Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - How Brennen Davis Could MAKE the Seattle Mariners' Opening Day Roster | Mailbag Monday

Starting point is 00:00:00 Brennan Davis has taken Mariners camp by storm, but he really only has one narrow path to making the opening day roster. We'll tell you what that is as we answer some of your questions here on Mailbag Monday. 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 Monday, March night, 2026. You're listening to the Lockdown Marries podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast. Network now the number one sports podcast network.

Starting point is 00:00:39 My name is Tiding Gazzalas and I'm joined as always by my co-coast Colby Patnode. We're two lifelong Mariners fans who've been covering the team for over half a decade. And today we'll be opening up the mailbag like we do here every single Monday and answer some of your Mariners questions. But before we do, I want to shout out our title sponsor today. MLB the show 26. Visit MLB-T-H-E dot show slash locked on and use the promo code locked on. That's L-C-E-D-O-N to unlock a pack for use in Diamond Dynasty. Pre-order now available March 17th on PlayStation 5, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch. Ritted E for everyone.

Starting point is 00:01:13 All right, well, like a billion of you wanted to know about this, but we picked Julio's King's version of this question. How probable is it that Brennan Davis makes the roster on opening day? Probable, not at all. Not probable at all. If we're using NFL terms, I doubtful. at best. The very best.

Starting point is 00:01:40 Yeah. Look, I think the only way that this works is dependent on what's going on with Victor Robles. He suffered a shoulder injury last week, diving for a ball. He's only D-Hing right now. If he can still only D.H by the time opening day rolls around, I'd consider ILing Victor because Victor is just a D.H only, even if it's just for for a little while, even if it's just for like the first week of the season or whatever,

Starting point is 00:02:09 that's not super helpful to me. So IL him, let him get right, maybe that would be the best path there for the merits for Victor. And then at that point, that would seemingly open the door for Brennan Davis, right, as a right-handed hitting corner outfielder.

Starting point is 00:02:31 That's the only way that I see, that's the only way I see this working though. Like to put it in, in the NFL probable terms, which is a weird way to word this, by the way, Julio is King. Like, how probable is it? It's not. It's out.

Starting point is 00:02:45 Like, he's not making the opening day roster, nor should he, by the way. But yeah, if there is some kind of one in a million shot, it's that Victor has to go on the IL. And even then, the Mariners don't have to put Davis on this roster. They could just like Canzon face lefties. he was pretty good against them last year. And then Ref Snyder becomes Rayleigh's partner until Robles is ready to go. And that still works. Like that,

Starting point is 00:03:13 that still fits on the roster. And then you can use that roster spot on somebody who is a little more dynamic in a pure, you know, bench role. And since Victor Robles' big value that he was bringing to this team, aside from being a right-handed hitter, which doesn't inherently have value, but whatever, is base running and defense. Well, Rylan Thomas is a better base runner.

Starting point is 00:03:35 and a better defender. And he's actually had a nice spring too. So, like, they might not even give Davis the, the fourth outfield spot or whatever, fifth outfield spot in that point. By the way, Rylan Thomas can at least fake it in center field. Davis can't. So it's just one of those things where it's like even if you get that dream scenario where, you know, Robla and dream scenario includes somebody getting hurt and missing time. But even if you get that scenario where Robles, you know, misses time and you have to put him on the I.L and he's not ready for opening day. there's still no guarantee that they just give that job to Davis.

Starting point is 00:04:09 They might give it to Rylan Thomas. They might make a small trade outside the org. They might carry another infielder for all we know because they have money. Maybe they keep Master Boni who's out of options. Yeah, that's also for just a little longer. So, yeah, I just don't think that it's a slam dunk even if the one scenario where it makes a little bit of sense for him to make the opening day roster, even if that comes to fruition, there's still a couple other players. who might be ahead of him on the depth chart. So it's not probable at all.

Starting point is 00:04:39 It's not likely at all. It's not even a 10% chance that it happens. There's like a 1% chance at most. And that's only if the door is cracked open at all by Victor Robles possibly going on the IL before opening day. It's just he's not going to make it over Luke really. He's not going to make it over Dom Kahn zone. It really is just ropless. what's going on with him that's the only only only only way that this potentially works and like you said

Starting point is 00:05:10 even at that point they might go with with rylan thomas who can play some centerfield because that's obviously a big part of what you know rubless brings the table is that he's probably your backup center fielder if hulio needs a blow or god forbid julio gets hurt so yeah maybe maybe it's thomas you know maybe they don't want to move on from master bony just yet so they put them on the roster instead. You know, I just, I don't want to overreact to what's happening in spring. It's very impressive what Brennan Davis is doing. The insane exit velocities that he's posting.

Starting point is 00:05:42 And obviously there's the, you know, former top prospect pedigree and all that. Maybe this is a guy that's finally, finally figured it out. Let's see if that continues in Tacoma, which he has a very good chance of continuing it in Tacoma because it's the PCL, right? It's Cheney Stadium. Let's see if he can play six, seven weeks in a row. without blowing out his knee or whatever, you know. Right. That's also been, you know, staying on the field has been a big issue for him.

Starting point is 00:06:06 So, so, yeah, you know, look, he has a potential to provide you legitimate, really good depth, you know, down on the miners. Or to, you know, at least be part of, you know, building some legitimate depth for you down in Tacoma. I don't want to, I don't see really the point in rushing that and overreacting to what's happening in spring, especially when there just really isn't a path to getting him on the roster. Because like the other thing too is like, is it really in his best interest to bring him up for the first couple weeks of the season until Victor is ready to roll and maybe play him twice over that time? Yeah, probably not.

Starting point is 00:06:48 You know? Because like they're not like Victor is going like if Victor goes on the aisle and Davis is the guy that gets that spot to start the year, they're not going to DFA Victor. like they will send Davis back down to Tacoma once Victor's ready to roll. So at that point, like, is that really the best use of Davis's time? Especially when he's, you know, especially if he's continuing to to stay hot at the plate to kind of interrupt that momentum. I don't think so.

Starting point is 00:07:21 I know he's 26 years old, but dude hasn't played a lot for being 26 years old because of all the injuries. he still needs reps. There's still development left to do there. So yeah, Davis has been a fun, you know, spring training storyline, sure. But yeah, it's one of those things where cool storyline. Obviously, he's got some skill set. We knew he did. He was a top prospect. He looks healthy. He's absolutely destroying the baseball. But that doesn't mean you have to put him on the opening day roster. All right. We'll answer more of your questions in just a moment. But first a reminder of this episode of the Lockdown Airs podcast is once again brought to you by MLB the show 26 as well as indeed.

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Starting point is 00:10:09 Need to hire. This is a job for Indeed. Sponsored jobs. And you're listening to the Locktime Marins 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.

Starting point is 00:10:24 And also thank you for making Lockdown the number one sports podcast network. Baseball is back and you can lock in by joining the Everydayer Club, which gets you add. free episodes and access to a group chat on Discord. Go to lockdown mariners.com or tap the link in the description to learn more. Also be sure to tune in to the Lockdown MLB Top 100 show tomorrow morning. Got six Mariners on that list. I wonder where they're going to land.

Starting point is 00:10:51 I might have some thoughts on that later on. Maybe you'll see me appear on that top 100 episode. Who knows? All right. Mason wants to know, what do you guys take away from Colt, Emerson's spring so far is it's still too early to tell. He looks like a guy that's not knocking the door down. It's pretty much it.

Starting point is 00:11:11 He looks like a guy that could, you know, use some more time down in Tacoma and then we'll reassess in May. See where he's at. Yeah, he's not having a spring that is making the decision for the Mariners all that difficult, which, you know, is kind of what you wanted to have happened. And he's not having a bad spring, like statistically, maybe not the best spring, but he looks fine at the plate. He's having some pretty good at bats.

Starting point is 00:11:41 He looks good in the field. But he's not, you know, blowing anybody away. He's been fine. He's been competitive and not really facing super high quality major league pitching, since most of that's away at the WBC at the moment. And he's still not really producing big numbers. So to me, this looks like a guy very clearly at 20 years old, not quite ready for the big leagues.

Starting point is 00:12:03 Is that the end of the world? No, absolutely not. But yeah, it's, there's no reason to be concerned. He's 20. There's no reason to think he can't help you at the major league level this year. It's spring training. He's gotten like 20 played appearances. No.

Starting point is 00:12:17 I mean, what have I seen from him? A guy who looks like he's going to be a very good major leaguer, but he's not there yet. Yeah. And that might change in a couple months time. Sure. It's just right now, again, you know, we said this leading up to spring training. he kind of especially after the the bernan donovan trade kind of would have to you know do what hoelio did a few years ago

Starting point is 00:12:42 and just absolutely knock the door down and leave the mariner's with essentially no other choice but to put him on the roster right i mean the mariners right now they don't even have to do the whole like we're sending him down to work on his defense thing like no it just look he's not one of our 13 best position players right now we think he will be by the end of this year but he's not right now so he's going down yeah we've seen glimpses of it Right. But then there's also been some bad swings, you know, a couple bad strikeouts here and there. Like, you know, it's the expected ups and downs of a 20-year-old, you know, facing the high-level competition.

Starting point is 00:13:17 Right. I mean, the kid really did get rushed to AAA last year at the end of the year. So the fact that he probably is going to need, you know, at least 100, 150 more played appearances of AAA is not that surprising nor is it concerning or anything like that. And it's not actually an indictment on the Mariners for being cheap and trying to club control. I'm like, no, you're trying to win the World Series right now. And this guy, he's not better than Leo Rebos right now. He's not better than Cole Young right now. Yeah, Cole Young's earned the first crack at it. You know, if these two guys are vying for essentially one spot on the roster.

Starting point is 00:13:56 And, you know, Cole Young, who hasn't been fantastic this spring, but he's definitely had a better spring than Colts so far just in terms of like what they have done in games, then Coles are in the first crack at it. So yeah, and that doesn't really say much about how the rest of the year is going to go for Colt other than, you know, he's probably going to have to start the year in AAA and we'll have to reassess here in a few weeks time. Lifetime income for you wants to know as extensions are considered. Should the Mariners be worried most likely, the most likely give back from owners during the lockout will be free agency after five years?

Starting point is 00:14:34 very possible Logan and Logan Gilbert that is and Brennan Donovan could be free agents sooner rather than later. I have a very, very, very, very hard time imagining that the owners would sign off on guys that have two years left of club control right now, having them just automatically become free agents coming out of the new CBA. That's not going to happen. I think what we would probably see is that that gets applied to guys that are pre-ar. but anyone that's already made money in arbitration, anyone that's are eligible, their club control remains the same.

Starting point is 00:15:11 There's just no shot in hell that the owners would ever sign off on guys becoming free agents a year earlier, right, like right away. Right. Not to mention with the lockout, this deal gets done, let's say in March,

Starting point is 00:15:27 free agency resumes in March. All of a sudden there's an influx of, you know, are guys who are three or R4, now there's free agents. And now we got to play real baseball games in four weeks. Like that's just not going to happen. It's too messy.

Starting point is 00:15:41 So, you know, unfortunately, the guys like Logan and Donovan, they kind of get short shrifted here because they end up being like grandfathered into the old system. But that's the reality of what you have to do. And again, it sucks.

Starting point is 00:15:54 It's not necessarily fair that they have to fulfill their six-year obligation. Well, you know, a guy like Cole Young gets, a year closer to free agency right off the bat, but that's just kind of the reality of the system. There are some tough realities that players are going to have to accept with the CBA, just like there are tough realities that the owners are going to have to accept with a new CBA. And one of them is that we can't have a big influx of guys that teams were already banking on

Starting point is 00:16:19 and counting on being on their team for one more year. We can't have them all of a sudden be free agents three weeks before we're trying to start a regular season. Like that's just not going to happen. And also, by the way, to the point of whoever asks us, question, sign now. Well, if you're a player and you think you're going to get a magic year a free agency handed to you, why would you sign right now? Right, right. No, if I'm going to be a free agent next March, I'm just going to, I'm not going to sign right. Why would I? So, yeah, it's not

Starting point is 00:16:47 going to happen. I mean, I don't know how far back, though, they'll push this clause. But my guess is they're going to have to wait a couple years to implement it just because I guess I do think it's, If you're pre-arb now, you only have to go five years. If you're into arbitration now, unfortunately, you have to do six years because that's just the way it is. And so, yeah, if they do get back a year, I don't think it's going to impact the guys who would be free agents after 2026. It will impact guys who would be free agents after 2027, 2028. Yeah, like maybe at worst, it would be arm one guys. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:17:22 That's probably a compromise. Yeah. That's suddenly get the extra year off. or, you know, get the years down from six to five. But other than that, no, like if you're approaching for agency, that's not going to happen. So, yeah, barring trade, Logan Gilbert and Brendan Donovan, they're going to be Seattle Marries in 2027.

Starting point is 00:17:43 All right. We will wrap up Mailbag Monday in just a moment. But first, a reminder, this episode of the Lockdown Marys podcast is brought to you by Ethos and Game Time. This is Jeff Carr from Lockdown Reds. And, you know, I've reached the point in my life where my wife, And I are looking toward the future. We've got the house.

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Starting point is 00:20:14 It's called Control the Zone. Now on there we talk, Mariner, Seahawks, all that good stuff. For more information, go to patreon.com forward slash control the zone. Link in the description of this episode. Corby wants to know. do you see the bearers moving on from jp before the no no no can we can we stop doing this please anyway um would there ever be a possibility they extend him as a bench player behind colton cole no no because look if jp hit free agency right this second jp's making 15 to 20

Starting point is 00:20:47 million a year the merrars are not paying that to a benchplay they might pay it to them to start they're probably not going to but as a bench player absolutely not like jp would have to have a really bad year to sign a contract that the Marys would feel comfortable signing for a bench player. I mean, how many times though the Marit has handed out significant money to a bench player? I mean, Rob Ruff Snyder? It was like,

Starting point is 00:21:09 do you envision a world where J.P. Crawford is signing a one year six and a half million dollar contract, Colby? No. Yeah. So, so no. So I feel like in about two weeks, we were doing a flag player episode two weeks in a couple days.

Starting point is 00:21:27 do our flag player episode we do it every year i feel like the list is being made for me by all these ridiculous people out here being like j p crawford actually sucks really and randy ralind actually so how do we move on from jp when are we going to move on from jp are are they going to move on from jp like like and it extends to randy and louise castillo and honestly it kind of starting to to buck me how many people are trying to write off carlos vargas from this roster like i get bargis isn't great but like like like oh how is he going to make the team like, who's better? Name three people in that pile who are better than Carlos Vargas.

Starting point is 00:22:02 What are we doing? Why do you guys hate good players? I don't get it. You want to replace good players? Oh. They might be good players. Colby just called Carlos Vargas a good player. No,

Starting point is 00:22:13 I just, I'm more saying that everybody else in that pile sucks. Let's just be honest about it. Sure, sure. And they already have to pick two guys from that pile to make this team. No, just look, Corby,

Starting point is 00:22:22 Corby, this is less about your question specifically, and more just about the invoice, flux of comments and questions we have gotten for the last month or so about how Randy sucks actually, how are they going to move off from JP because of the shiny new toy that Cole Emerson is and all this. And it's like, I'm tired of it. I'm tired of it.

Starting point is 00:22:44 JP Crawford's a really good baseball player. We have to get rid of JP to make room for Colt Emerson. We have to get rid of Louise Castillo so Kate Anderson can make the opening day roster. We have to get rid of Randy at Rosalina. These things work themselves out. Training home runs. Listen, these things work themselves out.

Starting point is 00:23:02 It's baseball. They work themselves out. The idea that's people are. And if they don't and, oh, no, we have too many good players and too many good options. That's not a thing. That's not even a thing. What are we doing? What are we talking about?

Starting point is 00:23:17 Sorry. All right. The number of years, people complained about the Mariners not getting good players so they could play young players and play their prospects and all that. Now they have a good team. they're World Series contenders. They're loaded with good players up and down the roster. And now the fans are like, well, who cares about these good players?

Starting point is 00:23:35 I want to see the prospects. What are we doing? I know, right? I know. I know. I know. I know. It's like, hey, I'm really excited about Michael O'Royle too.

Starting point is 00:23:46 Do I want him on this roster over Randy or Rosarana? Absolutely the hell not. There will come a time. There will come a time for Michael O'Royle. There will come a time for Kate Anderson. and there will come a time for Ryan Sloan. There will come, and there will come a time five years down the road where you're like, so how do we move on from Ryan Sloan for this guy?

Starting point is 00:24:08 Because that's how this stuff goes. That's all this stuff goes. The time for those guys, all those prospects, might all be this year. Like we're not saying it's not going to be this year at some point, but it's not on March 9. It's not on March 26th. Patience, young Padawan. Patience. All right.

Starting point is 00:24:27 Well, that's going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Locktime Marries podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Once again, if you never miss an episode, it's time to make it official. Join the Lockdown Every Day or Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only-only, and more, all built for our most loyal fans. For Colby, Pat, Gazzalus. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L-O-U-U-U-Nor-Rer's. You can follow me at Tading Azales and Colby at C-Pat-E-1-1.

Starting point is 00:24:52 We're also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at MLB-C-C-L-B-Colby in the show at Lockdown Mariner's. You can also find us on Instagram at Lockdown Mariner's. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day, and we'll see you next time. Peace.

Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - How Brennen Davis Could MAKE the Seattle Mariners' Opening Day Roster | Mailbag Monday

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