The Seattle Mariners are entering a crucial offseason this year as they look to return to the playoffs in 2025.

The M’s have missed the playoffs by 1.0 games in each of the last two seasons and have only made the playoffs once since the 2001 season (2022).

The Mariners have a lot of pressure on themselves this offseason as well. Not only do they carry the burden of last season’s failures, but they also carry the burden of trying to rebuild the squad on a seemingly limited budget.

CEO John Stanton and President of Baseball Operations Jerry Dipoto have repeatedly stated that the M’s do not plan to spend big in the offseason. They have said they plan to increase payroll, but it appears most of that will come through in-house raises to arbitration-eligible players and an increase in Julio Rodriguez’s salary.

With the help of MLBTradeRumors on Wednesday, we got a good idea of ​​where things stand for the M’s right now.

As it is, StaffResource projects The Mariners were offered a $152 million cap hit — a figure that could drop depending on trades and the fate of some potential non-tender candidates in their arb class. That’s already a slight increase from last year’s $144 million payroll.

The Mariners likely won’t tender at least one guy on the roster, which would save money, but they still have holes to fill at second base and third base. If they’re having trouble saving money, they could also try to get someone like Mitch Haniger out of a trade; But this also requires adding solid hope to the deal. This is similar to what Seattle did last season with Jarred Kelenic/Marco Gonzales/Evan White.

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