Mariners' Lineup, World Series Odds, Payroll After Rumored Eugenio Suarez Trade

In their quest to make the playoffs for the first time since 2022, the Seattle Mariners are on the verge of adding another big bat prior to the trade deadline by agreeing to acquire Eugenio Suárez in a deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday.

ESPN's Jeff Passan first reported Suárez was headed to Seattle. Arizona will receive prospects Tyler Locklear, Hunter Cranton and Juan Burgos, per The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal.

The Suárez deal came together six days after Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry DiPoto acquired Josh Naylor from the Diamondbacks.

Suárez is owed $4.8 million for the remainder of the season, bringing Seattle's payroll up to $161.8 million.

Mariners' Updated Lineup

1. J.P. Crawford, SS
2. Julio Rodríguez, CF
3. Cal Raleigh, C
4. Eugenio Suárez, 3B
5. Randy Arozarena, LF
6. Josh Naylor, 1B
7. Jorge Polanco, DH
8. Dominic Canzone, RF
9. Cole Young, 2B

Mariners' World Series Odds (via DraftKings Sportsbook)

+1400 (bet $100 to win $1,400; tied with the Milwaukee Brewers for ninth-best odds)

In the span of a week, the Mariners were able to address arguably their two weakest spots in the lineup. Naylor replaced Rowdy Tellez, who is hitting .208/.239/.434 in 62 games, as the primary first baseman.

It's still early for Naylor, but his slash line is at .263/.300/.421 for a 108 OPS+ in 20 plate appearances with Seattle.

Third base was an even bigger pain point for the Mariners. Ben Williamson, a 24-year-old rookie, has looked in over his head at the plate with a .254/.292/.312 slash line. His defense has kept him in the lineup with the second-most defensive runs saved at the hot corner among players with at least 600 innings played.

Suárez could potentially be the biggest difference-making hitter who gets dealt prior to Thursday's 6 p.m. ET deadline. He is hitting .248/.321/.577 with 36 homers in 433 plate appearances this season.

It will be interesting to see if playing home games in T-Mobile Park negatively impacts Suárez's power production. He previously played for the Mariners for two seasons from 2022-23, slugging just .423 in 312 games.

Per Baseball Savant's park factors metric, Chase Field in Arizona is the third-most hitter-friendly environment in MLB this season. T-Mobile ranks last.

Suárez is also a notoriously streaky hitter who can look great when things are right, but could have stretches when he looks borderline unplayable. For example, through June 13 last season, he was hitting .195/.267/.309. He closed the year with a .299/.356/.582 slash line over the final 91 games.

The Mariners absolutely should have made this bet on Suárez. They didn't give up much in terms of prospect value, with Locklear being the only player ranked in the top 10 of their farm system by MLB.com.

With Cal Raleigh having one of the best seasons by a catcher in MLB history and pushing Aaron Judge in the AL MVP race, the Mariners had to capitalize on this opportunity.

Seattle enters play on Thursday tied with the Texas Rangers for the final playoff spot in the AL. The Mariners are also just five games behind the Houston Astros, who could be without Isaac Paredes for the remainder of the season and won't get Yordan Alvarez back until mid-August at the earliest, for the top spot in the AL West.

The combination of Naylor and Suárez has added more depth and power to a Mariners lineup that was lacking in both at the start of last week.