Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Felix Hernandez Takes KING-SIZED JUMP in Hall of Fame Voting + Seattle Mariners Pile Arm Rankings

Episode Date: January 21, 2026

Ty and Colby discuss Felix Hernandez's historic jump in votes for the Hall of Fame, the Seattle Mariners avoiding arbitration with Bryce Miller, and rank the pile of bullpen arms the club has added this winter.Click to learn more about the Everydayer Club!Join the Ahoy, Sailors Discord server!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!Turbo TaxFor a limited time, you can have your taxes done by a local TurboTax expert for just $150 — all in, if a TurboTax expert didn’t file for you last year. Just file by February 28. Take taxes off your plate and get back to your life.Visit https://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Every Friday night, before the games tip off, FanDuel gives fans a new way to kick off the weekend with NBA Happy Hour. Check the FanDuel app and see what’s dropping during NBA Happy Hour — every Friday from 6 to 7:30 PM Eastern. FanDuel — the Official Sportsbook Partner of the NBA.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

No one has made as significant of a year-to-year jump in the Hall of Fame ballot as this, and it was done by the King. 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 Wednesday, January 21st, 2026. You're listening to the Lockdown Marries podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Now, the number one sports podcast network.

My name is Tiding Gazzalus, and I'm joined us all. Always by my co-s, Colby Patnode. We're two lifelong Maris fans who've been covering the team for over half a decade. And today we're going to talk some Hall of Fame. Talking about the incredible jump Felix Hernandez just made in his second year on the ballot. We'll talk about how good his chances are looking now to get into Cooperstown. We'll also talk some Bryce Miller. Aaron's avoided arbitration with him yesterday, thanks to a unique deal.

We'll also talk about the pile of arms. The Marys continue to put together this offseason, including their latest edition, who we haven't really talked yet about on here. So we'll talk about that a little later on. But I want to start with the Hall of Fame here, which is something that we really don't ever touch on here on Locked on. That's more of a CTZ thing if we ever do talk about it. I mean, last year we really didn't talk much about Eichro,

mostly because that was a foregone conclusion each row was going to get in. It was really only a matter of whether it was going to be unanimous or not. We only really talked about him getting into the hall once it was official and, you know, once he was about to actually get inducted and all that. but I want to talk about the Hall of Fame today specifically because there's some really cool news about Felix. Last night, class of 2026 got announced Carlos Beltran, Andrew Jones. They're getting in then they joined Jeff Kent in that class. But the real cool thing here for Marist fans, specifically Colby, was that Felix Reda is finished fourth among all the players on the ballot and voting at 46.1%.

Now, the reason that's so significant is that is a 25 and a half percent jump for Felix, specifically 25.56% jump for Felix from his first year on the ballot to his second year on the ballot this time around. And per Ryan Tibado, who has tracked the public ballots for the Hall of Fame and just all things Hall of Fame forever now on social media. According to him, that is the largest. year to year percent gain of anyone on any Hall of Fame ballot since 1967. Crazy.

And that's since at least 1960. That might be the greatest jump of all time. We don't know. You know, they've been voting on the hall since like 1936 or 1938, however long it's been. That's a very long time. Either way, that's a pretty remarkable achievement for Felix here. And like Jason Stark said last night on the MLB network broadcast after the

class of 2026 was announced. The thing that we really learned last night is that Felix Hernandez is going to get into Hall of Fame now. It really looks like a matter of when, not if anymore for Felix, which is crazy to say because there was real question going into his eligibility about whether he was going to get in at all, whether he was even going to stick on the ballot because it's more so peak over longevity for Felix. Now, Felix pitched a long time, but obviously we know how his career ended.

So to see this jump is pretty crazy. And again, it seems like Felix is going to get in here. And it seems like it might be fairly soon as well. Yeah, I mean, we'll see how it goes. You know, I think we were all kind of geared up for the 10-year, kind of, you know, make a little bit of progress every year, very similar to Edgar and his campaign. And it was seen that way so much that there was barely any campaigning really going on for Felix.

You know, it's just one of those things you don't want to burn out too quick. So you kind of have to pick your moments next year. I imagine we'll see quite a bit of campaigning from the team. And it's not like they ignored it, but just not nearly as much of a blitz as they did with Edgar in the last few years. but yeah, 25% jump is significant. He really did very well with first-time voters. As we know, as the voting group gets younger, they have a different view on what constitutes a Hall of Famer,

and they look more at peak instead of longevity and things like that. And, you know, Felix is pretty interestingly, probably the test case for peak versus longevity now, just like he was the test case way back when he won his, Sy Young Award about like does win loss record really matter for pitchers and Felix kind of broke that mold by winning the Cy Young with I think a 13 and 12 record or whatever and that's how that was talked about like oh it's a new generation of voters it's a new era where wins and losses and things like that don't matter well now you know it appears that

you know based on at least year one the the new the new voters that come in they've looked at and said like we don't care that he only won 100 and whatever games we don't care that you know, he didn't pitch past 33. The stuff he did between the age of 21 and 30 was so good that he's unquestionably a Hall of Famer. And I think that's the accurate look at it, particularly in this new era where it's very difficult to be a good pitcher for more than a handful of years just because of the injuries and all of that that's happening now.

So, yeah, it really is an interesting test case. And Felix's got a huge jump. He had, I think, 38 voters who didn't vote for him last time. vote for him this time. And then on top of that he got 75% and I believe was the final tally of all first time voter votes. And that pushed him way up there. So

yeah, I mean, I don't think he needs to get in next year. I'm not saying he shouldn't, but like it's a pretty down ballot for the next couple of years. I believe Buster Posey is that's the next big name. And then the year after that is pool holes and

Yadi. I think there might be one other person next year. But the bottom line is that the ballots for the next couple years are not going to be so stacked that Felix is going to get left off because they're just 10 guys better than him.

That's just not the case for the next couple of years. And the even more important note to that as well is like again, he finished fourth on the ballot this year. That includes behind two of the guys that just got elected. So of the guys that are going to be on the ballot next year, he was only behind Chase Utley. Right.

So, probably getting in it next year. Yeah. So like, all right, maybe there's a push for Andy Pettett next year because he's

getting towards the end of his eligibility. Maybe Pettit jumps Felix just because of that next year. Who knows? You know, and then Posey's going to be in the mix. I think there might be one other person. I'm drawing a blank on that though.

Amongst the notable first time eligible players that MLB network threw up there on their breakdown, Kyle Seeger was one of the four or five best players. years. So no disrespect to Kyle, but not even close to a Hall of Famer. So, right, right. Yeah. The next two years is a real good opportunity for Felix to make some hay. If he jumps another 25 percent, he'll still be short of what's needed. And he would probably get in the following year. But yeah, he don't necessarily have to make that big of a jump. But I think what you

really want to avoid is the fallback, is the rollback a little bit. So, you know, if he breaks 50% next year in year three. That's, that's remarkable. And it's well on a well on his path to be in the Hall of Fame. But there is a real opportunity here because the ballot isn't stacked. Remember, the writer's refusal to induct guys like Barry Bonds, you know, the best position player of all time. Roger Clemens, you know, the best right-handed pitcher of all time. The Mani Ramirez is all these guys who in arguably some of the best players of all time. It created this, this backlog of candidates who normally would be off the ballot in year one. Well, they stayed on the ballot for 10 years and that's what pushed other guys down on the

ballot and some people had to make some, you know, they had to do some ballot management where it's like, I would vote for this guy, but I can't. He's number 11 and I only get to vote for 10. That's not the case for the next couple of years. So this is a real opportunity for Felix to make some, make some hay like you did this year and possibly get in, you know, in two or three years instead of in eight years where it was probably going to be a pretty close vote in year 10. So it really is interesting to see, you know, the younger voters, the newer voters,

um, not only them, but also returning voters. He was a plus, you know, 30 something in, and returning voters. So, uh, yeah, it does seem likely at this case that Felix will eventually get in, whether or not that's, you know, next year, probably not a year after. Maybe, but probably not. I think 20, 29 that one. is probably the first year. He's got a real shot at it.

But we'll see again. He doesn't have to make as big of leaps anymore. He had to make a big leap at some point. It happened in year two, which is the surprising part here. And it does appear that he's, you know, well on track to eventually be in the Hall of Fame. And yeah,

I think that's, I think that's good because I think, you know, it is time to start valuing the peak over longevity. I mean, like, would you rather have to pull Hamels or Felix Hernandez in their price? I'm Felix.

And the standard has to change at some point because guys are just not throwing 200 plus settings anymore. They're not. And a lot of guys, their careers are only going to last, you know, eight to 12 years as opposed to 16 to 20, right?

Just with how much more wear and tear is put on arms, how much better stuff has gotten, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And, you know, this is going to set the standard as well with Felix for guys like Jacob

DeGrom and maybe eventually is a, Zach Wheeler, depending on how he finishes up his career after he gets back from his injury, all that. So, you know, this is significant, not just for Felix, but for really the future of Hall of Fame voting for starting pitchers. And, you know, the next wave of starters come through. Now, obviously, there's going to be like guys like Verlander who kind of like buck that trend. But I'm more so talking about the guys that we're seeing right now, like pitching in their prime. The Verlanders and the Kershaws have become outliers of their time. And by the way, I know you're not saying this, but Felix threw a ton of innings.

Like, he wasn't one of these guys who's like, oh, I only throw 150 innings a year. No, Felix was a workhorse. Yeah, yeah. Kind of one of the last workhorses. It's just because he threw so many innings so early, he wasn't able to tack on the numbers. Because, like, Felix finished with 2,500 strikeouts. Like, if he had been a mediocre number five pitcher for another three years, he would have gotten to 3,000, and everybody would have been like, oh, yeah, that's a Hall of Famer.

so like why are we giving him credit for three mediocre terrible years when we could just be like yeah he's obviously a hall of famer for you know nine of the the 14 years of his career like and that's and that's what I'm saying right like you know Felix again like you said like he had all the Nians and all that stuff like he was you know it was still it was a different game when when Felix was pitching but you know I think we have you know when you and I have had these conversations about Felix and his

Hall of Fame, you know, chances and all that. Like, we have talked about those last few years and how that might impact him. But he was the best pitcher in the game in his peak, like, at least one of, like, one of the three best pitchers in the game during his peak. His other contemporaries

were probably what? Kirshaw or Lander, Scherzer, like, yeah. I mean, even Scherzer came in right at the end of Felix's peak. So, yeah. Yeah, it's it's pretty clear it deserves to be a hall of maimer. And, you know, I hope not that this matters all that much to us as the Mariner fans, but I hope his rise and his eventual induction leads to the inductions of like Johan

Santana, who I thought got extremely short shrifted in his ballot say. I don't think he even got to a second year, which is a joke. Johan Santana was elite for like six years and he definitely deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. You know, it's funny. You go look at the players who didn't make the Hall of Fame. I think you could argue you could make a better team full of players who didn't make the hall than you could have players who did make the hall. And that's, that speaks a lot to the voting, unfortunately. But you look at guys like Jim Edmonds and Kenny Lofton and Johan Santana who never really got a shot. I think all those guys fell off the ballot after one year. And those guys are all very deserving Hall of Famers. So hopefully,

you know, Felix can kind of be like he was with the Syung voting. He's the test case that proves like, yes, obviously we need to reevaluate how. we look at players and it will open the door for a lot of other players. So Felix, you know, huge jump. I expect he'll finish above 50% next year. And then we'll see where it goes from there. But I also expect the Mariners to ramp up their, their campaigning for him now that it looks very viable that he's going to be,

that he could be in the Hall of Fame before the end of the decade, which wasn't even on anybody's radar. Yeah. before the last, you know, a couple of weeks. So good on him, get on the voters and on to next year. Yeah, we've gone overtime here, but just to wrap up, you know, like you said, next year it's definitely a long shot for him to get in. It would take an even greater, more historic jump for him to make it.

He still has to make up about 28.9% to get to that 75% mark that he needs in order to get in. So next year Highly highly doubt it But 2028 maybe 2029 I think definitely though That I think that's the sweet spot there is 2029 for Felix Which would be incredible I know there's a lot of people that would be

Wanting to make that trip to Cooperstown for that induction So yeah It's really cool I'm very glad that the voters are You know recognizing just how good Felix was during his peak and valuing that the way that frankly it should be valued. All right. We will switch gears here and talk about the, as we always do here on the Lockdown Marries

podcast, the day to day of the current Mariners. We got some news about Bryce Miller. We'll also talk about some pile arms, including the latest guy that they've added to the pile in just a moment. But first reminder, this episode of the Lockdown Marries podcast, it's brought to you by TurboTax and the Space Needle. Look, y'all, tax season doesn't have to take over your life, all right? Because this year, TurboTax is making it easier than now.

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And you're listening to the Lockdown Marrists 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 the Lockdown the number one sports podcast network. You already live your team every day. Now take it up a level and go ad free. Join the Everydayer Club today and get locked on Mariners with no interruptions,

members-only Discord access, and more, all for just $5 a month or $50 a year. Go to Lockdown Mariner's.com or check the link in the show notes. So learn more. So a couple of weeks ago, the Marers came to an agreement with all but one of their arbitration-eligible players to avoid arbitration. The lone guy that they didn't come to an agreement with was, of course, Bryce Miller. We talked about this. It was over $400,000-ish dollars. It was a silly discrepancy.

It wasn't the silliest discrepancy of all the guys that are heading to arbitration, but it was pretty darn silly. And we're just like figure it out, guys. And they have. So they wound up median in the middle. Bryce is going to get paid $2.4, 375 million dollars to be specific. And it includes, though, a $6 million club option for 2027. So that's kind of interesting.

$15,000 buyout included with that. club option. Now, Colby, when people hear the words club option, they think all of a sudden, I think at least some people think all of a sudden, the mayor has ripped up their current agreement with Bryce, and then if they declined that club

option, Bryce would become a free agent, but that's not the case, right? No, no, no, no. Essentially what the club option does is, remember, is a player is, for lack of a better word, the property of the team that drafted

them for six years, the first six years of their major league career, unless they are released, which is what non-tendering somebody is. They're released essentially. So Price, even though he, you know, he is super two, so he has four years left. So even though he has a team option for next year, if the Mariners decline that, then he would simply just be ARP two. And he would go through arbitration three more times because he's a super two. He gets to go through it four times, not three. So that's all that means. He's going to be under, you know, unless they trade him or release him, which neither seems that likely.

He will be under the Mariners control for the next, you know, at least this year and at least next year before I think we really have any kind of conversation about whether or not he should be traded, et cetera. So, yeah, it's just a club option. Basically what it is is that the Mariners now have a cost control for next year put in place. It's like, look, we know that we're not going to pay him more than this. And they could decline that option because they could think his ARB number next year

will be lower than $6 million, but if they think it's going to be higher, then they can just accept it and save themselves probably not that much money. I mean, again, probably, I mean, at best, $100,000. So why give them the team option? Curry's a little bit of good faith if you're hoping to work out an extension later. And it doesn't cost you anything because you could easily just decline it. So, yeah, it really is just a, I mean, it's really not even all that noteworthy because what's probably going to happen is Miller's probably going to come in at a little bit less than $6 million. They'll project.

And so the Mariners will likely decline it. Or if they do accept it, it'll only cost them or save them $250,000, give or take in either direction. So, yeah, no, Bryce is still here for the next four years unless the Mariners trade him or release him. the option is not something, which is why this isn't an extension, by the way, because you're not extending his current club control either. So, yeah,

it's just a little bookkeeping thing that they're going to do. And, you know, we'll see. I think ARB two guys, what George's ARB, or Logan's ARB2, and he got 10.

He was also Super 2. So if Bryce, you know, kind of goes back to the 2024 version of Bryce, he has a possibility to jump significantly, but I don't think up to $10 million. So I really don't think the option is going to save, you know, or cost either side that much money in the grand scheme of things. But why not?

It's a bookkeeping thing. It's a goodwill thing. And the important thing is that you're not going to arbitration with one of your better players. Yeah. But yeah, if he does, you know, take a jump, you know, he bounces back. He builds on the momentum that he, you know, built in, you know, during the playoffs and all that.

And he gets back to being the guy that, you know, we know in love and we saw in 2023 and 2024 then yeah maybe that number exceeds $6 million and the mayor is able to save a little bit there should also be noted if he takes like an insane jump and he fetish his top five in

A. L. Saia Young voting the option is voided so you would have to pay him arbitration at that point but right which again is only going to be seven million bucks a minute it's very rare for a player to jump from two to nine ten you know

in one ARB cycle and just general rule of thumb. It's not exact. I'm not trying to tell you it is. But like in general, if you think, hey, what's this guy going to make an ARB next year? Just kind of double what he's making this year.

And that'll give you a rough estimate of where he's at. And then, you know, it's not always perfect. But if Bryce is making 2.5 this year, if he has a normal price year, then I think next year he's going to come in around five, somewhere between five and six more than likely.

So again, it's not it's not perfect so don't you know rely on that just look at the spot track look at the the MLBTR projections when they come out next year but in general I think you'd double what they're making right now in general that that's a pretty good place to give you a rough estimate yeah but yeah like you said the the best thing about all this is just they avoided arbitration they didn't have to go to the yard meeting hurt feelings unnecessarily so over 300 I think it was I think the specific number was $375,000. Yeah.

It's not worth it. It's not worth potentially damaging that, that relationship for the future over something so small relative to the owners. And the Mariners, very, very rarely ever go to arbitration. They try very difficult, very hard to avoid that. The last one I remember them going to Arb over was Teosker. Yeah.

And that difference was $2 million. dollars. So again, a little silly, meat in the middle, but Teo obviously didn't want to meet in the middle. And it was a one-year deal. So you weren't all that concerned about, you know, upsetting him or anything like that. You didn't have a relationship built up. But yeah, it would have been silly for Bryce to go to arbitration. And he's not going to. So that's a win-win for everybody. And you're listening to the Locktime Mariners 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 merr seahawks all the good stuff for more information go to patreon.com forward slash control the zone link in the description of this episode uh by the way i updated the link for uh the discord server i posted the expired one in the description by accident last episode so now you guys should be able to use that link in the description both on youtube and your preferred podcast platform to join us over on the Hoy Sailors Discord, which again is different than the

Discord server you get access to via the Every Day or Club. So yeah, sorry about that, guys, but the new link is in there and I'll remind myself every week to to replace the link. So obviously we're all waiting for the mayor's next big move

this off season. Hopefully there is a next big move this offseason from the Mariners, Koffkoff, Brennan, please, A.U. Hanyoswres, I'll take anything really at this point. But in the meantime, the mayors have continued to add to the pile of bullpen arms that will compete for those seventh and eighth spots in the bullpen this spring. That includes the latest edition, Yosefer Zulueta, who the mayor has acquired from the Cincinnati Reds

via trade a few days ago. He was DFAed by the Reds, by the Reds rather earlier that day. And then the Marrars traded dusty Revis for him who was a day three pick of the Mariners or what we used to call day three at least pick of the Marrars back in 2024 whatever uh so Zulowita has a little bit of major league uh seasoning under his belt seven innings pitch this year I think he had like 16 back in 2024 graded out pretty well in 2024 actually so pretty interesting dude um I think he's kind of you know immediately shot up to the top of or near the top of the list of the most interesting guys on the pile that they've added so far. We'll talk a little bit more about that in a second but overall just you got anything for us

on Zulueta, Colby? Yeah, I mean, it's the sinker slider from the arm slot that the Mariners really like. It's interesting, the slider didn't grade out all that well. It was about average on stuff plus. But in AAA it got a

51% whiff rate. So seems odd. I would also point out that I think his foreseen fastball is actually significantly better than his sinker. I mean, it had a 29% whiff rate in AAA. And you remember 30 on a four seat fastball is what we start to consider elite. So it's one of those things where it's like, I think the solution here is to throw more sliders. But we know the Mariners love their sinker slider guys. and it's not so much a concern of theirs,

whether or not a lot of guys in their bullpen misses bats, which it should be. But if you wanted to max out on Zulueta, you would have them throw the four seamer at the top of the zone and then have them throw the slider off of it. That would get a lot more swinging miss. He throws, you know, 96, 97. So velocity's fine.

But yeah, it's sinker, slider. The four seamer is a distant third in terms of usage. And then he also mixes in a change-up. The data on the change-up, is actually pretty good, but he throws it so infrequently. It's kind of hard to tell if it's a good pitch or not. We just don't have enough of a sample size. So, yeah, I imagine the Mariners look at him as a sinker,

slider, middle innings guy, and that's fine. But I think if they went four-seamer and slider from that arm slot, four-semer at the top of the zone with that arm slot, I think he get a lot more swing and miss. So I do think there's potential there for him to be more than just that kind of, you know, middle-innings, Carlos Vargas type of guy. But we'll see if the Mariners want to go that direction, or if they just want him to throw the slider way more

or if they're comfortable with who he is and he's just depth to them. But yeah, he's got an option left. So he doesn't have to make the team out of a camp or anything like that. So just another avenue they could explore if they win. I shouldn't say if when they need.

To add guys to their bullpen, Zuluetta will be near the top of their list. So they've added Zulweta. They've added Ryan Lutose. They've added Robinson Ortiz. Alex Hoppe and those guys of course join you know the likes of Domingo Gonzalez and Jackson Coar and Casey Legamina um CoR and Legamina especially I think likeamina doesn't have an option left anymore.

Yeah, I know for sure. Yeah, I know CoR for sure. So those guys have to make the team out of camp where else, you know, they're going to be left out, yeah, DFA'd and possibly, you know, heading elsewhere. So, you know, it's going to be a big spring for those guys in particular. but there are a lot of interesting guys behind them that are going to challenge for those spots. How would you rank the current group of pile arms, the merits have put together, excluding the guys that were already here entering the offseason.

So just the new guys that they brought in. I think my favorite's probably hoppy. I think he's got the best blend of stuff and upside. The command and control is iffy, but the stuff is really good. it's 98 to 100 with a cutter. So I really like Hoppy. I think that's a nice little ad there. Then I'd probably go Ortiz.

I think there's a shot that he can really break out. Again, the swing and miss is there, command control, not so much, which is kind of, you know, how this goes. That's how that works. But yeah, he's a slider guy. It looks like he'll be very difficult on left-handed pitching or left-handed hitters. But he might have enough swing and miss to be pretty good against Rides as well. So I think Ortiz is probably number two. Then I'd probably give Zulueta the third spot.

I do think that the Mariners should, you know, I know they've been really focused on sneaker slider guys, but Paul Seawald was an incredibly effective, you know, four-seam slider guy for a couple of years. And I think they have the opportunity to do something like that with Zuluetta. So he'd be number three. I'm sure I'm forgetting somebody, but like I think Wilcox is probably number of,

four for um for cox though feels like starting depth he might be but you know i'll throw him in here now uh the stuff is fine he's always been talented he just hasn't really put it together um but if he is in the bullpen mix instead of the rotation mix i would put him at four uh i think lutose would be the least interesting of the guys he's he's fine he you know throws from the arm slot they like pretty good slider but really not much else to back it up so i i think lutose is kind of just a warm body. So what we're saying is Ryan Lutus, 50 inning season, sub three ERA, sub three, phip. This was 2023, sure, but not so much lately.

Does he have an option left? Do you know? Yes. Okay. Yes, all those guys have two or more options left. So, yeah, I think Hopi Ortiz, Zulueta, or kind of the big three pile arms that could get some run. and I think they all have some interesting stuff and I just think Hoppy is the one most likely to break out

and be like a high leverage type of guy. Yeah, yeah, Hoppy, like the stuff is just so loud and they prioritized him, you know, on the Rule 5. Like they, you know, they went out and just traded for him instead of waiting and hoping that he would get to them in the Rule 5. So, and they traded like someone that we found interesting, maybe not the general public, but we found Luke Kamen kind of interesting.

So, you know, when they made. that trade. I was like, whoa, that's something. So yeah, Hopi is the guy that I've definitely circled here. But like I said, you know, Zuluetta graded out pretty well in 2024. So maybe there's something there and there's a tweak they can make there. Ortees as a third lefty would be pretty interesting. It seems like they might be open to the idea of having three lefties in the bullpen in general if, you know, you want to buy these Jojo Romero rumors. So, and in general, just having more lefty depth and the organization

would be nice. So yeah, so those are the top three guys to me. Again, Wilcox, I didn't even mention him at first when we started talking about this because I just, I more so think that he is in the Logan Evans, Zimmerson Hancock camp of starting pitching depth.

But maybe he factors in eventually in the bullpen. And Lutos, to me, he's just kind of a guy. He's like, how Jesse Han was last year. Like maybe he comes up for a couple of innings, you know,

when they really need him. Like maybe he winds up being the first guy that they call up when there's an injury. But he probably, you know, only last maybe a week. Like he's here for like 10 days and then he pitches twice and a couple of blowouts or something.

Or if they get into an extra innings game where they basically burned everyone else. Like maybe he pitches then or something like that. But yeah. Other than that, I just can't really see Lutos being around, but, you know, too long. No. In general, it feels like the, the Mariners are lagging behind in, like, the minor league signings. Like, we know the pile arms, obviously, but also like the Brennan Davis, Patrick Wisdoms.

We really haven't heard that many other. Yeah. We haven't really heard that many other, you know, spring body. and you know in our eyes uh floated around uh and you know this this spring in particular especially with the mariners who are going to have upwards of 15 players participating in the world baseball classic like off of their 26 man roster uh they're they're going to need uh you know those guys and they're going to get a lot of runs so seattle would seem to me to be a pretty enticing like you know yeah there's there's good opportunity to like get playing time

you know and and not just you know put some tape out there for the marineries but also for other scouts right and it just we just haven't heard about any you know minor league uh free agents outside of uh you know the the big two which are wisdom in in bernan davis and so i guess dobbnack way back dobbnack might have been the very first thing the mariners did that's how early that was yeah i think it was before the nailer thing so you know again it is what it is but uh the mariner's still have to fill out their AAA roster. They still have to fill out, you know, their camp bodies and all that. And we just haven't seen that. So there, I, you know, keep an eye. I think there might be one or two more notable in our eyes who we were looking at me,

like, oh, they might make the team like Rowdy Tellez like last year. The wisdom's probably the rowdy to les this year. But just keep an eye out. And I think a couple of those guys will be bullpen arms because there is opportunity. Because when you look at the Mariners bullpen right now, CoR and Legamina are in the opening day bullpen right now, and that's not a particularly difficult mountain to overcome if you're trying to get into the big weeks this year. So there might be a few more guys coming, but for now, yeah, I like, I like Hoppe. I like Zulueta and I like Ortiz. Everybody else, you know, just kind of org-depth to me. Yeah.

Yeah, the Marin is, they're set one through six in the bullpen. know with mooney spire bizardo brash ferre and vargas but seven and eight those spots gonna be up for grabs between I don't know seven guys like amina

co war I don't know if Troy Taylor's gonna be part of that competition I assume so because he's on the 40 man but sure probably but is he really a part of it and then you know Ortiz you know all the guys that we just talked about hoppy Zuluetta etc so

um I don't know if it's necessarily like a fun competition to keep track of, but it's going to be an interesting one to keep track of for sure. And especially because there's the added element of, you know, co-ar and like Amina having to make the club out of camp because of the lack of options. And maybe that's just how it goes, right? Maybe they're just safe because of that reason to start the season. And then, you know, in a couple weeks, eventually the mayors are like,

all right, we're just going to DFA one of these guys. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, right now, there's no reason for them not to be the seven and eight guys. But that could change. If you go out and you get, you know, if you get a couple of these, I'm not going to say high profile, but just notable NRI guys. And we're getting to that point now where guys who are, you know, fringe, so to speak,

guys, they're going to start looking for opportunities to get into a camp as soon as possible. and pitchers and catchers report in two and a half weeks. So, you know, hopefully the Mariners have a couple more of these interesting NRIs coming in. But yeah, for now, the pile is at least interesting and it's flexible in that you can call them up and down multiple times and not risk of losing them. All right. That is going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the lockdown Marries podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

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