When the heat of the summer reaches its peak, a number of thoughts enter the mind of baseball fans everywhere: what beer should be in my hand, how many games can I watch before I have to actually be productive, and is my team gonna make a run for the playoffs by buying players at the trade deadline? Fans of the Mariners shall rejoice as the team should be buyers.

For the 99 percent of people who don’t know/care what being a “buyer” is, it refers to teams who improve their major league roster before the trade deadline on July 31. Teams in contention usually will trade minor league prospects for players that can help their major league roster in the present.

It’s sister term, “seller,” means that a team that will sell their big league players for minor league prospects if they are not in contention for the playoffs this far into the season.

If a team is a buyer, they are in contention for the playoffs. If a team is a seller, they are giving up on the year in order to help improve their team in the future.

Needless to say, depending on what teams are at this period can determine a lot for the rest of the season. Based on how the year has played out so far, I am going to predict that the team will be buyers before the deadline.

While the team is only in third place in the AL West Division, down by 7.5 games on the Rangers, they are only down by 4.5 of the second wildcard spot in the American League.

While both of these are a distance away, the wildcard is easily within reach. If they reach the wildcard spot, they will have a chance at the division title.

Before June, the team was on fire. They were leading the AL West and looking like possible World Series contenders.

The difference between then and now? The Mariners have been bitten by the old injury bug.

Since their big run, the Mariners have lost their ace pitcher Felix Hernandez, center fielder Leonys Martin, short stop Ketel Marte, pitcher Wade Miley, pitcher Taijuan Walker, and catcher Steve Clevenger among a few others.

For lack of a better term, that is insane.

While some of these players have returned to the team, they have not all played on the team at the same time for over a month. When all of these players are on the team with the healthy players at the same time, magic happens.

Now that most of these players are getting back or have already returned, the team is looking more like the team everybody saw in April and May.

The facts that the injured players are coming back, they went into the All-Star break over .500 and they are less than five games away from a wild card position all point toward the Mariners buying to make a run at the playoffs.

As for what they will buy, I am seeing it where they should add a corner outfielder as their top priority and possibly another reliever.

With Nori Aoki not performing to expectations, the left/right field spot is in need of filling. Nelson Cruz is not a solid defender and should be playing mostly DH. A solid corner outfielder will reduce Cruz’s time in the OF and will improve the defense dramatically when paired with Martin and other Outfielder Seth Smith.

Many others will say to get another starting pitcher, but it doesn’t solve any problem. The only reason why people want more starting pitchers now is because the team is short due to injuries. Injuries, usually, are only temporary. They already have plenty of depth at the position, and when the main ones are healed, there will be a surplus. When healthy, the rotation will like a little something like this: Felix Hernandez, Hisashi Iwakuma, Taijuan Walker, James Paxton and Wade LeBlanc. This will force the other starters to bullpen roles, or down to AAA Tacoma just because there isn’t enough space.

Whatever the moves, it all means one thing. Fans should rejoice as the Mariners are looking to end their 15-year playoff drought. With a team with as much talent as they have shown, Seattle could very well see a playoff game that does not involve the Seahawks in any way.