“The Old Fans And The SEA“
The 2025 Seattle Mariners harpooned themselves into sole possession of 1st place in the AL West after Sunday night’s series dagger against the Miami Marlins as former 12th round pick Logan Evans navigated 5 smooth innings in his maiden voyage as a big-league starter.
Of course *and it’s not fun to note*, the reason Evans was given the opportunity to take the helm this early in the season was a result of the “other” Logan’s premature exit on Friday night, followed by the unnerving news that he will be shut down for at least 2 weeks with a throwing-arm flexor strain (which isn’t the worst initial diagnosis possible— but bad for him and the club in the long run however you spin it & I could go on and on about this but I’m choosing to focus on other narratives and will touch briefly on what Gilbert’s injury could mean later).
Wow. WOW?? Is this what we could actually look like?
Obviously it’s still too early to characterize in absolute who this 2025 Mariners ball-club is, or to project the overall likelihood of where we will end up in late September, but as promised in my first Terrace Club Blues post— a month is enough to define some cornerstone storylines in considerable depth and to begin an illustration of what this season could look like into the dog days of summer and beyond.
Channeling my best Hemingway (although that guy was a dick)— I will detail what I believe to be the stories worth talking about so far in this young season.
The ?Elite? Offense?!
I’ve talked about it before. Baseball is strange. Intriguingly, questionably, unbelievably strange. To the point that some true realities make absolutely no sense. Maybe that is part of the reason we love it so much. Despite all the hyper-analytical decision making & AI trained, predictive models, baseball will always surprise and as humans I think we love that little bit of unpredictability.
But if you told me that the Mariners would statistically be the best offense in baseball (if it wasn’t for those damn Yankees) at the end of April I would have told you to immediately stop smoking whatever you’re smoking.
The 125 WRC+ the M’s have put up indicates we are 25% better at scoring runs than league average (given all the things that ought to be given) which is 4% better than the Chicago Cubs who rank 3rd at 121 WRC+ and 14% better than the Los Angeles Dodgers who rank 6th at 111 WRC+ 31 days into the season. Give me a hit of that.
For an offense who struggled immensely (to put it lightly) last year and who kept their line-up basically identical to 2024, how can this be possible?
A Jorge & Cal Story
THIS version of Jorge Polanco is exactly what we went out and got him to do last year.
He didn’t do it.
Jerry & Co. made the controversial decision to re-sign Polo this winter and run it back.
This year, he is doing it— and in historically, mesmerizing fashion at that. If it wasn’t for Aaron Judge (man fuck those guys lol) Jorge would be the best offensive player in baseball right now, and every time he is at bat, it just FEELS like he is going to do something great.
And whether he does or not— oh guess what, the opposing team has to face Cal Raleigh next— the best catcher in baseball and the early season AL home run leader through April. Coming off of a generationally changing 100 million dollar contract extension this spring, Cal is proving why he is this town’s favorite baseball player and this country’s favorite Big Ass Dumper.
My Favorite Player Though?
The Flamethrower from Los Mochis.
There is an argument to be made that Andrés Muñoz is not only the best reliever in all of baseball right now, but that he is the best pitcher in all of baseball right now. As I’m writing this he is tied for 8th in WAR across the MLB, trailing only Hunter Brown and Jesús Lazardo for WAR put up by pitchers. Those other guys? Well, they’re starters. Our closer is putting up MVP numbers through 28 games and 14 appearances and every time he is on the mound it has been an absolute joy to watch.
As the biggest Muney fan there is, it has been pure poetry in motion for me. The sheer confidence Seńor Heat (lol) proliferates when jogging in from the bullpen is a much welcomed and much needed reprieve from the otherwise inevitable chaotic nature this team fosters on a nightly basis. While we can’t expect him to perfectly maintain the ungodly statistics he is putting up so far, we can and should look to him as a beacon of consistency whose guiding lights are less likely to waver significantly compared to other streaking beams of excellence this team has shined so far (I’m talking about you, JP, who can’t possibly remain in the 140s of WRC+ into June… although if he does, go fucking off, captain).
The Unsuspecting Hero & The Journey of Reversing Luck
In Hemingway’s 1952, baseball-adjacent novella, Santiago is a fisherman who has not caught a fish in eighty-four days and is considered salao, (or “very unlucky” for the non-Spanish speakers reading). This seems to parallel the Seattle Mariners’ fate when it comes to position player prospects throughout the last decade-and-a-half not named Julio Rodriguez or Cal Raleigh.
Most recently, we can allude to the hype and subsequent failings of supposed franchise saving messiah, Jarred Kelenic (who continues to be inconsistent in Atlanta). Prior to the cooler-kicking-kid it was DJ Peterson, Alex Jackson, and Mike Zunino, who couldn’t live up to their perceived potential.
Before that it was the likes of Dustin Ackley and Justin Smoak who significantly underperformed despite their impressive young portfolios.
While some of those names never even made it to the show— their profiles are examples of “can’t miss” prospects who ended up being enormously underwhelming. One hopes only so much time can pass before the current of luck changes direction— and that the M’s, much like Santiago, might have an unlikely trophy fish on the hook.
Ben Williamson is a mother-fucking BALLPLAYER. While it’s too early to make any giant brushstroke value statements, you can just tell that when he is on the diamond he isn’t thinking about legacy, slugging percentage, or how swag he looks in a uniform— he is simply, and beautifully, just showing up and playing like a kid in his backyard competing against his dad and older brother with no one else watching. That particular notion— the notion of a non-highly-touted prospect over-performing— is a luxury this franchise has never really experienced since, well, Kyle Seager in 2011 (that isn’t to say Williamson and Kyle profile the same at all)— but the importance and history of the hot corner at Seattle is a big one, and maybe, just maybe, we have a bright, young kid who can live up to that.
So much of the rest of the season relies on further news about Logey— whether he can be back prior to the all-star break, or whether we won’t see him until late in the 2026 season. But for the first time in a long time, in spite of all the untimely injuries, I feel like this franchise has the talent, moxie, and grit to be able to face any challenge that may come their way and the collective buy-in mentality to lean on each other, and the next guy up, in an attempt to make baseball history in Seattle.
“It’s silly not to hope. It’s a sin he thought.”
Cheers,
NJB
Terrace Club Blues 