Mariners general manager Justin Hollander already confirmed earlier in the offseason that the club has discussed a potential reunion with Justin Turner, and they’re also weighing a reunion with another former Mariner. Adam Jude of the Seattle Times reports that the M’s have spoken to free agent first baseman Carlos Santana, who spent part of the 2022 season in Seattle. Jude cites multiple sources in adding that interest in bringing one of the two back to Seattle is strong enough that it’s considered a “likelihood” the Mariners will close a deal with one of them.
Santana, 39 in April, is fresh off his best year since 2019. He spent the 2024 campaign in Minnesota, serving as the Twins’ everyday first baseman and winning a Gold Glove for his defensive efforts there. He also slashed .238/.328/.420 with 23 homers in 594 plate appearances. That’s good for a solid 114 wRC+ (indicating he was 14% better than league-average at the plate), but setting aside a catastrophically poor first three weeks of the season, Santana hit .253/.342/.460 (129 wRC+, or 29% better than average) after connecting on his first homer in late April.
That type of production would appeal to just about any club, particularly when coupled with excellent defense and a stellar clubhouse reputation. That latter factor is also a key part of the Mariners’ interest in both Turner and Santana, per Jude. At the end of the season, president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto voiced a desire to add some veteran voices to help lead a young clubhouse, Jude writes, specifically name-dropping both Turner and Santana as examples of players who’ve played key leadership roles during partial seasons in Seattle.
There are other reasons to think both players fit the Mariners’ roster. Both Turner (17.6%) and Santana (16.7%) struck out well below the 22.6% league average in 2024. The Mariners’ collective 26.8% strikeout rate was the worst in MLB. Whittling that number down should be a priority, and either veteran first baseman would help the club take strides toward that end.
Both Turner and Santana are also natural fits to pair up with Luke Raley at first base. Turner’s right-handed bat makes him a logical platoon partner at first, and he hits righties enough to take DH at-bats even when Raley draws a start in the field. Santana’s glove probably would push Raley to a primary DH/corner outfield role, but the veteran switch-hitter is much better from the right side of the plate. For a Mariners club that hit only .213/.300/.363 against southpaws last year, Santana’s .286/.356/.578 slash against lefties has to look especially appealing.
Either Santana or Turner should be available on a one-year deal. Santana will surely command a raise on last year’s modest $5.25MM salary, whereas Turner could be in line for a cut from last year’s $13MM rate of pay. Again, for a Mariners club that’s expected to increase payroll, but perhaps not by leaps and bounds over the roughly $145MM mark at which they finished the 2024 campaign, that makes either veteran a logical target. RosterResource currently projects the Mariners for a $150MM payroll, though that figure could change in the next 36 hours based on non-tenders and/or potential trades of non-tender candidates.
The Mariners haven’t been shy about their desire to add infield bats this offseason. Dipoto and Hollander have voiced confidence in an outfield mix of Randy Arozarena, Julio Rodriguez, Victor Robles and Raley. They’re looking to add a bat capable of spending some time at first base and either a second baseman or third baseman — with Josh Rojas and Dylan Moore standing as candidates to platoon at the other spot. Turner or Santana would check one box and do so both affordably and while improving the club’s overall contact rate.
Santana, turner…hey .lets get the good old boys back together and include seager
Edgar and Griffey too!
Yeah and not make the playoffs again.
Playoffs? You’re talking about playoffs?
Turner played well for us and we need to address 1B. We know Alonso and Walker aren’t coming even if the money is right, so why not bring Turner back? He’s an effective professional hitter and he clearly isn’t scared of the ballpark.
Probably rather have Santana but yeah I agree
What’s Alvin Davis up to these days?
Jay burner was a good player, no doubt about it, but the front office is telling ownership Ken Phelps, Ken Phelps, Ken Phelps
tbf Santana’s not a DH, he still plays a decent 1B.
Wish the Pirates never got rid of him.
He wanted to stay and of course they dumped him to save like 2 mil
I agree on all counts, Goku
When you prefer an obese, slower than molasses and player who only wanted $2 million dollars, it’s obvious that not bringing back Santana was about money
Maybe it had to do with his where abouts during a play at the plate where O’Neill Cruz didn’t know to slide because the on deck batter, who should have told him to slide (Santana), was no where to be found until after the play was over.
“TheMan 3”
So edgy of you to criticize an established and talented Major League player’s fitness. I’m sure you’re an absolute physical specimen.
Assuming he was referring to Rowdy Tellez, which is acceptable imo
Ironically I had conversation with Rowdy when he played for the Buffalo Bisons in the Blue Jays organization during batting practice. He’s a good dude. If we’re being honest I’d rather have him in my lineup instead of Joey Gallo 🙂
Who wouldn’t
Hoping the Buccos are past Big Rowdy and Big Santa
Christian Walker or Goldschmidt are most ideal for what should be their “all-in season ” with Skenes Jones Keller
Pirates will probably do nothing tho.
DiPoto feels the team needs an old guy apparently
No, the team needs a competent 1B who isn’t afraid of the ballpark. Turner hit well after the trade so it makes a lot of sense to just bring him back since Alonso and Walker are pipe dreams.
This guy fits on a bunch of teams
They need to keep 2B open for Cole Young so I like this idea. Now get a good hitting 3B and full out the bullpen
OMG! I’m so over this front office. No other organization loves retreads like the M’s.
I appreciate Santana and Turner but can’t we just once swing big in free agency with this amazing cost controlled pitching staff. Sorry for the pun.
What top FA hitter is coming to Seattle? Even if we bid the highest, why wouldn’t they sacrifice a few million to go to a big market, perennial winner with a more offensively-friendly ballpark? They M’s FO is operating knowing damn well Alonso and Walker aren’t attainable.
I think everyone but the Mariners knew that Cano’s power was due to the new Yankee stadium and of course the PEDS.
There are always exceptions, and Cano is an exception, not the rule. Trea Turner wasn’t even willing to hear the M’s pitch. Marcus Semien reportedly had no desire to play in Seattle. Other players have reportedly turned down more money to go elsewhere before. And on top of that, the M’s don’t have the resources to blow other teams’ offers out of the water.
“Sacrifice a few million..Alonso and Walker aren’t attainable”…Every team in MLB can “attain” players with the right financial offer and saying they can’t is the oldest excuse in the book.
Pro athletes and their player agents rarely “sacrifice a few million” dollars(only in extreme cases)to avoid playing somewhere and generally will take the highest offer.
Between trading, drafting and free agency, teams have a real shot at acquiring 90% of available players if they’re willing to spend the money.
The idea that the M’s couldn’t acquire Walker or Alonso if they wanted to is rather silly to me, but it does make for a nice, convenient excuse to do nothing every year.
@mlb fan- Can and “can” are two different things. Can they afford to sign Alonso? Yes. “Can” they afford to when factoring in the cost of winning a bid, what we know about how they operate, etc.? No. This isn’t a defense of Stanton, it’s a defense of Dipoto. I know what Stanton will do, which is refuse to increase payroll enough to allow the front office to take a huge swing. Alonso and Walker are pipe dreams. I will happily eat my words if he proves me wrong.
“Are two different things”…I don’t expect the M’s to sign either Alonso or Walker, but the idea they cannot afford to top other offers for them is pure fantasy. Neither player is pure “top of market”($200M+) in my honest opinion.
Yes, that’s exactly why I differentiated between can and “can.” Because I agree that the M’s could do it, especially with their profit margin; however, they won’t because they operate to their market size (kind of), which is what leads us to belive it’s pure fantasy, not that they couldn’t actually put the best offer out there that they really want.
One would assume that the most profitable team in baseball year after year would be able to “afford” any player they choose. But you know what they say about assumptions…
Mariners had to offer Cano so much more than any other team. Thats the only way to get a FA to sign with them which is why they need to go through trades, prospects, and veteran FA.. Ohtani took $700 from Dodgers and probably would have demanded a billion from the Mariners.
Are you suggesting it would be good practice to offer Alonso $200M when he’s probably topping out at $150M on his actual contract? I’m not opposed to the M’s signing Alonso, it’s not my money and he’s the best option, but I don’t want them to have to go way beyond market value.
No, I did not see you suggest a price or term, I suggested one as part of my argument to emphasize a point. You cited Cano while arguing that the best offer would sign Alonso. Cano got $240M when $175M reportedly was the next best offer. So, in my opinion, it’s valid to ask if you think it’s good practice to offer a deal to Alonso like the one I mentioned if it’s a scenario where they have to blow the next closer offer out of the water like with Cano.
Pretty much cut down Santana’s offensive numbers from Target Field to T-Mobile by 1/4
He had a 101 OPS+ with Seattle in 2022.
“Sigh”
HEY GREAT IDEA, JER BEAR
Almost like we should have just RESIGNED HIM LAST YEAR
OYE COMO VA
Because their owners are cheap.
Either of the Baltimore Ryans (Mountcastle and O’Hearn) are likely available in trade.
Just saying 😉
I remember the days when a .239 hitter was making league minimum, nowadays teams are willing to pay them 6m+
Yeah but conversely a guy throwing 91 used to get 6 million for 30 starts now it’s a MiLB deal
Last year I watched Turner hit a ground ball to Javier Baez. Turner country strolled to first base and Baez even asked him before he threw “Are you ok?” Turner replied “Ya Ya” waving his hand urging a throw to first
In a complete nutshell
THAT is Justin Turner
2 40 year old platoon players World Series here we come!!
Who you talking about? Certainly not Santana Turner.
Mariners couldn’t get enough of Santana’s riffs, and want those guitar solos back!
Santana? Turner? Why not. And, we could bring back Robbie Cano. He maybe 41, but he’s mashing .431 in the Mexican League where apparently they pitch with beach balls. Besides, he’s likely still on our payroll.
Then replace the Gatorade in the dugout with Geritol.
Santana Turner Overdrive?
Both are an improvement over France/Ford from the past 2 seasons, but present limited ceilings. If the team is relying on either of them to be fulltime answers at 1B/DH, I think they’ll find it tough to surpass the 90 win mark for the first time since 2003.
However, as weakside platoon pairing for Raley/veteran bench bats either would fit well (Santana would be perfect as he crushed lefties).
A guy who just won a gold glove isn’t going to be a weak platoon. He will get 5 to 10 million to start at 1b for someone. Doubtful he hits lhp as well next year. SSS. He hits lhp better no doubt but he’s a every day 1b.
I agree. I just don’t want the M’s to be that team. Santana is solid, but his ceiling is 15th best 1B and he has a significant chance of turning into a pumpkin and being unplayable.
We need our 1B/DH target to be someone who we confidently slot into the 3/4 spot in the lineup and Santana is more of a 6/7 bat.
That’s why he is a affordable 1 year deal guy. I’d bet on him not being finished this year. If I’m wrong it’s 1 year and peanuts. Oh well. I don’t care where he bats. Guys a legit gold glove. Find more bat elsewhere. If they signed Santana last year they probably make the playoffs.
You could say the same thing about the previous bets on Garver, Wong, Polanco, and Polluck. All fairly low risk, but also low reward (and then none worked out).
If we had Santana over France last year, we do probably make the playoffs as an 88 win team. However, if we go in targeting 88-90 wins again and then proceed to finish 1 game out again, would anyone be surprised? A team intending to contend should be shooting for 95 wins.
None of those are in Santana class. Garver bat only no glove multiple year deal. Milwaukee is much smarter than Seattle and they dumped wong for toro so no reason to expect wong to be good. Polluck was toast, at best be was to be a weak platoon. Polanco is what he is. I gave the M’s a D and Twins a A on that trade.
He had a nice little resurgence last year, but he is going to be 39 and from 2020-2023 was worth 2.4 WAR. Gold glove defense at 1B doesn’t matter much if you are hitting at a league average clip.
Smart gms don’t give a it about war and have people who could come up with better formulas than war. If you do then I hope your team doesn’t sign him. I don’t care. They can bring in more wongs pollucks etc. Doesn’t matter to me. Someone will sign him. They won’t care about war. Will see him as above average bat. Roll the dice on his age. Most will offer him a 1 year deal so age really doesn’t matter. You sign him and hope the music doesn’t stop. He could have 1 2 3 4 years left. No one knows. At 1 year and less than 10 million no one really cares. The risk reward adds up to doing the deal.
WAR isn’t that big of a deal, but in 2022 and 2023 he was the definition of a league average bat which is subpar at 1B. Last year he bounced back a bit, but still was a below average bat at 1B (carried value primarily from his glove).
He is a fine low ceiling option at 1B. For the Mariners, they need it to be more of a source of offense than defense (Perry Hill can coach up anyone to be decent enough at 1B).
For the M’s who have ~$20M to spend, $10M on Santana is half of their outlay so it’s far from a small risk for them (especially because they also need to address 2B).
My preference is to make a deal for Yandy Diaz who offers a much higher upside bat even if the glove is more meh.
He’s average to you and 99 percent of baseball fans. You are looking at obsolete irrelevant data whether it be ops ops+ wrc whatever. I have my own formulas. Far superior. Elite teams have people like me. Obviously not as good but they have someone. Teams now value k rate much more. 2 players with same ops and 1 with 90k vs one with 160 aren’t close in same value. They value things most people don’t even look at like ability to work pitch counts. Who’s more likely to see a pitcher tipping pitches a 20 something or a 39 year old. Leadership. Willing to help young players. They value things that are hard to measure with stats data. Teams value defense at 1b maybe more than ever.
Shannon Drayer has been suggesting this since the offseason started, so new reports suggesting the same thing aren’t surprising.
I’d have no problem with Turner or Santana returning to Seattle. I’d have a problem with either player being the biggest acquisition of the offseason for Seattle.
Santana and Turner as your 1b platoon (that will cover Polancos salary) Raley/Garver/Haniger as OF/dh platoon sign Torres for 2b and trade for Bohm…. So you’re only adding an extra 10 to 15 million dollars on your payroll
That’s too many players for too few roster spots, bench or otherwise.
And the price would be a lot more more than 10-15m.
Get rid of bliss rivas and rojas there are your 3 spots for Santana Bohm and Torres. A reliever on the 26 man roster would probably be traded for Bohm anyway we could use one less reliever and one more good bat
Then you’d have Raley without a clear path to PAs and Haniger taking a spot while offering no defensive value, and Moore would be the lone utility player to cover 2B, SS, and 3B..
Torres makes no sense for Seattle. He’s going to earn 10-15m AAV, offers no defensive value, and hasn’t hit well in the pitcher-friendly AL West stadiums, most notably, T-Mobile Park.
Bliss and Rivas are already out of the picture. It’s questionable if they’ll pay Rojas. Haniger has to go. There just isn’t any argument to keep him,
Well, I don’t know if I want Raley to have more than 350 at bats he’s not really a full time player I’m fine with getting rid of haniger If there’s a way to do that.
But we need to start adding more bats and quit worrying about having so many relievers
Raley was great once he started playing regularly, and as a LHH, he could/should get 450+ PAs. If you have any doubts, look at his splits as a first baseman. Thiat’s exactly why I don’t expect Seattle to chase after a regular alternative. I think first is more likely to be platooned.
If they bring Santana in, we might see him DH, and we should still see him in an OF corner now and then, but I would be surprised if he isn’t in the lineup most nights.
I’m just sick of platooning this damn team is never gonna win a championship with that mentality If this is what they’re gonna have next year that i’m gonna check out
I hear ya, but even the good teams often have a platoon or two, or a loose platoon, anyway Kerry Carpenter, for example, absolutely mashed for Detroit vs. RHPs. He didn’t see many LHPs and that was intentional.
For me, it’s a problem when the strong half of a platoon is replacement level or worse, which describes Rojas. I’m perfectly okay with Raley as the strong half of a platoon at first, but I don’t want to see any other platoons.
Oye Como Va
I love Santana and JT, but what about the top 100, MLB ready first baseman you already have in the system for a lot cheaper? And focus that money elsewhere, like bullpen or 2nd base or even DH
I’d go with that guy whoever he is.
If I were Tyler Locklear, I’d be at Driveline every day, pissed off as hell. The spot would have been his if he’d shown he could even remotely hit.
They’ve got to change their Evil Ways
Gambling that Santana can repeat even last year’s diminishing results – his April was abysmal- & just going with the familiar stinks of laziness, or cheapness. Walker is the best solution unless you go with a Bregman+Profar signing, putting Raley at first. Or trade Woo for Bohm – the pitcher’s ability to make 25 starts, even 20, remains a question mark.
Oh wow 1 bad month!!!!!!!
Face palm…I really hate Dipoto and Hollander…and the Mariners in general. Why? Just move on already. I know 2025 is going to be a bad season. But can we at least try to make logical and rational decisions?
Both players are on base machines and have shown they still have plenty left in the tank even as 40ish year olds. The Mariners aren’t ever going to spend the 30M or more a year that Alonso, Adames, and Bregman all want. So it’s going to be retreads, and averageish veterans that may or may not fit in perfectly with the younger core around them.
Santana is still a perfect fit for the Mariners. Gets on base, slugs a few homers, and he’s still playing good defense at 1B. He also won’t cost a liver and two kidneys to sign.
He would fit several places actually.
Trade Haniger, JP Crawford ,Jeter Martinez for
3B Nolan Arenado
Trade Tai peete, Farmello, Garver, Dominic canzone, Logan Evan’s
1B Yandy Diaz 2B Brandon Lowe
CF Julio
DH Arozerena
1B Diaz
C Raleigh
3B Arenado
2B Lowe
LF Raley
SS Young
Rf Robles
Arenado can move to 1B when Yandy leaves
Colt Emerson would take over 3B
Groan
More garbage Mariner moves…I have 3 or 4 teams I’m thinking about changing my allegiance to…50 years of suffering is enough!