Turner talks? 'Pen status? What stood out for Seattle at GM Meetings

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SEATTLE -- The Mariners have moved past the reflection phase of last season and are already active in building their roster for 2025. General manager Justin Hollander recently touched on the state of where things stand at the GM Meetings last week in San Antonio.

Here are four takeaways, shared via MLB.com’s Sonja Chen:

‘Already had discussions’ with Turner

A reunion with Justin Turner appears to have more legs than the pleasantries exchanged between the veteran, his teammates and the front office after the soon-to-be-40-year-old revealed that he “100 percent” intends to play in 2025.

“We’ve already had discussions with JT and reiterated our interest that we expressed at the end of the season,” Hollander said.

Turner hit .264 with a .766 OPS, five homers and 24 RBIs and was worth 126 wRC+ (league average is 100) and 0.7 Wins Above Replacement, per FanGraphs, in 48 games after coming over in a Trade Deadline deal with Toronto.

“He's a player that connected with a lot of different parts of our clubhouse and really did make a connection with our team, with our coaches [and] with our front office,” Hollander said. “We'd love to have JT back.”

‘Plan Z’ on young starters

Hollander doubled down on what president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto said at season’s end -- that considering trades of pitchers Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryce Miller and Bryan Woo would be “Plan Z” on the offseason agenda, even if it netted an impact bat in return.

“If you remove something for your club and you add something of equal value, you haven't really moved the ball forward," Hollander said. “We're looking to move the ball forward.”

Most of the position-player nucleus is expected to remain intact -- outside of second base and some semblance of first and third, given that Luke Raley and Josh Rojas are, respectively, potential platoons at the latter two.

But it’s still clear that a roster that was hamstrung by its strikeout-prone and inconsistent offense could use reinforcements. The Mariners are in the market for two bats and aren’t expected to spend at the top of free agency.

“It's tough to imagine scenarios with moving our young pitching, that we move our ball forward and not just rearrange things,” Hollander said. “And we're not really looking to rearrange, we're looking to get better.”

Mitches ‘bouncing back’

Some offensive augmentation could come via veterans Mitch Haniger and Mitch Garver, yet both saw significant cuts to their playing time at points in the season due to prolonged struggles. Combined, they hit .190 with a .623 OPS and were worth -1.0 fWAR.

“We anticipate both those guys bouncing back and being better than they were this year,” Hollander said.

Garver was relegated to a backup catcher role after the club acquired Turner, leaving Garver a clearer spot for ‘25 despite the lofty price tag for the role. Haniger, who avoided the IL for the first time since 2021, only started 23 of the Mariners’ final 52 games after the Deadline and is essentially the fifth outfielder on the depth chart.

They’ll each be 34 by Opening Day and will earn a combined $28 million in the final year of their respective deals. Because of their struggles, it’s difficult to imagine them fulfilling impact roles, but because of their contracts, it’s just as difficult to see how the Mariners would be able to trade them.

‘Excited’ about bullpen

The Mariners didn’t have the elite bullpen that they had in years past, finishing 26th in the Majors in fWAR after ranking fourth from 2021-23 combined, but they don’t view that area as a significant need this winter.

“The return from injuries from some guys is really a chance to turn what was a fine bullpen last year into a once again great bullpen,” Hollander said.

Indeed, the three-headed beast of Andrés Muñoz, Gregory Santos and Matt Brash that the club entered Spring Training with wound up being a one-man show after Santos was limited to just eight games due to shoulder and biceps injuries and Brash underwent Tommy John surgery. Muñoz also dealt with lingering back pain during extended stretches but avoided the IL.

All three are expected to be key contributors in ‘25, with Hollander optimistic that Brash could return sooner than expected.

“I'm loath to put timelines [on it] because it's science and there's some art to it, and it depends on how he progresses through,” Hollander said. “We do anticipate early in the season -- sometime in late April or early May, we think, is realistic based on how he’s trending.”