Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Do the Royals Have an Infield Logjam and Can the Mariners Take Advantage of It?

Episode Date: January 25, 2025

It's Fan Fiction Friday! Ty and Colby react to and grade your Mariners trade ideas, including deals for Maikel Garcia, Michael Massey, Luis Robert Jr., and more.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!Rocket MoneyCancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to RocketMoney.com/lockedon today. SelectQuoteGet the right life insurance for YOU, for LESS, at SELECTQUOTE.COM/LOCKEDON.SelectQuote - They Shop. You Save. 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.FanDuelYou can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - if you win your first FIVE DOLLAR BET ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. 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.

It's fan fiction Friday. Let's get into your Mariners trade ideas. 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 Friday, January 24th, 2025. This is Tiding Gazzalus and Colby Patnode for the Lockdown Marriss podcast, part of the

Locked on podcast network, your team every day. It's fan fiction Friday. If you don't know what that means, we react to trade ideas for Mariner's fans. and grade them on a scale of 20 to 80 based on things like creativity, uniqueness, and viability. Before we get into today's batch, quick shout out to our title sponsor, Fandul. From the first whistle to the final drive,

Fanduel makes the NFL playoffs even more exciting. Right now, new customers can bet $500 and get $300 in bonus bets if you win your first bet. Visit Fandualt.com to get started. And if you want to hear from me and Colby even more and help support the show, check out our Patreon. All you have to do to check that out is, click the link in the description of this episode. Kicking us off here on Fan Fiction Friday is Jeff,

who has a deal with the Kansas City Royals. Mariners offer up Mitch Hanager, Logan Evans, Dewell Joseph, and Jeter Martinez to KC for Michael Garcia, Chris Stratton, and Hunter for Infro. I think it's got a lot of holes in it.

For example, Mitch Hanigar, sucks to be nice and he sucks in a very expensive way. Now to be fair, Hunter Rentfro also sucks, or at least he did last year, but he sucks at about half the price of Hanager. Now Stratton is set to make $4.5 million. So when you add those two salaries together, the Mariners are still saving about $3 million, give or take, in this trade.

So, you know, that money is valuable to the Mariners. but if you're the Royals, why would you take on an extra $3 million, lose a potentially important bullpen arm, and give up your third baseman for a group of prospects that is lackluster? I mean, it just, Logan Evans is a good, solid prospect, but Joseph and Jeter Martinez, unfortunately right now, they virtually have no value, very little value. And you're talking about giving up Michael Garcia,

who's not great, but he is a, you know, a big league player. Like there's no denying that. He is at least a solid big leaguer who is a plus defender at third. Runs around. Makes a lot of contact. Good chance he gets 270. Now,

you're going to be a lot of power of that. No. Is there on base worry there? Yeah, he's got to walk a little bit more. But he's 26 years old, I think, 25, 26. You get him for four more years. He's just more valuable than that.

So even if we broke this down into two trades where it's like Hanager for, for um renfro and uh and stratton yeah stratton thank you i wanted to say uh sloick uh you got bobby sloick on the mind there bud i do apparently um renfro and and stratton like like so would the royals make that swap no they wouldn't uh so would they trade g Garcia for evans and martinez into all joseph probably not i would say no No, but maybe, but probably not.

And so I think when you combine them, essentially what you're doing is you're saving $3 million. You're getting a potentially useful reliever. And you're getting probably your everyday third basement, at least for the first half of the year. So from the meritor side of things, it's a no-brainer. From the royal side of things, why would they make this trade? I just don't think the royals would be interested in this. Yeah, because like Hunter Renfro is pretty much Mitch Hanager at this point for $10 million less. And then Stratton's coming off a bad year.

He got hurt. He had a forearm issue, which is always scary with pitchers. But in 2023, he was a one-win pitcher. And he's only making $4.5 million. He exercised his player option. So I would think that the Royals would just, for $4.5 million, they can take that shot that, hey, maybe he turns around. So, yeah, I would just ball up the Mitch Hanigur aspect of this. brought in the trash.

Yeah. Joseph Martinez and Evans for Garcia is pretty close to as far as what I would be willing to give up for Garcia. Because look, I've talked about this before with Garcia. We have 1100-ish

plate appearances now worth of data that says that he's a well below major league average hitter. Like you said, he's a great defender, really good athlete. But he hasn't been able to hit really anything worth a lick at the major league level so far. Now, he's shown some interesting stuff and maybe a breakout is coming soon. I'm fine with taking the shot.

It's just there's a certain cap on what I'd be willing to pay for that. I'd be willing to throw in a bigger headliner than Logan Evans. I think we can agree that Logan Evans is the headliner of the three prospects heading to Kansas City here. But I think the furthest I'd be willing to go is maybe Harry Ford. Yeah, maybe. And even then I have some. It's like it's not terrible. If you're giving up Ford as the headliner for Garcia,

but also it's not like a no-brainer. Garcia does have very interesting bat at ball data though. And there's some belief that if you teach him to elevate a little bit, hit more fly balls instead of ground balls, that he has the raw power. to be, you know, 15, 20 home run type of guy. Sure. But nobody's been able to do that yet, so it's still a big risk.

So the deal as it's presented to us right now is probably like a 30, 35. There are parts of the deal that make a little bit of sense. But overall, I just don't think the royals have any incentive whatsoever to pull the trigger on this. Agreed. Yeah. So I'll go 35 on this one. Stan has a deal with the Red Sox von Grissom for Trent Thornton and Tai Peet. Grissom's interesting.

There are some Jerry traits here. He doesn't strike out a ton. walks a good amount, performs very well in the minors and the high miners. You know, in former top 100 prospect. So there are some very Jerry like, you know, attributes here.

But he also hasn't succeeded at the major league level. Granted in relatively small sample sizes, but I think he has just enough, you know, days in the big leagues where he's, you only get him for five years, not six. It's not a huge deal, but it is worth noting. So yeah, I mean, Grissom probably is available

because it sounds like Campbell is probably going to be the second basement at some point. And as of right now, Devers is the third baseman, so he can't play there. He's not a short stop, so that won't work either. And if the Red Sox do end up acquiring Bregman, then it sounds like the plan would be, at least for now, would be Bregman at second. But even if it's Bregman at Bregman.

Devers at first. Yeah. Right. It doesn't mean that Grissom's not moving up the depth charts at second base. So he'll probably be available. But I do think that if like,

I think the Red Sox would probably just hold them, keep them in AAA and see if they could get like an actual major leaguer at the deadline for him, maybe a bullpen arm or something like that. But yeah, I think the valuation is about right. You get a bullpen arm that helps you now, kind of.

And you get, you know, a really fun lottery ticket. If you're Seattle, and you're looking at this, you go, like, do we want to give up Thai Pete? Like, when we have Ryan Bliss already, like, is Ryan Bliss less likely to hit at the major leagues next year than Von Grissom? I don't know. I don't think so. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not a huge Von Grissom guy, going to be honest with you.

I think he can, I think he'll hit enough. I don't know how soon that's going to be. And I don't know if I'm willing to give up Thai Pete when I already have, like, Ryan Bliss, like in-house. And Bliss is, you know, I mean, he's okay. Like, he's, I'd probably rather just give the shot to Ryan Bliss, being the starting second baseman for a few weeks than Von Grissom. But it's, I think this is the type of deal you would have to offer Boston to get them

to trade Grissom right now. I'm just not sure if the mayors would do it. Yeah. I'll go, I mean, it's fine. I'll go 50. Yeah, it's a 45 or 50. I'm just not a huge fan of Grissom personally, but yeah, it's like, it's a fine. Like if the Mariners did this, then, okay.

So would you prefer David Hamilton? Not a huge David Hamilton guy either. So it's another one of those deals where I'm like, okay, that's fine. Ty hates everybody. That's right. Including you. I mean, we already knew that. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, I'm sure the feeling is mutual. I said nice things about you on another podcast. You did, huh? I'll have to, I still have to go listen to that. Shout out to Jake. Shout out to Raisa Trident. Colby had a,

what, an hour and a half long interview with Jake. It's the most important interview in human history, folks. Just go watch it. It's right up there with Frost Nixon. I'll tell you that much. Before we get into more of your trades, this episode of the Lockdown Airs podcast is

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And before we get back into your trades, Colby wants you so badly to notice he has switched the glove in his background. First of all, that only happened because you said to do it. That's right. I mean, you brought it up, though. You're like, oh, I was supposed to switch out the gloves, but I didn't. And I was like, well, why don't you? You were like, it's in the other room. I was like, well, go get it then.

Go do it. There's a continuity problem. But anyway, he said that he was worried about the continuity of this episode. I'm just saying it seems like a retcon. Totally isn't that. People are very concerned about the canon of locked on. Yeah, exactly. But yeah, no, it's a Ichro, Mizuno, uh, model glove.

there you go uh yeah so had it for a while you can't even barely see the the logo or anything but yes it is an e-year-o glove um well now we're all aware yeah all right back to the trades uh adam has a deal with the white socks louise robert junior and hey prolaude barra back to the merrars for las montas carlos vargas um i don't think the borough vargas thing is really even a part of the discussion I mean, it's like, whatever. Is this kind of funny? Yeah, I mean, sure. But cool.

Yeah, the Mariners get the better reliever, but neither one of those guys do I feel confident in saying or major league like relievers right now. So who cares? Yeah, essentially it's Robert for Laz. And I would do that. I like Laz. But again, he's 19 years old. He's really a bat only prospect at this point. So yeah, you know, I would take the shot.

I would take the shot on Robert coming here with a new attitude and getting out of that terrible situation and him performing much closer to 2023 than 2024, but probably not going to be a 6-7-1 player. But, you know, I don't need him to be. I need him to rotate and write, play a lot of right field, play some DH, and just be, you know, three and a half, four-win player. And if I can get that for Las Montes, I will take that.

So, yeah, I would do that with the white socks. Tough to say. Tough to say. It is. But if you're the white socks, I mean, you're going to be really bad this year. And you're running the risk that, you know, we've talked about this before. Luis Robert didn't look too interested in playing baseball in Chicago at times last year. We ran the risk that that happens again.

His value continues to tank. And then you're going to be able to get even less for the guy if you try to try to them later on down the road. So it's a weird conundrum the White Sox find themselves in right now. I would do this. I would take the shot, especially if all it's going to cost me as laws. I really like laws.

And obviously he's a really good prospect. But yeah, the ceiling, I mean, the risk reward here, it's pretty clear with Robert. So, yeah, I'd be more than willing to take. take that shot. But again, like you mentioned, are the White Sox? I don't know. I'll just give it a 50. Yeah. It's tough to grade Robert trades because, again, we just aren't quite sure what the White Sox are looking for. But yeah, I would do this. And I think the White Sox would at least be interested in it as a starting point. So 50. Marys to the Moon has a quite the deal here. This is the 13 deal. I would like the most. Yeah, it's pretty pretty crazy.

it's out there all right so bear with us folks especially if you were only listening to the show and not watching three team deal padres twins and mariners padres are getting christian vassquez trevor larnock logan evans lukechel and uh harry ford i think i said that right maybe it's keeshall so 10.65 million dollars in savings for the podres twins get dylan cease Trent thornton domcan zone they save 2.7 $5 million. And the Mariners spend $13.4 million and get Willie Castro, Luisarise, and $5 million in cash from San Diego. So first and foremost, I'm just going to trust you on the math here.

I'm not going to live look up all this. I'm just going to trust that all of this adds up. So the Mariners are not only going to get one everyday player, they're going to get two here. with Castro and a rise in the same deal. And it's going to run them. Yep. And it's going to run them Evans, Ford, Thornton, and Canzon. Yeah.

I have a hard time wrapping my head around that, getting it done. Yeah. What's interesting is that it sounds like the Padres are actually interested in Vasquez, despite the fact that he's a bad catcher making $10 million. And they're supposed to be cutting payroll. so it's a little weird, right? But maybe it's Vasquez and like Brooks Lee for Dylan Sees. And then that makes more sense.

But yeah, and the twins have reportedly have interest in Dylan Seas, but we know that they're going to have to clear money before they acquire Dylan Seas. So yeah, like those parts make sense. It's just like if you're like, so the twins are giving up Larnick, Vasquez, and Kishel, whatever. For cease, yeah, they do that in a heartbeat. The Padres, though, are getting Larnick, Evans, Ford, and Keschel, and they're giving up cease and arise. That seems like we're putting too much value on the Padres shedding salary. And from the Mariners, they're getting one year of Willie Castro, one year of Luis Arise,

a rise probably the DH, primary DH, Castro probably the primary. Castro probably the primary third baseman and they're giving up Ford Evans Thornton and Canzone like yeah the Mariners probably do that but why like I mean why would the other team allow that you know what I mean like the Mariners aren't giving up enough here to get yeah the fact that they're getting two everyday players and they're getting some cash back and all it's going to cost them is really Harry Ford and Logan Evans I know Kansas zone and thornton are also in here but i mean thornton probably carries a little bit of value can zone though he's really not at all right now yeah yeah so these are two highly replaceable players yeah we're talking about a mid-leverage reliever and a four a outfielder so right is forward and evans good enough to get you two everyday players and five million dollars in cash i would say no even with the the Padres issues that they have right now. You sold a lot of problems here because the Padres do shed salary.

The twins do add Dylan cease without adding salary, which is, you know, I'm sure their primary goal. But the twins are also going up Larnick. I mean, Larnik's a pretty good hitter. So that's interesting. I don't know enough about Kishol, Kishel, how we pronounce it. Yeah. To have a good grasp on that.

but it does seem like this is a deal where the mariners are getting too much and not giving up enough. So it's a very complicated deal because there's a lot of pieces involved in it. But I think for me, I look at this and I get like, the mariners aren't giving up enough. And I know it's just one year piece of Castro and arise. But I mean, still, these are everyday players that you're getting. yeah some of this works some of it doesn't really uh but it is creative it is bold uh so i think i'd probably give it a 50 and that's with the realism i would attach to it being like a probably like a 30 35 so yeah yeah still go 50 though it's certainly bold took a shot i'll go 40 i'll go 45

yeah i'll go 45 on it all right uh we got a couple more trades to go over in just a moment but first reminder this episode of the locked on air is podcast is brought to you by Fanduel. From the first whistle to the final drive, Fanduel makes the NFL playoffs even more exciting. Right now, new customers can bet $5 and get $300 in bonus bets if you win your first bet. That's $300 to keep the action going. Just visit Fanduel.com to join today and get started with $300 in bonus bets.

That's Fandual.com. Make this playoff season unforgettable with Fanduel, an official sportsbook partner of the NFL. And you're listening to the Lockdown Marrars podcast. It is Fan Fiction Friday. We got a couple more trades of yours to go over. Ammon has another deal with the Kansas City Royals. This time it's for their other infielder who might be available because they traded for Jonathan India. Maybe.

Who knows? That's Michael Massey. Amon has the mayor is getting Michael Massey for Harry Ford and Gabe Spire. Also says that they would throw in Troy Taylor. if Kansas City really wants him. Massey's certainly a flawed player. He doesn't get on base a ton, but he's a second baseman who hits,

you know, has 25 home run power. Like he's a pretty good hitter. Lots of slug at second base. Defense is going to be fine. And your Harry Ford is, you know, again, a good prospect. We talked about this on our,

on Wednesday show, I believe, right? Ford's a good prospect, but he's no longer an elite prospect. He's no longer a big headliner in a trade, particularly not for Massey, who I think you get for four years, has produced at the big league level for the last couple. So Ford and Spire probably doesn't even start the conversation. So throwing in Troy Taylor really doesn't make any difference.

You need a better headliner. So if Massey is indeed available because India could just play second, then, yeah, I think the mayor should be interested in that. He's a lefty. They could use a lefty bat. They could use a lefty thump. And again, the defense will be fine. So yeah, I think they should be interested in Massey.

I think your headliner is off. And so what's the best prospect you would give up for Michael Massey? Because like you mentioned, brings some pop that you don't see from a lot of third, second baseman. But he also doesn't get on base at all. And he only really has one good year of offensive production. Yeah, this is what makes it really tough because like from a mayor's perspective, it's possible that the only guy they feel good about giving up for Massey is a Harry Ford type.

But if you're the Royals, there's really no reason to do that. So you're kind of in this weird where it's not like a super great fit. But, you know, again, he doesn't strike out. So that's something in his favor. He's a pretty good second baseman, at least range-wise, not the best arm in the world. And he's got power, specifically pole power, which plays at T-Mobile Park. So, yeah, I think the best prospect I'd be willing to. willing to give up.

I don't know. Maybe an Arroyo, maybe. But the one thing that we have to keep in mind, though, is it's not just like ranks because, like, for example, I have, I have Montez ahead of Sanger, but I would rather trade Montez than Sanger, if that makes sense. Sure. Sure. Yeah.

And like we always say, beauty is a behold. It doesn't really, ranks don't really matter. It's like mocks when it comes to drafts and all that. stuff where every team values players differently from one another but uh yeah uh i just i can't personally see harry ford and gab spire getting it done for massy because again four years of club control the royals can sell this as you know or spend this as you know he's finally breaking out you know 2024 is just the first year of him starting to really figure it out at the plate there's more to come,

et cetera. So, yeah, they're probably asking for someone in the Arroyo, Montes, et cetera,

range of prospects as the headliner and more on top of that. If they want prospects at all, if I were the royals, right. And I were going to trade Massey

and the marriage game calling. Major League talent, yeah. I would probably ask for like Matt Brash. Yeah. Would you do that? I think you have to consider,

I think if teams are asking, for Matt Brash for Major League Talent this winter, I think you have to at least consider it because again, he's coming off the injury. You don't know what he's going to look like. I've said this before on the show, but I'll reiterate it.

And he still has that violent delivery. As far as I'm aware, that's not going to change. So there's always going to be the risk that he re-injures the elbow at some point down the line. Right. Now, like, this is where it's like, hey, can I give you Santos and, like, Santos and Arroyo instead of Brash? Sure.

I'm probably willing to do that. Like I'm probably trying to push that, but push comes to shove and it's Brash for Massa. And I think they have the same club control, too, actually. Yeah. So like if that's what it takes, I don't know if I do it, but I think you have to strongly consider it because it's just such a thin market. And you feel like maybe you can recreate Brash. And like you said, there's really no guarantee whatsoever that Brash is any good this year, let alone pitches this year. So it's one of those things where it's like, yeah, I think it's a risk worth taking.

But this trade right here, I just don't think it's enough. So I'll give it a 40. Yeah, I'll go 40 as well. All right. Last trade of the day comes from Drew. Meres send their comp A pick, Ty Pete and Michael Morales to the daughters for Alex Freeland and Michael Grove. Seems a bit much to me.

Grove is a guy who very well could be DFA in the next couple days anyways. we've heard that they're trying to they need to make room for Yates which I don't think is official yet but no when it is they'll need to make like it's been reported like they've agreed to terms and all that but the team hasn't announced it yet right and so like Brazier

is kind of the common guy right now but we've also heard they might consider trading James Outman they might trade Grove or they might even trade like a Dustin May like there are other guys it's not a foregone conclusion that it's going to be Brazier. So they're willing to DFA Grove.

They're probably not super high on him. They're probably not going to value him all that highly. Freeland's not on there, 40 man, right? No. But he isn't AAA. So yeah. So basically it's do you want to trade the 35th pick, Ty Pete and Michael Morales for Alex Freeland?

Freeland's a good prospect. To me, he's kind of a, you know, a bunch of 50s across the board, which is fine. Again, good prospect. But we're talking about Tai Pete who has tremendous ceiling. We're talking about a comp around APEC and the $2.5 million in bonus pool money that goes with it. We're talking about that. And Michael Morales, who's, you know, a fine prospect.

To me, this is too much to give up for Alex Freeland. Because, again, I think I can get Grove for much cheaper or I could just wait the Dodgers out and have him be DFA and claim him. although I do think the Mariners probably have some level of interest in growth. He throws enough strikes. He's got pretty good stuff. It's just he hasn't put it together for the Dodgers. So maybe you think you can help him. You just have plenty of starting experience too.

So maybe he's the number six starter. You kind of bump Hancock down wrong. But to me, this is too much to give up for Freeland. He's not a proven major leaguer. He doesn't have any specific carrying tool. And again, I lose. I lose two and a half million dollars in bonus pool money that I can get really creative with

with the number three pick on top of it. Yeah, that and I also feel like decent chance you're going to get a more interesting prospect with that pick in the draft. Yeah, like Freeland is obviously closer and you can find out a lot sooner than whatever prospect you're going to take it number 35, but I don't know. So yeah, I think I'd pass on this, you know,

get some credit for trying to be creative. But I think ultimately I look at this deal and I go, I just don't think you're getting enough upside and you're giving up a tremendous amount of it. And because I can't count on Freeland or Grove to help me in 2025, I'd rather trade that pick elsewhere if I'm going to trade it at all, of course.

Yeah, I'll go 45 on this. Well, that's going to do it for a show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Locktime Marriss for Colby Patnode. I'm Tadig Gonzalez. Be sure give us a follow on Twitter at L-O-U-Ur-Urars. You can follow me at Tading Gonzalez and Colby at C-Pat-1. We're also on Blue.

sky you can follow me at tdg colby at melb colby and the show at locked on mirrors have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you next time peace