Mariners’ Randy Arozarena Decision Will Test Jerry Dipoto’s Offseason Plan

The Mariners’ rarest hitter is about to become someone else’s target.

Sep 27, 2026; Seattle, Washington, USA; left fielder Randy Arozarena (56) takes a swing during an at-bat against the Los Angeles Angels at T-Mobile Park. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Brashear-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Mariners have spent years searching for the kind of hitter Randy Arozarena became in 2026. Now he’s entering free agency. There are perfectly reasonable arguments against giving a player entering his age-32 season more than $100 million. Arozarena’s defense has become questionable. His next contract could likely cover five or six seasons. The Mariners would almost certainly be paying for decline before the deal expires.

But if Seattle decides the price is too high, it cannot spend the rest of the offseason complaining that productive right-handed hitters are too difficult to find. Arozarena has proven that the Mariners already found one. He just happens to be approaching free agency after making himself considerably more expensive.

Arozarena slashed .281/.381/.484 across 670 plate appearances in 2026. He scored an MLB-leading 113 runs, hit 26 home runs, stole 26 bases and finished with a 151 wRC+. Only Yordan Alvarez and Pete Crow-Armstrong ranked ahead of him in that last category.

Say whatever you want about Arozarena, but he was one of the best offensive players in baseball.

He also supplied exactly what this roster has struggled to locate: a dangerous right-handed presence capable of reaching base, hitting for power and changing a game with his legs. Jerry Dipoto has acknowledged the difficulty of finding quality right-handed hitters. He also acknowledged that Arozarena was the exception.

Jerry Dipoto Must Deliver an Impact Bat if Arozarena Leaves

There’s the contradiction Seattle must resolve. The Mariners apparently do not want to meet the contract Arozarena is expected to command. Ryan Divish reported that estimates now begin around four years and $100 million, with five-year projections landing between $110 million and $125 million. A sixth year could enter the bidding, too.

Perhaps another organization will make an offer Seattle shouldn’t match. The Mariners don’t have to abandon every concern about aging curves because Arozarena had a career year.

They do, however, need a better answer than pointing toward Michael Arroyo, Laz Montes and Brendan Donovan.

Arroyo and Montes are promising young hitters, not established replacements for a player who just produced 5.5 fWAR. Asking either rookie to inherit Arozarena’s responsibility would be an unfair burden. Donovan is a proven major-league hitter who can play left field, but moving him there merely shifts Seattle’s roster questions somewhere else.

Those players provide possibilities. But they don’t replace 113 runs, a .381 on-base percentage and one of the best right-handed bats in the sport.

The free-agent market doesn’t offer an obvious solution, either. Arozarena is probably the best right-handed bat on the market. That’s what makes Seattle’s situation so uncomfortable. The Mariners could allow the best available impact hitter to leave and then enter a thin market looking for someone just like him…but more affordable.

We have seen this movie before. Seattle identifies an offensive need, declines the expensive solution and then tries to assemble the missing production through platoons, versatility and favorable projections. Rarely are those pieces useful. Too often, the finished lineup still looks one serious hitter short.

A qualifying offer and eventual draft-pick compensation would be sensible procedural moves. They wouldn’t help the 2027 lineup. A future selection is a weak consolation prize for a club that intends to contend now.

There are additional complications beyond money. Divish also reported that Arozarena prefers the East Coast and would likely favor a team closer to his Tampa home. Scott Boras also has every reason to take his client into an open market starved for offense. Seattle could make a legitimate effort and still lose.

If Arozarena signs elsewhere, Dipoto must replace more than a left fielder. He must replace the lineup’s most productive hitter, its rare right-handed threat and a player who appeared in 154 games. That requires an impact acquisition, not a collection of names you could technically park out there in left field.

Letting Arozarena leave could ultimately be the responsible decision. Letting him leave without a credible replacement would expose the same roster-building flaw Seattle has been trying to solve for years.