Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - BREAKING: SEATTLE MARINERS FINALLY TRADE FOR BRENDAN DONOVAN

Episode Date: February 3, 2026

It finally happened. The Mariners have acquired Brendan Donovan from the Cardinals. Ty and Colby break it all down, including Donovan's fit positionally and in the lineup, and more.Click to learn more about the Everydayer Club!Join the Ahoy, Sailors Discord server!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!Turbo TaxFor a limited time, you can have your taxes done by a local TurboTax expert for just $150 — all in, if a TurboTax expert didn’t file for you last year. Just file by February 28. Take taxes off your plate and get back to your life.Visit https://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Every Friday night, before the games tip off, FanDuel gives fans a new way to kick off the weekend with NBA Happy Hour. Check the FanDuel app and see what’s dropping during NBA Happy Hour — every Friday from 6 to 7:30 PM Eastern. FanDuel — the Official Sportsbook Partner of the NBA.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) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Months of hypothetically talking about this guy are finally, thankfully, over. Brennan Donovan is a Seattle Mariner. Colby, hit it. You are Locked-on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Wasn't sure if we'd ever get to this point this off-season, but we're here. Oh, hooy, sailors. It is Monday, February 2nd, 2026.

You're listening to the Lockdown Marys podcast. part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Now the number one sports podcast network. My name is Tiding Gazzalas and I'm joined as always by my co-coast, Colby Patnode. We're two lifelong Marist fans who've been covering the team for over half a decade. And today we're talking about a trade and a player. We have talked about four months now. Only now it is finally reality.

The Mariners have officially acquired Brennan Donovan and a three-team deal with the Cardinals and the Rays will break down every angle of the trade, of course, from Donovan's arrival to what it costs and all that good stuff. But before we do, I want to shout out our title sponsor today, Fandual. It's the last call for football on Fandual. And if you're a new customer, bet just $5, get $200 in bonus bets if you win. So the deal, as it's being reported right now, we've been waiting for details for hours at this point. So we can finally record this episode.

You know, Jeff Passen tweeted, the mayors are getting bread in Donovan. and we're like, okay, for what? For like an hour and a half, just refreshing Twitter over and over and over again. And we got little nuggets of, you know, info here and there. And finally, I think we're able to piece it all together. And the deal looks something like this. Brendan Donovan is going to the Mariners.

That's it for the M's. Ben Williamson, surprisingly, is going to the race. And that's it for Tampa, apparently. The Cardinals, they're getting Tarangelo Sanja, as expected. He was a long rumored to be the headliner in the steel. He winds up being the headliner in the steel. Duranel of Stangellus is going to the Cardinals. Tai Pete is going to the Cardinals.

And the Cardinals are also getting Colton Ledbetter and outfield prospect from the Rays and the Rays comp round B selection in this year's draft as well. We had thought for a long time that the Marys were going to have to trade their comp round B pick in this in the steel for Donovan. Turns out there was a cop round B pick that got traded. It's just from Tampa and not Seattle. So it's over, Colby. The chains of Brennan Donovan's speculation have finally been broken.

We are free now. Brennan Donovan is a Seattle Mariner. What's your reaction? Three things. First of all, it's just going to be Colton Wong, so it doesn't matter. Adam Frazier. Yeah. Yeah.

But no, first thing I notice is that we didn't mention the names Kate Anderson or Ryan Sloan or Bryce Miller or Brian. or Las Montes along with Gerangelo Saint. Like, huh, imagine that. It's almost as if, you know, meritoris people kind of know what they're talking about.

It's just, it's weird to me because it doesn't feel like Seattle had to pay for the nine win player that Donovan is off the field. But, uh, yeah. That's still the craziest thing I've read all losses. It's,

I mean, good for the mergers. They get the benefit of the nine wins that he provides off the field without having to pay for. it. That's by the way, if you don't know what we're referencing, consider yourself lucky. Yes, good. Consider yourself. You're on the right side of social media. Yeah. So the first thing is, yeah, way below what Cardinal fans. And honestly, what the Cardinals front office were expecting to get. It's really hard to look at this from a Cardinals perspective and not be like, you know, Bloom, he didn't do terrible here, but he kind of looks like you over. played his hand and he kept on waiting for this offer and eventually just came down to Seattle was the only team that that was left at the end of this thing. And so yeah, that's the first

thing that comes to mind. Second thing that comes to mind is that, you know, Jerry and Justin do not make trades that are risky ever. And apparently they don't have to because this is another all-star quality player in which the Mariners gave up in the grand scheme of things very little. Sange is a good prospect. Tai Pete, you know, great dude, great athlete, not a great baseball player yet. Maybe he will be, but right now he's not. And Ben Williamson, you know, we've talked about Ben. We're not fans of his game offensively, but, you know,

some of you think he's the greatest baseball player that's ever great a sports. He's a quality guy, I think at the end of the day, defense first utility guy, which is what Ty and I have said he's been since they drafted him as a money-saving second rounder, college senior and that's it and they get an all-star out of it and you know i've said you know i'd like the mariners to get aggressive in trades and be a little uncomfortable in trades because they haven't done it in 10 years and i guess they don't have to because again this is just kind of another trade where it's like it's not like they didn't give up anything it's just that the risk for this deal like this cost to acquire this player the risk is incredibly low

even if sanger is a number three type of starter like i think we all think his ceiling is that's what you give up for a guy who is, you know, a all-star, you know, fringe all-star candidate for a couple of years. That's what you give up. So, yeah, at the end of the day, you know, my first thought is that good. This is the price that you should pay for Donovan. And yet somehow the Mariners didn't even have to pay the entire price. Like they got another team to pay probably half the price to acquire this guy for him.

And all it cost you was Ben Williamson, who the Mariners very clearly, if you read him between the lines, very clearly. They did not think Ben Williamson was going to be their opening day third paceman. They were very much going to push Emerson to that guy and really give him every opportunity to win the job. So yeah, the Mariners don't lose anybody off their major league roster. They get to keep their own comp round B pick for now, you know, might be some other moves coming. But yeah, it's one of those things where there's really nothing about this deal to not like. You have your lead off hitter. You have a guy who, you know, can play multiple spots.

multiple spots of need for you. And also a guy who doesn't have to play one of the spots that you're young guys is going to be given an opportunity to get a lot of playing time from. So we talked about Donovan all winter. We knew he was the perfect fit. It just never seemed like really the Cardinals were going to be sane enough to make this happen. And then we heard over the last really 24-ish hours, you know, obviously Jerry's comments at Fan Fest and all that and Buster Only last night.

It just kind of felt like this was building towards like the Cardinals are coming back to the table and things are going to get, you know, pushed one way or another. And here we are. So, I mean, it's a very good deal for Jerry and Justin. It's okay deal, I would say, for, you know, the Cardinals. I think they got roughly what Donovan's worth, which is a top 100-ish prospect fringe. We had been saying it was probably going to be somewhere close to the. the Randy or Rosa Rana deal and that's kind of how it turned out. Now,

we were talking about the soft air before we hit record. I would rather trade Sanger, Pete and Williamson than Brody Hopkins, Aden Smith, and Ty Cummings, which is what they had to trade for, you know, Randy or Roserana,

but, you know, also you got one extra butt at the Apple with Randy. Then you're going to get with Donovan. You only get them for two postseason runs, whereas you got three with with Randy. But, but,

But yeah, I mean, it's pretty close. It's a pretty comparable deal in the end. Yeah, it's somewhere between the Polanco and the Randy trade. Yeah. Which, again, those were the cops. I don't know where the Cardinals were getting this idea that Donovan was worth two top 100 prospects from or three top or a top, you know, 30 prospect and then like a fringe top 100 guy. It's just not what these guys go for. And the Mariners, you know, they stuck to their guns and they were confident throughout this thing that they had the best offer and that they were going to land the guy that they wanted.

And they didn't believe Bloom when he said, we might keep them. We might keep them into spring training. Don't think we won't. And the Mariners just pretty much all along the way continue to call the Cardinals Bluff over and over and over again. And it led to them paying a price that I promise you they're thrilled with. They are not going to lose an ounce of sleep over this trade. and again, it's not because they hate Sanger or Tai Pete or Ben Williamson. It's just this is what they were willing to pay.

This is what they wanted to pay to get this thing done. And they ended up paying it. They took a little bit of a creative route. If I'm not mistaken, this is the first true three-team trade that Jerry DePoto has made. We've talked about this. He's made pseudo three-team deals. Right. You know, where he's like acquired a guy and then flipped him, you know, an hour later to another team.

But there's never been like a traditional. additional three-team deal that the mayors have been involved in since depoto's taken over here. So, yeah, this is a really unique. And this is not, if you told me or like, if you ask me, like, what's the first, you know, three-team deal, you know, Jerry Depoto is going to make as mayor's GM slash president of baseball operations, I wouldn't have guessed in a million years that would have been in this deal because it just felt so straightforward. And really that, the shocking part of this.

this deal is the Ben Williamson slash Tampa Bay raise aspect of it. I legitimately can't believe that they were able to get the raise to chip in a pretty solid prospect and a cop round B pick just for Ben Williamson. Sure. Ledbetter is probably, you know, roughly the outfield equivalent of Williamson. Like he's probably more of a bench guy. But the comp round B pick. Like I honestly don't know what's more impressive that Jerry was

able to get, you know, Donovan for the two prospects he gave up for him, or that he was able to get a comp round B pick from any team for Ben Williamson. Although I will say the fact that the rays have acquired, that the raise are the team that acquired Williamson. Makes me think he's probably going to end up being a three-win player. Yeah, of course. Of course,

our comment section is going to own us once again, because that's just how things go. And, you know, yeah, Ray's devil magic is going to turn Ben Williamson into a 20-homer, gold glove five win player because yeah why not you know my my biggest critique

of this whole offseason with the mariner's has been that they essentially painted themselves into a corner where they had to acquire one of basically two guys right it was horace polanco and it was brendan donovan and then they didn't get polo and it just very clearly became you know just strictly focused on on donovan and you know yesterday when jerry makes the comments

a fan fest about you know we've been trying to you know, make a push on a trade and we think we got this one last moving us. It's like clearly you're talking about Brennan Donovan. Anyone who's been paying attention knows that he was talking about Brennan Donovan. And sure enough. And, you know, I got to give them credit at the very least. You know, they painted themselves on this corner, but like they got it done. They got the guy that they wanted.

So they were able to pull it out. You know, they took a major, major risk here by not really having any other pivots, at least that we know of. And they were able to make it happen. So good on them for doing this. and getting this thing pushed across the finish line. And I feel a hell of a lot better about this off season after they made this move. Just so, so much better.

I'm at a B. I'm at a B to a B plus now. And again, I didn't need an A plus off season. I need them to do this, right? Like, if you're going to let your young guys try to replace one of your middle of the order bats that you lost, fine. You can't ask them to do it twice. and now they don't have to.

And in fact, Donovan is such a good fit because if Young and Emerson do both pop at the same time, which probably not going to happen. But if they do, no problem, we have right field wide open for Donovan, left field, moving on. Oh, no, we've got too much. Yeah. Oh, darn.

A long-stated problem with the Seattle Mariners, particularly this front offices. Oh, man, we have too much talent. We're not quite sure how to get everybody in the lineup that we want to get in the lineup. up. So yeah, it's a very good move. They didn't have to trade anything too terribly, you know, something, nothing they're really going to miss. Sanjay, I guess, had a shot to be in the big leagues this year, but obviously Sloan and Anderson pushed past him in their depth chart. And, you know,

obviously, I mean, heck, Jerry was even talking about Sloan maybe possibly being able to pitch in the big leagues this year. So I think they very much. think that isn't really honestly ahead of, well, not of Anderson or Sloan. They don't think Stange is ahead of either of them in terms of the depth chart and where they're going to be. And, you know, again, to get something good, you have to give something good. Sanj is a good prospect, you know, fringe top 100 type, depending on where you want to look. Some people have them in the 70s. Some people don't have them in the top 100.

But good prospect. And that's, you know, Tai Pete lottery ticket, Williamson. role player. Good prospect lottery ticket role player. You didn't have to go up your comp round B-pick, which seemed like you would almost certainly have to if St. Joe was going to be the prize of the trade, and you didn't even have to do that. So it's a home run for Jerry and Justin. No guarantee it works. You know, hitters come into Team Mobile Park and struggle all the time, but that's the risk you have to take. You have to be willing to take that risk. And Donovan is the exact right type of player to take this risk on. and it's not even that big of a risk.

It's pretty minimal. So, yeah, it's a great deal for Jerry and Justin and the Mariners. And, yeah, they needed to get a little creative with it. And they found a way to get it done one week before pitchers and catchers report. So took it up to the wire this time, but they got it done. And kudos to them for figuring that out. All right. Coming up next, we will focus on the fit for Brendan Donovan.

I mean, we've talked about it for months. you know, as a refresher, we'll go over how Donovan fits into everything, especially now that we have more context of how the roster is going to look and all that. In just a moment. But first, a reminder, this episode of the Locktime Marys podcast is brought to you by Fandul and the Space Steel. It's the last call for football on Fanduel. One final Sunday, one last kickoff, the final chance to get in on the action before the NFL season officially comes to a close.

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your team every day. Thank you so much for making us your first listen for all things. Mariners, and also thank you for making Locked on the number one sports podcast network. You already live your team every day. Now take it up a level and go ad free. Join the Everydayer Club today and get locked on Mariners with no interruptions, members only Discord access and more, all for just $5 a month or $50 a year. Go to Lockdown Mariners.com or check the link in the show notes to learn more. So we had recorded Mailbag Monday already.

I fully edited it. I clicked export and then I get a phone call from one Mr. Colby Patnode and immediately I knew. I only call Ty when a major move has been made And I knew that that episode Was basically going to waste Because a lot of the things that we said on that episode Are irrelevant now

And you will never see that It will never see the light of day We will You might see a couple of course Yeah, we'll use some of the questions And some of our answers probably In tomorrow's episode But we're also going to put out a tweet

On Blue Sky And also if you're on our Discord link in the description below you can join for free we will answer some more post Donovan trade relevant questions on tomorrow's show so if you have a question hit us up on Twitter blue sky or in the discord sure keep in mind that there's only so many Donovan questions we can answer so if you end up with six Donovan questions probably one of them is getting answered so just keep that in mind but yeah yeah hey maybe all also ask us about like some of the things I got announced at fan fest.

I don't know. We got like nothing about that. Ty and I are big fans of the steelhead uni. So yeah. So I don't know if you want to ask us about that. Just saying, just putting that out there. Anyway, yeah, for months we've already, you know, we've talked about Brennan Donovan's fit. Why he's such a good fit here. How it would all work. But we're going to get back into it anyway. We'll refresh you guys on how we think this is all going to come together for Donovan now that he is officially a mariner, which is crazy to say. It's crazy to, you know, know that we're finally done with this.

And we're not talking about Donovan anymore in a hypothetical sense. Adam Jude tweeted, you know, Brendan Donovan played primarily second base in St. Louis, but he's played all over. And the Mariners see him as aifiable third baseman. M's intend to give Cole Young, Colt Emerson chances to make the roster. But, and part of the reason Donovan's versatility was important to them was to, you know,

is to give them some runway, of course. the way that I feel this is ultimately going to play out is Cole Emerson is going to break camp with the team that just became clearer and clearer and clearer over the last few months and it's not just the context clues that we've gotten over the course of the off season it's also the context clues that we got towards the end of the regular season with them putting him up in AAA when they really didn't need to for that playoff run with the rainiers

them adding him to the taxi squad practice squad whatever it was for the playoff run and Seattle. That all seemed to just scream to me that we want Cole Emerson ready to be on the major league roster, either on opening day or pretty close to it. And as this offseason has gone along, I've just felt more confident by the day, really, that Emerson was going to be the guy. And now with Ben Williamson getting traded, I feel even more confident in that. So it's possible that Donovan starts to.

the year as just the primary third baseman and they let emerson get some more time and in tacoma but i think he's going to make the roster and at that point donovan floats right he's an everyday player who doesn't have a real defensive home he's going to play five to six times a week he'll play some second he'll play some third he'll play some left he'll dh a little bit he'll do all that yeah he's got a good enough arm to move you know arm is not an issue for donovan he's not one of those second baseman who's can only plays second so he can float anywhere and make all the throws. Yeah, and then it still depends also, though, like there's a possibility Cole Young also really impresses and he makes the opening day roster and we're looking at Donovan as the opening day right fielder, you know, because right now

that's Rayleigh and Robles with Canzon and Ref Snyder probably being the DH. So yeah, the versatility, it was important to them and you see why because now the avenue does exist for Cole Young and Colt Emerson to make the team, but you don't have to have both of them. And before this trade, it felt like you were counting on both of them to make your opening day roster. And that's not the case anymore. And so again. And now you can pick your spots with them too.

Like if there's a really tough righty that you're going to face, like say Jacob deGroms on the mound, I don't want to expose Cole Emerson to that. Cool. I don't have to know. Sure. I mean, maybe you do. Maybe you don't. But like, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So from that aspect, just in terms of positionally, we talked about this all. winter. This is what made Donovan such a good fit, is that he can play pretty much anywhere except for catcher shortstop in center field. Like, could he fake it at shortstop for a couple of names? Sure. I'm sure he could. But, you know, it's just, you don't want to play in those positions, but he can play anywhere else. And so you can kind of pick and choose on any given night where you want the young guy to play and if you want both of them to play. And so, yeah, positionally speaking,

Donovan was a tremendous fit. And they needed a guy like this. You know, nobody's really talked about the Dylan Moore aspect of it all. We understand he wasn't even here for all of last year. But again, the Mariners needed a guy who could play the corner outfield and play all over the infield on this roster. It just so happens that the guy they got to kind of fill that role a little bit is an everyday player, not a pure role player like a Dylan Moore type. Now, you know, they have some versatility.

So they can get a little different with their bench, too, if they so want. So the defensive versatility was important here. but obviously the big impact of Donovan is going to be in the lineup and how the Mariners structure their lineup now that they've added Donovan to the mix. So I assume Donovan's going to be the primary leadoff guy against right-handed pitching. Yep. And Rob Reff Snyder is going to be essentially a lead-off platoon with Donovan where he's going to lead off against lefties. Yeah. And then against lefties, you know, Donovan hasn't been particularly good.

against them. He was a 75 WRC plus against lefties this past year. I think he probably still makes his way into the lineup against lefties. Again, like he's going to be an everyday player for the bearers. But he's probably hitting what seventh? Six or seventh, yeah. Yeah. By the way, note here from just baseball, since Brennan Donovan debuted in 2002. He is one of only 13 hitters with at least a 360 on base. That's a minimum of 2,000 plate appearances. The name's ahead of him in case you were curious.

Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Freddie Freeman, Shohei Otani, Yandi Diaz, Bryce Harper, Kyle Tucker, Vlad Jr., Christian Yellich, Muki Betz, and Jose Al-2A. Pretty good company. That's your lead-off hitter. And yeah, then against lefties, we'll see. And look, 75 isn't, it's fringe playable against lefties,

but the fact that he was a 140 WRC plus against Ritey's last year certainly makes the tradeoff worth it. And again, even if he's not crushing left hand of pitching, he's still going to provide value because he's an able base runner and he's a good defender. And obviously he can still get on base against lefties. So, yeah, Donovan is going to be the leadoff guy. I'd be pretty surprised if it wasn't.

And more importantly, it allows you to push Randy, from lead off to fifth, which is probably closer to where he belongs. Or fourth, you know, I guess if they want Naylor to hit fifth, they could do that too. But yeah, I think the Mariners lineup is starting to take shape at least one through five. It's going to be Donovan, Julio, Cal, probably Naylor. And then Randy, maybe they flip those two guys. But yeah, I think that'll be the one through five on opening day, obviously pending injuries and whatnot because there's no, there's no hiding from those.

Those are going to happen at some point. just hope it's not too serious. And by the way, Donovan missed some games in his career. So this is why we talked about Donovan isn't, you know, an elite player that you give up a huge trade package for because there are some red flags here. And, you know, those are the two of them. He doesn't really hit lefties. And he has some injuries in his past. And the Mariners paid a price that reflected that.

So, yeah, Donovan in the lineup, he's going to hit lead off. He's going to get on base a ton. Not a great base stealer, but a pretty good base runner. and he'll set the table very nicely for Cal and Julio and him and JP kind of on the turn there. Assuming JP hits 9th, maybe he doesn't. Yeah. Yeah, the Mariners lineup is starting to take some shape here. And it looks like a legitimate lineup now.

It's funny how just one good player can turn the entire thing around. Well, because now it, one, I mean, it eliminates one position that was just like up in the air, one spot on the roster that was just completely up in the air. like who knows. And again, the Marrins are taking a lot of bets here. And they still are even after the Donovan acquisition. But it does shore up one more spot.

And it does lengthen the lineup. And it does give you an answer to a role that you haven't really had for a while. Like you haven't had a real traditional leadoff hitter since like J.P. was killing it as a lead off guy. But JP, to me, I think is better suited as the page turn as the nine hole hitter to get you back the top of the lineup. I think that's the role that best suits him. So they really needed a lead-off guy.

Randy was pretty solid in it. And then he tailed off, obviously, in the last couple months of the season, the playoffs did not go well for him and all that. But Randy is better suited to hit in the middle of the lineup. His presence is better suited to be in the middle of the lineup. And again, when you have lost, Gino Swares,

who, again, wasn't good at Team Mobile Park post deadline. I know that, whatever, but he was still pretty good when they were away from the- and the middle of your lineup. And he was still a threat. When you've lost him, when you've lost for a Polanco,

you needed to be able to beef up that middle portion of your lineup a bit better. And while Brennan Donovan specifically doesn't do that, what he does do is he pushes Radio Rosarena into that role now. And it helps you kind of address that as well. So, you know, I think also this deal, and I'm interested to hear your thoughts on this because this is something that I've been thinking about. And this was something that I was planning on us to talk about, you know, later this week.

Maybe we still will a little bit. I do feel like Donovan's arrival does kind of signify that the Marans are changing their identity a little bit. I don't think fully, but they're changing their identity a little bit in the way that they want to win games a little bit. Because they've lost a lot of home runs this offseason. Obviously, with Gino gone and Horygon, and this was a team that heavily relied upon the home run ball to win baseball games in 2025. And look, you know, they still got guys that are going to hit a ton of home runs, you know. But like Cal is probably not going to hit 60. again so you were going to lose hummers from that and then again with the departures of polo and

you know like you were going to lose a lot of pop you're hoping that you know with a healthy season Luke really makes up for some of that Dom can's own hopefully he continues what he did at you know last year and he you know makes up for some of that but it does feel like really but donovan with the versatility you know he's a pretty good defender wherever he plays that you know and Cole Emerson should be pretty good defensively I don't think Cole Young is anywhere near his as he was this past year. He was dealing with a shoulder thing. So I think him being healthy,

he'll be a lot better at second base. Now, JP's still a little bit of a problem at short stop defensively. So, like, they're not... You're left there. They're not great defensively still. But they are better. And it feels like they're in a better spot

from a run prevention standpoint. And you've seen them target guys who have high ground ball rates. And, you know, you already had guys like Carlos Vargas in your bullpen. you had someone like Jose Ferrer, it does seem like this is a conscious effort to more so focus on run prevention, to be a more contact oriented, oriented teams, do the little things a little bit better than they have in the past. And Donovan continues to kind of to play into that.

So I do think we're kind of seeing the Mariners change who they are. And I think that is for the better. We'll probably see more of it next year, assuming we have a season, because Randy and JP are your two worst defenders. they'll be free agents. And presumably Colt Emerson will be the shortstop. And we'll see what they do at third base at that point. And presumably then Donovan would be your primary left fielder, which would be two pretty big upgrades defensively as well.

Yeah, you know, Donovan doesn't strike out. Naylor doesn't strike out. JP doesn't really strike out. A big part of the calling card of Cole Young is that he makes a ton of contact. Colt Emerson, not expected to be a huge strikeout guy, but it's year one. so who knows there. And you just kind of look at it.

And then the guys who do have some strikeout issues, you know, Cal, okay, he's an elite catcher who can hit 60 bombs. Like you're not worried about the strikeouts there. So it does feel like there's more balance there, although,

you know, Polo didn't strike out either last year. After doing it a ton in his first year in Seattle, he didn't really do it last year, but refs Snyder can strike out less than Garber. So, you know, yeah,

there does feels like there's a little bit more of a emphasis being put on, you know, more contact, more walks, more, you know, station to station, but also aggressive base running. And again, Donovan, pretty good base runner. Obviously, Naylor, great base runner, although so slow. Such a good base runner, he thinks he's faster than he is. Young is supposed to be a good base runner. Emerson's supposed to be a good base runner.

Again, not necessarily burners, but like just smart, athletic, you know, base runners. And it is a change. But, yeah, we'll see how it goes. Obviously, you know, there's certainly more. athletic than they were with Gino and Polo. But the power is legit. You have to hit home runs in the postseason. We know that.

And we'll see what happens, you know, when they get there, maybe, I don't know, maybe Rayleigh and Canzone combined for 40. And we're just sitting here like, oh, well, yeah, home runs aren't a problem. But we'll see how it goes. But yeah, it does feel like there's slowly started to be a shift away from, you know, we're trying to hit tanks to like, you know, let's play to the ballpark a little bit. but you still need that power. And thankfully, again, with Julio, Randy and, and Cal.

Yeah. And then also. Taylor could hit 30 if he wanted to or, but, you know. And then there's obviously upside with Canzone and Rayleigh. And then, you know, Emerson could also, you know, provide. 20, 25 holders. Yeah, he could contribute in that department. Yeah.

Sure. Cole Young has surprising pop. I think we can officially say. Yeah, wow. Yeah. So we'll see how it goes. But yeah, that certainly is a possibility. But, you know, I know we've got to move on here.

But we're just thinking of that lineup right now. And it's probably Donovan leading off. Cal hitting second, Julio third, Naler, fourth, Randy, fifth. And then you're going something like, well, probably Rayleigh, then Canzon, then J.P. Yeah. That's five or six guys in your lineup that are going to strike out. below league average clips

and probably take a lot of walks. In fact, we know Donovan and JP will take a ton of walks to kind of flip the thing around and we'll see with the young guys, but yeah, that's a much better lineup than we were talking about yesterday and there's a lot of different ways they can beat you, which

you know, last year they didn't hit home runs. It was... Well, that's what I was going to say, right? Like, you need to hit home runs. You have to, especially once you get to October. And once you get to October, you need to hit home runs. But at times last year, it felt like if they didn't get the big home run, they were done. They were cooked. Now, we should point out just because,

you know, it's obvious. The Mariners made it to game seven of the ALCS last year with a strategy that was hit home runs and pitch. Yeah. Yeah. And they did it honestly without really pitching that much either. Like they didn't really pitch that well. So like what they did last year worked just fine. This could work too. So it's just one of those things. And, you know, we'll see how it works out again. I am a little concerned about the lack of thump in the middle of the lineup. But I do think that, you know, it is made up for with some better run prevention and some higher on base guys. Not all contact is good contact. Just keep that in mind. But, you know, Donovan certainly helps in a lot of areas that Polo doesn't. And when you look at their careers, Donovan has been a better hitter than Polo

just polo was really good last year. And I don't know if Donovan will get there. But yeah, it's just kind of a different way to put together a team. And it's kind of honestly fits their ballpark more than what they've done the last couple of years. And you're listening to the Lockdown Merris podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. As always, if you want to hear from me and Colby even more and help support the show, we have a Patreon.

It's called Control the Zone. And on there we talk Maris, Seahawks, all that good stuff. For more information, go to pay. patreon.com forward slash control the zone link in the description of this episode. All right. So Jeff Passon just tweeted that the Cardinals are receiving two competitive balance round B-pick. So I think it's safe to assume that the mayors are trading their competitive balance round B-pick as well in this deal. So that changes things a little bit.

Does that change how you view the trade much, if at all? I mean, I think it went from like an A plus to like an A minus. Yeah, like we assume that the B pick was going to be involved no matter what. And, you know, it thought for, you know, hour there that it wasn't. And that was awesome. But yeah, no, again, kind of stings. You like the bonus money and all that. But, yeah, Donovan is just too good of a player to pass up.

And he fits so well that you're not going to let the idea of maybe a good prospect, you know, stop you from getting a guy that you know is good right now. So yeah, I think, you know, it certainly makes the Cardinals side of things look a little bit better. But keep in mind, those Comp Round B picks are typically somewhere in the 70s. Yeah. So it's not like the Mariners deal. But it adds bonus pool money and all that. So that allows them to maybe do something better than they previously could have done.

From a Cardinals perspective, I would like this deal a lot more now. Yeah. From the merits perspective, I don't like it much less, if that makes sense. It's still a really good trade for Jerry and Justin. So I've said this a bunch over the off season, but I'll just reiterate it. I'm sure we got a lot of new listeners tuning in maybe for the first time or for the first time since maybe October or what have you. Hello, welcome. If I had to pick between one of the two and the Marys could have made both work and maybe they were trying to make both work.

But if I had to pick between one of the two, I would take Brendan Donovan over. Jorge Polanco. I think Donovan makes you a better team than Jorge Polanco does because Polo had a great year last year. Don't give me wrong. What he did in 2025 was fantastic. He was a big reason that you were able to get as far as you did. But I mean, he exceeded everyone's wildest expectations. He did something that he's really never done before in his career. And he should primarily be a DH. Now he's going to play first base for the Mets. And we'll see how that goes. he should primarily DH at this point with all the lower leg injuries that he's had to deal with all that or lower body injuries I should say he's had to deal with and all that so Donovan has been a perennial 115 to 120 WRC plus guy yeah he doesn't have the pop that that Jorge Polanco does but he has been a consistent you know 15 to 20 percent above league average hitter and that's kind of what Jorge Polanco was in his best days in Minnesota he just did it differently than Donovan.

But I think because of the versatility that Donovan brings defensively, how he fit, how he fills a different, but also, you know, equally important role for the Marrars, you know, having a more traditional true leadoff guy at the top of the lineup. I think he's just a better fit overall than, than Polo was. I would have loved to have both. Don't get to be wrong. And they could have easily made both work. But again, if I had to pick one.

One or the other, I'm taking, I'm taking Donovan. Yeah, fun little note here, and I'm sure we're getting ready to wrap. We'll talk about what comes next here in a second, but this is from passing. Player A. That's all that. Yeah. Yeah. Player A and 366 games, 282, 351, 421, 4217 WRC plus 7.5.

Or player B, 355 games, 291, 10 point difference of batting average, 330, 330, 3.30, 3. 18 points and on base 445 116 WRC plus 8 war two players essentially the same in terms of production player a is bernan donovan player b b is boe lachette you just got how much 42 mill a year yeah three and 126 i believe yeah and again you know they do it very differently yes donov it's a way better more versus howl defender than than Bichette is. Bichette hits, you know, a billion doubles and, you know, he can hit 20 plus bombs and all that stuff, but, uh, better base dealer. Or well, he was back in the bed.

Yeah, not anymore for sure, but, uh, but, uh, Donovan is a really, really good player. He is. There's obviously some warts here. I wouldn't say there are any red flags, but there's some, some warts. There's some things that you can nip-pick for sure. He's not a slam dunk all-star player. He's a fringe, all-star player. player. No, but he's he's the kind of guy that really, again, the Mariners needed to lengthen the

lineup to fill a very specific role to give them the versatility that allows them to still give their young guys runway while also protecting themselves. This is this is all we were asking for, right? When you guys were asking us, how do we feel about the offseason so far? How do we feel if this is it? Our biggest issue was like our issue isn't really like giving Cole Young and Cole Emerson playing time, it's the fact that you didn't have really any safety nets in case you're wrong, like in case Cole Emerson isn't good, you know, at 20 years old,

which is there's a high likelihood that's the case because it's 20 years old, Facing Major League pitching every single day. Same thing with Cole Young. Like we don't know if he's going to be able to pop in year two. We don't know. So this allows you now to have an option to just put there every single day,

you know, at second base or third base. if you're wrong on one of those guys. Maybe you're wrong on both of those guys. But at the very least, now, I only have to address one of those spots. I don't have to address both. If that's the case. And if you're right on both of those guys, great. Yeah.

Like we talked about earlier. Oh, no. I have too much. Like, yeah. So this is what we've been talking about. Right. And so, again, I just feel so much better about this offseason. Seriously, like when you called me today, because I immediately knew what it was about.

Like I didn't have to look at Twitter to know that it was going to be a Donovan trade. When I saw your name pop up on my phone, I just felt this like, wait, lift off my shoulders. It's like, oh, thank God. Thank God they just, they did this. Like, they're just, I know it, it, it, it, it, Brandon Donovan's kind of a fringe, all-star caliber player, you know, it's just one guy, but it really does change the calculus a lot for this club. All right. Well, that's going to do it for us.

Again, we'll do a mailbag episode tomorrow. probably use some of the answers that we gave today and today's recording. Probably just reuse those in tomorrow's show. We'll see. But we'll also put out another tweet on Twitter on Blue Sky. You can also drop us questions in Discord if you want to ask us something now after the Brennan Donovan trade. Thank you so much for joining us here on the lockdown Marriss podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast network, your team every day.

Once again, if you never miss an episode, it's time to make it official. Join the Lockdown Every Day or Club. and get ad-free audio access to our members-only Discord and more all built for our most loyal fans. For Colby Pat Note, I'm Tadden-Gazolus. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L-O-U-U-Norsor-Nor-Sor. You can follow me at Tading Gzalus and Colby at CPAT-1-1. We're also on Blue Sky.

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