Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Dissecting Alex Bregman's Reported 'INTEREST' in Joining the Seattle Mariners

Episode Date: December 12, 2025

Scott Boras has reportedly signaled to the Seattle Mariners that free agent Alex Bregman is interested in signing with them. Ty and Colby discuss why that report is likely being used as leverage, but perhaps not in the way most would assume, then they assess Bregman's fit in Seattle and what contract the Mariners would feel comfortable handing out. Read Adam Jude's report on Alex Bregman and the Mariners' third base situation.Click to learn more about the Everydayer Club!Check out our Patreon!Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11Follow the show on Bluesky: @lockedonmariners | @tdg | @mlbcolbySupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA and NFL seasons are here, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.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.

Alex Bregman is reportedly interested in being a mariner. Well, he's willing to consider being a mariner, but probably not. Or maybe, but probably not. Right. Colby, hit it. You are Locked on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hoy, Sailors, it is Friday, December 12, 2025.

You're listening to the Lockdown Marys Podcasts, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Now, the number one sports podcast network. My name is Tiding Azales, and I'm joined, as always, by McCos, Colby Patnode. We're two lifelong Marys fans who've been covered the team for over half a decade. And today, we're going to talk about Alex Bregman. You know, there haven't been many, you know, out of nowhere things reported about the mayor is not just this winner, but in recent winners. There really hasn't been any local reporting.

about, you know, the biggest free agents on the market when it comes to the mayor is nothing from the Seattle Times about like, hey, the mayors might actually be able to land this guy or this guy. So when Adam Jude wrote on Wednesday that Scott Boris is, quote, initiated discussions with the mayors to express Breggman's willingness to consider Seattle and free agency. I know it's a mouthful. That obviously blindsided me and blindsided a lot of Marris fans because this off season in particular has been very straightforward. So we're going to talk about it. It's far more interesting than a lot of the things that we've talked about this off season. We're going to talk about why it's probably

leverage, but maybe not in the way you think. We'll also talk about the off chance that it's actually true and Bregman is indeed interested in being in a mirror. What would that look like? We'll talk about what we think the mayors are overall getting up to right now. But before we get into all that, I want to shout out our title sponsor today, GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use the promo code Locked-on MLB. That's L-O-C-K-E-O-N-M-LB for $20 off your first purchase. So, yeah, this Breggman's stuff, Colby, pretty sure it's a leverage play. but I'm not totally bought into the idea that this is just 100% Boris considering the source

of where this was reported of where this report is coming from it's Adam Jude of the Seattle Times it's not John Heyman it's not Mark Fein Sand it's not a national non Jeff Passon reporter because if it was then I'd go oh yeah that's just 100% Boris pulling strings but because it's specifically Adam Jude of the Seattle Times. I think this actually might be coming from the Mariners. Now, I know that Jude wrote that this is coming from an industry source, which kind of makes it sound like it's from outside the organization. Again, I'm not 100% sure that this is coming from the Mariners.

I can't say that. But I can't say with full confidence that the whole industry source thing doesn't mean that it's not from the mayor's. absolutely mean that it's from the mirrors so that part to me that doesn't matter i do think that this is coming from the mirrors and if so it makes sense right because uh there's still this pretty wide gap being reported between them and horace polanco polanco once a guaranteed third year maybe even a fourth year uh the mergers seem like they're holding pretty firm on this two year offer that they have on the table for him they also have a lot of irons and different fires on

the trade market so saying like hey yeah Alex Bregman has reached out to us and you know he's interested in considering us possibly maybe whatever it was like that does in theory you know throw another option out there that does give them a little bit of an advantage right they can use that to their advantage and Scott Burris can also use this to his advantage because it doesn't seem like Bregman's market has really developed at all. So, yeah, I do think that this is a leverage play. I just don't think it's a leverage play in how most people assume that it's just, you know, it's just 100% Boris just pulling strings and doing what he always does.

I think this is also the Marys a little bit. It's pretty clear that this, again, the initial reaching out, like that's, Boris is trying to drum up business because he told Bregman that he was going to have all these great offers, and very clearly he doesn't, at least not right now. You look at the teams that have been heavily rumored to Bregman this year, Detroit, the Cubs and the Red Sox. Well, the Red Sox are knee-deep in these Marte negotiations. The Tigers and the Cubs really, I mean, the Cubs have kind of gone out of their way to say,

like, we need to spend a little less money than we have been spending. that's why they're not even remotely considering trying to retain Kyle Tucker. So they have their own problems. And the tigers, they, you know, they haven't really been spending a lot of money recently. So right now they're kind of focused on whether or not they're going to trade Tarek Scouble or not. So, you know, there's just not a lot of buzz around Bregman right now. And, you know, this happened last winter as well. There was a lot of thought that Bregman was going to get, you know, six to seven years with $180, $200 million.

or something like that. Don't. That he was going to get something like that. And he ended up having to take a three-year deal with an opt-out after year one. And now you kind of wonder if Bregman's sitting around being like, I probably shouldn't have opted out, you know. So we'll see what the case is. But very clearly that is, you know, Boris trying to drum up business for his client.

But I think what's probably also happened here is the Mariners are like, look, Boris has tried to use us's leverage in the past with other free agents. And he's, you know, dropped the mystery team. nonsense, even though his players never end up signing with the mystery team. It's always the team that you expect and all of that. And this time around, I believe the mayor has looked at him and be like, we're going to use this to our advantage and we'll tactically leak this. And this will, you know, polo and this might push some of the teams that we're kind

negotiating trades with to be like, hey, you know, we do have this other option. We might be willing to pursue. Now, is that actually going to work? No, because I don't think anybody, I don't think anybody who cares is, or anybody who matters in this case is that stupid that they would be like. like, oh, the Mariners are absolutely going to try and go get Bregman. That's not going to happen. Like, the Cubs aren't going to be afraid of this.

The, you know, the Diamondbacks aren't going to be freaked out that the Mariners might go trade for Brick or sign Bregman and then not want to trade for Marte or whatever it is, right? Like, that's not going to happen. So it's kind of silly when front offices and when GMs and, you know, agents kind of play these games, we're like, oh, I'm going to, I'm going to create some leverage here. And it's like, only of you think, like, the people who work. these front offices are as stupid as the people who you know lead comments on Twitter like it's just one of those things where I don't think this has ever actually worked where you've

actually drummed up so much this but yet they keep doing it so I don't know maybe it does work and we just don't know it but yeah more than anything this is just Boris being like this is not great I'm going to fail this guy two years in a row and that's going to be a shot on my fantastic reputation, which already should be pretty, you know, dinged up by now, but whatever. And a couple of players have already, you know, they've already ditched Boris over the last couple years. Yeah. Cal being one of them. Right. And, you know, keep in mind is that Boris is a guy who used to, like, run everything. And now he's not. He's still like the biggest agent, but he is not a super agent who owns every great player. And that reputation continues to take

hit after hit every winter and yeah this could be another one so he's very clearly trying to drum up some business but the the mariners to their credit have been like look we're going to use the star advantage like screw you and your advantage we're going to use the tars so it actually does benefit the mariners in that way but yeah uh bregman not going to happen uh it just it doesn't really make uh too much sense based on how the mariners have operated and how they've said they're going to operate. Well, and also, you know, they leaked last year. They didn't feel like Alex Bregman was a fit for the ballpark. Right. And by the way, when you look at the data, all of his powers to the pole side really doesn't go oppo that much. He doesn't hit the ball that hard either.

Never really has in his career. So he's not going to slice through the marine layer in all of that as well. So it's kind of one of those things where it's like, look, he is a little bit of an odd fit like in terms of his profile to the ballpark and Bregman's talked about you know how ballpark factors matter to him and like he wants to play in a good hitter's park so he can put up his numbers and that's really all he's done in his career he's played in Houston he's played in Boston there are two ballparks that are pretty tailor made to his swing where he hits a lot of fly balls out to left field but they're not especially hit hard uh so you know he kind of needs those short porches uh or the tall wall they take advantage of so

Yeah, there are a lot of reasons why Bregman doesn't make sense. There are some why he does, and we'll get to that in a minute. But just overall, this is a story that is attempted to be a tactical leak by Scott Boris to kind of drum up business for his client, but really isn't going to have the desired effect he hopes and is actually only going to end up benefiting the Mariners. Although I doubt that benefit is honestly that great. like I really don't get when these teams are like oh well sure this team might be interested and it's like we know they're not we know we know well I think what they're trying to do with here specifically with worry Polanco is going like look we have a deadline like you need

to decide soon you know jerry at the winter meeting saying like we would like to add a hitter within the next seven days they've openly you know how to they've let it be reported that you know they've been talking to the cardinals about bernan donovan and, you know, there's been some other names that have been floated out there. Obviously, the Cotel Marte stuff hasn't necessarily gone away, even though Adam Jude and Ryan Davis reported that it's highly unlikely that they get something done with the Diamondbacks for Marte. So I think really what this is about is getting Polo to finally decide

because I believe Divish told Jason Puckett the other day on Puck's show that he believes the pirates have that third guarantee year and maybe even have a fourth guaranteed year. But does he really want to go play for the pirates? You know, is the extra year, extra two years, maybe a little bit more money on the AAV? Is that worth going to play for a bad team when you could go play for a contender

and stay where you know you're comfortable? So I think they're trying to force his hand. that's what i really think is going on here ultimately i really do think that polo's their number one priority right now sure but i i just think it's very easy for pullo's agent to look at the mariners and understand who they are and how they operate and be like okay you might be trying to line up fallbacks and all that but we Alex bregman is not a fallback for you if you don't get horay let's be honest like there's no way he's like oh well we don't sign soon they might go give your money to to bregman that's not a thing i guess i guess i guess the way that they would

try to characterize this is like hey Alex Bregman might be falling into our laps like ooh look at that but you're at least a month and a half away from even considering that possibility like if Bregman's floating around out there in late January and you can you know you built

out the rest of your team you're like oh I mean heck we get them for three years and like an option like maybe yeah well now there's like this little like back and forth going on between them and the Red Sox you know like hey, we might sign your guy. Now the Red Sox today, it's reported by Chris Cateo. Like,

the Red Sox are very much interested in Jorge Polanco still. So it's like, hey, I'm going to sign your guy. It's all just stupid, silliness, schoolyard thing. And it's, it's wild that like, it almost feels like sometimes GMs and agents are just bored. And they're like, I'm going to stir up some drama just for the fun. And it's just like, nobody's falling for this. What are we doing?

Wouldn't you though? You're an agent of chaos. I respect the hustle. But like, Yeah, it's just, it's one of those things where it's like, do you really think that that anybody believes that the Mariners fallback plan to Jorge Polanco is Alex Bregman? That's really what you want us to believe? No, sorry, nobody is buying that. Not Polo, not his agent, not Alex Bregman, not Scott Boris, not anybody listening to the show should not be falling for that. But I appreciate them doing it because it gave us free content. And that is always good.

like free water always take it always use it and on that note we're going to talk more about this pregnant thing and we're actually going to look at it from the perspective of hey this is true he actually does want to play for the marries what would that look like we'll go over that in just a moment but first a reminder of this episode of the lockdown marries podcast

is brought to you by game time and doer the world cup is coming back to north America for the first time since 1994 and with 48 teams for the first first time ever, it's going to be massive. But let's be honest, getting tickets is usually the hardest part. That's why the Game Time app is clutch. Finally giving fans a real advantage when it comes to snagging seats. With Game Time, you can track price drops in real time, get alerts when great seats open, and buy tickets the moment they hit the app. It puts the power back in your hands

and makes going to the World Cup realistic instead of impossible. Pull up the app and the layout makes it so simple to scroll through matchups and compare seat views. Pick a game. tap a section and have your tickets locked in within minutes no confusion no hunting for fine print prices include fees up front which i love because there are no last second surprises at checkout so take the guest work out of buying world cup tickets and every match concert or event with game time download the game time app create an account and use the promo code locked on MLB that's Oc KED oh and MLB for $20 off your first purchase terms apply again download the app make an account and use the promo code locked on MLB.

That's LOC, KED, O N, MLB for $20 off. Swipe, tap, ticket, go, game time. Holidays are here, and this year, I'm not stressing about what to wear because I'll be wearing my doers. These are the most comfortable pants I own, hands down, and I ain't go lie. They make me look good.

I've been recommended doer to all my friends because these are my favorite jeans to wear for any occasion. I can really tell a difference with doer's high quality, temperature regulating cool max fabrics they keep me warm but i don't overheat doer invented the original performance denim and they give us the best of both worlds combining classic jeans wear style with the kind of comfort and performance you get from athletic wear designed to look great and stay comfortable all day long all year round and it's time for you to experience the comfort of doer i know you'll love these pick up a pair for yourself or as an amazing holiday gift find doer at your local

Seattle R-E-I location or shop online at shopdoer.com slash locked-on Seattle. You'll get 15% off your first order. That's shop, D-U-E-R dot com slash locked-on Seattle for 15% off. Shop-doer.com slash locked on Seattle. And you're listening to the Locktime Marries 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 you already live your team every day now take it up a level and go add free join the every day or club today and get locked on mariners with no interruptions members only discord access and more all for just five dollars a month or fifty dollars a year go to locked on mariners that supercast.com or check the link in the show notes to learn more all right colby we're going to do your favorite thing here we're going to pretend that Alex Bregman is actually interested in joining the Meriters. I know you love doing things like this. We're going to talk about what that would look like.

Why Breggman actually does make some sense for the Marys, which he does. What that contract could look like. And I actually want to start there. He's like, if he's not drumming up enough interest here, the assumption here is like he's going to get like four to five years, about $25 million a year, right? That's roughly the assumption. but if he's not drumming up enough interest could that number drop to a point that is a bit more reasonable

for the mayor's because like right now they trade it for Ferreira they checked off one of their biggest items off of their to do list for no money added the Naylor contract is weird to look at from the mayor's perspective because like how does a signing bonus affect how they view payroll for 2026

if at all you know how should we like account for that like should we just account the signing like should we include the signing bonus when calculating payroll even though that technically doesn't count towards payroll blah blah blah blah because right now they're at I think $143 million if you don't account for the signing bonus so in theory like if about $170 million yeah they could sign Alex Breggman for $25 million a year that would be like the only other thing they could do but also kind of seems like they only want to add one more bad in a reliever for the rest of the off season so is it really that much of a difference

not really um but yeah so maybe the contracts could get to a more reasonable place for the marries of bregman uh just doesn't get enough interest maybe he winds up signing another like one year kind of deal with options but in general like is there a place where you think the barons would actually feel comfortable exploring a bregman deal because like again they already leaked last year they didn't really feel he's a fit for the club or for the ballpark rather like what do you think this where do you think this gets to where the marines go you know what actually we will take that shot yeah um to get there probably no more than three years maybe four uh probably no more than i don't know 20 ish a v and like

Breggman's worth that, and then some. So, like, I'm not saying that he's not worth more than that he is. It's just that for the Mariners specifically, we know how they feel about guys over 30, you know, and giving them long-term deals. We know that, you know, Breggman's, like, actual offensive profile doesn't fit all that well with Seattle. Now, the good news is that his home run power is exclusively pole side. Like, he's not, he doesn't rely on, you know, right center field. to left center field hitting those bombs out there.

So that's, you know, a benefit to him where is to Oscar Hernandez. That's where a lot of his home runs hit. And that's why the ballpark kind of killed him. Bregman's power is more pull-side power. But also, that's kind of a negative because, you know, you look at where he's played his home games in his entire career. It's the short porch out in left field in the Crawford boxes. And it's the tall wall out at Fenway where you can just, you know,

bang routine fly balls off of the wall and get doubles out of them. That's where a lot of his slug comes from. So when you look at the profile, he doesn't hit the ball that hard, never really has. He doesn't have tremendous bat speed, which isn't always a negative. I mean, Polo doesn't have great bat speed either, and he hits just fine. But he doesn't have great bat speed. He doesn't hit the ball that hard. He does, you know, make a lot of contact.

He does draw a lot of walks. Like, I'm not saying he doesn't fit at all, but he just kind of look at the, he doesn't hit the ball hard. The pole power is questionable in a normal ballpark, especially, you know, I mean, team mobile's not even normal but it does play a little more normal down the lines but it's not a really a great fit and again the age uh is going to be a factor i really don't think the whole he's an astro or or you know the cheating thing matters that doesn't matter to the organization no and it's not going to matter to the at least at least not to the front office it's not going to matter to the clubhouse either because they're going to look at pregnant

this guy's four or five one player and and like yeah you live now you don't now stanton and you know ownership they do care about like how does the player fit in the community and stuff like that so maybe because they feel like the the fan base won't receive him well maybe that is a hang up for ownership it's not going to be uh the hang up for ownership will be writing the check as we know well i mean that's the main one yeah right so yeah i think yeah i think the the circumstance to get to where this is even remotely feasible is late january early february right around spring training right around pitchers and catchers reporting he's still unsigned the market hasn't developed uh like at all and you know i think honestly it would take like boston getting marty and

the cubs just being like we're not interested uh because you know we're not spending money this winter yeah i think you would almost it would be very much a hat-in-hand situation yeah at that point you hold all the leverage also did um you know glaber taking the qualifying offer in detroit did that kind of eliminate that as a possibility it might have Um, plus, you know, Detroit was mentioned last year as a potential landing spot for, for Bregman. And they made a pretty sizable offer and Bregman turned them down. And then when they got time to get, you know, back later into the year, uh, the offer wasn't on the table anymore. So I wonder how much of like Detroit's reported interest was from last year instead of new interest this year.

Um, so look, it's more like trying to connect dots rather than actual information. right so yeah i don't think he's going to get you know the six years and the 180 million dollars like he wanted last year he's certainly not going to get that this year he's going to be 32 right around opening day so you're paying for his age 32 33 34 season for a guy whose bat speed isn't great so it's going to go down he doesn't have to fall that hard so there's a shot that at team mobile park he's more average still a very good defender uh still probably going to be a four-win player even if the offensive numbers were depressed a little bit So he's still absolutely a solid player, and you should be happy if the Mariners actually were to sign him.

But the circumstances in which he would sign with you are so unlikely that it's not even really worth having that much of a discussion about right now. Again, we get a month from now, and Bregman's not signed, and we're hearing more about like, you know, he might have to take another one or two-year deal or a three-year deal with options and all that. He might have to take that. Then maybe we can start to have a real conversation about this. But right now, I mean, if you're, if you're pregnant, like Seattle is probably near the bottom of the list of teams that you would find acceptable because of the ballpark. And you're probably looking at that going like, well, I mean, if they want to give me the 6 and 180 or the 6 and 150 or whatever it is, right, then yeah. But the Mariners are not going to do that. And I don't really think they've, I really don't blame them for not wanting to do that.

Yeah. Well, he checks off a lot of their boxes. and he scores the ball up so he creates a lot of quality contact you know he doesn't chase he doesn't whiff you know he controls the zone uh the but he doesn't hit the ball hard he doesn't hit and he doesn't barrel the ball up yeah he's also still a pretty good defender though yeah very good you know and obviously he plays a position of need now obviously the the bregman stuff was reported in an article that said though the mayor is not really interested in at in a third basement which I think is kind of BS.

I don't think that I don't think the mares are stupid. I think the mares are content with, you know, rolling out Cole Emerson eventually, you know, Ben Williamson to start the season. I think like if push comes to shove, yeah, they'll do that. They're fine doing that. But I don't think they're stupid.

And like, yeah, we're just going to cut ourselves off completely from this market because we have Ben Williamson. In the same article where they're trying to use Alex Breggman to leverage, why would we believe them when they say oh we're not even remotely interested in a third baseman more leverage. Because like here's an example

and we'll talk about Brennan Donovan here in a little bit at the end of the show like they're not going to get Brennan Donovan you know let's say they trade for him. They're not going to get Brennan Donovan to play him over Cole Young instead of Ben Williamson. They're not going to get Ben Williamson runway over Cole Young. Like if they get Brennan Donovan and he's now

Donovan might DH some if they acquire him. But like if they acquire Dillon. Donovan, they're probably going to primarily play him at third base when he's playing in the field. Like, I just cannot imagine that they're going to get more runway to Ben Williamson over, you know, a guy that just graduated from being a top 100 prospect in all baseball. Right.

I mean, you could flip it. If Colt Emerson runs away with a third base job, then they'll definitely give, uh, they'll give Donovan, you know, the reps over Cole Young at second. Yeah. So, yeah. Again, just to go back to Bregman, it makes, like, in a perfect world, just you don't have to worry about contract and long-term fit and all that. Like Bregman would be very high on our list of priorities. But again, you have to factor in what he actually wants, what he said he's valued in the past, where the Mariners are at in their payroll, and how we know the Mariners operate when players are over the age of 30 and they're not in their organization.

like the marries are going to be much more willing to give a guy an extension when they know they know him and they know how he plays in the clubhouse and they know what kind of works he put what kind of work he puts in they're going to be much more likely to that guy significant money than they are somebody they've never had and they they don't really know how to you know how he operates so and by the way if you if you if they did sign alex bragman because i i know what people are going to bring up here well if you sign bregman then you're going to block cold Emerson no because then cold emerson can go actually play his natural position of shortstop and i can move jp crawford to second base or i could just stop assuming the 20 year old colt emerson is

definitely going to be major league ready in 2026 and is definitely going to contribute then and by the but in terms of just giving him runway allowing him some runway to start right like i can just move jp crawford to second base we just move which is where he which is where he needs to be and yeah it's really just a problem to move jp and yeah just move them to second base yeah oh no i have too many middle infielders a sentence nobody has ever said and they're like don't worry about it and then long term jp's gone after 2026 it's just a reality you should start to accept it and emerson's the shortstop so even if you sign bregman you still maintain flexibility to give your young guys some playing time plus bregman could probably use some more dh days

at this point in his career so yeah yeah yeah a chunk of last season so yeah so yeah so Bregman, even with the concerns about how the bat would play at T-Mobile Park, I would say he fits. Yeah. I'm super down for this. And I don't care about the whole he was involved in the Astros cheating scandal thing. I don't care about any of that. I want good players on my baseball team. Alex Brickman is a good player.

And on the off chance that he is actually interested, I don't think he is. Again, I mean, preface by saying that. But on the off chance that he actually is interested in being a mayor, I would like for the mayor's to seriously consider that, to explore that and try and make that happen. Sure. I don't think I'm all that interested in seven years, but, you know, three, four year contract at market value, then fine. Do I think the mayors would give that to him? No. And even if they did, do I think Bregman would take it? Not unless he literally had no other options, but you might be in that place. I mean, his other options might be another, you know, one.

year deal with a couple of yeah yeah with a couple options which that might be the only way that the mayor is you know just to go back to the start of this conference conversation that might be the only way that the mayor is wind up being being interested is like polo went to pittsburg or he went to boston donovan ended up getting traded elsewhere now it's February and bregman's still out there maybe they do it at that point um yeah so it's interesting bregman is a guy that we've talked about in the past like regardless of money let's say the merrars would be willing to just spend however much money who's the best fit in the free agent market it's probably either kyle tucker or alex bregman yeah and given how bad third base is around the league and given that like yeah ben

williamson good defender but he really can't hit at least as far as we know like third base probably the most pressing need all the marries roster right now uh so yeah bregman might be like regardless of money the best fit for the merits on the free agent market so yeah so again if we get to a month from now bregman's still in the market we might revisit this topic but consider him talked about and asked and answered like he is this is a leverage boy just did a whole episode about him so there you go this is a leverage ploy he's not coming here we have no reason to believe he's going to come here right now as we record this could things change in four to six weeks maybe it's possible.

Do I think it's like... For six to seven weeks, Colby? It's four to six. No. Yeah, so we'll see what happens if we get down to it. But, yeah, honestly, the Bregman thing was not the big news that came out of the little Wednesday news dump that we didn't get to talk about yesterday because Ty had family obligations. Who has family obligations around Christmas time? What a nerd.

So, yeah, we're going to talk about the actual big news. or, well, rumor, not news. Little nugget, yeah. And by the way, there isn't enough stuff for me to do a final out episode. So this is kind of going to be like the final out episode in this next segment coming up. So we will talk about Brennan Donovan again, tease that earlier. We'll talk about Donovan. We'll talk about what we think the Marys are just getting up to right now overall in just a moment.

But first, a reminder of this episode of the longtime errors podcast is brought to you by Fandul. NFL Sundays move fast. One big play and suddenly everything feels different. That's what makes live betting with Fandul so exciting. You're not just watching the game. You're reacting to it in real time. With Fanduel, you can place bets as the action unfolds. Every drive, every momentum swing, every highlight moment.

Live betting is best when the game starts to shift. A receiver gets hot. A defense tightens up. or the momentum flips after a turnover. FanDuel lets you jump it to the moment as live spreads and money lines adjust instantly and player props update as guys heat up. You can bet next touchdown scores, drive results, totals, and more. It keeps you locked into every snap, every drive, every possibility.

So if you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit fanduel.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. fan duel the game moves fast and so can you and you're listening to the locked on merits podcast part of the lockdown podcast network your team every day as always if you want to hear from me and colby even more and help support the show we have a patreon it's called control the zone and on there we talk merrins we talk sea hawks we talk all that good stuff

for more information go to patreon.com forward slash control the zone link in the description of this episode so starting next week and until the start of February we're going to be on a three schedule or three show a week's schedule here on locked on. So we'll be posting Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Obviously, like if something happens, you know, a trade is made on a Tuesday or a Thursday or on the weekend. We will do an emergency show for that.

Or if, you know, we just have to move things around, we might post on a Tuesday rather than Monday or on Wednesday, whatever. You get the point. And then the Patreon shows will be happening on the days that we're not recording Lockdown. So if you're a member of our Patreon, expect episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays during that time. And then when February rolls around, we'll be back to our regular schedule, five shows a week here on lockdown all the way until mid-December again. So yeah, it won't be that long until you get us back on a regular schedule. But I'm going to take a little bit of a break

here over these next few weeks. All right. So I mentioned earlier that Ryan DeWish was on Jason Puckett's show after the winter medians. I think he was talking to him from the air. report, actually. And on there, he talked a little bit about Polanco, which I mentioned the Polanco stuff earlier, how he thinks that Polo is getting that guaranteed third year from Pittsburgh, maybe even a fourth year, and whatever Pittsburgh is offering. He also mentioned, though, more interestingly, that if the Marys did land Jorge Polanco, that they would still be very much involved in the Brennan-Donovan trade discussions, which is kind of counter to what are belief has been for the last few weeks this off season that it's probably only going to be

one more bat and then they might add a reliever and that's kind of it but also keep in mind here brendon donovan gives them a lot of flexibility plays multiple positions and he's only projected to make 5.4 million dollars this year in arbitration really isn't a whole lot um you know we still don't really know how much money horre polanco is going to make you know the report from uh davish And Jude earlier this week was that he's looking for somewhere more than $12 million a year. Then Jeff Passam reported that he thinks he's probably going to get about $15 to $18 million a year. So it's kind of all over the place right now. So we don't really know how much that would actually eat up the Mariners' payroll.

But it is interesting to see that or to hear that the Mariners, even if they did get a Horace Palaco, they would still be looking to add another legitimate offensive piece and someone like Brennan. Donovan. They also, you know, Jude and Divish mentioned that if they lost out on Polanco that, you know, maybe they could turn to like Willie Castro or Luis Renhifo and then trade for their big bat that they would like. So, you know, Renhifo or Castro would just be a bench piece. You know, they would like spend some money that way to just add a bench piece that

they like, which is also cool because we would really like to see them beef up the bench and, you know, beef up the depth of this, the offensive side of things. on this club. So, but yeah, so just going back to the, to the Donovan thing, that's nice to hear, right? Yeah, I mean, honestly, it's the ideal outcome, because obviously, you know, Polo hypothetically would DH, he'd be your primary DH. Donovan would probably be your primary second baseman, unless, you know, Ben Williamson wins the third base job, quote unquote, then, you know, Donovan's starting for you either way. And then you also get Donovan next year, probably for $10 million or less, and you have an opening in left field because Randy or Rosarana is probably

going to leave. So you kind of eliminate something you have to do next winter if you get Donovan done this winter. My thing is, is that, like, I would hope that Donovan is, they see Donovan is so valuable to them that this would apply with not just polo. Like, for example, like, let's say they don't get polo. It's like, okay, well, what do they get Brandon Lau? Are they, would they still go after Donovan? he still makes sense even with Lau, and Lao's probably going to end up making a little bit less money this year than Polo. So I really hope the Donovan thing is like they like him so much that if they can get him, they'll add, you know, they'll add him regardless of who this other bat is. And not just like, well, they don't get Polo and they get Donovan, then they're fine. Like, no, use the extra money. Like, like you said, Donovan's only making $5.4 million this year. So if you can get the other bat for, you know, 10, 11, whatever you thought you were going to pay Polo. then you could still do both. So I really hope that's the plan here. If they miss polo and they end up with Brandon Lau,

they should still be in on Donovan. So I really hope that's what's actually happening here, that Donovan is somebody they like so much that they view him as if he's available, we're in regardless of what the rest of our roster looks like. I think that's kind of the big play here because we talk about this. Like if they just got Polo, that's just running back the offense. Is it better than it was at the end of the year? No, it's not because you don't have Gino.

Like you're hoping Ben Williamson and Cole and also you got a factor in regression. Like is Dom Kanzone actually, you know, a 300 hitter, probably not. Cali's not really going to hit 65 home runs. Yeah, no. No. So, yeah, I mean, is, I mean, keep in mind like Josh Naylor was, you know, on a generational run with the Mariners for 54 games. Can he do that over 162? I don't know, probably not, but maybe, but you kind of have to factor these things in.

So just, by the way, even if they brought back Polo, like, is Polo going to be as good as he was last year? Because I know we think 2024 is more of the outlier, but Polo's also got a long injury history. He could regress all the way back to 2020. I mean, Polo's typically not been a 130 WRC plus guys. So there's probably regression. He's been more of like a 115 to 120 guy. So, right. So, yeah, you have to factor all that in.

And so just bringing back the exact same offenses last year was a recipe to have. an offense worse than you had last year. And by the way, that's why I've said in the past, I think like if I had to pick one of these guys, Donovan or Polanco, I'm picking Donovan. Because I think Donovan's just the overall better player because Polo has to hit.

He has to hit in order for him to be valuable. And if he's not going to be that 130 WRC plus guy and he's more of a 115 and 120 guy, well, that's what Brennan Donovan is. And Brendan Donovan is a better defender on top of that. And he's cheaper. Now, obviously, I have to, I have,

I'm going to have to pay something nice to get him. Prospects. But, like, overall, yeah, and that gives me more flexibility, not just in terms of, you know, where you can put Donovan positionally, but financially as well. Like that, like, adding Donovan and not Polanco, you know, just that $5.4 million that Donovan's projected to make, that now that allows me to go get another offensive piece,

or that allows me to go spend real money on another reliever, you know, whatever to, you know, still fit in that budget that they have. Sure. Again, I would have really like, you know, to be able to ask Ryan, like, hey, is Donovan, like, do they like Donovan so much that they want him regardless of what the rest of the off season looks like? Like, if they don't get polo, would they still be willing to add another bat plus Donovan if the market, you know, should dictate that they can afford him? Because I think that's a big deal because you're talking about adding two bats who are both, you know, every day. players who are both well above average hitters to your lineup

instead of one. And that's significant because one more everyday bat is not going to fix this lineup. Two more makes you one of the more formidable lineups in all of baseball. If I had to guess, the answer would probably be not via trade. At least not for a significant bat. Because, you know, you

just spent Harry Ford to go get Ferrer. You're probably going to have to spend at least one top 100 guy to go get Donovan. It would probably be, you know, the next guy would have to come via free agency and then obviously that's kind of a tight window that would be my guess on the answer yeah because god forbid we give up harry for gerangelo sanja tie pete and teddy mcgraw to get brandon low or plow Jose ferrer and and brennan donovan that would just be terrible wouldn't it uh so yeah we'll see what happens i i think i suspect you're probably right

though but uh you shouldn't be like the mariner should be very willing to get aggressive here And again, like Donovan, you get for multiple years. So, yeah, we'll see. But to me, that was the biggest takeaway from the whole, like, mini rumor dump we got on Wednesday shortly after we ended our shows. Yeah. Is that the Mariners might be willing to get two bats if one of them is Donovan. And that, I think, would significantly improve the team, would leave no doubt that this team is better than they were last year, which right now I have serious doubts about whether or not they'll get to that. And then, you know, it still sounds like they really want to sign another reliever, particularly a right-handed reliever.

And it does kind of seem like that's trending more towards free agency. So we'll see what will happen. I don't know about you, but I'm getting the vibe, at least that I'm getting from the Mariners right now, is that like they're just kind of in a wait-in-sea mode on the bats. Like they're waiting to hear from Polo. I think they're kind of waiting for. I think they feel confident enough that they're. they're going to that they can get something done and quickly that they're that they that they feel like we can just kind of sit back now and just watch what happens well i think right now they're

waiting for donovan's market to actually be like crystallized because i'm still talking about like oh we're still scouting all the blah blah blah blah blah and all that nonsense uh because let's be very clear about this donovan's a very good player you have no business expecting to get elite prospects for Brennan Donovan. You can get very good prospects, but you're not getting Kate Anderson. You're not getting Colt Emerson. You're not getting, you know, Bryce Miller or Brian Wu, like some morons out there have suggested. Yeah, but he's, he's Bloom's best trade chip right now. So, you know, I expect him to, you know, exhaust all options and all out of sure. I'm not, I'm not saying he shouldn't be out there. You, you know, you shoot for the stars,

but it doesn't mean you're going to get them. You're not going to get them. And I think the mariner's at a point where they probably said like look this is what we're willing to do you do yourself scouting you let us know how close we are and we'll go from there and i think they've done something similar with catel martay this is the offer this is what we're willing to do if this isn't good enough okay that's fine uh if you know if you come back to us then you know we can have the discussion i think they've made their best and final offer to horace polonco uh i imagine they've had talks to some degree about brandon low and they kind of know what that's going to cost them like i think the mary sure they've had talks with the cubs about

Nico Horner again as well because there was a report yesterday I think that there's been some interest shown in Nico Horner wow I wonder who that is yeah so yeah it's just one of those things where I think the mariners are kind of waiting out the market because I think they've made their offers to all the bats that they're interested in and now they're just kind of waiting to see which one they end up with and so I think if the mariners do make a move here before Christmas, which I would say they probably do. I think they get something done in two weeks. I think it's going to be for the reliever, the second reliever that they're looking for.

And then we'll have to wait and see how the bats fall. Cut to, you know, 20 minutes after this episode comes out, Polo has signed with the pirates and Bregman is signed with the Red Sox again, and this entire episode was a waste of time. But, yeah, things move fast. Things move fast. But, yeah, to me, the easy big rumor was the. two bats possibility.

Well, that is going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Marrars podcast part of the Lockdown Podcast Network your team every day for Colby Patnode

I'm Tyning Azalus be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L0 underscore Merrers you can follow me at Tyning Azalus and Colby at C-Pat 11 that's CPAT 1-1. We're also on Blue Sky you can follow me at TDG

Colby at MLB Colby in the show at Lockdown Mariners you can also find us on Instagram at Locked Marrars. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you next time. Peace.

Thank you.