Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Fan Fiction Friday: Lawlar, Diaz, and More

Episode Date: December 20, 2024

It's Fan Fiction Friday! Ty and Colby grade your Mariners trade ideas, including deals for Yandy Diaz, Jordan Lawlar, 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 see what Mariner's trades you cooked up this week. Colby, hit it. You are Locked-on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariner's podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Ahoy, Sailors. It is Friday, December 20th, 2024.

This is Tadda Gazzalus and Colby Patnaud for the Lockdown Marys Podcasts. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. It's fan fiction Friday, the show where we grade your Mariners Trade Ideas on the 2080 scale, based on creativity, uniqueness, and viability. Before we get into your trade ideas, shout out to our title sponsor today, FanDuel. New customers can place a $5 bet and get started with $150 in bonus bets if you win that first $5 bet. Visit FanDuel.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. So kicking us off here on Fan Fiction Friday is Seattle John. who has a deal with the Tampa Bay Rays, Tyler Locklear, Logan Evans, and Ryan Bliss to Tampa Bay for Yandi Diaz. What do you think? Kind of feels light to me. Yeah. This is kind of a classic, you know, beauty is in the eye of the beholder type of trade because if the rays think that Tyler Locklear can be an everyday first baseman, they probably make this trade. but I don't know a lot of teams who do feel that way,

at least confidently enough to make a deal like this. And last we heard, the raise for Diaz were looking for a major leaguer and a couple of prospects. I think at the deadline, it was one major leager and three prospects. Like they wanted more for Diaz than what they got for a Rose Arena.

And I think when you look at the talent that's being given up here, this isn't that. the mayors would have given up more for Randy than the D.S. Now, prices change, obviously. In this winter, there's an influx of first baseman available. Yeah. And not as many teams in the market for a first baseman. So that could change the prices a little bit.

And obviously, when we say Tampa Bay wants a major leaguer in the trade, like major leaguers can range from, like, technically, Ty Locklear and Ryan Bliss are major leaguers. But, you know, so is Julio Rodriguez. So, you know, like, what is, what's the middle ground here? Yeah, it's anywhere from like Dom Kanzone to Luke Rayleigh. Right. And so, again, like, is it possible that the Ray's really like Locklear and they think that he can just basically be, you know, as valuable as Diaz for the next six years, you know, starting tomorrow.

If they do, then they probably make this deal. if they don't, then I don't think there's enough, you know, juice in this trade for them to accept it. So it does feel a little light. But it is one of those things where it's like, hey, the Ray's really like Evans and they really like, you know, Locklear, then, yeah, they might, they might take this deal. But I just don't, I just don't have a feeling that that is going to be the case. I think you need to add more here. Yeah, I feel like you need to replace one of these guys. I feel like two of these guys work in the steel.

Evans feels like a Tampa Bay race type of pitching prospect. I think they might like Locklear, they might like Bliss. I mean, Bliss does kind of feel like a Tampa Bay guy to me more so than Locklear does. But I feel like Michael O'Royal or Harry Ford has to be in this deal. Well, Tampa has a lot of middle infield talent that is, you know, big league ready or about to be in the big league. So Bliss would be, potentially could be a very short-term thing for him. And I mean, heck, they saw Jose Cabbier. and Cabiero is probably who you hope Ryan Bliss turns into.

So, yeah, I think Bliss is probably the guy that you'd have to replace in this deal with a, you know, more of a needle-moving prospect. And that would be like Ford or Royo or Tai Pete, who we've heard repeatedly, the race really liked a few years ago. So, yeah, I think it's somebody like that, somebody with more upside than Bliss, I think it's because you give them the major leaguer in Locklear, and then you give them the upside play with like a Pied or a Royo or somebody like that. So I think that's the move here if you want Diaz.

And maybe they want Gregory Santos back to or maybe that's the big leaguer they want and whatever. Like I think there is a deal to be made to go get Diaz. I just don't think that you're there yet. Yeah. I'm going to go 45 on this. Yeah, sure. All right. So Aiden has a deal here with the Diamondbacks.

Marisen, Brian Wu, Colin Snyder, Tyler Lockler, and the competitive balance round a selection. So pick 35 and next year's draft to Arizona for Jordan Lawler, Ryan Nelson, and Drey Jameson. This one's pretty fun. A lot of notable names going back and forth here. But if I'm trading Brian Wu, I need to prove a major league back now. Jordan Lawler's really, really fun prospects.

One of the better prospects than all the baseball. He's ready now. He would potentially play, you know, one of the positions that you have a need for right out of the gate. But yeah, if I'm trading one of these starters, I need someone that's established. And that's just, that's not this.

I mean, Ryan Nelson kind of, but Ryan Nelson isn't the prize here. No, but Ryan Nelson is a perfectly good, like, number four star. starter. Yeah, yeah. 5-starter. So you're getting the woo replacement in the deal. And obviously you're getting Lawler, who probably is your opening day third baseman, but certainly can play shortstop in the long run. And you can move him around the infield a little bit. And he's a really good prospect. So, I mean, Snyder, like, obviously I like Colin Snyder. He's at the end of the day, he's a reliever. And the Mariners find those guys. They found Colin Snyder, literally on the scrap heap. and the odds that he repeats what he did last year are pretty slim anyway so he's fine in this locklear whatever i mean i'm not the biggest locklear guy uh in the world right now uh and you're getting jameson who is hurt but has pretty good stuff uh so really it's woo and the comp round a pick

and some it's better than bulk but it's you know it's not irreplaceable uh you know pieces of your ball club here uh so it's really it's woo in the comp round A pick for Lawler and Ryan Nelson, feels a little light for me to trade Brian Wu. But I do like Nelson. I do like Lawler a lot. And kudos for being creative. You know,

you threw in the comp round A pick. You know, Brian Wu is not a pitcher. A lot of people are talking about trading right now. And you found a deal that I would, like you found a trade that involved Brian Wu that I'm like not immediately saying no to. So that's pretty impressive as well. Yeah, I'll go 55 on this.

Yeah, that's what I'm feeling. Yeah. Like, I don't know. It's not like super realistic, so that kind of knocks it down. But in terms of like creativity and, and uniqueness and all that, like, yeah, it's, it's interesting. And it's not, you know, something that we've considered. So you have to give it props for that. So, yeah, I think 55.

All right. We are going to grade more of your trade ideas in just a moment. The first reminder of this episode of the Lockdown Merritt's podcast. is brought to you by Rocket Money and select quote. Did Rocket Money help you find any subscriptions you forgot about or that you were paying for twice? That definitely happened to me. I had a few subscriptions that I didn't even realize I was still paying for. And Rocket Money made it so easy to track them all down.

It's like having a personal assistant for your finances. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow. grow your savings. It brings everything together in one place, whether it's subscriptions, your spending habits, or even the goals you want to hit this year. Rocket Money has over 5 million users and has saved a total of $500 million in canceled subscriptions, saving members up to $740 a year when using all the app's premium features. For me, one of the best features

is the subscription tracker. I've used it to cancel services I wasn't using anymore, and I've already saved a ton. Plus, with their goals features, I've been able to automatically set aside money for my future. No more stressing about budgeting every month. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to RocketMoney.com locked on today. That's rocketmoney.com slash locked on. RocketMoney.com slash LOC, KEDO-O-N.

The World Series, the Super Bowl, the Olympics. The world's top athletes get to play in these top-level sporting events thanks to one thing. teamwork and teamwork can also protect your financial legacy in your family's future select quotes licensed insurance agents are the perfect teammates when shopping for customized affordable life insurance they can find you the right policy to keep your financial legacy safely in your family's end zone select quote is one of America's leading insurance brokers with nearly 40 years of experience helping over two million customers find over 700 billion dollars in coverage since 1985 other life insurance brokers offer impersonal one size fits all policies that may cost you more and cover you less

while select quotes license insurance agents work for you to tailor a life insurance policy for your individual needs in as little as 15 minutes select quote they shop you save get the right life insurance for you for less at select quote dot com slash locked on go to select quote dot com slash L-C-K-E-D-O-N today to get started. That's selectquote.com slash locked on. And you're listening to the Lockdown Marries podcast. It is fan fiction Friday. We are reacting to and grading your Mariners trades.

Blake has a deal here with the Mets, Luis Castillo, and Trent Thornton to the Mets. For Jet Williams, Ronnie Maricio, and David Peterson. I'm not interested. In a vacuum, this is fine for Castillo. Like if the Marys were rebuilding or they're just selling, sure, fine. But they're not. They have a very specific criteria that needs to be met here in order for Castillo

trade to really make sense for where they are right now. And this isn't it. No. You know, and as you might imagine, a lot of the trades we received this week were Luis Castillo. And it was a pretty good week for trade submissions. There are quite a few that we left behind. good job on that guys and quite a few of you sent multiple trades, but we were only going to pick one per person.

So we, we, you know, including Blake sent multiples. I think most of the people who we did pick did send multiple trades, but again, we're trying to keep it as fair as possible, get to as many different people, ideas possible. And there were a lot of ideas this week and a lot of good ones. Shout out to the guy, I should have pulled it. We didn't end up using it. But shout out to the guy who went down to the exact dollar figure of money they wanted the Padres to include in the Jake Crono War trade.

Like $24,857,731. I was like, damn. I mean, we asked for specifics. Like, we don't want you guys to just be like, and cash or and prospects. Like, we do want specifics. And so I almost threw that on there on here just to be like, this is what we're talking about. guy. Well, it doesn't have to be that specific, but no, like you could have just said 24 million, but, you know, hats off to the guy who did the math and all that. He knew exactly what he was

willing to pay, uh, Croninworth and he, he found the money. So I mean, kudos to that guy, uh, or that person, whoever sent that in. Uh, but, uh, one thing I noticed getting back to this is that a lot of fans still don't seem to understand how to value Louise Cassie or how the Mariners are going to value Luis Castillo because I saw a lot of trades where the Mariners were either, you know, trading Castillo where the prize were prospects or, you know, guys who have a cup of coffee in the big leagues. And I saw a lot of trades where the Mariners were giving up like it was like Castillo and Cole Young and Harry Ford for, you know, basically a Randy or Rosanana type of hitter.

And it's like, no, you guys, this isn't what the Mariners are going to trade Castillo for. One thing I will say about this deal that is going for it is. is I am starting to get the sense that the Mariners want Luis Castillo's replacement to also be in any deal. Now, it's not going to be a picture as good as Castillo, but they want that because they know they have to replace Castillo and they know that they don't have those options in house. And any money they say basically is going to get eaten up by whoever they have to get to replace Castillo. So I do think you're looking for somebody who hits, you know, at the top or the middle of the order and a viable major league starting pitcher. I think that is kind of the baseline that the Mariners are looking for. This trade, I like David Peterson fine, but Jet Williams is a prospect.

He cannot be the headliner in this deal. And, you know, Maricio is fine, but he's basically a prospect. And he, there's a lot of risk there. So I don't think this is too much risk for the Mariners to take to trade Louise Castillo. Yeah. I think it's dead on arrival for that reason. So 35. Yep.

Adam has a deal here with the Dodgers, Luis Castillo, 2 L.A for Gavin Lucks and Bobby Miller. So Lux, obviously been connected to the MERS. Makes sense, play second base, had a good second half of the season this past year.

What I'm getting hung up on here is Bobby Miller, who you and I have talked about coming off of a really bad year after a really good year. You know, if the Dodgers land Castillo with what they've done

and their rotation now adding Snell. They're going to get Otani back in the rotation. They'll have glass now. They'll have Yamamoto. Like that's five. Maybe Roki. Right. Yeah, maybe Roki.

So they have, but they would at least have five guys here, five legitimate starters. If they added Castillo. So Miller would be on the outside looking in theoretically. Right. Would they not necessarily give up on Bobby Miller, but. Yeah. I think the question for me is, is do the Mariners even, even like Bobby Miller

because like the change up might be the best change up in baseball. It is filthy. The fastball, despite the fact that he throws at 100 miles an hour, gets crushed. Like it's not a good fastball. And the Mariners,

they value fastball value. Like you look at their rotation right now, every single one of those guys gets value out of their fastball. Miller doesn't. So is Bobby Miller even the type of pitcher that the Mariners would want? He's cheap.

I mean, he's controllable. And he does have. have, you know, one season of very good performance and one season of not very good performance. Gavin Lux is he's an average everyday big leger. That's fine. I mean, he's more of a platoon guy. You don't really face one of facing lefties, but he's a two-win player. Like that part's fine. You know, but so what it really comes down to is Lux doesn't carry. He can't be the headliner in a deal like this. So Bob, so essentially what this deal is is like the, the Dodgers are offering like co-headliners. and both of them have had extremely like high highs at the major league level and they've had extremely low low.

So you're taking a bit of a risk here. But you are getting two big leaguers. You are getting the Castile replacement in theory. And you are getting your second baseman for at least the first half of this year. And he's got two years of club control left. And you're still clearing about $20 million in this as well. So it's interesting. It feels very fringy to me from the Mariners.

perspective. And I don't know if they like Bobby Miller because again, the fastball is not a good pitch and the Mariners place a premium on getting value out of your fastball. Yeah. So I don't know if they like Bobby Miller and I don't know if the Dodgers would move Bobby Miller in this deal. So yeah, it's interesting. It's thought provoking. It's obviously a couple of names that makes sense and Castillo makes sense for the Dodgers especially if they they lose out on Sasaki but even if they get Sasaki I mean again we've talked about the six-man rotation idea here in Seattle with Sasaki obviously the Dodgers if they had Castillo with Glassnell with Tani Yamamoto and Snell they could absolutely do that as well um yep so I don't know

I'll just go 50 on this because I'm unsure I feel pretty good about the idea that the Mariners don't value Bobby Miller enough to make this deal because again, like fastball value matters to the Mariners. It's why there's a couple of guys at the top of the draft

that the Mariners can now take advantage of who have plus fastballs that gives them a real shot to be in the big leagues really quick. I feel like in this particular deal, the Dodgers would need to give a little bit more. And I'm not talking about like, you know, an everyday player,

but like, can you get like a, what's Alex, Freeland, I think, is a prospect who's, you know, good solid average cross, like average 50s across the board. Can you get that type of guy added into this deal? Can you get a reliever? Can you get Dustin May or another arm that's really interesting? Maybe. But yeah, I think I'll give it like a 45. We are going to grade a couple more of your trades here in just a moment. But first reminder, this episode of the Lockdown Marys podcast is brought to you by Fandle. NFL fans can start the season with a big return.

on Fandul, America's number one sports books. So when you get a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out the latest stats of you live play by play and so much more on the same page where you place your bets. You get started with $200 in bonus bets. Yeah, you heard that right. $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. That's fandul.com.

And you're listening to the Locked on Air is podcast. It is Fan Fiction Friday. We've got a couple more of your trades to go over here before we head into the weekend. John Stanton hates the Mariners, which again, not just this person's name, but also a factual statement. Ryan Bliss and Michael Morales,

too, Minnesota for Willie Castro. And hey, Justin Topa as well. That's fun. I think it can't be Ryan Bliss. Twins pretty set. They have Brooks Lee. They have Royce Lewis. They have Carlos Correa.

At this stage, they still have Julian. like they're pretty set in the infield so ryan bliss i don't think does a ton for them now if this is like tie locklear maybe because that might be their santana replacement you know and so it's also possible that castro just gets traded for nothing because we get to january february and castro's still on that roster and the twins are like look i mean we we just we tried we can't get anything for them so um yeah castro's a weird fit because the two Twins should be able to get something for him. He's a pretty good player who's going to make less

than $7 million next year. But yeah, I think I don't think Bliss does much. Now, it's possibly to look at Morales as the prize of this trade. So yeah, I think it's in the ballpark. That's kind of how I was viewing it, to be honest. I think it's kind of in the ballpark of like what I would pay for Willie Castro. Topa, he was hurt last year. He's nothing more than a throw. And I I think he's actually going to make it like a million five this year too. So he's making a little bit of money, but not anything significant. So this is probably- You know him, so.

Right. This is probably at the like upper end. Like if you take out Bliss and put Locklear in there, that's probably like the most I would pay for Willie Castro. Right now, talk to me in February when I'm staring down, you know, Dylan Moore being the opening day second basement and Austin shouldn't being the third. I might be willing to pay a little more. But right now, this is about the max I'd be willing to pay. So, yeah, 45 to 50, somewhere in that range.

Yeah, I think it's fine. Just don't know what the twins are going to do, you know, what they want to do. I'm not sure if the twins know what they want to do. Yeah, yeah. So, I don't know, it's just they're really hard team to gauge for me. I mean, they just let Max Kepler walk for $10 million. Yeah. So, um,

yeah i feel like i can't give this more than a 50 but uh yeah i'll go 50 last trade of the day comes from brandon brandon has a deal here with the raise yandi diaz brandon low and pete fairbanks oof the big three of the guys that we think the uh the raise might actually trade this off season yeah for uh cole young logan evans tie peter ty per

Tyler Locklear, Michael Morales, Mitch Garver, which Brandon says, evens out money coming back a little bit, can back up Jansen slash take some DH at bats against the left-handed pitching in the absence of Yondi Diaz. Still feels this is very bulky for the race, and if you're going to insist on them taking Garber back,

like the race still save money on this stuff, because Garber basically pays for either Lauer or. or Diaz. Right. Now, there's like a $3 million, two, two million dollar difference. So it pays for like a third of, of fair banks or whatever, but like, yeah, essentially this pays. So you're still adding like $10 million, $12 million to your payroll, which means Tampa Bay is, you know, retracting that. But it still feels like it's too much bulk, especially if you're going to insist on the raise, essentially eating some of the money that you're acquiring. So I feel like you need a, a, a co-headliner here with Cole Young. Now, they like Pete a lot, but I think if you replace Morales with like, you know,

I just don't think you're getting this deal done without giving up like LAS in the package. Like, because you're not giving up Cole, you're not giving up. But there's also a lot of risk here. You know, Fairbanks had the,

what, the Latt thing. And then, Lowe, obviously. Obviously, yeah, Lowe has,

has the injury history, which I've heard has made a lot of teams hesitant in terms of, going after him. Not to mention he's kind of a platoon bat. Yep. And Diaz is 34 who hits a lot of ground balls. So it's a first basement who doesn't hit for a ton of over the fence power.

Yeah. So yeah, like in a bulk deal, I think this is pretty good. How much is Brandon Lough worth? Apparently not a ton right now. So yeah, this was just, I mean, like one of the ways you try to, you just kind of try and break it down, but it's really tough to break it down. like is it like cole young and logan evans and like locklear for diaz and then it's like morales and garber for for wow or for fairbanks and then laos is like a throw-in like how do you

kind of yeah i feel like harry ford needs to be in this trade i feel like either las montes needs to be in the straight. And because we talked about this earlier, because the race have so much middle infield, you know, depth already, you probably replace Cole Young with like Las Montes and then you add Harry Ford instead of,

I don't know, Morales or whatever, then I think you're on something here, but it does feel a little light. It feels a little bit like trying to sell bulk as quality, but the race sometimes take bulk. Sure. and Lowe is probably a drag on this trade more than he is an asset in this trade.

So you might be in the ballpark here. It's not a very realistic trade, but it's fun. I'll give me a 50. Yeah. There's some issues with it. Yeah. And I think the unrealistic nature of it cut to, you know, 12 hours from now. Sure.

I take it. Yeah. I feel like it's probably like, 45. I think the realism gray drags it down. Yeah. All right. Well, that's going to do it for a show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Marries podcast for Colby Patnaud. I'm Taday Gonzalez.

Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L.O underscore Marrers. You can follow me at Taday and Gat 11 at CPAT 1-1. We're also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG, Coley at MLB Colby and the show at Locked on Marrars. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day. And we'll see you next time. Peace.