On Friday, MLBTradeRumors released their arbitration projections for 15 members of the Seattle Mariners. Our own Teren Kowatsch covered it here. 

The Mariners will have until Nov. 27 to tender contracts to those 15 players, and if they do not want to pay a player at, or close to, that number, then they can non-tender them and make them a free agent.

Some of the decisions for the Mariners are easy: They will clearly tender contracts to the likes of Logan Gilbert, Bryan Woo, George Kirby, Carlos Vargas, Jose A. Ferrer, Matt Brash, Brendan Donovan, Gabe Speier, Bryce Miller, and Dominic Canzone.

However, could the Mariners potentially non-tender anybody? That seems possible, and there are some tough decisions that await the M's.

Wisdom, 35, is projected to make $1.1 million in arbitration and that just seems like too much for a player of his age who received only 47 major league at-bats this season. He hit .106 with one homer and four RBIs.

However, he was a force in the minor leagues, hitting .278 with 35 homers and 78 RBIs. He was the driver of Triple-A Tacoma's lineup and was good depth to have all season, but again, $1.1 million seems like too much.

Raley, 32, is an extremely likable and useful player when he's healthy. Unfortunately, the Mariners haven't seen him fully healthy for each of the last two years. 

The outfielder hit 22 home runs for the Mariners in 2024 and then played just 73 games in 2025. He played 95 this season before ending the year on the 60-day injured list, but he was clearly compromised even before he actually hit the injured list. He had a torrid April and finished with 15 home runs, but he hit only .232.

His $3.1 million projection is reasonable, but with Canzone and Lazaro Montes doing a lot of what Raley does already, will it prove too much redundancy? Could the team keep him and start Montes in the minors? Could they trade Montes? Could the Mariners give Raley a contract and trade him? 

All these options are on the table.

The 30-year-old right-hander played a vital swing role in this team's bullpen before getting hurt in June. He returned in September and in total, went 4-2 with a 3.32 ERA. His projected $900,000 salary is certainly affordable, and it does seem likely to get picked up, but if the Mariners truly build a bullpen they feel can contend, will he actually be a part of it?

He's out of options.

Bazardo helped carry this bullpen to the American League Championship Series in 2025 and he helped carry it again through the first half of 2026, but he faltered down the stretch to finish 4-4 with a 4.01 ERA. He was clearly gassed for the last two months after back-to-back 73 appearance seasons that also included a deep playoff run and a World Baseball Classic trip. 

His $1.5 salary is modest for a bullpen arm, so this does figure to be picked up too, but again, if the team has plans to build a deeper bullpen, he could be on the outside looking in. Even if it is picked up, he could find himself down the depth chart.

The right-hander is projected for $800,000, but since Rucker is out of options, his spot in the bullpen is also very much in question.

The latest edition of the 'Refuse to Lose Territory' podcast, featuring Jordan Shusterman of Yahoo! Sports, is out. You can listen here, or you can watch in the YouTube player below.