Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - BREAKING: Mariners Add Utility Depth, Trade For Samad Taylor

Episode Date: January 30, 2024

Not even 24 hours after adding Jorge Polanco, the Mariners have swung another (smaller) deal for Royals utility man Samad Taylor. Ty and Colby give you their thoughts on the deal, talk about Josh Rojas' role following Polanco's arrival, and more.Ask us questions!Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Factor MealsHead to FactorMeals.com/lockedonmlb50 and use code lockedonmlb50 to get 50% off. eBay MotorsWith all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelScore early this NFL season with FanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook! Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning FIVE DOLLAR MONEYLINE BET! That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – if your team wins! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.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) 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.

Well, just when we thought the Mariners might be done, here comes another trade, not even 24 hours after the Jorge Polanco acquisition. Now, this one is not as noteworthy, but it does bring in a fun player and utility man Samad Taylor from the Royals. We'll tell you about them coming up here on the Lockdown Marrars podcast. Colby, edit. You are Locked on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Oh, hoys sailors. It is Tuesday, January 30th, 2024.

This is Tadang Gonzalez and Colby Pat note for the Lockdown Merr's podcast, brought to you by Fandul. Make every moment more. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets guaranteed when he place a $5 bet. Visit Fandual.com slash locked on. That's L-O-C-D-O-N to get yourself started. Thank you so much for making us your first, listen, subscribe, like internal alerts. If you're watching on YouTube or subscribe and leave a five-star review on your preferred podcast platform, if you like what you hear.

And if you're part of the crew, and rock with us every single. single day, let us know in the comments below. And if you want to hear from us even more, please consider signing up for our Patreon. You can now get a free seven-day trial to check out the show. The link as well as our social accounts is in the description of this episode. So Jerry DePoto was on the radio this morning and made it sound like the mirrors were pretty much done with the way that he was wording things. But then like an hour after he hopped off of there, here comes another trade. Mark Feinsan reported that the Royals were, trying to make room on their 40-man roster for,

funny enough, Adam Frazier, of all people. And they were close to making a minor trade with the Mariners to accomplish that. And so my immediate thought was reliever, right? Because that's what the Mariners do. And the Royals have a ton of relief arms on their 40-man roster. So that seemed like the most likely fit there. But then Colby texted me Samad Taylor. And I was like, well, okay, maybe, maybe.

because Colby has talked a lot about Samad Taylor over the last few months. And lo and behold, it's Samad Taylor. Utility man, he can play some infield, he can play some outfield. He's really fascinating. And the Mariners get him for the cost of a player to be named later or cash considerations. And I would assume most likely cash considerations. So again, Colby, you have talked about Taylor quite a bit. He's been on your radar.

what do you think now that he's a mariner? Well, I always knew it was inevitable because much like Thanos, my information always comes through. That's what happens, sources is like, real sources. Real sources. Yeah, so not all that surprised. Like I said, or like I have said,

I've been hearing about. This might not be the first time we recorded this, Yes. Segment. This exact segment. Yeah. So I've known about the Mariners' interest in Samad Taylor since November. Like, it's been an ongoing thing this winter.

And so, yeah, you know, when you see the tweet that the Mariners and the Royals are about to make a minor deal, you put together that you know that they had interest in Samad Taylor in the past. They have an open 40-man spot. And Taylor still makes a tremendous amount of sense. It's pretty easy to piece together. So, yep. don't let that fool you though I did absolutely call this so yeah you broke the nose plod chaser himself sure sure let's call that yeah um but yeah so taylor fun player like you said he is um some people are seem to be confused by the fit which i don't really understand

since he's almost certainly starting the year in triple a but we'll talk about that a little bit later but just the player that the player that the Mariners are getting is a pretty fun player. And there are some similarities to other guys who have made some pretty serious impacts to the Mariners the last few years. So it'll be interesting to talk about them and kind of dive into why the Mariners are so interested or why they had been so interested in Samad Taylor. So let's talk about Taylor a little bit more, give you some background on him. He was a former 10th round pick of the Cleveland Guardians back in 2016. Not sure how he made his way over to the Blue Jays, but was with the Blue Jays and was traded from the Blue Jays to the Royals in the Whitmererfield deal.

So not only do we have Adam Fraser connections on today's show, but also Whitmerfield connections, just checking all the boxes on today's episode. And he has produced at the minor league level quite a bit, pretty much at every level of the minors he has hit. 141 WRC plus down in AA back in 2021 128 WRC plus

in AAA this past year he only has 69 major league played appearances to his name so far they have not gone well just 49 WRC plus during that span but the big thing here is one the versatility defensively

like I said he can play some second he can play some third he can play all the outfield spots and that's because he's or at least partly because he's got wheels. He's an incredibly athletic dude, 91st percentile in sprint speed this past year. What do you like about Samad Taylor? Taylor is an interesting guy. Like you said, 25 years old. He has two option years left. So he fits nicely down in AAA. Very small sample size in the big leagues. Interestingly enough, you know, in just 69 plate appearances, he still managed to steal eight bags, which speaks

to his speed and his base running prowess. So 51 total stolen bases last year, between the two levels. So this is a guy who can swipe a bag for you. He is a really good athlete. He can play all over the field. He plays a legitimate second base. He can handle left field and he can handle center field if you really need him to. Certainly athletic enough to do that. When you look at, you know, what what he brings to the plate, not a ton of punch, although there is a caveat to that. We'll get to in a minute. And he is a guy who walks. He walks quite a bit. He's had a 10% walk rate or higher. every year since 2018. The swing of miss was an issue earlier in his minorly career.

In 2019, it was at 28% at 2021. It was at 29%. But at AAA, that's been slashed down to 22% and then 20%. So, you know, for a guy like Taylor in his profile, he has to make contact pretty consistently to be valuable. So if he's going to run a 30% strikeout rate like he did this last year in the majors, that could be an issue. And it probably is what's going to stop him from being anywhere close to an everyday player.

But again, he walks a lot. It is elite speed. He is a very good base runner, getting better at stealing bases as he matures. And fun little note here. Well, he did it 301, 418, 468 in AAA last year. That's a 128 WRC plus. But here's kind of the fun, sneaky value play of Samad Taylor, is that he slashed 420, 57, 510, 683 against left-handed pitching in AAA last year.

So 618 slug for a guy who doesn't really have any power. I mean, that's a lot of doubles and triples, but still, that is some legitimate pop against left-handed pitching. So we have a guy who can play multiple positions. He can steal bases. He can, you know, just flat out run. He can fly. And he crushes left-handed pitching.

Why would the Mariners want a player like this? I don't know how the Mariners rostered Sam Hagridi for the last five years. Did the Mariners get really good value out of Jose Cabriero last year? Did they not sign Dylan Moore to a massive, massive, to a massive extension a few years ago? Massive extension. Three years, eight million dollars, massive, yeah. But yeah, so why would the Mariners like Samad Taylor? Because he's Dylan Moore, because he's Sam Haggurty, because he's Jose Caballero.

he's another guy to throw on the mix and you need guys like that if you can add more depth like actual quality depth like that do it and the Mariners at times have not done that and I've talked in the past about like you know get too much it's okay to get

like a little too much and sometimes it just looks like this right where it's not it's not given $8 million to a free agent that you don't really need it's just add some interesting talent to the back end of your roster you don't have to just make you know, the rest of your 40-man roster just complete utter BS, right?

Like, you're going to add some legit talent there, and the mirrors are doing that here. My favorite thing about this trade is that they took advantage of another team's 40-man roster crunch, which they haven't done a lot. They've done that twice this year, though, with Blake Hunt first and now Samad Taylor. And they get a player who, I don't think, should have been the guy that was cut out of every, one out of all the options that the royals had to make room for fraser on their roster i know like taylor might not have had a clear path to the bigs because of of the presence of guys like fraser but still that's a lot of talent to just give up on after 69 played appearances again at the

major league level um yeah so i like the upside here i like the upside play i think the merrives can get something out of out of taylor i think this is a legitimate ad and it's a really fun ad. And so we're going to talk more about how he kind of fits into the whole mix there at the back end of the 26-man roster and potentially in terms of a camp battle with someone like Dellen Moore, Sam Haggurty, Ryan Bliss, etc. in just a moment. But first, reminder, this episode of the Lockdown Airs podcast is brought to you by Factor Meals. We're at the point of the year where New Year's resolutions are often ditched and left to be forgotten. But that doesn't have to be the case anymore with Factor Meals.

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and use the promo code locked on MLB 50 to get 50% off. Once again, that's 50% off at FactorMeals.com slash locked on MLB 50 with the promo code locked on MLB 50. And you're listening to the Lockdown Marrars podcast. Thank you again for making us your first listen after the Samad Taylor trade. And as a reminder, Lockdown has launched the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel on YouTube. Lockdown Sports Today is here for you 24-7 covering the top sports stories of the day with the local experts of Lockdown. Plus our national shows covering every league. Go to Lockdown Sports Today on YouTube and subscribe to the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel, part of the Lockdown podcast network, your team every day.

So before we get back into Samad Taylor and how he kind of fits here in Seattle, I just wanted to mention. So we recorded Mailbag Monday yesterday. And of course, because we were trying to push it off as much as we could because we knew that there was. We knew something was happening. Yeah. Right.

Some of you owe us an apology. Right. Mostly tie. Yeah. Yeah. So we're going to use some of the stuff that we recorded last. last night and I think we're we're going to answer a couple of additional questions from our Google form. If you do have a question that you want to sneak in here at the buzzer,

Google Forum is down in the description of this episode, whether you're watching on YouTube or listening on your preferred podcast platform. So get those in as soon as possible because we are going to record, I think just one segment tomorrow and then just kind of splice it all together. Anyway, Samad Taylor. I've been asked quite a bit on Twitter over the last, you know, 40-ish minutes or so, however long it's been since the Taylor Trade became official. How does he fit, right? Does this mean Dylan Moore is getting traded?

Does this mean Sam Hargarty is done in Seattle? Does this mean they don't really believe in Ryan Bliss, anything like that? The answer is probably no to all of those things. The answer is probably that's a massive overreination to this acquisition. Taylor has two minor league options left you don't have to force it I think that you'll bring them into camp

you'll let them compete with Demo and Haggerty and Bliss for that last roster spot and if he doesn't make it if he doesn't you know force your hand essentially then okay cool start him out in AAA no big deal you don't have to force it with him

So there really isn't any sort of headache here that Taylor creates. So do you feel otherwise, how do you feel Taylor is going to fit here in Seattle? Yeah, he's going to fit nicely in Tacoma unless there's a spring injury. I think based on what we know about the roster right now is unless the Mariners are willing to go to a seven-man bullpen, which they've never been willing to do. but if they do, then maybe there's an extra bench spot open. And that makes some sense because Seattle has a bunch of guys who they have to manage their workload, right? They have Garber, they have Hanager. They have to manage those guys' workload.

And maybe to a certain extent, Jorge Polanco, although they, yesterday, Hollander said they feel really good about his health. So it doesn't seem like they think of him as a injury prone guy. But you do have a couple of guys. So maybe you want that extra pinch spot, at which point this becomes a lot more interesting of a conversation. but assuming they do a 13-13 split like they traditionally do. Dylan Moore is going to be the 26th guy unless they trade him, which they could. This trade could allow them to do that.

But he's going to be the 26 guy. So I don't think Taylor has much of a shot at all, barring some kind of injury to make this club. But that's certainly possible. And like you said, he has two options left. Sam Haggertie has an option left. I think Haggertie's probably still ahead of Taylor in the Mariners' mind, but that could change.

Bliss isn't even on the major isn't even on the 40 man and he doesn't have to be added until after this year. So he really has to force the Mariners hand because they have no incentive to add him really anytime soon. So Bliss has to perform and pretty well if he wants to get a shot. So I think he fits well because like he pushes Bliss down a little bit, makes him a little less important. He also gives you viable options as kind of a platoon outfielder. if that's a direction you want to go. And it's not just, you know, the, the, the, the bliss and, and Haggerty and more guys that he's competing with.

It's also Cade Marlowe and Zach Deloche and Taylor Tremel. So there's a lot of competition for what is honestly, probably the 27th spot. Again, unless the Mariners roll with a seven-man bullpen, which I think, or, or unless they decide that they want to roll with Mitch Garver as the backup catcher for a little while. while until they feel like Blake Hunt is necessary now. That's a pretty big risk. And I don't feel like that's what they're going to do. I think they're going to carry.

That's going to be a no for me, dog. Yeah, I think they're going to carry Savala. Like, I'm pretty confident Sabala is going to make this team. But if they choose not to, that is a way they could open up another bench spot or they can go with a seven man bullpen. And if they do either of those and there is an extra bench spot, then I think Taylor has a shot at that. But my guess, my gut is, is that that extra spot would go to

Marl or Tramel before it would go to Haggardie or Taylor that would just be my guest. I feel like if there is a fifth bench spot that that's going to go to someone that can play all three outfield spots. Samad Taylor can do that. Marlowe can do that. Haggurdy can do that.

If Taylor-Termal can do it, Haggurty can do it. Have we seen the same Haggerty play center field? Yeah, I think a couple times. And we've seen Dylan Moore do it. And Arizona. Let's hope you never have to again. had to see him doing in Arizona. Yeah,

but that's kind of the one thing missing right now from this bench is like, who's the guy who you can give Julio a day off and you feel like, well, at least we're not losing anything defensively or very little defensively,

not on this roster. Yeah. My boy pair are still out there, just saying. Yeah. But yeah, I think, you know,

unless they're, unless they're going with a, a bigger bench than they have in the past, or unless they're going to risk Garver as their back. up catcher for a couple months. I just don't see any way Taylor is going to make this roster, barring,

barring injuries, which is certainly possible, but honestly, it might take a couple injuries. Because, like, if more moves into the role that's vacated, then I think Haggerty's still ahead of,

of Taylor, but maybe not. We'll see how they deploy them, but. And then, of course, he's also going to be kind of in a season long competition with someone like Ryan Bliss for opportunities.

Like, if an injury does crop up, like who do you go to right if you're the mariners do you go with guy that's on your 40 man roster already in taylor or do you add bliss to the 40 man because you think he's ready to contribute um right so so i kind of feel like taylor also simultaneously has to hold ryan bliss off to uh to maintain his opportunities at the major league level as well right i mean again all we've all that's really happened here the last 24 hours is that the mariners have kind of pushed, uh,

Haggurty Bliss, um, not really more, but like Hagridi, Bliss, maybe even Locklear, they've kind of pushed down like the immediacy of, of, you know, when we might need them. Like a lot of people thought that Bliss was going to be needed, you know, in May and he was going to just platoon with Rojas. Like a lot of people thought for most of the year that,

most of this offseason that Bliss was going to make the team and just be the platoon with Rojas now that that's irrelevant. Like Rojas is part of a platoon. that's with urea so and by the way it is worth mentioning just throwing this out there rojas and ureus also both do have an option left and i believe neither of them has reached the five years of service time left to be able to decline that option i think they're both at four so technically if needed ureus or rojas could be sent down uh you know as well and also we shouldn't rule out that possibility that maybe rojas is traded between now and opening day like if maybe they like

what they see from Bliss or Taylor or whatever and Rojas, they can go get a reliever they want or they can go get an outfielder, like the Josh Rojas of outfielders, and maybe they do that. So the Mariners essentially today, they add more versatility and they add more options to how they want to build out the rest of their roster pretty much throughout the entire year. So, yeah, I think Taylor has a very small shot of making the opening day roster,

but I do expect that he will at some point get a call up to, to the Mariners this year. And if not, then essentially what the Mariners have done is they've bought, you know, 2025 Sam Haggurty because Haggurty is going to start making a little bit of money after this year. And he's going to be out of options.

So I actually have a question for you about Rojas, but I'm going to ask you that in just a moment. First, a reminder of this episode of the Locktime Mariners podcast is brought to you by Fandwell. Happy Super Bowl to all who celebrate from Fandul, America's number one sportsbook. If you like me, Super Bowl Sunday is all about scoring.

the best seat on the couch, grabbing your favorite football snacks, and placing some super bets. I'm sure a lot of us Seahawks fans are going to be hate watching the 49ers and cheering on Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, but the only thing I would love more than seeing the 49ers go home crying is winning some cold, hard cash on FanDuel. FanDuel has so many ways for you to end the season with a W or two or three. Not only can you bet on who will win Super Bowl 58, but Fan Duel also has bets for which players will score a touchdown, how many points will be scored, and so much more.

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Yes, but it could also just as easily be Urius. Like they could have two. So like I would assume that Ureus would be their preference to be the everyday third baseman. To get the majority of the playtime at third base. But I don't think they're. going to be bullheaded about it. And if Rojas is just better and I think there's a chance he could be, then I think they just roll with Rojas and Eureas is like both of those guys, assuming they're both on the 26 man on opening day, they're going to get a lot of play time. Like it just, you're going to want to

give Polanco days off. You're going to want to give Eureas a day off. You're going to want to give J.P. a day off. And the inclusion of Eureas and Dillan Moore on this roster gives you two shortstop options to give JP a day off if needed. So, uh, you're going to, uh, you're going to give JPM a day off. Uh, if needed. So, I think, you know, I think Rojas, I don't know if they trust him in the outfit. I wouldn't be shocked if we saw Rojas get some Indians in left field during spring training. He's played some corner outfield, right? He's played a little bit, yeah. So, yeah.

I think that's what they would like. I think in their like perfect world, Rojas gets like 350 plate appearances, playing second, short, and third as needed in a little bit of corner outfield. And Eureas is so good that he kind of commands like 500 plate appearances as the third baseman. I think that's what they want. If Urius can't get it, can't give it to them, then I think they'll pivot to Rojas pretty quick and they'll just essentially swap roles.

Right. Because when I say Marwin Gonzalez, I'm talking about a player that's still basically an everyday player, but he's not tied to a particular position. But you're going to see him in the lineup five times a week still. Yeah, I can see that. Although I don't think Rojas is going to get much to play time. It's short.

I think he's clearly behind Eurias and more, if the Mariners need to give JP a breather. But yeah, no, I think Rojas can fill that role. It's a role he's, you know, was very successful in, in Arizona. Now he played a little bit more than Marwin ever did down in Arizona. But yeah, again, we talked about this a lot with like Luke Rayleigh and a lot with, you know, other guys. Like, if you can pick and choose their matchups a little bit, put them in positions where they're more likely to succeed. Then their numbers in theory do go up.

And even though you get less bulk from that player, you get more impact, more immediate impact from that player. So, yeah, I do think Rojas could be that guy. You know, I think that the Eureas and Moore being able to play shortstop is huge for them because it does, you know, JP shouldn't play 155, 160 games a year. He shouldn't. Like, we know he should. Nobody should. So I think, you know, I think they're going to use Rojas. particularly early.

I'd be shocked if we saw, you know, if we got through the month of April and JP had played every single game, you know, if Polanco had played every single game, if Eureas had played every single game. Like, I'd be pretty shocked by that. If Hanager and, you know, and Garver,

even if they were just pure DHS, I'd be shocked if they played in 80% of the games early on. So I think there's going to be plenty of opportunities for Rojas to get at bats. I think it'll be at three or four different positions. And I think though Mariners are just going to kind of, of mix and match, try and find something that works really well for them in March and April. And then in May we'll start to see them really start to like crystallize, you know, what the plan is and we'll have a good idea of who's going to be in the lineup based on the pitching

matchup on a day-to-day basis. So lastly, we've gotten a bit more clarity, it would seem. It's not confirmed, but it's being reported by the athletic about the money changing hands on the Polanco deal. I initially thought it was only going to be about $500,000 to offset the difference between Descliffeani's contract and Polanco's. I didn't also factor in that Justin Topa was making a little bit of money as well. But the athletic is reporting that it's actually around $8 million going to Minnesota, which would, I would say significantly impact what we thought the Mariners had.

still because it's just it's you know the the money that they have in theory is so finite um so does that change how you think they'll approach the the remainder of the off season and the build up to opening day um do you think it should change um and if not or if you still would like to see them spend some money where would you like to spend that money and when would you like to see them spend that money do you think they should wait a little bit in his spring training and then, you know, maybe an injury crops up or something and then they can address things that way or how do you think they should go about this? Go get the best player you can as soon as you can. And who do you think that is? Who do I think the best player they can get is?

Or should get? Assuming that like there's there's some gray area here in the eight million. A, we don't know if it's exactly eight million. Uh, B, we don't know. We don't know. like exactly what the offset is from the money the giants sent to the Mariners for the Descliffeani trade. And so I've seen people say it's actually like six and a half million of added payroll. In my head, I was thinking, you know, Desclophani is, is, you know, his salary is basically paid for, blah, blah, blah. And him and Topa, the difference between those two and Polanco this year was like three and a half million. So I thought they added four and a half million to their payroll. It's a little bit nebulous.

And a couple million bucks here or there in the grand scheme of things, not that big for Jerry Depoto and what he's working with. It's pretty important. So if we assume they have, let's say if they want to keep some money in reserve for the deadline and we assume that this number is fairly accurate, like let's just say they have $10 million left, that they would feel comfortable spending before they were really right up against it and would have to make additional moves. in order to make moves at the deadline. So let's say they have 10 million left. The best player they could get for $10 million, I mean, they could definitely get Maiton, but it really does sound like they want to stay in-house with their bullpen options.

So I'm thinking could they get like Michael Lorenzen for $10 million and put him into five and put Brian Wu in the minors? So you can kind of control his workload that way. I think that's an interesting idea. Could they go get Tommy Pham or Adam Duvall, kind of a right-handed compliment to the outfield and bring some power, some right-handed power and quality at bats. Could they go get Michael A. Taylor to bring some center field defense, like legitimate center. If I could get Taylor for less than $10 million, that's probably the guy that I would go get.

But I do think that's something. I feel like you can get any of the guys that you just mentioned for less than 10. Yeah, I mean, like maybe there's a buyout, but like Jack Peterson got like nine and a half, but there's a buyout. So it's 12 guaranteed. But because of the buyout, it's only. $9 million for this year, which is, you know, Jerry did this with, Jerry and Justin did this with Garver with the buyout there, is that it's less of a hit this year because there's a buyout down the road. So, yeah, if I got to pick, like, you're not getting Bellinger or Snell

or Montgomery with $10 million, not happening. So assuming they also don't clear any payroll, like they don't trade type France or something like that or whatever. Like, if we're just sticking at 10 million, I think my number one target at this stage would be Michael A. Taylor. But I think Lorenzen's right there. I really think Lorenzen is really interesting because I do like the idea of keeping Wu in the minors and kind of controlling his innings there. So in Lorenzen, I think is probably the best starting pitcher left, not the Snell Montgomery, like that type of guy. So Lorenzen's probably the guy. If they're going pitching, if they want offense, I would prioritize Michael A. Taylor and then maybe Tommy Fam.

But I still, and it doesn't sound like they're interested in doing this at all. But for me, getting like Junis and like Fujimami in that bullpen is something that I would really like to see them do. And, you know, maybe we're getting to the point now where maybe Fujinami just takes a minor league deal. I mean, I doubt it. But maybe Junis probably not. But yeah, I would still like to see them go in the bullpen. It doesn't sound like they want to do that, which is unfortunate. But, you know, we take them at their word, which we should.

I don't know. He made it sound like they were completely done today and then they traded for Samma Taylor. GM speak is a very real thing. But if we take them at their word and they're not adding to the bullpen, they're going to do that from within. I would say that probably Lorenzen would be my next choice. And then after that, Michael A. Taylor, that's how I would kind of prioritize them. Because those guys still make sense. Whitmerfield makes a lot less sense today than he did yesterday. But still could work.

Still can make it work. But I'd say Lorenzen is probably my top target now. Yeah, anyone who has like positional flexibility makes sense. So yeah, still like when Merrifield makes some sense. Tim Anderson not as much, but someone that can play a little

infield and outfield, yeah, definitely. I think my preference at this point would be Michael A. Taylor or Adam Duval or Tommy fan. Just one of the outfielers because I still think that's something that they could use. I don't think I wouldn't go as far as to say they need it,

but I think that's something that could be useful at the back end of their roster. Yeah, I think right now, the best way to say it is that you know, the Mariners don't need anything. Yeah. But if the right player comes around at the right price, they should be opportunistic about it. Which is not a place that they've been in really at all

going into. Last year we last year they needed to add another player. They needed to. And they didn't. Now it's like just here. I mean, it would be cool if they added someone, but yeah, I'm fine with the roster as is. They should be open to it, certainly. But, you know, if they don't, we're not going to say it to be like,

oh, they fell short again. Like, we're like, no, you know, it's, it's complete enough, uh, for opening day, you know, obviously you got to add in the season, uh, but yeah, there's no like drop up. Just what it is. Right. There's no glaring needs like you look at it. Like last year, like, oh, we're going to roll with Tommy Lestella and, Cooper Hummel as the DHS. This year,

no, that doesn't really exist. We feel pretty good about what everybody's role is right now. And we feel pretty good about the player in every slot in the lineup. So, yeah, they're in a good spot. That's going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Marreras podcast. For Colby Patnode, I'm Taday Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L0 underscore Mariners.

You follow me at Ty Dan Gonzalez and Colby at C-Pat-11. You can also find all that stuff in the description. of this episode and thank you again for making us your first listen after the Samad Taylor Trade. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you next time. Peace.