MLB free agency: One free agent each team should sign

Seattle Mariners: Yu Darvish

The Mariners did not spend over $300 million on Robinson Cano and Nelson Cruz to continue not making the playoffs. It’s going on almost two decades since the M’s last made the playoffs in their magical 2001 season. Seattle has one of the best offenses in baseball led by Cano, Cruz, Jean Segura, Kyle Seager and the bust formerly known as Mike Zunino.

Try as he might, Seattle GM Jerry Dipoto has not been able to build a strong rotation around his best pitcher. Felix Hernandez was previously the team’s ace. His time has passed, and the title goes to James Paxton. Durability issues may always plague Paxton, but he is as good as any number one in the league except perhaps Clayton Kershaw and Corey Kluber.

Dipoto did his best to build a rotation behind Paxton and Hernandez this year, but Ariel Miranda wound up being the team’s healthiest starter. The Mariners will need to focus on adding a top-flight arm this winter, not dumpster diving on the trade market as they have done in the past.

Yu Darvish could be at home in Seattle, a city with a prominent Japanese population and lineage of Japanese players dating back to Ichiro and Kazuhiro Sasaki. He would also be returning ot the AL West, a division he dominated while with the Rangers. Darvish has been spotty at times this year, and his strikeouts are down below the best levels of his first years in the big leagues. I’d say the Mariners should go all in on Shohei Otani, but he wants to hit and they don’t have room for him.