that was.
What went right
First things first, both Robinson Cano and Felix Hernandez remain superstars of the first order. Both were among the game's elite players at their positions in 2014. Cano will draw plenty of MVP votes and Hernandez has a strong chance of winning his second career Cy Young. Those two were brilliant.
The Mariners also watched Kyle Seager establish himself as a top notch producer at third base with 25 home runs, 95 RBI and 5.8 WAR. Logan Morrison (111 OPS+) was productive and Mike Zunino finished third among all catchers with 22 home runs. Righty Chris Young was scrap heap gold, lefty Roenis Elias had a rock solid season after skipping Triple-A, and the bullpen had six pitchers throw at least 45 innings with a sub-2.90 ERA.
What went wrong
Seattle was hoping both James Paxton and Taijuan Walker would establish themselves as rotation stalwarts, but they combined to make only 18 starts (and three relief appearances) due to injury. Paxton made 13 of those starts and the two were very effective (combined 2.89 ERA in 112 innings), they just weren't on the mound enough.
Zunino clubbed 22 homers but also hit .199 with 158 strikeouts. Brad Miller was a disaster at shortstop, Corey Hart and Kendrys Morales were a collective waste at DH, and Dustin Ackley continued to toe the line between usefulness and bust. Trade deadline additions Morales, Chris Denorfia and Austin Jackson combined for only 0.1 WAR after being acquired at midseason and had negligible impact. The bottom line is that after signing Cano to a massive contract, the Mariners scored only 10 more runs in 2014 than they did in 2013.
MVP: Felix over Cano and Seager. Hernandez is the heart and soul of the Mariners. Their Derek Jeter, if you will. He remains one of the best pitchers in the world and is still right smack in the prime of his career at age 28.
LVP: Lot of good candidates. I'll go with Miller over guys like Morales and Hart simply because he had more playing time. He didn't hit (88 OPS+) and he had a knack for really bone-headed and poorly timed errors in the field. To his credit, Miller was better later in the season, but not enough to salvage it.
Free agents to be: DH Kendrys Morales, RHP Hisashi Iwakuma ($7 million club option), DH Corey Hart, OF Chris Denorfia, RHP Chris Young, C Humberto Quintero, LHP Joe Beimel, OF Endy Chavez
Gameplan heading into the offseason
Right now, the Mariners are set at catcher (Zunino), first base (Morrison), second base (Cano), third base (Seager) and center field (Jackson). That's all. They need to figure out shortstop (Miller, Chris Taylor or a free agent?) and both corner outfield spots (Ackley, Michael Saunders or free agents?) in addition to finding a DH.
Needless to say, Seattle needs to add offense this winter. That's been the case for about five years running now. Another massive contract a la Cano isn't going to happen -- there isn't a free agent worthy of that commitment anyway -- but there is plenty of room for improvement up and down the roster. Personally, I think Nelson Cruz to the Mariners is the most obvious signing of the offseason. Seems too perfect not to happen.
The pitching staff is fine -- Iwakuma's club option is a no brainer -- and the bullpen is deep. If they do bring in any arms, they'll probably be low risk fliers like Young. The Mariners are always going to be a team that lives off its pitching, but they'll have to spend some more money this winter to beef up the lineup now that they're on the cusp of the postseason contention.
Ridiculously premature prediction for 2015
The Mariners have a clearly defined window of contention, right? It's Felix and Cano. Their best chance to go to the playoffs and win a World Series is while those two are in their primes, which gives them what, another three or four years maybe? Seattle will again push all their chips to the middle of the table to add offense and the result will be a postseason berth in 2015, though only a wild-card spot.
