The Seattle Mariners just missed out on the playoffs in 2023 despite going 88-74 and taking three out of four from the World Series champion Texas Rangers in the final series of the regular season.
While the Mariners were extremely solid on the mound with a team ERA of 3.74, offense was an issue at times. They ranked 22nd in average, 19th in hits, and most notably, struck out far too much. We're talking about the second-most K's in the big leagues.
Speaking at the GM Meetings this week, president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto made it clear that finding right-handed bats who can put the ball in play is a massive priority in MLB Free Agency.
Via Jon Morosi:
“Likely right now, adding some contact to our lineup, you know, we wanna be a little bit better at putting the ball in play. We feel like if we could add right-handed bats, we feel really good about our young left-handed bats, feel really good about our through-the-middle team, and our power productivity. Now, it's just a matter of filling the gaps where we may be a little bit more flawed. We're a pretty good offensive team that sometimes struggles with contact so we're going to have to solve that.”
The Mariners struck out 1,603 times in 23′. The only team with more K's was the Minnesota Twins with 1,654. That number for Seattle translates to 9.89 strikeouts per game. Definitely not a recipe for success.
The M's just decided to not extend a qualifying offer to slugger Teoscar Hernandez, which probably has something to do with the organization's desire to sign a couple of players who have high contact rates.