Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - BREAKING: Mariners Re-Sign Jorge Polanco, Will Play Him at Third Base

Episode Date: January 31, 2025

Jorge Polanco has returned to the Mariners on a one-year, $7 million contract worth up to $11.25 million after incentives, pending physical. Ty and Colby react to the news, including Seattle's plan to deploy Polanco at third base in 2025.Check out our Patreon!Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11Follow the show on Bluesky: @lockedonmariners | @tdg | @mlbcolbySupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelSuper Bowl 59 is here, And there’s no better way to make every play more exciting than with FanDuel Sportsbook. New customers can bet just FIVE DOLLARS, and if you win, you’ll score TWO HUNDRED BUCKS in Bonus Bets. Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started.  Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of Super Bowl Fifty-Nine. 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 (T Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Mariners couldn't live with their failure. So where did that bring them? Back to Jorge Polanco. Colby, hit it. You are Locked-on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Oh, Hoy, Sailors.

It is Thursday, January 30th, 2025. This is Tadig Azolus and Colby Patnaud for the Lockdown Marys podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. The Marys have re-signed Jorge, a Polanco to a one-year deal with a possible vesting option based on plate appearances, Chandler Rome and Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic were the first to break the news. Ryan Divish has since confirmed it. And it comes with a twist.

Polanco is going to play third base for the Maris in 2025, something he did not do last year. So, yeah, we're going to get into all of it. But before we do, quick shout out to our title sponsor today. Fan duel. Super Bowl 59 is here. and there's no better way to make every play more exciting than with FanDuel Sportsbook. New customers can bet just $5. And if you win, you'll score $200 and bonus bets.

Download the app or head to fanduel.com to get started. And if you want to hear from me and Colby even more and help support the show, check out our Patreon. All you have to do to check that out is click the link in the description of this episode. So let's go over to kick things off here. Let's go over the contract details that have been reported by Mark FeinSand. Ari Alexander. So Fine Santer is reporting that the deal is going to give Palanco a base salary of $7 million in 2025.

If he triggers that vesting option, there will be a 750K buyout, and the option either turns into a mutual or a player option. There isn't clarity on what it is specifically yet. Ari Alexander is reporting that he can actually make up to $11.25 million, though. in 2025 because there are three and a half million dollars in incentives. We don't know what those incentives are. But we do know that the the vesting option is tied to plate appearances. How many don't know that. We might know that by the time that you're watching this, though.

So obviously, we know the deal with Polanco. I mean, we just watched him play for the last year. The mayor's of course traded for him after three consecutive really good seasons with the twins and he goes on to have one of his worst years of his career. He slashes 2.13, 296, 355, 92 WRC plus 16 homers, 45 RBI, saw his strikeout rate kick up about 4% to 29.2%. Posted a 9.8% walk rate and was good for just 0.3F war. He, of course, was dealing with a hamstring injury throughout most of the year, than a petalotendin injury that we didn't find out about until after the year was over. He has since had surgery to repair that.

And the last time that I checked or the last that I had heard, his agent said that he would be cleared for baseball activities this month. So I'm going to assume that that has happened. And that the Mariners, hopefully at least, feel good about where. his health is. Now, the steel is pending a physical still. So it's possible we might not hear official word from the Mariners until tomorrow or maybe on the weekend. We'll see. So obviously, the mayor has declined Polanco's club option at the start of this winter. But after hitting brick wall, after brick wall, after brick wall, trying to land major league

infielder to the Mariners circle back here. on Polanco. What do you think, Colby? Yeah, there's a lot of interesting, you know, factors here and a lot of, you know, different avenues to which to kind of talk about what's next and, you know, why this much, why blah, blah, blah, blah. But at the end of the day, it is at least nice to know, like, what the Mariners plan is at third base, whether you like the plan or not. I like it more than Dylan Moore being your everyday third base. I'll say that much, although more right now is still slated to be your everyday second basement. So we'll see. But yeah, it's an interesting deal.

We had talked about way back at the beginning of the winter, we talked about, you know, no, you shouldn't bring Polanco back on the $12 million guaranteed. But, you know, if you got late into the winter and you could get a deal that he's happy with, that probably has a lot of incentives in it, then maybe you can consider bringing them back for a less. And at the time, we didn't know that they only had, you know, 15 to 20 million dollars. We didn't know that, you know, all this garbage was going to pop up again, although we pretty much, we kind of knew, but it wasn't official, you know. So it is kind of interesting to see an idea that we had like back in November or October even kind of come full circle here as we get near February.

So yeah, it's an interesting day for the Mariners. And it's an interesting reaction that we're seeing for Mariners. I don't think any of the, it's pretty split. There's a lot of, you know, a lot of the casuals are like, oh, Polo's back. That's fun. And a lot of the more diehards happy with the move. And you can understand why. And I don't think it has anything to do with Polo himself.

I think it just has to do with what it kind of represents. That's a little bit unfair to Jorge. because as far as we know, Palanco, good dude, we know he's a good hitter or he has been throughout his career. He wasn't last year. He struggled with you. So the reaction is pretty interesting. But, you know, overall at the end of the day, I think the Mariners are better right now, assuming he passes this physical, which, by the way, pretty important, but he probably is going to pass.

So you would assume. But I think they're better today. I like the idea of Palanco at third base more than I like Dylan Moore at third base. at third base and Ryan Bliss at second base. So at the very least, I'm willing to be like, hey, look, it's a better shot. Now, we'll wait and see what guy like Yon Moncada gets and all that, blah, blah, blah, before we decided this is the best they can do. Whatever, who knows.

But the day, it's interesting. The reaction to it is interesting. And it really does kind of come down to how you want to, maybe not cherry how you want to interpret Jorge Polanco's 2024 season because that probably determines how much you are either excited or upset by this move because there's a lot of different ways

you can dig into this. Yeah, I would say that I'm not excited nor upset. I'm just sufficiently wellmed. Sure. There's quite a bit of upside here though because again, we're talking about a former All-Star who was anywhere from 15 to 25% above league average the three years prior to come into Seattle.

And then you look at the struggles that he had in Seattle. I mean, one, it's his first time being in a different organization since he was like 16 years old. And two, he's playing through significant lower body injuries. Like the hamstring was one thing. But then finding out that he was dealing with a Pettelitin an injury as well, which can be very, very, very serious. that at least to a slight degree changed my view of Polanco's 2024. Certainly he gained more respect for him as like just a dude, right? Like going out there and playing every day through that.

For sure, for sure. So what he can bring to the table in 2025 to me is just up in the air because we just don't know where he is health-wise. And we don't know if some of the struggles that we saw last year were also just natural regression. They weren't just due to the injuries, right? Because we had seen, you know, over the last couple of years or over his last couple of years in Minnesota, you know, the K rate start to creep up, you know, went from 18.3% to 21.3 in 2020. And then from 21.3 in 2020 to 25.7 in 2020, we saw the WRC plus kind of take a slight hit. And he was a one and a half win player and a 1.7 win player in

2022 and 23 and also dealt with injuries in each of those years. So you do worry about the body potentially just starting to break down. And you got to worry a little bit about just where he is in terms of, you know, his offseason prep. Is he playing catch up? Is he going to continue to have to play catch up as we get into spring training into the regular season? There's just a lot of question marks surrounding Polanco.

But if he is healthy, maybe you actually get to. to see the Jorge Polanco you thought you were going you were acquiring last year and so again that's why I say that there is some upside here and there is a reason to be excited by it but yeah I would just say that I personally again because of all the question marks I just kind of find myself somewhere in the middle right now that I'm just kind of wellmed by it I would say this at least that I kind of joked about this with you before we started recording it's better than Brendan Rogers or yoha and caught it to me. It's better than taking one of those shots. And by the way, we understand that that's not a high bar to clear. We get it. Ha, ha. Your jokes are hilarious. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Understanding. But we're not going to talk about, we're not going to not talk about the move that the Mariners just made and how it can help, you know, the 2025 club while also acknowledging the risk like we just did. So we're talking about Polanco and what he can bring to the ball club and how we think he transitions to third base. But yeah, there is obviously an acknowledgment. that needs to be made that like there was no way that this is planned a b c whatever for the mirrors no shot don't let him try to spin it on you maybe they thought polanco might be a nice guy to bring back uh at this point of the off season but they didn't plan on making him their everyday third baseman three months ago so uh yeah just you know again you can be

whelmed by the by the deal i can't imagine being like super upset by it but you're just like we get it we totally get it we're right there with you but also Also, there is legitimate upside here. Yeah, for sure. All right. So let's dive into the fit a bit more of the whole third base situation in just a moment. But first, a reminder of this episode of the lockdown errors podcast is brought to you by Fanduel. All right, folks, Super Bowl 59 is here.

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Bet just $5. And if you win, you'll score 200 bucks in bonus bets. That's Fandual.com. Bet with Fandual, official partner of Super Bowl 59. And you're listening to the Lockdown Mariner's podcast. We are talking about the Jorge Polanco signing. And with the news of the signing came the news that the Mariners are planning to play Polanco at third base this year.

Something that he did not do over the course of 2024 in his first year with mariner's something that we thought would be possible for him to do but they didn't explore it but yeah everyone's confirmed it now at this point Ryan Divish has confirmed it Shannon Dreyer's confirmed it

Mark Feinsons confirmed it Kim Rosenthal's confirmed it anyone who's anyone that has been talking about this move has confirmed Waria Polanco is playing third base for the Seattle Maris in 2025 so what do you think

I mean, like, it's not our first choice, right? Not the second. No, but to me, like, if you were, like, on board with the Yon Mankata idea, this is it. Like, it's the same thing. Switch hitter, you know, power from the left side, mostly probably a better hitter from the right side. Like, it's a very similar idea. So, yeah, it's interesting.

Now, can Polanco play a good third base? We know third base is an important position, defensive. We know that. We also can acknowledge that it's easier than second base, not significantly, but it is easier than second base. And I think particularly for a guy like Polanco, who's coming off of a bunch of lower leg injuries, you know, not having to cover as much ground as you do as a second basement, I think could help. There are a lot of Perry Hill truthers out there. I guess we'll see.

Didn't really help him much last year at second, did it? But I guess we could just blame the knee for that. So defensively, we'll see where he's at. I imagine there will probably be quite a few times where he is removed from the game in the eighth, ninth inning for a better glove. But it is interesting to see how that goes defensively. I think it's a better fit for him than second base. So I think he'll be good enough. You're certainly downgrading from Josh Rojas defensively, but there really is, I mean, no way you weren't downgrading from Josh Rojas defensively this offseason.

anyways. So I do think you're upgrading offensively at third base. I mean, as bad as Polo was last year, as inconsistent as he was, he's still 15% better than Josh Rojas. So yeah, defensively, I don't know. We'll see how the knee looks and all that. Offensively, I do feel like he is an upgrade over what the Marin said at third base for most of last year. But, you know, am I sure he's going to be really good? No, I'm not. But I do like the track record there and and I do like that he is now getting a second shot at Team Mobile Park as in he has you know like he he understands the batters eye now and he's adjusted and hopefully he's used to it and hey you know what maybe Edgar Martinez figured something out

there in the second you know when he took over who knows so yeah I do think that I think he's probably going to be a little bit below average defensively at third base and I think I would feel pretty comfortable coming off at the injury saying he probably starts off a little slow but I think he's going to end up being league average bat at least so overall I think it's fine it's interesting right like after having a down year in his first experience of T-Mobile park he chose to come back now obviously I don't think there were a lot of options out there for him but that's something that we typically don't see. And on the flip side, we don't see the Mariners after bringing in a veteran who then experiences a down year playing half of their games at T-Mobile Park. We don't see them bring those guys

back. And obviously, again, the circumstances are the circumstances, but still, it's at least interesting to note. And Chandler Rome Astros B. Reporter for the Athletic wrote, Polanco chose a reunion with the Mariners over strong overtures from the Houston and Astros who planned to play him primarily a second base while moving Jose Altuva to left field. Yeah. Moving Altuva to left field in favor of Horei Polanco is certainly a choice. But, uh, yeah, it's fascinating, but yeah, it is interesting that, you know, you had an

opportunity to go to a much better hitters park. Yeah. And, you know, perform there and play there and play second base, the position he prefers. Uh, and he chose instead to stay in Seattle now. obviously we don't know what Houston offered. We know about what they offered him, you know, a month ago, give or take. But, you know, it could just simply be Seattle just paid him so much more that he took it. But again, this is a, this is a pillow contract.

It's what they call pillow contract. Polanco wants to get back on the market next year, having come off a really good year. And typically, those guys won't pick Seattle. So that is an interesting angle here. But, you know, again, until we know for sure what the Astros were offering. you know if they were really offering four then yeah it makes sense that polonka would would choose seattle but uh you know the offers were relatively close i do think that's interesting um and it is again you know i do wonder like hey second crack at team mobile park you kind of understand

the batter's eye now and how you have to adjust to all that uh we know that he can certainly hit plenty of homers at team mobile park particularly left handed uh so yeah it's it's interesting to say the least. And, you know, I don't know if that makes Mariners fans feel any better that the Astros were apparently the second, you know, contender for Polanco. But that's a team you've been chasing for a while. And they thought Polanco could be better. You know, maybe you did too.

You know, we always hear like, oh, players leave Seattle and then they get good again. You know, and the, the, the Mariners are a year or two early on giving up on guys. And so far it seems like they're going to go for a round two of Mitch Garver and now they're going for a round two with Jorge Polanco. I guess we'll see if it works out this time. And maybe there is something to a player getting another crack at adjusting to playing at T-Mobile Park and all that. So, yeah, I mean, Polanco is going to be an interesting case study as well as Garber. Yeah, is there something to be said for the adjustment year at T-Mobile Park followed by, you know, a bounceback as they adjust. You know, and like you said, the mayors really haven't gotten that shot because you kind of look at the guys who have struggled in year one.

They haven't gotten the second year. So, yeah, that'll be interesting to track. And, you know, kind of the guy who did have a really good year, you know, Gino, he cated it down here the second year. So it's interesting to see how they, you know, how they perform. But it is, again, to me at least interesting that Polanco had an opportunity to go play his preferred position in a significantly more favorable ballpark. Yeah. He chose Seattle instead. Like I don't, I don't know what it says, but it says something.

And I'm interested to know what led Jorge to make that decision. And it could just be money. Like, again, it could just be the money. Well, yeah. Again, I mean, there's an opportunity. here and maybe the the incentives are just so far out of reach that he'll never get there but there is the opportunity here as reported to get 11.25 million dollars the offer we heard that he got from the astros was one year four million dollars now maybe were there also incentives involved in that we don't know and you know did they potentially offer something better than that as the talks went along and as they probably heard the mariners were also involved and maybe someone else was involved we heard the we don't know we don't know we don't a little bit. Yeah.

Yeah, the Yankees. Yeah. Just real fast, by the way. If Polanco gets to a point where he hits all those incentives, you're going to be very happy paying him $11 million. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So don't worry about the incentives. They're not really a thing.

You're listening to the Lockdown Merritt's podcast. We're talking about the Jorge Polanco signing. So what next? The $7 million eats pretty significantly into what we believe to be the of the front office's budget, which was about $12 million after signing Donovan Solano or anywhere from 11 to 12. I'm not sure if the high end of what Polanco's contract could be is factored into that. Because if so, and they're factoring in all $11 million and payroll's done with what we know about it.

Right now, Dillamore is your second baseman. or Ryan Bliss is and Dylan Moore is your super utility again. Either way, you like for that to not be the case. You have a platoon at first base of Luke Rayleigh and Donovan Solano on paper.

Yeah. What do you think? Do you think this team has another move in them in the infield? In the infield? I don't know. Or just in general. I mean, we talked about the outfielder's the other day.

I do think that, there is a bullpen move to be made here. You know, I don't think that necessarily has to cost more than the league minimum. We talked about a few guys today on CTZ that the mayors could go target. Yeah, I think they'll be opportunistic. Like, I still think they might be interested in Brennan Rogers and we'll see what kind of deal he can get. Polanco got a pretty good deal despite, you know, being this late into the, into the offseason. but Polanco has also been a significantly better player than Brennan Rogers in his career.

So if you can land a Rogers for like $2 million, sure. Yeah, do it. You know, if you're Jose Iglesias, this is probably a really good day for you because you're probably going to get $7,8 million bucks, which you might have been asking for anyway, so who knows. But yeah, I think they still have the room, you know, as I think right now they probably have about $4 to $5 million. They could just choose to sit on that, which they probably will. and save it for the deadline, quote unquote.

But yeah, I think they're still, I think they're probably still looking at Brennan Rogers. I still think that they would probably be, you know, I still think they're open to a Luis Castillo trade. I doubt that's going to happen. But there is also the possibility that maybe they do find a deal to unload one of these contracts and they can go get what for it? I don't know.

Like it seems impossible to think that they're going to clear enough money for Pete Alonzo to consider you. But yeah, I think they do have one more move left in them. I have no idea what it's going to be. I would guess trade would be my guess. But, you know, so far, free agency has been the preferred route by the Mariners. So I do think they have one more deal on them. I should say like one more like acquisition deal.

If they could sell, you know, any of handigers money, they might do that as well. But yeah, I do think they're going to make one more ad. to the infield. But I do think it's probably more Brendan Rogers than it is like Brandon Lau. But again, we'll see.

I'm still on the outfield bandwagon. Same. It was even reported today that the Reds and the White Sox have had talks about Luis Robert. We even heard a name thrown out there. Edwin Royal former Mariners prospect. So we have at least some idea of what that might cost. the Mariners could make that happen.

And I think they should explore making that happen. Because they can still make it work. They can still make it work like we talked about yesterday. We also heard that they, the White Sox, might be willing to include some money. They're willing to include money if it's not just a salary done for them.

Might they take on Mitch Hanager for a better prospect package? Maybe. So could you trade the Luis Robert or could you trade, you know, Ty Locklear and Mitch Hanigur for Luis Robert. Maybe. And should you? Yes.

Absolutely. Because if you can come out of this off season with everything that's happened with Luis Robert, Mori Polako and Donovan Solano, it's not amazing. It's not terrible either. It's certainly a higher upside than you had. Yeah.

And so, you know, it's a lot still hinges on Robles as well. But Robles, Julio, Cal, Randy, Rayleigh, Polanco, Solano probably at this stage. Like, it's not great, but you don't need a great offense. But if you add a Luis Robert, somebody with that upside to the middle of that offense,

you push, you know, Randy down to five. You push, you know, Rayleigh to six, Solano's seven, Polanco's eight, JPs nine. Like, it's, hey now, like, you might be cooking there. So, you know, we'll see. I still think they should be opportunistic. I still think that they should be aggressive in the trade market. But I think that their aggression is going to come down to if they can move Mitch Hanager and how much money they can save if they're able to, in fact, move Mitch Hanigar.

And the only like the only like reason I think they might be able to or this is definitely cope. is that, you know, Ryan Dibish did say like, no, I don't think both the Mitches are going to be on the opening day roster. So probably just means Hanigers getting DFAed, but who knows? Maybe, I mean, at this stage, if you could save even like three or four million dollars on Mitch Hanneger, you absolutely should do it because that might be the difference between you getting Jose Iglesias and rolling with like Ryan Bliss on your bench in your part-time second baseman. So they should be pretty aggressive in trying to trade some of Hanager's contract. and there are a couple teams out there where I think you can pull that off, but we'll see if they can or not.

Oh, we'll see what happens, but at the very least, the Maris have done something. Ori Polanco is back, pending physical. Let us know what you think about the deal down below. That's going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Locktime Marrars podcast for Colby Patnode. I'm Tiding Azzalus.

Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L.O. underscore Marrers. You can follow me at Tiding, Colby at C-Pel 11. That's C-Pat-1-1. We're also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB Colby, and the show at Locked-on Marrors.

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