The Mariners are still hoping to make at least one more notable splash between now and Opening Day, but Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times suggests that they’re reluctant to deal anyone from their big league roster to make it happen. Divish writes that the M’s are willing to move top pitching prospect Jurrangelo Cijntje in a package for Cardinals infielder Brendan Donovan but are less inclined to trade anyone from the big league roster to get him. He adds that president of baseball ops Jerry Dipoto and GM Justin Hollander have both “been adamant” about not wanting to trade an established big league starter as they look to bolster the lineup.
It’s a fairly similar approach to the one taken by Dipoto, Hollander & Co. last offseason. In the winter of 2024-25, the Mariners pursued multiple big-ticket trade items but found many clubs with players available in trade were seeking young big leaguers — not the top prospects that proliferate the top of a stacked Seattle farm system. There are more pure rebuilding clubs this winter, at least on paper, but the Cardinals have prioritized MLB-ready pitching in trades of Sonny Gray (Richard Fitts) and Willson Contreras (Hunter Dobbins). The D-backs reportedly want to add major league pitching (presumably multiple rotation candidates) in any deal for star infielder Ketel Marte.
While Seattle’s system is deep in high-end prospects — the M’s had eight players on Baseball America’s end-of-season top-100 prospect list, though they’ve since traded Harry Ford — the actual depth beyond the big league rotation is relatively thin. Each of Luis Castillo, Logan Gilbert, Bryan Woo and George Kirby started at least 23 games in 2025. All pitched well — Kirby had a couple brutal outings but was largely strong — but only Castillo did so while avoiding an IL stint. Bryce Miller missed more than half the season due to elbow inflammation. The options beyond that pair are less encouraging.
Emerson Hancock is a former No. 6 overall pick but spent the latter part of the season as a reliever. He’ll head into camp as a starter but has been viewed as a more of a fifth starter candidate than one would expect based on that lofty draft billing. He’ll turn 27 in May and has a career 4.81 ERA with a poor 15.6% strikeout rate in 162 MLB innings. Twenty-four-year-old Logan Evans tossed 81 1/3 innings with a 4.32 ERA as a rookie this past season and briefly drew some top-100 fanfare before his own promotion to the majors. Like Hancock, he struggled to miss bats in the big leagues (16.9 K%, 7.8% swinging-strike rate). He also was hit hard in 11 Triple-A starts last year.
Depth options beyond those seven are thin. Jhonathan Diaz and Blas Castano are both on the 40-man roster but are already in their late 20s with no MLB track record of which to speak. The Mariners have plenty of notable pitching prospects, including Cijntje, Ryan Sloan and 2025 No. 3 overall pick Kade Anderson. Cijntje has all of seven Double-A starts under his belt, though, and could require more development time than most prospects given his status as an extremely uncommon switch-pitcher. Sloan hasn’t pitched above A-ball. Anderson didn’t pitch for a Mariners affiliate after last summer’s draft. Former prospects like Taylor Dollard and Michael Morales went unselected in this year’s Rule 5 Draft despite being eligible. The former has battled injury troubles. The latter was hit fairly hard and notched just a 16% strikeout rate in Double-A this season.
The Mariners could certainly deal from their rotation to improve the lineup and backfill with a lower-cost free agent signing, but it’s understandable if the front office is reluctant to at all jeopardize the team’s depth, given the shaky performances of Miller, Hancock and (to a lesser extent) Evans in 2025. If anything, one could argue that it’d be prudent to add to the current group by signing/acquiring some optionable depth or a swingman/sixth starter to plug into a long relief role to begin the year.
