Mariners bring back Jorge Polanco to fill the role at 3rd base
By Jeffrey Nooney, edited by Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA - The Seattle Mariners brought back an old friend to play a new position for the 2025 season. Jorge Polanco, who spent the 2024 season with the Mariners, signed a one year, $7.75 million contract with the Mariners back on January 30th. Polanco was the primary second baseman for the Mariners in 2024, but he will at least start the season at third base this year. Polanco has played third base in just 24 games in his 11 seasons.
The Mariners came into the offseason looking for a much needed upgrade at third base, but they have seemed to settle with Polanco there. Last season, The Mariners trotted out Josh Rojas at third base in 131 games. Rojas did alright, earning 2.1 bWAR last season, but the counting stats were just not there. Rojas’ slash line was just .225/.304/.336/.641 with an OPS+ of just 91, 9% lower than the Major League average of 100. Polanco did not provide much better stats, though across his first season with Seattle. His slash line of .213/.296/.355/.651 with an OPS+ of 93 is almost identical to Rojas, while Jorge earned just 1.3 bWAR in 2024.
They were also similar in counting stats. Polanco may have doubled Rojas’ home run total (16 for Polanco to 8 for Rojas), but Rojas had more extra base hits (29) than Polanco (27). Rojas also only struck out 108 times, while Polanco struck out 137 times.
Why does this deal make sense?
The Mariners are hoping for a bounce back season from Polanco. A big reason why his stats fell off from his career averages is because he played through most of 2024 with a significant left knee injury. He had surgery in October to repair a torn meniscus. He also was hampered with hamstring injuries in the beginning part of last season. If Polanco can stay healthy in 2025, he is sure to be closer to the numbers on the back of his baseball card. Polanco’s agent was telling teams during the winter meetings that Jorge was back to full health for the first time in years, and if that’s true then the Mariners could get a much better looking player than what we all saw last season.
While everybody but the ownership group wants the Mariners to go out and spend big money on big name players, that just isn’t going to happen as has been made apparent over recent years. Sure, Alex Bregman and Pete Alonso are still free agents as I am writing this, but the Mariners can’t… I mean won’t be able to afford them. Nolan Arenado is also on the trade block from the St. Louis Cardinals, but the Mariners do not seem likely to take on another big contract at this time.
Is Polanco a perfect fit as the starting third baseman for a team with playoff aspirations? No. But could he still be an above average player for the Mariners in 2025? Yeah, I think he could. The strikeout numbers were a career high for him (29.2%), but that was an epidemic among all of the Mariners offensive players last year. A full year of Dan Wilson, new hitting coach Kevin Seitzer, and a healthy start could do wonders for Polanco.
Polanco moving to third base means there will likely be a platoon of sorts at second base. Dylan Moore, Ryan Bliss and prospect stud Cole Young will all fight for the starting second base job this Spring. Newly acquired veteran Donovan Solano has some experiance at second as well, though he likely will be platooning at first base with Luke Raley. As always, Go Mariners!
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