Lily Cornell and Jim Carrey speak onstage during the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
Amy Sussman/WireImage
After the Seattle Mariners’ trades that brought in Mitch Haniger, Anthony DeScalfani and Luke Raley to the Seattle Mariners three weeks ago had been completed, there was a clear air of relief in a reply to a question posed to president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto.
Mariners Trade Breakdown: Who is new 2B Jorge Polanco?
“I feel like today is the first time all offseason that we can say if we were playing the opening day game tomorrow, we feel good about the team that we have,” Dipoto said in the media call later that Jan. 5 evening. “It’s a complete team.”
While some interpreted that as “the Mariners are done this winter,” in reality it was a statement of fact – and a significant accomplishment given the turn the offseason had taken early on, with Dipoto and general manager Justin Hollander needing to subtract from the roster before they added due to financial constraints.
For the vast majority of the offseason there were missing pieces – vital pieces. And no, the plan was not to just fill them with utility players. Nonetheless, it was an uncomfortable place to be.
On Jan. 5, they felt they could at least field a good team with the numbers adding up at most positions, some via the platoon, but the hope was they could add.
The target: Jorge Polanco.
Mariners make trade with Twins for All-Star Jorge Polanco
“He’s a guy that we have liked and tried to acquire for years,” said Hollander. “I think I personally made more calls on this trade than I ever have on any trade before at the behest of both my own want to add him to our group, so a really big day for us. (I) feel like it makes us a lot better and excited to add him.”
The addition of the switch-hitting Polanco at second base will eliminate a planned platoon at that position, likely moving it to third base where the platoon can be better utilized with Luis Urías and Josh Rojas.
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“The switch-hit is huge for us the way our team is constructed,” said Hollander. “To have a guy who’s platoon neutral who can hit in the middle of our lineup from either side is a big advantage for Scott (Servais) as he stacks the lineup up to be able to go left, right, switch.”
Polanco, who hit primarily in the top three spots of the order for the Twins in recent years, could slide into the No. 3 spot for the Mariners, solidifying the top of the order before mixing and matching through the middle. The addition gives length to the lineup, and it builds a stronger bench. One of Mitch Haniger, Dominic Canzone or Luke Raley will be available off the bench each night, plus utility player Dylan Moore, catcher Seby Zavala, and Rojas or Urías.
The addition did come at a price both in the immediate and perhaps future, though, with outfielder and top-100 prospect Gabriel Gonzalez and pitching prospect Darren Bowen included in the trade. Off the big league roster, the Mariners could afford to lose the recently acquired DeScalfani, but key reliever Justin Topa will need to be replaced.
“I definitely do want to take a moment to praise Topa on this call,” Hollander said to the media Monday night. “Justin Topa was awesome for us last year. From Day 1 of spring training, he showed up. He was open to coaching, he was open to new ideas, worked his butt off to make sure he stayed on the mound every day. He was available to us and got huge outs for us all year long. Topa was great, we’ll have to replace that. I think it most likely will be internally with a possibility, like always, that we could add externally as well.”
The bullpen does appear to be thin in established talent, but a strength of the Mariners in recent years has been in uncovering pitching gems. Is the next Topa or even Paul Sewald in the current group of spring training invitees? There are candidates with Jackson Kowar, Carlos Vargas and Prelander Berroa all possessing stuff, though none have yet put it together at the big league level.
Time will tell how it all shakes out, but on paper – multiple projection systems ranked the Mariners second in the division before Monday’s trade – this team is better than the team that finished last season.
Pitchers (and it’s very worth noting the starting five was kept intact) and catchers report to spring training in just over two weeks.
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Soundgarden were welcomed into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Saturday with an all-star induction that included a performance by the band’s surviving members, a group composed of fellow Seattle musicians, and the daughter of the late Chris Cornell.
Jim Carrey, who once hosted a 1996 episode of Saturday Night Live where Soundgarden was the musical guest, inducted the band. “Spank you kindly, spank you all,” the actor-comedian told the crowd. “You might ask why would Soundgarden — the heaviest of rock & roll royalty — want Jim Carrey to induct them into the Hall of Fame? Is there some deep, cosmic connection between them, or was the ‘Spoonman’ not available?”
Lily Cornell and Jim Carrey speak onstage during the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
Amy Sussman/WireImage
Carrey revealed that when he hosted SNL, he insisted that Soundgarden be the musical guest, and was gifted Cornell’s Fender Telecaster after the show, his most prized possession. “When the Seattle music scene exploded, it resurrected rock & roll for me,” he said. “When I heard Soundgarden for the first time, I wasn’t just excited. I wanted to put a flannel shirt on and run into the streets screaming, ‘My mother smoked during pregnancy!’”
Following Carrey’s speech, Cornell’s daughter, Lily, joined the stage. “I am just really, really happy that he got to make music with his friends,” she said of her dad. “At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about. I know how much purpose that gave him, and how much it’s meant to people who have heard that music. That’s what I’ll be holding in my heart tonight.”
Taylor Momsen, Brandi Carlile, and Soundgarden’s Matt Cameron and Hiro Yamamoto perform at the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
Kevin Kane/Getty Images for RRHOF
Then came the “Seattle-centric” performance drummer Matt Cameron promised in the run-up to the ceremony. Friends like Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready, Alice in Chains’ Jerry Cantrell, Brandi Carlile (who previously teamed with Soundgarden’s surviving members for a Record Store Day single), and Taylor Momsen of the Pretty Reckless (who served as opening act on Soundgarden’s final tour prior to Cornell’s 2017 death), joined the band for “Rusty Cage” and “Black Hole Sun.”
Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains and Kim Thayil of Soundgarden perform at the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
Amy Sussman/WireImage
Each member of the band — guitarist Kim Thayil, drummer Matt Cameron, bassists Ben Shepherd and Hiro Yamomoto, who left the group in 1989 — delivered induction speeches. “Chris Cornell, we are so missing you tonight on this stage,” Yamomoto said. “We’ve heard so many stories of how the music we created became your own, and that is the greatest recognition of all. To everyone else out there — especially all you brown kids — let’s rock!”
Nancy Wilson and Toni Cornell perform onstage during the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
Kevin Kane/Getty Images for RRHO
After the all-star Seattle team-up, Cornell’s daughter Toni and Heart’s Nancy Wilson teamed up for an acoustic rendition of “Fell on Black Days.”
“It’s so surreal, and I’m so honored that I get to be here to do this for my dad,” Toni said backstage following the performance. “I just wish he were here to see this tremendous honor for himself. I know how proud he would have been, but he’s the only reason why I do music so being here and being able to share my voice because of him, is amazing.”
Toni took inspiration for her own performance from her dad’s Songbook tour in the early 2010s and “doing his renditions of these super-powerful, insane songs that he would do with Soundgarden.” ” I was always really touched by just him and his voice, his guitar, and eventually with a cellist … Everyone can relate that song on so many levels, like I fell on black days. We’ve all been there. So I personally related to that, and I really wanted to channel how my dad would have performed that song on his own.”
“Rock and roll is almost a lost art,” Wilson told reporters prior to the performance. “Hard rock bands… the bands we grew up with are not that many roaming the planet anymore, so I’m really happy to see the new ones coming up and still honoring those that left the big dinosaur footprint behind us.”
“I think Chris would have really enjoyed this moment of recognition, because he was always moving as an artist,” Cameron said in an interview prior to the Rock Hall induction. “He was always seeking that next phase of his writing career, performing career. … Maybe down the line he will get recognized as a solo artist or [for] Temple of the Dog or something like that because his contribution to music has been absolutely massive.”
Interest rates have fallen to 6.17%, the lowest since October 2024, but the rates remain considerably higher than post-pandemic levels, when they reached below 3%.
Jake Skorheim and Spike O’Neil, hosts of “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio, detailed the potential “housing freeze” on the market that is caused by raised interest rates and homeowners being less likely to move due to immediate monthly payment increases if they were to secure a current interest rate.
“Sometimes in life you just get lucky when you’re buying a house, and my wife and I were one of those people who bought at a time when interest rates were historically low,” Jake said. “Now you’re seeing basically a freeze in the housing market. Even though the rates are dropping slightly, people are not willing to sell their homes, get out of a favorable 3-or 4% interest rate, and basically double their monthly payment.”
Spike explained how he is inadvertently participating in the housing freeze, even though his family wishes to downsize to a new home, but higher interest rates have contributed to the decision to stay at home.
“To your point about being frozen, you know, we’d love to downsize because the maintenance is a lot on our 3,800-square-foot home, it’s a lot of space,” Spike said. “We’d love to downsize, but we’re locked in on a pretty great interest rate for our home. We’ve been there a little over 20 years now.”
Watch the full discussion in the video above.
Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.
Michele Kang on growth of women’s sports
Michele Kang walks the Women Sports Foundation’s red carpet and answers questions on her vision of women’s sports.
Sports Seriously
The Orlando Pride’s title defense starts now.
The defending champion Pride kick off the 2025 NWSL postseason against the No. 5 seed Seattle Reign FC on Friday in Orlando, Florida, the first of four quarterfinal matches this weekend.
The No. 4 seed Pride look to become the third team to win back-to-back NWSL championships, and the first since the North Carolina Courage in 2018 and 2019, all without their star striker Barbra Banda. Banda led the Pride with eight goals this season, but the 2024 NWSL Championship MVP was ruled out for the remainder of the season after suffering a full thickness avulsion of her right adductor longus tendon in August.
Both teams are familiar with each other. The Pride and Reign recently faced off during Decision Day on Nov. 2 with the match ending in a 1-1 draw. Carson Pickett of the Pride and Jordyn Bugg of the Reign each scored. The Pride got the best of the Reign earlier this season in a 1-0 win in April, where Banda scored the lone goal.
2025 NWSL PLAYOFFS: Full bracket, schedule
Here’s everything to know ahead of the first quarterfinal match of the 2025 NWSL playoffs:
The 2025 NWSL postseason kicks off with a quarterfinal matchup between the No. 4 Orlando Pride and No. 5 Seattle Reign FC on Friday, Nov. 7 at 8 p.m. ET at Inter&Co Stadium in Orlando, Florida.
The 2025 NWSL playoffs consists of three rounds of single-elimination matches.
The postseason will kick off with four quarterfinal matchups with the No. 1 seed Kansas City Current hosting the No. 8 Gotham FC and the No. 4 Orlando Pride vs. No. 5 Seattle Reign FC on one side of the playoff bracket. On the other side of the bracket, the No. 2 seed Washington Spirit hosts the No. 7 Racing Louisville FC and the No. 3 Portland Thorns FC vs. No. 6 San Diego Wave FC.
The winners of each quarterfinal match will face off against each other in the semifinals. (Seeding does not reset after each round). The two semifinal winners will face off in the 2025 NWSL championship game on Saturday, Nov. 22 at 8 p.m. ET (CBS, Paramount+) at PayPal Park in San Jose, California, home of NWSL’s Bay FC and MLS’ San Jose Earthquakes.
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