Seattle root, root, roots for its promising Mariners team

It'll be a sold-out crowd for the Seattle Mariners tonight, as they open their season against the Cleveland Guardians. The M’s are coming off a stellar year, in which they finally made the postseason after a 21-year drought and swept Toronto in the Wild Card round. 23-year-old phenom Julio Rodriguez anchors the Mariners lineup, which was bolstered during the off-season with trades for Teoscar Hernandez and Kolten Wong.

KUOW’s Kim Malcolm sat down with Corey Brock, who covers the Mariners for The Athletic. She asked him what's in store for the M's this year, and just how high expectations are.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Corey Brock: I think they're really high, probably as high as they've been really in any other year in franchise history. Coming off two 90-win seasons, they got to the postseason last year, won that playoff series against the Blue Jays, and then played the Astros really tough in that three-game series before being eliminated. But they've augmented the roster. They have some good young players. They have maybe one of the best pitching staffs in all baseball, and pitching is sort of the name of the game in baseball. If you don't have it, you don't have a chance, and they’ve got a lot of it. So, people around the game are expecting big things, and certainly fans in Seattle.

Kim Malcolm: And money is part of the game. In the offseason, the Mariners did not spend on players perhaps in the way that many fans wanted them to. But there have been some big changes to the roster. What is new and improved this year?

I think one of the biggest acquisitions they made was acquiring Teoscar Hernandez from the Blue Jays. In game 2 of the wildcard series last year, Hernandez hit two home runs against the Mariners, so they know what they're getting in him. He's a proven commodity and he makes up for the loss of Mitch Haniger to free agency. And you're going to have Julio Rodriguez at the top, and some good hitters there after Ty France. Eugenio Suárez is another one.

I thought coming out of the offseason they were maybe one bat shy, but I think they can make up for a lot of that with their pitching because I think pitching is going to keep them in every game.

Is this team strong enough this year to win the division and beat the Houston Astros? Please say yes.

I'll give you a firm maybe. How's that? I will tell you this, they're not going to finish 16 games behind the Astros as they did last year. I think the gap there is not quite as sizable as it once was. It’s been Houston's division for so long, but I think the Mariners are the best equipped to make a run at it they've ever been.

Baseball is a game about rules and traditions, and we had some pretty big changes this year. It's been a little jarring for some of us watching the game. Let's talk about the pitch clock, which may be the biggest change people are noticing. How is it impacting the game?

From a journalist’s perspective, it's been the greatest thing since sliced bread. They've been testing this and playing with it in the minor leagues for the last two years. And they found on average it's maybe cut 20 minutes or so from the game. A longtime fan may say, do we really need this? It's taking away from the game.

Well, I'll be the one to tell you it is not taking away from anything. It's actually cutting out some of the extraneous, time-wasting events: the pitcher walking around the mound between pitches; the batter stepping out, adjusting his batting gloves for the 30th time. It's just helped tighten things up without sacrificing any of the action. I think the fans who are questioning whether this is a good thing or not, by the end of the season, will have come around. It's going to be wonderful.

So, big picture, how would you define success for the Mariners this season?

They got the taste of the postseason last year. I think anything short of getting into the playoffs again will be a disappointment. Things are really trending back up. The crowds have started to come back out. Remember, the All-Star Game is coming to Seattle this year. I think it has the potential to be a really exciting year in Seattle in terms of fan interest in the team, and the team holding the fans' interest by being good.

I look at some of these other teams around the league, the Tigers, the Pirates, these teams that sort of are just out of it by April 1, right? They don't really have much of a chance, and we've seen that in Seattle. It's not a fun place to be, so I hope fans are really enjoying this.

Listen to the interview by clicking the play button above.