Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - BREAKING: Mariners Land Luke Raley, Deal José Caballero to Rays

Episode Date: January 6, 2024

The Mariners have acquired outfielder/first baseman Luke Raley from the Rays for infielder José Caballero. Ty and Colby break down the trade and discuss what's next for the M's.Click to submit your Mariners Mailbag Monday questions!Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!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.

All right, so we talked about the Hanager deal. Now it's time to talk about the other shoe that dropped today. The Mariners and Rays finally made a trade, but it's not the one we were expecting. Luke Raleigh to Seattle, Jose Caballero, to Tampa Bay. Colby, hit it. You are Locked on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day.

All right, folks, if you are in the chat, if you're in the comments below, once again, say it with me. Chills. DePoto did it again. O'hoi, sailors. It is Friday, January 5th, 2024 once again. This is Tiding Azales and Colby Paddode for the Lockdown Marys podcast brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account,

and use promo code Lockdown. That's L-C-D-O-N for $20 off your first purchase. Thank you so much for making us your first listen after the Luke Rayleigh trade. Subscribe, like, and turn on 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 day, let us know in the comments below.

We'd love to hear from you. And if you want to hear from us even more, please consider sending 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 the Mariners have acquired outfielder Luke Rayleigh from the Tampa Bay Rays for infielder Jose Caballero. And if you want our thoughts on the Mitch Hanager trade, we've already posted an episode breaking all that down. So check that out after you're done watching this if you haven't already. Rayleigh played his first full season in the Biggs this past year at the age of 28. And he was pretty

dang good. He slashed 249-33-490 with 19 home runs and 49 RBI. He also stole 14 bases. His 130 WRC plus ranked 14th amongst all American league hitters with at least 400 played appearances. Rough second half of the season for him, though, just an 81 WRC plus over his final 111 played appearances of the year. But he's a much needed left-handed bat that provides some pop and, as I mentioned earlier,

some quality base running. So he can also play a little bit of first base, so there's that added element as well. Colby, what do you think about this deal? I would classify it as another woodshed trade for Jerry to Potto and company. I would also say that as if it wasn't obvious before, the Mariners won the Mike Leak trade. So there's that.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, Rayleigh's interesting. There seems to be some disconnect about what type of player he is on social media, at least that I've seen. I've seen some people talk about how he's. the middle of the order bat we needed and like he's the guy and it's like no I wouldn't classify him as that I've seen other people talk about how he's just a bench guy now he's like Taylor Tremel and no like I wish Taylor Tremel had a season half as productive as the one really gave you that would be amazing uh or even Marlow for that matter who had a good year but that was over the course of really like two weeks whereas Rayleigh is more over the span of not necessarily the full season because like I you know I mentioned the second half numbers for him they're not good

But the first half, I mean, he was insane. I think he posted like a 180 WRC plus over the first half of the season. So, yeah. Right. So, you know, Rayleigh is a, he's a very tooled up guy. He, you know, plus speed, you know, he's a very good base runner. He can also steal bags. He just, he's fast.

He's a fast guy, which is interesting. He doesn't look like you'd be a fast guy, but he is. He can also manage all three outfield spots just fine. I would say he's probably fringe average in a corner. You know, he can. can handle center field for a game if you need him to with Julio needs a day off you can put Rayleigh out there and he won't absolutely kill you. So that's a valuable skill to have. And he's actually a pretty good first baseman. All this is small sample because again, he hasn't had a full season in the big leagues as of yet. So there's also the plus raw power. It's it's real good power to all fields. But obviously if you're a left-handed hitter in Seattle, the pole power is what counts here. And Rayleigh has that in spades. So you get a guy who can, run the bases, a guy who can play at least average defense at

three positions, can even manage a fourth, who has plus power to really all fields, but specifically to the pole side, and a guy who, you know, put up a really productive season in his first regular action. It's not quite a full season, so I don't want to say it's his first full season, but

249, 333, 490. That's legit. That's above average at all three in all three stats. So Rayleigh, good hitter, some flaws. Yes. Is he a platoon guy? Maybe.

But he didn't manage against lefties last year. He didn't get a lot of opportunities to do so. But he was above 100 WRC plus against them. There's a little bit of Kelnick here, just in terms of, you know, a guy who can play in the corner, can fake it in center field, has a strong arm, good athlete. I think Rayleigh's swing is a little whippier. I think the power is a little easier to get to. But there are some strikeouts here, just like there are with, just like they were with Kalnick. But there's just a longer track record of good offensive production than there is even with somebody like Keltonick.

So Rayleigh's a good hitter. He's a good ad. And for what the Mariners were able to get him for, it's an absolute steal. It's a bargain because not only did you get him for, you know, a, area of relative strength for you. You got him for a guy who was probably third or fourth on your depth chart in that position group. So it's a great deal for the Mariners.

There's basically no downside to it whatsoever. Is there a chance that it doesn't work out the way you want it to? Yeah, absolutely. There is with every trade. But is there a chance that this deal comes back to haunt you? And this is like just a devastating trade? No, not really. Almost none.

So it's a great deal for Seattle. A little bit of head scratch for Tampa. I think you kind of understand where they were trying to go with this. But it's all upside for Seattle and very little downside in making this deal. Well, the raise also turned around and they traded Andrew Kitridge to the Cardinals for Ritchie Pulasios, who is basically Luke Raleigh. That's basically the player that he is as well. So they got their Raleigh replacement, essentially. So it makes a bit more sense for Tampa Bay from that perspective.

now that we kind of have more of the full picture there for them. But yeah, a couple other notes on Rayleigh. He's actually not bad against lefties or at least, you know, this year, right? Again, like we're talking about 400 plate appearances. But 107 WRC Plus against lefties, he actually posted a much higher average against lefties, 268 versus 247 against righties. Though he didn't really get exposed to lefties. That is just 43 played appearances.

So do want to mention that. But he was fine. Like he handled himself just fine in the few opportunities that he got against lefty pitchers. So you mentioned the, the Kelnick thing, right? I think that's kind of the big question here with this. In general, like comparing this outfield group,

because it looks like it's pretty much solidified now with Julio, Canzone, Rayleigh, Panager. We'll see, we'll see, we'll see, we'll see, we'll see. There might be another move. Might be another move. But comparing this outfield. group to last year's, right?

Julio, Jared, Teo, what do you think, like, comparing those two, what do you think about this group and what it can do compare to what last year's group was able to do? I think it's at least as good, um, as last year's group. I feel pretty comfortable with that, uh, assessment. It's definitely a better group defensively,

uh, mainly just because you got Teosker out of there. I think Rayleigh and Kellanick is pretty, pretty much a wash in terms of defensive value. And as funny as Canzone looks playing in the outfield at times, he's definitely better than Taya Oscar defensively. And Hanager will see. We'll see what Hanager can do and how healthy he is and all that. But it's hard to imagine that, you know, even, you know,

banged up Mitch Hanigar is any worse than Taya Oscar defensively. So I think that they were able to maintain their athleticism. I don't think they took a big, you know, dip in terms of just raw athleticism either. there might be more probability with last year's outfield because like Tay Oscar was for all of his issues, he was still a league average bat for most of the year. So I think,

you know, just over the course of an entire season, there's more probability with last year's outfield. But I think this year's outfield, there's actually more predictability. Like you feel like these guys are going to produce month in, month out. There's not going to be these huge waves like with Tay Oscar and Jared Kelnick.

We saw at times last year where Kelnick and Tay Oscar, could carry the offense for weeks at a time. And then we saw times where they were actively hurting you with their presence, just being in the lineup. They were hurting you. So I think this outfield right now is going to be a little bit more level. I think it's at least as good. And I think there's more upside in this particular lineup or in this particular outfield

than there was in last year's outfield. And it's a little bit deeper on top of it too. So I feel like the outfield's in a pretty good place. I wouldn't suggest that they're done because, again, Rayleigh can play some first base. And we know that they've talked about trading Thai France. So could they trade Thai France for Kepler and then put Rayleigh at first? And yeah, they could.

And that would be better. But I feel pretty good about this outfield group. I think the least like I think the lowest I would allow somebody to like talk me into is that they're as good as they were last year. Right. And I think they're better. Yeah. Because if you look at Rayleigh as essentially the Kelnick replacement and then look at Kanzon and Hanager as a. you know, a way to replace

Tay Oscar's production. Obviously a lot of questions, right? Major questions about Handerger's health. Major questions about Canzon's ability to be just a major leaguer, just a league average major leaguer. And a lot of questions about Rayleigh in terms of like, was his first half, just kind of a fluke, you know?

But I think there's a very easy path here to see them being better by a bit than last year's group. Because again, you didn't get, the season that you wanted out of Teoscar Hernandez. Jared was hurt for a good portion of the year and obviously slowed down after his incredible month of April. Now, would your outfield be better in 2024 with 24 Jared Kellnick and 2024 to Oscar Hernandez

rather than Dom Kanzone, Mitch Hanager, Luke Rayleigh? Who knows? You know, maybe we'll look back on that and go, hey, you know, if you had just brought Teo back and kept Jared, you would have been in a better spot in 2024. but in terms of just like upgrading from 2023 production to 2024, I think there's a very easy path there for them to get to that point. The other thing too,

I just wanted to quickly note, I know I said Rayleigh had like a 180 WRC plus in the first half. Wasn't that good. He had a 155 though, which is very, very good. I think at one point though, he did have like a 180 WRC plus. Like I vaguely remember looking through the leaderboards at some point in like maybe

May and he had like a 180 and I was like, who the hell is Rayleigh? Right. The important thing is that Rayleigh finished with the ninth highest WRC plus amongst all left-handed hitters in the American League with the 400 played appearance minimum. So for as much as he played, he was a top 10 left-handed hitter last year. Yeah. Yeah. And the Mariners desperately needed some left-handed pop, a left-handed presence in general in their lineup. I know that Justin Hollander and his press release after the trade. said like they view him as a middle of the order bat. I don't know if he's necessarily like that in the traditional sense.

But he helps. He makes this lineup better. Yep. And I'm really stuck about this deal. So we're going to talk more about it in just a moment. But first, a reminder, this episode of the Lockdown Airns podcast is brought to you by GameTime. Buying tickets to your favorite events shouldn't be stressful. Game time is a fast and easy way to buy tickets for all the sports, music, comedy, and theater near you.

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part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team, every day. So we just talked a lot about Luke Rayleigh and his fit in Seattle. Now let's talk about what the Mariners traded away. Jose Cabiero, who was a really fun piece of the 20, 23 Seattle Mariners Ball Club. He kind of came out of nowhere. They called him up back in what May, I believe, and he ended up posting a two-win season by Fangraph Standards. he was an absolute annoyance to opposing pitchers.

He nearly got the Mariners and several brawls. It was awesome. For us as hashtag team brawl, we very much appreciate Jose Caballero and his contributions. Yes, we salute Jose Caballero. But like Rayleigh, towards the second half of the season, Cabiero's offensive production really fell off.

He also had some, let's just call him boneheaded mistakes at times on the base pass. A couple times, sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you know, we'll just say that. But overall, you know, he had a good year. And of course, he was the return in the Mike Leak

trade all the way back with the Diamondbacks. And you didn't really think that you were going to get anything out of him. And you kind of already won the leak trade when Cabbiero came up and he produced for you at really any to any sort of degree. Now you've been able to turn him into Luke

Rayleigh, which is awesome. So yeah, what do you think about trading Cabbiero way? I know you and I were both very surprised that this was all it took you to get Rayleigh coming off of the year that that Rayleigh is. But yeah, what do you think overall about trading Cabbiero? It's a loss in a sense that Cabby was a fun player and he really bailed you out for stretches of last year. but in just a pure baseball sense, it's not really a loss. You probably sold high on a guy who,

for most of the second half last year, was unusable, particularly against right-handed pitching, which is obviously the dominant side that, you know, you want to be usable against. And he, he's been passed up.

Like, the thing with Cabiero is that you look at what he brings to the, to the table for the Mariners. It's pretty much the same thing Dylan Moore brings to the table, except for Demo, has more pop. It's very similar to what Sam Haggurty brings to the table,

except for Haggarty has a little bit more position versatility. So when you kind of look at where things are, you look at Eureas being added. You look at Rojas, obviously coming in. Like when you look at potential middle infielders, backup middle infield types, caviero's probably fourth at best on,

on this depth chart in that regard. And that's not even counting somebody like Cole Young, who's charging up fast and could make his debut, as early as, you know, this fall. So it just felt like Cabiero was an extra player to you. It was nice that he had options. I would have been pretty surprised if he started this year on the Major League roster. And again, there's no guarantee whatsoever that he was going to hit.

He's a useful player. I think he has a career ahead of him as like a 26 man, come off the bench for a pinch run, you know, occasional start here and there. Like there's some Willie Bloomquist to him. but Willie Blumquist was never that good of a player relative to major leaguers. Wasn't Cabrero worth more in 2020? Yes, last year alone. Bloomquist was in his entire career.

Yes. Let me double check. I think by like two full wins actually, but that's who Cabierro is. I think he is a replacement level guy because most of his value comes on his ability to draw walks and steel bases. Yeah. Cabiero was worth 1.2 more F4 than Willie Bloomquist his entire career. There you go. But that's the type of role he is, right? He's not Mark McLemore, right? He's not a guy who's going to play, you know, every day at a different position. He's just kind of there. He's there in case of an emergency. And honestly, you have that in Sam Haggretty already. And when you look at even if you thought, well, maybe Cabrero could have been the starting second baseman. He's not better than Rojas. He's not better than Eureas. He's not even better than Dylan Moore. Like you had three or four cabbies on your roster. And it's possible he's not even better than Ryan Bliss.

Right. Who's I've, who's also coming up fast just like Cole Young. I mean, Bliss will have a chance before Cole Young. I mean, Ryan Bliss may very well be your Jose Cabriero in 2024. Yeah, you absolutely could. You might fill that very similar role to what Caboero did this past year. Yeah. Absolutely. You just, you have, since Cabrero kind of came up and did his thing and where he got a bulk of his value or where he got a bulk of the value he provided you, the Mariners have re-added a healthy Dylan Moore. They've added Josh Rojas. They've added Ryan Bliss. Sam Haggherty was always right there and he got a little bit healthier towards the end of the year. They just kept on pushing Cabiero down the roster and that's why this is a steal for the Mariners. It's not like the, the Ray's got nothing for Luke lately. Obviously with the, you know, the Franco situation there, like they needed more middle infield help.

Sure. Cabriero will probably factor in there at shortstop for them. Sure. I think if he's your plan is your everyday shortstop, you've failed pretty out. Oh, yeah, yeah. Look at what else is out there. who else is out there that you're going to go get. There's not a ton of short stops available.

So I'm not saying, you know, this is a woodshed deal because, you know, Tampa got nothing in this deal. It's just that Jerry was able to extract or Justin or both, whoever, was able to extract, you know, plus value for a player that they just weren't going to use. Like, Cabrero just didn't have a future here in Seattle. So as much as I love him, you know, starting fights with Maldonado, as much as I love him staring down Garrett Cole and getting a $325 million player. to think about one guy who's making the league minimum all night long. I love that. A lot of Lucas Gioito. Yeah.

I love Cabby. He's awesome. I wish him a ton of luck. Just had no value to this Mariners team. Luke really does. So even if this trade doesn't work out exactly how you want it to, it's basically impossible to criticize the front office for getting a player who could greatly impact this team for a guy who was at best going to enter this year as your

third option at second base. Right. Right. Like it's, it's a no brainer. It's a slam dunk. It's a great deal for Seattle. Even if it doesn't work, it's a great, it's a great process. I'm surprised that you're able to get Rayleigh for, for this. I thought there would be more involved.

And again, it's not like Tampa didn't get anything. It's just that this deal is much more beneficial to Seattle than I ever could have imagined. If somebody sent us this trade on fan fiction Friday, it's like a 30. Like, oh, there's no way the race do this. Yeah, I was going to say, I was actually going to bring up a very similar thing. I was going to say like 25, 30, if we got this trade via fan picture Friday.

Because I'm just like, yeah, like you said, like I just could not imagine. Even with how bad Rayleigh was on the second half of the season that you could get him for Cabbiero. I mean, bad. 81 WRC plus is bad. Gabby the second half was like 64 or something. So, but yeah, no, like. I mean, like Luke Rayleigh was basically Domcan zone in the second half of the season. Like, yeah.

I mean, like maybe you'd have to give up like Topa and and or maybe you have to give up like Ryan Bliss even for like Rayleigh. You'd be like, okay. Yeah. No, I can see it. So yeah, this is just, it's a home run for Jerry. I'm going to miss Cabby. Absolutely am. But you have his replacement already and you probably had him on your roster since you acquired Bliss and since Dillmore got fully healthy last year.

So like Cabby served a purpose. Fantastic. Wish him a ton of luck. It's a no brainer trade for Jay. to Poto. Absolutely no hesitation whatsoever. So the mayor has added three major leaguers today, and it costs them $0.00. So let's talk about what's next in just a moment. But first, a reminder, this episode of the Lockdownerror's podcast is brought to you by Fanduel.

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We've talked about Cabeiro. We've talked about Mitch Hanigur and Robbie Ray and Anthony Descartes. Flafani and a whole other episode. Now let's talk about what's next? Because again, the Mariners didn't spend really a single dime today with either of these moves. So as I said in the Hanager episode, if you assume heading into today that the Mariners had roughly 17-ish million dollars to play with still for 2024, they still have that. So Colby now because they've addressed the outfield in a fairly big way. They've addressed the back end of their rotation in terms of like depth with Desclafani.

What do they need still? I think you still need another bat. Like I think just because you've acquired Rayleigh and Hanager doesn't mean that you can't squeeze another outfieler under this roster, particularly if your plan is to trade tie France. So I think that Kepler for Thai France trade still makes a lot of sense. You don't have to do it now, though, because again, I do think that if Seattle rolled into the off into spring training with this as their outfield, I feel okay about it. Wouldn't love it, wouldn't hate it. I feel pretty good about it, though. So, I think at this stage now, you're just looking for the best bat you can acquire unless you want to go to the opposite direction and go get more pitching.

because you do have some, you do have some needs in the back into your bullpen. Let's not forget. You could use another high leverage arm. And Robert Stevenson is still out there. Yeah. If, you know, I mean,

technically so is Josh Hader, but Josh Hader is still out there. Yeah. Not going to happen. But, you know, maybe Willie Adomis all of a sudden makes some sense. And you just go get third base and you go knock third base off your list and you go get Adomis.

And now you have even more depth at second base. And you can have a true competition there. Maybe you go get Reese Hoskins and then you just trade tie France for what you can get for him and and you just add Reese Hoskins to first base. And that, that's how you do that. Maybe you go get a like a bench bat. Somebody who's legitimately come off the bench, play multiple spots. Like somebody who's better than Dylan Moore. I mean, I don't know who that would be. There's not a lot of infield depth. I can pretty safely say, though, it's not going to be Matt Chapman. So if you're on team Matt Chapman, get out. Like that battle's over. What about Blake Snell, Colby? Probably not. Also, by the way, I don't know if you saw this. The Mariners got $6 million from the Giants, not three. So did they actually add money? They may have.

There's some dispute about, you know, what the difference is in terms of, I think they added, like, real money. Like the luxury tax number, I think stays the same. But as we know, they're nowhere near the luxury tax number. And the Mariners really only care about the money out number this year, unfortunately. So they might have added more payroll flexibility with the moose today. Still unsure about that. So maybe by the time you're listening to this, you guys have figured it out. Well, so I think they needed four to make up the difference between Desmondi, Hanigur, and then Ray.

So essentially, if they did actually add some money and who knows if that money actually gets reused and all that, we got to obviously say that. But like in theory, that can mean instead of $17 million, you now have $20. Yeah, something like that. Yeah. So yeah, they can still afford to do just about they could still afford to do it at Dill and C's trade. Well, the other thing too is they took all that money off the books in 2026 from Ray. There's now $25 million that you were expecting to pay out in 2026. That's just gone.

Yeah. I mean, that's assuming Ray. you know, exercises option, which seems highly likely. Safe bet. Safe bet. Sure. Sure. But could we see a backloaded contract then?

You could. You could. You might also see it's possible. I'd say it's unlikely, but you might see Desclophani get traded. Now, you might have to eat some of his contract, but if you have some excess money that you weren't planning on having, you might be willing to do that. And we saw what like just number four, number five starters are getting right now. There's going to be some interest in somebody like Desclophani. So maybe you include him in a deal.

Maybe maybe the twins really like Desclafani. We know they're after pitching. Maybe you trade them Wu and Desclophani and in France for Kepler and Polanco or whatever, right? I mean, you pick the trade you want. I don't trade Wu for Kepler. But you know what? Like woo for Royce Lewis and whatever, like whatever. Yeah, no, I get where you're saying.

Yeah, yeah. So maybe CIS is an option still. I mean, certainly anybody who was an option before today, I think still is. really don't think you've eliminated anybody. I think what you've eliminated is a desperate need for three spots. You needed to add rotation depth. You've done that. You've needed to add some depth or some link to your lineup, somebody who could crush

right hand. You needed a left-handed bat somewhere in this lineup. You've added that. You needed a fourth outfieler, somebody who you felt pretty good about who in the right role can spell Dom-Can zone or maybe one of the other outfielers or maybe have a little bit Mitch, Mitch Garber insurance at DH.

You've done that. So now I look at what do you have left to do. I think it's pitching. I think you need some bullpen arms. And I think you can get creative. Is the best you can do a first baseman? Fine.

Go do that. Is the best you can do a new right fielder, a new everyday right fielder? Fine. Go do that. Can you get a third baseman? Fine. Like you've opened it up to where you don't need any position,

but you can still upgrade at any position. And you just look for the best bat available. you. And I think that's how you, how you go forward the rest of this, the rest of this winter. Right. I think the only thing that it may have ruled out is Carlos Santana, because if you trade France, then Raleigh is probably your first baseman or you're getting a first baseman. That's not Carlos Santana. Like, it's, you know, someone that's better than France, right? That's obviously better for France. Like, you feel like you need to trade France to, to make room. Basically. Um, I'm still going to, I'm still going to point to that Kepler for France trade. Um, yeah. It makes so much sense. It makes so much sense. Even still. Yeah, because for me, then it's Kepler, Kepler, Julio, are your two everyday outfielders.

And then it's Canzon and Hanager and some kind of time share. And then your first basement is Rayleigh. And really can also play some outfield if you need them to. You've only added about $3 million in payroll if you make that swap. Yeah. So you still have plenty to go out and you can go get maybe Adam Duvall or maybe you go get Jacob Junis and, you know, Robert Stevens. or maybe you go and it's possible you could now afford or you could now afford Blake

Snell without it just completely robbing the rest of your off season because you can just backload it right you can backload it and also like hey I can give Blake Snell 20 million dollars this year because I don't also need to go get a fourth outfielder and you know rotation depth and this because I did that today without spending any money right yeah so it does open things up the process is pretty much flawless for today's moves like like it's hard to find even like nitpicking it's really hard to find how they could have done better today yeah yeah i think the only thing that like you know uh earns any sort of skepticism is just like the health concerns over anager like just like the actual practicality of the players like is israeli's like first half a fluke

is mitch going to be able to stay healthy like stuff like that yeah that's totally earned but in terms of just the process process of these trades um like you fill needs and you potentially open yourself up to even more possibilities now on the market. Yep. It's fascinating. It's just about, just about anything that we thought was off the table. All of a sudden isn't like the Blake's knell thing.

Cody Bellinger. Yeah. I mean, like maybe I doubt it, but you know, and that's what I doubt Ballinger or Snell. Like I don't think they're going to go spend all this money on one player. Right. But all of a sudden, if you did. it's like, okay, well, now we don't have to worry about like, well, now how are we going to go afford our, you know, number six starter?

Like, we already have them. We got them. So I think they spread out this money a little bit. I think maybe you might see one major trade of a guy making some, some money. But they don't have to acquire anything. Like in terms of like, they don't have to, they don't have to pigeonhole themselves into only looking at one specific type of player. I guess the other thing we might need to take into account here is. is if it's 17, if it's $20 million, whatever it is, is that just for the off season? Like, will they have more to spend during the season, more ability to add payroll during the season? Or do they need to save some of this? Sure. And so we'll see how it goes. But I think today, they've added three players who are going to help them more than the two they gave up this year. They cleared, or at the very least, they didn't add any payroll to this year.

this year's number, they cleared future payroll that they probably are going to need going forward. And they may have even added a little bit of payroll to this upcoming year. We'll have to wait and see. They filled holes that they needed to fill and they didn't cost them any money. They've built up a lineup that if you could promise me the health of the Mariners current lineup, it's pretty good. It's pretty good.

It's definitely better than last year's. It's definitely going to be more consistent than last year. years. So definitely better than it was four hours ago. That's right. So yeah. Yeah, it just it's tough for me to get like like me. It's hard for me to find too many negatives like and that's me. Right. So. Uh, it's like does Robbie Ray end up being the more valuable player of the three that got traded in the giant steel? Sure. Very good chance of that. It's possible. Yeah. But yeah. Yeah. It's also possible you got you get nothing from them this year. Yeah. And then. Yeah. But but but but but in terms of like the practicality of freeing up that money and all that stuff and the possibility is that that potentially opens up.

I just I really like the process of what the Mariners were able to accomplish today. So we'll see what else they're able to do. They still have work that needs to be done here. But they've done some heavy lifting today and I feel a lot better about this roster than I did last night, you know, or even this morning. Right. So there are see how they build upon this. there are more paths to a successful offseason now than there were than what even seemed possible 24 hours ago. So hats off to Jerry and Justin for finding creative ways to kind of fix your roster while maintaining your payroll flexibility and some positional flexibility as well.

Like you had told me 24 hours ago we'd be sitting here with three new players who are definitely upgrades over the two we got and we wouldn't have added a single penny on payroll space for this year. and it somehow also allowed us to have more options. Like we can spend the money more creatively now. I would have told you I don't see how they do that. And yet they did it. And so is it perfect? This is what we say, man.

Like Jerry's like we're going to talk about all these possibilities and all these potential targets and all this stuff. And Jerry is still going to find a way to surprise us. I just, I hope one just one year though. Like Stan just gets out of the way and we really get to see Jerry and Justin cook. what does that look like when they actually have just like money like just plenty of money to spend just screw you money they can go out there and do it i guess a little bit of that was 2021 when they signed ray

and they traded for you know dino's contract to get her winker and all that stuff i don't know but i think that's like the closest we've gotten to that at least i mean it'd be nice to see it with julio in his prime yeah it'd be nice to add that element so yeah yeah yeah just uh let the turns out the Mariners baseball office people pretty good at their jobs let them do their jobs stop hindering them from doing their jobs just yeah just let them let them cook let jerry cook let just no let justin cook um yeah they they they hooped today i think that's the best way to put it like they they hooped it was a good day it was a solid job's not finished no no far from it i think of the we're not taking any victory laps yet and all that stuff like they still work to be done still

work to be done i think of the off season finished today like i'd be like okay they're about as good as they were last year. Yeah, I'd be like, me. I think they're probably like 85, 86 one team. Yeah. With the possibility of 90, you know, of everything breaks, right? Right. Variants and all that stuff.

Sure. Right. I would say they're, I would say, they're 54% one team right now. Probably. Yeah, pretty much. Like, I feel like if the season, season started today, I'd be like, okay, they're an 81 to 90 win team.

They're going to fall somewhere in that range. Yep. If they add a couple more pieces and they have the resources to do so now and keep them out. They didn't trade any resources. that they would need to go get these big pieces either. Didn't trade any prospects. The ability to get to a 92 to like a 100 win team, it's still out there.

It's still a narrow gap. It's still a very narrow like margin for air. Tight window to fit through, but it's there. It's at least open now. After today, that's open. Yeah. And that is, that is something that Jerry and Justin deserve a ton of credit for.

Yep. Yep. So on that note, that's going to do it for our show. If you want to hear more of my thoughts, I'm going to be hopping on the sea level podcast. We've been Ranieri in a little bit. So head on over there. If you want to hear more of my thoughts on today's craziness, we got Mailbag Monday coming up on Monday.

The link to submit your questions will be down in the description of this episode on YouTube or on podcast platforms. If you're just listening to us, if you have a question, send it over to us. Sure, there's going to be a lot of questions, given everything that's happened today. All right. So again, thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Marrars podcast for Colby Patnaud. I'm Ty Dane Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L0 underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Tideane Gonzalez and Colby at C-Pat-11. That's C-P-A-T-1-1. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. Thank you again for making us your first. Listen and have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you next time. Peace.