The Seattle Mariners are coming off a disappointing year where they missed the playoffs but had a successful season winning 88 games last year and falling two games out from making a return to postseason play. The Mariners have one of the best young outfielders in the game in Julio Rodriguez and maybe one of the best young pitching staffs in all of baseball heading into the 2024 season. With the additions of Mitch Garver and the return of Mitch Haniger, this team has replaced the pop it let walk in the offseason. Eugenio Suarez and Teoscar Hernandez both are gone from the team which is 48 home runs to replace and 189 RBIs. If Haniger and Garver stay healthy these numbers can be replaced in a clean swap. As the Opening Day nears below are three bold predictions I have for the upcoming season.
Saves, saves, and more saves
The Mariners have an elite arm in Andres Munoz in the back end of the bullpen. Munoz appeared in 52 games last season going 4-7 with 13 saves, 14 holds, 49 innings, 67 strikeouts, and an ERA of 2.94. Munoz features three pitches a Four-seam fastball, a Slider, and a sinker. Munoz leaned on the slider using it 48.6% of the time last season, the average velocity of the slider sat around 88.4 mph last season. The four-seam fastball sat on average last year at 99 mph and was used 32.4% of his pitches throughout the season. His sinker was the third pitch and was only used 19% of the time and the average velocity was 98.4 mph. Munoz is the closer of the future and will be the team’s full-time closer in this 2024 season. My Bold Prediction: Munoz will feed off the terrific pitching from the starters and others in the bullpen, while he closes the door on 40 saves this coming season.
Breakout Season Coming
Cal Raleigh hit 30 home runs and had 75 RBIs last season while improving his batting average from .211 in 2022 to .232 last season. Raleigh scored 78 runs, had 23 doubles, and walked 54 times last season. The 27-year-old catcher has only improved each of the last two full seasons with the Mariners increasing his batting average as well as his power numbers, which this team will need to go deep into the postseason. My Bold Prediction: Cale Raleigh is going to lead this team in home runs this year with 38 or more. Besides the home runs I am projecting Raleigh to see increases in his doubles and batting average again this year. I expect him to hit 27 doubles and hit for an average of around .248 this year while driving in 88 RBIs.
Pitching Staff leads the way to a season to remember
The Seattle Mariners have one if, not the best pitching staff in the entire major leagues. Luis Castillo, Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryce Miller, and Bryan Woo all had ERAs under 4.33 last season. With Castillo, Gilbert, and Kirby making a combined 96 starts with 56 quality starts between the three of them, 58.3% of these three starts last year were considered quality starts. The big three all had over 190 innings last year and I believe Gilbert and Kirby are going to take it to another level this season.
Bryan Woo and Bryce Miller heading into their first full season as part of the pitching staff after an impressive first season seeing them both start over 18 games with Miller throwing in 25 starts. This team has the making of a very special staff. My Bold Prediction: The Seattle starting staff has a combined ERA under 4.18 this coming season. Along with that, I think Logan Gilbert will win 15 games, striking out 200 batters, while George Kirby will win 14 games with 185 strikeouts this year. The Prediction is that Both Luis Castillo and Logan Gilbert are top 5 in the AL Cy Young voting with Castillo taking home the hardware.
Bonus Prediction/Summary
The Seattle Mariners are going to ride this pitching staff all the way to a showdown against the Baltimore Orioles, where the Mariners Pitchers silence the young bats from the Orioles punching their ticket to the World Series to represent the American League. This team will have to stay healthy and add a bat perhaps a bullpen arm to pair with Munoz and Matt Brash, but this team should score enough runs to win enough games to get into the postseason and allow their arms to push them to the top series.
