THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Never too early to start improving the Mariners

The 2023 baseball season is off and running.

Well …

Not legally.

MLB rules say that teams can’t pursue trades or begin free agent negotiations until after the World Series.

But they’re doing it anyway — all of them.

It’s completely naïve to think that Mariners VP Jerry Dipoto and GM Justin Hollander haven’t chatted up several of their contemporaries, not to mention various agents.

Even if they weren’t, you can bet the ranch that agents are calling THEM to warm up the market for their clients.

Sure, some of these conversations are “just to touch base,” however …

It’s entirely possible that the guts of some trade, or free agent agreement, has been basically put in place across the baseball landscape.

No club wants to sit on its hands while everyone else is out there hustling.

As the offseason progresses, we’ll get into more specific nuts and bolts concerning the Mariners’ needs and how they might address them — including some wild ideas.

Right now, though, it’s worth looking at the big picture, and getting an idea how Seattle intends to improve on a playoff season that seemed as though it could have gone even further.

IT’S NOT this simple, obviously, because things never go exactly to plan.

Still, let’s pretend that all other bases are covered, and that the Mariners must solve just two puzzles.

They need a second baseman who can hit well above major league average, plus they’ve got to decide who will play all but one of the outfield positions — presumably also rotating as their designated hitter.

It’s nice to start with a generational talent like Julio Rodriguez in center, but every other spot has a question mark attached.

Issues and headaches run the gamut, too, from injury (Kyle Lewis), lack of proven performance (Jarred Kelenic), free agency (Mitch Haniger), plus an unpleasant combination of poor play and possible fallout among teammates (Jesse Winker).

If you assume that all-purpose players Dylan Moore and Sam Haggerty will be back to fill in just about any place when needed (and they SHOULD be, unless either is part of a trade), that means that the club needs to settle on at least “starters” to hold down the corner outfield spots or that DH role.

For sake of argument, let’s start with Winker.

He was the key piece in last winter’s trade with Cincinnati, in which the Mariners agreed to be “saddled” with Eugenio Suarez as part of the deal (the Reds wanted out of his contract).

Suarez turned out to be terrific, whacking 31 home runs with 87 RBI, playing excellent defense at third and becoming a clubhouse leader whose mantra was “Good vibes only.”

Winker, though, went from being an All-Star in 2021 — when he hit .305 with 24 homers and a .949 OPS — to hitting .219 with a dreadful .688 OPS (despite finishing fourth across MLB in walks), while playing left field like a fan who had been yanked out of the stands.

It got worse.

A story in the Seattle Times suggested point blank that Winker was not a hard worker, thus had become resented in the locker room (and presumably among club execs, too).

At the team’s end-of-season press conference, Dipoto partially defended Winker — noting that he had dealt with knee and neck injuries that required surgery.

Still, Dipoto put some of the onus going forward on Winker, mentioning that all metrics showed he was still swinging at good pitches and that his lack of hard contact was a “strength issue.”

In other words, rehab from the surgeries and then get the hell to work, son.

AS FOR the other outfield candidates, Haniger has been a team leader and he’s hit with authority when healthy — which sadly hasn’t been often enough.

Mitch might well agree to another deal in Seattle, but he wants to test the free agent waters, and there are teams interested in him.

Boston, for example, needs outfield help desperately and Haniger’s name has already floated around.

The Mariners surely will give Lewis, the 2020 AL Rookie of the Year, another shot at a regular job during spring training.

Lewis was just getting into a rhythm last season when a pitch ricocheted off his arm and hit the side of his head — leaving him with a concussion that lingered almost all summer (which he finished at Tacoma).

Kelenic?

He’s still a glittering prospect with speed and power, perhaps a future star — but a hitter who can lose track of the strike zone and get baffled by off-speed pitches.

Somewhere in that group, or outside the organization, the Mariners need to find a functioning outfield.

Oh, yeah, and …

We DID mention second base.

Easy.

Sign one of those all-world shortstops in that free-agent scrum and simply move him to second.

Trea Turner would do nicely.

Just write that monstrous check, gentlemen, and the gap between the Mariners and Astros will close dramatically.

See?

The Series hasn’t even started, and we’re already making progress.

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Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press each week Tuesdays through Fridays.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”