Ep 43 - Trade Deadline Targets.

Anders is riding solo today and goes over the previous windows to add to the team since the 2021 trading deadline, and using revisionist history, grades the decisions made.  He also takes a look at some of the possible trade targets the mariners can think about and ranks how each would increase the ceiling.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
And welcome back into Mariners Weekly.This is your host, Anderson Hurst.
It's great to catch back up withyou guys. Thanks so much for listening.
As the Mariners are on a hotstreak right now, in the middle
of a heater in the middle oftheir Cleveland Guardians series, after sweeping the
Texas Rangers and winning three out offour against the White Sox. They're doing

(00:21):
what they need to do against badteams. They're keeping it close against good
teams, and they're up ten gamesat this point of recording in the division
and Mariners fans, I think atthis point are starting to get to a
place where it's kind of unfamiliar territoryfor us, because not in the last
twenty years as the Mariner has beenten games up in the division race at

(00:45):
this point in the season. Honestly, at any point in the season,
is the largest margin for leading adivision in baseball, both American League and
National League. And they're cruising.They're cruising right now. Through their June's
schedule. They have forty four andthirty one record, ten games up on

(01:07):
both the Astros and the Rangers asthey both lost last night. Seattle is
thirteen to four and one in theirlast eighteen series, with one tie obviously
being the split in New York.That's a pretty good record win series,
and you'll have a pretty good recordcome the end of the year. Their

(01:30):
pitching is continuing to be dominant.It really hasn't come back down to earth
like a lot of people may haveexpected it to be. It's not as
dominant on the road, but theoffense is waking up a little bit.
They're doing what they need to doeach game, whether that's winning close,
one run games that are low scoring, usually at home, or whether it's
kind of outscoring their problems on theroad a little bit more. They're doing

(01:56):
what they need to do. MitchGarver's coming around, Julio Rodriguez is playing
like we know he can. It'sgreat to see this Mariners team get into
that mode at this point in theyear. And it's been first time in
my life that I have experienced somethingwhere we can be a front runner.
For the last couple of years,the Mariners have still played very good baseball,

(02:19):
going to the playoffs in twenty twentytwo obviously, but it's always seems
like we have to play catch upa little bit, and you know,
catch either the Houston Astros or theTexas Rangers there and sometimes even playing a
little bit with the Angels as well, but they're completely out of it.
I think the Astros really have startedto fall out of it now Berlander was
scratched from his last start, thatthey are really really scuffling. Kyle Tucker

(02:46):
has been on the il for atleast ten days now their best player.
The Rangers continue to lose, includinggetting swept in Seattle by the Seattle Mariners,
which was a huge kind of blowto their season so far. Not
saying that the division is all wrappedup and over, but Mariners are firmly
in the driver's seat at this pointin the year. And it's something that

(03:06):
I haven't really experienced in my fulllife, and obviously being a Mariners fan,
I was four years old when thetwo thousand and one season happened,
so I wasn't really aware enough toexperience that as much as a lot of
other older Seattle Mariners fans are.But it's great to experience this, and
it's something where I think the wholetown can start to get behind this team.

(03:28):
Have a fun summer, go tothe ballpark, start packing that place,
and the biggest thing for me isyou're in a position where you have
to add at the trading deadline,And that's the kind of main discussion I
wanted to go with you guys todaybecause I think at this point in the
season, the Seattle Mariners probably arefor sure in the buyer quote unquote mode

(03:53):
with where they can put themselves inthe league. There's a lot of teams
that probably aren't selling yet that probablywill by the come trade deadline in just
over a month here. But Ido think that with the position Seattle hasts
put themselves in, plus not havinglike a sure fire like lineup, where

(04:14):
or oh, where would we actuallyadd and where would we actually be able
to upgrade for someone maybe like theDodgers, where you know you have a
pretty stacked lineup and you know you'repitching staff's doing its thing, that that's
a different story. Where As theMariners, they have this ten game lead,
they're in the driver's seat, buttheir their roster is still with some

(04:35):
holes. So I wanted to kindof take a look at two different conversations
today for our episode. It's kindof a little more of a bigger picture
episode here in the middle of theCleveland Guardian Series once again ten games up,
firmly in the driver's seat in theAl West and the largest division lead
in baseball. But everyone talks aboutlike the well, where which names should

(04:56):
we start to look for in thetrading deadline? First, before we get
to that, We're still gonna havethat discussion, But before we get to
that, I want to have thediscussion about this moment and where it ranks
among the times to add to yourbaseball team, obviously in the off season
and then trading deadline, like wherethis ranks in terms of the Mariner's ability

(05:23):
to go out and really kind ofI don't want to say take a risk,
but play a more short sighted gofor the World Series this year's sort
of mode, and then versus waitingthe long game with your prospects, so
on and so forth. Because there'sa lot of people the last couple of
years who have said, you know, off seasons where you don't necessarily know

(05:43):
what you're going to have in yourbaseball team, even though you may have
a little bit more of a marketto add, you don't want to necessarily
get rid of some of your youngertalent, and whether that's in free agency
or via trade. So it's Iwant to take a look at kind of
the what is it five instances wherethe Mariners had pretty clear windows to either

(06:09):
add or kind of sell to theirteam, and where this trading deadline in
twenty twenty four ranks. So we'regonna take a look at obviously twenty twenty
four trading deadline the off season beforetwenty twenty four, the twenty twenty three
trading deadline the off season before twentytwenty three, the twenty twenty two trading

(06:34):
deadline the off season before twenty twentytwo, and the twenty twenty one trading
deadline. We're not gonna do theoff season before twenty twenty one is I
think everyone was just kind of waitingC mode for the Mariners in that instance,
and they ended up having a prettyclose run to the playoffs. And
then the twenty twenty one trading deadlinewas the first kind of you know moment,

(06:55):
all right, let's see what theseguys do. We're in kind of
a position to go. So I'mgonna I'm gonna do this in order of
chronologically first, and then I'm kindof gonna rank them after this, because,
like I said, there's been alot of discussion about, you know,
should the Mariners wait, you know, is this the right time to
buy? Is this or should weyou know wait and kind of see what

(07:16):
we have next year? And Irealized with a lot of fans that's gonna
seem very hard to swallow because ofthe drought ahead of or leading into twenty
twenty two, and how the wholefifty four percent thing in the last offseason
we can get over that. Youknow, we've talked about that a ton
of we don't need to get intothat again, but just kind of having

(07:39):
to ask the fans to be patientsort of discussion, and there's something to
that. So I wanted to kindof go into where I think I rank
these windows in order to add toyour team because and obviously this is a
subjective kind of discussion, because Ithe way I kind of look at it

(08:01):
is a lot of teams think,oh, when your team is bad,
right, that's kind of an obviousinstance where you need to make your team
better. And that isn't necessarily howbaseball teams operate. When your team's bad,
that's kind of like saying, oh, maybe this year isn't our year.
We should get rid of a coupleof our good players or the ones

(08:24):
that have expiring contracts that could helpanother team win for this year, but
keep the ones that will help usin the long term and even add more
long term pieces to that. Solooking at the twenty twenty one trading deadline,
that's the big I'm going to lookat the big move from each of
these instances. Twenty twenty one tradingdeadline was the Mariners were at fifty six

(08:50):
and forty nine. They were eightgames back of the division, and they
had just right before or the tradeand deadline they like two days before is
when they made the Kindled Graveman tradeand got back Abraham Toro and a couple
of other pieces. This, Ithink as angry as a lot of fans

(09:13):
were, and you know, asbad as it really looked to kind of
go on this big run and beatthe Astros and then the next day trade
your big arm to the Astros,which is just a killer. I think
if that trade would have been toanyone else, that would have been a
smart trade. It's just optically badwhen you're doing it to your division rival

(09:37):
to help them try and go winthe World Series, which sucks. I
admittedly as a fan who hates theAstros as well as much as any other
Seattle sports fan does or any baseballfan. To be honest, it isn't
in Houston. It sucks. Itreally does, because, like I said,
I think if you take that tradeand add it to any other team

(09:58):
like this is a say the BlueJays or whoever was competing at that time,
I think that's that's a good tradethat you need to make. Kendall
Graveman had I think less than ayear on his contract, and you added
something where you feel like, youknow, maybe we get some you know,
something out of us. And whileI didn't really turn out too much
with Abraham Toro, I still thinkhe's actually doing pretty well in Oakland in

(10:20):
twenty twenty four. So there wasn'tnothing there, but in terms of the
thought where you know, maybe thisyear isn't quite our year, we need
to kind of go in that directionnow looking at the offseason ahead of twenty
twenty two. So the Mariners justmissed the playoffs by I think one or

(10:41):
two games. That year. Itwas a big the big Mitch Hanniger at
bad against the Angels still came upa little bit short. Astros went to
the World Series but still lost tothe Atlanta Braves. The Mariners end up
calling up Julio Rodriguez in spring trainingand he ends up starting the twenty twenty

(11:03):
two season on the rosters. Thisis rookie year, but the off season
going into that is when you madekind of the Jesse Winker au Heniel Suarez
trade. This indicated to me thatthe front office is like, Okay,
let's go get some Let's go geta bat. It's funny that the bat
was actually Jesse Winker originally and thenAhenel Suarez actually ended up proving to be
a little bit more of value toyou. And you know, Winker,

(11:28):
while he kind of makes a lotof fans angry with his lack of defense
and maybe in some cases lack oftrying, and there was a lot of
stuff that came out after the seasonabout his clubhouse persona not really meshing with
the team that much, didn't reallybe wasn't really seen as someone who worked
hard off of the game and triedto make himself better because you know,

(11:54):
he wasn't having his career years byhis standards. He still was a above
average major league hitter for us,and you know the thought, Like I
said, it's not about the results, it's about the thought here. And
a Henio Suarez, which was kindof a throw into that deal, ended

(12:16):
up being the bigger move. Andsomeone at third base where Kyle Seger retires
at the end of the twenty twentyone season. He had a big hole
there, so having someone who atthe time didn't prove that they were a
good defensive player but had some pop, had a couple of seasons with over
thirty five home runs I think evenone he got over forty in twenty nineteen.

(12:39):
I believe there was some upside therewith au Heniel Suarez, so you're
like, okay, we'll take hiscontract in order to get Jesse Winker,
and that ended up the trade overallended up working out I think pretty well
for the Mariners. Au Heniol Suarezis one of the better players on the
Mariners in twenty twenty two and ledthem and played every day, played great
defense at third base, was inthe middle of the lineup for a good

(13:01):
Mariners team that won the first Seriesin Toronto and ended up going to the
playoffs. Now, before that allthat happened, we want to look at
the deadline in twenty twenty two.This is where they added Luis Castillo.
This is I think probably along withI don't know, it depends on how

(13:24):
you look at it. I thinksigning Julio is eventually going to happen,
But in terms of additions to yourteam, that the trade for Luis Castillo,
I think still is Jerry Depoto's finestroster edition that he's had in his
tenure here since twenty seventeen. Soand that indicated that he believed in this

(13:46):
team and they were going all inright, they didn't they I don't want
to say they were a bad pitchingteam, but they had a couple of
back end starters that were probably performingabove their abilities. And that's a credit
to the pitching coaching from Pete Woodworth, of course, who's now even two
years later, we've seen he getsthe best out of every single pitcher.

(14:09):
It seems like we get but thethought to go get an absolute ace for
this squad and sign him almost instantly, because if you remember when we when
we traded for Luis Castill, heonly had one year left, but during
that year they ended up extending himfor five more years and he ends up

(14:30):
being one of your best players thesecond half of the season, and that
start in the first game against Torontoin the wild Card Round still lives in
rent Free in my head about howdominant he was. It's one of the
best pitching performances I've ever seen againsta pretty dang good offense. So that's
that's one of the big moments forme. They went for it. Okay,

(14:54):
now, the next two windows hereare things that I really really think
the Mariners could have revisionist history.Of course, could have gone back and
reevaluated themselves a little bit after makingthe playoffs and getting swept by the Astros.
I mean, everyone could tell thatseries was much more competitive than a

(15:16):
three game sweep in the Alds intwenty twenty two. It sucks. At
the first playoff home game in twentyone years in k Mobile Park, the
Mariners still didn't score a run,played an eighteen game. We all know
the story behind all that, right, So after that, there was a
bunch of buzz about this baseball team. Julio had just finished his rookie year,

(15:37):
one Rookie of the Year, hada great, fantastic year. In
the process, it just seemed likethere was a bunch of momentum gathering and
the town was starting to really getbehind this baseball team, and they had
so much fun following the playoffs.I did specifically, it was one of
the coolest sports memories of my life. I was lucky enough to be able
to cover that Alds game. Unfortunately, the outcome didn't really give it the

(16:02):
best taste in the end, butit was still a fantastic experience for me.
I believe they really missed the boatin the twenty twenty two leading into
the twenty twenty three season. Inthe off season before that, they did
make the trade for ta Oscar Hernandez. They decided not to extend Mitch Hannager,

(16:25):
which we'll get to that later,but there were definitely options available.
This was the off season where youhad players like Trey Turner, like Carlos
Correa, like Xander Bogart's, likeDansby Swanson. You could throw Justin Turner
into there. You could throw AaronJudge into their Mitch Haniger, of course,

(16:49):
after the Mariners decided not to signhim. There were a lot of
options available to upgrade this team prettysignificantly, and there's a lot of instances
where you could say, oh,Aaron Judge was never going to sign here.
Okay, I can get behind that. Trey Turner always said he wanted
to play in the East Coast,fine, whatever. It just seemed like

(17:14):
there was something available, possibly inthe Dansby Swanson range, possibly in the
Carlos Correa range. I don't know, there was options available. And yes,
on paper, signing ta Oscar Hernandezor trading for him for Eric Swanson.
It seemed like it was kind ofa decent upgrade, but I think

(17:38):
it still wasn't that needle moving movethat the Mariners needed to make. And
you know, especially coming off MitchHaniger is probably his best year, I
want to say in twenty twenty two. Maybe twenty twenty one was better,
just depending on how you look athis numbers, or even twenty seventeen as
well, when he first kind ofbroke onto the scene. It just it

(18:02):
didn't represent a large enough upgrade,especially while getting rid of one of them.
It kind of seemed like you werejust replacing a hole that you had
filled. Now I going back,you'll hear I did think Taoscarnandez was going
to be better than Mitch Hanagher that'sjust how it goes, So I don't
know. I do think there couldhave been a lot of ways you could

(18:26):
skin the cat a little bit differently, and that offseason going into twenty twenty
three I think was one of thebiggest mistakes in where you had a chance
to really upgrade your team, maybeeven without having to trade from your farm
system, which it seems like iswhat they're resigned to at this point.

(18:47):
They're not going to be able tomake the biggest splashes in free agency.
I wish they would because then youcould still have those young guys and either
call them up and sprinkle them intoyour roster, which it seems like they
have a lot of faith that thiscore group of position players, starting with
Tyler Lockley who just got called up, they have faith that they can provide

(19:08):
a lot of value to this team, So maybe they are a little more
hesitant to make those trades. Well, then great, go sign some free
agents then so you don't have toget rid of players. In order to
get players, you'd have to giveup something, whether it's players or money.
And I get that each team kindof has a pseudo salary cap,

(19:29):
even though there's no salary cap Iwould like to see a little more investment
and commitment to this team that youhave built and go and put the finishing
touches on a roster that can competefor the World Series. And I think
we were at that point after thetwenty twenty two season. There was some
people that believed, yeah, okay, this was just kind of the beginning.

(19:51):
We're still not quite there yet interms of competing for the World Series.
Getting swept in the Alds proved thatwe weren't exactly ready yet. Maybe
we're a little over our skis.I disagree. I think the matchup with
the Mariners for Houston was the closestmatchup they had in the twenty twenty two
season, maybe with the Phillies aswell in the World Series, but I

(20:14):
digress. It just it was frustratingbecause that was kind of the time where
you had the momentum of the city. You could kind of add to this
group where people were starting to getexcited about the Mariners. You made the
trade for Luis Castillo. I getthat, but I just wish that instead

(20:36):
of being okay with just going tothe playoffs for the first time in twenty
years, it's time to take thatnext step, and a lot of people
saw the Mariners as like, oh, these are one of those teams that
can be a problem coming down theroad, so that I don't want to
say put us behind the eight ballgoing into the twenty three season, but
I think people were a little skeptical, like, Okay, are these moves

(20:57):
really going to work. He endedup signing Tommy la Stella and Cooper Hummel
as your DH platoon options. AJPollock was thrown in there. It just
I don't know, there are alot of kind of if he moves again.
Ta Oscar Hernandez was kind of thebig addition, and he was.
He ended up being pretty good,especially away from T Mobile Park, which

(21:21):
I think one of the main reasonswhy he didn't want to re sign here
after his one year. But youknow, I just think there was a
missed opportunity there, especially with thenames that were available. Then we go
into the trading deadline of twenty twentythree. This is a big one because
a lot of people, rightly so, were pretty upset when the Mariners traded

(21:45):
away Paul Sewald and got back RyanBliss, Josh Rojas, and Dominic Canzone.
This was kind of an indication fromthe front office to both the fans
and the players that we don't necessarilybelieve we are in the right place and
that we can go win the WorldSeries because we're trading away one of our
best relievers. Who you know,relievers get traded away all the time.

(22:08):
Great, but for a team that'scompeting for a World Series or even a
playoff spot, you could say tradingaway a reliever is it is not something
you want to do. And rightafter they traded away Policy, while they
had one of the best months inteam history in August and Julio got super

(22:29):
hot, and at the time,I want to say July thirty first in
twenty twenty three, they were fiftyfive and fifty one. They were only
five games back at the trading deadlinein twenty twenty three, so it was
very attainable. I don't know.And to his credit, Jerry to Putto
did say he miss read and underestimatedthe ability of his group in this year.

(22:52):
And I think a lot of peoplepoint to the trading deadline in twenty
twenty three and that's kind of theirmain frustration with the win of opportunity to
add to this Baseball team. Istill think the offseason leading up to twenty
twenty three was a bigger missed opportunitybecause you know, I don't know,

(23:12):
being five games back, it's toughto really be in a by position,
so I can sort of understand.Plus, you needed to upgrade your offense,
so you could argue that even thoughyou had to trade away Paul Sewald,
you did upgrade second base with JoshRojas came in and played pretty well.

(23:33):
Don cam Zone had a couple bigmoments for us, and Ryan Bliss
kind of more of a future kindof guy who's just been called up this
year. So it was a toughone to swallow. And I think a
lot of people really kind of lookback on that trade as, yeah,
if you make this trade in theoff season, it's fine. But during
that time, right at the tradingdeadline, where you guys seemed like they
were ready to make a run,trading away a big clubhouse guy and Paul

(23:56):
Seawald plus one of your better relieverswas kind of not the right move Now
looking back on it, I mean, Paul Siold was a big move for
the Diamondbacks in that World Series runin twenty twenty three was a big reason
why they got there. But youactually probably got more value back from that

(24:17):
then you gave. Then you gaveup. But if we're gonna look at
these moves, like I said,not from a results perspective, but from
the idea kind of going into itand the thought behind it, that was
not the right thought to have.And I've kind of changed my tone on
that recently because originally I actually thoughtthis was a good trade. I was
looking so desperately to upgrade the secondbase position and possibly corner outfield even as

(24:40):
well, that I thought in thetime that giving up a bullpen arm was
worth upgrading those other spots. Butit still ended up hurting you because you
had to overuse anders Munios a lot, and he really wore down in September
when your team really needed to kindof win those last ten games and you
weren't able to do so. Istill, once again still think the bigger

(25:07):
missed opportunity was the off season leadinginto twenty twenty three. So but that
could that's a kind of a pickgrasping at straws. Whichever one you feel
like was more important. You couldsay both. If they had added more
in the off season, they wouldhave been in a better position to upgrade
at the trading deadline, so onand so forth. Now we go into

(25:29):
the off season leading into twenty twentyfour, this one a lot of people,
I think have been pretty mixed on. This is probably one of the
moments where I think you could lookat it two completely different ways. Once
again, we're going to look atit from the thought going into it rather

(25:52):
than the results, at least sofar. I think Mitch Garver being a
full time DH slash spell in forCal now that we know that Zavala is
down was a good thought and agood kind of upgrade for that position,
especially considering what you had slotted inthere at the beginning of last season.

(26:15):
Jorge Polanco represented a much more ofa I don't want to say sure thing
than Colton Wong, but definitely hadflashes of being one of the better second
basement in baseball and batted third inthe lineup that you know, for a
team that went to the Division Serieslast year against the Yankees in the Minnesota

(26:36):
Twins, and you know, Ithink a lot of people were pretty on
board at those two moves. LukeRayley for Jose Caballero seemed like a home
run. While maybe originally not themost okay, this makes our team so
much better move. I think itwas easy for us to get on board

(26:57):
because Jose Cabiro, for a Mayornerperspective, was kind of just a backup
infielder who would kind of come inand run the bases when we needed him
to and fill them for when peoplegot injured, so on and so forth.
So yeah, I mean those kindof were the three moves, the
bigger moves that the Mariners made,And from a thought perspective, I think

(27:19):
it's fine. There are more marginalupgrades, which I'm not thrilled about,
but at least there are marginal upgradesin places you really needed them, and
it seemed like you were trying tofill in holes in this lineup where you
had needed them. But I thinkthe big, bigger moves for this offseason

(27:40):
came in getting rid of players likeRobbie Ray, getting rid of players like
Jared Kilnick, and getting rid ofplayers like a Heniel Suarez. And once
again, we're not going to lookat it from a results perspective, because
it really seems like a Heniel Suarezhas struggled in Arizona. I still think
he would have been more successful here, but we can have that discussion at

(28:04):
another time. It's it's one ofthose where I don't know if this is
a whole nother discussion with the financesand how they're handled within the Mariners organization
and how much is really available togo and use, and you know,
when the team needs to make upgrades, do they really have to make sacrifices

(28:26):
at the same time in order towhere you're really not upgrading your team that
much. That's kind of what itseemed like to me for this offseason.
They obviously addressed that they needed tostrike out less, so players like ta
Oscar Hernandez Au, Heniel Suarez,Jared Kelnick weren't seen as necessities to have
on the team. So you endedup selling off Ail Suarez basically just to

(28:48):
get rid of his contract because yougave him up for Sevez Ofvalla. That's
the big one for me that Ireally was not a fan of Jared Kelnick.
I mean, you needed to getrid of Marko Zalez and Evan White's
contract, so I can kind ofunderstand that, but still there was some
upside there that you could have dealtwith, and it would our corner outfield
position would probably look a lot betterright now with him, although they really

(29:14):
do like Luke Raley and Dominic canZone, so I think that in their
eyes, Jared Keelnick was kind ofa He was expendable in that sense,
even though we've spent all this timekind of hyping him up for the last
three years. And then the RobbieRay for Mitch Haniger trade was a weird
one for me because Robbi Ray ofcourse had Tommy John surgery after his first

(29:36):
start in twenty twenty three, scheduledto come back halfway through this year,
and especially after not signing Mitch Hanigerto a long term deal after the twenty
twenty two season, it seemed likethey were kind of ready to move on
from him, and he really struggledin his one year in San Francisco,

(29:57):
especially with injuries. And I actuallytotally forgot about this signing of Robbie Ray
leading into the twenty twenty two season, kind of indicating where, you know,
he's our ace, let's go.Ended up pitching pretty well, never
really ace like, but he wasstill a very good quality pitcher to have
in your rotation. And that's whythey ended up making the Luis Castillo trade.

(30:19):
I still think he had a lotto give. I was actually pretty
excited for his twenty twenty three season, and you know, it sucks that
after just one start he had togo go down with Tommy john So that
was a weird one to me becauseit seems like, Okay, well we're
back. We have a hole againat right field, so let's go fill
it with someone we just didn't wegot rid of last year. But in
order to do that, we gotto get rid of one of our best

(30:40):
pitchers because we believe in our youngstaff, which, to be honest,
I'll do this one move with alittle bit of revisionist history, because the
move away from Robbie Ray has openedup the door for someone like Brian wu
who has been absolutely outstanding this year. And this pitching staff has taken a

(31:00):
step up even from the where theywere the previous two years. And I
know Robby Ray pitched one game lastyear, but it just seems like with
all these young guys and Luis Castillo, they're pretty much at least the best
pitching staff in the American League,if not in all of baseball. Competing
with probably the Philadelphia Phillies is thetwo best. It just seems like that

(31:23):
door really had to open for thatreally to happen. So I don't mind
getting rid of Robby Ray. Ijust wish it would have been and I
love Mitch. I wish it wouldhave been for someone who moved the need
a little bit more. We've kindof flip flopped at right field a lot,
and Mitch is thirty three now.I really wish he could offer more
defensively, and his bat hasn't beengreat the start of twenty twenty four.

(31:47):
We're almost halfway through the year now, so you can't really say that it's
a short sample size or a smallsample size anymore. I don't know,
man I in terms of just offseasonslash windows what to upgrade your team.
I didn't mind the thought of,you know, the Garver Polonco and Railey
moves. It sucks that you haveto get also get rid of players that

(32:10):
you think are probably pretty good andmajor league players that could play every day
in order to do that, butit's that's just kind of the reality we
live in right now. I'm notgonna go complain about ownership and money and
all that fun stuff. It's justnot the time for that. Yeah,
But that's kind of what you haveto do. If you're gonna rely on

(32:35):
trades to upgrade your team, You'regonna always have to give something up,
whether it's a future prospect, soyou limit yourself in the ability to make
your team better in the long run, or whether it's a major le player
now at a different position. RightSo you like, we've talked at times
before about trading from a position ofstrength to help a position of need,

(32:58):
and that kind of I think that'swhat the Paul Seawall trade was. But
it just that's what has to happenwhen you rely on trades to upgrade your
team. I wish we didn't haveto. I wish we could use some
more money and just get people infree agency and add to a team and
make it more of a full lineup, a full roster, but that's kind

(33:21):
of where we are right now.They have to kind of try and win
every trade, which you're never gonnado because newsflash, other gms in Major
League Baseball are also pretty good.They know what they're doing. They use
the same statistics and data that youdo, so you're not going to win
every trade, I'd say in termsof value received versus value given up after

(33:43):
the trade. More often than notJerry has gotten more, but there are
a few instances where that isn't thecase. So in terms of all of
the windows, I think now wego into this trading deadline in twenty twenty
four with this very flawed roster.As we just mentioned, the Mariners have

(34:04):
had the best start to their season, and when I say start, I
mean first half the beginning of theseason that they've had in the Jerry Depoto
tenure ten games above the second place, first place in the division first I
think it is actually the first timeat this point the season the Mariners have
been first place since Jerry Depoto hasbeen here, but not just in first

(34:30):
place, firmly in first place tengames up at this point in the year,
thirteen games above five hundred and havethe biggest margin of a lead in
any division in baseball. So allthat said, going back to the original
kind of qualification for what makes awindow and must buy situation, I think

(34:52):
you need to actually be firmly ina playoff position. You're not just kind
of scrapping maybe three, three,four or five games out that gives the
front office, rightly or wrongly,a lot of reason to doubt whether that
can continue for the rest of theyear. Mariners have done all they can
at this point to show that theyare a playoff team, whether that's by

(35:15):
winning the division or hopefully not butstill an option going to the wildcard.
So they're up in the division byten games. But there are teams,
like I said, but like theDodgers, who maybe don't have as flawed
of a roster, but they havea still have a lead in the division

(35:35):
where you know, you maybe makesome minor trades to add to your bullpen
or a bench bat or whatever youneed to kind of gear up for a
playoff run, like they are becausethey have a pretty stack lineup. As
everyone I'm sure knows already, there'svery few places where you could actually make
a trade and make your team thatmuch better without really giving up a bunch
of value in return. So Ithink Yankees also kind of fall into that

(35:59):
category. Maybe they make a bigsplash for a pitcher, but we'll see.
But I think the Marriagers are ina position where they are not only
firmly in a position of playoff position, but they have holes where you can
easily upgrade your team and do itpretty significantly to jump yourself even further ahead

(36:19):
and really cement yourself as a WorldSeries contender. That's why I think this
window right now is the most glaringyou need to upgrade your team now window
that the Depoto ten year has faced. It's easily number one for me because
the team has proven that they aregood enough to go to the playoffs and

(36:42):
to make a run. But they'vealso proven, as any baseball expert would
see, that they are very flawedat the same time, especially on the
offensive end and in the bullpen aswell with the injuries they have. So
it's very, very very very obviousfor anyone that watches this team to see
they need to add to this teamin order to make themselves a contender.

(37:06):
And they've put themselves in a positionwhere they can and they've given everything they
can give to the front office tosay, hey, we're we're doing our
job. We're holding up on intothe bargain. We started as hot as
we needed to, we're ten gamesup. Now, now go add to
our team and let's go win aWorld Series this year. I think they've

(37:27):
done everything they can, and ifthey don't, that's kind of unforgivable at
this point for me, it wouldbe a huge missed opportunity. But and
it's the other thing is what kindof move do you want to see made?
Do you want to trade, youknow, for a three year player
where you could have them for morethan just this year, but have to
give up a bunch of value inreturn, or would you want to see

(37:51):
a kind of an all in rentalpiece where you don't have to give them
as much value, but you onlyhave them for this year. I don't
know. I just want to seean actual needle mover. I don't want
to see, oh, another domcan Zone and another Josh Rojas, Like,
Okay, they're major league players,but do they really make this team
better or is it just kind offill a hole that you have for an
everyday player. I want to seean actual increase in the Mariner's ceiling in

(38:14):
this trading deadline. So let's lookat some names where that is the case.
I've kind of put together a littlesheet here for some names that I
think make sense for the Seattle Mariners, and I want to kind of go
over some big ones that I thinkwould really increase the ceiling for the Mariners.

(38:36):
And I'm gonna preface it by sayingthe two positions I think that are
most likely to be upgraded and mostneeded to be upgraded. And I'm gonna
look at just offense right now.I think you could do a bunch of
different relievers, but you need reliefpitching. That's kind of a must have.

(38:57):
But you can get those pretty cheap, and they're not going to be
big trades. To be honest,before we get into it, I think
getting back Paul Sewald could actually bea realistic possibility. He's out of contract
at the end of this year.You could get him for very cheap kind
of do a Hey, we helpedyou guys out last year, Arizona,
so you guys want to help usout by giving him back to us.
Yeah, someone who's already familiar withthe staff, familiar with the area,

(39:21):
and you know, he's been havinga really good year two so Arizona's not
in the position they were last year. I think that that's a very high
possibility that the Marriagers could do that. I would love to see that too.
I love Paul. He's fun towatch pitch, having a good year,
and he's just a good guy inthe clubhouse as well. But let's
go to offense here. I thinkmy number one name would be, and

(39:45):
now I don't know how likely thisis and how available he really is,
it would be Vladimir Guerrero Junior forthe Toronto Blue Jays. He has one
year left of our looking at probablyaround twenty million. So this is whenever
I say years left, that's afterthis year, obviously, because there's stone
contract through the end of this yearevery one of these players, So after

(40:07):
this year, how much longer untilthey hit free agency. Vlad Garow Junior
has one year. He is oneof those players where it always seems like
if you look at expected stats andall that stuff. I know a lot
of people don't like those, buthow hard you hit a ball versus what
your results actually are? His alwayshis expected stats always outperformed that his results

(40:28):
stats. So there's something untapped there. And I'm not saying I really believe
in mariners hitting coaches to get thatuntapped potential out of him. But you
never know what can happen to changeof scenery, playing in a different place
with different people. He's pretty closewith Julio. Their Dominican buddies played together
on the Dominican national team. I'dbe interested to see how that goes.

(40:53):
And I love ty Frantz. He'sa great locker room guy. Tyler Lockleys
look great at first base. Istill think if you were to able to
add Vladimir Guerrero Junior for a yearand a half, you have to make
that trade, and especially if maybeyou only have to give up one of
your top ten guys and maybe acouple others. There's a real ceiling razor

(41:17):
in Vlaguerro Junior. He's number onein my book in terms of how much
he would actually help the team.Number two is Louise Robert Jr. I
think out corner off field is actuallya bigger position of need than first base.
You know, we've seen dom Canzonekind of come in and out of
the lineup. Luke Rayley started toget hot recently talked about Mitch Haniger and

(41:38):
how he hasn't really found his formthat he had in twenty twenty two when
he was here. Luise Robert andwhile he does have a pretty lengthy injury
history, he raises that ceiling forsure, and not just offensively, but
defensively as well. There's a lotof metrics that say he's an even better

(41:59):
center fielder than Julio Rodriguez. Theycould figure that out. I don't know
if that means Louise Robert playing rightor left field. I don't know if
that means, you know, Juliamoving over. Probably not. I it'd
probably be Louise Robert. But youwould get him for one more year and
then two club options after that,so you could theoretically have him for three
more years after this year at twentymillion. Putting those two guys together in

(42:20):
a lineup together would be pretty scaryand it just really adds, like I
said, a ceiling razor Razor.But big downside Number one is his injury
history. He really has not beenhealthy for longer than a half of a
season at a time. And theother is his strikeouts. We think Julio

(42:42):
strikes out a lot, my gosh, Louis Robert strikes out a ton.
Now. Ian Farness mentioned on ashow the other day that a lot of
it could just be the process ofplaying for a really bad team in the
Chicago White Sox, and you know, maybe it's all right. I'm just
gonna try and hit a home runevery time I'm up. We're not playing
for really anything right now. Ican kind of get that, but you

(43:07):
know, the approach is still therewhere you're kind of selling out each pitch,
and you know, we saw thata lot with Taskar Harnandez last year.
And while good results can sometimes comewith that, a lot of bad
ones can as well. So that'sone that kind of intrigues me a little
bit. I think the defense outweighs the strikeout downside, for sure.

(43:27):
It's all about if he can stayhealthy because I think the Marriners really need
the defense defensive help in the corneroutfield. Luke Ready's, like I said,
been kind of a revelation. Iwant him to play every day.
So if you have a Luke reallyJulio Rodriguez and Luis Robert outfield, I
think that really raises your ceiling bigtime. Not to mention, you could
probably get a relief pitcher arm aswell from them. The other thing about

(43:52):
Luis Robert is the price you'd probablyhave to give up to your top ten
guys for him and more because ofhow many years are left on his deal
and he's a young guy. Witha high ceiling, So I don't know,
it just depends on, you knowwhat the Mariner's seeing, the deeper,
deeper analytics with him, whether theywant someone like that, another Dominican

(44:13):
or actually he's Cuban excuse me,but kind of in the same vibe as
Julio. I think they were seenkind of hanging out together a lot during
the home run derby last year whenit was in Seattle, so it'd be
interesting to see those two guys togetheron the same lineup. I think those
two are kind of on a tierof their own in terms of ceiling raisers.

(44:35):
Absolutely, if you were to getone of those guys, you kind
of solidify yourself as a contender justby getting one more bat that really really
helps your lineup a lot. Thenext tier, I think has a lot
of players where they definitely upgrade yourlineup, but they're I don't want to
say, is there's downside, butit's a marginal upgrade. Kind of what

(44:57):
we mentioned with the Mitch Garver,Luke Rayley, Horae, pl Loco offseason
editions. Now, I think ifthe Mariners made those three additions without having
to get rid of players like AjuHeno, Suarez, Jared Kellnick, and
Robbie Ray. We would be talkingabout probably a different team right now for
sure, And I want to startwith Yondi Diaz from Tampa Bay. Now,
he's probably the top end of thatnext tier because I think adding someone

(45:21):
like Yandi Diaz to your team definitelyincreases your ceiling, maybe not to the
level of Vlad Guarre Vlad Guerrero orLouis Robert. He had an insane your
last year, I think at nineover a nine hundred ohps. Has always
been seen as kind of a groundball hitter, but he has the power,
which is weird. His ex ofvelocity is there, just never seem

(45:43):
to get the ball in the airthat much, and he finally did the
last couple of years for Tampa Bay. This year's been a little bit of
a more of a down year forhim. Plays great defense though at first.
Again, I don't think first isthe most pressing position to upgrade,
especially seeing Tyler Locklear kind of dohis thing there and definitely as different element
to ty France. But again,if Yanni Diaz is available for a price

(46:05):
that you like, I think youcan be happy with that addition. Another
first basement, I want to seepossibly moved another one from Arizona. We
talked about Paul Sewald earlier. ChristianWalker has had a quietly great last couple
of years playing for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Now this is a different position because

(46:28):
Yanni Diaz. As I I mentioned, you get one more year with him
plus one club option at eleven million, still pretty cheap, doable for the
Mariners. Seems like that'd be somethingthey'd be into, so you could theoretically
get him for two more years.Christian Walker is pure rental. He is
a free agent after the end ofthe season. This would be something where
probably would cost way less. Maybeyou do can package him up with Paul

(46:50):
Sewald again, another free agent afterthis year, and get very give up
very little to get those guys.I think that's something value wise that I
think would really interest the Mariners.And like I said, he again is
one of those guys that definitely makesyour team better. I don't know if
he raises your ceiling to the extentof the other guys, but he's a
consistent, consistent player at first base, gives you pop plays again, great

(47:14):
defense, and can do more thenjust you know, slap a single the
other way, he has some slugdoI struggle with this next one because I
just love the player and I don'tknow if it's feasible because this really isn't
a position of need because of thesituation the Mariners are in. But Jock
Peterson another one from the Diamondbacks.He's again had a great year over nine

(47:38):
hundred ops, a lefty bat,which I think the Mariners do desperately need
to add at least one more.But he strictly is playing DH now and
it's unfortunate that that would have tobe the position he probably plays. He
doesn't play outfield at all anymore.Maybe he could have something of that in

(47:59):
him if he were to move here, but I don't know. I just
love the player. I think heshows up in the big moments. He
walks a ton, he has aton of slug. He's a great clubhouse
guy, just a good overall vibeand feels like a Mariner player, to
be honest to me, would meshreally well with this clubhouse. You'd get
him for one more year at fourteenmillion after this year, so not cheap.

(48:22):
But I don't think that's definitely outof the realm of possibility in terms
of price. I just think,like I said, the position, he's
a strictly DH, so I don'tthink that's as likely of a move for
the Mariners. Someone I think isintriguing to look at. Depends on how
the Cubs end up doing here.Is Ian happ kind of can play any
of the outfield positions for them.A switch hitter has had a couple of

(48:45):
really good years, but also nothad the year this year that he expected,
so again would have to be ina kind of an untapped potential sort
of situation. You get him fortwo more years after this year at twenty
million each. Definitely something I thinkwhere he has the ability and you've seen
it in years past for him.He's shown that he could have above eight

(49:07):
hundred ops numbers and ability, butit's just is there something going on this
year that makes him not He seemslike he's kind of a Cubs guy.
Maybe moving kind of situations wouldn't bethe best thing for him or his family,
but I would be intrigued if thatwas an option available. I'm just

(49:30):
this is all speculation on my part. I kind of went through rosters of
teams that probably would end up sellingby the trade deadline and going there.
Another one that I think is morelikely, and from the Chicago Cubs is
Mike Talkman, someone who walks almostas much as he strikes out, which
is rare in today's baseball. You'dget him for two more years at arbitration

(49:51):
money, so pretty cheap. Onlike this is screams mariners all over the
place. Has shown more pop thisyear than his previous couple of years,
so he's starting to have a breakoutcampaign here, And if the Cubs continue
to struggle, that would be Ithink a more likely option that they do
move again. I don't think he'snecessarily one of those guys that raises your

(50:13):
ceiling all that much, but hefills a gap that he can play every
single day, gives you professional atbats. If you were to add him,
maybe one more baton and a relieverarm. I think that ends up
being a pretty good training deadline forthe Mariners. Now moving down south a
little bit, someone who really intriguesme, and I don't again, I

(50:35):
don't know the availability of any ofthese guys, and I don't know how
this one would work out. ButBrian de la Cruz, not Ellie da
la Cruz Brian Dela Cruz for theMiami Marlins. It's had a pretty good
year as I look at his youknow, Baseball Savant page and now he's
pretty average in a lot of MLBcategories. But he's definitely shown the ability

(50:58):
that he can break out. Andhe's still pretty young too. The availability
there is a weird one to mebecause, like I said, he is
I guess he's twenty seven, sohe's not that bad. He also strikes
out a lot and doesn't walk verymuch, so you're not adding a ton
of on base but you're slugging isin the eighty first percentile for him or
as expected slugging this year. SoI don't know. It's just he seems

(51:21):
like he's kind of around a sevento twenty ops guy in a picture's friendly
park, I might add, sokind of similar to the Mariners situation there.
I don't know. It seems likethat there is something there. Plays
good defense as well. Well.No, actually he's below average in range.
I haven't watched a ton of Marlinsgames. I can't really say for

(51:44):
sure whether the eye test checks outon that, but it is an intriguing
option because he would get him forthree more years. It always seemed like
he was one of those prospects thata lot of people picked to pop never
really did. Still only twenty seven, so he still could. Baseball player
can be late bloomers a lot ofthe time. So yeah, you get
him for three more years after thisyear, all at arbitration money, so

(52:05):
pretty dang cheap. Another one Ithink has been mentioned a lot, not
just here in the trading deadline,but kind of leading up to the season
as well. It's all about hisavailability for me is Randy A. Rosarina
from the Tampa Bay Rays. That'san intriguing one to me because he's had

(52:27):
a pretty down year overall. Buthe's one of those players where I think
if you put him in a differentsituation, he would end up thriving in
big games. We saw it forhim during the World Series when Tampa went
during the COVID year. He's justone of those guys that is a baller
and kind of a gamer when playsin the big moments, makes you know.

(52:47):
He runs hard, runs the baseas well, can make a lot
of steals, hits for power plays, good defense, kind of has the
whole package. He walks a lot, which is good. I like to
see that strikes out a pretty deepamount. Still, the ex of velocity
is there. But like I said, he's having a down year. He
only has a six twenty seven opsat this point in the year. One

(53:09):
seventy nine batting average is not goingto help. But you know, we've
seen his ability before to be aseven to eighty ops guy and above.
So that's something again where we talkedabout Luis Robert and kind of being in
a tough situation for players who reallykind of like to play at that higher
level. It's it's I think achange of scenery would be good for him.

(53:34):
And you know he plays left field, which is one of the positions
I think you need the bit themost right now. So and not to
mention, you would get him fortwo more years as well. At arbitration
money. Now, the way arbitrationmoney works is it's all determined on how
well you did that previous year.So that could continue to go up,
it could it could go down.It's kind of just kind of how it
goes. And then one other nameI wanted to look at, kind of

(53:57):
more of a shot in the darkhere would be Jazz Chisholm. I really.
I mean, I've been curious tokind of watch his career trajectory because
I thought he could have been oneof the best second basements in the game.
But he ended up moving to centerfield last year with the Miami Marlins,
and his ops is there. Thisyear, He's hit seven to seventy

(54:19):
nine, seven to sixty one lastyear in eight sixty the year before in
twenty twenty two, is kind ofbreakout campaign. Plays good defense, you
know, is a threat on thebass pads, shown he can slug a
little bit to a left handed bat. I've always been intrigued with him.
Still only twenty six years old too, and you could get him for you

(54:40):
know, I think two more yearsafter this year. It's just one of
those situations where Miami probably would notbe willing to give him up. I
think it just all depends on hisavailability. If they would, they'd probably
be asking for a lot anyway.But I'm just intrigued with that option,
depending on how deep they are willingto sell. It's just one of those

(55:04):
situations where I think he'd fit inwell here in Seattle. Kind of has
the same plays the game the sameway as Julio, where it's very fun,
likes to kind of joke around alot. It keeps a pretty positive
mindset. He was on the coverof last year's MLB The Show It doesn't
really mean much, but same kindof thing where it's like he's into that
extra curricular stuff where he's kind ofin that vibe. And I think he

(55:29):
would fit in well once again withthe marriage Clubhouse. But we'll end up
seeing, you know, what theirintentions are in order to keep him or
or to get rid of him.So those are kind of my big ones.
Like I said, I think thebig needle movers are La Guero Junior
and Luis Robert. We'll see whatends up happening with the Blue Jays,
if they end up going on arun or if they keep falling out of

(55:51):
it. There's gonna be some goodplayers available. Another one to look at
us Boba Schett. I just don'tthink second base and shortstop is one of
those you know, must upgrade options. But like I said, if someone
like last becomes available, you can'treally say no, especially at a price
that you like. Vla Garrea isinteresting because as good as a player he
is and as young as he is, you actually only get him for one
more year. So I don't thinkthe asking price for him would be all

(56:15):
that, you know, huge,still probably more than a lot of teams
would be willing to give up.But again for a team in a position
like the Mariners are right now,where you have this lead on the division,
you've made, you've done, theplayers have done their job in the
start of the season, to show, hey, you need to make your

(56:37):
commitment to us now and add tothis team. I think something like that
would be a huge, huge movefor the front office to make in order
to show, hey, we're goingfor it this year. We're not just
playing for ten years from now.We're going to go try and win the
World Series. We believe in youguys keep going on this run, let's

(56:59):
go, and I'd be all forthat as a fan. So that's something
to watch. I know it's stillover a month away, but I just
want you guys to kind of keepan eye on the next couple of weeks
to see what happens with those teams, what the players are on, and
what the Mariners do obviously, tosee if they continue this amazing run.
It's been so fun to watch.Like I said, this is really the

(57:22):
first time in my aware life thatI can have a front running team and
be excited for this kind of stuffand be talking about the trading deadline on
June nineteenth. Right, So let'ssolidify that with a couple big ads.
Go get a couple of bullpen armsone or two, and go get a
bat that increases your ceiling that youcan play every day. I don't want

(57:44):
to just see another platoon guy.And I know people hate that word.
It's not the end of the worldthat they play the matchups in some situations.
There's a lot of teams that do. But the reason that a lot
of these the best players do playevery day is because they're better against both
pitching than the alternative. Right,So the Marriagers need a player like that

(58:07):
where you have to keep them inthe lineup every single day. They really
only have three or four of themright now, so they need to add
one to this team to make themkind of I think a legit World Series
contender. They still are I thinkin the conversation to be a World Series
contender right now because of how goodthey're pitching is and their offense is starting
to heat up a little bit.JP's coming around. Julio's coming around.

(58:28):
But I still think if you wereto go add like a big, big
bat to add to this lineup,you really solidify yourself into that conversation a
little bit more. All Right.I know, kind of a long one
with you guys today, but Ireally appreciate you hanging with me as I
ride solo today, no guests.Kind of a weird one, talking to
myself this whole time, but Iknow I'm not just talking to myself.
I'm talking to all you guys.So I really appreciate you guys listening along,

(58:51):
and we'll catch you next time onMariner's Weekly