The Mariners have gone to great lengths to get a flexible lineup, but it won't always work out the way they've envisioned, will it?
I want to make this very clear: I'm going to file this under "generally good problems to have," but it's still worth discussing here.
1) The Seattle Mariners have assembled, what everyone thinks, is a pretty solid group of platoon players at the designated hitter and right field positions heading into 2026. On paper, it seems like Rob Refsnyder and Victor Robles will play the two positions against left-handed pitchers and that Dominic Canzone and Luke Raley will play the positions against right-handed pitchers.
That all works very nicely together and is fairly clean, until....
2) What happens when Cal Raleigh serves as the designated hitter? The "Big Dumper" played in 159 games last season, including 38 at DH. Assuming he undergoes a similar workload in 2026, that's at least 38 games where manager Dan Wilson has to remove someone from the lineup.
Of course, no one is going to balk at having Raleigh's bat in the lineup, and Buster Olney of ESPN just told the 'Refuse to Lose' podcast that he's not worried about this issue at all because of how special Raleigh is at the plate. But still, the M's have curated this group of players for these specific roles, and there nearly a quarter of the games potentially where they wont all get to function as designed.
Of course, injury and poor performance can make these decisions easier as the season goes on.
Spring training opener
--The M's open up the Cactus League season on Friday afternoon (12:10 p.m. PT) against the San Diego Padres at the Peoria Sports Complex. Right-hander Dane Dunning, signed to a minor league deal this offseason, will get the ball. Manager Dan Wilson did not expand any more on the pitching plans for the contest.
--Speaking on Thursday morning, Wilson spoke quite a bit about moving on from the Game 7 loss in Toronto in the American League Championship Series. Several team members have made it clear that they want to win the World Series in 2026, but Wilson spoke about the need to fall in love with the daily grind again.
"..goals are great, but if you just focus on the goal and you forget about the steps it takes to get to that goal, that's not good."
--Colt Emerson was seen taking reps at shortstop during the infield portion of Thursday's practice. We've thought that he has a chance to open the season as the starting second or third baseman.
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