Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - How Would We GRADE the Seattle Mariners' Offseason So Far?! | Mailbag Monday

Episode Date: January 19, 2026

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How would we grade this Mariners off season if this is all they do? We'll answer that and more coming up 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, January 19th, 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 Tining Azales, and I'm joined as always by McCose, Cole. be Patnode. We're two lifelong Maris fans who've been covering the team for over half a decade. And today we're going to open up the mailbag like we do here every single day and answer some of your Maris questions. But before we do, I want to shout out our title sponsor today. FanDuel Championship Week is here and FanDuel is officially in playoff mode. So visit FanDuel, an official sportsbook partner of the NFL and grab your profit boost pack every NFL playoff game day.

Kicking us off here on Mailbag Monday is Owen who wants to know if the offseason ends today with no more moves, what grade would you give the front office? Feels better than last offseason, but to me, still feels like it falls short. D plus, and I think that's me being generous. At the end of the day, right, what we wanted from this off season is A, you had to close the gap between you and the Blue Jays, you failed, the gap got bigger. B, you had to, you know, retain some of the excitement and some of the momentum you got from your playoff run.

They failed at that already. C, you had to push the Astros further down beneath you so that you can withstand some poor performance or injury or anything like that. You failed to do that. The Astros have gotten better. And most importantly, you have to be better than you were four months ago and you're not. You're not. You haven't replaced Gino.

You haven't replaced Polo. you're not better than you were four months ago. That's a failure. You want to win the World Series and you're not better than you were four months ago. No, you don't get a passing grade out of that. I give them some credit because they did spend some money to keep Nailer around. Obviously, they should have, but still in the past. You avoided disaster, like complete total disaster.

Sure. You turn something in, but it's like very clearly something you slapped together five minutes before class. So it's just one of those things where it's like, look, where did the Mariners need it to rebuild the middle of their lineup? They haven't done that. The Mariners needed to add, you know, another high leverage bullpen option. They think they've done that.

But can we say for sure Ferrer is a high leverage option? No, because he's never been one. I mean, and I'm giving them some credit. I'm giving them some benefit of the doubt when they say they think Ferrer is going to be that guy. Like, okay, I can buy that. But still, he hasn't done it yet. that you know they added refs Snyder who's a nice complimentary piece don't get me wrong like he cool you replaced donovan salano i mean okay what about replacing polanco what about replacing

gino and you're not going to sit here and tell me that oh well it'll be col demerson it'll be cole young we don't know if those guys can play at all we think they can but we don't know that we have no evidence whatsoever that either of those guys are big league quality players none and so when i look at this, I think giving them anything more than like a D plus, I think you're just lying to yourself. I think you're trying to make yourself feel better about this because you want to believe, you want to buy in, which fine, whatever, do whatever you want to do. But this team is not better than it was four months ago. It is not better than the Blue Jays.

I would say it's not better than the Astros, or at least it's a conversation that needs to be had. And that's a disaster waiting to happen. You have lost ground to the Red Sox. You've lost ground. I mean, heck to the Orioles. winning the division is very important because look at what the AL East is doing right now. They're stacking up.

Every team in that division is stacking up right now. You can't just count on a wild card. You can't just count on and fixing it at the trade deadline. If you have five holes, you can't fill them all at the trade deadline. It's not going to happen. Like the one thing I think they've done better this year than other years in recent passes. I like the pile arms that they've thrown into the bullpen mix. They have options.

They have stuff. But so what? Like that's nothing right now. So no, it's a D plus. I mean, anything better than that? I think you're lying to yourself a little bit to some degree. And so, you know, it is what it is. They needed to get better.

They failed so far. They still have a couple weeks before Peters and Catchers report. We'll see what they can do. But no, this isn't met the standard. They haven't maintained even where they were at last. They've gotten objectively worse. And it's just unacceptable for me. So it's a D plus.

And I think I'm being pretty generous with that grade. Yeah. At best to me, it's C minus D plus. Again, because like you avoided complete utter disaster. But you haven't capitalized on the moment. You haven't capitalized on the momentum that you built in October. Now,

that said, I'm not sure if this market was particularly conducive to capitalizing in the way that maybe we would want them to, because like, I mean, who's gone off the board so far that realistically the Mariners could have gotten? Jorge and then Okamoto. But we don't know, we don't know how Okamoto is going to translate. And I've said in the past that, you know, if I had to pick one or the other between Jorge Polanco and Brennan Donovan, who they could still very well get here in the next couple weeks, I think you're a better team with Donovan than Polanco.

Now, you could have done both, right? You could have made that work, right? But I don't know if it was even possible because like, look, Cotel Marte wasn't going to happen. That's pretty clear. You know, we talked about school at the start of the off season, but that obviously wasn't going to happen for a multitude of reasons. You know, we can talk all we want about Kyle Tucker and Alex Breggman and Bubba shut,

but like obviously that was that was never going to be in the cards. That was never going to be in the cards. And that goes beyond the front office, right? That's ownership. It's also even if they had the money, would those guys even be interested in coming to Seattle? There's all those, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? So I'm not even sure if it was possible for them to, like, really knock the off season out of the park. That said, honestly, I think my biggest grape is that they let the secondary reliever market pass by.

Like, it's great that they got Ferrer. But then Jerry said even after they got Ferrear, like, we're looking at free agent, you know, veteran relievers. And now pretty much all those guys have gone off the board. forward. And it kind of feels like maybe they picked rough center over, you know, that secondary reliever, which maybe that's better in the end. And look, I like the things that they did in a vacuum, like obviously getting Josh Naylor back is a huge, huge win, right? Capitalizing on that specifically, that's a huge one. Forer, you know, over the last couple of years, they haven't really done this, you know, as we typically expect with arms, but for the most part, like the mirrors are very,

very good at taking guys to the next level. So if they think that Jose Ferrer, is a high leverage arm that they have the tweak to, you know, get those numbers to more so reflect a high leverage arm than, then sure, I'll buy that. And, you know, Ruff Snyder, that's, you know, he fills a role that you and I, we wanted them to fill, right? That was kind of a sneaky need for them. So I like all the moves that they've made.

It's just right now where things stand, like you said, you're not a better team than you were when you got eliminated in Toronto. And I'm not sure that even if you add Brennan Donovan, because again, you're subtracting 20, 25, Hori Polanco and 2025,

a U. Sweros, even though he wasn't that good with the Mariners after the trade deadline. Like, you're still subtracting those two guys from the mix. And then you're also factoring in, like,

Cal Raleigh's probably going to regress. And then there's like the uncertainty of Cole Young, Colt Emerson, who are very clearly big. parts of the mayor's plan in 2026. So like that all in combination just kind of feels like again, we're doing this thing that Jerry Depoto in this front office have done ever since they got to Seattle where it's like

this has to go right, this has to go right, this has to go right. And we're going to fit into this tiny window to get to the World Series. And I get that's kind of how in a way they have to operate because of ownership, but still like not like this but still there are some things that they they could have done and again they can still go out and get donovan who would significantly improve this offseason in my viewpoint of this off season i don't know if he would necessarily take it to an a but it's probably like a b minus b plus or b b minus b at that point if they get donovan but like

yeah there's some other things though like again the secondary reliever market i don't like that they let that pass by you know we know that they were in on like the film matons of the world I would have liked them to you know throw like five six million bucks at like Sean Armstrong for example you know and like

I would feel a lot better if they were more open to adding two bats and being like yeah let's go get Jorge Polanco and Brennan Donovan let's go get Okamoto and Brennan Donovan like I would feel a lot better if that was more their plan I mean honestly at this stage if they got Donovan like we'd it's still possible they could get Donovan get a reliever back in that I mean they say they like Jojo Romero but like whatever if they get Donovan and and

Sponson or or or Brian one of the guys that we like right and then they also go out and sign when kata I would say that's pretty close to an A and then it's realistic to be like okay we have some holes we can fill them at the deadline right now you're going into the ocean with holes already drilled into your boat and you're hoping the bubble gum you have will be enough to get you to the next island where you can buy new wood and fix your ship like it's just it's not it's not feasible to stay here and be like well we have major questions at dh right field second base third base you know but we're a world series contender don't work like that i guess my point and all my rambling is to say that i'm not sure if an a offseason was even possible just because of the market. I don't need them to not have a D plus off season.

No, no, and I'm not saying that. Like, I'm just saying like in general though. Like if we're talking like, could they have like feasibly knock the off season out of the park like had an A plus off. I don't know because of just how the market is.

Look, if they had signed like the chat, right. But again, like we talked about, that's an ownership thing. Yeah. Yeah.

So again, I just need them not to go into the office, not to go into the regular season with five holes and praying that. that Kyle doesn't fall off too hard and praying that the rotation stays healthier. It's just you kind of you kind of need to trade for Brennan Donovan now. You've basically painted yourself in a corner. But that's kind of like that he's kind of the guy that he's kind of the only guy that feels like he's available at this point now. And that's part of the reason why like the great is what it is is that you kind of painted yourself into this corner.

And you don't if you're not going to, you know, get creative and go outside the box here. And the mayors haven't been willing to do that the last couple of years. then you don't get credit for being creative or for a thing, you know, you have to, you kind of paint yourself into this corner when you're not willing to get, I guess, again, creative, I guess is the right word for it with these trade packages.

They haven't been willing to trade from the rotation. They haven't been willing to trade top prospects. So it's like, okay, look, you have to be better. And unfortunately, because the ownership group is what it is, you have to take some risks in trades. And the mayors haven't been willing to do.

The mayors have not made a risky trade. in quite a while. Like, basically every trade they've made is one that it's almost impossible for them to lose. Which, I mean, cool, make those trades. But like, if you're not going to go out there and you're not going to get, you know, the big guys that you just have to pay money for, you're going to have to take that shot at some point. And if there was ever a season to do it, ever a winter to do that, it was this winter when you were just eight outs away from going to the World Series. This is the time to take that shot. And they didn't do that.

So even their process, I give them like. like a C and their execution, I get them like a D plus. It's just not good enough. It's not good enough. So, yeah, if they don't land Donovan, if they don't land, you know, Moncada and Croninworth or whatever it is, right? However, they want to fix it. I mean, they get Sir Anthony Dominguez and Moncada.

I'm pretty happy with that. Like, fine, whatever, B minus. But like, yeah, it's just. Yeah, whatever. It's not, it hasn't been a good offseason at the point. And any attempt to spin it otherwise, I think you're coping. pretty hard. All right, we'll answer more of your questions in just a moment, but first a reminder, this episode of the lockdown era's podcast is brought to you by Fandual and the space needle.

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Get tickets at spacetal.com. Minimum 2 required. And you're listening to the lockdown. partners podcast part of the locked on 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 locked on the number one sports podcast network you are a live your team every day now take it up a level and go ad free join the everyday or club today and get locked on mariners with no interruptions members only discord access and more all for just five dollars a month or fifty dollars a year go to lockdown mariners dot supercast.com or check the link in the show notes to learn more Next question here on Mailbag Monday comes from Mariners to the moon who wants to know let's go way outside the box. Can the Mariners fix Anthony Volpe? I'd rather they not try. We talked about this very early on in the office season.

Actually, it might have even been like before the playoffs were over, before their playoff run was over specifically. I think like one of our patrons brought it up and I was like, they did it with JP. So. Sure. Volpe is very bad hitter. Yeah. We know that they liked him in the past. There's like some connections, right, that you can make here where it's like, again, they, they did something similar with J.P. Crawford.

They liked Volpey in the past. And that's kind of. But keep in mind, he's also going to miss the first month or two of the season here. So I don't think this is something that they would consider this winter. But next winter when J.P. leaves, I mean, assuming there is a winter period, you know, when J.P. leaves and, And it's like, hey, you know, Colt Emerson could be the shortstop. Or we could keep Emerson out at third base and we can bring in Volpe. He was a very good defender when he's healthy at shortstop.

And, you know, we'll take a shot on him for one year. And if it doesn't work, then we'll just move Emerson. And because I think Volpe's got two years of club control life, maybe three. I don't remember off the top of my head. But he's been pretty darn bad offensively. So maybe they could. I don't think it's a risky take this winter. I think, you know, the mayors have had interesting.

They almost drafted him. I believe that was the year they took Kirby instead. Yeah. 2019. It was Kirby. This is one of those years. I'm pretty sure it was Kirby. They all blend together now.

Yeah, they ended up taking Kirby, which, you know, break hall. But yeah, they were in on Volpe, very much so in that, in that slot. So, yeah, I wouldn't rule it out entirely. I just, I wouldn't want to bank, you know, the success of my offseason on Anthony Volpe figuring it out. It's like, yeah, maybe next year when, when Emerson's established and we know what Cole Young is, or we have a better idea at least. Then I'll take another shot on the on the infield. But this year, I'll pass. All right.

J.R. wants to know, do you see a path for Carlos Vargas having a similar arc to Edward Bizarro into a more reliable leverage role? And I'm actually answering this after the fact, after recording. most of this episode already by myself here because we had this on our list to answer and then I just kind of like skipped over it. I don't know. I don't think I've ever done that before, but I just kind of like missed it. So I wanted to get back on here because I really like this question because I have been thinking about Carlos Vargas a little bit lately.

And Vargas, to me, I mean, I think a good place to start here just to specifically answer your question about like into a more reliable leverage role. I don't really see his role changing. Even if he does take another step forward this year, so long as everyone is relatively healthy and available and no one falls too far off a cliff, but you never know with relievers, right? Someone is unfortunately probably bound to either get hurt or fall off a cliff in this bullpen, maybe a couple of guys, especially with how much they threw last year. And, you know, some of these guys are also going to throw on the WBC and all that. So even though that's not going to be like a ton of innings,

but still like they're going to be throwing leverage innings a lot earlier than, you know, they typically do potentially, specifically like Munoz inspire. So it's possible like, you know, Vargas climbs the ladder that way. But in general,

I don't really foresee his role changing that much. I think he's like, we need a ground. ball we're going to Vargas which that kind of was his role already late into the season this past year even in the postseason was like we really need a ground ball we're going to Carlos Vargas so you know I will say this though Vargas I think there is reason to think that he could take another step forward I mean the big thing though is like he needs to miss more bats he specifically needs to miss more bats inside the strike zone like his chase rates were fine

54th percentile it's okay um he His stuff has graded out very, very well. He was one of the top 50 qualified relievers in all baseball in terms of stuff plus, which is, you know, Saras's metric and 100 is league average. He was, I think, 112 on the season. I could be wrong on that. I haven't looked at the numbers super recently. I should have done that before getting on the show.

But he was well above average in terms of stuff plus. like his stuff overall graded out pretty well, even though that it did get hit a lot this year. So it's kind of weird that he hasn't missed more bats with how well the stuff has graded out. But because it is generating a ton of weak contact, he keeps the ball on the ground and, you know, quite frequently. I mean, he was frankly posting elite rates in that regard this past year.

That's also why the stuff grades out pretty well. but command is also a bigger key because like Edward bizardo didn't miss bats this year either but he got a lot of strikeouts still because he was able to dot up the corners with consistency right he was you know bottom 10th percentile and both chase and whiff this year but he still got a lot of strikeouts because the command was just so good and vargas's command at the start of the year below average but the location plus actually john to, you know, again, this 100 being league average, to about slightly above league average from the, from the trade downline on. I think it was like 103 from the trade down line on.

So he did make some strides in that regard. And again, because there are a couple of things that he does super well and because the stuff does grade out very well. And that's, you know, obviously a big reason why the mayor is like him and have stuck with him. And because of that improvement that he made in terms of the command, I do think there is a reason to expect that, you know, maybe Vargas, could take a jump, another jump in 2026. And, you know, I think for a lot of fans, you know, when they saw Carlos Vargas, and I'm even guilty of this, you know, when, when they see Carlos Vargas come, you know, come into a game last year, there we go, yikes.

I don't know if we'll feel that way about Vargas this year. I don't know. I feel like even though, even if he, if his role doesn't necessarily change, I think the, the one difference that we will notice in 2026 is that Carlos Vargas comes into the game. We feel pretty good about that. so yeah so I'm actually like fairly high on Vargas I don't think he'll take the the kind of jump that bizardo did don't don't get me wrong on that but I do think we will see a noticeable improvement and a noticeable comfort with Carlos Vargas hey Aaron wants to know who plays the most

endings at third base in 2026 I'm gonna go solid cold Emerson yeah agreed unfortunately I don't know how good he'll be this year. I think he will stick, though. Yeah. It's kind of like my prediction, if you will. I mean, I don't know. It's, I guess, almost by default, it's, I'd rather it be Emerson than Ben Williamson. But, you know, the way things are right now.

Yeah, I think, I don't think it'll be like, uh, I wouldn't be shocked if it wasn't a majority. of the innings at third base. Like I think there's a chance there's like multiple guys and all that. But a plurality, yeah, I would bet on Emerson playing the most innings at third base right now. You're listening to the Lockdown 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 Mariners, Seahawks, all that good stuff.

For more information, go to patreon.com, forward slash control the zone. link in the description of this episode there. You can also find the link to our Discord. Again, that is different than the one that you get access to through the Every Dare Club. This one, it's free to join and it's for all the stuff that we do, not just locked on. It's also our Patreon. It's Colby's written stuff. And we have discussion on there as well for Seahawks, Cracken, non-sports topics, all that good stuff. We've got about 200 or so people in there now. It's a nice little community that's continuing to grow. And we'd love for you to be part of it. So all you have to do to join that is just click the link in the description of this episode,

whether you're watching or listening to it. All right, next question from Ethan. What are your thoughts on the possibility of the Mets trading one of their infielder's now that they have Boba Shet. Is Brett and Beatty or Mark Viantos a viable option for Seattle? We've talked about Viantos quite a bit. I just, I see that going horribly wrong. I just don't think he's a good fit for the ballpark. He's not really a good fit for the roster.

A lot of gap to gap power. Like he's not a third baseman. No, he's first base only. He's hardly even a first baseman, really. He's mostly a DH. And I just, again, like, I just don't think that his offensive profile is a good fit for the ballpark, personally. No, he can't play third. He's not going to play much first with Naylor there.

And your DH right now, whatever the combo is between Canzone and Ref Snyder, that's better than Viantos. What Viantos is probably going to give you. Outside of one year, Viantos hasn't been very good. So I think Viantos, you could probably get, like, dirt cheap, though. So maybe. Yeah. But, yeah, I wouldn't be too excited about that. Beatty, I don't know.

I know you don't like Beatty. Last year you said you wouldn't trade Emerson Hancock for Brett Beatty. Well, because, I mean, it had been like three years of just, he just felt super overhyp. He finally broke out, though, you know, and cool. You know, props to everyone that was still on the Beatty train. You know, so now, like, he finally has some real major league successor under his belt. It's been a solid defender. He's actually improved defensively over the last couple of years.

He's graded out a lot better. there. The range has been about slightly above league average. Arms still isn't particularly great at least how it's graded, you know, on how it's graded out on baseball's vaunt. But he's fine. I think the Mets more so look at him, though,

as like their Jeff McNeil replacement. So I'm not sure how available he is, really. I just don't think the Mets and the Mariners match up that well as trade workers. Even with the Mets, I guess one of the relievers. But are you ultimately

I mean, you probably are better because you're trading a reliever for an everyday player, you know, which Beatty was this past year at the very least. It seems two and a half player and two and a half one player. But like still, you know, it's it's kind of like what we talked about with TJ and Lyle last week with like the Nico Horner thing. It's like you're still subtracting from a place that you wanted to upgrade at this this off season. So like even though you're probably getting like the team overall is getting better, you're still hurting an area that you. wanted to work on already. You're not likely to get Beatty for prospects.

And that's kind of what you need to do right now with trade talks. Yeah, again, like the Mariners are just not in a position where like they're just not deep enough to really make major league or major league swaps. I mean, like, look, if they could trade a reliever and get like Beatty and like Christian Scott or one of the extra starting pitchers that the, uh, the Mets have. then maybe you do that because you just think, oh, we'll just push this guy into the bullpen and blah, blah, blah. But I just, I don't,

I don't think the Mets and the Mariners line up particularly well on trades, unless they really like Luis Castillo. And even then, like, what do the Mariners do with their number five spot in their rotation? Yeah. Yeah. It's just like, even if you are technically making the team better,

you know, by trading and you know, a reliever for an everyday player, the addition still gets kind of like, debuffed because it doesn't have the same impact as it would

if you were just trading for, you know, if you were just trading prospects for them, right? So it's like, yeah,

it's an upgrade, but it's not as much of an upgrade as you would view it in a vacuum, you know? If you're trading a one win reliever

for a two win, you know, position player, yeah. Cool, you're a win better and a little bit more because just,

you know, having that everyday option. Or I can just keep the reliever and spend $7 million and go get Munkata pretty much be just as good, if not a little bit better. So I just don't think they line up that well.

I don't think it's a path the mares will go down. And I think ultimately the Mets will probably keep Bady and try them in that utility role. And like we said, with Viantos, like fine, whatever, he's probably going to be extremely cheap. This is a decent chance he gets DFAed at the end of spring training anyways, and you can get them free.

There's just outside of the one year, he has not been a very good player. And he's, I don't think his power, which is what you'd be acquiring him for. That's his calling card. I don't think that's going to play that well at Team Mobile Park. But, you know, the mayor is going to take a shot on him. And he doesn't cost anything about prospect. Fine. I'd rather roll with Colt Emerson, honestly, at third.

All right. Last question of the day comes from one of our Discord users. Again, if you join our Discord server, that's the free one, the Ahoy Sailors, Discord server. We have a place in there that you can submit mailbag questions. So if you're not on Twitter or Blue Sky and want to ask us a question, that's probably the best way to do it on Discord. Adam wants to know, what do you think of the recent trend of short-term high AAV contracts in Major League Baseball? Do you think this can be a durable trend or do you see it more as just a combination of specific market dynamics and players hitting free agency? I don't think there's really a rhyme or reason to it.

you know, in some instances, it's been because the agent has overshot the market, specifically Scott Boris, right? That's really what I'm talking about here with Boris and his clients over the last couple years, where guys have had to just wait so long. And at that point, it's like, you know what? I'm just going to hit the market again next year. So I'm just going to take this like essentially one-year deal. It looks like a three-year deal, but it's like a one-year, like $30 million deal.

And I'm just going to hit the market next year. I think what we're seeing like this year, like with the Kyle Tucker, deal. I think a little bit of the, the Tucker thing is more like because the opt out is after year two instead of year one. That might be Tucker waiting to see what life after the CBA looks like, especially once the dust is settled, where I'm not going to hit the market right after the CBA gets renegotiated. I'm going to hit it the year after once everything is just kind of normalized again. And we have a normal, like the next normal offseason. I'm going to hit the market.

And then for Bichette, I mean, you know, he had a seven-year, $200 million offer from the Phillies that was reported. But then the Mets were like, here's $126 million for, what, three years? So basically, I'm going to get over four years. Oh, three. Yeah. So I'm going to get, what, 60% of what I was going to make with the Phillies playing four or fewer years in New York? I'm going to go do that. Yeah.

And I'm still going to hit the market. market in my prime and we know teams if he performs, they'll be willing to pay him. So there's a pretty good chance he'll get to, he'll make more money by doing it this way than just taking the 200 million up front. And again, once you have $100 million, the incentive to take a gamble on losing out on $50 million, it's a lot easier to do that, right, once you have the money. So I think, I honestly, I don't know if there's been more short. I know like the standard is star player they get a 10 year contract.

Like that that's kind of what you do. So I guess there has been more of a trend of like one year deals, three year deals. But I think it's something we'll see a little bit more of. I don't think it's the new norm. But I do also think players like the freedom of not being locked into one spot for a decade. And it's like, hey, if I want to move, I can move. And I can, you know, I have some more.

So it kind of depends on the player individually. But yeah, I think. the whole short-term high AAV contracts. I think they're here to stay. I don't know if they'll become like the prominent version. Like in the NBA, right, you have like four or five-year contracts. I don't know if we're going to get to that. I don't think the 10-year contracts are going anywhere.

But I do think that, you know, it is more of a realistic option now for players because they understand I can hit the market again in four years and with inflation and all this. And I don't know. Maybe now, like you said with Tucker. Maybe there's a salary floor that is significantly higher. And, you know, I can make more money that way. So. Well, and the other thing with Tucker, too, is like, you know, more teams are just more hesitant to give out those, you know, double digit year contracts, especially after, you know, guys like Zandad Bogart's didn't really pan out.

And, you know, what the Yankees are dealing with right now with John Carlos Stan on their books and all that. But also, like, you know, apparently the Blue Jays were willing to give him 10 plus years. but some guys just don't want to commit to playing, you know, a decade, basically committing the rest of their, their career to playing in Canada. So that also, you know, probably played a role there. No matter how good the Blue Jays are, right? Like just some guys just don't want to go to Canada for like the rest of their career.

So, and then maybe at that point there was just no other team that was willing to go 10 years on Tucker. And plus, you know, with someone like Tucker, it's like, Tucker's a really good player. Don't get me wrong. He's one of the best players of baseball. but you know he hasn't been what a five win player before in his career like so but i think you had three straight four point nine wins he says right so but still like you know what i mean like like there's probably reasons that teams are like yeah you're really good but we don't think you're elite and we only we would only give an elite player like a won soto a show hey otani etc a 10 plus year

contract. You know what I mean? So yeah. So again, I just, I don't think there's necessarily like a rhyme or reason to it. I think for every, every player that's signed one of these short term deals, it's been a very specific reason to them. So I don't, I don't think it's necessarily like setting a trend or anything like that. I think it's just everyone's kind of taking a different path to get there.

All right. That is going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the lockdown errors 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. Get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord,

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