SEATTLE -- Andrés Muñoz, as expected, had his club option exercised by the Mariners and will return as Seattle’s closer in 2026 for $7 million.
Now that Jorge Polanco has turned down his mutual option for 2026, all of Seattle's impending free agents -- Polanco, Josh Naylor, Eugenio Suárez, Caleb Ferguson, Luke Jackson and Mitch Garver -- can begin signing with teams at 2 p.m. PT on Thursday.
Beyond Muñoz and Polanco, Garver was the only other player who had an option for ‘26 that could’ve been exercised, a mutual option worth $12 million. Instead, the 34-year-old will receive a $1 million buyout and hit the open market.
All of these transactions so far in this young offseason have been expected.
Muñoz will receive a hefty raise from the $2,687,500 he earned last year, as the Mariners exercised the first of three club options that it holds on the two-time All-Star. He’ll also receive $1 million more than the contract initially called for based on games finished in 2025, having recorded 47 games finished to go with 38 saves -- both of which were career highs.
That, and his status as one of the sport’s best leverage relievers, made Tuesday’s decision a no-brainer for Seattle’s front office. And it doesn’t necessarily impact the rest of the club's offseason spending, as its payroll sits around $130 million with Muñoz in the fold, per Cot's Baseball Contracts, and with roughly $30-35 million to spend this winter, based on what president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto suggested during an end-of-season media session.
Muñoz is coming off a banner year in which he posted a 1.73 ERA (219 ERA+, where league average is 100) with 83 strikeouts and 28 walks over 62 1/3 innings, while settling into a more standard closer role. He was deployed exclusively in the ninth inning or later in 62 of his 64 outings, which represented a shift from earlier in his career, when he was either a setup man to former closer Paul Sewald or in a hybrid closer’s role with Matt Brash.
Part of that calculus for 2025 was related to how manager Dan Wilson intended to allocate his bullpen usage, but also, to give Muñoz more protection -- and clarity -- to operate after he had dealt with lower back and ankle injuries in recent years. Muñoz said that the more defined role helped in that regard, especially early in the season.
Muñoz has two club options remaining -- at $8 million for 2027 and $10 million for 2028 -- each of which can increase by $1 million based on games finished in the preceding season. Those are the final seasons in a contract that Muñoz signed after the 2021 season, when he was just 22 years old and fresh off recovering from Tommy John surgery. At the time, he had made just one relief appearance in his Mariners career, on the final day of that year’s regular season.
The initial four-year, $7.5 million pact with the three club options gave Muñoz immediate financial security, but it was also an investment by the Mariners, who banked on the right-hander becoming precisely the pitcher that he’s blossomed into. If he remains on this current trajectory, the next two club options -- even at a loftier price tag -- should also be no-brainers.