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The Seattle Mariners already have brought back one of their big additions from the summer. Could they do the same with another?
Seattle quickly re-signed Josh Naylor to a five-year deal worth $92.5 million this offseason. Naylor was the team’s clear priority and the Mariners acted as such by getting the deal done as fast as they did.
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But, Naylor wasn’t the only slugger the Mariners acquired ahead of the trade deadline. Seattle also traded for Eugenio Suárez. He finished the season with 49 homers and is a free agent right now, looking for his next opportunity. ESPN’s Jeff Passan shared a column on Tuesday with the information he is hearing around the league right now. For Suárez, Passan said that he is “likely” to land a short-term deal with a team with a high annual average salary.
Should the Mariners enter the market for Eugenio Suárez?
“Eugenio Suárez, third baseman: Want a home run hitter who won’t cost nine figures? This is your guy,” Passan wrote. “Suárez hit 49 home runs in 2025 and, at 34 years old, reaches free agency hopeful that teams will seize on his power potential and look past his paltry on-base percentage (.298 this past season, .328 for his career). He’s likely to wind up on a short-term, high-dollar deal for a team that needs a third baseman.”
Spotrac currently is projecting his market value to be worth just under $30 million over two years. Tim Britton of The Athletic projected Suárez’s next deal to be in the neighborhood of $69 million over three years.
MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reported that third base remains a position that the Mariners could look to bolster with an outside addition.
“Naylor’s deal will be the biggest free-agent deal handed out during Jerry Dipoto’s decade-long tenure running the Mariners’ baseball operations department, but Seattle must still address second and third base, with Jorge Polanco and Eugenio Suárez both on the free-agent market,” Feinsand wrote. The Mariners have internal options at second base (Cole Young is the likely candidate), but third base figures to be a spot that Seattle looks to fill from the outside.”
MLB.com’s Daniel Kramer reported earlier in the offseason that the expectation is that the Mariners will have between $30 and $35 million to spend this offseason. Naylor’s deal has an annual value of $18.5 million. That means there should still be room to add. If Suárez’s eventual contract ends up closer to the Spotrac projection, it would make sense to bring him back. But, if the contract is closer to Britton’s projection, that may be too much, especially with Jorge Polanco a free agent right now as well.
More MLB: Josh Naylor’s First Message To Mariners Fans After Signing $92M Deal
