One year after Deadline of pure optimism, Mariners in much different spot

SEATTLE -- One year ago on the dot, the vibes in Seattle could not have been higher.

Last July 31, the Mariners welcomed back Eugenio Suárez in a blockbuster that was arguably the sport’s splashiest ahead of the 2025 Trade Deadline. Coupled with the acquisition of Josh Naylor one week earlier, the industry consensus was that Seattle's front office assembled the most impressive Deadline haul.

Suárez’s reunion featured a surprise arrival on the tarmac to the team charter in the wee hours, and a joyous ovation among the home crowd later that night. In that game, Cal Raleigh crushed his 42nd homer to set a new record for a switch-hitting catcher.

A season already full of memory-making moments was on its way to the best run in franchise history over the next three months.

Fast forward to this July 31, and the vibes could not be more juxtaposed.

A series about as must-win as one can be for late July began with a thud. And the opener on Friday night ended with a chorus of boos from the ticketed 43,489 at T-Mobile Park.

• The final score: 5-3.
• The underlying stat: 1-for-23 to finish the night.
• The development to watch: How, if at all, this weekend impacts Seattle’s Deadline strategy before Monday’s 3 p.m. PT cutoff.

“Not how we wanted to start this,” manager Dan Wilson said, referencing the Mariners beginning a nine-game homestand, on the heels of a 2-5 road trip.

The Mariners (53-58) fell to five games below .500 for the first time since April 21, when they were 10-15. They have yet to fall to six games in the red this season, though it’s on their doorstep with a quick turnaround for Saturday’s matinee.

They finished July with a 9-15 record, tied for fourth-worst in MLB -- behind only the A’s (5-19), Angels (6-17) and Cardinals (10-18). Their .375 win percentage was their lowest for a single month since June 2023, when they had an identical record.

Yes, teams go through rough spells. But what makes this stretch so baffling is that they are finding new rock bottoms each night -- all with the Deadline looming.

“It just just hasn't come together the way that we'd like it to,” Bryan Woo said after Thursday’s loss at Dodger Stadium. “But also, the weird thing about baseball is that we've played like [crap], and still have a chance to do what we want to do.”

Friday’s loss could certainly be categorized in the bucket of dispiriting defeats that’s reaching overflow.

The Mariners jumped out to a 2-0 lead when Raleigh put together one of his best at-bats of the season -- a nine-pitch, two-out ground-rule double against Zebby Matthews. It was the first time that Seattle scored in the first inning since June 24 at Pittsburgh -- a game that they lost, 11-1.

They took another lead on Cole Young’s 14th homer, which lasered 110.2 mph off the bat and narrowly cleared the right-field wall to make it 3-2 with two outs in the second.

But they had just one hit for the remaining seven innings. The game ended with a pinch-hit strikeout from Mitch Garver representing the game-winning run.

“Really, it was that middle part of the ballgame that we weren't able to get any offense going,” Wilson said.

Completely stripped of context, in what world could one could imagine a team five games under .500 with just three days before the Deadline actively trying to buy?

That the Mariners are speaks to just how wide open the anemic American League has been this season, especially the AL West. As brutal this month was, they’re still in striking distance -- three games back of first place, which is now occupied by surging Houston.

However, if there were a shift in calculus to how the front office approaches Monday, it might center on Emerson Hancock.

He’s their most valuable trade chip. But with the state of this spiral, and what appears to be a thin market for the Mariners’ needs, would it really be worth moving him?

Yes, he’d generate a better return than Luis Castillo, whom the club is also listening on, per sources. And they might have a hard time moving Castillo regardless, unless they eat a chunk of his money and/or attach a prospect.

Hancock still has four years of club control remaining, and maybe this winds up being his best season. Yet, even with Kade Anderson coming at some point, Hancock still has long-term value -- and leveraging that now, for a team that can’t find consistency, might be a stretch.