Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Anticipating the Seattle Mariners' NEXT MOVE w/ Marine Layer Podcast

Episode Date: January 14, 2026

Ty and Colby are joined by Lyle Goldstein and TJ Mathewson of the Marine Layer Podcast and Bullpen Banter for a Seattle Mariners offseason roundtable discussion.Click to learn more about the Everydayer Club!Join the Ahoy, Sailors Discord server!Check out our Patreon!Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11Follow the show on Bluesky: @lockedonmariners | @tdg | @mlbcolbySupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Rocket MoneyLet Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join at http://RocketMoney.com/LOCKEDONFanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Every Friday night, before the games tip off, FanDuel gives fans a new way to kick off the weekend with NBA Happy Hour. Check the FanDuel app and see what’s dropping during NBA Happy Hour — every Friday from 6 to 7:30 PM Eastern.FanDuel — the Official Sportsbook 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 anticipation of the Mariners next move is not only driving us wild, but TJ and Lyle from the Marine Layer podcast as well. We'll talk about it all with those guys coming up here on the Lockdown Marrars podcast. 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 Wednesday, January 14th, 2026. You're listening to the Lockdown Marys Podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network now, the number one sports podcast network. I'm your host, Tad de Gazzalus. I'm a lifelong Marys fan who's been covering the team for over half a decade.

And today, my co-host, Colby and I, we're going to catch up with T.J. Matthewson and Lyle Goldstein of the Marine Layer podcast to talk all about this stagnant mariners off season. But before we do, I want to shout out our title sponsor today. FanDuel, Playoff football is here. And FanDuel is officially in playoff mode. So visit FanDuel, an official sportsbook partner of the NFL and grab your profit boost pack every NFL playoff game day. It's been a little while since we last time. talk to these guys, but please have them back on. The host of the Marine Layer podcast and Bullpen Banner is Lyle Goldstein and T.J.

Matthewson, how's it going, boys? Would be better with another bat. Yeah, yeah, we'll get into that. That would be great. I wish we had more to talk about, but guys, we mostly brought TJ and Lyle on here just so you could have two different voices telling you basically the same thing that we've been telling you for the last, I don't know, six or so weeks. hopefully that will keep things fresh here and locked on

the best way to describe the current state of the off season for us is that if the words Brendan Donovan gets said it starts triggering PTSD yeah it's just like however the PTSD you want to like label it is it anxiety is it is it freaking out is the thing the Mariners are going to win 84 games I don't know what it is but I mean every time now you see the Jeff Pass and tweet on on Tuesday morning like something No, actually it's nothing. No.

Which, by the way, how odd, right? Because Passon never tweets rumors. He always just has news and he's always breaking it. But I joked around that he's as bored as everybody else right now with where the offseason's at with nothing going on. He's like, you know what? Why don't I just tweet out a rumor get people talking? Screw it. Might as well.

Let's just get the people going. I mean, yeah, it was more exciting than nothing, I guess. John Marossey tweeted about the Mariners and Brennan Donovan again like a few days ago I was like cool yeah yeah Colby sent me that over the weekend and he was like look a new Mariners rumor

and I was like oh yeah cool great yeah so yeah so it's that's been the story of the off season I mean it's better the last off season I'll tell you that

we do always think about that like well yeah you consider where the mariners were at about 365 days ago where I don't even think they had Solano signed at this point did they no we Colby and I talked about this it was late but they signed Salon actually it might be we might be around that time now I think it was sometime in mid-January that it happened rokey had signed at this point and the odds like the the the optics of the off season were getting worse and worse and worse and worse and worse and I do think some people, a lot of the times for this off season, like there are objective flaws still with the Mariners team that they can address right now,

the lineup. But I think people forget they signed Josh Naylor like nine days into the off season. I think people just forget. Like they assumed he just never left the team. Like, no, they did have to sign him and add him to the team. Yeah, he was already on the team before the offseason started. But that doesn't change the fact they made a real impact signing this off season. they could have just let him walk

and if it was a similar financial state to last off season Josh Taylor wouldn't be a mariner right now would be somewhere else. Doing it right off the rip was crazy. Like I've never, I can't remember a time that like even though that it was, you know, he came back to the team that he was with.

So I can't remember a time that like a high, a free agent as high profile as Josh Naylor like signing that quickly into the off season. And again, like to your, to your point it's just like you almost kind of forget about it because it was just so quick right it was like right off the you know the crazy playoff run right like we just kind of like we we were starting to come down from the high of that and then all of a sudden boom josh neler's back everyone celebrate i guess he just knew what he wanted right i mean both sides seemed to know very very clearly what they wanted nailer must have not wanted to sit around all winter and free agency because i thought there was going to be a side to that where he wanted to see what Pete Alonzo was going to get and he was going to wait out Pete's market and that was going to be not a rebound

but he was going to establish and his camp was going to establish his worth based off that. But no, I mean, it was pretty clear. It's like, I know where I want to be. I know the team I want to play for. Just give me what I'm worth and give me a fair deal. We'll get this done and credit to all parties they did. Yeah, it's funny.

Like, I had this thought in the back of my head going into the offseason that like Pete's going to sign somewhere and then Josh Naylor, like the Mets are going to throw a bunch of money at Josh Naylor. And funny enough, that kind of happened, but with Jorge Blanco. I mean, if Josh Neeler was still a free agent, that would have happened. And I would have been really nervous to see like Josh Naylor gets, let's compare to the Jorge Polanco deal. Let's say Josh Naylor got like $130 million offer, $120 million offer from the Mets.

Like, what do you decide then? Are you going 92 and a half somewhere you want to be or are you getting someone who's going to overpay by 30% on your contract to try and get you? I don't, Josh Nailer never seemed like a New York type of guy to me. I don't think he wants to deal with that media. I never really saw the Mets as a real threat there. But yeah, it is crazy. They got it done so quickly. And thank goodness they did because could you imagine the panic right now?

Oh, my God. If they hadn't gotten that done. And, you know, I guess maybe they signed polo, but I don't know. Whatever. Like, it would be, oh, it's 2024 all over again. And we're already starting to see. this fan base kind of panic a little bit about like, oh, they're out of options. They got nobody left.

You know, signed Boba Chet. It's like, that was never going to happen. Like, why are you panicking about that? So, yeah, they hadn't gotten Naylor done when they did. Like, who, man, this, this off season would be so much like worse to cover than it already is. It's funny to me over the last few weeks, you know, after Naylor signed, people were like, that's great. That's all I wanted this off season. I don't care if they do anything else this off season. And now that they like haven't really done anything else, you're starting to,

yeah, yeah, I was always like that that's not true. And now that like, it's been very quiet, you're starting to see people crack and be like, okay, what else are we doing here, guys? I'm with you guys. I never bought into that. I really wanted Josh Naylor back. I knew how he was going to be. But this idea that you could just settle. the rest of the offseason after that, that never sat right with me. I think what I laid out, and you guys can let me know where you sat too, was I said, bring your two, your two premier hitters back that are going to be hitting free agency in Polanco and Naylor.

And then I said, unfortunately, this one's not going to happen. But I said, go get a premier bullpen arm too. I still feel like and have felt like for a while that getting a fourth guy behind Brash Munoz Inspire was pretty important. and you saw it pop up at points in the postseason. We saw him almost trade for Joe on Duran last summer where you sit there and say to yourself, the team clearly believes that they want another leverage bullpen arm. Maybe Ferrer ends up being that,

but it is more of a project you're taking on with him with the hope that he will turn into that rather than somebody that's more established. So that was where my list was at. And I think when it's all said and done, they will go get the second bat one way or another, at least I hope so. but the bullpen arm thing seems like it might have to be a wait and see until July. You said one other thing too. Go ahead.

Kyle Tucker, yeah. But I said I can't say that name. I will turn this car around. More from our conversation with TJ and Lowland, just a moment. But first a reminder, this episode of the Lockdown Marriss podcast is brought to you by Fandulul. And get this for the first time ever here on the Lockdown Merris podcast, the Space Needle. That's right. Football playoffs are here and Fandual is officially in playoff mode.

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That's supercast.com or check the link and the show notes to learn more. Now back to our conversation with T.J. and Lowe. So I am curious from from all three of you at this point now, like what's the most ideal outcome to you guys. TJ, you can start. Brendan Donovan. Yeah. Just like A, so it gets done so we can stop talking about him, at least in the hypothetical sense. We can talk about him in the real sense.

And B, I actually think he's the best fit out there. Colby said, mentioned before, like, Bichette was never coming to Seattle. Number one reason he's not coming to Seattle is because of the money, clearly. They're not going to pay him that kind of contract. Number two, where does Bo Bichette fit? Crickets, exactly. He's not nowhere to fit on the Mariners because he's not a good defender,

and the Mariners have clearly stated they have young infielders who want to get a lot of playing time out there and doesn't offer the same versatility that Donovan does, and Donovan doesn't cost you as much money. On top of that, are we so sure Brendan Donovan's going to be that much worse of a hitter than Jorge Polanco is? For their careers, you guys know who a better hitter is by WRC Plus, Jorge Polanco or Brennan Donovan?

I assume Donovan. He's very consistent. It's Donovan, yeah. Jorge Polanco is shown a higher ceiling. I believe Polanco has a higher ceiling. But Polanco has also never really shown us the version of what he did last year before. So why now at age, what it'll be 32 years old, but he'll do it again? Like I never bought into that when it came to, oh, it's such a big loss for Jorge Plano.

Yeah, it's a loss. But people were worried, oh my God, we're never going to get the 2025 version of Polanco again. It's like, yeah, if you signed him, you also probably weren't. getting that 2025 version of Polanco. So why don't you get someone who's younger, who can play more positions, and who probably year over year is going to be a better hitter than Jorge Polanco, not as much power, but he is going to produce offensively for you and give you just a whole bunch of options to use.

Yeah, to your point, TJ, I said this a few weeks ago back when Polo still was unsigned, like, I think you're a better team with Brennan Donovan than with Jorge Polanco, because I think Polo is going to regress. Like, I don't think he's a 130 WRC plus guy. I think he's going to regress. I don't think that means that he's going to fall off cliff. I just think he's going to regress back to being, you know, the 115, 120 WRC plus guy that he was most years in Minnesota.

Well, Brendan Donovan is also a 115 to 120 WRC plus guy. And, you know, they do it differently. But honestly, I think Donovan, who's more contact oriented, fits the ballpark a little bit better,

even though that Polo proved that he can hit at Team Mobile Park. I think Donovan just overall is a better, better fit offensively and he's a better fit for the roster especially with how much the barons want to try and give some runway to cole young and cole emerson and ben Williamson and also you know just it allows them to kind of rotate guys more and you know donovan can play five times six times a week but do it at second base third base left field dh etc like it's just to me donovan for all the things that he brings to the day just a way better fit than Jorge Polanco.

So so long as they are able to get that done to me, I think that's a win for them. Yeah, I'm with you. I think I was probably a little more attached to Polanco than T.J. was where I was very set on the idea of bringing him back. Now, at $20 million a year is obviously where I got cold feet like most people and you just have to understand, okay, that is Steve Cohen massively overpaying the rest of the market because they're getting nervous after losing Pete Alonzo. So I get it. I think what I had started to buy into, and I think this is what the mergers had started to buy into a little bit in terms of, quote, unquote, running it back with what they had last year, for the most part, and running a lot of the same group they had back last year. I did start to think to myself about, think about all the names they've tried to bring in over the years with different profiles to try to beat the Seattle offensive issues that it often brings hitters and how many times it hasn't worked, where you bring in somebody like Jesse Winker at a great, great awareness of the strike zone when he was in Cincinnati. and he was a gap-to-gap guy, and he would produce offense in that way.

Comes to Seattle, awful. To Oscar Hernandez, it's like, well, he destroys left-handed pitching and hits the ball as hard as just about anybody in Major League Baseball, he'll just rip right through the Marine layer all season. He was fine, but he was not what anybody thought he was going to be. He was a little disappointing. And then Polanco and Garver in 24, too, similar idea, different profiles than Palanko, but they said to themselves, okay, let's try two more guys.

Didn't work either. And I'm sitting there thinking to myself, all right, if they finally have a formula that works with guys that can hit here, I can buy into the idea of running the team back. So, yeah, I was a little bummed to see him lose Polanco. And I'm not saying that you can't find anybody else outside of Seattle that'll come to T-Mobile Park and hit. But I guess I just started to buy into the idea of running the group back a little bit more. That being said, Donovan's profile doesn't feel like one that should fall off anywhere. When you strike out as little as he does and you walk as much as he does and you can play all the different. positions that he does. Yeah, that's going to be a very valuable addition to the team. And here we go,

talking about Brendan Donovan again. But if you add him to the roster, it does a lot not just for your chances to win in 26, but the idea to play your young guys too and often because he can move around so much. Where as much as I like Horner, it does make things a little, you know, a little murky for Cole Young because what happens if you bring in in Horner? All his values at second base. So not that I'd be opposed to it. It's just that with the idea of Donovan, you can still do everything that you want to and try to win in 26 while playing your young guys. Yeah. My, my view is a little bit different than everybody's, which is good.

I don't care about Lockhe as Cole Young. Colby has a different view than everyone else. I just, I don't care about locking Cole Young. Like, what did Cole Young do last year to show that he deserves to be handed second base? Nothing. Nico Horner is a four and a half, five-win player. Cole Young, like, that's his ceiling. And he's not going to reach it this year.

So I don't care so much about that. I know the Mariners do, though. So, you know, you have to try and account for that a little bit. I still only corner is the best player that they could get. I just don't think they can actually get them. Like, if that makes sense, I don't think the Cubs and the Mariners are going to line up too well in a trade. Right now, I put the odds at like, I don't know, 5% if that. Donovan is certainly a much more likely guy to be traded.

I think he is a very good fit. obviously the Mariners really like him. So he's the easy guy to kind of point at. But from my perspective, honestly, I wouldn't mind if they just went completely like off the beaten path. And we're talking about somebody we haven't discussed all winter because that would be fun. And after the soft season I've had to sit through, I think I deserve to have a little bit of fun. So now the problem is, I don't know who that guy is. I was about to have. Do you have a name in mind? Because I feel like we have exhausted every option. And I don't even just mean T.J. I mean, you guys, other people that talk about the Mariners, et cetera.

Like, do you have another idea in mind? I mean, I've brought up a couple ideas in the past. I don't think they're particularly good. Like every player that you bring up, there's an obvious reason why, you know, he doesn't fit here. But like, Isok Paredes plays third base, plays second base, actually pretty well, somewhat oddly. You know, obviously he's got the pull power, but he doesn't hit the ball hard at all. So it's kind of how does that play in the, at Team Mobile Park and all that, but he's a right-hand-a-hander. He's 26, 27.

You get him for two years. But again, do the Astros want to trade him to you? I don't know. And then Luis Robert, we've talked about a lot. And he was very good in the second half of last year over his last 60 games or so. But also he's making $20 million. And the previous year and a half, he was really, really bad. But he, you know, he plays right field.

He plays left field. He can play center field for you very well. And he can DH, so you're not blocking any of you. young guys unless you are worried about blocking dominant can zone. I mean, whatever. I guess the biggest surprise would be a true outfielder. Yeah. I like, and I mentioned Ramon Luriano in the past.

But I mean, it's real hard to trust Luriano's 2025 is like, that's who he is because that's not who he's ever really been. So I say I want these like new exciting names and it'd be fun to, you know, go off the beaten path here. But unless there is just like an absolute dark. course out there that we just assume isn't available. Donovan's probably the best you can do at this stage with, I mean, I personally like Croninworth quite a bit relative to most people. I think he's an underrated player. I get the concern about the contract. It's not the money.

It's the years, yada, yada, but Cronoworth is perpetually underrated. He's a solid player. And he can play multiple spots for you. But again, like, yeah, the contract and trying to look at this through the Mariners lens and how they operate. Ketel Marte probably would have been the best you could do, but obviously that's not happening anymore. So I think ultimately, as fun as it is to try and come up with new names and look at different players,

all roads circle back to Donovan is probably being the best you can do this winter at this stage. I think Horner would have had the best chance to make the biggest impact because not only would he be the best player, arguably even better than Ketel Marte because of the youth, and the fact he's an excellent defender and he's an excellent base runner as well. two things the Mariners were not good at last year.

They were not a good base running team and they were not a good defensive team. So to add a premier player at both of those would be unbelievable. And I think the value would be great. The Cubs only do that if you're giving them a weakness that they have. And their only real weakness right now as a baseball team is front line starting pitching. And you're not trading one of your big league starters for. And it honestly wouldn't even be like a Bryce Miller. It would be Logan Dover.

well bullpen a bit too yeah I you know I saw you a little short talking about Nico a couple days ago and I quote tweeted it with some thoughts to me like it kind of seems like you guys feel like it's going to be because it's not going to happen because the cubs are going to ask for the world like they're going to ask for a logan gilbert you know or whatever to me more so I think the reason that it's not going to happen is just like I think the the cubs would actually maybe be interested in like game spire plus a prospect or something like that or maybe they even give get to a point where it's like, okay, we have Shaw, our lineup is deep enough, and the up the middle market right now, there's just so much demand.

If the Mariners come waving like two of their top ten prospects at us, maybe that's too much value to just pass up on because we feel comfortable enough with what we have already that we can survive it and still compete for a championship at 2026. That said, though, the Mariners roster just frankly is not deep enough where swapping out a major league for a major league for a major league makes much sense for them. And you're listening to the Lockdown Marrars podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

As always, if you want to hear from me and Colby even more and help support the show, we have a Patreon. It's called Control the Zone. And on there, we talk Marrars, Seahawks, all that good stuff. For more information, go to patreon.com forward slash control the zone. Link in the description of this episode. Now back to our conversation with TJ and Lyle. I think with Nico, like I think there's a path where you can get him without giving up one of your arms.

starting pitcher arms. But I think that path is like Matt Brash and Las Montes. And it's like, okay, like are you better in 2026? Yeah, but like how do you replace Matt Brash? You don't, you know, and this team is just not deep enough. The roster is not deep enough yet to, you know, kind of make these trades. The Mariners farm system is very good, but it's very top heavy. You don't really have these like B tier like, hey, this guy can come up and be a really good, you know,

seventh inning guy, this guy can play. You don't really have that, that group. Like all your prospects that carry trade value to get even an average big leaguer are all like top 100 type of prospect. So the Mariners don't have the farm system really to, you know, build out a bulk package. They don't really have a roster to trade from an area of strength because right now the Mariners don't really have an area of strength. Yeah. And any year maybe like Teddy McGraw and Griffin, Hugas create that kind of like second tier of prospects, you know, Corvin Dickerson, et cetera. But right now it's just a lot of those guys are guys that

you just drafted that no one knows really what, what they are? And then Teddy McGrath is throwing, what, 30 professional ennions? So. And then after that, we're talking about Brock Rodden and, you know, some of the other reliever types that they just drafted like Lucas Kelly in them, you know, so, yeah. Sure. And look, trades trades of prospects and even reliever that are league relievers might be worth it if you thought you were going to extend Horner once you got him but for a guy that with another good walk year is probably getting 150 plus million dollars on the open market i can't imagine he wants to sign an extension yeah i guess the other thing too from the cbs perspective and potentially them actually wanting to take advantage of the market in all

that is do we know if the qo is still going to be a thing next year after the new cb a new cb a agreed upon. I have no idea of anything's going to be a thing next year after the TV. Yeah. So like maybe the Cubs look at that and they're like, all right, well, we're probably not bringing Nico back. Well, we don't like what happened with Matt Shaw in September and all that and him leaving the team.

He's probably our best option to be the second basement of the future here in Chicago for the time being. Like, let's just give him runway now. Our lineup is still deep enough, especially after adding Bregman, that we can survive this and if the Mariners come, you know, offering with I don't know, I'm just going to throw something out here. I'm not saying this is actually

what they would offer. But like, let's say it's Lazz and Sanja, right? The Cups go like, all right, well those two guys don't help us now, but that's just so much value. Why would they, why would they spend all that money on Alex Bregman and then essentially

make their team worse? Like, what are they better with? Just Nico Horner or just Alex Breggen? The Cubs, the Cubs, the Cubs strike me, though, as like an opportunistic team that's just like, we just care about what's the best value in the moment. You know, that's just kind of how they've operate. I know they traded for Caltechie last year, but still like, go ahead. And then didn't resign him. Like, there's this idea that the Cubs operate like they're a big market team, like the Mets and the Dodgers.

They don't. Like, they don't. It's not like they don't spend any money. Obviously, they do. They have one of the higher payrolls. But like the luxury tax thing is a real thing they worry about. whereas like the Dodgers and the Mets, they don't. So the Cubs aren't like that where it's just like,

yeah, give up everything or, you know, sign anybody. We just need the best team we can get. They're very budget conscious, but like, do I think that ultimately they're going to trade

Nico Horner because of the payroll stuff? No, I don't. But I do think that there's just this idea in general like, oh, the Cubs are a big market team, which they are. But they don't act like it. So it's kind of tough to get.

give them credit for that. I think I saw, yeah, if I saw this right, I think I saw they are like right under it right now by a threat, a luxury tax. So I figured they would just run this roster out there. And to be honest, I feel like this current roster for the Cubs is almost a little slept on because look, they're not the Dodgers, but it's a really good roster. No, that's really good. And outside of having a true ace in their rotation, you're, you've got five real starters.

And then you're going to get Justin Steeleback mid year. I just look at that Cubs team. and say like they got a chance to really compete especially yeah but again that that's kind of like my thought and that and this is mostly just like you know this is like the one and one million you know outcome here right but it's like they look at that as we're so deep we can trade neko horner even for a prospect package and we're totally fine sure you know so but yeah i just i i can't imagine that's going to happen because ultimately again last year when they they were trying to compete. They were open to trading him,

but it was for Luis Castillo, right? You know, and then Dana Brown says, hey, Kyle Tucker's available and then that, you know, that went away because they had to trade parades and that deal. But like, you know, it,

to me, like, they're, if they trade Nico, it's going to be for a major leaguer and just the Mariners in general, whether it's, you know, whether they're shooting for the moon, like you guys think, you know, with like a Logan Gilbert or something, like that or it's more like what i was talking about was gab spire and like a prospect either way i just

don't see the mirrors feeling comfortable enough doing that exactly in summary nico horner is not going to be a mariner this year and he exactly i think he's not going anywhere yeah yeah no i think he stays in chicago i'd say one trade one trade where it happens yeah tigers give tarrick scubble like who says that would be fun that'd be fun that'd be fun i'd have a much easier time extend extending nico and they would scoobble. I've still said probably the Tigers. I think the Tigers will probably just keep them. Well, the Tigers,

Tigers plus they got McGonigal coming up. They got Colt Keith. They had, you know, Glaber came back on the QO. Nico's better than all of them. Well, I know he is, but, you know, still. All right. So,

real quick, because, you know, I do want to switch gears and ask you guys some fun stuff. But before we do that, you know, Colby and I have kind of pushed this off because we're more so waiting.

to do like our position previews and stuff like that to get into stuff like this but um cold col emerson obviously like it seems by the day that it's just becoming clearer and clear that he's going to be a big part of the mayor's plans in 2026 obviously this is a little bit different than when we talk about a cole young or or someone like that because this is one of the best prospects in the game like this is a legitimate like could be a rookie of the year contender and Emerson. So how do you guys feel about Emerson going into 2026? I think he should get all the runway he needs to potentially win the job.

And it looks like he'll get it. Even with Brandon Donovan, he's the type of player you maybe not make an exception for because you can't just hand rookies things, but as close to hand someone something as you can, like you're going to give him every opportunity to show how good he is. And he showed that last year. He started slow last year on the Viner's. And then he, because he's a great prospect and he's the ultimate baseball dude, makes some mechanical changes and all of a sudden just explodes in the second half.

You're going to want to give him an opportunity to showcase that at the highest levels he possibly can. And Julio showed it in 2022. Like that's the best prospect comp we have for Cole Emerson. Like you, those guys have a potential to change your season. So even if he's not up right away, I think. that, you know, Colt Emerson is going to be a big part of the Mariners' 2026 story, as long as he stays healthy. It's going to be the number one story all spring training. I think that's pretty safe to say is all eyes are going to be on him all spring. And I'm guessing, TJ, what you

mean by when you say comp to Julio is a prospect, different profiles, but in terms of what their upside could be, it's the closest thing they've had since Julio. Unless you want me to say Jerk Helic, but I don't think people want me to say Jerich. I was going to say, his profile looks more like Kelnick than it does Julio. Julio's a freak. Right. Yeah. Although it's the Kelmick before he started working with Mark McGuire and selling out for power, a K.K. The Kelmick and Double A, I think, who, you know, is kept a strikeout rate down. It was a gap to gap guy. He had power and was a good athlete,

but it was before he really started to sell out, I would say. I think there's also a much cooler head here. Yeah, I was going to say, it's not really the Mark McGuire type. He's more of a, stay at home at a Friday night and watch a movie and go to bed. He is, I was going to say, he is a very, very mature for his years. Obviously, Kelnick had some maturing to do where, like, Colt's very locked in and he's very head down, serious, and just incredibly driven, which is pretty cool. And that's why I think.

So was Kelmick. Oh, no, Kelnick was super driven, but maybe not. It was a hard work issue. It was a mentality issue, which is basically everything I've heard. You guys have talked to Colt, right? Yeah, he's great. Yeah, everything I've heard is that he's just like a 10-year bet. Yeah, it's just like with Jared, though, where you're, you know, kind of what you're saying is like the drive there was coming from a pretty unhealthy place, it seems.

Yeah, it was the overwhelming pressure of need to perform no matter what. It needs to be perfect all the time. It doesn't seem like Colt has that kind of pressure issue. I think Colt is just like super steady. super like focused on the moment and is not really going to let it get to him at least from everything we've seen so far it seems like it's it's a cool calm like maybe almost like cow rally level like focus and drive and just work yeah no i think that's a good comp in terms of like the mentality mindset there's there's some cow rally there but yeah i think it's going to be

fascinating what he does all spring and how they handle it because colt emerson's played 40 games above A ball, which is only a little bit less than what Julio played above A ball before he was called up. But when you have prospects like this who just defy all odds and show that they're just cut from a different cloth than most of the pack, you have to let those guys have runway a lot of the time, which is why I think it'll be really fascinating to see what Colt does all spring. Now, if he doesn't make the roster out of camp,

it's not the end of the world. Maybe he's down until about that Cole Young timeline where they call him up, middle to end of May, and that's still a heck of a lot of runway he'd get with this team and to get a lot of playing time. But yeah, I think this is a guy that you're going to let him have every opportunity to go win this job. And I think they view it as somebody that's hard to bank on a rookie, but you know has the ability to impact the team in a significant way, even at 21 years old. I mean, they put them on that AAA roster at the end of the year when they had no reason to do that.

Right. There was really no reason for them to do that. And to me, that always signaled like they're serious. they think Emerson can be a, you know, impact type of player for them in 2026 because there was no earthly reason to put Colt in AAA for a week, you know, but they did it. And he performed fine. It's only a week. Who cares? But yeah, Emerson's definitely the biggest storyline entering camp in terms of like guys to watch. Obviously, Cal Raleigh is the biggest storyline for the next year, pretty much just by default. But like, Emerson's definitely the guy. to watch. And, you know, I think maybe we might get our, you guys remember when, uh, Kellnick was, was fighting to make the team. They were interviewing Scott on, I think it was on ESPN. And you're like, oh, yeah, you know, players will let you know when they're ready. You just have to trust them.

And then Kelnick, like, hit the home run, like mid sentence. Homer. Yeah. I think we might get a Colt Emerson moment like that at some point during the spring. Uh, but, uh, you know, chair didn't make that team. So it's kind of funny there. But, uh, yeah, Julio certainly did the, the following year. And, and it was the right decision. So. Well, it's very... It might have been out of Jared's control there, unfortunately. Yeah. It's also very important for Colt to at least show you something over the course of this year.

Maybe he doesn't have like an insane breakout year or anything like that, but he has to show you something before the year is over because J.P. Crawford's a free agent. And if I had to guess, he's probably not coming back. So Cole Emerson's going to be your shortstop of the future starting 2027. Like, if he can show you something that you can hang your hat on and feel, comfortable about going into 2020, something that would be massive. I don't think that can be overstated.

And like TJ said, once he made that little mechanical adjustment at the plate, everything took off for him last year. And our guy, Arm Layton's highlighted it, who I know you guys have had on the show, but once he, yeah, and he's great with this stuff. He really dives into it well.

But once Colt changed to the toe tap, that's when all the numbers skyrocketed for him last year. And he just started to accelerate. So, hopefully just stays on a trajectory like that because if he does you can dream on some pretty exciting stuff there's a non-zero chance you get Kyle Seeger pretty early in Colt Emerson's career and there's upside for more so yeah yeah I'm certainly going to be watching Colt a lot I just you know don't love the idea of a world series contender relying on a couple rookies at that third

and second base who really yeah haven't shown their major league quality yet even though I think they will be it's just yeah it's a little nerve-wracking but if you get Donovan, then you don't have to rely as much. Exactly. Right. And for me, like, my bigger issue on that front is Cole Young, Ben Williamson, like that aspect of it. Like, I'm more willing to buy into a Colt Emerson situation because, again, he's one of the best prospects of baseball. I think Colt has a chance to be, like Colby said, I don't think he's going to be some five-win player or anything this year.

But from July 1st to the middle of August, T.J. and I used a sample a decent amount. I think he was a 120 to 125 WRC plus hitter. I mean, over that stretch, he was a top five offensive second baseman in baseball. Now, that doesn't tell the whole picture because obviously then he started to struggle. League adjusted to him a little bit. They essentially sat him all of September. So he'll have things to work on coming into camp,

but I'm sure there's things he's working on this offseason. But you saw at 21 years old what he can be. And I thought those six weeks he had were one pretty telling and two pretty exciting little glimpse into who your second basement of the future can be. now the key for him this year is obviously just sustain that for longer. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, like, I'm still, man. It's just, yeah, no, we literally said on the, we literally said on the podcast,

we're like, he's going to be a really good player. It's just, is he going to be a really good player for a World Series Considerer in 2026? That's the question. For sure. All right. Before we let you guys go, I want to ask you a couple of fun things. We actually talked about this with Mina Kimes when we had her on in May or whenever it was.

And this was before the Seahawks went on to do what the Seahawks have gone on to do. So things have changed a little bit. But I want to ask you guys about the current Seattle Sports Mount Rushmore. So just guys that are currently playing. I think the first three are very obvious. It's Cal. It's Julio. It's JSN.

But who would be that fourth guy for you? Is it another baroner? Is it a Seahawk? Is it a Crackin? Is it a storm player? Like, who would it be? I was kind of thinking Anthony Bradford. I was going to say it's probably not DeMond Williams.

Not anymore. No, no. It might have been not the odd way. Yeah. No, yeah. That's a great question. I mean, is it Leonard Williams? Is it Devin Witherspoon?

Is it even Worry? I feel like my mind goes through a couple of those guys. Like they might be one of the four best, but like the defense has such like a collective identity. It's hard to pick out like one. Yeah. Because they all are good in a different way. It's not like a Legion of Boom had so much personality of being like them.

But the defense as a whole is usually just like one for this group. Kobe actually makes a good point with that. Is it just Mike McDonald? I could actually very, very strongly listen to an argument on that. Sure. Even though he hasn't won anything? Yeah, that's fair. But most of this group hasn't.

except the NFL scores to be fair yeah but you can make a strong argument he's the best coach in the NFL right now it's probably McVeigh but like you know yeah he's at least top three sure I mean I'm with you I'd probably go McVe won McDonald too at this point but yeah there's an argument for him I don't know if I can really put anybody from the crack in on that on that Mount Rushmore so I feel like if it's going to come from anywhere it's probably a Seahawk and yeah because like you guys are talking about can you identify one singular guy of that defense to put on the Mount Rushmore. But is it not Josh Naylor with how much he has just captured this entire city and fan base? In terms of popularity, maybe.

Yeah. Josh Naylor is going to be named one of the 50 best mariners when they do their thing in August, and the guy's going to have been here for three months. I know that's going to drive me nuts, even though it's a stupid, silly thing that really isn't that big of the deal, but it's going to be like, dude's played 54 games here and he won the popular. Okay, fine. Like what number was that Colby? Yeah.

What was that? Oh yeah. What number was that Colby? Yeah. Which, which by the way, yeah. Speaking of that list, we've actually spent some time this off season talking about this. But if we see some of the names that we know we're going to see on this top 50 and people leave Aeron off the list, I mean, I might lose it. I might legitimately leave it.

Yeah, yeah. We started talking about this at some point in the off season and a man. I mean, there are still so many people that are so. so furious with even bringing up the name Arod. I get it. Like I know why I get I understand why people still have some animosity there. But like he was arguably at his peak the best player the franchise ever had. You're going to you're going to say wasn't a top 50 player.

Gary Hill himself would not commit that A. Rod should be in the Mariners Hall of Fame. Dude. And it's just like really Gary? Like that's I it feels a little petty at this point to not give that guy as I'm not saying to retire his number. Yeah, but like, is he any different than any player ever who's left in free agency? It's like, okay.

Kim Griffey Jr. literally quit on you twice. And he's like the most popular player in franchise history. Sure. Yeah. I mean, like, so we can forgive him for that, but we can't forgive A-Rod for taking three times the amount of money the Mariners offered him. Right. So I just, uh, whatever. The whole A-Roddy.

Who do we think is going to be the most ridiculous player on there? We're hoping Fernando Roddy. So that was the other question that I had for you guys. So we filled out our ballot on a show a few weeks ago. I don't know if you guys saw that. But we filled out our ballot. Maybe we should do that while. And we picked one guy that like it feels disrespectful to call them random.

But just not a guy that you would expect to be on that list. We wanted to pick one guy. So we picked Fernando Rodney. We're hashtag riding with Rodney. But like I was wondering if you guys have like a random. weirdo whatever that you want to put on your top 50 list just because Tom Wilhelmson the bartender hell yeah he's really good i don't know if he's he's one of the 50 best players they've ever had but as we'll keep coming back to this is not a franchise with a storied history

and a lot of great players there's going to be some uh there's going to be some names on there honestly i would go with stop having he might be somewhere from like 45 to 50 in terms of of the greatest. I mean, how many of these 0-1 guys that were on the team, but not like the focal point, are you going to find on the list? Like, are you going to find a Mark McLemore on this list? I'm just trying to think through some of these names. Just because again, I think we put Mark McClumar on our list.

Okay. You know, after you get past 25, 26, it's a whole lot of like, right. Yeah, I think I had 26 for Shores. Sure. I mean, I'll even throw one more out there. This is probably even a little crazier than T.Js because Wilhelmson was here a decent while. But if you're talking about relievers, you're going to find somebody like Brandon League on there if you're thinking of random names? I mean, I'll get a couple good years.

Man, he's very happy with that. One of my years is. Another good question, how high did JP rank? Yeah, he definitely is in the top 50, but I don't know. I don't think they're going to rank them, but he was, he was one of my for sure's. I mean, he's a top, he's top, what, 12 all time or top 13 all time in war for the franchise. Yeah. That's crazy.

I mean, I think he's a future Mariners Hall of Famer. That's crazy. I mean, it is like, I'm like a big Hall of Fame guy in general for like the actual Hall of Fame. But for a team Hall of Fame, like, yeah. Let everyone. I mean, Dan Wilson's in the team Hall of Fame. That's what I'm saying.

So, yeah, I don't know. Mike Zanino. Is he a top 50 guy? Mike, yes, probably. He was the best catch for franchise history before, before, uh, yeah, I think we left Z off. Okay. I think we only, I think we only put Cal and Dan on us, the cutters.

Okay. But I would have put, I would have put C on probably. I know we talked about Z and we talked about Valley. The other thing, too, is that it was really hard for us is that like, we don't know anything about 1980s Mariners baseball. You know, like obviously Alvin Davis. We didn't miss much. Yeah, I mean, that's the point.

We talked about this with Gary Hill, how like the 80s are kind of underrepresented in like Mariners history. Aside from Alvin Davis, like nobody wants to talk about that era. And it's like, I don't know, Mark Langston's from that area. He was really good. You know, they had some dudes. So. Yeah.

That's the least one. I mean, if anything, Mariners fan should be in debt to that guy. Not only did he get you, Randy Johnson, but then he, I don't want to say blew it, but the Mariners scored the runs off him in the, in the, like the winner take all 95 games. Luis Soho's Little League Grand Slam under the glove of J.T. Snow.

Luis Soho, yeah, exactly. So. Joe's on the list, too, by the way. See, that's another perfect example of, like how many franchises are you going to be on a top 50 list for somebody like Louise Soho? But for the Mariners, he's probably on it. Like, I would say, yeah, I would say if I was going to pick one really random name,

it'd be somebody like, like Mark McLemore or yeah I mean that's the most niche one I can think of are all the starters from the 01 team gonna be on there like you know Seeley freddie um you can vote for them yeah but right yeah but you don't think all those guys get on there no seeley seeley didn't make it for us okay yeah i think we just put freddie and jamie that like we didn't put we didn't put like gill mesh on there sure you know like yeah joel pinierre is brian woo already a top 50 Mariner? Yeah, the Wu and

Will and Miller were two that we were like, are they, are they there yet? Maybe. I forget, I don't remember which ones. Yeah, I forget which current guys we put on there. We might have put Wu on there. We put Logan, we put, I think we ultimately said you have to put

Luis on there. So I think we ended up with I think Kirby was, yeah, I think we put Kirby on there. Yeah. I can't remember we put Wu on there. I don't think we put Miller, though. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, well, we need to do this for an episode.

I was going to say for as dead as this offseason is right now in terms of transactions, this is a great idea. Shout out to you guys for doing this. This is fun. You guys should pick your own candidate. We'll see if we can get them on the top 50. We're hashtag running with. I think we got about a month before voting closes.

Yeah, February. I'll do Tom Wilhelmson. There you go. Tomlinson. There you go. With your hashtag. Yeah. Yeah, we got ours writing with Rodney.

Love it. Well, guys, real quick, what's coming up on Marine layer? What's coming up on bullpen banner? I assume you guys are going to Fan Fest, right? Yeah, we'll be at Fan Fest. Not sure what day yet will be there. We'll be at spring training if people were down there the final week of February. So if you want to see us, like, that's a great time to do it because we are always around at the complex.

Anything else coming up? You guys got interviews or anything? I'm sure once we get down to Peoria. We'll try to make some stuff happen. But yeah, I would say like TJ said, for the most part, it's just fan fest, getting ready for spring training, keeping up with a lot of the offseason stuff as we roll through the winter here. But like you guys, just waiting for more moves to be made for the season to get rolling. And hopefully another good year, America. Yeah, that would be great.

That would be great. For those watching or listening, you can find the Marine Layer podcast on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast, just like us. their baseball trivia channel bullpen banner is also on youtube plus you can find all their short form content which they are killing it with on instagram tic tok and youtube shorts on both the marine layer podcast and bullpen banter accounts thanks again guys it's a pleasure talking to you thanks for having us always fun all right thank you again to tj and low for hopping on with us and talking some mems not a whole lot going on but still had a lot of fun talking with those guys thank you so much for joining us here on the lockdown marries podcast part of the lockdown podcast network your team

every day. Once again, if you never miss an episode, it's time to make it official. Join the Locked-on every day or club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more, all built for our most loyal fans. For Colby Pat Nod, I'm Tadangazales. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L-O-U-U-Nor-Rerner.

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