FanPost Friday: Your early predictions for the 2023 Seattle Mariners

The offseason isn’t over, but let’s prognosticate anyways

Hello and welcome to the first FanPost Friday of 2023. New year, new season, same ol’ weekly prompts post!

If you’re like me, you’ve struggled to make peace with this offseason. Maybe you’re still trying to. I’m not really sure where I’m at on it. The rational part of me wants to wait until Spring Training starts (38 days until pitchers and catchers report!) to make any final judgements, but the lil’ snarky, negative goblin in me that had his shit kicked in by Cal Raleigh’s home run back in September has been THRIVING in the offseason atmosphere and is ready to make proclamations of doom and gloom. How I really feel about the 2023 Mariners is somewhere in the middle of all that, is what I’m trying to say.

So let’s make some way-too-early predictions about the 2023 Mariners! But first, go back and read comments of a similar prompt from 2022, right before the season started. There are some real nightmare scenarios in there that thankfully did not come true.

(screams into the middle distance)

I mean, this wouldn’t have been a bad thing at all as long as Kirby still posted 3.0 fWAR!

Okay enough dwelling on the past, this post is about the FUTURE after all. Let’s make those 2023 predictions.

Let’s see your picks in the comments:

• 2023 Mariners most valuable position player:
• 2023 Mariners most valuable pitcher:
• Who has a breakout season in 2023?
• Who suffers the worst regression in 2023?
• Who leads the team in home runs in 2023?
• Who leads the team in wRC+ in 2023?
• Which pitcher leads the team in strikeouts in 2023?
• Which pitcher runs the best xFIP in 2023?
• Does Juliooooooo win the Home Run Derby in front of a delirious home crowd?

Before I go, I must give a plug to the fantastic 40 in 40 profiles we’ve had this week to kick things off right. A fun thing about having a large staff is that every writer brings something different each of these profiles. Some are funny, some are weird, some are stats-heavy, and some are more narrative-based. Pick your flavor and dive in on excellent reads on Cal Raleigh, Diego Castillo, Sam Haggerty, Paul Sewald, and Juan Then.

All right, have a great weekend folks and let’s hear those predictions!