Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Is 2025 Shaping Up to Be a Make-or-Break Year For J.P. Crawford's Mariners Career?

Episode Date: November 18, 2024

It's Mailbag Monday! Ty and Colby answer some of your Mariners questions, including if there are any "roll your eye" worthy moves Seattle is destined to make this winter, how much of a leash J.P. Crawford has following his disappointing 2024 campaign, and much more.Check out our Patreon!Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11Follow the show on Bluesky: @lockedonmariners | @tdg | @mlbcolbySupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!SelectQuoteGet the right life insurance for YOU, for LESS, at SELECTQUOTE.COM/LOCKEDON.SelectQuote - They Shop. You Save.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelYou can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - if you win your first FIVE DOLLAR BET ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

After a disappointing 2024 campaign, how much leeway does J.P. Crawford have? We'll answer that and a whole lot 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, November 18th, 2024. Totally the first time I'm doing this. This is tidying is Alice and Colby Patnaud for the Lockdown Mariner's podcast. part of the Lockdown Podcast Network

your team every day. We're going to be opening up the mailbag like we do here every Monday and answer some of your Mariners questions. We'll also be spinning the wheel for our top five Tuesday topics at the end of the show. But before we get into all that, shout out to our title sponsor

today, Game Time. Download the GameTime app, create an account and use the promo code Locked On MLB that's LOC, K-E-O-N-M-L-B for $20 off your first purchase. And if you want hear from me and colby even more and help support the show check out our patreon all you have to do is click the link in the description of this episode kicking off mailbag monday for us is a mariners cdz

who wants to know what's one quote unquote roll your eyes move that you feel the mariners are destined to make this off season that just has you saying why i don't feel like the marries are destined to make any this off season maybe keeping Mitch Hanigar on the roster, which that's definitely a roll your eyes worthy, but that's not really a move. That's a non-move. Yeah, I can't really think of any like, like to me, like the inevitable move kind of signifies like it's a player that we've talked a lot about. And like for us, that's like Brandon Lau, which is a good move, like depending on price, obviously, all these are depending on price, but like Brandon Lau, Alec Baum, like I'd be pretty

happy of the Mariners got either of those guys. And so like I wouldn't roll my eyes. Jonathan India is kind of like the guy, but it sounds like he might be headed to Kansas City here pretty shortly. So for Brady Singer, which is a fun trade, but obviously eliminates the Mariners as a possibility. But like, I mean,

like, I guess like if we remove the word inevitable and just like who's a player, the mirrors could acquire, I'd just be like, why? What's the point? Brendan Rogers comes to mind. And so does Ryan McMahon.

So we're rolling. So does Ryan McMahon. So, you know, like there's definitely. We're having a great time recording this episode right now. There are definitely a few players that I would be like, why, but none of them feel that inevitable. Because despite kind of the narrative that's floating around out there, the Mariners do fairly exciting stuff in the off season. Like it's not like they're like not as exciting as they should be, right? They're not going after Otani and Soto, but like they bring in to Oscar Hernandez, who's like,

like an all-star level hitter. They bring Colton Wong, who's coming off an all-star season. They bring in Mitch Garver and Jorge Polanco. And they make moves in the off-season. So it's not like they sit on their hands every winter. So, yeah, like, there are certainly moves that, like, they could make where I'd be like, what's the point? I don't get it.

But I don't think that there are any of those players that fall into the inevitable category because I think the players that, like, we talk about a lot, are players who actually would make an impact for the Mariners. So, yeah, I don't really have anybody that kind of checks all the boxes of the question. I feel like this question was asked because of what I said about Brennan Rogers on Friday. Because, yeah, players like Rogers and even Jonathan Nydia, who's better than Rogers, but still, like, both of those players, why? There's nothing that I see there in their profiles that makes me go, yeah, the mirrors need to go after that guy. So, yeah, if they acquired, you know, India or Rogers, sure.

If they kept Hanager on the roster, sure, that doesn't really count. Because, again, that's more like inaction rather than action. So, yeah, I mean, like, if they, like, signed Sevees of All to a major league contract, it'd be like, why. But that doesn't feel inevitable, you know, so. Yeah. Yeah, I just don't have a lot of players that check off the box of the question as a whole. Yeah. But if something like that happens, we'll be sure to let you know.

Yep. Kip wants to know, giving Colby's comfort with Rayleigh at first base and say you signed Turner as mostly DH, but some first base. Who would you target as a fourth outfielder allowing Rayleigh to play mostly first? So it seems like more of a Colby question than a me question. So Colby, what do you think? As it should be. Well, I think Luke Rayleigh is your fourth outfielder. and I think that Turner is the backup first baseman.

So I don't think you necessarily have to go at an outfielder. You also still have Dylan Moore on your bench. So I don't think you necessarily have to go get a pure outfielder. I think you're just kind of looking for the best bench player I can get and doesn't have to play outfield because, again, Rayleigh can play the outfield and Dylan Moore can play the outfield. And unfortunately, it seems like Mitch Annerer is probably going to be around. So he would be the other one.

But, you know, in terms of like who's like a bench bad, a fourth outfield type that I would go get. Mike Talkman, Ty's favorite, does make a good deal of sense. I would love a guy like Mike Yistrimski. I'm not paying him $10 million to be a fourth outfielder. So the name that I came up with when I was doing my offseason planning, I probably would require a trade. I don't think that he's going to get non-tendered, but maybe he does.

But either way, how about you go get Jake Fraley back? Freyley, Hitch Ritey's, you know, pretty good defender. Not great in center, but like, you know, Luke Rayleigh-ish in center, but can handle left and right very well, gets on base still, has some pop, can steal some bags. Like he's only going to make, I think, like three and a half, four million bucks. So that falls right in range. And it does give you some Victor Robles insurance. So you don't have to move, you know, so if Robles struggles or whatever, you don't have

to move Rayleigh to the outfield full time, move Turner to the first base full time. and then you have a blank spot at your DH, right? So, like, yeah, I think Jake Fraley is a guy, that idea that I like quite a bit as a fourth outfielder. You know, and there's guys like that all up and down. But I like some athleticism, some speed, some on-base skills, some pop. And I think Freyle checks a lot of those boxes. So that's a guy. But I don't think they really have to go out and get another outfielder.

They just need to go get the best bat they can and figure it out from there. but yeah, if they want a true, like, fourth outfielder and a guy who kind of is good enough to keep Luke Rayleigh at first base regardless, then I think a guy like Jake Rayleigh is a good target. Ian wants to know. How much patience do the Marrers have for JP this year? Is he in a similar situation to how they just treated Thai France? We're talking about the Mariners not being willing to walk away from $17 million on Michigan. Chandigar who's worthless, J.P. Crawford, the very least is going to have some value to you because he's probably going to be at least an average shortstop. He's probably going to walk a little bit. So like,

you know, he's not worthless. But I do think that this is like JP's last year with, we'll call it a stranglehold on shortstop. Like I think after this year, JP doesn't produce. He's not guaranteed to be back in 2026. He's not guaranteed. to be the shortstop. He's not even guaranteed to, you know, be on the roster or be, you know, in Seattle. So I think this is the last year. I don't think they're going to DFA him like they did France because he does have one more year on his contract.

And this team refuses to swallow money on sunk cost, which is very frustrating. But, yeah, I think you got to give JP at least, you know, three or four months to start the year and see how it looks. And then there is a possibility that he either slides to second or he gets benched for, somebody like Cole Young even who can play a pretty decent shortstop. So I think he's definitely like his Mariner like, I don't want to say his Mariner career is on the line this year because I'd be very surprised if he didn't finish the year with Seattle. Maybe it's on the IL or whatever. But I think he finishes the year with Seattle.

Next winter I think is the real time where like, yeah, we could legitimately trade him or he could be, you know, salary dumped or DFA or what have you. or maybe he's just on the bench or he's the second baseman and Cole Young is the shortstop. So yeah, like I think he's got pretty safe playtime locked up for 2025 after that. Who knows? And if it's really bad in July, I think he'll still be here, but I think he'll just be benched and they'll just go to a different option at shortstop. So like in terms of like when do they finally start to, you know, strongly consider moving on? Yeah, I think that could be June, July. but are they actually going to do it this year?

Probably not. Not like they did with France because France, they, you know, they could non-tender or they could, they were going to non-tender him this winter anyways. So not a big deal to, you know, DFAM. So I don't think they're going to do that with JP. So I think he's got a year. JP's guaranteed $23 million between the next two years, 11 this year, 12 next year.

It's not that substantial, but for the mayor's it's probably substantial enough that they're going to let that rock as long as they possibly can. But yeah, now that there are in-house options getting closer to the big leagues, like Cole Young, maybe Cole Emerson is a part of the conversation here in the next year and a half. Obviously, you have Dillamore and Ryan Bliss and some other guys as well that could factor into the mix. Yeah, I do think that there's at least a little bit of pressure on JP to start turning things

around here. But again, because of the money, I think they're going to. there's quite a bit of leash here for for jp especially compared to uh tie france right and unlike france he's not coming off of back-to-back disappointing years you know it was just a year ago that he was the best shortstop in the american league offensively not named corey seger uh so yeah uh he'll he'll get at least a year but uh that salary is is movable if he's even like decent yeah so it's not like it's a albatross contract you might be able to get out of it in the in july uh if you but you know you're you're probably not going to i think you're going to the earliest i can see jp

moving on would be next winter um so yeah he's not going to get the tie france treatment all right we will answer more of your questions here in just a moment but first a reminder this episode of the locked on error's podcast is brought to you by fanduel get ready to tackle the nfl action with fandul america's number one because right now new customers can bet $5 and get $150 back in bonus bets if you win. The Fandual Sportsbook app gives you everything you need to place live bets on the NFL all in one place. So when you get a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out the latest stats, view live play-by-play, and so much more on the same page where you place your bets.

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But let's get back into your questions for now. Garrett wants to know, why do you guys say the mayors have next to no shot to sign Roki Sasaki? I don't necessarily disagree, but the Mariners do have a lot of. good pitch to him. Just curious of your reasons as to why they don't have a good chance. I mean, we've pretty much said as much whenever we've talked about Sasaki. It's just the,

the Dodgers element of this. And maybe that's a very narrow view of the situation. Or maybe that's all it really comes down to, right? Because, again, yeah, the Mariners have a great pitch to make to Sasaki, as we've talked about, as we've acknowledged. But the daughters can say, we just won the World Series.

And hey, we have showy Otani. and we have Yoshinov Yamamoto. Now, maybe that doesn't matter to Roki Sasaki. And at that point, maybe the mayors have as good of a chance as anyone to land him. But, yeah, until I see more reports saying that, we really just have the one from Jim Allen out of Japan. Until I see more reports saying that, you know,

maybe he doesn't want to go to L.A., I'm just going to assume that he's going to L.A., because it makes a ton of sense. and at that point I don't think it really matters what the merits do. Yeah. You know, it's just kind of a reading the room type of situation where you just kind of look at all the reports, you put them all together and it's like, look,

if Jim Allen knows more than everybody else in the game, fine. But like when you see headlines like 30 of 30 GMs think that he's going to the Dodgers, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, that's a lot to overcome. And the only like state side reporter that I've seen kind of dispute this is, is Jim Bowden. Like, yeah, that's the guy I'm going to take super seriously. So, yeah, it's just one of those things where I just look at the totality of the evidence that we have. And granted, it's not hard evidence.

It's all circumstantial. But, you know, when you look at the preponderance of evidence, I believe is the term. When you look at it as a whole, it just all points to him going to the Dodgers with the Padres as a backup. So, you know, no chance. I don't think we said that. I think we said like less than 1%. Might go up to 1%, but yeah, very small odds that he goes to Seattle. It's just like Ty said, it's, you know, you could have the best pitch in the world.

You can't say we have Yamamoto and Otani in our rotation already, and we just won the World Series. You can't say that. So at that point, it might be game over. It's probably game over. So we'll see. But yeah, I don't love their odds. Max wants to know, if you had to bet, name five Mariners prospects we are going to see make their MLB debut this year, if not traded. Cole Young.

Yep. It's a good place to start. If he's not traded, I think we do see Harry Ford in some capacity at some point this year. Could be a September call up, but yeah. Yeah. I'll throw out like a weird one, like Jimmy Joyce. maybe sure like just as like a like it's a spot start or you know he's like the eighth man in the bullpen for a couple of days or whatever you know and then obviously like the pitchers

Logan Evans Brandon Garcia yeah bro Ben Williamson I think I throw him over Jimmy Joyce but it's not a guarantee with Williamson I would be pretty surprised if we didn't see young again assuming they're not traded we didn't see young and Evans probably Garcia for at least one or two games this year. Yeah, maybe. Maybe more or else. Yeah, maybe. I'd be pretty surprised if we didn't see those guys.

But yeah, Young is, if Young's not traded, he's going to debut, assuming he's not traded and also doesn't get hurt. We're going to see his debut pretty soon, this year, probably. A couple of other weird ones, maybe like Jake Slaughter, you know, for like a couple of days. I mean, you want to count those guys as prospects. Sure. Yeah. Yeah.

but like in terms of like actual prospects like yeah i think it's young Garcia Evans um you know Williamson maybe Joyce maybe count him uh yeah Garcia uh could be an interesting one as a relief prospect uh but yeah i mean like it's going to be a better year there's going to be hunter cranton right as you say hunter cranton brockmore or like kind of the dark horse because they just started their professional careers um But they could go really quickly. So, yeah, I think this year they'll actually be legitimate, like,

prospects to get excited about their debut. Whereas this last year, I was like, Taylor, I guess Bliss a little bit, but I think there'll be guys who are better than those two, who will make their debut this year for the Mariners. So, yeah, it's going to be a pretty good year for MLB debuts, at least from the Mariners side of things. Yeah. But I don't think, like, you're going to be a good year.

to see any of the elite prospects. I think you're still at least a year away from, from the elite of the elite types, which I mean, really is. Yeah. I think probably just those two would be the qualify as the like super exciting. Like the rest of them are good or I think they'll be good. But they're not like all stars, uh, regular all stars.

So yeah, it'll be a good year for mariner prospects. Uh, you know, but, uh, yeah, Cole Young is is first with with a bullet. So yeah. All right, so we are going to answer more of your questions here and spend the wheel for our top five Tuesday topics. And just a moment, but first, a reminder, this episode of the Lockdown Merritt's podcast is brought to you by Game Time. So I used to live in New Mexico, and down in New Mexico, there are zero pro sports teams. And a lot of bands and artists I listen to skip going there more often than not. So when I moved to Toronto, where there's a baseball team, a basketball team, a hockey team, even a soccer team,

and there's great music being played every night in the city, I was right in my else. When I want to catch a ball game or my wife and I want to see a ban, I always get my tickets through game time. And that was the case well before game time sponsored our network and before I even join the network because it is truly the best ticketing service out there hands down. I truly, truly believe that. And now it's getting even better thanks to game time picks. Game time picks filters out the fluff to show you only incredible deals on great seats so you don't have to waste time searching through thousands of tickets. I can just go on the app. It'll show me the best deal right away.

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and MLB for $20 off. Download game time today. What time is it? Game time. And you're listening to the Lockdown Marriss podcast. We are wrapping things up here on Mailbag Monday. And then we're going to spend the wheel for our top five Tuesday topics here in just a moment. John Stanton hates us wants to know with trading for Alec Bohm and Josh Naler and piecing second base together with Demo and Rojas and Bliss be enough for the offense going into next year.

I think you'd be better than you were this year. I don't know if it's enough. It kind of depends. Do you think Alec Bohm, 2024, like, that's the real Alec Bohm? Can you repeat that at Team Mobile Park? I don't know. I'm not saying he can't, but I'm not saying he absolutely can. So, you know, there's a question there.

You know, Rojas's bat will certainly play better at second, although the way he hit the last five months, it doesn't play in the major leagues. so position doesn't really matter there. Obviously, you run the risk of overexposing Dylan Moore. We know that story. We've seen that story play out, you know, three or four times in Dylan Moore's career. We don't know what you're going to get from Ryan Bliss.

But like if you're going to try and make a platoon work, I would prefer you do it at second base rather than third base. And then Naylor, obviously, you know, DH first base type. Big power. Used to be more of an on-base guy, kind of sold that out for power. but still hits for a pretty good average, still gets on base a good amount. So yeah, he would be a better addition at first base than what you had for most of this last year. So yeah, I don't know if it's good enough. I think you're better on paper as for whether or not it works out in practicality.

That's always the big question here because the Mariners have had pretty good off seasons on paper. And they have made moves that make good sense on paper and they just haven't really worked. So, you know, until you see it, we don't really know. But like if you're telling me like if it's native, nailer and bone and that's it. I don't know if it's enough, but you're better, at least in theory, you are better. Now, if it's like nailer and bone and like Turner or whatever, right, like if you add one more kind of sea level bat or conforma or whoever, then yeah, then I look at that and go, yeah, that's pretty deep lineup. Pretty reasonable.

So, yeah, if you're going to piece it together with a platoon at one position, I would prefer that be at second base than third base. but you know it really boom is kind of the the x factor here because i feel like nailer's pretty safe bet bone little inconsistent in his career which one are you going to get so there's some risks there and and having boom at third base and not backing it up with like a close to sure fire major league quality second base situation all right so it's time to spend the wheel for our top five tuesday topics as you can see here we've got the uh the lovely helm which is our Mariners topics or more serious focused Mariners topics and it's my turn to spin this wheel since I did the Top five baseball movies last week and Colby did a top five trade chips on the mariner's and as you can see here we have some new

options so see if we land on one of those because we only had two left from the original set that we put on here and we're gonna get one of those it seems of the two original ones that we're on here breakout candidates all right top five breakout candidates in 2025 for your seattle mirrors i'll be going over that on tomorrow's episode so uh it's time to spend the wheel for colby's topic so we got some new options on here like uh what did what did i add top five baseball memories top five mirrors things you own stuff like that is on here so let's uh let's see what you get sound terrible you sound terrible Top five.

MLB hats. MLB. Oh, man. Not minor league baseball, unfortunately. I'm supposed to show off my Lehigh Valley Iron Pig Bacon hat. I mean, you could just shoe horn it in if you want.

I mean, it's a major league hat because, you know, the team who wears it is affiliated with the major leagues. Seems like a stretch, but I might be willing to allow it. Or you could just be patient. and hope that you get it here in the next couple weeks. Do we spend this mill again? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's right there. It's right there. See, I'm hovering over it. I demand a re-spin. All right. No, I'm good. Respend? First respin in the history of Top 5 Tuesday.

All right, all right, all right. Top 5 MLB hats coming your way tomorrow after I do. Sure. Or do I get set up my own parameters. Set up your own parameters like you always do. I mean, you don't need me to tell you that. you were just going to do that anyway. So, yeah.

Okay, so that's going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Mariner's podcast. For Colby Pat Node, I'm Tiding Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L.O. underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Taday Gonzalez and Colby at C-Pad 11. That's C-PAT-1-1. We're also on Blue Sky.

You can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB Colby, and the show at Locked-on Mariners. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day, and we'll see you next time. Peace. Thank you.