Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Do the Mariners Have What It Takes to Make a Deep Postseason Run?

Episode Date: September 12, 2022

It's now a matter of "when," not "if" the Mariners make the postseason. But how far could they go once they get there? Ty and Colby discuss whether or not the Mariners have what it takes to make a deep run, look at Eugenio Suárez's monster homestand and more.Be sure to follow or subscribe to Locked On Mariners wherever you prefer your podcasts! For questions and other inquiries, email: [e-mail] up to date with all things Mariners at Inside the Mariners - a FanNation website covering the Seattle Mariners on the Sports Illustrated network.Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @danegnzlz | @CPat11 | @InsideMarinersFor more of Ty and Colby, check out their Patreon: patreon.com/controlthezone/ 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.

The legend of Gino Suarez grows and grows as the Mariners prove they not only can hang, but they're ready to wreck shop with October around the corner. This is the Lockdown Mariners podcast. Thank you for tuning in. Colby, hit it. You are Locked on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day.

The Mariners are for real, folks. It is September 12th, 2020, and Fangraphs gives your Seattle Mariners a 99.8% chance of making the postseason after taking two or three from the defending champs in dramatic fashion. I am your host, Tiding Gizalas, joined as always by my co-coast, Colby Patnode, and this is the Locked-on Mariners podcast. Thank you so much for making us your first listen. Subscribe, like, and turn on alerts if you're watching on YouTube or subscribe to the show and leave a five-star review on your preferred podcast platform if you like what you hear.

And if you want to hear from us even more, consider signing up for our Patreon. The link, as well as our social accounts, are in the description of the show wherever you're watching or listening to this. We still have plenty to talk about after a massive series win for the Mariners over the defending champion Braves. We'll be diving into the numbers of A.U. Hineau Suarez's epic week at T-Mobile Park. How deep of a run the Mariners can make into the postseason and we'll get Colby's thoughts on what the Mariners should do with Tyne France and Mitch Hanager hurting. But before I get your thoughts on anything, Colby, I'm sure you want to let the folks know about what happened last night. Why you weren't on the show? Tell your side of the story.

You know, just thanks for inviting me back. You know, kind of thought I had a lifetime invitation since I am the co-host, but I guess not. I have to ask for your permission, apparently. So no, yeah, I just got sandbag by Ty. That's all. Really not that much to say. Ty also forgot to mention we're still collecting videos and honestly, still disappointed by the number. I didn't. I didn't. I didn't. I didn't. It was after the, the LinkedIn ad read. It was after the first ad read. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I wasn't listening to you just like you didn't listen to me last night. So, yeah. So a little disappointed by that. The audacity of some of you guys to sit here and be like, oh, I don't want to jinx the merit. Did you watch last night's game?

This team's good. They're going to the playoffs, guys, get over it, accept it, move on. They're in. Everything.

It's a matter of time. It's a matter when, not if they're in the playoffs. You're not going to jinx them. stop thinking that you're some powerful deity you can go ahead and jinx the mariners by wishing them well send us your videos let us know what you think about the mariners making the playoffs and we'll put you in a freaking episode it's not that hard do it you're not some omnipotent being that can just curse the mariners you can't curse the mariners the mariners walked off kinley jansen last night

after they gave up five in the ninth it's over it's done that's that's it no your curse is broken and not that there's such thing as curses don't be a child send us your videos because it teams going to the playoffs, suck it up. You don't have the power to jinx this Mariners team. They've more than earned the right to, you know, drown the sins of the previous regime, which isn't even a thing. But yeah, send us your videos. Let us know why making the playoffs is important to you because right now I have to say it doesn't seem like it really is. I don't know. So thank you to those who did send the video to us. I appreciate it. Not enough of you. Not enough of you. By the way, shout out to, I believe Adam, who I ran into at the team store a few

weeks ago. Recognize me from the show. I forgot to do that, but I'm doing it now. So thank you very much. And, you know, send us a video, Adam. Don't be a coward like the rest of these Mariner fans. Apparently making the playoffs doesn't mean that much to you. At least not so much that you're willing to risk a jinks on a 99.8% playoff shot. Tie, back to you. Please email your video submissions to locked on Mariners at gmail.com. Cowards. Please keep the video to around 45 seconds to a minute. Say who you are. how long you've been a Mariners fan and what making the playoffs would mean to you because like colby said the mariners are making the postseason it's a matter of when not if at this point

they are 79 and 61 they are a half game over the blue jays right now which is basically one and a half games because the blue jays of course needs the tiebreaker or the mariners have the tiebreaker over the blue jays uh they also have a six game lead over the first team out, the Baltimore Orioles, which is actually technically a seven-game lead because they too have the tiebreaker over the Orioles. So this team is going to the postseason. Their magic number now is at 16.

But, you know, there's two kinds of playoff teams in my mind, Colby. There's the one kind that, you know, just kind of shows up and, you know, pieces out after the first round. You know, they were pretty good. they were good enough to get one of the wild cards, but they are not good enough to compete with the elite of Major League Baseball. And there are other teams that, you know, of course, are the elite of Major League Baseball,

or at least they have enough talent and enough gall to compete with anyone at any given time. And the Mariners, to me, Colby, have proven that they are one of those teams and then some, because, you know, look, there's been some disappointments here and there. They've lost series to the A's. They've lost series to the White Sox. They've lost series to the Rangers.

But also it feels like every time they go up against some of the league's best, the Yankees, the Mets, the Blue Jays, the Orioles, the Braves, the Guardians, so many teams that they have faced. Some of the best teams in baseball this year, they have faced, and they have won those series. I think that's proven to me this team can go very far in the postseason. You know, I'm a little worried about

if they were to run into the Astros. But to me, the Astros are the only team that I'm scared, for lack of a better term, of. Coward. Bring on the Astros. We'll sweep them in four games, game set match. The Astros can't match anything the Mariners can do, including winning with class. So, you know, screw the Astros and screw the fans.

And while we're at it, screw locked on Astros. We're coming for you. Your reign at the top is over. All right. But, no, in all seriousness. Yeah, go ahead and clip that, put it on the internet. But in all seriousness. Shots fired.

For real. Yeah. Of course, of course. The Astros are the class of the American League. There's no questioning that. And everybody else, there's a gap. I mean, there has to be considered a gap between those two teams. But, again, we're not talking about playing them 19 times.

We're talking about playing. them three to five to seven times. Like we're not talking about, you know, having to beat them over the course of 162 games. Anything can happen in the playoffs. And when you're kind of rolling with the starting pitching the Mariners are rolling with right now, outside of a few bad outings here and there, they're going to be a formidable out.

You know, Gilbert's starting to throw the ball a lot better. Kirby was amazing on Saturday. Kind of blocked down that number three spot. Not that there should have been any debate in my mind anyways. but I mean, you know, Red. He was incredible, man. He was.

Like, let's just acknowledge that real quick. Going up against Max Fried, one of the best pitchers in baseball, one of the most underrated pitchers in baseball, great pitching matchup. And George Kirby went toe to toe with one of the best lineups in baseball and basically shut them down in his start. That's incredible. The Mariners on Saturday night were one horrific J.P. Crawford air away

from pitching a three-hit shutout against, you know, the Atlanta Braves who were averaging five runs a game. and they're huge World Series favorites. That's how close they came. You know, Friday, Robbie didn't have it. It'll happen every once in a while. You know, it's kind of the first time we've seen Robbie not have really much of anything working for him. So, yeah, the starting pitching is very good.

You know, it's going to come down to the offense. It always is. I still think the Mariners will play good defense, J.P. this weekend. But I still think they're going to play a really good defense. I think they're going to pitch very well. Still trust the bullpen. Yes, Sunday was awful, but that stuff happens. You know, you just hope it doesn't happen in October,

although it probably will at some point because the playoffs are crazy. So, yeah, it's going to come down to the offense. You know, yesterday was a pretty good, you know, blend. They strung some hits together. They got runs that way. They got the big, you know, the big extra base hit that wasn't a home run with runners on base. They got our guy in from third with two outs after failing to get them out, failing to get them in with zero and one out.

but they found a way to get them in all the same. And then, of course, you have the big bombs from Julio and Gino. And that's kind of what it's going to take. You're going to need a blend of your offense, you know, getting those, I mean, hitting a ground ball or the shortstop when it will score you will run. And you're also going to need the home run. So, yeah, the team is good. There's no denying it right now.

They can go toe to toe with anybody. You feel good about facing anybody in a playoff series right now, except for maybe Houston. And even then, like I said, my four can. go up against therefore. I don't have any doubt about that. It's just going to come down to which offense swings it better and which bullpen is better. The Mariners bullpen, I think is better than Houston's. Houston's offense is definitely better than the Mariners. So we'll see what it comes down to. And obviously there's a long way to go before you get there. And it's just because you feel good about

facing any team, you know, in the AL doesn't mean that they're not also good. And they can't easily, you know, beat you if you don't play well. But you just go into, like, there's no matchup that you walk into and you're like, who, that's, that's going to be tough. Like, That's, I don't see any way they can win it. So yeah, you get into the playoffs and you have pitching, you can win the World Series. Ask the Atlanta Braves last year. Exactly. You know, and I look at the field, right?

I look at the race. I think the Mariners are better than the race. I look at the Blue Jays. I think the Mariners are definitively better than the Blue Jays. I look at the Yankees, even, you know, and they're really struggling right now. That team is in hell right now for the last two months, really. I think the Mariners are better than the Yankees. they've proven that going up against the Yankees,

that they're better than the Yankees, that they are well equipped to win ball games. They're more well equipped to win ball games than the Yankees are right now. You know, the Yankees have all the talent in the world. The Blue Jays have all the talent in the world. But the Mariners do as well, and they have the fundamentals too.

They're just such a fundamentally sound ball club except for the other day against the White Sox. But, you know, outside of that, like, they've been, I mean, they do everything right. and they are built for moments like what we saw last night. When was the last time we've seen a Mariners team consistently go into, you know, sold out crowds at T-Mobile Park and actually not leave the sold-out crowd just utterly disappointed and deflated, right? Like I just feel like there have been so many series, so many big series that the team has advertised over the years where they sell out the ballpark and then disappointment. they lose two of three they get swept what have you that hasn't really been the case this year there's

been losses there's been like you know the each row induction night that was disappointing but for the most part they have won these series they have come up huge in these big moments when the pressure is high and think about last night i said this on last night show that you know both of these teams are playing for a lot right now the high end aspirations of both teams with the braves going for the n l east and the mariners going for the wild card one and trying to extend their lead on and the Orioles, you know, and they came through. Like, both of those teams are, teams are playing at the highest level in that moment. And the Mariners came out on top.

When was the last time we could say that? You know, a couple weeks ago against Cleveland. Sure, sure, yeah. So, yeah, they're just consistently doing it, man. They won a series against the Yankees at home. They won a series against Toronto at home. Swept Toronto at home. You know, they won a series.

here against Atlanta at home. They're just doing it. And there's this narrative like, oh, the Mariners get 40,000 and in T-Mobile and they choke. And it's like, that hasn't been true. I mean, aside from the Angel series a little while ago before they kind of got on their run here, they've been really good at home, you know, and particularly against, you know, in the big crowd. So they've also been very good against teams that are above 500.

This is a good baseball team. And they're a dangerous one. I guarantee you nobody wants to see the Mariners in the playoffs. And that includes the Houston Astros. Who kind of suck? And no team is having more fun right now than the Seattle Mariner's. I mean, did you see that team yesterday? My God.

Those dudes are just having, like, I wish that I could be in that clubhouse. That looks like a hell of a lot of fun over there. All right. So let's talk about the guy that's leading the good vibes in that clubhouse right now, A E. E. Hennio Sorres, who's been. having a decent homestand, I would say, pretty decent homestand thus far for A. Eugenio-Swarres. We're going to be diving into the numbers talking about Gino in just a moment. But real quick, a reminder of this episode of Lockdown Mariners is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs.

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Thank you again for making us your first listen. Good vibes only, folks. Good vibes only. Gino Suarez has been a monster this week. And since August 1st, he leads me. Major League Baseball and home runs with 14. Five of those have come over his last six games. He has hits in four of the Mariners' last six games, all coming at home.

He went two for five. Yeah, he went two for five yesterday with a pair of home runs, including the game winner. He had a home run the day before that. He had another multi-home run game in the afternoon loss to the White Sox. he's slashing 350 435-3-35-1100 with a 324 WRC plus on this homestan. Colby, chills. DePoto did it again.

Yeah. You know, it's kind of weird. The winker trade, which is what we were all pretty much calling it at the time. Gino's basically pitched in enough for both of them to carry that trade over the finish line. And, you know, the beauty of Gino is that you get him for another two years at, I think, $11 million per year. There's some bad in Gino's game. He's wildly inconsistent. He strikes out a ton.

But defensively, he's been great. You know, when he gets on a roll, when he gets on a heater, he's one of the best hitters in baseball. You know, you remember last September, he put up like a 380 WRC plus. So it's not like he hasn't done this type of thing before. And it would be really nice if he can because you kind of look at where the offense is. right now. Mitch Hanigers, you know, just trying to dig himself out of a hole. And Ty France is essentially non-existent in the lineup.

He's a nothing right now. And right now it's kind of Julio and, and, and, you know, carrying the load here. And that's big because, you know, those are two guys that can do that. You know, when those two guys get hot, they are the type that can put up like MVP level numbers for a month at a time. both are doing it right now, but Gino is just kind of the, I mean, 13 home run since August 1st. Like he's on pace to like 14. 14. That's right. Yes. He's on pace. Like that's 162 game pace of like 80. So, so. Dude, he's out homerring Aaron Judge since August 1st. And Aaron Judge has hit like 55, 56 home runs this year. Like that's insane. Gino's been incredible. And, you know, the, you know, probably the biggest surprise of all of it is. is the glove has been plus.

You know, we knew that he was better than his numbers said because last year he was playing shortstop and he's not a shortstop. But, you know, we kind of assume like, yeah, you know,

maybe fringe average, probably Kyle Seeger-ish at third base. He's been better than, Gino, sweras this year is better than Kyle Seeger ever was defensively. And that's saying something because Kyle Seeger could pick it.

Kyle Seeger was a good third baseman. Gino is having a better year defensively this year than Kyle Seeger ever did. He's making more plays. He can make more plays. He's got a stronger arm. He's just better. And, you know, all the people like, oh, how are they going to replace Kyle Seeger?

Oh, that's going to be so difficult. Nope. They did it easily. I mean, it's not close. Gino's significantly better. It's been a huge upgrade. So when you look at like, why is the 2020 team better than the 2021 team? Well, obviously Luis Castillo and Robbie Ray.

I mean, those are two of the biggest. But they also, they also, yeah, they also, Julio. They also improve significantly at third base. I think, you know, Kyle finished last year at two and a half war. Gino's already at four. He's got 20 games to go. So, you know, he's been a huge part of this team. He's been available every day.

I think he's gotten three full days off all year. He's just been incredible and he's been reliable. You know, you never know what kind of version you're going to get of Gino. But when he's on, you know, jump on his back. He'll carry it to the promised land. So it's just kind of a, you know, a good timing thing right now. And hopefully you can carry it, you know, through the rest of the month and into October until hopefully Mitch Hanager and Thai France decide to join the party. So Gino right now on the year, 235, 336, 468, 135 WRC plus 4.2 fan graphs wore 30 home runs, 82 ribbies.

still striking out, you know, 30.8% of the time. That is, that's actually a career high for him now. But he's also walking 12% of the time. And that 4.2F4 makes him the second most valuable position player that changed hands this past off season, trailing only Freddie Freeman, first baseman of the Dodgers, who's at a whopping 6.5 F4, MVP candidate, Freddie Freeman. So if not for an MVP candidate,

a U hitting of Suarez would be the most valuable position player that switched teams this past off season once again chills Depoto did it again and need I remind you who made him one of my flag players

yeah yeah in the preseason yes I remember you were you were quite high on Gino and you're like you know I think this is might be more than a throw in so yes one good call you know could admit another good call last night and called me, but you didn't. But you're going to pat yourself on the back. How about I do something similar here.

I just the other night, you know, we briefly touched on George Kirby. And it's kind of a shame when somebody pitches really well on the weekend because we usually tend not to get to those on our Monday shows. We just have so much to talk about. But I didn't want to throw this stat out there because I did some research. So here's a stat. George Kirby is one of seven pitchers in major league. baseball who has pitched 100 or more innings posted a k per nine of nine or higher and also has

a base on ball per nine of less than two there are only six guys who have done that this is as of saturday night so you know well i don't know maybe somebody added the list there were a couple guys who just missed but here are the other six erinola kevin gossman jordan berlander Max Scherzer Shane Bieber Shane McClanahan Yeah George Kirby's good

Like I said I think a week ago on the show Maybe it was on our Patreon show Patreon.com forward slash control the zone subscribe I'm starting to talk myself into potentially picking George Kirby as my 2023

Saw Young winner when we do our preseason This is looking far into the future but I think once our preseason prediction show rolls around I might end up picking George Kirby and you know I love those high upside picks too right pick Shane McClanahan this year

so yeah I really like where Kirby's going and I mean you look at what he's done and the teams that he's gone up against and teams that he's just flat out shut down and I mean Saturday night was his best start is by far his best start

of his career considering the moment considering the situation considering the opponent he was brilliant like the Mariners have a star in the making there in George Kirby

and Kirby as you said a few episodes ago I believe he needs rookie of the year votes maybe not first place votes but he needs to be up there with the Stephen Kwan's of the world Bobby Wood Juniors

Jeremy Pena's all that Kirby needs to be that same conversation. I think it's still Julio 1 and you know oddly a close second but Kirby needs to be in that second tier for the rookie

of the year voting truly because he's just do you think about the situations of the Mariners have put him in and the Mariners are going to put him in even tougher situations as we get into October he's risen to the occasion every single time it makes me so confident about his

chances in the postseason as well because it's just it's the command right that's the elite command the elite fastball command as long as he has that he's going to give you a chance he's going to give you a chance every night and once the secondaries get better who who buddy

George Kirby's going to be forced to be reckoned with that's a crazy thing too right like he's going to get better it's like the it's like the Julio thing right like it's like Julio is going to get better that's the crazy thing George Kirby is going to get better

like that's and they're already doing this. Logan Gilbert's going to get better. So it's just one of those things where the Mariners are still an ascending team. And that's what's different about this than, you know, even the 2000, early 2000 teams. That was a team that was trying to extend its window, right? They peaked it in 2001.

They were really good still in 2002 and 2003. But they were clearly sliding to the decline. You could see that their window was, you know, slamming shut. And it was a relatively short window, 2000 through 2003, four years, decent size window, not a huge window, made the playoffs a couple times, got to a couple ALCSs. It was a great year, a great era in Mariners baseball. This particular era, you're just starting the ascent. And it's not a three or four year window. We're talking the window essentially being open for as long as Julio's in his prime.

And, oh, by the way, you have them under contract for the next 13 years minimum. So, yeah, this is kind of an unprecedented era in Mariners history. We've never really had this before in the 90s when you were building up to 95, 97. But even then, you know, 96 wasn't a great year, 98 wasn't a good year, 99 was a terrible year. You know, there just wasn't this like blueprint for just consistent championship window. And here you see it. And you see the farm system. You see the young Major League talent.

you see the controllable talent, and you understand that. They haven't even gotten, like, we don't even know who, like, Jared Kelnick hasn't worked. And he was supposed to be like the centerpiece of this thing. Taylor Tremel, you know, he's been fine this year. I wish they'd play him a little more,

but he's been fine, but that was a big centerpiece. He was the centerpiece of the, you know, the big trade, even though I think we all know the Mariners really thought Ty Francis was that centerpiece. But it's so crazy how fast the Mariners have gotten where they are. without everything going 100% perfectly right. Because the Mariners hit and misrate so far, about as good as anybody else's.

It's not like the Dodgers and everybody they pick up is amazing somehow. Right now, they whiffed on Kelnick. They whiffed on Evan White. Unfortunately, they whipped on Kyle Lewis, probably through no fault of their own. I think you can say right now, they whipped on Justice Sheffield and Taylor Tremel. And, you know, a lot of these guys that they thought

were going to be huge pieces of their rebuild. No. And yet here they are. Arguably, you know, one of the five to ten best teams in Major League Baseball right now, about a year ahead of schedule. And with really just three of their young, you know, developed guys turning into what we thought they could turn into. It's impressive. It's incredibly impressive. And by the way, since you sent shots at Lockdown Astros, I'm sending some shots to the athletic. what the hell are we doing putting the Mariners below the rays and the Blue Jays on your power rankings? What's going on here? What are we doing here? East Coast bias. Very glad I canceled my subscription to the athletic.

Just saying. Anywho. All right. Let me get your thoughts on what the Mariners should do with Mitch Hanager and Thai France here because the schedule is going to get a lot easier now after the San Diego series, which isn't really anything. Two games isn't going to. swing things that that much i don't think um so after that you know you face the angels you face the a's you face the tigers you face the royals you face all these you know bad teams uh so is it time to maybe consider putting both mitch hanniger who suffered lower back tightness

in yesterday's game and we don't really know what the severity of that is uh but if that's something that's going to linger for a few days would it be wise to put him on the aisle and And also with Thai France, with his wrist still kind of lingering, should he also be put on the aisle? Because you're going to need these guys in October, right? It can't just be the Julio and Gino show 24-7. You're going to need some other guys to step up. And Mitch Hanager and Tyner and Thai France are the first guys that I would be pointing to for that.

But does the reward outweigh the risk here? Because, you know, you will be going for the rest of the season, trying to secure a playoff spot without two of your best players. If you do that. It's a no-brainer. Put them on the I.O. You've already secured your playoff spot. You're going to the playoffs.

You say, well, what about seating? And I agree with you. What is Thai France and Mitch Hanigur done over the last two weeks to contribute in any way to the Mariners' recent run of success? Mitch Hanigur hit a walk-off single. Great. Four for his last 60. Cool.

Thai France had a pretty good week. one week, and now this week or this last week he was god-offal, the worst hitter on your team. You managed, you survived, you took a series from the best team in baseball, one of the best teams in baseball without any contributions from Thai France. Who cares?

Who cares? And what you're really going to do is you're going to give Taylor Tremel plenty of at-bats. You're going to give Jake Lamb more at-bats. These guys need reps. They have to have reps if they're going to help you in the playoffs. They have not used Taylor-Tremel at all since they called them up.

at all. And Tramel has earned them over Jesse Winker, certainly. Well, now you have an excuse. Put Hanager on the IL. You still get him for the last 10 games of the year. So it's not like he's going to miss the rest of the year. Same goes for Ty France. It's only a 10-day IL stint.

And since, you know, they're not really all that hurt, you should be able to call them up right after the 10-day IL. Ty France isn't a significantly better hitter than Carlos Santana right now. It sucks, but it's true. Look at the numbers over the last two weeks. last month, the last six weeks. Like, Typhranx isn't significantly better outside of one week. Then Carlos Santana, that's an issue.

Fix it. Put Thai France on the IL. Don't let him swing the bat for 10 days. Machanager has been awful. Flat out awful for the last month. At least Taylor Tremel gives you defense. Give you some base running skill. He's got some left-handed power.

So play Tremel. And you know what while you're at it? You put those two on the IL. You get to call up a couple different guys. call up Kyle Lewis. Give him some of the D.HF bats that are now vacated by Carlos Santana playing every day at first base. Maybe Lewis has figured something out. Maybe Louis Trenz has figured something out.

And Louis Trenz is hitting, could hit like he did in 2021. That's a huge piece to have on your bench in the playoffs. Give these other guys opportunity. I mean, I guess you could give Keldin an opportunity if you want to, but I'd probably just roll with Tremel and Lewis and Lamb, you know, working through and that out. field spot. So yeah, to me, it's a no-brainer. You put both of those guys on the IL. You get them as healthy as you possibly can before the playoffs. You don't worry about it because they're not contributing right now anyways. They're not. They're not necessarily hurting you, but they're not helping you. And just continuing to run them out there where service finally admitted, oh, yeah,

his wrist is actually bothering him a little bit. No kidding, Scott. No kidding. Put him on the IL. give him a chance to rest. And then you still have him for the last, you know, seven, eight, nine games to kind of ramp himself back up before the playoffs start. Same goes for Hanager. And while you're at it, see if maybe it makes more sense to carry Kyle Lewis on your bench than,

you know, in the wild card than it does, Abraham Toro or whoever, you know what I mean? So there's still things they have to figure out. And this is an opportunity to figure those things out. Is Taylor Tremel going to be on the playoff roster? Is Jake Lamb going to be on the playoff roster?

Well, let's give them 10 straight days, you know, let's give them 50 up, bats here before the end of the year. Let's see. Let's see if one of them forces their way onto our playoff roster. Let's see maybe we do add Jonathan VR to try and get some, you know, versatility to our 40 man for the playoffs. So we'll see what they do.

But to me, the answer is easy. You put them both on the I.L. You start to play some of the bench guys who aren't getting a ton of reps right now. Mostly Taylor Tremel and Jake Lamb. And you see what happens. Yeah. Like I said, you know, we don't know exactly if Hanager's thing is going to require an IL Stimp, but with France, I don't think you're helping him at all by continuing to put him out there

because you're exposing him to even more things that could set him back even further. I said this on yesterday's show that, you know, shock absorption from a swing, just a awkward swing, another collision at first base. Anything can happen that can, you know, set his wrist back even further or, you know, force him to miss the rest of the year, right? suffer an even worse injury that forces them out for the year. So you can't, you can't mess around with that. Not at this point in the season. And with the schedule starting to lighten up, I think you can survive without Thai France for at least 10 days. And if he needs a little bit more

than that, you have that time to give him right now. But you're starting to run out of time. You know, postseason is going to be starting in less of the month now. In less of the month, you're going to know if you're in the ALDS or not at that point. So, you know, it's, it's becoming time now for you to start making these decisions and, you know, you're running out of time specifically on, you know, giving France the necessary time away that he needs to heal up. As for, like, who gets called up. If it's only one person, I think it probably ends up being someone relatively inconsequential to the roster. I said this yesterday. I think it ends up being like someone like Mason McCoy, just to give you like some infield.

versatility, someone that maybe gives you a tool, a useful tool in late in games, some, you know, some base, you know, some value on the base pass, some value defensively, what have you. Jonathan VR can be that guy, Mason McCoy can be that guy. If it's two spots that do open though, and Hanager also goes on the aisle. I do think Kyle Lewis should be an option, even though that the same major issues is still present there. Can't play in the field consistently. so that limits what you what you can do with them. But if he can hit now. Yeah.

And you have a legitimate right-handed bat to use against, you know, a tough lefty off the bench. It's helpful, although, you know, with Haggerty and Santana, they're pretty good against lefties too. So maybe it's not a fit, but give it a shot, I would. And the other interesting one, the one that I'm really interested in is Louis Strenz. They've also been playing him at second base a little.

bit in Tacoma, which is interesting. But he's hitting a little bit down there. So, you know, if he's figured it out, like you said, if you can get 2021 Luis Trenz or something close to that and had him at the end of the season, that's a guy I want on my playoff roster. If I need a big hit in the postseason, I need someone to come off the bench, get a big hit. Louis Trens might be my guy.

I know we've got to run, so we'll make this quick. But if Luis Trens comes up and, you know, let's say he gets. 50 played appearances, right? And he goes 250, 350, 500, which I think is about

what he did last year, right? You carrying him over Casale? Probably. If he can catch it at least a little bit because defense doesn't really matter. Then whatever. Yeah.

Because Cal Raleigh's starting all those games. Yeah. In a three game series, Cal Rale, he's getting three starts. So how much do you really need a defensive, defense-only backup catcher? Mm-hmm.

You know, I'd carry a turn. So yeah, I think I would be interested. And by the way, because, again, because France, if you put him on the IL, Terenz can DH because you have Kassali, so you don't need to catch him at all. Or he could play first base and Santana can D.H. So I really like the Luis Tren's idea. I don't know how he's doing in AAA, but give it a shot.

All right. Well, that's going to do our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Mariners podcast for Colby Patneode. I'm tidying. It's all. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L.O. underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Dan Gonzalez, the C-A-N-E, G-N-Z-L-Z,

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