Seattle, WA
Story of Seattle Mariners drafting Ben Williamson says a lot
Ben Williamson has only been on the Seattle Mariners’ roster for three weeks, but it seems like a lot longer than that.
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That’s owed to how well Williamson has done so far in at the big league level, belying his full pro experience of 166 games – including in the minors – that just recently passed what covers a full MLB season.
The 24-year-old third baseman has fit right in with the Mariners, hitting .242 with a home run and three doubles in 16 games – and that’s only after a few hitless games over the last week drove his average down from .310 through his first 11 contests.
Williamson is also a very capable third baseman defensively, to the point that it’s not rare to read his name and the words “Gold Glove potential” next to each other.
Mariners rookie Ben Williamson makes jaw-dropping catch
Maturity seems to an important element of Williamson’s personality, and his even-keel nature was on display right from the moment that the Mariners picked him in the third round of the 2023 MLB Draft out of Virginia’s College of William and Mary.
On an episode of The Wheelhouse podcast released on Saturday, Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto detailed the humorous conversation that Mariners director of amateur scouting Scott Hunter had on a video call with Williamson to tell him he had been taken with one of the last picks on the first night of that draft.
Here’s a summation of how Dipoto said the conversation went, with Williamson speaking in a hushed tone while sitting in the dark while the Mariners’ draft room was abuzz following three first-round picks.
• Scott Hunter: “Ben, its Scott Hunter with the Seattle Mariners. Congratulations. Have you talked to your agent?”
• Ben Williamson: “No.”
• Hunter: “We just took you in the second round. Are you watching the draft?”
• Williamson: “No.”
• Hunter: “Are you sitting in the dark?”
• Williamson: “Yeah, yeah, I’m at my parents’ – they’re upstairs sleeping.”
• Hunter: “You might want to go wake them up.”
• Williamson: “No, they’ve got work in the morning.”
Well, they do say in sports to act live you’re been there before.
While the Mariners were the team to take Williamson with the 57th overall pick, his status as a college senior who could be signed “under slot” – less than the assigned bonus for their slot in the draft – apparently made him a popular name around the league.
“We got a lot of angry texts after we popped him in the second round,” Dipoto said, “because there were a number of teams that that had their sights set on him in order to do creative things in the draft. … We actually had him in a pretty prominent place on our board, and hopefully time tells us that we had him in the right place, but we had some people in the room arguing that they thought he was a first-round talent on his own (who) just so happened to be a senior.”
At home among the big leaguers
Dipoto pointed to a few other things that speak to why Williamson was able to hit the ground running with the Mariners after getting called up with just 14 games at Triple-A under his belt.
“Since the day he stepped out on a field (after signing with the Mariners)… he has been one of the most consistent people that we’ve had in our organization,” Dipoto said. “He’s thoughtful, he puts in the work. If he’s not out on the field or in the cages, he’s in the weight room. He’s an awesome teammate.
“We saw it in spring training – he had a really good spring, and he just absorbed as much as he could.”
What the Mariners saw from Williamson this spring included him running in a different kind of circle than most players with his level of experience tend to.
“Every minute that he could, he was always hovering around the veteran hitters, trying to pull whatever he could from them,” Dipoto continued. “And more often with guys who are in their first big league camp or they’re coming in (from the minors), they’ll pool up with the other guys who are in their circumstance. And Ben didn’t do that in the spring.
“He spent a lot of time around J.P. (Crawford), he spent a lot of time around the veteran hitters… And it gave him a level of comfort when he got his call up.”
Click here for the full episode of The Wheelhouse with Jerry Dipoto.
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Seattle, WA
Seattle Seahawks land 2 players on list of potential salary cap cuts in 2026
No matter how the playoffs go for the Seatte Seahawks, general manager John Schneider and his team are looking at a very busy offseason ahead.
In addition to their usual preparations for the 2026 NFL draft, Seattle has a ton of important players who are about to become unrestricted free agents. That list includes special teams superstar Rashid Shaheed, running back Ken Walker and defensive standouts Boye Mafe, Riq Woolen and Coby Bryant.
It’s going to be really difficult to keep that entire group together, even with a lot of cap space projected to be open in 2026. The Seahawks may have to create room with some salary cap casualties after the season is over.
On that note, Over the Cap has listed a pair of Seattle players as potential cap casualties. Let’s review both of them.
OLB Uchenna Nwosu
Coming in at No. 46 on OTC’s list is veteran edge rusher Uchenna Nwosu, who has one year remaining on his contract with a cap hit just over $20 million. Nwosu has been valuable when he’s on the field but he’s also missed a ton of time due to injuries and it will be difficult to justify his cap hit with so many other players to pay.
Seattle can save a little over $11.5 million if they cut Nwosu, before June 1 or after. However, they would also take on a dead money hit north of $8.5 million, which takes a lot of the flavor out of those cap savings.
In 45 games with the Seahawks, Nwosu has tallied 19.5 sacks, 52 QB hits, 24 tackles for a loss, five forced fumbles and eight pass breakups.
That’s a lot of good production across the board as an all-around defender, but he’ll turn 30 years old before next season is over and there are a lot of mouths to feed for Mike Macdonald’s defense.
Over the Cap projects there’s a 58.5% chance that the Seahawks will wind up cutting him. Our best guess is that will be the case, especially if they want to pursue someone like Maxx Crosby on the trade market.
K Jason Myers
The only other Seahawks player who made the list (at No. 77) was placekicker Jason Myers, where the team has an interesting choice to make.
Myers has been around since the 2019 season and he’s come through for them more often than not. In 117 games he’s converted 200 of 232 field goal attempts, coming out to 86.2%. On extra point attempts he’s gone 292/307 for 95.1%.
Those are very solid numbers for an NFL kicker, and when you have a solid option at this position you don’t mess with it.
Another factor working in Myers’ favor is that Seattle really can’t save all that much money by cutting him. According to OTC’s numbers the Seahawks would create $5.1 million in cap room by cutting him, with a dead money hit of $1,875,000.
Five million might get Seattle a decent backup for their interior offensive line, or another contributor to Mike Macdonald’s defense. It’s not enough to really move the needle for this roster, though.
OTC gives it a 52.5% chance that Myers will get cut, but we don’t see that happening. If they want to lower his cap hit, the Seahawks can create a little over $3 million for 2026 with an extension. That’s the only move they should be looking to make at this spot.
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Seattle, WA
Kraken Extend Streak In Comeback OT Loss | Seattle Kraken
And while Dunn’s head coach insisted afterwards he doesn’t believe in “measuring stick games” the Kraken measured up fairly well in this one considering they played a pretty poor first period and needed half of the second frame to get any type of offense going against the league’s No. 2 defensive unit.
But they eventually got it going and the salvaged point, as Dunn mentioned, was huge in that it allowed the Kraken to remain in third place in the Pacific Division – just two points behind leaders Vegas and Edmonton – as they now embark on a five-city road trip. They extended their points streak to 10 games in the process, going 8-0-2 that stretch to transform a season hinging on the brink.
Mats Zuccarello got the overtime winner for Minnesota, converting a Kirill Kaprizov pass off a 2-on-1 break after the Kraken had been foiled just moments prior on their own odd-man rush. That foiled an outstanding night for Kraken goalie Philipp Grubauer, who’d made several huge stops in both overtime and the third period to keep things tied, as well as prior to that frame to give his team the shot at a comeback.
The Kraken had spent the past week filling opposition nets with pucks but waited until the final 17 minutes to score their first goal of this game. By that point, they’d been trailing 2-0 since a pair of 42-foot wrist shot goals by Ryan Hartman and Brock Faber in the first period silenced the home crowd.
“The first period was awful, and our execution was probably the biggest part of that,” Dunn said. “It’s just tough when you’re chasing the game a little bit to start the game. So, we kind of set ourselves up for the second period to come out and play the right way and I thought as the game went on, we got a lot better.
“And I thought it was a pretty competitive game both ways. A lot of chances both ways.”
Grubauer kept things close from there, stopping 31 of 34 shots on the night to give his team a chance to get back in it.
Adam Larsson then got the Kraken on the board three minutes into the final period with a slap shot goal from the right circle after Dunn had rung one off the post on a prior blast seconds earlier. And the Kraken weren’t done yet.
The Wild ran into penalty trouble not long after and the Kraken capitalized on the power play with Matty Beniers banging home a net front rebound off a Jared McCann shot that lifted the home side into a 2-2 tie and sent the Climate Pledge Arena crowd into a frenzy.
Seattle, WA
Valter Walker vs. Marcin Tybura booked for UFC Seattle
Heavyweights will collide in “Rain City.”
MMAmania.com confirmed with multiple sources today (Thurs., Jan. 8, 2026) that No. 10-ranked Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Heavyweight Marcin Tybura will take on surging Brazilian prospect Valter Walker at UFC Seattle on Sat., March 28, 2026, inside Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington.
Walker (15-1) stumbled out of the gate in his UFC debut, suffering a loss to Lukasz Brzeski in 2024. Since then, however, “Clean Monster” has completely rewritten the narrative — and the UFC record books.
Walker opened 2025 by submitting Don’Tale Mayes with a heel hook (watch highlights), his second straight victory via the technique. Five months later, he followed it up with another first-round heel hook against Kennedy Nzechukwu (watch highlights), setting a new UFC record for most consecutive heel hook submission wins with three.
But he wasn’t finished.
At UFC 321 in Oct. 2025, Walker once again locked in a first-round heel hook — this time against Louie Sutherland — tying Rousimar Palhares for the most heel hook submissions (four) in UFC history while extending his own record for consecutive heel hook finishes (watch it).
A win in Seattle would almost certainly vault Walker into the Top 10 of the Heavyweight rankings.
Tybura (27-10), meanwhile, will be defending his No. 10 spot when he steps into the cage. The Polish veteran went 1-1 in 2025, handing highly touted U.K. prospect Mick Parkin his first professional loss at UFC London before suffering a quick knockout loss to debuting Ante Delija at UFC Paris (watch highlights), snapping a two-fight win streak.
Now 40 years old, Tybura is 5-3 over his last eight appearances.
Here are some other bouts currently scheduled for UFC Seattle:
Casey O’Neill vs. Gabriella Fernandes
Alexa Grasso vs. Maycee Barber
Nicolle Caliari vs. Carol Fiori
To checkout UFC’s upcoming schedule of events click here.
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