Much like this season, back in 2023, Eugenio Suárez was the most coveted hitter on the market come the trade deadline, and the Seattle Mariners decided to deal away the then-thirty-three-year-old slugger with salary in mind. Suárez was due about $15 million across 2024 and 2025. The Arizona Diamondbacks gladly dealt for Suarez then, happy to pick up a power hitter in exchange for what even then felt like a fair price, as they were in the hunt for the NL wild card. The M’s decided the best thing to do was to deal him out, upsetting the fanbase and seeming to have lost the heart of its team. However, fast forward two years, and the Mariners have rectified the wrongdoing their front office mistakenly executed two years ago.

Since Suárez’s initial departure, his bat has only gotten hotter, as he’s projected to hit well over fifty home runs this season, and third base has been a black hole for Seattle. Last night’s trade rectified that $15 million mistake, at the cost of three promising young prospects. Tyler Locklear, the Mariners’ number nine prospect via MLB Pipeline, right-hander Hunter Cranton, number sixteen, and fellow hurler Juan Burgos, number seventeen, are out to the Grand Canyon State to bring the slugger back to the Pacific Northwest.

LOVE a good reunion episode 🔱 pic.twitter.com/n2Nylb1tLE

— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) July 31, 2025

It’s certainly not an ideal outcome for Seattle, having to give away three promising young players just to receive someone in return who, in theory, never needed to be traded in the first place, but it’s a move this team needed to make because these 2025 Mariners look like the team that could finally bring the World Series to Seattle.

Led by the team’s breakout star, switch-hitter Cal Raleigh, who is in the midst of a historic season with forty-one home runs, this Mariners lineup, before the trade deadline, was seemingly missing just one thing: some consistent pop outside of Raleigh’s bat. Suárez is on pace for fifty-six home runs this season, and Raleigh is on pace for sixty-four. There is only one team in MLB history that had two fifty-homer hitters in the same season on the same team: the 1961 Yankees with Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle. However, the heart of their lineup doesn’t stop at the trio of center fielder Julio Rodríguez, Raleigh, and Suárez. The Mariners and Diamondbacks had already made a deal earlier this week, with the Mariners getting another one of Eugenio’s former-turned-current teammates, first baseman Josh Naylor. The reunion of this heavy-hitting duo could be the key for the M’s to make a deep postseason run. Eugenio already has thirty-six home runs on the year, and with his knowledge of T-Mobile Park’s dimensions, he should, hopefully, reacclimate himself quickly and continue to slug. The fifty-six home runs would be a career high for Eugenio, surpassing his previous best of forty-nine home runs in 2019, and this stat would additionally make him the first player since Mark McGwire in his 1996 season to have been traded mid-season and also hit fifty homers.

Geno’s back—and the vibes are UP!

Don’t miss your chance to snag this exclusive “Good Vibes Only” t-shirt and cheer on Geno and the crew when we face the White Sox on August 5. #TridentsUp

>> https://t.co/KvrEdLL73Z << pic.twitter.com/Tiv5rIGKCF

— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) August 1, 2025

Between this reunion and the acquisition of first baseman Josh Naylor, the corners of the already solid middle infield made up of rookie Cole Young at second, JP Crawford at short, are now fully reinforced. Additionally, this acquisition allows Jorge Polanco to churn out competitive at-bats as the number one DH on the Mariners’ depth chart, but also opens up the opportunity to have Suárez DH, Young cover third, and give Polanco some reps at second. Suárez and Naylor are both definitely bat-first players, but they both convey a game-changing power. Suárez is also known to be the ideal clubhouse presence and has been known to take younger players under his wing. The most exciting part of this reunion is that, for the first time in a long time, there are indisputably talented players making up both the offensive lineup and the pitching staff. With Seattle currently tied with the Rangers, whom they are starting a four game series against with Suárez officially in tow, for the American League’s last wildcard spot. This Mariner team is looking to make postseason berth again for the first time since 2022 (the last time Suárez was on the roster), when they clinched a wildcard spot, ending a twenty-one-year playoff drought, the longest in Major League Baseball at the time. The Seattle Mariners have a 53.9% chance of making the playoffs, according to a recent report from Sports Illustrated, and they are currently 41-39, which puts them in a good position to compete for a wild card spot again this year in the American League, as they sit currently at second place in the AL West.