THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: So, where do the Mariners go from here?

It’s pretty much a rule.

An obligation.

If you cover a major league baseball team as a beat writer or columnist, your off-season work demands analysis of the club.

And thoughts on how the roster can be improved by the next April.

You can’t just tell readers of your newspaper or website to wait a few months and we’ll all see what happens.

Nope.

You’re supposed to KNOW what the team’s front office should be planning, and how it will create an exciting pennant run.

Fans want big ideas, major moves — whether they make true financial or on-the-diamond sense, or whether they only make as much sense as sitting around and trading baseball cards in the garage.

That’s why I’m here to help.

I’ve covered several thousand MLB games in person, seen seven no-hitters (including Nolan Ryan’s first and a perfect game by Catfish Hunter), watched pennant and World Series celebrations while awash in champagne, yada, yada.

Witnessed heartbreak, too.

So.

I do have a little background with this stuff.

What we’ll do today is what every baseball reporter does at this time of year.

In our case, we’ll take our first reconstruction look at the Mariners — a club that has won 90, 90 and 84 games over the past three seasons — and ponder how to get Seattle to the Promised Land.

I’M SURE you’ve seen this same type of discussion published or yakked to death on radio/podcasts elsewhere.

Even the Mariner players have gotten involved, as the generally soft-spoken Cal Raleigh popped off about acquiring “big-time” players on the night the Mariners were officially knocked out of the playoff race. 

J.P. Crawford chimed in to agree with him.

That’s a fairly stunning situation, even if Cal apologized a day later.

Saying sorry or not, we know how he feels. 

Right.

Who are these “big-time” players that theoretically could get the Mariners to the cusp of the World Series — where, as we all know, they’ve never been?

Let’s start at the top.

Shohei Ohtani.

Would he come to Seattle if the Mariners met the pay threshold?

Nobody knows, because Ohtani has said NOTHING about his desires, except that he wants to win.

Everyone assumes he’ll sign with the Dodgers, because they win and they’re right next door.

But, hell, maybe he’s been dreaming about Atlanta all this time.

Or Milwaukee.

Just for starters, though, let’s say the Mariners COULD land Ohtani, and will pay the freight.

Would he be enough?

There’s a temptation to say yes — just plug him into the DH spot and the current lineup immediately changes. 

The Mariners rotated the DH role last year and got this production: .192/.293/.366 (.659 OPS).

Even more embarrassing, the Mariners’ designated hitters checked in with a -0.2 WAR, according to FanGraphs.

Ohtani could probably match those numbers using a Little League bat.

The elephant in the room, obviously, is that the Mariners have to plan as though they will NOT sign Ohtani.

So, what then?

How do we make the lineup more productive — and for heaven’s sake, cut down on the massive strikeout numbers?

Watching another whiff with a runner on third and one out in a tie game, and even the Mariner Moose might throw himself off a ferry.

WE CAN find several strategies that could re-create a team chasing 100 wins.

Shannon Drayer of Seattle Sports, a savvy reporter who follows the team on a day-to-day basis, actually has suggested — in some depth — that the Mariners might want to make their major additions with pitching.

Shannon has plenty of numbers to prove her point, as well.

With all the injuries the M’s staff endured last year, a preseason plan to experiment with a six-man rotation (to keep everyone fresh in September), Seattle gave the ball to Bryan Woo — their SEVENTH starter of the season — on June 6.

As she points out, Mariner pitchers got pretty well battered over the last few weeks of the season, and shoring up both the rotation and bullpen might make Seattle overwhelming to face.

There are a lot more free agent pitchers available now, also.

That includes perennial Cy Young candidate Blake Snell, who is still just 30 — and a Seattle native who has dropped hints that he’d like coming home to finish his career.

In other words, there are various ways to skin Astros and Rangers.

Ohtani would be incredible fun (and productive), and there ARE some more-contact hitters out there.

Lourdes Gurriel, Wandy Diaz, Jeimer Candelario, and so on.

Plus, proven major league hitters on the roster who are coming off unusually poor years (Ty France) and some of Seattle’s exciting minor leaguers (Ryan Bliss) are desperately hoping to contribute. Believe it or not, the entire Mariners organization wants a Series run even more than you do. 

Trust me on that.

Or trust Cal Raleigh.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press four times each week, normally Tuesday through Friday unless, you know, stuff happens.

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