PITTSBURGH, Pa. -- The Seattle Mariners will enter Tuesday night's series opener against the Pittsburgh Pirates with a tenuous 1.5-game lead in the American League West.

While the Mariners have been plagued by inconsistency in the first 79 games of the season, they've also been plagued by injury. Seattle has missed Carlos Vargas, Matt Brash, Gabe Speier, Bryce Miller, Randy Arozarena, Cal Raleigh and Brendan Donovan for at least some portion of this season. Vargas has yet to pitch and Brash is on the injured list for the second time, while Donovan has been out since mid-May. He's also been on the injured list twice.

The good news for the Mariners is this: Last season, around this same time, the M's were just 42-40 before going on a nice run that culminated in a trip to the American League Championship Series. How did the M's pull that off? In part because of trade deadline acquisitions of Josh Naylor and Eugenio Suarez.

So, are there big moves out there for this 40-39 M's squad to make with the deadline looming in six weeks? We discussed that on the latest 'Refuse to Lose Territory' podcast: 

"A lot of people are asking, how can this team improve itself at the trade deadline? What can they get, what do they need?

I got to tell you, I don't think there's a whole lot of help coming at the trade deadline.

We talk about last year's team playing well at this time of the year and kind of forcing the Mariners' hands to go get Josh Naylor and to go get Eugenio Suarez. I don't think those kinds of moves are on the table this year because I don't think the Mariners really have a whole lot of needs.

What the Mariners have now is a pretty complete roster. What they need are their current players to play better and play more consistently.

This is not about, 'oh, they've got nine holes to fill. How can they do that at the deadline?'

They're not upgrading on Cal Raleigh. Josh Naylor's making $100 million. They're not upgrading on him. They're not benching Cole Young or Colt Emerson, and they're not going to bench JP Crawford either.

Randy Arozarena has been excellent. Julio Rodriguez has been great. Dom Canzone has been great, and so has Luke Raley.

So if you're talking about an upgrade, I mean, you're talking about upgrading the bench, either (Victor) Robles or Rob Refsnyder or the backup infielder.

They've got a backup catcher in (Mitch) Garver who they like. They have too many starters. They don't need a starting pitcher.

So the bullpen is really the only place where I think you can see an outside upgrade come in to help this team. The bullpen is the spot that they could use another leverage arm.

But beyond that, I don't think there's a whole lot of extra help coming. It's going to be bench and bullpen, and that's it."

And even at that: Brash and Vargas are set to return around the trade deadline. It doesn't mean that the group can afford to sit back and do nothing but wait for their returns, but it is roster information that the M's have to account for.

The Mariners and Pirates will play on Tuesday at 3:40 p.m. PT. 

The latest 'Refuse to Lose Territory' podcast is out. You can listen here, or you can watch in the YouTube player below.

Remember to join our MARINERS on ROUNDTABLE community, which is FREE! You can post your own thoughts, in text or video form, and you can engage with our Roundtable staff, as well as other Mariners fans. If prompted to download the Roundtable APP, that's free too!