THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Mariners are in the playoff picture, but there's still work to do

It’s been a baseball truth forever. 

Season after season, you could bank on it. 

Mostly. 

Throughout the game’s history, all the way back to Addie Joss and Three-Finger Mordecai Brown, a team’s fate was written in stone on the Fourth of July. 

Mostly. 

The midseason holiday had some sort of magical quality. 

If you were in a pennant chase on the Fourth, then you were in it to stay. 

If everything had gone sideways in those first few months, ah, then you were buried for good in the first week of July. 

So. 

What does all that tell us about the Mariners, and future Hall of Famer Cal Raleigh? 

Well, the glass-half-empty version is that the Astros once again have disappeared over the horizon in the AL West. 

Ho-hum. 

Houston gobbled up seven games on the M’s during June, somehow having filled the holes left by Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker. 

Yep, winning the West was a dream. 

But. 

IT WON’T happen this year. 

Let’s consider the glass-half full situation here. 

Today is the Fourth of July, and if the MLB postseason opened right now, the Mariners would be involved for the first time since the Battle of Hastings in 1066. 

Wait, sorry, I forgot ’22.

That one sometimes vanishes into the mist when I picture Robbie Ray stepping boldly up to challenge Yordan Alvarez. 

Meanwhile, it’s not exactly like the M’s have throttled all competition to get a lock on the sixth seed this year. 

The only thing guaranteed was that Seattle was sitting in that historic playoff spot today. 

Fourth of July or not, there will somewhere between five and seven teams scrapping like hungry rodents for the league’s final postseason spot (or maybe two) at the end of September. 

It’s not like the Mariners received anything permanent for having a winning record on this star-spangled holiday. 

No marble statue, guys. 

There is a bit of good news, though. 

This is despite some obvious shortcomings. 

The M’s are a long, LONG way from running a complete team out there every night. 

Hell, Dan Wilson’s lineup card for Wednesday night’s classic against Kansas City included Donovan Solano in the cleanup spot. 

Need we say more? 

As patched-up as the Mariners might be, though, everyone else in this American League rock fight is stuck in pretty much the same spot. 

You’re not going to run across the 1927 Yankees anywhere in this bunch. 

So, can the Mariners maintain that Fourth of July tradition this time around? 

Keep the ghosts of Adde and Mordecai smiling? 

I HATE to oversimplify this circus – but I’m going to do it anyway. 

You’ve probably read a couple dozen trade possibilities, moves that Jerry Dipoto and Justin Hollander might make to add some punch to their sleepy lineup. 

If they somehow find a first or third baseman with some sock (and a team that might consider Harry Ford in return), yeah, that might steal a game or two. 

I like young Ben Williamson at third and I think he’ll eventually add some power. 

First base? 

Gonna have to fix that next year, I’m afraid. 

Among other things, I disagree with Dipoto about developing this army of exciting kids … just so you can trade ‘em. 

Why not build your cornerstone, and keep it? 

That brings me to the one, and ONLY one, way the Mariners can enjoy the postseason this October. 

Somebody has to rescue Julio Rodriguez from captivity. 

Julio was going to be Seattle’s next superstar, and he burst into the bigs just that way. 

Unfortunately, his bat has gotten softer, year after year. 

Yep, he’s still a magnificent outfielder who can win some games with his speed and dynamic all-around play. 

But Julio has to stop hitting the ball on the ground. 

What’s up with that? 

It’s like he’s trying so hard to avoid strikeouts that he’s become a singles hitter. 

NO! 

Get some lift, big guy. 

Do some damage. 

For one thing, teams have to fear Julio if Cal is going to get any strikes to hit the rest of the way. 

Would YOU throw the Big Dumper a fat one when you don’t believe anyone else in the lineup might kill you? 

For himself, for Cal and to win some games, Julio has to do some damage. 

Get the ball back in the air. 

Email: scameron@cdapress.com 

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press three times each week, normally Tuesday, Wednesday and 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.”