Josh Naylor’s re-signing sets tone for potential championship offseason

Stay hungry, stay proactive.

The Mariners got done what they needed to get done this offseason. Now the question becomes, since they’ve already set a high floor on their winter, how much further they’re willing to go.

Bringing Josh Naylor back made so much sense it forced one to consider if it might hurt the Mariners in negotiations.

The Mariners were great with him. He was great with them. M’s brass made clear they had to have him.

It was everything a sports agent could ask for.

Even so, what Josh Naylor wanted was to be back in Seattle. And now it’s done, the arches above the stage upon which he delivered moment after moment lit with his initials in fluorescent blue.

It’s easy enough to be fired up about the signing on its own—so much so that I’m not even going to weigh in much on that.

Is it a reasonable deal, years and money-wise? Yes.

Could it possibly kill them at any juncture? For sure. That’s true of any deal.

Do you do it ten times out of ten? Yes of course.

What I’m most struck by, in the most complimentary sentiment possible, is the way in which the Mariners got this done.

Almost nobody else has signed. Naylor’s the first of FanGraphs’ top 50 (ranked 11th) free agents to put to to paper. And it’s for your Seattle Mariners.

The M’s seemingly asked Naylor and his reps what it would take to get a deal done right here, right now. He answered and the Mariners wrote a check.

Simple as that—when the M’s so often make it so much more complex.

No waiting and reacting to the market. No trying to save a couple million by exerting leverage. No having to cobble together a replacement from spare parts.

It really doesn’t have to be any more complicated than that.

The Mariners were proactive and now get to spend the rest of the winter punching from their front foot.

As we all wonder what, if anything, is next, I’ve been thinking about the way Adam Jude framed the payroll situation to the boys on the Marine Layer pod.

When you talk about their priorities this offseason, it looks like Naylor and it looks like Polanco. Obviously if we’re projecting they have $30-35 million to spend, you’re pretty much using it up on those two guys in free agency.

That said, they can obviously see some sort of trade. Maybe they do have some more flexibility that we don’t know about publicly yet to[…]go out and sign a proven reliever, right? If it costs you $10 million, 12 million, they’re at that point where it’s sort of a luxury buy, but when are you going to do it, if not now, right?

Jude echoed that sentiment in part of his answer on a potential Tarik Skubal trade, which he wrote on recently.

They’re at a luxury buy position. Go find that finishing touch, the icing on the cake, the exclamation point, whatever you want to call it.

However you have to improve this team, what better way than go adding the best pitcher in baseball?

Absolutely, if he’s out there, the Mariners should be right in the thick of those conversations.

I’m not going to weigh in one way or another on the Skubal idea, at least not right now, but Adam is exactly right.

If now isn’t the time to get greedy, to be aggressive enough to run out a top 10 payroll (or close), then when’s it gonna be? Because if it’s not now, it sounds like never—and that’s no good.

But let’s avoid framing this negatively. Don’t need that right now.

The Mariners are in an incredible position. They enter the crux of the offseason with, by one projection system (see right side of page), the third-most talented roster in the sport.

Obviously, those standings will shift with ensuing transactions, but the Mariners sit there now because they have what all teams crave—a deep and talented core that sets up the possibility of sustained winning.

That sustained winning is no guarantee, as we well know. Progress often isn’t linear.

Then also, once you get a taste for something more, not only the distant horizon of “sustained winning” but being five wins from a flag, maybe you can’t resist trying to reach out and grab it.

That will be the question—and justifiable temptation (nay, obligation?)—for John Stanton, Chris Larson and the rest of the Mariners ownership group.

This time of year, November and early December in particular, we talk a lot about projected budgets and supposed money left under the reported sum.

Thing is, that’s all fake. Budgets can change on a whim if the right people want them to.

The Mariners are already in a very advantageous spot. If they can get Jorge Polanco back in the fold, as well-connected people expect them to do, the allure of getting greedy will be almost irresistible.

If they can get that done, and done relatively early in the offseason like this Naylor deal, then it’s freestyle time. Creativity time. Winning it all time.

Jerry Dipoto, Justin Hollander and crew are surely already bouncing out of their corner and ready for another round of transacting.

Maybe one year of Tarik Skubal costs less in prospect capital than most expect. Ketel Marte’s out there, too, probably.

Plus, leave it to this front office to conjure something together out of thin air.

They’ve got the time, positioning and prospect armory to do something special. And they should be given every opportunity to do just that.

This should be the golden era of Mariners Baseball. The hardware that’d make it undeniable is closer now than it ever has been.

Go get it.