The Seattle Mariners failed to sellout T-Mobile Park on Opening Day, highlighting an offseason … More
The cliché goes that hope springs eternal for each team in Major League Baseball on Opening Day, but as the Seattle Mariners start the 2025 season, they’ll be leaning heavily on “hope.”
As the visiting A’s and hometown Mariners line up on the 3rd and 1st baselines for introductions, in nearly every way, the M’s look the same as they did ending 2024. Yes, they released Mitch Haniger. Yes, they re-signed Jorge Polanco to a 1-year contract and moved him to 3rd. And, just before Opening Day, inked catcher Cal Raliegh to a 6-year/$105 million contract through the 2030 season, with a vesting player option for 2031. But, the club sat on the hands to try to bring in any additional help in free agency.
With his selection to the Baseball Hall of Fame, just 122 days away, maybe it’s unsurprising that the Mariners (again) leaned into the past to get fans fired up. After all, since 2001 they’ve made the playoffs just once – sliding in as the second AL Wild Card team in 2022.
From a business perspective, the club remains flat. According to the recently released Forbes franchise valuations that reflect 2024, the Mariners joined three other clubs (St. Louis Cardinals, Colorado Rockies, and Tampa Bay Rays) to see their value remain flat over the valuations prior. Seattle ranks 13th out of 30 with a value of $2.2 billion.
On the 2025 revenue side, the Mariners did ink the club’s first jersey patch deal with Nintendo, who the club has had a long relationship with that sees Julio Rodriguez serving as the brand ambassador. According to the Sports Business Journal, it is worth seven figures annually.
Whether this affects fan attendance remains an open question. At first pitch, parts of the upper deck and centerfield were still vacant, something unheard of in past seasons. By the end of the game, paid attendance was just 42,871, far below the 47,943 capacity. Maybe sensing that fans may need coaxing to get out to the games, the Mariners announced in early March that there would be 30 Mariners Value Games with tickets as low as $10, plus an expanded value menu and an updated value beer selection for all 81 home games at T-Mobile Park.
If there’s a clear strategy for the season, it’s leaning into the Mariners’ pitching depth while working to get offense to match. The Mariners led the league with 1,625 strikeouts on the season, and ranked 22nd by OPS but improved when the club brought in Hall of Famer Edgar Martinez in August last season. Still, after having a 10-game lead in the AL West in June to falling out of the playoffs just 10 weeks later in 2024, there will need to be some serious conversation about doing more to sustain leads and hold them as the pitching staff tires throughout the long season.
As I said at the outset, the Mariners will look to hope in the form of help with the rest of the AL West. You never can count them out, but there are signs that the Houston Astros may finally see their window starting to close after an incredible run. The M’s will also hope that the Texas Rangers have a 2025 similar to 2024 when they went 78-84, finishing 10.5 games out of first.
The team to watch this season in the AL West will certainly be the A’s. With the MLBPA breathing down their neck about the possibility of filing a grievance if the club didn’t spend their revenue sharing properly, the club went out and signed RHP Luis Severino to a 3-year, $67 million deal, extended Brent Rooker with a 5-year, $60 million deal, and did a 1-year, $2.15 million deal for Gio Urshela. Many see the A’s improving over the 2024 season where they went 69-93, with Jeff Zimmerman at Fangraphs predicting the team will at least play .500 ball this season.
It’s Game 1 of 162 for Seattle. One can hope. But, all things point (again) to “maybe next year.” The Mariners front office and a clubhouse of good talent that’s a piece or two away from greatness, would like nothing but to prove me wrong.
