Mariners are better after deadline trades. Now they better get going

by · The Seattle Times

They’re better. 

Not in a way that has people stashing their paychecks away for World Series tickets, but they’ve improved. 

Not in a manner that has them as the new favorites to win the division, but they’re trending upward. 

Monday, the Mariners acquired outfielder Taylor Ward from the Orioles in a trade that sent reliever Alex Hoppe and two minor league pitchers — Brock Moore and Harrison Kreiling — to Baltimore. Ward’s arrival fills Seattle’s biggest deadline need — a reliable right-handed hitter — and confirms the front office’s intent of making a playoff run this season. 

Is this a blockbuster deal? Not quite. More like a Redbox. But Ward, along with other players brought on over the weekend, certainly makes this a more formidable team. 

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“We are excited to add Taylor to our lineup,” Mariners GM Justin Hollander said in a statement. “He has proven to be a consistent performer that is among the very best in the league at getting on base. We are thrilled to be adding a player of his caliber to our team.”

The Mariners’ struggles against left-handed pitching this season have been well documented. They currently sit 29th in MLB vs. southpaws and are 28th overall in runs. Yes, some of Seattle’s most well-established pitchers have underperformed in 2026, but the reason they are three games under .500 (and 2 1/2 games back in the American League West) is because of their shortcomings on “O.”

What Ward brings over from Baltimore is an OPS of .839 vs. lefties this year along with a .413 on-base percentage. His 87 walks this season lead the American League, and his 2.4 WAR is now tied for fifth on the Mariners.

Will a player batting .246 with seven homers in 111 games this season strike new-found fear into Seattle opponents? Probably not. But the Mariners are better than they were Sunday. That’s the point. 

They didn’t have to give up any of their prized pitchers. The one they did deal — Luis Castillo — had a 5.06 ERA and a contract paying him more than $24 million per year. They didn’t have to give up a big bat, either. Talks of Seattle shopping around left fielder Randy Arozarena — who had an OPS of .834 and a WAR of 3.6 — ended up with him staying in the Emerald City. 

The top prospects are also largely intact. And reliever Seranthony Domínguez, acquired from the White Sox in the Castillo deal, bolsters their bullpen. 

So credit the front office on their deadline deals, I guess. They took a slightly below average team and made them average. 

This isn’t like when the Mariners brought on Castillo at the deadline in 2022, when he helped guide them to their first postseason appearance in 21 years. Nor is this like when the M’s added Josh Naylor and Eugenio Suárez last year, when the Mariners made the deepest playoff run in club history. 

This is an insole that made the M’s a half-inch taller … but that might be all they need. 

They are still playing in the American League West, where Houston (58-56) holds a 2 1/2-game lead on Seattle. They are still playing in the AL at large, where the M’s are just two games out of the final wild-card spot. And they still have one of the deepest starting rotations — not to mention a stud minor-leaguer in Kade Anderson — that could catapult them to a pennant if they did make the playoffs. Yes, the best team in MLB wins more often than anyone else. But the league is more conducive to series upsets than, say, the NHL or NBA.

If you’re a Mariners fan who hasn’t given up on this season, this was a good past few days. The M’s added a right-handed hitter, got a decent bullpen arm, and put themselves in position to have another magical two-month stretch. But Ward and Co. can’t save them alone.

As has been the theme all year, the Mariners still need their established players — Naylor, Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodríguez, Bryan Woo, etc. — to snap back into All-Star … or at least serviceable … form. You can question this front office’s decisions over the course of its Mariners tenure, but it did its job at the deadline. Now it’s up to the players.

The Mariners are better. So they better get going.