Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - HERE WE GO: The Biggest Road Trip of the Mariners' Season Begins

Episode Date: September 17, 2025

Ty and Colby preview the Mariners' upcoming series with the Royals, discuss Colt Emerson's promotion to Triple-A, and tell what to watch for on the out-of-town scoreboard.Check out our Patreon!Donate to The Trevor ProjectFollow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11Follow the show on Bluesky: @lockedonmariners | @tdg | @mlbcolbySupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!5-Hour ENERGYTime to fuel up and turn it up with 5-hour ENERGY®️ Transfusion! Go to https://5hourenergy.com today and use my promo code LOCKEDONGOLF to receive 20% off your order. This offer is only valid until September 30th on one order and cannot be used with other promotions. The code is not good on subscription orders.  Supply HouseJoin the TradeMaster program today at SupplyHouse.com/TM and start ordering plumbing, HVAC, and electrical supplies with just a few clicks. Plus, use promo code S-H-5 for 5% off your first order. That’s SupplyHouse.com!OpenPhoneStreamline and scale your customer communications with OpenPhone. Get 20% off your first 6 months at www.openphone.com/lockedonmlbGameday HueLet your colors talk—because colors speak louder than words. Right now, you can get 15% off with code MLB15 at GamedayHue.com. Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONMLB at monarchmoney.com/lockedonmlb for 50% off your first year.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.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get ONE HUNDRED FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official 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.

The biggest road trip of the season starts for the Mariners tonight. We'll get you set for it coming up here on the Lockdown Marrars podcast. 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 Tuesday, September 16th, 2025.

This is Tadangazas and Colby Patnaud for the Lockdown Marys podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. This episode is brought to you by Fandul. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if you bet wins, you'll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Download the Fandulaw app today. And as always, if you want to hear from me and Colby even more and help support the show, you can check out our Patreon.

All you have to do to check that out, click the link in the description of this episode. On the show today, we'll take a look at the Kansas City Royals, tell you about some pretty cool prospect news and tell you what to watch for on the Out of Town scoreboard tonight. A lot of things happening on that front. And they're all going to be happening while the Mariners are playing. playing. So going to be a lot to keep track of. We will get you set on that front a little later on.

But let's start here with the Mariners upcoming series with the Kansas City Royal starting at Coffman Stadium tonight. That place has obviously been a house of horrors, at least for me, as a Mariners fan. I have admittedly crashed out a couple of times over some games that have happened at Coffman Stadium over the last few years. We all remember the 11 to 2 debacle back in 2022. Obviously, the Bryce Miller started last year. Yeah.

some not great memories at Kauffman Stadium for Marys fans. But the Marers overall since 2022, they're 5 and 5, which isn't bad by any means. They've played a lot of high-scoring games, which I think might be the case again in this series, and given how inconsistent the Marys starting pitching has been on the road. Hopefully that's not the case. Hopefully they can get some big pitching just across the board, both out of the rotation and the bullpen. Hopefully they can pick up right where they left things off in the homestand. But yeah, this is a series that only a week and a half, two weeks ago, we were looking at

as having huge playoff implications for both teams. And that's not really going to be the case because the Royals have fallen back quite a bit. They're now six and a half games out of a wildcard spot. They are exactly 500 at 75 and 75. They still have a lot of talent, though. Obviously, Bobby Wood Jr. Michael Garcia, Vinnie Pasquantino. I mean, you know, remember we were talking about trades just a couple months ago when we were talking about Vinny Pasquitino quite a bit. And my thoughts were, yeah, I mean, good player, but he doesn't really have, you know, a traditional first base profile.

Like he doesn't hit a ton of, you know, hit for a ton of power. I think he only had like 12 home runs at the time. He has 30 now. So Vinny Pasquitino is a problem. and they are getting healthier in the rotation as well. Michael Waka will pitch tonight against Logan Gilbert. He's coming back from the concussion IL, just in time for the series, of course.

And then Cole Regens, who's been out for the last three months with a strained rotator cuff. He's coming back tomorrow just in time for the Maris series, because of course, yay. But, you know, Regans, and we'll talk about this a little bit more tomorrow, but Reagan's only through 56 pitches in his last rehab, start. So I assume he's probably going to be somewhere in the 65 to 70 pitch range, if I had to guess.

So there's a possibility there that if he can balloon his pitch count pretty early, you can get him out in three to four innings. So we'll see how that goes. And again, we'll talk more about that tomorrow. But yeah, obviously, quite a bit of nerves just associated with playing at Kaufman Stadium. And then you throw in the fact that this is the biggest road trip of the entire season, maybe the biggest road trip in the history of the Seattle Marin. because it's the next one and with everything that's on the line for them. So there's just a lot of nerves right now, I would say, especially for me. How are you feeling, Colby? Yeah, the good news is because of your nine-game winning streak, every win matters, every series matters.

So, of course, this one matters too. But, like, you have put yourself in a position where you can have a letdown series so long as you don't get swept. Now, you can't do it against Houston. but the other three series left on the schedule, you can lose one of these series and still be in really good position. So now you do have the Dodgers at the end. So you might want to save that series for the end.

But, you know, who knows? But yeah, it's a little concerning because they have not played well on the road at all over the last, you know, a couple of road trips, obviously. The pitching has been significantly worse on the road for whatever. ever reason. We've talked about some of the reasons, but there's no guarantee that doesn't crop back up again. And yeah, Kansas City is a team that is not, you know, may not be great. They're a pretty good roster, though, and, you know, they're only 500, but you just got done playing three dreadful teams on your nine game winning streak. And those were teams where all the

lineups had easy outs baked into them. And in Kansas City, not so much, you know, like you said, It's Pasquantino. It's Bobby Wood Jr. It's Michael Garcia who's having a breakout year. Perez is still dangerous with the power. And, you know, it's the Jonathan India types. Like, they're not guaranteed out. So it's not like they're, they're, you know.

Adam Fraser slapped in America. Sure. It's not like they're, you know, a group of like, you know, power hitting. Like you're not, it's not like you're facing even the Boston Red Sox or anything like that. But you're facing a lineup that really doesn't have a ton of hold. holes puts the ball in play. They don't strike out a ton. And your weakness is defense.

And that is a problem. And defense includes holding runners and, you know, hitting the cutoff man and, and all of that stuff. Then the Mariners don't do that well. They do not do the little things well. And Kansas City is a team that is kind of built to counteract that perfectly. Like they are the anti-parters. They don't hit a ton of home runs.

But they play really good defense. They run the bases aggressively. they have, you know, they're smart and they're just more fundamentally sound than you are typically. So we'll see how the Mariners, you know, handle that. Traditionally, these teams have played really close games and they've had close season series, you know, every year for the last few years. Even when Kansas City was like a hundred lost team, they were still giving you really good games and you were still having to grind them out. So the talent gap isn't as big here as it was on the homestand.

So, yeah, there's lots to be concerned about. And obviously, you know, Bryce Miller and Luis Castillo getting back-to-back starts, despite Castillo and Miller both coming off a really good outings, it's tough to trust them still. And again, with just the way that this team is built in this ballpark, which is like the opposite of how you built your team is in the Kansas City is, there's some cause for concerning. And thankfully, you don't necessarily have to win.

this series. Obviously you should try and you should be rooting for a sweep and blah, blah, blah, blah, but like you can drop this series and still be in pretty good position when you go into Houston. But if you do get swept, things get a little dicey. Not so much with the Royals, but with catching the Astros and maybe traders get back in it or maybe Cleveland is right there with you. So things can still get dicey if you get swept. You can't get swept. You have to find a way to win at least one of these games. Obviously winning the series is the goal. But you have to win one. Getting one early, getting this first one would be huge. Kind of gives you two cracks at what you need to do over the next two days before you head into Houston.

And you need Logan Gilbert to step up big time. This is the type of game where you need Gilbert to throw well for you. And it's, I mean, it's go time. We are basically in the playoffs. And I mean, we're playing playoff. Not that we're actually in the playoffs, but we're playing playoff. off baseball this week. Yeah.

Like that's what's happening here. And so, yeah, if, you know, unless you're going to sweep the Astros, which is possible, you really need to win at least one of these games in Kansas City. And the pitching matchups, you know, could go either way on pretty much all of these. And Seattle's not a great fit for that ballpark. I would hope Victor Robles is playing right field in all three of these games. And I would honestly, I would hope Luke Rayleigh is going to get some. time in left field and maybe Randy DHS for a game or two.

And you have Polo play second because outfield defense is significantly more important in this ballpark than infield defense. You just live with Polo at second for a couple days and maybe give Randy a couple DH days, which wouldn't be the worst idea anyways. But really out there to get your best defensive outfield. So maybe you can cut off some of these balls in the gap. I mean, Randy holding guys to, you know, singles is his biggest issue. Those balls down the line.

This is not the ballpark. to be messing around with that. And so yeah, it goes. But hopefully they can just find a way to, you know, get to walk up pretty quick, pretty early.

And maybe they can, maybe not an 11 to 2 win, but could we get like a nice, you know, like, you know, five to two kind of game where it's never really that much in down.

Your bullpen should be pretty well rested, especially your high leverage guys. I mean, if this game was 18 to 2, I wouldn't trust it until they get the final out in the stadium. Sure, but that's because you're the pessimist. So, yeah, it's one of those things. We'll see how it goes.

Yeah, I'm nervous about it for a lot of reasons. And you guys know those reasons. So we'll see how it goes. But ultimately, you're still in really good shape. So just don't embarrass yourselves over the next three games. And you'll probably be in really good shape and be right where you want to be when you face the Astros over the weekend. Yeah, run prevention, I think, should be at the forefront of Dan Wilson's mind when he's filling out these lineups. I would like to see Victor Robles play all three games in right field, no matter the hand in this situation, which Reagan's a lefty.

So I assume, you know, Robles is in the lineup no matter what tomorrow. But Waka, Aririte, Lorenzen Arradi, and the final game, I would like to see Robles get starts against those two guys as well, just so I can have his defense out there. because this is a huge outfield and we have seen inside the park home runs we have seen triples you know we know how quickly a large lead can get erased in this ballpark so

run prevention is is huge that's going to be a huge part of this in order for the mayor is to have a successful series in Kansas City Mike Yostrinsky by the way he's one of the newer guys in this Kansas City lineup since he's come over to the Royals he's really found his power stroke

he's slugging over 500 he only had eight home runs on the season with the Giants and then he got traded to Kansas City. He has seven since becoming a royal. So they've added some annoying players. You know, Adam Fraser has found ways to get some annoying hits. He had a pretty big hit in that Angel series

like a week or so ago. You know, Randall Gritchick, really good against lefties. So I assume if, you know, Gabe Spire is in there to phase or Caleb Ferguson is in there to face Caglione or or Kyle Isbell. We're going to see Randall Gritchick pitchhead in that situation. That's going to be a tough guy to get out. So definitely some guys throughout this lineup and even on that bench to be mindful of here with the Royals.

All right. So we're going to switch gears here before we talk about the out of town scoreboard and talk a little prospect news. I'll go over that in just a moment. But first, a reminder of this episode of the Locktime Marrace podcast is brought to you by Nutraful in Game Time. You've probably seen a million ads for hair growth products and thought, yeah, Sure, like that actually works. And I don't blame you because there are so many products out there. And it is so hard to know which ones are actually going to do anything.

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code LOC KED on MLB for $20 off swipe tap ticket go download game time today and you're listening to the locked on marries podcast for instant reactions following every mariners game be sure to tune into the mayor's postcast with Anderson hurst Christopher Crock available on both the lockdown marriage YouTube and podcast feeds. So we're going to break up our talk about the current Mariners and talk about a potential future mariner. Mariners top prospect Colt Emerson has been surprisingly called up to AAA Tacoma after the Arkansas traveler season ended on Sunday.

According to Mariners GM, Justin Hollander, the rainiers could use some infield help, specifically at shortstop and they felt that Colt was the best man for the job. But obviously the rainiers are going to be starting the playoffs here in a little over a week. Or actually, no, a little under a week now. The regular season ends on September 21st. So Colt's going to get, I don't know, about an extra week and a half at least added to his season after he played 34 games with AA Arkansas. 282, 360430 down there. That's a 133 WRC plus, 19.3% K rate, 8.7% walk.

rate, three home runs, 18 REI, seven stolen bases. And he's going to make his debut today. He's actually making it by the time you're watching this. And the game is on Root Sports. So if you have the ability to watch Root Sports right now as you're watching the premiere of this, turn it on because you will get to see Colt Emerson make his AAA debut. So pretty cool that they're giving him the shot. And pretty cool that, you know, Colt is going to enter.

2026 a year in which we figured he would have at least an outside shot to make his major league debut he's going to enter that season with at least some AAA seasoning and I would assume this means that he's probably going to start next year in AAA as well. So what do you think? Yeah. It feels unnecessary, which is to say it feels like this is one of those things where they don't need to do this and the whole like, oh, they need infield help and Colts the best guy. Like, yeah, okay.

The truth is that the Mariners want to see Colt Emerson face AAA pitching to see how close he is. And I think the more important conversation is one that we're not going to get too deep into here today. It's an off-season topic is

what does this mean for J.P. Crawford? We will have a lot of discussions this winter about what do the Mariners do about J.P. Crawford because it is just undeniably true right now that J.P. Crawford's defense at shortstop is a major problem. It is one of the biggest weaknesses on this team. It's not getting better. JP also has one year left on his deal for $11 million. The Mariners, as we know, sometimes have to make some moves to clear some payroll space because ownership is just so wonderful. So could J.P. get Ginoed? Yeah, he might be. And if that's the

case, the Mariners kind of need to know what they have in Emerson, know how close he is. So if he goes to AAA and he's decent and he's pretty good, they may still start him at AAA next year and maybe just roll with Cole Young or Leo Rivas as the shortstop to start the year. And Emerson would be up shortly after. But there's a possibility. I think we have to consider here that there's a non-zero chance. Emerson starts the year in the big leagues next year and is the opening day shortstop, which, again,

for a 20-year-old who will be 20 until, you know, late July of 2026, that is aggressive. But again, I don't buy this like, oh, it's just, you know, they needed some help. And Colts, you know, the best shortstop we have. So it's like, no, you wouldn't do that because Colt Emerson is too important of a prospect to just be like, yeah, sure, throw him up there, don't need to play him. He'll be depth. They're like, yeah, you know, it's fine. Like, you don't mess around with that. and Emerson has gotten a full season worth of bat bats.

He's played a full season worth of games. So this isn't about him needing reps. This is 100% about them wanting to see what Colton Emerson looks like against AAA pitching. So they have some kind of idea of how close or how far away he is heading into this winter. And so, well, it's really tough to, it's going to be really tough for them to get any kind of, you know, usable data out of the numbers because it's only going to be 50, you know, 80 played appearances, whatever it is.

there's absolutely, you know, how does he track spin? How does he, you know, how are these at-bats looking? Is he working counts? Is he fouling off tough pitches? It's all the stuff, right? That goes into scouting other than just numbers. So I think this is a really interesting call-up, mostly because of what it does to our discussions this winter. Because now Colt Emerson has to be a part of them.

Because to me, this is very clearly the Mariners looking at this and saying, like, he might be ready to go early next year. and if he is, we might trade J.P. Crawford or we might move J.P. Crawford off of shortstop to second base or whatever, right? So this is not just an innocent little like, oh, well, the rainiers need help and they deserve it. Like, nope, this is about the Mariners setting themselves up for 2026 and trying to get as much information as they can about their top prospect about his readiness level to, to, you know, face major league pitching. And look, it's never the same, right? Cole Young crushed AAA and he's been pretty much worthless as a hitter for the last month. Like it, so you're not going to get 100% of what you need to know. But it really is, I think about, hey,

let's see how close this guy is, how confident we are that he can help us next year and how soon we think he can help us. And then that will inform a lot of the decisions we make this winter. So this is more than just a like, oh, that's cool type of thing. I think this is a very real admission, by the Mariners that they think there's a good shot

that Colt Emerson can help them early next year. Yeah. Yeah, at the very least it expedites some of the workload that you were planning on giving him at the AAA level next year anyway. Yeah. So yeah, so it gives you some valuable information heading into a big offseason that we've kind of talked about a little bit here and there, more so on the Patreon podcast and on here. But this is an off season potentially that could see a lot of turnover

on the Major League roster for the Maris, depending on how much or how little money of the front office has to spend. All right. So let's wrap things up by talking about what you should be keeping an eye out for on the Autotown Scoreboard tonight. Go over that in just a moment. But first, a reminder, this episode of the Locktime Merritt podcast is brought to you by Fandwell. The NFL season is here and Fandul is making sure you're ready for kickoff with a can't miss

offer. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if you bet wins, you'll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. FanDuel makes every game more exciting whether you're watching your team or just keeping an eye on your fantasy lineup. It's quick, easy, and the best way to add a little more energy to Sundays. So are you ready to play? Download the Fandual app now by visiting Fandual.com to get started. That's Fanduil.com to place your first $5 bet. And you're listening to the Locked-on Mariners podcast. So the Mariner's magic number to make the playoffs is still nine,

like we said yesterday, that couldn't have gone down because the Guardians didn't play. And obviously the magic number as far as the out of town aspect of it goes was tied to the Rangers and the Guardians last night. Now the Rangers lost. So now it's only tied to the Guardians as far as tonight goes. The Guardians are kicking off a three game set with the Tigers, which could have implications for the mirrors. Either way, that goes. If the Tigers lose, then, you know, the Bears. Marriss could potentially gain ground on them to get closer to getting that second seed in the American League and get the first round by.

And if the Guardians lose, then the magic number goes down to at least eight tonight. And it could go down to seven where the Marys went on top of that. We'll see what happens with the Astros and the Rangers tonight. Obviously, all eyes right now on Yordon Alvarez, who suffered an ankle sprain early on in that one. apparently he left the clubhouse on crutches and in a walking boot and refused to speak to the media until he had more information on his injury. I don't know if we'll get more information on that today, but that obviously could have a pretty big impact on things moving forward. But yeah, you know, if the Astros lose tonight, then the Mariners magic number to win the division goes down to 11.

and if the mayor's win tonight on top of that it would go down to 10 some other things to keep an keep an eye on here the Red Sox who obviously would give the mares more of a buffer in the wild card If they can put some ground in between them and Boston They kick off a series with the A's tonight And then the Yankees who the mayor has picked up a half game on yesterday After getting smoked by the twins that's crazy that came out of nowhere They continue their series with the twins so we'll see how that goes.

So again, the path to the Mariners potentially hosting playoff games without even winning the division is there. The Yankees still have a very easy road here with two series left against the Orioles, this series against the Twins, and another series against the White Sox remaining. But yeah, that was pretty surprising the Twins just smoked them last night. It was crazy. But yeah, so a lot to keep an eye on. And all of this is going to be happening as the Marys are playing. Yep.

So I don't know if you're going to quad box it on MLB TV or you're just going to be checking your phone or what have you. But yeah, there's going to be a lot going on from about, I think, 340. Yeah, 340 Pacific is the first game. I think that's the Guardians Tigers game. All the games start between 340 and 510 Pacific time. Yeah. Yeah. Jage actually sent me a schedule, but I lost it.

But yeah, so what are you mostly going to be keeping an eye on? Are you just watching the mayor's game and not worry? watching the Mariners game. Yeah, that's kind of what I'm going to do, actually. It's kind of my plan. But I know some of you guys watching, you're going to be scoreboard watching. I mean, like, I'll watch the Mariners game and the Mariners get up or down by too much. I probably check the score.

We're going to be like, all right, well, let's start to see how this might impact them. But yeah, I mean, for me, it's pretty easy. You know, Mariners are the only team I care about. So that's the one I'm going to watch. And then, you know, go tigers and go twins and go A's. and go insert your preference in the American League West matchup here. I don't really know. So, yeah, I mean, you know, maybe tonight it's go Houston or go Texas and maybe tomorrow it's go Houston because I don't know.

So, yeah, it's there's four or five games you need to pay attention to. But ultimately, if the Mariners handled their business, it doesn't matter what the other teams are going to do. So the Mariners are the most important team in this formula. So just watch them. Yeah. Yeah. So that's what I'll be doing. I don't want to have too much going on in my head, especially with how much I'm going to be stressed out watching the Marys play a game in Kaufman Stadium.

You know, when the schedule got released, you know, last year. And I saw, oh, a Kansas City series in the middle of September. Great. Yeah. I'm totally not going to be stressed out about that. Well, here we are. And I'm very much on edge. So, yeah.

We'll see how this thing goes. But yeah, lots of keep an eye on. Should be a pretty busy night. And then we'll talk about it on tomorrow's episode. All right. That's going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Marrars podcast for Colby.

Patnode. I'm Tadding Azales. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at LO underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Tading Azales and Colby at C-Pat 11. That's C-PAT-1-1. We're also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG. Colby at MLB Colby in the show at Lockdown Mariners.

You can also find us on Instagram at Lockdown Mariners. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day. and we'll see you next time. Peace.