Seattle

Mariners

Kanzler has spent the past three seasons as the Cubs’ director of player development. The 36-year-old was a 20th-round pick of the Minnesota Twins in the 2013 MLB Draft and played three seasons in the minors, primarily as a center fielder. Kanzler is the 22nd manager in Mariners franchise history and will be the second-youngest manager in the Majors behind 34-year-old Nationals manager Blake Butera, who was 33 at the time he was hired.

Arozarena is a virtual lock to decline the qualifying offer and head to the open market after the strongest season of his career at the plate, slashing .281/.381/.484 with 113 runs scored, 26 homers, 79 RBI and 26 steals across 670 plate appearances. He enters his age-32 campaign on the heels of his sixth consecutive 20-homer, 20-steal season. There are some question marks from a defensive standpoint, but he remains a consistent all-around fantasy contributor that will come off the board in the early rounds of drafts next year.

Not really any tough calls here. Weston Wilson did play in 54 games for the Mariners after joining the team in mid-June, but he hit just .192/.263/.296 in 137 plate appearances.

Mattson struggled in 2026 with a 5.35 ERA in 38 2/3 innings out of the bullpen, but the 31-year-old was much better for the Pirates in 2025, posting a 2.45 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, and 45/19 K/BB ratio in 47 2/3 innings. The Mariners will try to help him get back to that level of production.

Second base seemed like the AL’s most interesting call, being that DRS thought Young was far-and-away the AL’s best, whereas OAA had him below average. Jazz Chisholm Jr., who didn’t finish in the top three, had the top OAA and a below average DRS. Kansas City’s Michael Massey was the only player deemed clearly above average by both.

The announcement says Arroyo will return to game action in April. Given that this seems to be internal brace surgery, Arroyo might be limited to DHing for a while into his return from surgery. Arroyo, who turns 22 next week, made his MLB debut in September and hit .371/.439/.514 in 15 games. That was going to put him in position to challenge for a spot next spring, though there was a good chance he’d open in Triple-A. Now it seems like he won’t be an option until May or maybe June.

Hiring a hitting coach before hiring a manager is a little odd, but the Mariners obviously wanted Gillman back. He was employed by the team as a minor league hitting coordinator from 2022-25 before spending last season as the Nationals’ director of hitting.

McCray, who turns 26 in December, has hit .170/.235/.323 in 247 plate appearances since debuting with the Giants in 2024. He has gone 13-for-13 stealing bases, but he strikes out far too much for someone with little power and he’s not a particularly strong defender in the outfield. Better players will clear waivers.

Muñoz met all of his bonus criteria with 48 games last season, increasing the value of the option year by $1 million. The Mariners also have a $10 million option for 2028 on the deal they signed with Muñoz way back in Nov. 2021. Muñoz is coming off his worst season, finishing with a 4.24 ERA and 10 blown saves in 38 tries, but he still did strike out 89 in 57 1/3 innings. Bringing him back for $9 million was a no-brainer.

Miller remains under Mariners control. This was one of those contract options that are really just an excuse for file-and-trial teams to do deals to avoid arbitration after their self-imposed deadline for doing so. Since Miller missed about one-third of the season and finished poorly, he’s due a fair amount less than $6 million in arbitration. He’s not going to be eligible for free agency until after the 2029 season.