Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - A Real Conversation About Julio Rodríguez + The Best Seattle Mariners Trade Fit

Episode Date: July 8, 2025

Ty and Colby preview the Mariners' series with the Yankees, discuss Julio Rodríguez's struggles, and name their favorite trade targets for the M's.DONATE TO OUR FEEDING AMERICA FUNDRAISERCheck out our Patreon!Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11Follow the show on Bluesky: @lockedonmariners | @tdg | @mlbcolbySupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Wonderful PistachiosGet snackin' and get crackin' with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more! Supply HouseJoin the TradeMaster program today at SupplyHouse.com/TM and start ordering plumbing, HVAC, and electrical supplies with just a few clicks. Plus, use promo code S-H-5 for 5% off your first order. That’s SupplyHouse.com! Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONMLB at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Mariners kick off their last road trip before they all-star break with three in the Bronx. We'll talk about that and more coming up here on the Lockdown Marries podcast. Colby, hit it. You are Locked-on Mariners, your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Ahoy, Sailors. It is Tuesday, July 8, 2025. This is Tadding Gonzalez and Colby Patnode for the Lockdown Marys podcast.

Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team, every day. This episode is brought to you by Fandul. Right now, new customers can get $150 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. We'll tell you more about Fandual a little later on in the show. And as always, if you want to hear from me and Colby even more and help support the show, you can check out our Patreon. All you have to do to check that out is click the link in the description of this episode. So we're going to talk some Julio today.

We're going to talk some trade deadline. But the Mariners, of course, are kicking off a three-game series with the Yankees tonight in the So let's start with that. Some good news here for the mayors. One, they're going to miss Max Fried, so that's nice. And two, they're catching the Yankees at really the best possible time right now because the Yankees are really struggling. They obviously got mopped by the Blue Jays in Toronto.

They've lost their hold on first place in the ALE. So the Marins are even just a game behind them and the wild card standing. So depending on what happens with the raise over the next three days, And depending, of course, on what happens in the series, the Maris might find themselves either in the wild card two or even the wild card one by the end of this series. So, Coli, give me your thoughts heading into this one. Yeah, first things first, you can't get swept.

You have to find a way to salvage at least one game in this series. Could you win the series? Sure. I mean, again, like you said, you're catching the Yankees at the right time. I think they've lost 17 of their last 23. Really? I didn't know it was that bad. Yeah, they're kind of going through what the Mariners went through a few weeks ago right now.

And obviously you're not going to face freed unless they skip somebody in the rotation. They would also avoid Rodon as well. So we know how difficult left-handed pitching can be on Seattle's right-handed hitting lineup. So, yeah, in general, that's a really good thing. And, you know, you get to go into this Mickey Mouse ballpark and try and take advantage of the short porch. It really is a ballpark kind of built for like Dom-Kan zone. So hopefully he can have a good series, going to kind of need it.

But it's interesting because obviously the ballpark works for the Yankees too. And the Yankees are built to win at Yankee Stadium. But what's pretty interesting is when you look at the Mariners offense and it's coming off of back-to-back games where they put up one run, which was enough. So it's tough to feel great about it. But when you actually look at the numbers outside of Team Mobile Park, Seattle's offense is kind of good. Like it is. Really?

Yes. In terms of these are all, these are the road splits. So these are teams that away from their home ballpark, right? WRC plus, the Mariners are 116. That is the third highest WRC plus in baseball on the road behind the Cubs and the Yankees, two offenses that are just good, you know, in general, regardless of where they play. But when you start looking at the triple slashes, Seattle hits 267 on the road. That's second highest in baseball.

They lead the league and on base percentage on the road at 343. They're slugging is fourth highest on the road. They have scored the fifth most runs on the road. So, yeah, when they play away from Team Mobile Park, they're actually, they've actually been a pretty formidable offense now. The caveat here is that, you know, they just had kind of an offensive explosion on the road in their last road trip. Obviously, the Cubs, they scored six or more in every single game that series, which, you know, wind aided, sure. But the offense on the road, pretty good.

And you're going to a really good place to hit. and you're going to a place that really does play up to the strengths of guys like Luke Rayleigh and Dominic Canzon and Cal Raleigh, and they're all going to be in the lineup all three games, or they should be. So you do have an opportunity here to score some runs, take some pressure off of your pitching. Maybe they don't need to throw shutouts to win a couple of games in New York.

If they do need to throw shutouts to win a couple of games in New York, you're probably getting swept. So, yeah, goal number one, don't get swept. Goal number two, hit, keep hitting. Do what you've done on the road. Put up good at bat. A strikeout rate's only 21% on the road. The walk rate's still around 10%.

But this is a good opportunity for a couple of guys to pat some stats here. And it's a good opportunity to catch the Yankees at the right time. Winning two out of three would be nice. It would tie the season series at least. and we know that tiebreakers might be a thing. If you can find a way to sweep this series and you have the tiebreaker and you'll just outright have jumped the Yankees and the standings. But I think goal number one win one game and then get greedy,

try to win the series. So hopefully they can win one of these early games and not have to win on Thursday to salvage the series. But yeah, I actually think the offense might score some runs here in New York. and it feels like a Dom-Kan zone type of series. Yeah. That short porch in right field is one that he can take advantage of, although maybe it plays mind tricks on him,

and he tries too much to do that, and he falls flat on his face. Like, stranger things have happened, but yeah, you're facing the Yankees at a good time, both in terms of who you face on the mound and how they're playing right now. So it really is a nice time to catch the Yankees, but the Mariners are capable of beating anybody and losing to anybody.

And you never know what version you're going to get. It's still hard to feel pretty confident about this series going into it. Yeah, you mentioned patting some stats. I mean, this would obviously be a great opportunity for Cal Raleigh to add to his home run lead. He's got 35 before the All-Star break, which obviously tied Griffey. Next up on that list, Chris Davis and Mark McGuire at 37 home runs. So maybe you can push those guys. And then obviously Barry at 39

Don't think he'll get there with six games to go But I mean, you know, Cal has on multiple occasions At like four home runs and three games, five home runs and four games All that. So who knows, maybe he's got another one of those stretches and him. But, you know, this has the makings of a high scoring series. And because I just said that, all these games are going to be like three to two, two to one, et cetera.

But I mean, you look at the pitching matchups, you know, the Yankees again, they're not throwing freed. They're not throwing Redone. It's going to be Will Warren tonight. It's going to be Cameron Schlittler making his major league debut tomorrow. And then, yeah, I'm not going to attempt to say that name again. And then Marcus Stroman pitching in the final game. And then obviously, the mayor's pitching staff has struggled on the road.

Opponents are hitting 261, 330, 423 against them. You got Logan going tonight, but then it's Logan Evans pitching for the first time in Yankee Stadium. We've seen that go, you know, a couple of ways for young pitchers pitching in Yankee Stadium. Obviously, Brian Wu had a great outing at Yankee Stadium and his first start there. Yeah, quality of the stuff is a bit different from from Wu to Logan Evans. Yeah, yeah. And then speaking of, speaking of Wu, he pitches on the final game against Marcus Stroman. And the Mariners have fared pretty well at Yankee Stadium lately since 2022.

They're five and five. and they've put up some big games offensively as well. They had a 10 to 2 win in 2023 and 8 to 6 win in 2022, a 7 to 3 win as well, 2022. Last year, we remember the comeback that they had against Clay Holmes. There were they, you know, it took them a while, but they wound up scoring 5 and beat the Yankees 5 to 4 that night. Then the next day they won 6 to 3.

Yeah. Yeah, it'd be nice to see them hit some bombs, take advantage of the Mickey Mouse confines of Yankee Stadium. And they certainly have the guys to do it, especially with Randy swinging it the way that he is right now. Cal, obviously, Canzone. So, yeah, I'm with you. I think this could be a pretty big Dom Canzone series.

Hopefully. You know, it's kind of tough to trust Julio right now, although this is a great park for him to get back on track. So you do need somebody else to step up. And, you know, it's been Randy. It was Randy last week. Who knows how long you can continue that. But yeah, Canzone's been really good recently as well.

And Luke Rayleigh could see a bit more power from Luke here on this road trip. Yeah. But, you know, and then we'll see what they can do with Jorge Polanco as well. Who's been, you know, quietly pretty good weekend. Polo did. So, yeah, we'll see how much he plays and all that. But I would also watch just throwing this out there. This feels like a good series for Cole Young to get his first career home run.

He's come close a couple times. You know, and obviously that short porch in right field, that's something that Cole can take advantage of. And so facing a bunch of righties here. I think he's got a shot here to collect his first Major League home run and have it be at Yankee Stadium. That's pretty cool. even if it's not the real Yankee stadium.

But yeah, walk here and judge. Make literally anyone else in this lineup beat you. And if you had taken that advice last time, you might have won two or three against the Yankees. Yeah. Has Dan Wilson learned? We'll see.

But also you need to hit. You need a hit or else that conversation doesn't really matter. All right. So you mentioned Julio? We're going to talk about him in just a moment, but first a reminder of this episode of the lockdown Marys podcast, it's brought to you once again by Fandul. Summer sports are in full swing and whether you're all about baseball under the lights, golf on the green or high-stakes soccer action,

Fanduel is the best way to make every game even more exciting. I mean, you're already following the action. Why not make it a little more thrilling? With Fandul, you can get in on the game while your friends are getting sunburned at the beach. I've been using Fandul. to track my favorite matchups and the app keeps it fresh with new daily promotions and fun ways to bet it's easy to use fast to pay out and makes even regular season games feel like must watch events whether i'm placing the same game parlay or watching a bet right into the ninth inning fanduel makes it feel like i'm part of the action and if you're new to fanduel that's even better new customers can bet just five dollars and get one hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets if your first bet wins open the fan duel app today and visit fanduil bandwale.com slash locked on. That's L-C-K-E-D-O-N to get started.

And you're listening to the Lockdown Marrins podcast for instant reactions following every Mariners game, including tonight. Be sure to tune in to the Marriss Postcast with Anderson Hurst and Christopher Crawford, available on both the Lockdown Marys YouTube and podcast feeds. We got a sizable update for you guys on our Feeding America fundraiser. We got a nice little wave of donations between yesterday's episode. episode and today. John came through with $50, anonymous with $15.

We also got another anonymous $15 donation that says, blood sacrifice to curse the Astros. So far it worked. The Astros lost last night to the Guardian. So we're off to a good start. Demo with $50 and says, Demo was my nickname first. Anonymous with $20.

Gigi with $50. Lonnie with $10. Anonymous with $25. $3, Raymond with $30, anonymous with $10, dunk with $55, and then dunk again with $59.1. And then Paul is on here, but it doesn't say what his donation is. It's Feeding America is doing that thing. I think it's $50, but I'm not sure because Dunk said that his $59 donation was to get us to an even $10K. And we're at $10,050 right now.

So I'm going to assume Paul donated $50. So thank you all. Really appreciate it. We're at $10,000 raise now, which is incredible, incredible stuff, which means that we are at 100,000 plus meals raised for those in need. So we only have a few days left on this fundraiser. And we're about $5,000-ish dollars away from what we did the last time we did the Feeding America fundraiser. So, Colby, you got some motivation in you for the people?

No, just that I heard the locked on Astros guys say that they would have had 15K done three weeks ago. So, you know, something to the effect of the locked on Mariners fundraiser is like the locked on Mariners offense, good in spurts, but overall not enough to win anything of substance. I don't know. Some about you guys not being raised, right? something in that range, but callback. So yeah.

But either way, you know, I'm sure you guys don't mind being made fun of by Astros fans. But no, obviously it's great. You know, feeding America, there's 50 million people out there who don't know where their next meal's coming from, including

one out of every five children, which is just unacceptable. The cost of food continues to rise. and, you know, not knowing where your next meal coming from pretty much makes everything else irrelevant. It is the most important thing. So feeding America does a great job to keep costs low and to buy food for incredibly cheap. And as a result, they're able to turn every dollar that is raised into at least 10 meals to feed those who don't know where the next meal is coming from. It's hard to imagine a more worthy mission than putting food in the mouths of starving people and to give them away to make sure that they know where their next meal is coming from.

So Feeding America does a great job with that. You guys can donate directly through the link that is in the description of wherever you're watching or listening to this episode. You can also help donate by just subscribing to our YouTube channel. Ty and I are donating 10 cents for every new subscriber we get. So every new subscriber is a meal. And I think we're about 300 meals in just from people clicking a button. So that's awesome to see. And then, yeah, you can also help out by sharing the link with friends, family, coworkers,

maybe even take it to your boss and see if your company will match donations. Some will do that. So it is, we're at the home stretch here. We have less than a week to go. and we're at 10K, which is pretty cool. We'll see how high we can take it. But yeah, there's still, I feel like there might be one big donation still sitting out there.

Yeah, maybe just keep donating and the astros will keep losing. And maybe the mirrors will keep winning. Just focus all your energy into that. Just putting it out there, just saying, you know. But yeah, in all seriousness, thank you guys so much for all of your donations. We really appreciate it. Your generosity is really, It has been just incredible to see over the last, you know, three or four weeks.

$10,000 is just an incredible milestone, truly. 100,000 meals raised is just insane. It makes me incredibly proud of the community that we built here. So thank you. Thank you guys so much. All right. So let's talk about Julio. And I don't want to talk about the All-Star thing.

But because he's been selected to the All-Star game, you know there's obviously discourse about whether or not he should be in it whatever that's obviously kind of brought the discourse back to the forefront here about just Julio in general we've talked about the overpaid narrative and all that and really to me there are two conversations happening here at once there's the really dumb conversation that unfortunately I see a lot of you guys engaging in down in the comments below I see a lot of you engaging in my replies on Twitter. And I see just a lot of people engaging in on Twitter in general and on

Instagram, et cetera. And that is on one side of the argument. You got people who are like, he's overpaid. They should trade him. They should have never given him the contract that they did. He should be sent down to Tacoma. And then some other problematic stuff that I'm not even going to give airtime on here. And yeah, you can say like, well, tie, obviously there's just stupid people in the fan, in every fan base that are going to say stupid stuff.

Just ignore it. Why are you giving this any sort of time? And you're right to a certain degree. But there are so many people I see engaging in this. There's such a large amount of the Maris fan base that I see engaging in this stuff that it's just, it's honestly just too difficult to ignore because it's even here with. within our community as well in a big way. And then on the other side of the argument, you got people that just coddle Julio,

who have excuse after excuse after excuse baked in for all of his struggles. You can't criticize the guy or else you hate him, right? And that's just not a conversation that I'm willing to have. That's not an argument that I'm willing to engage in. The real conversation that needs to be had about Julio, though, is what his actual value is and then what his, struggles ultimately are right now and what the mergers have to and can do about it. So Julio is an incredibly valuable player.

Like, let's just get that out of the way. You know, the people, you know, want to try and kind of disregard the war and all that stuff that he's accumulated. But he is irrefutably one of the most valuable defenders in all of baseball right now, irregardless a position. He's probably in the platinum glove. discussion in the American League this year. I don't know if he'll actually win it, but he is certainly in that conversation.

And obviously, we know what the upside is. And I don't want to make this conversation about, well, he's only 24 and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Because that's kind of the, the coddling of Julio and the excuses for Julio that I do see made. And I do see people kind of lean into the age factor a little too much when talking about Julio and defending Julio. So we're not doing that. but obviously there are a lot of reasons that there's a lot of things that Julio brings to the table that are very positive but straight up Julio is not good enough at the play right now since the start of June I believe he's an 84 WRC plus

I believe he leads the league now and men left on base that guy cannot be your two hole hitter And we talked about this a little bit yesterday on Mailbag Monday when we got asked about potential lineup changes. I would not hit Julio against right-handed pitching. I would not hit Julio in the top five of this lineup. I would put J.P. Crawford ahead of them. I'd put Cal Raleigh, ahead of him, Randy Orozerana, Luke Rayleigh, and Dominic Canso. I'd put all five of those guys ahead of them right now in the lineup with how they're swinging the bat relative to how he's swinging the bat. So I want to talk just a little bit about his struggle.

This is something you and I talked about on the Patreon yesterday. So it's kind of just a continuation or maybe even just a rehashing of that conversation. But, Colby, right now when you're watching, Julio, just what are you seeing? And what do you think is going on with them? Yeah, it's tough to say because a lot of the launch angle stuff is a lot of the chase, a lot of the, you know, the width person. It's all stuff he's done before. Like it's all, he's had season similar to this. or similar to those type of underlying numbers that we typically associate with somebody improving, right?

They're taking more walks or they're learning how to lift the baseball or, you know, all those things typically are signs of growth. And Julio's been pretty consistent in all those numbers throughout his career. The launch angle has gone up between 10 and 8, you know, it's like in every other year type of thing. but he's been very successful with, with, you know, 10 degree launch angle averages, with 8 degree launch angle averages. He's pulling the ball more than he ever has, which is, you know, a big thing that people want him to do.

So when you kind of look at the underlying numbers, it does seem kind of like, yeah, he should be doing better than this. But you look at what's actually happening is his exit be lows are down. Yeah. So while he's doing all these things that would seem to indicate that he's trying to try. trying to, you know, lift the ball more and get to his power.

He's hitting the ball a lot. Well, I don't know a lot, but he's hitting the ball softer than he has in the past. And ultimately, the thing with Julio is that Julio puts the ball, you know, Julio hits line drive home runs just as much as he'll hit towering blast. And so the line drive rate is down. That's concerning to me. It's ground balls or they're fly balls. There's nothing kind of in between.

And Julio's a guy who can, who can definitely, you know, spray the gaps. and hit home runs that get out in a hurry. So I think the line drive rate needs to go up. It's really interesting. He's swinging at the first pitch way more than he ever has in his career. It's like a 15% difference. And that probably explains why his strikeout rate is down, not because he's actually gotten better at, you know,

not chasing, not swinging and missing. It's just that he's so aggressive that he's not getting into as many two strike counts. So that might account for that. So yeah, you're just kind of watching a guy who looks a little lost. It kind of looks like he can't decide who he's trying to be. And, you know, as much as we talk about, like, the physical state of the hitter and his mechanics and where his hands are and his lower half and all that, the mental side is just as important, if not more important. And it just kind of looks like Julio's not really quite sure where he is or who he is right now. and he's going through a bit of an identity crisis.

And a big part of that is him chasing expectations of what he's supposed to be and trying to find a way to help the team as much as he can. And it's just not there for him. So I think a lot of this is really mental. Now, to be fair, full disclosure, not a swing guy. You know, I'm not the guy who's going to be breaking down the pio mechanics of a swing or anything like that. You guys probably know that by now. but it does look to me like a guy who just doesn't quite know what his identity is as a hitter,

and he's kind of searching for it right now. I will say that I actually thought his at-bats against Paul Skeens were pretty good, despite two strikeouts. Yeah. But, you know, he ran deep counts on those ones. He fell behind. He didn't chase, and then the two strikeouts he got were just perfect, you know, backdoor two seamers that just ran right over the outside corner.

And he learned from that, and he had a double, into right center field and that's the kind of thing that I think Julio can do. I just, I think I look at a guy and I'm like, this guy is trying to be super aggressive. He's trying to hit for power. He's trying to do too much. He's trying to hit the ball as hard as he possibly can.

And it's just like, you just got to find a game plan that works. Like just something simple and, and just kind of trust yourself because it's not a bat speed issue. Julio's got plenty of bat speed. It's kind of an aiming issue. almost like he like he just doesn't put the barrel where it needs to be. And to me that speaks more about a guy who's concerned about, you know,

overthinking his swing as he's in the middle of swinging, not a guy who's just reacting. He's not hunting right now. He's kind of, he's kind of tentative despite, I mean, it's weird because it's aggressive. He's swinging a lot,

but he's not swinging at the right pitches. And he's not hunting. He's just kind of reacting and kind of like, uh, it just, it looks like a guy who's in his own head. Yeah. I understand the frustration with Julio.

I'm frustrated. I totally get that. I'm not blaming anyone for being frustrated. He has been disappointing at the plate by far. And it is frustrating watching him struggle so much and then just get hot for a few weeks. And then his overall numbers are pretty solid at the end of the day. But you know that that doesn't tell the full story of how the season went for Julio. we try to be as nuanced as possible on this show which is kind of sacrilege in sports media

but multiple things can be true at once I know crazy concept but Julio is incredibly valuable that is an undeniable fact absolutely is for what he brings defensively for what he brings on the base pass I'm doing that deal that they did with him three years ago, four years ago, however long he was now at this point, 10 times out of time still. For what his age is, for all the stuff that he brings to the table, for what the upside is, still an incredible deal.

If Julio was setting the market today, he did far more than $19 million a year. Yes, it's still a great, great deal. He also just needs to be better than he is right now. He has to. Offensibly, he's just not going to. of it is unacceptable that he is an 84 w rc plus for the last five weeks can't happen you knew more from him also been a league average bat over the entirety of the season so we don't want to

discount april and may uh which he was pretty good although the power still wasn't quite there i just wonder how different you know you don't need just league average out of folio though i think that's fair to say right like you expect i mean more than league you should expect more yeah because he has the talent to do more and and he has been been more than that his entire career. Regardless of how he gets there, he's always been well above league average. I just wonder how much of this conversation would be different if when Julio came up, we didn't try and comp him to Griffey.

Like he's the next Griffey, he's the next face of the, and instead we comped him to somebody like Mike Cameron, who are incredibly valuable, probably going to go 2020. Great to have his ups and downs, streaky hitter. We're going to strike out a little bit. Probably going to hit 250, but he's going to be an elite defender in center field. He's going to hit home runs. He's going to steal bases.

He's got a great arm. Julio pretty much is modern day Mike Cameron. And to see people, some people act like he's modern day Griffey when he's not. And to see other people act like he's modern day Charles Gibson, which he's not, is very frustrating. I think for the majority of people who just sit here. in the middle and be like, yeah, dude's a good player. It could be great. And then that's a little disappointing that he's not great, but he is good.

He's very good. And so, yeah, any way you want to slice, he's a very, he's an incredibly valuable player. He's probably going to be a four, four or five one player this year, even if he's only a 100 WRC plus guy. Yeah. So just relax, calm down. Look at Julio for who he is, not who you thought he was going to be three years ago.

And we'll just see what happens. There's still time. Yeah. There's still time. But yeah, just don't. It's okay to criticize him when he has a bad game. It's okay to praise him when he has a good game. Yep.

And it's okay to just kind of be like when he has a game. Just judge him like you would any other player. Yeah. Agreed. All right. So let's talk a little bit about the trade deadline before we get out of here. Obviously, that's coming up here pretty soon, 23 days away. We'll go over that in just a moment.

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And you're listening to the locked on marriage podcast. So again, trade deadline coming up here in 23 days now. And, you know, the draft is this weekend. And once that's over with front offices are going to be completely 100% locked in on the deadline. So we might start seeing movement as soon as later next week. So it could really just happen at any time. And we know the mayors have liked to kind of get out ahead of things before the trade deadline they you know they traded for louis castillo before the the deadline they traded for randy

a rosarina with a few days to go before the deadline all that so we might be under 20 days away from the mayor is making their most significant move of the trade season so let me just ask you this who's your guy right now if you could pick one guy that the mares could trade for right now who would it be the ronald accuni junior yeah i mean yeah followed by jose ramirez Yeah, yeah. Those are one A and one B. I mean, put them in whatever we want. Those are the guys.

Yeah. Are you talking about guys who are more likely to be traded? We live in reality here. So, yeah, who in that realm is your guy? Ronald Acuna keeps on getting brought up. Yeah, I think it's one of the Arizona bats. I know the draw of Gino is that he's, a mariner and like they could write the wrong even though some people are like jerry wouldn't

trade for him back because that would make him look bad like yeah that's going to stop him um Jerry's always been concerned about how it looks when he makes trades uh good good job guys you suss that one out yeah yeah but uh yeah uh i i think nailer is probably my guy because uh he is i mean obviously he fills a huge need and he kind of kill two birds with one stone he's the first baseman. Rightfield's now more securely figured out because I have Rayleigh out there and I have my first basement and I have Canzone also. And, you know, maybe I need to go get a part-time player out there in right field, but I'm fine. So I kind of killed two birds with one stone with Naler. He can hit for average. He's gotten close to hitting 300 in his career. He's also got a 30

home run campaign in his back pocket. He doesn't strike out. He's actually a really good defender at first base despite not being a great athlete. And I think the power, the pole power will play very well at T-Mobile Park. So I think Nailor is my guy. He's also probably going to be a little bit cheaper than Gino just because he's a first baseman, not a third baseman. So I think Nailor is my guy. I would spend the next couple of weeks just poking the Braves with a stick, being like,

what's it going to take? What's it going to take? And then once I'm really confident that they're not going to trade him, I think my first pivot would be to Nailer followed closely. And since they play for the same team, I might as well ask about Gino while I'm at it. Yeah, my guys are Gino for obvious reasons.

Naylor, I think, is someone that also could maybe find a home in Seattle beyond this year. Like obviously he's only under club control through this season, but I think that someone the MERS would actually try to get re-signed this winter. Because I think he just checks off. a lot of the boxes that Jerry DePoto and Justin Hollander look for and then Willie Castro

that's kind of like my my fallback guy like if you're not able to get one of the Diamondbacks bats or I mean hell if you're able to get Josh Naylor and Willie Castro at the deadline I'm doing backflips frankly I think yeah I think that all around the ballpark

he's a switch hit one yeah go get too much yeah you know it's you know It's never, ever been a problem, especially for the Seattle Mariners. Oh, no, we have so many good hitters. We have to leave one or two of them on the bench every night. Oh, wouldn't that just be awful?

That was the case. That sentence has never been uttered in Mariners history. Yeah. So figure it out. Yeah. But yeah, we'll see, you know, again, all those guys are named are rentals. We know that Jerry's been averse to rentals. So we'll see it maybe he changes his mind this time

But I think he kind of has to because that's what the market is Yeah And if Jose Ramirez was actually being shopped If Ronald Ocuni Jr. was actually being shopped I believe Jerry DePoto would be extremely aggressive on both of those guys Sure sure Because I mean that is a once in a You know once in a generation opportunity to make a trade like that

So but again Don't spend too much time thinking of about the one in a million shot type of guys. But yeah, those are definitely the guys you should target first. But, you know, I spend a little bit of time on that, but quickly, you know, go back to, you know, and if you walk away with like Naylor and Willie Castro and Ramon Lariano and Anthony Bender or whatever, right? Like kind of what they did last year at the deadline. I think you're really happy with that.

And I think you're in a really good position to actually compete. just finding a way to replace two spots in your lineup would be massive. Yeah. And it would make everybody else's job a lot easier. So hopefully they do that, but, you know, we'll wait and see. It's going to be a seller's market, but theoretically, Jerry has more money, prospects, than anybody else in baseball. So you are going into the casino, but you've got money to burn. So it's okay.

Be aggressive. except for actual money. The actual amount of money they have is yet to be determined, but my guess is an extra $3 to $4 million, because that's what John Stanton would consider it to be like, oh, we invested in this team. Yeah, we're expanding payroll. The expectations of the Seattle mayor is going to expand payroll at the deadline.

They've already approved it. Yeah, by what, $2 million? Yeah, cool. Jerry can afford the rest of Dennis Santana's contract. We've expanded payroll. Oh, cool. Yeah, no, that's awesome. Can't wait to watch this front office scramble to find a Hori Polanco and Dillamore trade so they can get some extra money at the deadline.

Polanco trade might be nice, too, because it would clear up your DH spot for somebody who's actually a little bit better hitter. But yeah, probably. Probably see something like that, unfortunately. Yeah. Yeah, the last thing that I was going to say, and you mentioned him. But I actually kind of like the Ramon Luriano idea, especially if maybe you don't do something at first base and you just keep Rayleigh there at first base and then you just let L'Oriano platoon with Canzon.

I like that. Plus, Luriano has a $6 million club option next year that you would probably pick up. Maybe. But yeah, I think first base, right field, DH, third base, second base, you need to fix two of those spots. All right. Well, that is going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Marrars podcast for Colby Patnode. I'm Tading Azalus.

Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L0 underscore Marriors. You can follow me at C-Pat-E-E-1. We're also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB Colby, and the show at Lockdown Mariner. You can also find us on Instagram and TikTok at Lockdown Marriers. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you next time. Peace.