A New Era: Mariners vs. Giants Series Preview
The Mariners return home to host the Giants this weekend.
After a dismal road trip — and frankly, an absolutely terrible two months of play — the Mariners made the dramatic decision to remove Scott Servais from his position as field manager and named Dan Wilson manager in his place. Not as interim manager but as the full blown manager moving forward. With just six weeks left in the season, Wilson will have the difficult challenge of somehow trying to turn this team around. So the M’s limp home from their road trip with a record that sits at .500 for the first time since April, looking for any sort of spark of hope.
The first opponent lined up in the Wilson era is the Giants, a thoroughly mediocre team that’s been hovering around the fringe of the NL Wild Card race for nearly the entire season. There was some hope that they could sneak into contention this year but three of their big offseason acquisitions — Jung Hoo Lee, Blake Snell, and Robbie Ray — have dealt with a litany of injuries and have curtailed any progress they could have made in one of the most competitive divisions in baseball.
The one other big offseason acquisition that hasn’t been injured, Matt Chapman, has been a core piece of the Giants lineup. He started off pretty slow, but since May, he’s posted a 131 wRC+ with his trademark elite defense at third base. The biggest surprise has been the breakout of Heliot Ramos. A one-time top prospect, he had struggled to make the jump to the big leagues over his first two cups of coffee. Things have clicked for him this year; he made the All-Star team and has been San Francisco’s best hitter for most of the season.
Probable Pitchers
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Hayden Birdsong was a sixth round pick in the 2022 draft who has really elevated his profile this year. As a draftee, he looked more like an up-and-down spot starter but has developed his repertoire to the point where he could be a mid-rotation option for the Giants in the future. He throws three plus secondary pitches with his changeup being the standout offering. That pitch was an afterthought in his first year as a professional but he switched to a unique spiked grip this year and the pitch has taken off as an elite weapon. His fastball lags a bit behind his secondary pitches and his command is still a bit spotty, but the promise and quick development he’s shown this year has really elevated his ceiling.
After winning the NL Cy Young award last year, Blake Snell remained unsigned well into March before inking a one-year deal with the Giants with a player option for next year. The first half of the season was a struggle for him as he dealt with a number of injuries but he’s been really strong since the calendar flipped to July. Over his last eight starts, he’s allowed just six runs total and is running an elite 4.38 strikeout-to-walk ratio while working deep into games.
After being traded away in the offseason for Mitch Haniger and a bit of salary relief, Robbie Ray will make his return to Seattle on Sunday. I’m interested to see what the reception for him will be like — he was a key member of the 2022 rotation that broke the playoff drought, but the lasting image of him in a Mariners uniform is probably Yordan Alvarez’s walk-off home run off him in Game 1 of the ALDS. He’s returned from his Tommy John surgery looking healthy and throwing hard, though his command is still a work in progress as he regains his form after such a long rehab process.
The Big Picture:
Things are bad. Don’t look at the standings, just enjoy the moment.