Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Concern, Excitement, Disappointment and Satisfaction

Episode Date: March 22, 2022

Hosts Ty Dane Gonzalez and Colby Patnode discuss an aspect of the Mariners' roster that should both concern and excite fans at the same time, which in-house option they prefer to be Seattle's No. 5 starter and why it's okay to be both disappointed and encouraged by the Mariners' offseason.Be sure to follow or subscribe to Locked On Mariners wherever you prefer your podcasts! For questions and other inquiries, email: [e-mail] the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @danegnzlz | @CPat11For more of Ty and Colby, check out their Patreon: patreon.com/controlthezone/BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You are Locked-on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. It is Tuesday, March 22nd, 2022, and this is Locked-on Mariners. Thank you so much for making us your first listen of the day. I am your host, Tadian Gonzalez. Joined as always by my co-host, Colby Patnode. Follow us on Twitter at L.O. underscore Mariners.

You can follow me at Dane Gonzalez. that's D-A-N-Z-L-Z and Colby at C-P-E-P-E-L-E-N-E. That's C-P-A-T-1-1. Be sure to also check out our Patreon, where we talk about the Mariners even more and also get into some non-baseball talk twice a week. Visit patreon.com forward slash control zone for information on that if you are interested

and want more of us. On today's episode of Lockdown, Maritors, we're going to tell you why one of the more concerning aspects about the Mariners heading into 2022 should also be exciting for fans. Then we're going to look at the starting pitching market, how it's condensed down even further, and which in-house option we'd prefer the Mariners to go with for the number five spot in their rotation. And finally, we'll talk about why it's okay to be bummed by what the Mariners

didn't get this off season while still acknowledging the improvements they made as well. And if this is your first time joining us, welcome to the show. If you like what you hear, give us a follow or subscribe wherever you listen to this. We greatly appreciate it. So right now, it seems like Julio Rodriguez is going to be the opening day center fielder for the Mariners, which is incredibly exciting at face value, but also pretty scary considering the fact that he's only had so many at bats above a ball. And there's also this number five started discussion, which we're going to get into even further later on in this show. But right now, you know, the Jerry Depoto has basically. basically said, we're not interested in the free agent market. We don't want to go after a true

number five. If we're going to add another starter, it's going to be someone that fits in the middle or the top of our rotation. And if we can't get that, it's basically going to come down to Levi Stout, George Kirby, and Matt Brash to duke it out for that final spot. Well, that is also very scary, especially when you talk about injuries that can potentially happen and the depth that you have there and the fact that you've traded Brandon William and have kind of taken away from that depth a little bit already. But the nice thing about this, the thing that is really excited for fans, the thing that fans should be excited about, or at least happy with is that the Mariners don't have to give

these opportunities to Julio Rodriguez, Matt Brash, George Kirby, Levi Stout, and be completely justified in doing it. they can use service time right service time manipulation that was definitely a point of contention in the cba talks but nothing was really done to address that there was a little you know some steps there but nothing to really punish teams for it so teams are still incentivized to do it and with someone like julio specifically right that that's a guy that again that's a guy that again, hasn't played much above a ball. So there's definitely a way that you can justify it where he needs work.

And plus, you're having to move over to a new position potentially, which is also kind of scary. But they don't have to do this, right? Instead, they're taking their shot and saying, hey, we think this guy can be a star for us. We think this guy can actually help us this year. And also a part of it is because of circumstance, right?

The way that they built their roster, of course, But they feel that Julio Rodriguez can legitimately help them. And they're taking a shot. They are risking this. They're risking his development. They are risking, you know, an additional year of club control here with him, potentially. Same thing with George Kirby or Levi Sout or whoever. Same exact thing.

And they are giving these guys opportunities that they don't have to. They really don't have to. and this was a problem for a lot of fans last year with Jared Kellnick, with Logan Gilbert. That was a problem back in 2020. And the Mariners took their time with those guys. And it made sense in the end, of course. But still, there's going to be some fans that are upset with that.

But they're not doing that this year. I think that's very exciting. I think that's very encouraging about the Mariners process, about Jerry Depoto's process, and about where they are right now. and I think it says a lot about their confidence of someone like Julio Rodriguez, someone like Matt Brash. What do you think, Colby? Yeah, it's certainly interesting.

It's, again, it's not something I would do. It's one of my biggest contentions with their offseason. I don't care all that much that they miss on Bryant and Story. I care more about the fact that they are kind of banking on these young guys. And it's not just Julio or Kirby and Brash. it's Kelnick, it's Raleigh, it's Toro. I mean, these are guys who you have very little backup if they all bomb. And while it's almost, it's almost as likely that, you know, like that all of them are bad as it is that they're all really good this year.

It's almost the same odds. But still, that's stacking a lot onto, you know, a handful of young guys who you want around for the long term. And if they fail, there's really not a lot behind them. to, you know, subsidize that. So it's definitely a little bit of a risk. But I don't think the Mariners are too worried about losing, for example, year's service time with Julio. I think they are planning on making Julio Rodriguez the highest paid player on the Mariners here pretty quick.

Maybe not during the season, but potentially next off season. I think they believe Julio Rodriguez is a superstar. And so the extra year of service time really, doesn't mean anything to them. And by all accounts, Julio loves it with Seattle too. So there's probably going to be mutual interest there on an extension. I don't think it really matters.

And it's also worth noting that you can send him down if he struggles and still get that extra year if you really want to. Right. You know, it's most commonly done. You wait, just wait until, you know, April 15th or whatever.

But if you call him up and he's up until May and he just doesn't really perform and you want to send him down, you can just recoup that extra year by keeping them down until, you know, mid-June, and you'll be fine. The CBA really didn't do much to prevent that. So, yeah, it's exciting. It's, I understand the nerves. There's not much of a safety net there. And this is why I think Jerry has to be willing to be fairly aggressive earlier in the year than he usually would be.

But yeah, you have to walk that line between letting these guys get their reps. and letting them have a shot to establish themselves and not waiting too long to where it hurts your team's playoff chances. So it's a delicate little stretch here, but Julio is certainly, you know, a one-of-a-kind type of player in personality. And, you know, if it's brash or Kirby or whatever, and the number five,

maybe they both make the team with an expanded roster and they piggyback each other for a little while. You know, they're only going to have something. many bullets to fire this year. I mean, they're both going to be on some kind of innings limit, some kind of pitch count this year anyways. And so every bullet you spend down in AAA is one less you have at the big league. So, you know, if you put them up on the big league level in April and May, again, you can do

that and you can send them down in June when you acquire another starter or July or whatever. You can move them both to the bullpen for the rest of the year. There are a lot of things you can do there. So it's certainly a show of confidence. It's also probably my biggest hesitation with being all in on this particular roster in terms of making the playoffs. So, yeah, it's pretty big swing for Seattle. And if it works, fantastic. And if it doesn't, you hope it doesn't sink you.

But the possibility that it could does remain. So let's talk about the number five starter. and how realistic is getting that top or middle of the rotation piece for the Mariners. It's not looking great right now. We're going to talk about that in just a moment. Real quick, a reminder of this episode of Lockdown Mariners is brought to you by Bet Online. It's that time of year again as college basketball's tournament is finally upon us. From all the latest odds, contests and player props, betonline.net is the number one source for all your sports betting needs and info.

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Thank you again for making us your first listen of the day, just like you do here every day. And just a reminder to check out Lockdown MLB prospects. Lindsey Crosby is a prospect encyclopedia and he's going deep on the MLB stars of tomorrow. It's free and available wherever you get podcasts just like us. So we were just talking about Matt Brash, Levi Stout, George Kirby. Two of those guys pitched yesterday against the Diamondbacks Brash looking pretty, pretty good. Had some struggles with the with the command a little bit of the fastball.

but a slider looked good, topped out at 3,000 RPM, something like that. What was the number that you told me last night, Colby? I think it ended up being 3128. Yeah, that's, if you're not familiar with spin rates, I'll simplify it for you. That's really good. That's an elite slider in spin rate.

like top 10 in all of baseball already. Yeah. And I mean, we've seen it. We've seen videos of it. It is arguably the best pitch in all of minor league baseball for the last year or so. And that might be coming to to Team Mobile Park pretty quickly here. So yeah, again, Brash looked pretty decent. Kirby got hit for about six runs yesterday, big three run home runs.

David Peralta against the diamondbacks. Ultimately those, you know, numbers aren't going to dwell too much in the conversation here for the number five spot. But just, you know, looking at this because, look, right now you're seeing guys like Luis Castillo maybe being shut down for shoulder soreness with the reds. We've got to see how that develops.

You know, the A's guys with Frankie Montas and Sean Manias still haven't been traded and there's a lot of teams in their market. And then you look around the rest of the league, there aren't a ton of options that you're saying, yeah, that guy is definitely going to be traded before opening day. And there really isn't a ton of reason for those teams to trade, to trade them as if there's like this deadline happening on April 7th.

They can wait. And, you know, it's ultimately a two-way street, right? So it just doesn't seem like there's a real, possibility for the Mariners to land that top or middle of the rotation guy right now that Jerry DePoto has talked about it. So it does seem that one of Brash, Kirby, or Stout is going to make this rotation. And right now, the easiest way to do that is with Brash because he's already on the 40-man roster. But do you have a different preference, Colby? Like you said, there's not a lot of guys who are known to be available, right? We just don't have

that long of a list here. And if, you know, if Castillo is shut down with shoulder thing, it sounds like he's going to try and throw it today or tomorrow. So maybe it's not too serious. But we also have a report from Hayman that says the Reds aren't going to trade those guys right now, which seems dumb. And how you remember it's the Reds. So apart for the course, really.

So they're out. Zach Gallen was kind of a sleeper guy, but he has his own shoulder issues to deal with. he's out. Jack Flaherty again, another sleeper guy, shoulder issues, he's out.

So you're kind of looking at your own, it's the Oakland guys, it's maybe John Means, who's probably more of just a solid three than a top of the rotation type of guy. So yeah, it's not a lot of options, not a lot of well-known options,

we should say. It's, there's always a possibility, Jerry, surprises us, and just, you know, pulls, I don't know, Brandon Woodruff or something crazy like that. But, yeah, it seems almost at this point,

like something that's going to be set in stone. It's going to be one of the prospects. And I think my preference would probably be brash for three or four innings. And then, I don't know, you piggypack them with Swanson or, Johann Ramirez, somebody who can give you a couple innings, and you kind of do it that way. Yeah, it's interesting, though,

that, you know, DePoto hasn't even mentioned Justice Sheffield at all this spring. So that kind of tells you that. And that was another point that I wanted to make in the last segment, right? Is like the Mariners could very well, just, you know, Jerry DePoto could very well say, well, here's Justice Sheffield, or here's Nick Margavittus if he's healthy.

really don't know if he's healthy or not. You know what I mean, though. He could go with a very unexciting option here at the number five spot. But at least with someone like brash, someone like Kirby, someone like stout, there's upside. There's something that's exciting. And that to me, at least I'm glad that that's at least the path that Jerry and friends are taking here instead of just saying, yep, we are going.

going to try and make it work with Justice Sheffield, right? Which kind of screams a similar strategy to what they did last year when they, when they went, you know, we need someone to cover endings right now. Let's open up a very important game in Colorado with Keenan Middleton. And after that, Darren McCacken. Yeah, it didn't work out. So yeah, it just, it doesn't seem like they're really all that interest. And I mean, granted, free agency is pretty much bare at this point.

But I would think throwing a minor league deal at somebody like Chris Archer and seeing what he's got the next couple weeks would make sense, especially if the plan is to start Brash. And you can kind of or you could start Archer for three innings and then Brash for three. Yeah. That seems to make a lot of sense to me. But that doesn't seem to be something they're interested in at all. So, you know, Jerry's talked in the past about a guy who could move to the bullpen. he hasn't talked about that recently, which makes me think he probably, you know,

ran through his list there and didn't find anybody. Yeah, it's just, it's tough, man, to find a, to find the right fit here. And it just sure seems like it's probably going to end up being brash as the number five. But I don't think it's going to be as a traditional, you know, he's going to go 85, 90 pitches. I think it's going to be closer to 50 and they'll take him out. it's a little tougher to do this year because there are fewer off days,

but they'll find a way to manage. And also, Scott doesn't have that extra pitcher in his bullpen. You can only have eight this year. So it would really benefit the Mariners if they expanded the rosters to 27 or 28, at least for the first month. Yeah. So at the end of the day, how do you feel about Brash? and being able to start right out of the gate.

We didn't see him at the major league level last year. He got called up, but they never brought him out of the bullpen. There's a funny tweet from Savage to Poto on Twitter yesterday about, hey, there's Matt Brash. He finally made it out of the Seattle bullpen. So how do you feel about the viability of that walking into 2022, walking into opening day? I would assume his first start will be in Chicago against White Sox.

if they go with brash because it does it does seem like it's going to be brash especially when jerry talked to root sports on what was it Saturday and listed you know curby stout and quote unquote especially brash

kind of just seems like it's going to be Matt brash right? Yeah um yeah don't don't love it um because for me the bigger issue here is is you know

hey look if Matt Brash was your number five for a couple weeks fine whatever the bigger issue is is what if Matt Brash has to become your number four because you know God forbid one of your top four gets hurt which you know isn't unheard of for pitchers so yeah then at that point are you just wrong with Kirby no matter what no matter how he looks no matter how you know ready he is because you probably have to because at some point you can't just you know you're the Mariners or is that where we get into the territory of Justice Sheffield, you know?

Right. Andrew Albers, Darren McCacken, who's not even in the organization, whoever the Darren McCacken equivalent is, right? Ian McKin. Seattle's just not in a spot where they can afford to do that, you know, unless it's, you know, once or twice. They have to be, yeah, they have to be better than that. So that's, again, that's why I'm a big fan of Chris Archer.

There's at least some upside there. But yeah, I mean, maybe again, maybe there's somebody who gets bumped from their rotation that the Mariners are high on. Maybe Tyler McGill or whatever his name is from the Mets. It looks like he's the sixth guy. Mets probably aren't going to trade him, but, you know, there's some upside there as well. So maybe it's somebody like that. You know, who knows, maybe Pablo Lopez is available at the end of the spring. Or, you know, maybe Jerry is fishing in deeper waters and even we really, we understand.

understand. So we'll see. Like I said, I'm not, I don't hate it so long as the other four are healthy, but you can't guarantee that. So it's hard for me to to love it. Yeah. So and then you brought up a great point to you, right? That if one of your top guys gets hurt, you're in a sticky situation. Very sticky situation. Like if Marco has to go down for an extended period of time like last year, if, you know, say Logan Gilbert gets hurt or Chris Fluxon gets hurt, what have you. You have a problem on your hands. You don't have really any sort of depth that has major league experience aside from Justice Sheffield and Andrew Alvers, which that is frightening.

It's terrifying, frankly. That's why I said, like, this is one of the major concerns heading into the season for the Mariners right now. And, yeah, there's excitement with that. Right, because it's, it's the young guys. It's the guys that they have spent the last three years investing in and building and putting together. And you're finally kind of seeing them reach this, this level. But also, you could see it just going completely sideways for them.

And Jerry Depoto is a very actionable GM, right? He's not going to sit on his hands. He, so I would, I would think that if an injury has, happened he would try to quickly add from the outside but there's no guarantee that you're going to find that deal a deal that works for you a deal that's not going to require a massive overpay especially if you're kind of shooting a little bit higher than everyone thinks and especially when you had opportunities here to add talent on you know for for a few million dollars like even the tyler anderson deal i know he got what eight million dollars from the dodgers

What else are they going to spend that money on right now? I'm fine. They didn't do that. But, yeah, I get the sentiment. Yeah. I mean, like, I mean, wouldn't you rather have, like, Tyler Anderson's depth in case of that, in case of that event? Not for $8 million. Nope, I'm good.

It's a one-year deal. I'm not spending money, just to spend money. Move on. One-year deal. I'd rather start Levi Stout. to be honest what's yeah all right whatever we're going to talk about kind of staying in the same van here what are we uh what are we disappointed by what are we happy with from this off season why is it okay to be to feel both we're going to be talking about that in just a moment real quick

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Amazing selection, reliably low prices, all the parts your car will ever need, rockato.com. all right colby you uh you clearly hate tyler anderson so you're very happy that they didn't bring him back clearly for eight million what else are you happy about with this off season um i'm happy that the dollars that is for money and only a one year commitment eight million dollars for a number six starter cool um right on dude um anyways because tyler anderson performed at a number six starter level last year he was a number five starter last year. He was a number four. He was a number four.

He's a number four. He's a number four. He's a very borderline number five. There is nothing special. He's a middle of the road for. He is not a middle of the road for. That's not even close to accurate. Anyways, I'm really happy.

I'm talking now. Okay. I'm really happy that the Mariners went out and got the best bat available, period. Like, it's, it's really, You should rattle off that stat you did yesterday on the Patreon show. I'm pretty sure I rattled it off here. But yeah, so all the, all the hitters who, who changed hands this off season, Jesse Winker had the highest WRC plus amongst those hitters who swapped teams.

He was 13% better, I believe, than Freddie Freeman. I'll pull it up right now. he was better than Freddie Freeman. He was better than Carlos Correa. Pretty much name a bat that got moved this offseason. Matt Olson. Yep, he's better than Matt Olson. He's better than Marcus Simeon, better than Corey Seeger.

Winker, you know, just in general, minus all these qualifiers, was the seventh best hitter in all of baseball last year by WRC Plus, which is considered by many to be the best. stat, offensive stat. It's all encompassing. The hitters who were better than Jesse Winker last year with at least the same number of at-bats, Bryce Harper, Vladimir Guerrero, Jr., Juan Soto, Fernando Tatte, Shohay Otani, and Aaron Judge. That's the whole list. Winkers 148, WRC Plus was 2% better than Matt Olson. It was 3% better than Kyle Schwerber. It was 8%

better than Nick Castiano's. It was, let's see here. It was 13% better than Freddie Freeman, 14% better than Carlos Correa, and 15% better than Starly Marte. There's the top hitters who changed hands this winter, right? So,

yeah. Where did Marte go? The Mets. Oh, yeah, he went to the Mets. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. I totally forgot about that. That happened so long ago. You know, the first half of the off season feels like an eternity ago. I feel like a lot of people kind of forget that Robbie Ray was added this offseason by the Mariners.

Because of the lockout, because of the delay. Yeah. And maybe that's what's led to some disappointment over the last, you know, few days last week or so. Because the Mariners have only made one big move. coming out of the lockout. And that's the Winker in Samara's deal, which is great move, in my opinion. Fantastic move.

One of the best moves I can remember Jerry DePoto making, quite frankly, considering what they had to give up, which wasn't a ton. I mean, Brandon Williamson hurts, but we don't know what the other prospect was. We won't know until, you know, for a couple of months at least. But to get one of the best theaters in baseball,

who you just talked about, Jesse Winker, and a reclamation project who should at least hit for power this year and a Eugenio Suarez for Brandon Williamson, Jake Fraley, Justin Dunn, and a player to be named later. Yeah, that's a great deal. To get Adam Frazier, to get Robbie Ray,

all the stuff that they've done. And I don't even think that we should look at it just as what they did after seasons end. It should also be what they did at the trade deadline, getting Diego Castillo. getting Abraham Toro. Those guys are also, should also be included as part of this

because that work started in July. And, yeah, I think what they did is, it's at least put them in a position where they're going to be competitive. They're going to be in this thing, barring, you know, significant injuries or some other sort of catastrophe.

By July, by the point where they can say, yeah, let's get aggressive and add to this roster and go for this thing. That said, I also get why people are let down. I get why they're bummed. You know, I don't think that, you know, we should crucify the Mariners for what they've done, which a lot of people or what they weren't able to do this off season, which a lot of people have, unfortunately. But I get being bummed about it.

Yeah. You know, would I have liked to have Trevor's story on the Mariners? Sure. Would I like to have Chris Brian on the Mariners? Sure. Those guys would have helped. But also you look at kind of the weird structure of stories deal. That's a little shady. You look at, you know, the exorbitant amount of money that Chris Bryant got and the seven years and the no trade clause and he's probably going to play first base and DH and left field. No, thank you. You know, you look at some of the just the rest of the market. There's there's caveats. There's concerns with a lot of those guys. And so, but yeah, I get it.

You know, they didn't get any of the top names. And a lot of the top names fit at positions that they, they had needs at. So it is completely okay to feel bummed about what they didn't get and also be excited for what they did get because they did have a good off season. They didn't have a great off season. They didn't have an off season where you can look at it and go, oh my God. they're better than the Astros which I no one should have expected that by the way

it's going to be incredibly hard to do that and I don't think a lot of people expected Carlos Correa to leave frankly which does hurt the Astros a lot but still I think the Barroners put themselves in a good position here to compete for the wild card and more come July and I think that's really you know, staying in

reality here before we, you know, before the off season began, I think that's really what you could have hoped for. You know, they didn't sit on their hands. They didn't let absolute disaster strike where they lost out on Bryant's story and just didn't do anything.

They did stuff. Like you said, they got the best header that switched hands this off season. Yeah. Here's a little. list of players with at least as many at bats as Jesse Winker who beat Winker in batting average on base and slugging, all three categories.

The entire list is Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Bryce Harper, the end. Yeah, they got the best bat. That changed hands. Not the best player, but definitely the best bat. They got a, they got a, I would say a number two. starting pitcher in Robbie Ray. They got a probably, probably this year going to be between two and a half to three and a half win,

second baseman more than likely, you know, last year he was four, but this year, let's just say two to be safe. They got an everyday second baseman. They got a third baseman who carries tremendous upside and really is, appears to be getting better the further he's removed from his shoulder issue.

At the very least is an adequate Kyle Seeger replacement. And like you said, they added Abraham Toro, Diego Castillo. You know, they added these guys at the deadline who are going to help them, you know, obviously beyond last season. And, you know, they are adding Ken Giles back. That was some foresight to, you know, add him. And technically you can't really count. You can't count that towards this offseason, the Giles thing. but in a way you can.

But there are pieces that are coming into play here that you didn't have last year. Yeah, absolutely. You are getting better and you're not just getting better with what you did over the last few months. You're getting better with the work that you put in place over the last few years, frankly, because also, you know, Julio comes into the mix here. You're, you know, we'll see how that goes. Matt Brash, George Kirby, Levi's all these guys that we talked about throughout this entire episode. they all kind of count towards this thing and have, you know,

culminated to this point. And, you know, it's exciting. It's a little concerning, you know, some aspects of it. But I think the Mariners, again, just to kind of circle back here, have built a roster barring catastrophe capable of putting themselves in a position at you know come July or whenever you know because there might be trades in April and May and whatnot we don't know how the lockout is going to have lasting effects but they're going to be in a position where they're in a they add one piece they add a couple pieces and we're talking

division truly like I think they are legitimately one to maybe three pieces away from competing for the ALS. The gap is certainly closed. And part of that is because the Astros really didn't do all that much. They didn't do anything. And they're not going to have Lance McCullors. They've lost Carlos Correa. For a couple months, yeah.

Or for a month at least. They brought back Burlander, but he was always, you know, expected to be in their, in their line. And we also don't know how he's going to bounce back at his age from Tommy John. right it's kind of weird right

with the astros and we're going to have to wrap up soon here because I know you have to go and we're also over time but just to kind of finalize our thought here like it's weird how everyone kind of just seems to expect that Justin Verlander is going to be a number one yeah

that's not a guarantee at all no it's not I think he'll be pretty good but yeah it's definitely not we shouldn't be banking on it Um, and you know, aside from bringing back done who again is not an, or sorry, Verlander again, it's not a, not an addition exactly, although he did miss off last year. But this was expected. So it's kind of tough to count.

It's an addition from where they were last year, but, yeah, not really. Uh, aside from that, the biggest move they made is they signed Hector Nairus, who's a good reliever. They lost Kendall Graveman. Yep. So basically, Narris replaces Graveman. And then. The only other major league deal they signed this winter, Nico Goodrum, which I like that move,

but it's Nico Goodrum, you know. Yeah. Who, of course, is going to hit for like a 120-d-0. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. But, you know what I mean? It's like, look, yes, they have Kyle Tucker still.

Yes, they have Alvarez. Yes, I like Chas McCormick quite a bit. It's still a very good team. But it definitely Grille. Right. Yeah. But it definitely got worse.

And we need to, one thing we need to understand about the Astros, they don't have the ammunition to go get significantly better. Yeah. They don't. They have arguably the worst farm system in baseball. It's right there. And they don't have first round picks. They're still talent and they could still get creative and then piece something.

together, maybe take on another massive contract. Remember, they underpaid for Verlander because the contract was so huge. So they do have ways to add significant players, but it is going to be incredibly difficult for them to do so, whereas a team like the Mariners has all the ammunition they need. Any player that's available via trade this summer, the Mariners can't afford. That's a fact. They can absolutely afford it. Whether or not they want to buy it is a different matter, but they can afford it.

Whereas Houston and really, you know, also the angels who we shouldn't overlook entirely, just, you know, they'll shoot themselves in the foot somehow. But they are a very talented roster. Those two teams really can't compete with the Mariners' ability to get better in July. So if this thing is close and if it's a three-team race or if the Mariners are leading the division or whatever, who's going to be in the best position pending health? it's going to be the Mariners because they can go get a lot better in July, June July and the other two teams

yeah, the other two teams in this division really can't. So something to keep in mind. Yeah. Talent acquisition doesn't stop. Oh yeah, absolutely. And I get the frustration that like, you know,

why can't we just have it now, right? Why can't they make that move now? Why can't they get significantly better now? I get that, right? And everything is situation, you know, situational and circumstantial. and you know we don't know we don't know what's going on with the market right now we're not in the front offices

we you know we don't know none of us do and but i i i do understand that there that there is some frustration with you know maybe not taking the the killing blow if you will right now which even then you know the astros is still good they're still going to be very good this year and but but like you said the mariners are in a spot right now where if they make a here, if they make a move there, if something breaks from them like Julio Rodriguez becoming the superstar that they think he is, I mean, there you go. That's a huge addition right there. So, yeah, you know, it sucks that they didn't get a story. They didn't get a Bryant. They weren't really in on a Freeman or a Crea or anything like that. And obviously, we have to rain in our,

expectations a little bit with, you know, with some of the bigger players, you know, just they might not want to come to Seattle and it might not have anything to do with the organization. itself. And that's something we all have to realize as fans is that if a team, you know, if the Mariners can't get a free agent, it might not be because the player, you know, because they're not offering enough money or not because the player doesn't even want to play for the organization itself or they view the organization as not a fit for them. It could also just be they just don't want to come to Seattle. Straight up. So on that note, that's going to do it for our show. thank you so much for joining us here on lockdown mariners for colby pat node i'm tidy gonzalez

be sure to give us a follow on twitter at l o underscore mariners you can follow me at dane gnzalus it's d a n z lz and colby at c pat 11 that's c p a t11 you can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode and thank you again for making us your first listen of the day just like you do here every day now make your second listen to the day locked on mlb for paul francis sullivan and please call him sully brings you his unique perspective on the major league's president pass. It's free wherever you get podcasts just like us. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we will see you tomorrow. Peace.