From the Quantum Fiber Studio.

This is Bump and Stacey on Seattle Sports.

Streaming through the Seattle Sports app and at Seattlesports.com.

Now here are your hosts, Michael Bumpus and Stacey Ross.

It is opening day.

Logan Gilbert getting ready to start this one for Seattle against the Guardians.

And joining us right now is Mariners Broadcaster Gary Hill. Gary, how's it going?

It's going great. It's opening day. It's the best day of the year. I know. I love that it's also gotten progressively

sunnier. I don't know about warmer, but it just feels like we're inching closer to it. I'm going to start with our last segment. We were going to have some listeners text in with their big X factor for the Mariners. And instead, Jerry was kind enough to hang around for a little bit longer. And so we asked him, I'm not going to tell you what he said. But who's your biggest X factor for the Mariners?ers? Oh, biggest X-Factor. There's a few of them, I think. When I think about the lineup offensively, I think Luke Raley is probably my X-Factor, because he's a guy who he struggled with injury last year. He was just never himself. And the year before, he was a really productive hitter for the Mariners, like one of their best

hitters.

And you think about if he just repeated what he did in 24, what if he had 20 home runs or 25

home runs, right?

And you think about, you already think about the top five of the lineup.

I think about the top five can make them a top 10 offense in baseball just on their own. If they produce

the way we expect them to produce. Then if you think about, well, what if Luke Rayley repeats?

What if Cole Young takes a step forward? That's when I think you could see the offense

take that next step. They could be a top five offense in baseball. So I think about Luke Rayleigh

as a guy who's going to bat against right-handed pitching. And the way that the Mariners

offense looks on paper, they should batter right-handed starters. And I think he'll be a part of that.

Luke Rayleigh gives me tight-in vibes all day. I see him being a titan on the football field.

Something about him. We've been... You can hear him running. If you listen closely, you can hear it. He beats the ground up. Yeah, yeah. He's a tight-in for sure. Yeah. We've been asked this question. I'm going to ask you, how do you make up for the home runs that Cal doesn't hit this year? We're not putting money down that he's going to hit 60, you might have just answered the question there with the contribution from everyone else. How do you see this office making up for that? Yeah, they were one of the top home run hitting teams in baseball. And I think Slug is super important. But I don't, they can still be a better offense, even with not equaling the home run total. Because you're right. You can't ask how that's 60. He's just, he could at 30. It'd be a great season. That's half, right? So there's that. There's the Polanco production that you're missing to. So that's, that's a lot of home runs to be made up. But I think they could be a more dynamic offense.

I think Brennan Donovan is going to be a big part of that. I think Naylor for an entire season is going to be a part of that. Both of them are different hitters. They're not going to provide a ton of power, but they're going to get on base a lot. And I think that's what's exciting. I think this offense should be more dynamic. they should get on base more and they have a chance to score more runs even if they don't

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