Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Bryan Woo's Continued Dominance, Hot Bats Help Seattle Mariners SECURE Second Series Victory of 2026

Episode Date: April 20, 2026

Ty and Colby react to the Mariners' series victory over the Rangers, discussing a big last two games from the offense, as well as Bryan Woo continuing his hot start to the year. 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 | @CPat11 Follow the show on Bluesky: @lockedonmariners | @tdg | @mlbcolby Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Turbo Tax Intuit TurboTax now has in-person locations nationwide. You can meet face-to-face with a real tax expert, and your documents get uploaded straight to your TurboTax app on the spot.  Visit https://TurboTax.com/local to find a store near you and book your appointment today. Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel.Right now new customers can bet just five dollars and get two-hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets if your first bet wins.Visit https://FANDUEL.COMto get started — Play Your Game.   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.

The Mariners have won their second series of 2026, and while it's bad that it's taken this long for that to be the case, it was still nice to see them bounce back from a frankly pathetic game one loss and put together a couple of really nice outings to get the job done against the Rangers. We'll break it all down. Coming up, Colby, hit it. You are Locked on Mariners, your daily Seattle Mariners podcast, part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. Ahoy, Sailors. It is Monday, April. 20th, 2026. My name is Tadda Gazzalas and I'm joined as always by my co-coes Colby Patnode. This episode

is brought to you by our friends at Fandwell. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get $250 in bonus bets if your first bet wins at Defanduel.com to get started. And on today's show, we're going to open up the mailbag and answer some of your merits. Questions including what we think the team will do

once Bryce Miller returns to the rotation. But first, we've got a series of when to talk about for the Maris this past week. And they take two or three from the range. When in the final two, the first game of this series might have been their worst overall performance of the entire year. But certainly the one that finally made me kind of crush out. But they bounced back well over the last two games, particularly on the offensive side of things. And naturally, Colby, they did it yesterday with by far the worst lineup.

They run out all year long. Go figure. Baseball, baby. That's just the way that kind of works. I mean, it's, you kind of get that feeling. He's like, okay, they beat a Valdi. You know, they took advantage of an error, and they actually cashed in, and they worked his pitch count like they did with DeGron, but they actually got the hits when they needed to, and we're able to chase him and secure a relatively easy win. No thanks to Cole Wilcox at the end there, but whatever, and you're like, all right, now we got some momentum here.

I mean, McKenzie Gore's traditionally dominated the Mariners, so, you know, don't love it. And then I actually, I remember I texted you the night before. And I was like, there's a really good chance we see Garber, Rivas, Joe, and Russ Snyder in the lineup tomorrow. And that's exactly what happened. And so, yeah, at that point, it's like, oh, well, I guess we didn't get swept. So that's a good thing. And then, of course, the Mariners have one of their better offensive games,

considering the circumstances of the entire year. Because, of course, they would. And, yeah, it's, and of course, it's, and of course, it's, Jeff Snyder and Joe both contributing massively at the plate because why wouldn't it be? Leo Rivas still can't hit. I think we have a question about that later. We do. We do.

And, you know, Mitch Garver is just a backup catcher, so who cares if he hits or doesn't, right? But like, yeah, he did hit a ball that was like one, ten off the bat to left field. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, Mitch Garber is like the 26th problem on a 26 man roster right now. know, but yeah, it was a, it was a fun game. I snuck over to the ballpark yesterday, sat right behind a fan who did not reveal that they were a fan until after the last out was recorded. So who knows what they heard.

Certainly be trashing you. But, yeah. Surely. Anyways, yeah, it was a really fun weekend after a really miserable opening. And that's kind of the beauty of baseball. You never know when the vibes can turn and they can turn on an instant and you can all of a sudden, you know, start to roll off some victories and as ugly as it's looked, the Mariners won six of their last 10, you know, and they're one blown save away from, you know, winning seven of their last 10 and, you know, winning two of their last three series. Now, they did win two of their last three series as well, but they got swept on the other one. So let's stop getting swept on the road. Like if you guys could find a way to win one game on the road in every series instead of getting swept. The narrative would be completely different right now. Yeah, again, they're 1 and 9 on the road.

It's been mostly fine at home. And if they were 3 and 6, they'd be in first place. So it's just kind of one of those. And you can pinpoint the two games they should have won on the road that they didn't. So actually 3 probably. So both against the Angels and the one against San Diego, they definitely should have won those three games. I'm still not over the Jim Adele game. Well, get over it.

So. I know. I know. I know I need to move on, but it's, it's been a frustrating first, what, 22 games now, 23 games, whatever they're at. It's been frustrating. Yeah. So understandably, yet nobody in the American League is any good.

Nobody in your division is very good. I think the leader of your division is 500, right? Yeah. And it's, well, it's the team that just left, and it's also the team that's coming to town right now. They're tied. So, okay, do you just got to keep winning serious? you know and it's one of those things like last year when the Mariners got off to a hard to a to a tough start it wasn't like they rattled off like 12 wins in a row to get back in it i think they won like nine series in a row and it's like yeah that'll do it and so you know you don't have to win nine series in a row it's still very early nobody's running away with this thing but you got to find a way to win series you can't get you got to stop getting swept swept on the road you can't get swept okay even when you're not playing well you have to find a way to win one game in a series consistently and we don't know

the Mariners are playing well yet. I know they've won 6 out of 10 but four of those who are against the Astros who frankly are an embarrassment to Major League Baseball with their pitching staff. So who knows but you did face three good pitchers this weekend you got all the game pretty early. You actually got results off of

Vivaldi and Gore so you know that's a step in the right direction. Yeah that's what I was going to say is like thankfully this time around you actually we're able to put together some competent, if not better, performances, and I would say absolutely better, performances against a couple of really good pitchers, and Valde and Gore. And Gore has historically given this club a lot of issues.

And I think he had only given up eight hits in his first three starts to Mariners hitters. And then he gave up nine yesterday. So, you know, and then nine hard hit balls, three homers in total against score for the Mariners' offense. Rob Ruff Center jumps on the first pitch that he sees from Gore, drives that out of the ballpark for his first mariner's hit. So that's really nice to see. Hopefully that gets him going. You know,

J.B. Crawford with his first homer of the season, you know, more left on left damage for J.P. Crawford. And then Randy, you know, staying high at the plate. You know, has a double, which was the hardest hit ball that he's had since, uh,

since 2023. And then, uh, you know, hits that homer off of the foul pole as well. Uh, so, you know, It was a very 20-25 win for the Marrars, very similar formula to how they won a lot of games last year, where, you know, it was just hit the long ball and then, you know, Dominant, for the most part, pitching performance from Brian Wu. A lot of guys really stood out over these last two games, though. You know, Dominic Canzon had a big night on Saturday. Three hits, drives in a couple runs.

Luke Rayleigh hit that moon shot. He continues to stay hot at the plate. really the guy that has stood out to the most to me though has been Cole Young he started to fade there for a few games you know particularly in that San Diego series but he's come back strong over the last four games he's gone one for four in that last San Diego

game then one for two with a couple of walks on the first game against the Rangers and two for three with a walk and a couple of insurance runs driven in on Saturday and then you know another one for four performance yesterday. So he's starting to contribute again at the plate, which is really nice to see. And, you know, I think we should also mention here, the Barroners did this over these last two games without Brennan Donovan, who's dealing with this hip tightness. He was available yesterday off of the bench.

So I expect he'll be in the lineup tonight. But, you know, again, that's one of their best hitters. Maybe, you know, arguably their best hitter to start the year, at least one of the top two hitters, top three hitters for the Maris to start the year. And they've been without him for, for, for two of their better offensive performances of the entire season. It was a good weekend. I mean, there's no denying that. Obviously, still some hiccups, you know, Cal, where are you? Julio was fine, but still no power, still not getting to the pole side with any regularity.

So he's, you know, just kind of treading water right now offensively. And that's great because, I mean, if Cal and Naylor were just treading water right now, then we'd probably be, you know, three or four games better than we're. we are. So all in all, good weekend. Randy continues to be a little bit different from last year, but productive all the same. He was able to turn on a pitch in this one. He's kind of picking his spots. And he also had a laser beam double. So Randy looked really locked in yesterday as well. Just been very consistent. He and Donovan have been your most consistent hitters. Luke Rayleigh's probably the best overall. Most impactful, yeah. Yeah. So yeah, but those three guys, you know,

Again, it's great to see Canzon, who's really not been very good since opening day. He finally has a good game on Saturday against Duvaldi. So, yeah, it's nice to see. It's just kind of a team effort. Again, Ruff Snyder finally getting on the board. Connor Joe robbed of a double by an umpire who at least had a sense of humor about it. So, yeah, and then also Connor Joe with a walk in a stolen base. I mean, Connor Joe, player of the game.

So, no, we had to give it to Brian Wu. We'll talk about it in a second. But, you know, Connor Joe. Pretty good. So, yeah, the offense looked really good. The batts looked better. And again, the ability to just grind through, even though it didn't lead to anything, getting to Grom out after four, if they had just, you know, been able to punch a ball into the gap when they had the bases loaded with their two best hitters up.

They had that opportunity. Yeah. Then maybe we're talking about a sweep. I mean, I don't know how the rest of the game goes. you get a couple runs on the ground early, but after that, it was really just grinding to get him out of the game and try to get to the bullpen, which they haven't really done unless it's been calcantral. So that's kind of the one negative from the offensive side of things. But yeah, all in all, you know, they hit some home runs this weekend. They hit some doubles.

They work counts. They got good pitchers out early. Strikeouts weren't a tremendous issue, especially in key moments. they were able to, you know, move the ball forward and at least get guys over and drive them in. So, yeah, all in all, a very, very good weekend for this offense and one that we need to see continue. And the reason this is a little more optimistic about this weekend than you were against the Astros is you face three legit dudes. So we'll see what happens here against Oakland or Sacramento. You're not getting Severino who's pitched very well at your ballpark.

You're not getting Jeffrey Springs who kind of owns you. You're missing both of those guys in the series. So it should be a good opportunity for the Mariners' offense to continue. Just grind out these at-bats. When you get guys on, find a way to put the ball and play at the very least, get some runs in early, and then crank some home runs, which the Mariners desperately need. They need to start hitting more homers.

And it's not hard to see why they're struggling to hit homers when Cal, Julio and Naylor aren't really contributing in that category at all. Right, yeah. Julio 267, 367, 367. And that's a slash line since the end of the first homestand. So the start of the first road trip and, you know, and beyond 117 WRC plus, you know, obviously not slugging the way that you want him to. But overall, that's solid. And the two most interesting numbers here, 21.7% K rate, 10.1% walk rate.

Yeah. So, Julio C and the Z a little bit. Yeah. Julio's fine. All right. He's not carrying you like you want, but we know he will at some point. Again, if this is the floor of Julio, like this is what his bad stretches look like right now. He's going to be a top five MVP candidate again.

Like, there's nothing really to worry about with Julio. We know he's going to get pole side eventually. We know he's going to hit 25 to 35 home runs. It's just, and we're seeing enough good at bats, enough hard contact and enough improvement that whatever. He's fine. Yeah. If you're concerned about the home run output, remember his rookie year, he didn't hit his first home run until May 1st.

And then he went on to hit 28th that year. Right. At this stage, I kind of separate Julio from like those who are struggling. Like right now, it's really Cal and Naylor in the middle who are struggling. But Julio does need to hit for more power. That is factual. So he's still kind of involved. And, you know, it'd be nice of brand.

He could hit for a little more power. But I don't know how much you want to mess with what he's doing. right now because it's pretty good. So yeah, it's it's working. Yeah. So yeah, good signs. Good signs all weekend. All right.

So we will talk about the pitching side of things, specifically Brian Wu, and then we'll answer some of your questions in just a moment. But first a reminder, this episode of the Locktime Airs podcast is brought to you by Fandwell. The NBA playoffs are here where every possession matters, every matchup is magnified, and every game can swing a series. And right now, Fandual is giving new customers a great way to get in on the action. Here's what I like about it. You can bet just $5 and get $250 and bonus bets if your first bet wins. The app makes it easy to follow the action with player stats, trends, and matchups all in one place.

And during the playoffs, that extra insight really matters when you're looking at stars, role players, and key moments. It just makes the entire playoff experience more engaging from start to finish. So head to fandual.com to get started. FanDuel, play your game. And you're listening to the Lockdown Mariners podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Thank you so much for making us your first listen for all things, Mariners. And also thank you for making Lockdown the number one sports podcast network.

Don't forget to check out the Everydayer Club for ad-free episodes and access to a group chat with me and other listeners of this show. Tap the link in the description or go to Lockdown Mariners. So Brian Wu yesterday was well on his way to throw in a Matt. I think he went into that seventh inning at like 65 pitches or something like that. 62, I believe. Yeah, and then that seventh inning got away from him, gives up a couple of runs. He's able to finish the inning, but that unfortunately spelled the end of his day.

At one point, he retired 16 consecutive Rangers hitters. He was really good yesterday. And he, I believe, is one of the most valuable starting pitchers in all baseball per F-WR. Let me look that up real quick. Yeah, he's second right now behind Cam Schlittler. He's even surpassed Jose Soriano, despite Soriano's 0.28 ERA, which is ridiculous. But the expected numbers for Wu, fantastic, the ERA,

just 225 right now. He's off to a great start. So, you know, four hits yesterday, just the two are in runs, six strikeouts, one walk. Outside of Wu, though, wasn't a particularly good series for the Mariners pitching staff. I mean, even on Saturday, they only gave up three runs,

but they allowed a ton of Rangers base runners. They allowed 11 hits, walked eight on top of that. George Kirby wasn't able to go a full six in that one. And then, you know, another rough start for Logan Gilbert

where the pitch count got ballooned. He was only able to go, what, a five and a third, I believe in that one. just a very typical Logan Gilbert start for what the last year or so has been for him and that sucks given what he did his last time out

where he finally went seven and it felt like he was finally starting to turn the corner and that just felt like a regressive start for him so yeah woo fantastic Maris pitching staff as a whole though particularly the rotation for this series not great Yeah, and the bullpen continues to be effective, but a little problematic.

Bizarro just has to walk a couple guys every time he comes to a game and then he'll get out of it without giving up a run. So he's got the low ERA, but you're like, hey, let's not walk the eight, nine hitter. So that way you have to face the lead off guy with the base is loaded. Let's try that. It's almost, you're muted. it's almost like Bizarro is like, like I'm, I need to challenge myself.

I don't, I want Corey Seeger and it's like, no, you know, you don't. I was saying that he's a war of farming. Kind of a little bit. You know,

Gabe, good numbers, but you know, a lot of got a couple guys on and, and he can't finish an inning. So like the Mariners are kind of, Ferrer continues to be the unluckiest reliever I've ever seen in my life. I mean,

it's insane. If you think Jose Ferrer's been bad this year, I don't think you've watched a single, pitch that he's thrown. Because every time he's out there, anytime he gives up a hit or a run, it's like a soft bloop single or a yeah, the one that he gave up to, uh, to Nemo the other night, like was like 72.8 miles per hour off the bat. Like, come on. Like it's, and again, I'm not saying he's been perfect, but he's probably been your most consistent reliever. So like he's been good. And it just, he's gotten unlucky where his guys like Spire and Bizarro.

they've got a little bit of a walk issue right now. It's, you know, it's a little iffy. So Ferrer's ERA right now is 338. Is FIPP though? 1-175. The 175 looks like the guy I've watched. Like that looks like the pitcher more so than the ERA. I will say this about the rotation.

I think there was an important step taken by George Kirby on a start on Saturday because we have been probably tougher than anybody. in the community on George for his, let's call it lack of mental fortitude, things go wrong. He tends to implode, right? And he just kind of says, screw it.

It's not my day. I'm just going to try and get out of here. I'm going to pump fastballs down the middle. He had a super long app bat against Jake Berger. He had kind of an in-between play that maybe Cole Young could have made. Maybe he, maybe it was just too difficult to have a play. He had a for sure double play that,

you know, bounced off his not big dumper that turned into an infield single. He had a couple pitches he thought were strikes. They weren't. He even challenged one of them. And yet he managed to get out of those situations relatively unscathed. And, you know, he was only able to go five and two thirds. But he didn't have his best stuff.

He didn't have his best command. He was just a little bit off. He wasn't too far off. But he was just a little bit off. There were a couple of long innings that kind of snowballed on him. He had to get out of the bases load of jam, I think twice in that out. And he did. And so, you know, you got, you have to give him credit for a guy that we've been hard on for,

you know, kind of crumbling. Like, we have, we saw an anywhere like, he didn't get the pitch that he wanted. He challenged another pitch where he didn't, where he was wrong. And, you know, the bases were loaded. And I think that was the same. And he had the double, Taylor made double play, bounce off of his backside. And, and you're just sitting there like, oh, well, this is where George likes to pipe a fastball.

He gets so mad that he just throws it right down the middle as hard as he can. And that usually leads to damage and he was able to get out of it. So at the very least, you know, it wasn't great George Kirby, but it was effective enough George Kirby. And it was limiting the damage George Kirby. And he was still able to give them almost six complete innings on a day where he just didn't quite have everything he needed to succeed. And so, you know, I think that's a step in the right direction for George. So I want to make sure we give him some, some kudos for that because I think last year,

George probably gives up six in that start. And you're just like, oh, there he goes. You know, so. And I guess we can, we can think Bob Ross for, for the, the more fellow George Kirby. I mean, if you're not watching Bob Ross, like, what are you doing? Like, he is something else. I have a Bob Ross painting that I painted. It's not, obviously not as good.

But it's, it's mellowing. And look how much more chill I've been on social media as a result of Bob Ross. So, yeah, you know, Bob Ross for the win. But yeah, I think George deserves some credit for kind of gritting through a start where things were definitely bouncing against him. And he just kind of managed to make it work and gave them a real good chance to win the game, which of course they did. Yeah, very good point. Very good point. Lastly, going back to Ferrer real quick, want to take a swing on what his babup is right now?

Does it start with a four? It does. Yeah. 448. close 433 so uh yeah let's let me see if i can quickly look up where that ranks among all relievers so far to start the year uh that would be not the highest but uh top 11 yeah he's he's 11th how many guys have a higher babbip with uh like a like how many of those other guys with high babbips have really high ERAs and FIPs, though.

So he has... Of those 11, he has... He has the third lowest FIP. So argument to be made that he's like the third unluckiest pitcher, relief pitcher in baseball this year. Yeah, Grant Wolfram has a 0.71 for the Orioles. Never heard of that guy, but yeah. And then, let's see here.

Who else? Eric Miller of the Giants has a 1-4-2. Yeah. So Ferrer's been good. It's weird that I probably trust Ferreir more than anybody in the bullpen, but I also don't trust him because it's like, I don't know what which he offended in a past life, but he's going to give up a bloop single here.

So it could be disaster, but no, Ferrear's been very good. And, you know, again, just to reiterate, Munoz, great bounce back weekend from him. Yeah.

I didn't get to see his outing yesterday, simply because I was at the ballpark and I was down the left field line. So it can't exactly tell you how good the stuff looked. But he had a chance for a fourth strikeout inning. So I'm going to assume pretty good. Yeah. But yeah, good to see Munoz and obviously some emotion after he locked the door or he slammed the door yesterday. So I think that's that should tell you where Muni felt like he was before he got into that game and to see him succeed and get that save after the rough outing early in the week.

Good to see. And you're listening to the Locktime Marries podcast, part of the Locktime 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, Marys, Seahawks, all that good stuff. For more information, go to patreon.com forward slash control the zone.

Link in the description of this episode. All right. Let's get into your questions here on Mailbag Monday. I didn't get too many of them. So that's why we spent a lot of time on today's show talking about the Rangers series. but let's get into a few of these. Chills Seattle fan wants to know, what is the real solution

between Bryce Miller and Emerson, Hancock, and is there any potential of seeing a six-man rotation? Likewise, who would be sent down when Bryce and Carlos Vargas come off the I.O.? You're not going to have to worry about Vargas

for a little while still. No, even if you did. You can't even touch on that right now. But even if we did, if we had to make a decision tomorrow, it'd be obvious. you send down Cole Wilcox. So that one's a no-brainer.

A lot of people concerned about this thing that's not going to happen for another month, according to Justin Hollander. So overall, it's probably going to take care of itself, guys. It's just kind of the way baseball works. But what do you do? I don't know. You kick Hancock out of your rotation. Either he's starting for Tacoma or you're putting them in the bullpen. Could they do a short-term six-man rotation?

sure I think they could and again if Hancock is throwing the ball like this when Miller comes back then the kind of the past objection has been like do you want to take the ball away from George Kirby and Brian Wu and Logan Gilbert well if you're going to get you know Brian Wu and Logan Gilbert type of production from the guy you're giving the ball to instead of them then it's really not that big of a deal is it and you know that could help you get Wu keep Wu a little bit healthier and you know Logan and George battled injuries last year on top of it And Bryce obviously is battling injuries. And maybe the extra day's rest is good for Luis at his age.

I mean, so I think you could roll with it for a little while, a six man. I don't think they're going to do it for an entire season, though. So I think you're probably looking at a couple weeks, a couple turns through the rotation at most. And then at that point, you have to make a decision if everybody else is healthy and everybody's performing relatively well. I tell you right now, Luis Castillo's not going to the bullpen. It's not going to happen. even if it winds up being a valid conversation to have, it's just it's not going to happen.

Maybe if he had only a year left on his deal, maybe they'd entertain it. I just don't think it's going to happen for the same reason. I don't, we know Colt Emerson's not going to play shortstop when he comes up. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I've been asked us a bunch and I'm like, yeah, I mean, like it might get to a point where, you know,

you can have a real conversation about Luis in that regard, but is that actually worth having? Probably not. It's probably a worthless conversation to have just because it's probably not going to happen. I just, I can't foresee this club actually making that kind of move, even though that the standard is higher.

It would be post-trade deadline, I would think, before we would even consider them moving Luis to the bullpen. So, yeah, it's a six-man rotation, maybe for a couple weeks. And again, that's not a terrible idea, especially if Hancock is still pitching well, because you did have issues with your entire rotation last year, staying healthy, except for ironically, Luis. So, you know, and then maybe at the end of the year, you could also bring back a six-man rotation and kind of, you know, try and keep guys fresh. But they're not going to do it from, you know, May 15th until the end of the year.

Somebody's got to go down. And we know it's not going to be Logan. We know it's not going to be Brian. It's not going to be. And we know it's not going to be Louise. So are they going to really put price? Miller in the bullpen no so Hancock's either going to the bullpen or he's going to triple a as for what's better I don't know I really don't know it's a toss up so the only thing that I've that I've kind of thought about here is with a six-man rotation

essentially you have Bryce and Emerson battle it out for a couple of weeks and whoever loses that battle against put into the bullpen because at the very least Bryce would play up out of the bullpen, whereas, like, Louis Castillo isn't, you know? Yeah, if Bryce is thrown 99 miles an hour as a starter, Hancock's not winning that job. Like, despite how good Hancock's been this year. What if Bryce looks like 20, 25, Bryce, though. Yeah, that's not going to happen.

He's a flag player. Bryce is going to be amazing. By the way, our hit rate on our flag players this year, pretty good. Pretty good. Pretty good. Not too bad. But serious question here, though. Like, what if Bryce looks like 20, 25, Bryce?

Then we can have that conversation. But until we see it for, I don't know, five to eight starts, it's not worth having a conversation about. Do you keep the six-man rotation going, though, in the meantime to find that out? To allow yourself to find that out while keeping Hancock stretched? I don't think I have to. Again, the six-man rotation for me is not about competition. It is about, hey, let's, instead of asking Logan to go, you know, 33 starts, what if he only had to make 29.

You know, could that actually benefit us in October? Like, could he be healthier and all that? Well, I'm not saying that you do it for the purpose of competition, but that's an extra added element to it. Maybe, but I just, I don't see this team. This team has been very resistant to going to six-man rotations for more than a turn through the rotation. And we also have to factor in the Kate Anderson of it all, too, who is pitching very well.

And at some point, Anderson is probably going to leapfrog. one of these guys on the depth chart, and it's probably going to be Hancock. As good as Hancock has been, let's be very clear about this. The Mariners are very, very much happy with their five guys that they have ahead of Hancock. And I bet they would all tell you that those five guys are still ahead of Hancock.

So I think what's more than likely, or I think what's very likely, or not very likely, I think what could end up happening and actually has a pretty decent likelihood of happening, would be Hancock gets traded in July. And maybe it's for a bullpen piece and a bat. I mean, if he's a starter,

then he continues to pitch like this. And you get that guy for four years, five years of club control, you're going to get a ton for Hancock relative to what you thought you could get for him two months ago, which is nothing. So, yeah, they're not going to trade Luis.

Nobody's going to take on that salary midseason. They're not going to trade Logan. They want to get the extension done. Maybe they trade George. I mean, but do you really want to risk losing George Kirby on the idea that, you know, Emerson Hancock can be this for a whole year when he hasn't been it for more than, what, four starts now? I mean, we'll see.

We'll see what happens when we get there. Thankfully, or maybe not thankfully, the mayor has time here. And I do ultimately what's most likely to happen, somebody's going to need to go on the I. Over the next six weeks and Hancock's easy answer there. I think I would probably keep them stretched out in AAA. I'd probably do a six-man rotation, like maybe two or three turns through, kind of see where we're at. And then I would send him down to AAA to keep him stretched out until about July, maybe trade deadline area-ish. And then at that point, it's like, okay, does it make sense to put him back in the rotation?

Does it make sense to move somebody out to the bullpen? Does it make sense to put him in the bullpen? Because remember, the transition to Hancock in the bullpen is going to take like three appearances in AAA to get him used to the, you know, up down, up down nature of a reliever. So, but the stretching him out again probably is going to take a couple times through. But honestly, they could do that. Like if they put Hancock, they just put him right in the bullpen and then they needed him to start again, it would take maybe three turns of him and Chriswell kind of piggybacking with each other

before Hancock would be able to throw 80 to 100 pitches again. So it's really not that big of a deal. It is an interesting discussion, but it's not one that we need to have right now because by the sounds of Hollander, it's going to be the full 30 days for Bryce. So we're talking about mid to late May before we're even having this conversation. That's if there are no setbacks. And that's if there are no other injuries in the rotation. So we'll see.

But it is really interesting because there is the whole Kate Anderson element of it, too, that we're not really paying attention to. There is the who gets healthy. Could they maybe trade one of these guys now at the deadline because they feel like they have the viable replacement? What about Ryan Sloan, who's kind of, you know, a step below? Anderson right now in terms of readiness and all that. So there are a lot of different branches to this conversation that really muddies the water. But thankfully, we do have another probably what, four Hancock starts, maybe five Hancock starts before this becomes a real like we have to make a decision type of thing.

All right. Let's question here from Ty. At what point do we move Cal Raleigh deeper into the batting lineup, not in like an overly dramatic way, but in a spot that would be more reflective of an average. Ridge Cal Raleigh. I think that Luke Rayleigh and Randy a Roserana should take Josh Naylor and Cal Raleigh's spots in the top four. Cal hits fifth

and then Naylor hits fixed. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's fair. I do wonder, I know it's a silly thing to say, but like, at what point does J.P. Crawford factor into hitting like one or two?

Because he's undoubtedly looked better in the lead off spot than he has in other places and that's kind of been true in his career and having donovan and jp back to back which you also get by the nine one stack i mean i understand that but they haven't but they haven't used jp and the nine right they've had jp hitting seven yeah uh for the most of so yeah so i don't know i i just wonder like could you do like jp and then like randy two or hulio two probably hulio two and then like don't of N'nivan 3 and then like Randy 4 and then Cal 5 and then Naylor's all the way down to 7. So it kind of gets a little jumbled in there.

But at some point, you know, facts are facts, numbers are numbers. And right now, J.P. Crawford, I feel better about him at the plate than I do, Cal and Josh. So I don't know, JPM might factor in here. But yeah, I think ultimately you just move Randy to 4, Rayleigh to 5 or sorry, you would move Cal up to or Julio to 2. probably Randy three and then Luke four and then Cal five. So yeah, I think that's probably the best way to do it subtly, so to speak.

So, yeah, I mean, you could, I guess you could hit Cal four, but then either Randy or Luke aren't in the top four. I just, yeah,

I just, I really don't want Cal or Josh in the top four right now with the way they're swinging it. I'd probably rather have Julio leading off than then Donovan hitting two right now. But as we know, Julio doesn't like to lead off. So they're not going to ask him to do something that he's not comfortable with. So yeah, I think you just, I think you just swap your five, six with your two and your four right now, essentially. And whether that means moving Julio to two or keeping him two and having Randy hit two, whatever, doesn't matter.

But yeah, I think you just move Cal down to five. All right. Well, that's going to do it for our show. so much for joining us here on the lockdown marries podcast. Part of the lockdown podcast network, your team every day. And 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 and more all built for our most loyal fans. For Colby Patnode, I'm Tad de Gazzal. Be sure you give us a follow on Twitter at L.O. underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Tading Gzalus and Colby at C-Pal-11,

the CPAT-1. We're also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB, and the show at Lockdown Mariners. You can also find me at Tading Gazers. You can also find find us on Instagram and TikTok at Lockdown Maritors. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you next time. Peace.