Back in 2022, the Seattle Mariners made two major trades with the Cincinnati Reds. Just prior to the season, they sent prospects to Cincinnati for third baseman Eugenio Suárez and outfielder Jesse Winker. And at the trade deadline, the Mariners dealt more prospects to the Reds for ace Luis Castillo.

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With the July 30 MLB trade deadline quickly approaching and the first-place Mariners in desperate need of a boost for their struggling lineup, could they once again look to Cincinnati for help?

During his appearance on Seattle Sports’ Wyman and Bob last Friday, MLB Network insider Jon Morosi mentioned 27-year-old Reds second baseman Jonathan India, who has come up before in M’s trade rumors, as a potential target.

India, who was the 2021 National League Rookie of the Year, is batting .273/.375/.408 with six home runs, one triple, 19 doubles and a .784 OPS in 83 games this season. The 27-year-old has been on fire since June 1, hitting .348 with three homers, 14 doubles and a .973 OPS. Cincinnati likely will be a seller at the deadline, sitting at 42-48 and five games out of a wild-card spot in the NL’s jumbled playoff picture.

“I still like the Jonathan India idea for the Mariners,” Morosi said. “He is really in a good run of form here lately with the Cincinnati Reds. … He’s signed through 2025 and he has (arbitration) eligibility for 2026 as well. (The Reds) likely would still move him even though he is having a pretty good year, in some ways his best all-around season, just because they do have a pretty good depth of young infielders.”

As Morosi mentioned, the Reds have two other talented young infielders in shortstop Elly De La Cruz and third baseman Noelvi Marté – the latter of whom Seattle sent over in the Castillo trade. Cincinnati also has good infield depth in its farm system, with five of its top eight prospects being infielders, according to MLB.com.

Over his four-year career, India is hitting .258/.355/.417 with 54 homers and a .772 OPS. He currently ranks 16th in the majors in on-base percentage, which seemingly would make him a good fit for a Mariners lineup that ranks 26th in on-base percentage and dead-last in strikeout rate.

“Let’s remember, the Mariners and Reds also have a long history of doing deals together,” Morosi said. “So I think because of maybe some of the younger players that have emerged there in Cincinnati, I do think that there is a willingness to potentially move on from India in the right deal for the right controllable piece.

“I still think Jonathan India is someone that we have to watch very carefully as being a trade candidate – and one for the Mariners, I would say – in the weeks to come.”

Listen to the full conversation with MLB Network insider Jon Morosi at this link or in the audio player near the top of this story. Tune in to Wyman and Bob weekdays from 2 to 6 p.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.

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The Seattle Seahawks are hoping to escape the mediocre tier in the NFL for the upcoming season.

The past two years have led to 9-8 records, which have seen the Seahawks teetering on the line of playoff team and just outside the postseason. That’s a dangerous place to be in the NFL as Seattle has failed to experience playoff success while also being unable to start over.

That’s why Bleacher Report writer Alex Ballentine suggests that the Seahawks should consider tanking in the upcoming season.

“If going 9-8 and flirting with the playoffs was a good bar for Seattle, they likely wouldn’t have made the choice to move on from Pete Carroll as head coach,” Ballentine writes. “However, making the move to sign Mike Macdonald opens the door for the Seahawks to lean into tanking toward a high draft pick in 2025. The Niners have a strong grip on the NFC West right now. But the Seahawks could ostensibly make a run at a wildcard spot and hope that Sam Howell can be the quarterback of the future. Instead, trading an aging player like Tyler Lockett in the middle of the season might a tanking move worth considering to increase their draft investment and potentially get a new quarterback prospect in 2025.”

The Seahawks are far from the San Francisco 49ers, but they are also far from the Arizona Cardinals in their current setup. Seattle has a chance to be a very good team in the upcoming season, but likely not a Super Bowl contender. That’s why they can choose to make a move or two that will allow them to select players (and potentially a long-term solution at quarterback) that can get them closer to putting themselves in that conversation.

Sometimes, the way to move forwards is to move backwards, and it certainly makes some sense for Seattle to do that. However, the Seahawks believe they have a playoff team already in the building, so they would be silly to hit the reset button right now. They should give coach Macdonald a chance to establish himself before putting him in a position to fail.

After narrowly missing out on the playoffs last season, the Seattle Seahawks intend to compete for an NFC West title immediately under new coach Mike Macdonald in one of the NFL’s toughest divisions.

With a blend of proven experience and rising young talent, the Seahawks have many of the pieces in place to make a run at the 49ers, who have won the division each of the past two seasons, as well as the Rams, who returned to the postseason last year after a one year hiatus. But several critical areas that dogged the team last season will have to be shored up to create a legitimate opportunity to win the rugged NFC West.

What will it take for that ambitious goal to come to fruition for Seattle? Here are five keys to Macdonald’s squad winning the west in 2024:

Only two years ago, Cross and Lucas became just the third pair of rookie tackles to start for the same team in Week 1 and they wound up starting 17 total games together for Seattle, including a wild card round loss to San Francisco. While both players endured typical rookie growing pains, they finished the season strong, providing optimism that a long-maligned offensive line finally had foundational pieces at the bookend spots to build around.

Unfortunately, both players exited a season-opening loss to the Rams last September with significant injuries. While Cross only wound up missing three games with a sprained toe, he likely played most of the season at well below 100 percent, while Lucas only played in six games with lingering knee discomfort that eventually led to surgery in January. Even when healthy, each player took a step back performance-wise, as Cross allowed 42 pressures and six sacks and Lucas surrendered 17 pressures in just six starts.

For the Seahawks to have any shot at threatening the 49ers or the Rams in the NFC West, Cross and Lucas not only need to stay on the field, but they have to demonstrate substantial growth under the tutelage of new line coach Scott Huff. If Geno Smith finds himself under frequent siege with both tackles struggling or backups unable to fill the void again, it won’t matter how much talent the team has at the skill positions and the offense won’t stand a chance at coming close to full potential.

Staying in the trenches, Seattle’s chronic offensive line issues haven’t been limited to the tackle positions as they have played musical chairs in the interior. Over the past five seasons, the team has had four different Week 1 starters at center and right guard, and that ugly trend will continue again with a new starter projected at both positions on September 8. Making the situation even more unideal, four-year starter Damien Lewis left in free agency, leaving another opening at left guard that will likely be filled by veteran Laken Tomlinson.

If there’s a reason for optimism, however, the Seahawks have invested significant draft capital in the trenches over the past two years. Former Rimington Award winner Olu Oluwatimi played well in his lone start behind former starter Evan Brown as a rookie and looks poised to step into the lineup as a potential long-term option at center. Next to him at right guard, Anthony Bradford started 10 games as a rookie and now will have quality competition to fend off in third-round pick Christian Haynes and second-year blocker McClendon Curtis.

Of course, as has been evidenced by several previous draft whiffs by the franchise, youth only will benefit Seattle if Oluwatimi and one of Bradford, Haynes, or Curtis seize a starting job in training camp and steadily improve over the course of the season. With NFC West opponents featuring plenty of firepower on their defensive lines in the interior, a youth movement has the potential to backfire without proper development and instruction, putting a lot of pressure on Huff entering his first year as an NFL coach.

After finishing in the top-10 in scoring offense in 2022, the Seahawks took a significant step backward last season, plunging to 17th overall. Though offensive line injuries certainly contributed to that regression, the team’s inability to sustain or finish drives served as the biggest culprit behind the decline in performance putting points on the scoreboard.

One of the worst teams in the NFL at executing in key situations on offense, Seattle struggled to move the chains and earn a new set of downs all season long, ranking 23rd in the league with a dismal 36.23 percent third down conversion rate, which led to the worst average time of possession. In addition to not being able to consistently extend drives, the Seahawks also bombed inside the opposing 20-yard line, regularly turning six points into field goals or turnovers and ranking 26th in red zone touchdown rate.

Considering the Seahawks have a Pro Bowl quarterback in Smith, a talented running back tandem in Ken Walker III and Zach Charbonnet, and one of the NFL’s premier receiving corps featuring DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett, and Jaxon Smith-Njigba, such dreadful numbers are inexcusable. With offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb now calling the shots, nothing may be more critical to his odds at success as a first-time NFL play caller as well as Seattle’s NFC West title hopes than fixing that situational wretchedness.

Numerous factors led to the decision to move on from former coach Pete Carroll back in January, but a strong argument can be made that a porous, helpless run defense sealed his fate more than anything. For five weeks to open last season, the Seahawks showed marked improvement after finishing 30th in run defense in 2022, jumping into the top five in yards allowed, yards per carry allowed, and 10-plus yard runs allowed.

But those strides wound up being little more than a disheartening mirage. Once outside linebacker Uchenna Nwosu went down with a pectoral injury in Week 7, Seattle’s run defense suffered a historic meltdown. Closing out the season losing four of their final seven games, they yielded at least 136 rushing yards in each of those contests. During that span, they surrendered a mind-blowing 1,226 yards and 13 rushing touchdowns with teams averaging five yards per carry.

As bleak as those numbers look and sound, the Seahawks have the personnel in place to quickly rectify this problem, starting with a talented defensive line that added first-round pick Byron Murphy II to go with Leonard Williams, Jarran Reed, and Dre’Mont Jones. If that group plays to their potential and veteran linebackers Tyrel Dodson and Jerome Baker do their jobs replacing Bobby Wagner and Jordyn Brooks, a bounce back should be on the menu, which would be a game changer for a defense that greatly underachieved in Carroll’s last few seasons at the helm.

While lackluster run defense doomed the Seahawks last season, Carroll’s defense unfortunately had other issues as well. Though they were respectable finishing with 45 sacks as a team, they finished in the bottom third of the league in 20-plus yard explosives allowed and ranked in the top four in missed tackles, giving up chunk plays and whiffing on tackle attempts far too often. Such numbers would have made members from the vaunted “Legion of Boom” hurl.

After leading the NFL’s best defense in Baltimore last season, Macdonald will have his work cut out for him trying to remedy so many issues. But as is the case stopping the run, Seattle has the talent on defense to suggest that a rapid turnaround in both aspects could be orchestrated with a new scheme and more dedication to fundamentals, starting with a star-studded secondary featuring do-it-all cornerback Devon Witherspoon, cornerback Riq Woolen, and Pro Bowl safety Julian Love as tone setters.

With Witherspoon being a weapon both in coverage and as a hard-hitting blitzer, Macdonald will look forward to the opportunity to unleash him as a defender opponents will have to game plan for. Woolen led the league in interceptions only two years ago, while Love came on strong late last season and led the team with four picks, giving the Seahawks a trio of playmakers who can turn the tide giving up big plays. Getting the most out of a pass rush led by Nwosu, Boye Mafe, Williams, and company should only further help the cause.