Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Are the Mariners Waiting For Alex Bregman to Pick His New Team?

Episode Date: January 15, 2025

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Have the Mariners actually been waiting for Roki Sasaki or someone else? We'll answer to that and more coming up here on the Locked on Marrars 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 Wednesday, January 15th, 20, 25. This is Tanya Gonzalez and Colby Patnode for the Lockdown Marriss Podcasts.

Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. We weren't able to get into our mailbag on Monday, so we're going to do that today. But before we get into your Mariners questions, quick shout out to our title sponsor today, Game Time. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use the promo code Locked-on MLB, that's L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N-M-LB for $20 off your first purchase. And if you want to hear from me and Colby even more and help support the show. Check out our Patreon. All you have to do to check that out is click the link in the description of this episode. Some quick news and notes on the Mariners.

It is January 15th after all, which means the start of the new international signing period. The Mariners have officially inked their two biggest international prospects, your hair, Batista, and Kendri Martinez, both of those guys ranking in the top 20 of pipelines, top international prospects of the signing period. I believe Batista comes in at number six, Martinez at number nine. So that is officially done. The Mariners have also made a couple of small trades. They've sent cash for both of these players over the last couple of days. Utility man Miles Master of Bony. Get your head out of the gutters, folks, from the Chicago Cubs.

And catcher Blake Hunt, who was with the Mariners last year, got traded to the Orioles for Mike Bauman, was originally acquired from the Tampa Bay raise last off season. and Colby, he was pretty good in his 24 games with the Rainier's last year. 293, 3772, 533. That's 123 WRC plus at the plate. And then he goes to Baltimore and in their AAA affiliate, slashes 179-219-278 for a WRC plus, Colby, of 24.

Yikes. So what you're saying is the Mariners are, better at developing hitters than the Baltimore Orioles. Clearly. Clearly. That's right there. That's right. Yeah. So the Mariners kind of continuing this trend of shuffling the back end of their 40 man. Although I do think that Hunt has a decent chance of actually helping the Mariners in

2025 in a more than, you know, fill in type of role. Like you mentioned, it was very good for Seattle last year. He's, uh, you know, been a pretty good, consistent minor league performer on top of that. And the Mariners right now, they technically have one catcher, or they did have one catcher on their 40 man. Garver is going to be the backup catcher unless he gets hurt during the spring. Garber is going to be the backup, but right now they have one actual catcher on the 26-man roster. And so obviously you need some depth in the minors.

And, you know, no disrespect to Nick Raposo, who's, no longer in the org, no disrespect to the sheriff, Jacob Nottingham. But you want somebody who, you know, has some upside, has a, you might be able to find something, you know, valuable out of this player. And you, A, don't want to rush Harry Ford to the big leagues. And B, you don't want to then sit Harry Ford on the bench six days a week. Like, that doesn't do anything for you. Yeah.

So Hunt is, is, is, has a chance to, you know, play a role here in Seattle. Specifically, you know, and I say it's a pretty good chance because there's like three really obvious avenues that Hunt would be on the 26 man and actually have to play and help you. And, you know, if you guys have forgotten, our comp for Blake Hunt has been Tom Murphy, who just, you know, smashes lefties, you know, pretty average, fringe average defender. And he just mostly use them against lefties and he's really good against them. And, you know, he plays twice a week instead of cow playing six to seven times a week. he plays four to five times a week.

So I think there's a possibility that Hunt can help you there, particularly because if Garver gets hurt, Hunt is the next guy up. You're going to hunt over Ford and all the other guys. If Garver is really bad like it was last year, the Marers might just DFA him in the middle of the year and you need a catcher. Blake Hunt would be the guy.

And he at least has a shot to be an average major league backup catcher for you. But on the flip side, what if Mitch Garber is really, good like he wasn't 2023 and all of a sudden you probably don't want to risk that guy catching that often like we talked about last year when we thought maybe garber was going to be good. And so he becomes a full-time DH. We need a catcher. Blake Hunt becomes backup catcher.

He allows you to move Garver back into his full-time DH role if Garber earns that. So there's quite a few avenues to get Hunt on the 26 man at some point this year and have him playing a critical role as a backup catcher. You know, we'll see. He might not even survive the winter on the 40 man. there's still a lot of shuffling left to do. But of all the guys that the Mariners have added to the 40 man, the Danor,

the Jay, Mastroboni, um, and Hunt's like, Hunt is the one that pretty clearly has the easiest path to be like an actual impactful mariner, uh, in 2025,

but we'll see. Now Hunt wasn't the only catcher that was recently DFAed and moved today. Blake Sable was the other one from the Giants. He got trained. to the Red Sox for cash today. Would you have preferred Sable over Hunt? Yeah. Yeah.

Sable is a guy who's actually produced some at the big league level. And Hunt hasn't. So has Hunt even appeared in the big leagues yet? I don't think so. No. So yeah, Sable's actually done a little bit at the big league level. He's a lefty. He actually played a little bit of outfield even.

So, yeah, I would have preferred Sable. but Hunt, you know, probably a little bit of a better fit because Cal isn't going to sit against righties unless, you know, he absolutely has to. So Hunt would be a better hitter against lefties and the organization is already familiar with him. They know him and all that. They probably have a pretty good idea of how to get him back on track and all that. So, yeah, I think he caught a lot of these pitchers last year in spring training, blah, blah, blah, blah. So, yeah. I get it, but I would have preferred to stable, yeah.

All right, so let's get into these questions. We're going to start with Nate, who wants to know. Jerry is waiting more on Bregman than he is Roki Sasaki. Alex Bregman to the Cubs might put Nico Horner back in play. Red Sox might be more motivated and attristen casa steel if Breggman goes to Boston. Or maybe Detroit. Does anyone become available if Alex goes there? Love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks. I've been talking about this for the last couple of weeks, really. Like, to what end are the mayor is waiting on Rokey Sasaki? for, right? Unless they're getting him, which now we know for sure, absolutely 100%, they're not. So what would they be waiting on him for, right? Does him going to the Dodgers or the Padres or the Blue Jays or even some of the teams that got eliminated like the Cubs, etc, actually have, is that actually going to have a major impact on like Luis Castillo's market in the way that, you know, fans have theorized, at least I've seen on social media? I have a hard time wrapping my head around that or I had a hard time wrapping my head around that. But with Alex Breggman, I think there are multiple ways, as Nate pointed out here, that this could directly impact the Marrars wherever he goes.

Because like, all right, he goes to New York, right? Maybe they move Mark Viantos to first or, you know, they still sign Pete Alonzo after that. And then they are willing to trade Mark Viantos or he goes to the Cubs. Now that makes them more willing to potentially trade. Nico Horner. You know, he goes to Boston. They're going to move Rafael Devers to first. At least you think so.

And then, you know, Tristan Kossis is probably more available. Detroit, you would think that that would make Matt Veerling available or Jace Young, right? So there are a lot of different avenues that Breggman could go down that could impact the mirrors directly. I would think at least. So, yeah, if you were asking me, like, if the mirrors are waiting on one player or they have been waiting on one player's market to fully develop. I would say that Alex Bregman is more likely that guy than Roki Sasaki ever was.

Yeah, I'd also throw Nolan Aeronado into the mix there as well. It's been, you know, heavily rumor that the Cardinals are kind of desperate to trade this guy and they already did once, but obviously he rejected the trade with his no trade clause. Cardinals live, who has been fairly reliable this offseason, and their reporting suggested that there's going to be an aeronado move as soon as today. So that would seemingly eliminate one of the teams in on Bregman. You would think unless Aironto is just going completely somewhere we're not expecting. But yeah, so we'll see what happens at third base.

But yeah, the third base market is what's holding things up right now because the Mariners still need a third baseman. and there's so few to go around that, you know, the Mariners are waiting and they're going to see where Bregman goes and they might pop a player or two loose simply because, you know, ironically, the teams that, you know, have a third basement, a pretty good one are still the teams that are looking at Bregman. The Cubs have Shaw, they still want Bregman.

You know, Beirling is fine. The tigers want Bregman. You know, obviously Vantos is good and probably first baseman, but whatever. You could fake it at third. for a while. They want Bregman. So yeah, it's pretty interesting, but I do think Bregman is the guy who's more so holding up the things on the Mariners end than anywhere else or anybody else. And I do wonder, like maybe it's not even specifically for the Tigers, maybe Bregman not only, you know,

makes Veerling available, but if the tigers land Veerling, are they, or are they land Bregman, are they content or are they going to push to really, you know, push their rebuild even further? and are they going to be more interested in Luis Castillo? Can they afford that monetarily? I think they can. So, yeah, maybe it's they get Bregman and then all of a sudden, Veerling becomes a part of a Luis Castillo trade that we're not talking about. So like it might even directly influence the Mariners in some regard.

But yeah, I do think that the third base market is what's holding it up right now. And I feel like either Aeronado or Bregman need to need to be moved or need to pick their new team. And at that point, I think it opens, it has the potential. at least to open up new avenues for the Mariners to get something done. I mean, is there a place that you would be rooting for Bregman to go to? Probably Chicago, right? Because they love Nico Horner so much. Yeah.

I think that's probably. Now the problem there is that Horner is second base only, particularly since he's coming off of his shoulder injury. So like Donovan Solano, full-time third baseman. Or he's playing first. Right. but then you still need a third basement at that point. Or maybe you just roll with Dylan because second base is more settled.

So, yeah, probably Chicago just because there seems to be the most smoke there. I mean, like Boston, maybe, but again, I don't know how you get Casas without giving up one of your arms and the mayors are not going to do that very clearly. They're not going to do that. Detroit is interesting, though. Beerling is an interesting get. They also have guys like Carrie Carpenter and Parker Meadows, who we know the mayors have liked in the past. so maybe there's a bigger deal there. But I would say, yeah, Chicago is probably the best case scenario for Seattle.

But it sounds like Chicago is just now kind of entering the mix, whereas Detroit and Boston have really laid down the groundwork. So they've got some catching up to do. All right. So we're going to answer more of your questions here in just a moment. But first, a reminder, this episode of the Locktime Maris podcast is brought to you once again by game time. So I used to live in New Mexico. And down in New Mexico, there are zero. pro sports teams and a lot of bands and artists that I listen to skip going there more often than

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off. Download game time today. What time is it? GameTime. And you're listening to the Locked-O-Maronist podcast. We're opening up the mailbag here on a rare mailbag Wednesday. Byron wants to know who is a better fit between Yoham and Cata and Jose Iglesias. it seems inevitable we sign one and then make our bigger move at the deadline

to me it's a glacius yeah i agree better defender coming off of a better year i mean he's not three years removed from his last good season brings a veteran presence uh he can play short stop he can play second he could play third i'd rather take that shot then hey maybe yoa man kata can stay healthy and maybe he can hit like he did in 2021 yeah plus you could also just do both like you don't have to pick and choose. They both can fit on the roster. He's a second baseman and a third baseman.

Yeah. But yeah, I would prefer Iglesias. Now, Glacius didn't play in 2023 and he only played 85 games in 2024. But hey, Yon Moncada basically didn't play all of last year either. And like you said, he hasn't been fully healthy and good since 2021. So, yeah, I mean, all the thing is being equal. And I think the money is going to be roughly the same would be my guess. I'd rather have a glacius.

All right, Aaron wants to know recently MLB.com pulled MLB execs on which org they think has the best farm system. The M's only received 2% of the vote. It appears other teams might not be very high on our system. Could this be a reason? We haven't seen many of our prospects moved in trades. I think this is a completely wrong interpretation of the poll that was put out there because the poll specifically asked who has the best farm system in baseball. yeah, the Mariners don't. So the fact that they got 2% is actually speaks pretty highly because it's 2% more than I think, you know, 20, like one other organizations got.

So that's still a top 10 system. And 2% think that, you know, the mariner system is the best. That speaks very highly of their top, you know, of their top guys because we know the system is a little thin after 15 to 20. somewhere. It gets pretty thin, pretty fast. So, yeah, no, I don't think that this is the major league baseball doesn't like the Marron's prospects. I think they actually do, considering that they were one of the 10 best farm systems of baseball still, again, despite really not having much after 15. And no, I don't think this is impacting the trades. I think that the reason, you know,

the Marys have been able to trade their prospects right now is because nobody's looking for prospects. Like, there's been very few prospects. That's the meta of the market. Right. And so, yeah, I don't think there's anything negative about this poll. I don't think the Mariners have the best farm system in baseball. I think they're probably somewhere in the 5 to 10 range. Now, again, that doesn't mean it's a bad farm system.

That doesn't mean there's not reason to be excited. That doesn't mean there's not valuable pieces in there. It means the opposite. You know, by the way, this farm system's added Batista now. They're going to add more. They have the number three pick coming up in July. For now, they have the 35th, 36. pick like so yeah the farm system is going to be very good uh and it's they've been proven that they can

build that thing pretty quick uh over and over again anyways but no it's not like the whole like only two percent said we have the best farm system not two percent said we we have good prospects right like no you have good prospects but like you said it's just the market right now isn't valuing prospects the way you need them to and that poll tells you that the mariners still major league baseball executives is look around and be like the Mariners farm system is really good. That's what that tells you. You're listening to the Lockdown Merrers podcast. It is a rare mailbag Wednesday.

We got this question from the Heat Miser who wants to know. How do the Mariners bridge the gap between their two seeming windows of contention? First one being the current one with dominant controlled pitching staff, Cal and Julio. And the next one with the young crop featuring Colt Emerson, Cole Young, Las Montas, etc. This is something that Jeff Passon has talked about as well. I assume maybe that's why you're asking this. I mean, simply put, you've got to spend money to keep that core intact to carry it over to the next era.

Because even if, let's say some of these guys come up by 2026, okay, well, you're entering the final year of club control for Logan Gilbert and Cal Raleigh. You're in the second to last year of George Kirby's club control. there's no off the roster by then and you know there's no guarantee at that point like cold everson is going to be good lads montes is going to be good i mean there's no guarantee that that ever happens but specifically you know when it comes to what is likely going to be their first year in major league baseball there's absolutely no guarantee that like they're part of the window right in 2026 so it might not be until 27 28 even 29

that you actually find yourself in that window that you're talking about. So how do you bridge the gap? Yeah, you spend the money. You extend this current era into the next one. Yes. And you also give them incentive to want to sign here by spending money on the roster to bring in, you know,

essentially hired guns to come in and bridge that gap for you. So, you know, this idea that like, oh, we shouldn't sign a second baseman because, you know, Cole Young should be ready this year is,

you know, BS, to put it nicely, because we don't know if Cole Young is going to be up this year. And even if he is, we don't know if he's going to be any good for a couple years or ever. We're guessing, right? So what's, oh, no, we have too many good second basement is not a problem. It's never been a problem. We have too many good players has never been a problem in the history of baseball. If that happens, you trade some of those good players for other players who can extend the window.

Like, this isn't rocket science. Like, there's no such thing as having too much talent. there's really no such thing as blocking a player because if the player that's being blocked is good enough, they will be the starter. They will get the job and they will trade the other person or they will trade that player to get something. It's absurd to think that like, oh, we have to keep third base open for 2026 because Colt Emerson might be that guy. Like that's absurd. That's loser talk.

So how do you extend the window? Well, you extend this window by extending players but also spending money. on the outside or on the outside of the core essentially to win as much as possible, therefore incentivizing the team that you have on the field right now to stick around. And so, yeah, it's again, it's really not rocket science. You spend money. Very simple. You spend money.

Now, are the Mariners going to do that? History says no. So, yeah, there's a possibility that you end up with a couple of stepback years right in the middle of Julio's prime. The Mariners will probably try to extend that window by trading a Logan Gilbert or a George Kirby with a couple of years of club control left. Try and do it like the Tampa Bay Rays model essentially. But the best model or the best way to do it is to just extend your core like the Atlanta Braves. So that's absolutely the best model. But I do think the Mariners are going to try unfortunately to adopt a Tampa Bay Rays model.

And there's a reason that really only the Rays have been successful using that model with any. regularity. I guess Cleveland you could throw in that mix, but Cleveland's had a couple of down years as well before this year, really popping. So yeah, it does feel like, you know, the easy answer is money. What do I think they're going to try to do? I think they're going to try to beat the Tampa Bay raise. And that has traditionally been a recipe for disaster for any of the imitators trying to copy that. All right. Last question. This is all you, Colby. Jake wants to know, what current Marys player does Colby think would do the best on Big Brother? Yeah, Big Brother. big fan of Big Brother, if you guys didn't know, though not really the most recent seasons.

If there's ever a locked on Big Brother, you give me a call, though. I will do that show religiously. I will do it year round because I'll just watch old seasons of Big Brother and talk about them on the podcast. Sure. So in Big Brother, you need a social game. You need to, you know, get a lot of people to like you. It helps to be kind of a competitor, kind of a physical, you know, win some competitions and stuff like that. So I'm looking for a guy who's well liked Can win multitude of competitions like endurance comps and And you know, power comps and mental comps. So looking for a smart guy who's well liked in the clubhouse

Or because that would probably allow them to make friends in the Big Brother house. So I'm thinking J.P. Crawford. Okay. I thought you were going to Julio here. No. I think Julio is such a imposing like physical beast. that like people would look at him as a threat and try to get him out early.

Whereas if he is kind of, you know, string bean and like, oh, and laid back and just kind of chill. I feel like he kind of coast and then when he really needed to win a competition, he could do it.

So I feel like J.P. is probably the answer here. Like, you don't want to be too big of a threat is the problem. Although what Julio would have going for him is the showmances. He could probably get in a powerful alliance with a couple of the girls. So, yeah.

But I'll go JP. I think, you know, vibes well with a lot of different people. Sure. You can kind of lay back, be the cool guy, just kind of not make an enemy of anybody. And then just when he really needs to win competitions, he can turn it on and be the good athlete and get stuff done. Also, pretty smart guy as well. So I think that guy probably that probably does it. I would say the worst player.

Yeah, I was going to ask. Yeah, I assume. I think George. Hancock, obviously. Yeah. Just added to the list of things. Emerson Hancock sucks that. But I'd actually say George Kirby would probably be the worst epic brother.

He just feels like you would rub people the wrong way pretty early and like almost like arrogant with like his, his, you know. Oh boy. I feel like there's a thing called H-O-Hitis, which is basically like you win a competition and it goes to your head and you think like you're running the entire show. Yeah. I can see Kirby falling for that and people would be like, dude, screw you. We don't want to deal. H-O-H, head of house. Okay.

Yeah, head of household. Yeah. See, I can see George being pretty bad. Julio is tough because either he would coast to the end or he'd be one of the first guys out. It depends on how big of a threat people viewed him as. But yeah, I think JP would do pretty well. So on that note, that's going to do it for us. Thank you so much for joining us here on the lockdown Marriss podcast for Colby Pat Nodod.

I'm Tadang-Gazilis. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L0 underscore Marrars. You can follow me at Tideon-Gonzalez. Colby at C-Pad 11, that's C-PAT-1. We're also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB, Colby, at the show at Locked-on Mariners. You can also see that under our faces now.

Have yourself a beautiful baseball day, and we'll see you next time. Peace.