The Seattle Mariners suffered through a miserable 71-91 season a year ago, but they made moves in the offense that have them pointing in the right direction. Robinson Cano was a huge signing for them, but is it enough for them to challenge for a wildcard berth this year? Vegas odds have the Mariners listed as +600 to win the AL West, +1700 to win the NL pennant and +3500 to win the World Series.
The Mariners finished 2013 ranked 22nd in runs scored (624), 28th in hitting (.237) and 2nd in homeruns (188) which was a huge surprise. Now this team should be better overall on offense with the monster signing of Robinson Cano. For years Cano has hit for both power and average and has driven in a ton of runs and should help this offense score more this year. Also helping will be the addition of Corey Hart, who hit 30 homers for the Brewers last year. Justin Smoak has good HR power as well, while the addition of Logan Morrison at DH should offset the loss of Kendrys Morales. Overall this is a solid offense that will be capable of scoring a good amount of runs this year.
Despite having King Feliz on their team, the Seattle pitching staff still finished 26th in the league in ERA (4.31) and 29th in batting average against (.259). Felix did pitch well last year, with a 3.04 ERA, but he didn’t get much run support as he was able to put up just a 12-10 record. The Seattle staff will be a bit depleted to start the year as Hisashi Iwakuma and Taijuan Walker will both start on the DL. Also Scott baker was expected to be the #2 starter, but he may be headed to Texas. Other than Felix there is not a lot of solid pitching in the rotation right now and they will struggle out the gate. Thank god their offense will be good. The Bullpen looks solid with newly acquired Fernando Rodney taking over the closers role. Danny Farquhar and Charlie Furbish are solid as setup men and you can expect Hector Noesi to contribute as well. This is a solid pen and they will have to be with a weak starting rotation.
Outlook: The Seattle Mariners made some strides, especially on offense and now they will put up some runs to go along with all the homers they will hit. The question for this team is the injury riddled starting rotation that really has just King Felix and no one else. That rotation may just put them in such a hole in the AL West that they won’t be able to climb out of even when their rotation gets healthy. They won’t finish in the basement of this division (Thanks to Houston), but I can’t see them moving into the top three either. 4th place at best here.
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