A little after 9 o’clock Wednesday night, 10-year-old Elliot Hollander was wrapping up bedtime stories with his mom when his dad suddenly popped into his room and interrupted the nighttime routine with breaking news.
“We got Geno!”
The dad, in this case, was a particularly credible source. It was Justin Hollander, the Mariners’ general manager, who had just consummated the trade with the Arizona Diamondbacks to bring Eugenio Suárez back to Seattle.
No one was more devastated than Elliot when the Mariners — his dad — traded Suárez away in November 2023. And no one was happier Wednesday night than Elliot, whom his dad described as the world’s No. 1 Geno fan.
Elliot, in his Pokémon pajamas, began jumping up and down on his bed, the sort of reaction surely shared by an entire fan base after the Mariners completed what, on paper, might be the most compelling trade deadline in franchise history.
“We’re pretty happy with what we were able to do,” Justin Hollander said simply on Thursday afternoon, an hour after the deadline passed.
The Mariners made three trades over the past week, adding two middle-of-the-lineup bats — Suárez and first baseman Josh Naylor — and a much-needed left-handed reliever in Caleb Ferguson, moves that should nudge the club closer to a postseason berth and, they hope, toward their ultimate goal.
“We felt like this team deserved the opportunity to just go out and let’s see if we can win the World Series,” Jerry Dipoto, the president of baseball operations, said.
As pleased as the Mariners’ front office was with its deadline deals, it was almost even better.
The Mariners, for a brief period, thought they were the front-runners to land Minnesota’s star closer, Jhoan Duran, on Wednesday afternoon. The Twins, instead, agreed to send Duran to the Philadelphia Phillies for two Top 100 prospects.
The Mariners had offered a similar package to the Twins, who clearly preferred the Phillies’ prospects.
“I think this was about as aggressive as teams have been with their farm systems in quite some time. Us included,” Dipoto said.
In the countdown to Thursday’s deadline, the Mariners had “a ton” of conversations, Dipoto said, with other clubs about adding one more bullpen arm or a role player. They didn’t get particularly close to finalizing anything else, but that didn’t temper the enthusiasm around the three trades they were able to execute. (That they didn’t have to trade away any of their Top 100 prospects added to the Mariners’ vibes.)
In Suárez and Naylor, the Mariners believe they got the two best bats available on the market.
“They were Nos. 1 and 2 on our list, or 1 and 1A, and we were able to reel them both in,” Dipoto said. “I wouldn’t say it came together quickly. This was a long process, and one we just never put down the phone on. And I give Justin a ton of credit for the grind that he went through to bring it in. And I think we got better because of it.”
Naylor batted fourth and Suárez was back at third base, batting fifth, for Thursday’s series opener against the Texas Rangers.
“This is the best lineup we’ve had since I’ve been here, without question,” said Dipoto, in his 10th season as the Mariners’ head of baseball ops.
In Suárez, the Mariners reunited with one of their clubhouse leaders during the 2022 and ’23 seasons, a player who is the perfect fit at the perfect time for them.
“When I called him last night, I almost cried — which I did the last time I talked to him (about a trade),” Dipoto said. “He’s a special guy.”
Why, Dipoto was asked, did the Mariners trade away Suárez in the first place.
Dipoto called that “one of the least favorite” trades he’s ever made, motivated by the Mariners’ need to reduce payroll.
He then referenced the trade of Jarred Kelenic, along with Marco Gonzales and Evan White, to the Atlanta Braves 10 days after the Suárez trade. The deal with Atlanta saved the Mariners about $24.5 million in player payroll.
“At the time, we were trying to manage maybe a more restrictive payroll as we went into that offseason, and what we didn’t know the day we traded Geno to Arizona was that we were later going to be able to make a deal with the Braves that kind of answered our needs,” Dipoto said. “ … If we could have called and asked (Arizona) for a redo … that would have been great. But that’s not how it works.”
Suárez, full circle, is back in Seattle, and the Mariners expect to be back in the postseason come October.
“We’re in a playoff position right now. It is a tight race. I don’t think that we are giving up on the notion of winning the American League West,” Dipoto said. “ … The American League is wide open. And I think the behavior of the teams in the league showed you who thinks they have a shot, and we’re among them.”
