Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Could the Mariners Have the Best Outfield in Baseball?

Episode Date: March 10, 2025

It's Mailbag Monday! Ty and Colby answer your questions, including if the Mariners could have the best outfield in baseball in 2025.Check out our Patreon!Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11Follow the show on Bluesky: @lockedonmariners | @tdg | @mlbcolbySupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Wonderful PistachiosLooking for a snack that’s both delicious and nutritious? Get snackin’ and get crackin’ with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more. SelectQuoteGet the right life insurance for you, for less, at SelectQuote.com/LOCKEDONMLB.  FanDuelRight now, new FanDuel customers can get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins!Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official 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.

Can the Marriors have the best outfield in baseball? We'll answer that and more coming up here on the Locked On Marrars podcast. 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, March 10th, 2025. This is Tiding Azales and Colby Patnaud for the Lockdown Marys Podcasts. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network of your team every day. This episode is brought to you by Fandul.

Right now, new customers can get $200. and bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. And as always, if you want to hear from me and Colby even more and help support the show, you can check out our Patreon. All you have to do to check that out is click the link in the description of this episode. As we do here every Monday, it's time to open up the mailbag and answer some of your mayor's questions. And we're going to start with Alex, who wants to know, could the mare's end with the best outfield in baseball? Fangraphs has them tied fifth.

I think all these guys have huge upside, or all three guys rather have huge upside. Alex also and his question included a screenshot of a table that listed all the outfielder projected starting outfielders in baseball and their projected war. But that table, I didn't put that table in this episode for a couple of reasons. One, because it was too large to just fit on the screen. And two, there were some pretty glaring omissions when I looked at that list, specifically when you get to the A's portion of it, where it has Brint Rooker. listed as part of the outfield for the A's, but not Lawrence Butler. So unless I'm missing something, seems like that list isn't super accurate. No.

Rooker, I believe, by the way, played exactly zero innings in the outfield last year. I could be mistaken there, but I know he didn't play a lot out there. He might have played some, but yeah, he was primarily their DH. So yeah. And Lawrence Butler was awesome and just signed an extension. I'm like, yeah, he's going to be part of their outfield this year. Right. So like, could the Mariners have the best outfield in baseball by the end of the year?

I mean, like, I guess it's within the range of outcome. But like, I think the problem you run into is that other teams have like that carrying guy. Right. Like, who knows how good the other Yankees outfielers are going to be. But because Aaron Judge is there and Judge has put up eight, nine, 10 win seasons kind of a lot, he's going to carry a lot of that. So we're just looking like which outfield trio is going to have the most cumulative war than guys like Judge and guys like Soto and guys like Tucker who have been these,

you know, big, you know, accumulators of war. They're probably going to tip the scales a little too much for the Mariners to catch up with. And it's not that Julio can't be an eight, nine win player. You certainly can do that physically. He's just never done it before. and so it's kind of I'm almost to bank on it yeah it's just I mean

who would you bet on to have an MVP caliber year this year Aaron Judge Juan Soto Kyle Tucker etc. Or Julio I think the answer is pretty clear it's Juan Soto it's Aaron Judge Kyle Tucker

I don't even money sure sure but if you go check on who's our title sponsor today is Vandal Fandle if you go check on Bandul maybe the odds for Julio are ones that you like because I think it's a good year to bet on Julio hashtag not gambling advice.

So yeah, yeah. I mean, if it's just straight up, like who's more likely to win an MVP this year? It's those guys. Yeah, certainly. So if you're talking about like which trio will have like maybe not the highest cumulative war, but like which individual trio will each player have a higher war, you know what I mean? Like if it's just kind of a one through three instead of just one and then the other three two guys kind of tag along then maybe seattle can be near the top the mariner's outfield i think

think is going to be good like it's going to be really good it's going to be good if you want to look at it in a similar light to the way that we look at the mariner's rotation where we just talk about like how quality it is one through five so with the outfield it would be one through three in this case like looking at each individual player like they're all really good players right um so yeah like from that standpoint like yeah they're probably a top five unit in baseball. But in terms of like just cumulative war, I like the Mets a lot better because Soto is just going to produce at a star level.

And Jose Siri is going to give them a ton of value defensively. And he's going to hit some homers. And Brandon Nemo's still a really good player. And, you know, the Yankees, they have Judge, right? And they have Bellinger, the Cubs, another one now that they have Kyle Tucker with Ian Hap and PCA. Like, I think those guys are going to be up there in terms of the war. I just see a clear path for some of these other teams to have a higher cumulative war than the merriors. But again, if we were just looking at like quality of player spot to spot to spot, yeah, the merrars are definitely up there.

Yeah. I mean, like could Julio have an eight win season and Randy have like a four win season and Robles have a four win season? And like, oh, wow, that's really good. That still might not even be enough to outpace Soto and his friends and judge and his friends. out there. But yeah, the Mariners Outfield is definitely a strength of this team. So is it best in baseball? No. Is there a chance that ends the year as the best in baseball? Yeah. I mean, there's a chance. I think it's highly, highly unlikely, though. Juju wants to know. Who do you think could take over Colt Emerson at the number one spot in the Mariners Farm system? You have to choose

someone. If they draft Arnold with their pick, right, then he's probably the number one. If they draft Arquette with, you know, their pick. He's probably the new number one. In this system, I don't think anybody can do it this year. But if I have to pick somebody, I'll take Felon. Yeah, I think Felon's the only dude. I could do that. Plus, like, let's keep in mind here,

there's a pretty small window here for someone to do this, because I think Emerson is going to make his debut and possibly eventually graduate here in the next 18-ish months. Yeah. So, yeah, if it's someone in the organization, organization, then Felman's my pick, or whoever they draft at number three.

I think there's a pretty good shot that they're going to be a higher rate of prospect than than Emerson. I think Arnold and Unless they go under slot. If they go under slot, then I think only Arnold and Arquette are the only two I would put over

Emerson, but things can change. I don't know. We're barely. No, I think I'd still have Emerson ahead of Brimner. But, yeah, I mean, like I said, things can change. You know, we're only, about a month into the college season. We still have another two, three months to go there. So certainly things can change there.

But yeah, in the org right now, Belman has the highest upside of anybody, any of the prospects. And he's also the closest to Emerson in our prospect ranks right now. So that kind of seems like the only reasonable answer here is that Belman, if he has a big year and maybe he gets to Everett this year

and he's playing well, then he can surpass Emerson because then he won't be all that far behind him either. or so even the ETA doesn't matter at that stage. If he stays healthy and he's crushing it in Modesto and he makes it to Everett, then yeah, I think at that point we're going to have a real conversation about who the number one is. All right. We are going to answer more of your questions here in just a moment.

But first, a reminder of this episode of the Locktown Marries podcast is once again brought to you by Fandul. All right, folks, it's that time of year again. March Madness is finally here. And Fandul is giving you the chance to get in on the action like, never before. Right now new customers can get $200 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. That's $200 to use on everything from buzzer beaters to Cinderella stories and even who's

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I think he would offer way more to the team this year than Mitch Hanager. Hanager, not exactly having a great spring. You know, hasn't played a lot either, by the way, which is mildly interesting. But, yeah, I mean, like, look, I think we agree that Hanager is going to make this team. you know, whether he deserves to or not, and based off what he did last year and what he did the year before, and just kind of the limited value he brings you if he's not hitting, which is no value if he's not hitting,

he shouldn't be on the roster. And Taylor can at least play the outfield, play some defense. He has a lot of experience, you know, playing second base. So he can also do that if you need him to. And he can steal bags. I think he had 50 stolen bases last year in AAA. He didn't hit in the PCL, though. and that's a concern.

So, you know, and by the way, Taylor was really good last spring as well. So him being good this spring doesn't tell you anything. So yeah, I do think I would rather have Taylor on my bench than Hanager. But I think Hanigar is going to be on it. I think, you know, we've accepted that. And he'll probably get a couple opportunities early. And if you can get any kind of, you know, offensive surge from Hanigar, even if it's only for a couple weeks, then

you'll have gotten more out of him this year than I thought you could. So I think they're going to roll with it and you give it a month. And the nice thing about Taylor is he's not on your 40 man. You can call him up whenever you want. He's going to be down there in Tacoma. And if he hits, like he did not do last year. Like last year, there was literally no reason for the Mariners to ever call up Samoa Taylor. Because he was bad in AAA.

Yeah. So I think he's got to go down there. I think he's got to hit this year in AAA before he gets a call up. I'm not going to hand him a 40 man spot and an opening day roster spot because of a good spring. He didn't earn it last year. So he has to earn it this year. So while I would rather have Taylor than Hanager in a vacuum, I'm not upset that the Mariners would just be like, well, we'll just give Hanager a shot here. Right.

Yeah. So, yeah, I do want there to be some more speed, some defense off the bench, maybe even a left-handed power bat, which kind of eliminates a couple of people when you factor in the speed and all that too. So yeah, I do think there are better options than Hanager to have on the bench. I understand why the Mariners would be like, Taylor, he's not an option right now.

Let's see what happens. All right. John Stanton's burner. Yikes, never going to get over that, even though we've answered a few of your questions on here. On your typical 2080 grade scale, where are the chances of Rowdy to Les impacting this rock?

on opening day. If not, then, what are the chances he impacts the roster midseason, kind of like Mike Ford in 20, right now I'd put it at a 20 because if Mitch Hanager is on this roster, you're talking about having Donovan Solano, Mitch Garver, Mitch Hanager, and Rowdy Telez all on the same roster. Yeah. And probably only one of those guys in the starting lineup every day, which means at any given time, your bench is going to have three of those guys on it. And, you know, in terms of a bench roll, they're all kind of the same guy. Yeah. Now, we haven't seen Luke Rayleigh play at first in a while.

Who knows if that's actually a thing, but he's in the outfield again today. Blah, blah, blah. If they, let's just say for a second, like, they have given up on that. Like, yeah, I guess Donovan Solano would be your first. basement but also he's been playing a lot of third and you probably need him to play at least some third so what do you do at first base you just put rayley there then what if they don't think that he can play first i haven't heard great things to be fair i have not heard good things about luke raleigh at first base i don't think that's a thing i just i refused like the mariners

don't care about first base defense and like what are you going to put randy rosarena as your everyday d h like fine okay then yeah put rayley and left field but A, I don't think Randy's going to love that. And B, like, you live with it because if the alternative is a Rowdy to Les Donovan Solano like first base thing.

And Rayleigh has to me that it works. If like, and as things are currently constructed. And Rayleigh's just DH and you're wasting Rayleigh's athleticism on the DH so that you can roll Rowdy to Les out there. Like, what are we doing, man? Like no.

Yeah. I would say now because I can't underestimate the Mariners. I'm trying really hard not to do that. I'd say there's a, this is a really bad thing to use a 2080 scale on, by the way. I would say there's like a 30, I guess, that he's on the opening day roster. And him impacting like, I don't know,

he was really bad the second half last year. Pretty good the first half, though. And I think to Les is the guy. You want him to stick around. you want him in Tacoma just in case something happens to one of these guys. But I feel like you're just trying to like, you know, force in a puzzle piece that doesn't fit. And you're just not being patient enough and looking at the big picture and being like, oh, this is the piece I actually need. It just, it doesn't fit, man.

Like, Giles gives you nothing defensively, nothing on the bases. And probably just based on what he did last year, nothing at the plate. Yeah. I know he's having a good spring, but again, who cares? So I just, no, Teles doesn't make any sense to me to be on the opening day roster so long as Mitch Hanager is here. Yeah. And so if they move on from Hanager or if, you know, I don't know, I mean, that's pretty much it. Because even if Garber gets hurt, you're going to call up the catcher. That's not Tulles. So yeah, I just, to me, Hanager and Tulles can't coexist on this roster. The only way that I could see him on the roster again is if they have given up on the Luke Raleigh for a space. thing. That's the only way that I can see it. And even then, Mitch Hanager is still a massive roadblock.

Because then you still have basically three guys who should pretty much only DH in Garber, Hanager, and Tellez. Yeah. And so it's just, it doesn't make sense. Like the Mariners really like their roster flexibility. This is why they've not gone after full-time DHS, right? At least that's what they say. sure it has nothing to do with the money. So like, why would you then just build a team? What are we, Jack Sorenzic? We going back to that model?

Like, no, it just doesn't work. Tellez, cool story. You know, I hope he sticks around in AAA because, yeah, he could be a Mike Ford, you know, middle of the season, bring some impact. Yeah, you could do that. But on the opening day roster, while Hanager is still here, no, no. Even if you don't think Rayleigh can play first base.

And I think that would be moronic of the. the Mariners you need Rayleigh's bat in the lineup you know figure it out live with it deal with it yeah yeah so it's just too many unathletic relative to the rest of the league bodies on the roster I mean I don't even know you need that

qualifier with Roddy to Les but yeah you're listening to the Locktime Marrace podcast got a couple more questions to go over here on mailbag Monday Spencer wants to know with Francisco Alvarez Frankie Montes and Shamaniah injuries for the Mets would Luis Castillo and Harry Ford for Mark Viantos package or a challenge trade of Ford for Jet Williams to make more sense.

Kirby injury obviously complicates things, but M's seem to think he'll be fine. So a couple things on this first and foremost. This fan fiction Friday? Well, yeah, yeah. But also one that would come down to do the Mets actually think that Harry Ford is ready to be some sort of viable option to fill in for Francis? go alvarez and two no the marines aren't trading louis castillo especially now with the uh the george curvy news they're not it's not happening same same thing applies to the yankee situation now that uh garret col's done now they're seeking a second opinion but seems like he's going to be done yeah

uh as for the challenge trade thing i don't think jet williams makes a lot of sense for the mariners they have Cole Young, they have Felman, they have Emerson, like they have Williams, like they've got infield options. And Williams has been terrible in the Mets development system. And Ford, you know, at the very least is a viable backup catcher defensively with athleticism. And he's actually, you know, produced some, whereas Jet Williams is not. So I don't think that's a very good trade, you know, to me. I don't think that's a good challenge trade.

So, yeah, it's just, I don't think the Mets are going to let, you know, being without Alvarez for the month of April, you know, dictate them trading for Harry Ford because Harry Ford's probably not going to be ready in the month of April. And by the way, good for Harry. He's having a great spring. He's driving the ball more now. He hasn't struck out yet. Yeah. Yeah. It looks like he's, it looks like he's starting to tap into that raw power that we all knew is there.

He's a strong kid. That Homer against the Cubs was really impressive. He's a very strong kid. He's got bat speed. He's very athletic. It's always been there. And now if he's starting to tap into it, do you want to jump ship right now for Jet Williams,

a guy who is probably, I don't know. Because if Harry proves like he can hit for power, down on the miners, probably won't be that long until we see him at the big league level. And they'll find a spot for him. Well, I mean, either with the Mariners or with another team. Yeah.

Like, Ford is going to, carry more trade value to you than Jet Williams is as well. So like Williams to me, based on what I know right now about him, not a top 10 prospect in the mariner system. So it just, and he's further away from the big leagues. So I don't, I don't see it. I don't think it makes sense. And I don't think that the, the Mets are going to panic and trade their starting third baseman for Castillo. And then it's like, oh, cool, Emerson Hancock and Logan Evans in the rotation for how long, who knows. So I don't think it makes sense for the Mariners. I don't think it makes sense for the Mets. It's far too reactionary this early in the year. We were in July and, you know, this happened and all of a sudden, Ford's having a

pretty good year in AAA or whatever. And, you know, Sanja is maybe like ahead of schedule or Evans has continued to develop and it's Kirby's back healthy. Like in July, something like this might make sense, although unlikely. No. Yeah. I mean, if Ford continues, used to do what he's doing this spring into the minor league season that's someone that i'm calling up as soon as i get enough of a sample size that's someone i think can really help this ball club right and i i don't think we're saying like he has to hit 500 no no no and slug 800 he's obviously spring training stats don't matter i'm talking about the process of what he's doing right the not the numbers he looks better yeah like yeah he's a more the home run he hit was a pitch

that was off the strike zone. And we talked about Harry Ford should swing more. He should walk less because he's a good hitter. He's got bat speed. He can do damage on some of these pitches that he's taking. And so again, if he's added a little bit of strength, if he's kind of tweaked his approach a little bit, then Ford is still a guy,

even though he slid down the ranks the last couple of years. He is still a guy who could impact a major league roster in a pretty big way right away. You know, by the way, he stole like 30 bags last year on top of all that. So speed, defensive versatility. If he's got power, if he's got a hit tool now, because he's going to be a little more aggressive at the plate, yeah, we'll see what he does at AAA. It's going to be a challenge for him.

But if we see this kind of new approach, this new version of Harry Ford and AAA for six to eight weeks, he might be your call up. He might beat Harry Ford. He might beat Cole Young to the big leagues. So I doubt it, but he might. And so, yeah, it's a big year for Harry Ford. I wouldn't trade them right now for another prospect.

It just doesn't make sense to me. So I'm out on all of this. Max wants to know has Bliss's odds to be the starting second basement on opening day gotten better after this week? I know it's only spring training, but yikes, Dylan looks horrible. What do you mean? He got his first hit finally the other day. Now he's a whopping one for 22. Has Bliss helped himself?

Or has Dylan hurt himself? I think, yeah, I think it's more. This helps himself than Dylan has hurt himself for sure. Sure. You know what you're getting out of Dillamore. Nothing that he does this spring is going to change. Yeah. Yeah, like he'll go one for 22 and then he'll be red hot for a week and then he'll be, you know,

three for his last 30 and then he'll get hot for another week or two. 14 for 22 and you know, just like, geez. So yeah, it is interesting that the Mariners have kind of openly discussed about like how much they want Dylan Moore to go back to the role that he's played for the last five years. Yeah. Even like very early on in the spring. And so like for a team that's like, this is our second baseman this year. And then kind of like immediately like, boy, we sure would like it.

If we could use Dylan at, you know, multiple positions, it's like, well, what's stopping you? You could have just signed Jose Aglaeus for nothing. Right. So it's just one of those things. But like, like, just do it. like if you want Dylan Moore to be your utility guy again nothing is stopping you yeah like I said last week just give Ryan Bliss the keys and see what happens at this point

that's where I'm at yeah he's looked really good this spring he has another he had another single today and a stolen base it looks really good I would just I would just give him the keys and let Dylan be the primary utility guy and he's still going to get a lot of run at second base like we've talked about you can also help over at third if 4A Palacos not able to handle a ton of workload over there.

And that also allows you to play, you know, Donovan Solano at first base a bit more if you actually don't want Luke really to play there much. So you don't have to carry an extra shortstop, which again, they might not anyways. We've talked about this. Now they don't need to carry an extra short stuff. They just move more to short and, you know,

Bliss back at second, blah, blah, blah. But do you want Bliss on the bench that often? Or are you going to call Reevas to be on the bench because, you know, Revis doesn't have anything left and you think Bliss might have a little something left. So yeah, it's interesting. I think the best, you know, utilization of the roster spots would be that Ryan Bliss be the starting second baseman. And, you know, primary starting like, look, he's going to sit on the bench sometimes and you're going to use Demo there and all that.

So it's not like Demo, like, it's not like Bliss is going to play 162 games, right? But I think you're going to play matchups and all that stuff. Right. I think he should primarily in a neutral matchup. you should give the opportunity to Bliss because he might still prove himself to be an everyday player. And I think at this stage, Dillmore has proven that he's not going to be one.

Not for the Mariners, at least. So yeah, it's just weird to me that like the organization has like openly talked about like, like we really want to get Dillan Moore back into the utility role. And then that's where he's best at. It's like, then just do it.

I don't, I don't understand why they won't just say that that's what they're going to do. and give Bliss the job at second base. I think it's totally, you know, believable, like sellable to the fan base. Bliss was pretty good for you last year in a very limited sample size. He's been really good this spring.

I think most fans would be like, cool. That, like, Dylan struggled. So I don't think you're getting any pushback from the fans if you're just like, yeah, Ryan Bliss is going to be the opening day second baseman or the primary second. But, you can still get Demo to start on opening day if you want. I don't care. But, yeah, I do think that both of these guys,

guys should be on the roster and the best way to facilitate that is that Bliss plays most of the time at second base and Demo is allowed them to play the outfield shortstop, second, third and just kind of rotate in. So I think that's the best formation you can do. And obviously, Bliss having a good spring while Dylan hasn't had a very good spring. Maybe it's enough to kind of like, you know, help the Mariners make the right decision. But I think it's more Bliss helping himself. I don't think the Mariners are super panicked about Dylan Moore. All right. Well, that is going to do it for our show.

Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Marries podcast. And thank you for all of your questions. Colby Pat node, I'm Tadigazolus. Be sure it gives us the follow on Twitter at L0 underscore Mirrors. You can follow me at Tading Goulby at CPAT 11. That's CPAT 1-1. We're also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB Colby and the show at Lockdown Meritors.

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