Mariners Offseason Tracker: Timeline, Salaries, and Depth Charts
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Seattle Mariners first baseman Josh Naylor (12) hits a RBI single in the first inning against the Toronto Blue Jays during game seven of the ALCS round for the 2025 MLB playoffs at Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images [/caption]
With the hot stove sizzling some dishes from Puget Sound to South Florida, it can be hard to keep track of everything that has gone on with the Seattle Mariners since Yoshinobu Yamamoto threw the final pitch of the World Series.
Hence the existence of the Mariners offseason tracker, complete with a timeline of events as well as up-to-date depth charts and salary information refreshed after every move made by Jerry Dipoto and company:
Offseason Timeline
Major trades and MLB free agent signings involving Mariners targets are written in bold text.
Nov. 1, 2025: The MLB season ends with the Dodgers winning the World Series in seven games.
Nov. 2, 2025: The MLB trade market re-opens.
Nov. 5, 2025: The Mariners purchase RHP Cole Wilcox from the Rays.
Nov. 6, 2025: C Mitch Garver, 1B Josh Naylor, INF Jorge Polanco, 3B Eugenio Suárez, RHP Luke Jackson, and LHP Caleb Ferguson officially become free agents as MLB free agency begins. The Mariners select RHP Ryan Loutos off waivers from the Nationals.
Nov. 11, 2025: Mariners assistant general manager Andy McKay leaves for the Guardians to become their field coordinator.
Nov. 13, 2025: Mariners bullpen coach Tony Arnerich joins McKay on the Guardians as Cleveland’s bench coach.
Nov. 16, 2025: ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports that 1B Josh Naylor has agreed to a five-year contract, though nothing official is announced by the team. MLB Rule 5 draft protection deadline passes. Mariners third base coach Kristopher Negron joins the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Mariners trade minor league RHP Tyler Gough to the Dodgers for minor league LHP Robinson Ortiz.
Nov. 17, 2025: The Mariners officially re-sign Naylor to a five-year, $92.5 million contract.
Nov. 18, 2025: The Mariners trade minor league C Luke Heyman to the Red Sox for RHP Alex Hoppe, who is added to the 40-man roster. LHP Tayler Saucedo is designated for assignment.
Nov. 21, 2025: MLB non-tender deadline. The Mariners non-tender RHP Gregory Santos and RHP Trent Thornton in addition to the already-dropped Saucedo.
Dec. 5, 2025: The Mariners announce their full coaching staff for 2026, including the additions of third base coach Carlos Cardoza, major league field coordinator Jake McKinley, and bullpen coach Austin Nola.
Dec. 6, 2025: The Mariners trade C Harry Ford and minor league RHP Isaac Lyon to the Nationals for LHP Jose A. Ferrer.
Dec. 10, 2025: The Mariners do not draft anyone in the major league phase of the Rule 5 draft, but they pick up 1B/DH Carson Taylor and RHP Sean Hermann in the minor league phase. Minor league RHP Cole Phillips is drafted into the Brewers organization.
Dec. 11, 2025: The Cubs sign RHP Collin Snider to a minor league contract, ending his time with the Mariners.
Dec. 12, 2025: Adam Jude of The Seattle Times reports that the Mariners are nearing a deal with backup catcher Andrew Knizner.
Dec. 13, 2025: The Mets sign INF Jorge Polanco to a two-year, $40 million contract, taking a Polanco return off the board for the Mariners and forcing them towards other options.
Dec. 16, 2025: The Mariners announce the signing of C Andrew Knizner to a one-year, $1 million major league contract.
Dec. 18, 2025: The Mariners sign OF Brennen Davis to a minor league contract.
Dec. 19, 2025: The Pirates acquire INF Brandon Lowe from the Rays in a three-team deal involving the Astros, taking a potential M’s infield target off the board.
Dec. 22, 2025: The Mariners announce the signing of OF/1B Rob Refsnyder to a one-year, $6.25 million major league deal.
Jan. 7, 2026: The Mariners sign INF Patrick Wisdom to a minor league contract.
Jan. 8, 2026: The Mariners avoid arbitration with Randy Arozarena, George Kirby, Luke Raley, Matt Brash, Gabe Speier, and Logan Gilbert.
Jan. 13, 2026: The Mariners sign OF Sammy Siani to a minor league contract.
Jan. 15, 2026: MLB’s International signing window opens; the Mariners sign OF Juan Rijo, OF Gregory Pio, INF Leonardo Reynoso, C Daniel Alaña, OF Jarvis Gomez, and OF Ambeiro Recio. Willi Castro signs with the Rockies, taking him off the board for Seattle. The Mariners trade minor league RHP Dusty Revis to the Reds for RHP Yosver Zulueta and designate Samad Taylor for assignment in a corresponding move.
Jan. 20, 2026: The Mariners avoid arbitration with Bryce Miller.
Jan. 22, 2026: The Mariners sign RHP Dane Dunning to a minor-league deal.
Jan. 23, 2026: The Mariners acquire RHP Cooper Criswell from the Mets for cash considerations, designating Jhonathan Díaz for assignment in a corresponding move to make space for Criswell on the 40-man roster. RHP Logan Evans undergoes Tommy John surgery.
Jan. 27, 2026: The Mariners acquire C Jhonny Pereda from the Twins for cash considerations, designating Jackson Kowar for assignment in a corresponding move to make space for Pereda on the 40-man roster.
Jan. 30, 2026: The Mariners announce Evans’ surgery. The Mariners also announce 34 non-roster invitees to Spring Training, including new minor league signings Will Wilson and Jakson Reetz.
Feb. 1, 2026: Eugenio Suárez signs with the Reds, taking a potential return for the two-time Mariners third baseman off the table.
Feb. 2, 2026: The Mariners finalize a deal to acquire Brendan Donovan from the Cardinals for Jurrangelo Cijntje and Tai Peete, sending Ben Williamson to the Rays, who in turn send OF Colton Ledbetter and a Competitive Balance Round B draft pick to St. Louis to complete the three-team deal.
Feb. 16, 2026: The Mariners acquire LHP Josh Simpson from the Marlins for cash considerations, officially placing Logan Evans on the 60-day injured list to make space for him.
Feb. 18, 2026: The Mariners re-sign C Mitch Garver to a minor league contract.
40-Man Roster & Salary Information
Seattle currently has all spots filled on the 40-man roster, and although not everyone on the 40-man will play in the majors, anyone added to the 26-man major league roster must also be part of the 40-man roster. A few of the team’s players have guaranteed contracts for 2026, some of which have options that are marked in yellow with the type of option (club, player, mutual, or vesting) listed beside the dollar figure.
Salary structure is more complicated than displayed here, but the numbers displayed are a combination of base salary and any prorated money: essentially, how much the team must pony up during a specific year. One-time payments such as signing bonuses, however, are not displayed.
Not including players on single-year extensions to avoid arbitration (more on that below!), the Mariners have nine players on guaranteed contracts for 2026 for a total of $99,702,380. As you might expect, most of these are the biggest stars on the team, both those who have reached free agency through service time and those that the team signed to long-term deals before that point. Some of these contracts extend beyond 2030, but for the purposes of simplicity, only five years are displayed here.
Other players are up for arbitration. Any player who reaches three years of service time - although there are 187 days during an MLB season (including off-days), service time is defined as 172 days spent on the 26-man roster or MLB injured list - becomes eligible for arbitration in the following year. Additionally, players with between two and three years of service time who are in the upper 22% of all players between two and three years and have at least 86 days of service time in their previous season are also eligible for arbitration - these are known as “super two” players.
The arbitration process itself, which concludes in February, involves both the team and the player coming up with a payment figure for the following season and the arbiter choosing between the two. The team and player must submit these figures by an earlier deadline - this time around, it’s Jan. 8, 2026 - but arbitration-eligible players are most often signed to a one-year extension in the week leading up to that deadline.
Both MLB Trade Rumors and Spotrac offer arbitration estimates for eligible players, and while they aren’t spot-on accurate, they are most often directionally correct - and are included here, despite the actual figures being known by now [1]. Because the arbiter must choose either the player-offered sum or the team-offered sum, any side going far off an estimate in either direction risks the arbiter choosing the other side.
Of the seven [2] Mariners and one Cardinal-turned-Mariner who entered 2026 as arbitration-eligible, all have come to agreements to avoid arbitration. Only one arbitration-eligible Mariner, Bryce Miller, did not settle before the figure submission deadline on Jan. 8, but he and the team settled on Jan. 20, finalizing the arbitration subtotal at $46.999 million.
The remaining 23 players on Seattle’s 40-man roster are all on pre-arbitration league minimum contracts for $780 thousand as per the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) prorated to the days of service time, meaning that for each day of service time, the player makes $4,171.12 ($780 thousand divided by the 187 total days), while days spent on a minor league roster earn the player a lesser minor league salary.
On any given day from the beginning of service time to the end of August, there will be 10 players each making this $4,171.12 figure, while during September (as rosters expand to 28 players), there will be 12 - though note that those assume 24 total players on league minimum; the actual figure is the MLB roster size subtracted by the number of players earning higher than league minimum.
Since the 2026 MLB season begins on March 25, 2026 (though Seattle’s opening day is March 26) and ends on Sept. 27, that means that the M’s, assuming they have 24 league minimum players on the 40-man roster, will pay roughly $8.025 million in major league contracts to these players, in addition to any minor league money they receive while not on the MLB roster.
Not including player benefits such as signing bonuses, the Mariners’ 2026 major league payroll can be expected to be $154,726,380 for their current players. Dipoto talked about the team’s end-of-year 2025 payroll (around $165.6 million) as a “starting point” for their 2026 budget, giving them somewhere in the range of $10 million left to spend in the offseason.
Depth Charts
It’s useful to know where all these players are likely to fit in a roster, and that’s where depth charts come into play. For pitchers, the chart tells you what role each of these pitchers can fit into, while for hitters, it is a more traditional position-based chart. Names in front of yellow backgrounds are on the 40-man roster but are unlikely to start the season on the 26-man major league roster, while names in italics aren’t part of the 40-man roster but are likely to be on it once the season begins, either by acquisition or by call-up.
I should note that the point of these charts is to describe things as they (likely) are, rather than how they potentially should be. The fact that Andrés Muñoz wasn’t considered more seriously as a high-leverage stopper in Game 7 of the ALCS had infamously disastrous consequences, but until any change in strategy is observed, no such change can be assumed. Where we haven’t seen a player be incorporated into the team’s strategy - such as in the case of Jose A. Ferrer - I have simply made an educated guess. In any case, the year-to-year peaks and valleys that are so inherent in relief pitching will change the exact makeup of this chart by the time mid-season 2026 rolls around.
The addition of Brendan Donovan bolsters depth at three positions, mainly, but it also gives background flexibility at shortstop and right field. While he is listed at the top of the chart for both second base and third base, it is likely he will be splitting some of this time among the positions so as to give Cole Young and Colt Emerson big-league reps.
[1] This article was initially made before any arbitration settlements were announced. As it turned out, while some Mariners settled for more than expected and others for less, the total amount of cash spent in arbitration was very near to these estimates.
[2] A previous version of this article listed Jackson Kowar as Super Two eligible - as had been expected by Spotrac - but Kowar seems to have missed the service time cutoff by one day.
