Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Baseball Is Back!

Episode Date: March 11, 2022

Hosts Ty Dane Gonzalez and Colby Patnode discuss the end of the MLB lockout, Jerry Dipoto's comments about how the team hopes to finish the offseason, Kyle Lewis' health status and more!Be sure to follow or subscribe to Locked On Mariners wherever you prefer your podcasts! For questions and other inquiries, email: [e-mail] the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @danegnzlz | @CPat11For more of Ty and Colby, check out their Patreon: patreon.com/controlthezone/Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You are Locked-on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked-on podcast network, your team every day. Welcome to Locked-on Mariners. Today is Friday, March 11th, 2020, and baseball is back. And the Mariners are back. Thank you so much for making us your first listen of the day. I am your host, Taday Gonzalez.

Join, as always by my co-host, Colby Patnode. follow us on Twitter at L-O-U-U-N-S-R-N-R-E. You can follow me at Dane Gonzalez. That's D-A-N-E, G-N-Z-L-Z, and Colby at C-P-P-A-T-1-E. That's C-P-A-T-1-1. Be sure to also check out our Patreon, where we talk about the Mariners even more and also get into some non-baseball talk twice a week.

Yesterday, we live reacted to the news from Jeff Passett that the lockout was coming to an end. It was a lot of fun, so go check that out at patreon. at patreon.com forward slash control his own. And on today's episode of Lockdown, Mariners, we have a big, massive show on tap for you today. We're going to be going over the agreement between Major League Baseball and the Players Association

that officially brought the lockout to an end. And we're also going to be going over everything Jerry DePoto talked about in his media blitz this morning because guess what? Lockout's over. So the Mariners are back to wheeling and dealing with less than a week to go before spring training games are played a lot of interesting stuff that you talked about from which areas the team is looking to improve upon to a potentially huge update on the health of Kyle Lewis. You won't want to miss it.

We're going to be discussing all of that and more over the next 30 or so minutes. And if this is your first time joining us, welcome to the show. If you like what you hear, give us a follow or subscribe wherever you listen to this. We'd greatly appreciate it. So again, the lockout has ended. I keep on saying it because it's just so amazing to say we have baseball back and things are going to happen really fast here. Free agency is underway. And there's a couple of moves that have happened. It's kind of gotten off to a slower than expected start. But things are starting to move and groove and we're expecting a frenzy at some point of signings and trades. It's going to happen. It's just a matter of time, really. But let's go back to

what happened yesterday, Colby. The MLBPA and the Major League Baseball owners finally came to an agreement after 99 days of a lockout. And it was a 26 to 12 vote for the players to approve the acceptance of the deal that the owners proposed yesterday. All eight members of the board voted no, but the rest of the players, they needed 20 votes in general to approve it. They got 26, like I said. So, Colby, tell us some of the bullet points of this deal. What are some good things for the players? How well did the owners do in this as well?

Well, as predicted, the owners did quite well because they've literally rigged the system for that to occur for them. But in terms of what the players got, the players got a $50 million pre-arbitration bonus pool. Payout structure is a little complicated, basically. If you win a major award, you get like a million bucks out of it. if you finish second, if you make all-star teams, like there's a bunch of different payout levels. And then whatever's left over goes to get split amongst the other pre-arb guys who qualify. There's still a little muddy about how exactly that money gets shifted around.

But that's something they got. They got a fairly significant raise in terms of minimum salaries. I believe the number they landed on was 700,000. It might be 7.10. A little bit of discrepancy there. But either way, it's about $150,000 raise. So significant for a lot of guys. They also, the players also get a competitive balance tax that is closer to what they deem acceptable,

albeit still not, you know, reasonably acceptable for anybody who understands macroeconomics. But they did get some stuff here. You know, it was mostly the pre-hour pool and the minimum salary. A lot of focus went to giving the zero to three guys perks, I guess is the right way to say. It's just making it easier to play Major League Baseball financially, right? So yeah, it's a deal that really impacts the vast most. majority, but the guys at the top did have to give quite a bit to get that. And, you know, kudos to most of them, at least, for being willing to do that.

So some other interesting things that came out of this. Extra endings are going back to normal. No more Ghost Runner on second this year. So the other interesting thing here is basically we're playing 162 games in 166. days. There's going to be double headers to make up the two series that were canceled. The other two cities that were apparently canceled the other day have been more or less reinstated. The Mariners are going to open up the season on the road for a four game series, which is going to take place over the course of five days in Minnesota against the twins. And then they will be home on April 15th.

Their home opener will be against the Astros. But yeah, that's going to be pretty interesting. to see how teams navigate with guys, you know, getting ready for the season and health and managing all of that over the course of the season, which is going to be jam-packed full of games, not going to be a ton of off days for guys. Lastly, the other interesting thing that came out of this is that apparently next year, every team is going to play one another. It's going to be pretty much like the NBA where there's going to be at least one series

with every single team around the league. Mariners are going to play every team from the National League for the foreseeable future, along with every team from the American League. And the way that they're going to be doing that is by lessing how many intra-divisional games are going to be played. So you're talking less games against the Astros, less games against the A's, less games against the Angels and less games against the Rangers and more against the rest of the league. So teams that you typically would see once every three years, you're going to see them every

year now, at least once. So that's pretty interesting as well. So some changes here. And I think that kind of drives from the playoff expansion potentially. Now that it's six teams in each league, 12 teams in total, which, of course, increases the Mariners' chances of ending their 20-year playoff drop. There are a lot of fun things for the fans. But I just, the 162 games in 162 days, that bothers me. especially with the short and spring training.

Depth is going to become critically important, particularly at the starting rotation in bullpen. It makes me wonder maybe the Mariners would consider a six-man rotation, although based on DePoto's comments this morning, that sounds like that's not even on the table for discussion. So we'll see. But yeah, the wear and tear of that stretch, like it's already hard enough to play 162 games in 185 days.

and then the doubleheaders are seven or nine innings instead of seven extra innings or you know they don't have the the zombie runner or whatever you call it like it just felt like i don't i don't mind getting rid of those those rule changes but i felt like that was something you should keep in place for this year and then next year when you have a normal schedule and you have the 185 days then you can get rid of the the nine inning you can get rid of the seven any doubleheaders and you can get rid of the Phantom Runner. So I don't know, man. Some of that stuff that, you know, how desperate they are to jam this in

because they don't want to push the World Series back a day or two, I don't really like that. But, yeah, there are a lot of fun things for fans going forward, like the draft lottery if you're into the draft. Sure. There are some good things in this deal. There are some things that didn't go the player's way. and there are some things that I just

Including the dropping of the lawsuit for the health COVID They had to drop that one The grievances against the four teams Who don't spend any money Are still active though So yeah they had to give up The big lawsuit basically

To get all this But you know most of the players Appear happy enough And thankfully we avoid that whole You know the whole new round of litigation Of like well Now that we can only play 140 games.

You're still going to pay us for 162 games, right? No. Oh, and then that's a whole new, you know, whole new ball game. So thankfully we avoid that. That was the thing that I was scared we were heading towards, right? And I was going to delay things even further. I think at that point,

maybe there would be a chance that the season would be in jeopardy. Because just, you know, given how, you know, the league was just unable or unwilling, rather, to move off of certain. stances that they had. It was just them throwing in the the argument of pay and, you know, proration of that and how many games were going to be played and all that. It just seemed like throwing that on top of everything else. And given how those kinds of negotiations went during the COVID season, you know, before we actually had a season, you know, it just kind of felt like

that was going to delay things even further. Cool thing, though, that just got announced by the Mariners, salute to the Negro Leagues night is going to be June 18th to the 19th, where the Mariners are going to be wearing the best uniforms in all of baseball. The Seattle Steelheads jerseys, they're coming back. They're going to be looking great against the Angels on June 18th and the 19th. And it's also cool that they're wearing them two nights.

They only wore them one night, right? Yes, I believe so. Those are amazing, by the way. Also, it appears that. the promotional schedule was just leaked. We'll probably talk more about this on the live stream. We just have so much to get to today. Yeah.

But on June 19th, that's a Sunday game this year. It's also Father's Day. And they're giving away Seattle Steelhead hats to the first 10,000, the first 10,000 guys, 21 years of age or older. So there you go. If you're a dad or you're over the age of 21 and you want to snag a sweet stadium giveaway steelhead cap, head to the Mariners game on June 19th and they play the Angels

so you can tell Joe Madden to suck it of course all right so let's talk about the general manager who since he's left the Angels haven't been able to make the playoffs Jerry DeBoto he's finally back

and he's finally talking about what the Mariners are going to do over the next couple of weeks in this expected free agency and trade blitz we're going to be talking about some of the things He went over this morning and just a moment, but real quick, a reminder, this episode of Lockdown Mariners is brought to you by Bill. This is the time of year that I've pretty much given up on all of my New Year's resolutions, that is. But not this year.

I'm sticking to my resolution to eat right thanks to Billet bar, and it almost feels like it's not really a resolution because I actually enjoy eating them. Now, all Billet bars are covered in 100% real chocolate. They're low calorie, high in protein. So replace your candy bars with these. They are better. A typical candy bar can be anywhere from 2 to 300 calories. So go to built.com and scroll down to the macros chart. You'll be blown away. High protein, low cow, high fiber, low carb. Most built bars contain 130 calories, 4 grams of sugar, four net carbs, and 17 grams of protein. Compare that to a candy bar, which usually has around 240 calories, 30 grams of sugar. of sugar and dozens of net carbs and there's so many amazing flavors they have to offer. Mint brownie, coconut, coconut, almond and new for this month, white chocolate, cookies

and cream. Mmm, just sounds so good. Now, go to built.com. Use promo code Locked 15. That's LOC, KED 1 5 for 15% off your order. Use promo code LOC, KED 1 5 for 15% off your order at built.com. You're listening to Lockdown Mariners. thank you again for making us your first listen of the day, just like you do here every day.

And just a reminder to check out locked on MLB prospects. Host Lindsay Crosby is a prospect encyclopedia. And he's going deep on the MLB stars of tomorrow. It's free and available wherever you get podcasts just like us. So Jerry DePoto appeared on 710. It's no longer called ESPN Seattle. It's actually called 710 Seattle Sports now. He also went on 950 KJR, which is also 933.

KJR. There's a lot of changes going on with radio in Seattle. And then he finally had a press conference on all of the Mariners social media channels meeting with Seattle Speed reporters. Also Rick Riz was in there. Angie Mentech was

in there. Jim Mueller was in there. So everyone. Anyone who's anyone was in there asking questions to Jerry Depoto. And he talked about a lot. He talked about just kind of where they are right now, how the last three weeks have gone with him being down in Peoria, looking at, you know, the prospects that have been down there for minor league

camp and how that's kind of changed how he views this off season. We're probably going to be talking about that a little bit here. But overall, Colby, what stood out to you the most about what Jerry Depoto said today? Probably how much he appears to be buying into Julio Rodriguez as a legitimate center field option. Not going to lie, that terrifies me. not because I don't like Julio and not because I don't think Julio will be very good eventually.

It's just I look at, you know, what they have going on in the outfield right now. And I think I've been pretty consistent about this all winter is that Seattle really only has one outfielder you can count on. And that guy is terrible at like a terrible defender. He's not even really an outfielder. He's a DH pretending to play right field.

And so now it's, you want to put Julio and you want to put Kalnick in the same lineup at the same time and just hope that both of them are good. That's a lot of risk for me to undergo. So just the idea that, you know, hey, Julio was really close and hey, we really like what we saw from our young guys.

Maybe we don't need to go out and add a safety blanket at the back of our rotation. And that to me is scary. I don't think that's the best way to go, particularly when you're trying at least you're you're publicly saying that you're trying to end your your playoff drought which I do believe they are

I'm not saying they're not trying to do that but you know what I mean it's just it's a little bit like that's a lot of eggs to put in a in a basket that's not proven to be sturdy if that makes sense so so while he did talk about that he did talk about not wanting to block

Julio from quote unquote ascending. He did reiterate on multiple occasions that they do want to add offensive depth in the outfield. And it seems like they would prefer adding a left-handed bat in the outfield. So if we're going off of that, that would potentially rule out, say, a Suzuki, who's been long linked to them this offseason. And that would more so put them in the market for someone like Michael Conforto. Obviously, there was a big rumor that said that they were talking to the pirates about Brian Reynolds, uh, Kyle Schwery. is still out there. Kevin Kiermeyer is still a trade option. So was Max Kepler potentially.

There's some other guys like Corey Dickerson, Jock Peterson, Eddie Rosario, Brett Gardner, Alex Dickerson to go over there. Some other needs that he mentioned, or at least areas of focus, left-handed reliever. That's something that he mentioned, a kind of a versatile pitcher as well who might start the year in the rotation, but could go down to the to the bullpen eventually when George Kirby or Matt Brash or Brandon Williamson, whoever it is makes their way up to the big leagues. They still want to add a power bat, and I would think that's a righty. He mentioned, you know, it's hopefully, quote, unquote, infield.

He also mentioned that, you know, there's some guys we've been tethered to out in the rumor mill. And I'm sure he's talking about Trevor Story and Chris Bryant there. So when he's referencing Powerbat infield, that's who he's likely talking about. The other really interesting thing that he mentioned today on top of the pitching stuff was that they're not really looking for a back-end starter. They would rather roll the dice with some of their young guys if that's what has to happen. But right now they have their sights set more on adding a mid to a top-end starter.

He mentioned multiple times someone that's kind of in line with Robbie Ray. obviously we had heard rumors about or you know i was told that they were working on a deal for sunny gray red's pitcher before the lockout happened no clue if that's still going on i heard that that is still a thing but that was really all i was told on that front so i'm not sure if it's close or those negotiations got picked back up or anything but that's kind of in the range that that we're talking here is like sunny gray louise castillo frankie mckel Montes, Chris Bassett, et cetera. If they're not able to get one of those guys,

it seems like they're going to let that fifth starting pitcher in their rotation come down to, you know, guys like George Kirby or Brandon Williamson or Matt Brash, or maybe that versatile pitcher that I mentioned earlier. So how do you feel about that? Because that potentially rules out someone like Tyler Anderson or Michael Panetta or someone like that. I think that's a mistake.

Again, it's not so much that I don't like Matt Brash or George Kirby. It's not that I'm saying that they can't be good right away. It's saying that that to me is a huge red flag. It's a risk, right? Because you're the Mariners. Every win is going to count because the odds of you winning the division are still really slim because Houston is that much better than you. So you look at that and you go, well, okay, what happens if?

George Kirby is bad or Matt Brash is bad or or you know they need more time and then God forbid what happens if you know Chris Flexing gets hurt or Robbie Ray gets hurt you know what are you going to do like having those guys as your sixth starter is already a bit of a risk but having them as you're you're having them as your six and if you can't find the right deal you're to back 05 that's pretty terrifying because then you're looking at guys like Justin Dunn and Justice Sheffield. trying to hold down that spot while you wait for Kirby and Brash to, you know, click. So I think it's an unnecessary risk. I think you can get Tyler Anderson for like a million bucks. So, you know, you did mention maybe they would get some, bringing some guys who are a guy who could transition to the bullpen, you know, when the right time came. But to me, anybody can't transition.

And you and I have talked about guys like that. You know, we've talked about Colin McHugh. We've talked about Ryan Yarbrough, so that's interesting. Right, but like anybody can transition to the bullpen. Going from the starter to a bullpen, not the same thing as going from the bullpen to a starting rotation. So anybody can transition. So I don't know, like, just go get the best guy you can. And then if you have to move somebody and it's, you know, Chris Flexen makes the most sense.

Even if Chris Flexon is pitching well, okay, goodbye. You know what I mean, it's just you have to do what you have to do. And you have to raise your floor as high as you can. because raising the floor also raises your ceiling. And I just, I mean, the good news, like I said, sounds like the Mariners are so very invested in getting impact, which they need. I just wish that they seemed a little bit more excited about adding depth,

especially in a season where you have to try and cram a full season's worth of games into 162 days. Yeah. And to be fair, you know, DiPoto did mention that they are in the market for depth. But it does seem like he feels pretty confident that they have quite a bit of depth already with some of the guys that they have coming up. And so, you know, and he mentioned that, you know, seeing these guys, some of these guys

over the last, you know, three weeks down in minor league camp, because all of his focus has been put on those guys, has kind of changed his approach with maybe at least things on the depth front. So, you know, we'll see what comes of that. But overall, I think in general, the message pretty much remained the same from what it was prior to the lockout. And, you know, he reiterated once again as if, you know, it needed to be reiterated. But for those that were worried that maybe John Stanton and ownership would pull the rug out from under Jerry. again. He reiterated that he has full payroll flexibility.

That's when he mentioned, you know, some of the guys that he's been tethered to, you know, that's his words. So, you know, Trevor Story and Chris Bryant, you know, those guys are going to cost a lot of money. So, you know, he made sure to, to emphasize that they are still in those guys' market, that they are still going to try and go big here. You know what? You know what would have been really nice, though. if John Stanton was there while he was doing his press conference and he confirmed it. You know, and like, look, I get it. Stanton definitely doesn't want to be in the spotlight.

And he doesn't want to answer questions because quite frankly, his tenure as Mariners owner has been tumultuous at best. When you look at Kevin Mather, you look at like the report that like he didn't spend last offseason because Mather told him not to. and hey, what do you know? The Mariners go out and spend, you know, another $8 to $10 million last year. Maybe they break their playoff drought. So, and then obviously, you know, he gets lumped in with the owners, which, you know,

if you think that's fair or not, he is one of the 30 owners. So we all just went through the rigamorrel with them. So it would have been nice to see Stanton there confirming that or any kind of statement from John Stanton would be nice. But it is what it is. And like I said, the good news is that by all accounts, Jerry is, is definitely still fishing in the in the deep pool. I just,

again, I wish he would, I wish he was a little more optimistic, excited about, you know, maybe adding like fourth outfielders and number six starting pitchers, but like, it's not like he was like, oh, no, we're not going to do that. So just, you know, probably just reading it into things a little too much because we've been starred for news for what, three, three months now.

Yeah. So. Jerry, uh, not only talked about, you know, his plan for the off season. And he also gave some updates on the health of Kyle Lewis and others and pretty positive. We're going to be talking about that in just a moment, some other notes. But real quick, a reminder this episode of Lockdown Marinus is brought to you by Bet Online. It's that time of year again as college basketball's tournament is finally upon us.

From all the latest odds, contests and player props, BetOnline.net is the number one source for all your sports betting needs and info. Bet Online remains the best spot for all your sports scores, podcasts, and news this season, and it's not just basketball. Bet Online is your continued source for all your sporting wagering information needs, including live betting and your favorite Vegas casino games. So head to the website today or use your mobile device to learn more about the trends and action. Bet Online, where the game starts. So Colby, we've spent this entire lockout really concerned about the Mariners outfield.

And one of the reasons for that is we haven't really been confident in Kyle Lewis's ability to return and be healthy, right? We know that he was dealing with some knee issues last year that forced him to miss most of the season. And there wasn't really any positive updates coming out of Jerry Depoto over the course of the off season about that. It was more wait and see. well, Jerry Depoto today in his media appearances said that all systems are pretty much go for Kyle Lewis. He says that he looks and of course they haven't seen him in person yet. This is really just off of reports from Lewis's training staff, his personal training staff and some videos that depoto has seen. But he appears ready to go and ready to play is what Jerry Depoto says.

says, and that is huge for the Mariners. That's one less thing you have to add because Lewis, if he's fully healthy, is, I believe, at least a league average bat and at least a league average centerfielder defensively. Does that mean that they wouldn't start Julio over Kyle Lewis? No. I mean, I think they're going to be pretty cautious with that knee. And obviously, playing center field is a much bigger burden than playing left or right field.

But in theory, Lewis should, if he's still okay in center, he still should be pretty good in left or right field, which means you can D.H. McH. McHanager a little bit more. But again, I think they're going to be very cautious. I wouldn't be shocked if Lewis didn't start the year on the big league roster. He does have options left. And just to kind of get him into the flow of things. You know, we talked about guys who were impacted by the lockout, like which players.

Kyle Lewis is one of the big ones. You know, he's right there with Taylor Tremel and Albert Rodriguez. It's a guy who could have really used time down in in Arizona right now. He could have used the last three weeks down in Arizona. So maybe he doesn't start the year with the big club, but if he is fully healthy, then the Mariners have, I think, at worst, a really solid fourth outfielder who can, you know, play all three spots and hit pretty well and hit for some power and still has, you know, all-star upside. So it'd be huge if he is, you know, back to where he was last year physically.

Because I'm still a Kyle Lewis believer. And I just, I feel like if he's not, if he, if the merits were to trade him or, you know, somewhere down the line, Lewis is going to have a big year. Because the talent is just, it's insane. And I think we also, sometimes we forget about how big Kyle Lewis is, like, personality wise and how he plays in that clubhouse. It's huge. It would be absolutely massive.

to kind of have the homegrown offensive player, the one homegrown offensive player that's really worked out for Jerry Depoto right now. You know, Kelnick, I'm not giving up on, obviously, in Julio, I'm not giving up on, he hasn't even made it, but like, you look at, you know, just the, the depoto acquired and developed offensive players,

Lewis is really the only one right now that we can call a success. So it would be nice to have him back. But, yeah, it would be a huge, huge addition. Yeah. massive, I mean, it pretty much fills a huge need for you. And remember what Jerry Depoto said earlier this offseason. We're not really counting on Kyle Lewis right now.

We're just, we look at anything that he can give us as a bonus. And so that's a huge bonus. If he can be ready for opening day, that's massive. That is massive for you. And Depoto, you know, mentioned that they got to wait and see on how, you know, on if he'll be able to play in center field. He mentioned LaField. He also mentioned D.H. for him on multiple occasions, by the way. I mentioned that. Also mentioned Mitch Hanager for D.H. as well. So clearly, Jerry DePoto has been listening to Lockdown Mariners. So he also, you know, he he also talked about Evan White and some other guys and says that it looks like there are going to be no hindrances for anyone coming into the camp.

They got to wait and see until they're right in front of them. But so far reports are that everyone is healthy. Yeah. Yeah. We'll probably get quite a few of those reports on Sunday and Monday would be my guess. Players have to report by Monday, I think it is. So, yeah. Sunday.

Sunday. Okay. So we should have some information on these guys by Monday. And we'll probably get everybody's favorite segment of the year. like who's in the best shape of their life. Who is it going to be this year? I'm voting for Evan White. I think Evan White is going to be in the best shape of his life.

So it was Kyle Lewis. Already in pretty good shape, man. But yeah, sometimes you need to go through that extensive rehab. And it really just transforms your entire body. So yeah, we'll see. Like those two guys are already in pretty good shape. Not an obvious candidate like there has been in the past. Usually it's a veteran.

but yeah that that'll be fun to get that that quote because you know it's coming you know it's common you know it's common Trevor story potentially that shape of his life you know there's been some talks about his arm obviously so yeah i mean i don't know you saw the report from your your good buddy um who you didn't know existed until yesterday uh uh michael balco oh yeah yeah yeah he's he's tweeted that the mergers are reportedly in the market for both a shortstop and starting pitcher and they are expected to land a quote notable name at each position.

Wow. Cool. Cresha and Carlos Correa confirmed. Okay. Well, I mean, you go ahead and dream. So, yeah, no, I have been seeing people dream by the way.

Good for them. We're back. We're back to setting our expectations way too high on on good old Mariners' Twitter, which, you know what? I missed it. it's nice to have uh it's nice to have this back i i rather have this than uh no baseball whatsoever it's been all it's been a lot of fun it's going to be a lot more fun once uh once things

start to get rolling here in the i don't know next few hours days i mean it's got to happen at some point so we will uh we'll see but um all right we've been uh over the last two weeks uh as a part of an initiative for locked on. We've been looking at how, you know, certain aspects of the Mariners roster and organization in general ranks compared to the rest of the ALS. And now, to wrap things up, we are being tasked with just looking at the Mariners as a whole.

Where do they rank in the ALS as things currently stand? So, Colby, I'll defer to you here. honestly the way the rosters are currently I think they're I think they're fourth to be quite honest now I think the gap between number two and number four

is quite small and I think it's a gap that probably will be overcome by the Mariners here in the next week or so so but you just look at you know where the angels are they're a little bit ahead talent-wise

of where the Mariners are. Not that that's ever mattered before. In Oakland, because they still have Olson, they still have Chapman, they still have all their pitchers. I think they're slightly better than the Mariners on paper, but that gap is really small.

Houston is still a runaway for me. If they lose Correa and they're not able to get story done, then obviously the gap gets smaller. But I would still say Seattle's fourth. They kind of lack the star power of Anaheim, and they don't quite have the same pitching or infield talent as Oakland.

They're still better than Texas, even with Texas's big three editions so far. Texas has a ways to go to catch Seattle. So ultimately, I think they'll probably, by opening day, I think they'll be the second best team in the division. But right now I would say they're probably the fourth best roster. Yeah, I would agree. The A's have more star power with Matt Olson.

Right. I think that's kind of where you start there. I think the rotation is a little bit better with Bassett and Mania and Montas, one of which could be joining the Mariners rotation. We'll see. But yeah, I think in general, though, right now just where everything stands, they, like you said, are about fourth. And they're a pretty close fourth, right? Like I think by the end of this, by the time that we get to opening day in less than a month, I think they're going to be second, quite frankly.

Yes, the Angels have the Angels might be the most talented team in the entire division, really, when you look at just the absolute star power that they have on a roster with Otani and Trout and Randon. But they just, they've never been able to perform. Not a ton behind it. Yeah. And so, you know, but and to that point, right, like they just have never been able to, uh, to neither get past the Astros or even really, you know, be in an average, an average baseball team. They, they've really struggled to even be average over the last few years, pretty much since Depoto left. I think they haven't even finished above 500 since that happened. They have not had a winning record since they fired Jerry Depoto.

So. So, and that's, that's a, that's a long time ago. And when you have trout, when you have Otami, when you have Rendon, when you have some of the guys that they have, you know, now they've added, you know, Noah Cindergarde and we'll see how that rotation goes. But yeah, you know, it's, it's Astros number one. That's definitive. Case close. There's no argument there. And that's not going to change no matter really what the Mariners do this off season.

but I think given the history, the track record of the Angels and where the A's are likely heading where they're going to sell at some point because they don't want to spend the money on their guys. The Mariners are going to be number two by opening day. I feel pretty good about making that statement right now. Yeah. And whether that's because they signed Chris Bryant, Trevor Story, or they traded for Brian Reynolds or what have you. Who knows? But I think they're going to get there at the end of the day. So it's going to be a lot of fun.

It's going to be a lot of fun to see, you know, after spending this entire off season locked out and basically talking about the same few items, it's going to be fun to see how it actually comes together, how all of our speculation and discussion, you know, what of it actually came true and what of it did not. Yeah, I'm really excited to see, see what happens. And, hey, maybe by Monday when we reconvene here on lockdown Mariners, we'll have a move. to talk about maybe two maybe three who knows and uh on the week of march 21st so not this upcoming week but the week after we're going back to five shows a week we can officially announce so you'll be getting a lot more of us here on locked on mariners so be sure to stay tuned it's going to be a lot of fun we're going to start doing season previews soon we're going to be doing predictions and getting you set for the 2022 season for the seattle mariners uh it's going to be a lot of fun

we'll probably start doing that once we have more clarity on where the roster is going. But yeah, once that happens, we're going to be going full force on that and getting you set for opening day on April 7th in Minnesota. So that is going to do a first show today. Thank you so much for joining us here on Lockdown Mariners for Colby Patnode. I'm Taday Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L-O- underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Dane Gonzalez. that's D-A-N-Z-L-Z and Colby at C-P-E-P-A-L-Z and Colby at C-P-A-T-1-1.

You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. And thank you again for making us your first listen of the day, just like you do here every day. Now make your second listen to the day, Locked-on MLB, where Paul Francis Sullivan, and please call him Sully brings you his unique perspective on the Major League's President Pass. It's free wherever you get your podcast just like us.

So have yourself a beautiful baseball day and a beautiful baseball weekend. And we will see you on Monday. Peace.