Mariners Noon Number: M’s wildcard chances jumbled as trade deadline approaches

The Seattle Mariners beat the Chicago White Sox 4-2 on Friday in Chicago to pick up a win in the first game back from the All-Star Break. With the win, the M’s remain three games behind in the battle for the last wildcard spot.

At the close of play on Friday, there were nine teams within four games of the last American League wildcard spot.

The Mariners are in a precarious position. They know they don’t really have the starting pitching to seriously contend for a playoff spot. And what if, by miracle, they qualify for the one-game play-in? Even if they succeed, they just don’t have the arms to compete with Houston, Cleveland or Boston, the A.L. division leaders.

The Mariners start the so-called “second half” with a six-game road trip through Chicago and Houston. The White Sox are patsies this season, the Astros a juggernaut. After that, the team returns home for a season-defining 10-game homestand against the Yankees, the aforementioned Red Sox and the moribund Mets.

Should the Mariners find some success in the last two-and-a-half weeks of the month, they could try to add an arm or a slugging first baseman to add to the mix. Just about everyone’s a contender in this silly wildcard era.

But are the Mariners really in a position to be dealing any of the talent they have amassed in the minors? The organization’s prospects are not a heralded bunch. In one midseason prospect review, the Mariners placed just two in the top 100 prospects in the game. Their best young player, 22-year-old outfielder Kyle Lewis, is back on the minor league disabled list with swelling and discomfort in his surgically repaired right knee.

It’s a precarious position for Jerry Dipoto. If they’re close and don’t add, it looks like they don’t care about making the playoffs, something the Mariners haven’t done since 2001. But if they’re still a couple of games down and they sell off prospects, are they wasting resources in a chase for fool’s gold?