Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Keys to a Big 2025 For Julio Rodriguez + Justin Turner Rips Mariners Ownership

Episode Date: March 5, 2025

Ty and Colby wrap up their position preview series with a look at the Mariners outfield and give their thoughts on Justin Turner's comments about Seattle's ownership. Participate in our Mariners preseason survey!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!Wonderful PistachiosLooking for a snack that’s both delicious and nutritious? Get snackin’ and get crackin’ with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more. SelectQuoteGet the right life insurance for you, for less, at SelectQuote.com/LOCKEDONMLB.  FanDuelRight now, new FanDuel customers can get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if 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 Mariners Outfield has a ton of talent and a ton of questions. Let's talk about it. Colby, hit it. You are Locked-on Mariners, your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Ahoy, Sailors. It is Wednesday, March 5th, 2025. This is Tadding Gonzalez and Colby Patnaud for the Lockdown Marys Podcasts.

Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. It's time for our last position preview. We'll be going over the. Marin's Outfield and also Justin Turner Rip Mariners ownership in an article by Bob Nightingale that dropped this morning. That was pretty fun to read. So we're going to talk a little bit about that because, hell yeah, shout out to Justin Turner. But before we do, as always, a reminder that 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 is click the link in the description of this episode. So kicking off our Outfield preview here. Got to talk about Julio, of course, right? It's the only way that we can kick things off here. It's year four for Julio. He's coming off a year where he hit 20 homers. He slashed 273, 325, 409, 116 WRC plus.

He was basically a four-win player by Fangraph standards. That all looks fine. Now, obviously, we have higher expectations for what Julio can be. But that was a, you just look at those numbers, pretty good year, right? However, we know how that season actually. played out. And you can really look at Julio's season in two

parts, which was one, the majority of the season leading up to his ankle injury that he suffered. And then when he got back from that ankle injury, and when he did get back at first, it looked like they might have rushed him back. It doesn't seem like he's actually capable

of playing in these games. But he was able to play through it, which is very admirable. and he got healthier, got healthier. And then Scott's service gets fired. Jared DeHart gets fired. Dan Wilson takes over. Edgar Martinez takes control of the offense.

Brings in this more simplified approach, simplified offensive philosophy. He's in Julio's ear every day. And Julio really took to it from the first game of the Dan Wilson era, which was on August 23rd, through the end of the regular season. which was on September 29th, Julio slashed 313, 364, 537, 159 WRC plus with nine homers and six doubles. And also 21% K rate. So we also lower the strikeouts quite a bit from where he was over the course of the full 2024 season.

So we've said it time and time again, Colby. I mean, we've had the same conversation for the last three spring. training at any point Julio could explode and be an MVP candidate. Is this the year? Does he build upon

what we saw in those final six weeks of the season and apply it to 2025 and kind of ride that momentum into 2025 and really look like that dude

that we think that we all believe that he can eventually be. It's possible. It feels inevitable. At some point, it's going to happen.

Is it going to be in 2025? I don't know. Like he's 24. It's not like it has to happen this year or it's never going to happen. But we are entering year four of this. And it does feel like every season has gotten a little bit worse than the one before it. A lot of the same problems still, you know, still exist. He's still chasing that slider off the outside corner.

He still swings way too hard in like these big pressure situations trying to kill the baseball when all he really needs to do is, you know, hit just be yourself you there's no difference between hitting a baseball 118 miles an hour and 109 really not uh so you know it's just one of those things where like yeah Julio there's been some maturing at the plate that he needed to go through that hasn't really done that yet uh so he could walk more certainly he could cut down on the strikeouts a little bit more certainly uh but yeah I think the biggest thing with Julio like you said is just consistency like can you be consistently good for six months. And that doesn't mean that, you know, you're going to be, you know, great for six months straight.

Even the best players on the planet, they will struggle for a couple weeks at a time or something will happen. There's a nagging injury or something like that. But you can't bottom out for like three months. Like that's the big thing with Julio. And last year, it was the power just was non-existent for four or five months. And so, you know, with Julio, can he break out? this year. Sure, absolutely. Willie. I don't know. We seem to have predicted it every year,

but so far his best season from start to finish was actually his rookie year. So, you know, just one of those things where, like, what does a breakout even look like for Julio? Does he have to go 40-40? You know, does he have to have a Ronald Acuna season? Or is it a breakout if he just goes, you know, 30 homers, 20 steals, 280, 360, 500, like, which I think is very, very, very reasonable expectation for a player of Julio's set. So, yeah, Julio, we've brought up the phrase swing players a few times over the last week or so, and we're going to have a whole episode about that, you know, later on, closer to opening day.

And, you know, swing players, it's just their performance can swing the outcome of the entire season, you know, one way or another. And Julio is probably number one with a bullet because, like, when Julio is good, every single time, Julio's been good. The offense has been good at the same. Like, it just, it almost coincides perfectly. Like, there are very few times when you think about it where Julio is just up there mashing and the rest of the offense is letting him down. It just seems to work that. When Julio is, you know, hitting and he's getting on base and he's stealing and he's hitting these extra base hits, there's four or five other guys, at least in the lineup that are also doing it at the same time. And so,

you know, when Julio hits, the offense is fine. It really is incredible how over the last three years, offense hits or Julio hits, the offense is going to score runs, period. When he doesn't, even if other guys are hot, they still struggle to score runs. And that's the type of impact Julio has at the plate. So, yeah, if I just got a guy who, you know, like his bad month was like an 89, 90, even 100 WRC plus.

And then he had, you know, you still want those, those peak months where he's like a 170 WRC plus guy. But you don't want three months of 80 and then one month of 100 and then one month 170, right? You want, hey, let's have 100 120, 120, 120, 135, 170, 100, like, you know, just kind of maintain something here. So that's the thing with Julio. Can he do it this year? Sure. He can. He's super talented.

Will he? That's the question every year, right? Is this the year? And until we see it, that's going to remain the question every single winter for Julio. Is this the year? Yeah. And I don't know. Yeah. There's two keys for Julio in 2025.

One more consistency. And this kind of goes hand in hand with that. He needs to get off to a better start. 62 WRC plus in his rookie year in the first month of the season. I can excuse that. It's his first month, seeing Big League opinion, whatever.

But it's a part of the trend that has now gone on for all three years. 109 WRC plus in the first month of the 2020-3 season, which is fine, right? That's overall fine. Still that as good as you would want Julio to be,

but that's more so fine. But then an 81 WRC plus in the first month of the season in 2024. It just can't happen again. I can't. Yeah. I mean, one thing we should.

keep in mind is that as hard as it is to hit in T-Mobile Park in general, it's that much harder in March, April, May. Like, it really is. So yeah, you know, it's one of those things where I don't know necessarily, like, obviously, if the numbers are really bad or they're really good, that's obvious. But, like, there's certainly an area where it's like if Julio finishes the first 30 games and he's hitting like 260 with like a 340 on base and he's got. got, you know, five, six home runs, half a dozen doubles or what you're, you're probably like, okay, yeah, that's totally. Yeah. He just, he needs to do more damage, right? Yeah. He can't be the, he can't be a singles guy, which kind of he was for a lot of 2024. I mean, 20 home runs for Julio is just not an acceptable number. No. It needs to be at least the high 20s and, and probably in the 30s. Uh, so, you know and the defense is there you trust the defense 100 percent he's going to be good

defensively you know he's going to steal some bags even last year when he was hurt uh you know he had an ankle injury and now he didn't run a lot after that uh but you should be healthy you feel like you can bank on at least 20 stolen bases 25 stolen bases you should be able to bank on 25 to 30 home runs and these these are the minimum for julio he had six stolen bases after uh coming back from the injury, which is, you know, more than it seemed like he had. And again, the Mariners were much more aggressive on the bases in the second half. And that really, Julio wasn't really a big part of that. Now, a healthy Julio, is he going to run more?

Or is he going to run the same? It doesn't really matter, right? Like, you're going to trust the defense. You're going to trust the base running. He'll provide value on the bases. It's all about the bat. And what kind of hitter do you get? Because Julio slugging 409 or whatever it is for an entire year is unacceptable.

that's not good enough. Honestly, it doesn't really matter what his batting average is. You need Julio to do damage at the plate. And there's no reason Julio shouldn't be running, you know, 500 slug pretty much every year. Like he hits the ball plenty hard. He slices through the Marine layer. Like he's not a guy who's overly impacted by the ballparker. He's special that way.

So, yeah, I hope at the end of the year we're looking at this and Julio's got close to 30, home runs, you know, slugging close to 500 or above it. And if he does those two things, then he's probably, without knowing anything else, he's probably six, seven win player this year. Yeah, and competing for an MVP. Probably. So we are going to switch gears here. We're going to talk about Julio's counterparts in the outfield, Victor Robles and Randy a

rosa Rana and the rest coming up here in just a moment. But first, a reminder, this episode of the last. Lockdown, I'm Aaron's podcast, is brought to you by Wonderful Pistachios. Looking for a snack that's both delicious and nutritious. Crack into a good source of protein with wonderful pistachios. Wonderful Pistachios is one of the highest protein nuts. Each one out serving has six grams of protein, giving you over 10% of your daily value. Plus, they're packed with fiber and better for you unsaturated fats to help keep you feeling fuller longer.

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And you're listening to the Lockdown Merritt's podcast. We are, of course, now about to talk about Randall Arrowserana. That's right. not Randy or Rosa Rana. Randall Arosarano, who the Mariners acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays at the trade deadline. Randall. I don't know. Is that his legal name?

He is to me. He's Randall to me. Okay. Yeah. 231, 356, 377 is what he hit with the Mariners. 122 WRC Plus needs to hit for more power. Was worth about a win in a Mariners uniform. Five home runs.

23 RBI, four steals. Strikeout rate went up as a mariner. 28 and a half percent. He walked 11.7% of the time. Overall, when you factor in his numbers with the raise, pretty down year for Randy, 114, WRC Plus on the year as a whole. He had been a perennial 124, 125-ish WRC Plus guy for the last three years with the raise, which are the only three other full seasons that he had beyond this past year. So, which to be fair, he almost did that with the Mariners. Yeah, 122.

You know, it's Randy was an interesting dude, uh, with the Mariners. There was a lot of, I don't want to say tension, but there was a lot of like angst amongst the fan base that it didn't really look like Randy was enjoying himself. And there were times where he looked completely checked out. And, you know, the final numbers are fine, but he didn't quite have the impact. that I think a lot of fans wanted. But, you know, again, we talked about how important Tampa was to Randy and all that. And kind of leaving a clubhouse you're very comfortable with and coming to a new one and kind of trying to make friends. And, you know, Randy has talked about that to the media about how he feels more comfortable here and how he, you know, he knows the guys.

And so maybe that plays a part in helping him kind of bounce back. But yeah, Randy, you know, it's interesting. Again, we talk about swing players. There's a chance all three outfielders are on the. swing player list because they all, you know, have some work to do, either proving what something was legit or proving something wasn't. And I think Randy, you know, getting to 30 years old, there's already questions about his defense, you know, how much longer can he be this athletic dude, how much longer can he

actually play out in the outfield? He needs a good year. And, you know, he's a couple years away from free agency still. But if he doesn't start to put up some numbers here in the next two years, he's not going to get paid when he gets out either by Seattle or anybody. So yeah, Randy, you know, certainly be an energy guy. He can certainly be a guy who, you know, rallies up the troops and certainly can be a guy who can change the game in a lot of different ways. But we didn't quite see that enough last year to just kind of bank on that.

So we'll have to wait and see. But, you know, the strikeouts going up a little bit concerning. But he does walk a lot. He does have 20, 25 home run power. He does steal 20 bags. So, yeah, Randy. is interesting. If you get if you get playoff Randy for any stretch of you know longer than two weeks next year. Yeah. He's probably just by default going to be a league average bat. And if you get that for

or close to playoff Randy for I don't know a month, he's probably almost regardless of how the other months go unless he's just awful. It's probably going to be a 120 WRC plus bat next year. Yeah, maybe an all-star. We'll see. Maybe. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I'm excited for the first full year of Randy or Roserana, but what he has to be in 2025, pretty pretty clear. If you think about it. Gross.

Think about it. Gross. Gross. Get out of here. But yeah. Chess and Tyler would like a word. Yeah, we'll talk about that in a moment. But yeah, so excited to see Randy.

Yeah, he quickly became one of like my guys on this team. So I mean, excited to. It was kind of fun too because we had talked about Randy. for what the last two years. Yeah, he had been in a couple of our like deadline plans or offseason plans or what have you. Constantly talked about him. And the mayor's actually landed him.

And it was, it was cool. And Randy was probably the best player that was moved at the deadline last year. And he was a merit. So, yeah, you know, there's a lot of hype around that.

And now that he's kind of settled in and now that he's kind of, you know, put down roots and all that stuff. He seems to be happier than he was last year. He's cultivated some relationships in the clubhouse now. He seems to be really. close to Julio and Robles, his outfield. Yeah, they all dyed their hair together and all that stuff.

Yeah. Yeah. So we'll see what it is, uh, how much that helps Randy. But yeah, you know, I, I think it's fair to look at what he did last year and be like, it was a 122 WRC plus. He brought some energy. Like he was exactly what the, the doctor ordered. And then it's also fair to be like, yeah, but he didn't slug.

He struck out a lot, you know, uh, yeah. Like I, I totally get why there might be some people who are kind of on the fence about Randy and how he's going to do. More doubles, more homers. That's what you need to see. Same thing with Julio, right? It's pretty much the same conversation, except for, you know,

we want Julio to be on like an even higher level than that, right? I mean, yeah, Randy, you're just hoping two and a half three one player because the defense is going to drag down his war overall, but you're paying for the bat is what you know. But it's like we talked about with Tay Oscar Hernandez, and it's like we talked about it at the deadline when they acquired Randy. Randy seems like a good fit to be the Robin to Julio's Batman. He really does.

And, um, I mean, Yeah. Or, you know, maybe the Alfred to Julio and Cal's Batman and Robin. Sure. Either way. Yeah. An important part of the Justice League.

Somebody's got to pay those bills, guys. And if Alfred's not there keeping the books, they're not going to be a profitable organization. That's right. Donovan Salon is actually the Alfred, but I digress. Donnie barrels, baby. All right. You know what?

We're scrapping the entire show. Justice League Mariners. Let's do this. I don't know anything about the Justice League. You didn't think that I'd be able to get some Donnie. Donnie barrels in here, did you? Oh, it's on my bingo board. Oh, okay.

So let's talk about Victor Robles. It looked like his career was, I mean, his career was basically a rock bottom. Like he got outright released by the team that developed him. He won a World Series with. The mayor has signed him and almost immediately. He's just, he's nuts. 154 WRC plus as a mariner,

328, 393, 4. 467. Yeah, that was the other thing, too. He comes over to Seattle and he's just like hitting the ball hard all of a sudden. 3.2 F4, 4 homers, 26 RBI, 30 steals, just struck out 16.8% of the time, 6.1% walk rate. He established himself as the team's lead off hitter, brings a ton of energy, kind of just like rebuilt the vibe single-handedly in the clubhouse. I mean, yeah, it was just an amazing year for Victor Robles.

And we've talked this offseason about like, all right, he's probably going to regress because he was just so good last year. Like it's it's hard to imagine that he's going to do that again. I hope he does. I mean, really anything close to that. Yeah, really. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that was just so unexpected, so out of nowhere.

just for who he's really been in his career. Now, he's a former top prospect. He was a higher rated prospect than Juan Soto in the Nationals Farm system for a time. So obviously, the talent has always been there. The potential has always been there. But, yeah, at the Major League level, he's just not even been even close to the guy that he was as a mariner. So, yeah, regression is probably coming for Victor Robles. But how much?

that's really the question. Right. I mean, you know, I think people forget, dude's still really young, despite being in the league seven years now. Like he's still 26,

27 years old. Yeah, he debuted quite young. And so, uh, it isn't like this guy was past his prime. It's like he hadn't gotten to it yet now. It's not like you turn 27.

All of a sudden, you're a good baseball player when you weren't before. That's not how that works. But, you know, there were some adjustments that were made. Uh, it's one of the few,

you know, really good things that Jared DeHart did. when he was the mayor's hitting coach and Victor gave him a lot of credit for that. And so there was a physical change that was immediately followed up by better results. And so that, you know, at least give some evidence to suggest that like, hey, this might be more real than it's not because you have the raw talent that we know Robles has. You have a swing adjustment that was made in season that was immediately followed up by these banana results. So it's kind of like one of those things where it's like, yeah, there's some evidence to suggest that Robles might be an everyday player. It's a lot of, it's not strong evidence.

Let's put it that way. It's kind of, you know, circumstantial evidence. And until we see it play out over a full season, you know, it's tough to trust. So how much. It's just so far in the extreme, right? Right. Of where he was. That is just like, okay.

That's clearly not who he is, or at least we think so. Never know. I mean, yeah. Could the merits have stumbled on their own Josh Donaldson or their own Justin Turner? Sure. Like maybe. But still, it's like, all right, he's probably going to regress. It's just how significant.

Like, is he going to completely fall off a cliff or is he going to find some middle ground? I mean, if you get 2019 Victor Robles, you're probably pretty happy with that. Yeah, that was almost a 401 player. Yeah. So I think fan graphs right now hasn't projected it as about a two-win player I would feel pretty good about that. Like I think that is, you know, if that happened, if that was the case, I'd feel like, you know, hey, the Mariners at least have an everyday player out there, right?

They're not trying to make it work for the fourth outfielder. But we talked a lot this, this winter about, you know, Robles Insurance in case this isn't real. The Mariners really didn't go get that. No, they've bought in on the, I mean, like, well, one, we know the reasons why they, we, we know. the reasons that they didn't go out and get Victor Reblis insurance. We don't need to go over that. Yeah, we might talk about that a little later on. But

you know, the other thing, though, is like they did buy in on like, yeah, he's an everyday player. And yeah, they extended him like you said. But it didn't even seem like, even when they were looking to add this offseason within that very restricted budget, it

didn't seem like they even considered adding an outfielder. No, which we're not. going to discuss if that was a mistake or not. It was. But yeah, so we'll see. I mean, they're certainly banking on Robles being at least good.

Maybe not the fringe MVP candidate he played like last year, but at least good. But yeah, as for what's reasonable to expect, I think if you go in with an expectation that Robles is probably going to be a two, two and a half one player, I think there's a pretty good shot he meets that. I think if you're expecting him to be a six, seven one player, which he was on pace to do last year, you're going to be disappointed. I would just allow yourself to be, you know, excited about what Robles can be by having your expectations, not low, but certainly more, you know, realistic than what he gave

you last year. But could Robles even, you know, could he go 250, 3, 30, 400, steal 40 bags, play good defense, hit the occasional homer and just kind of bring that energy that he brought this last year. Yeah, you absolutely could. If he does that, he's probably a four one player. Yeah, I'm not willing to buy in on like he is going to play at a basically an MVP caliber pace. But I am willing to buy in that, hey, he might actually be a useful everyday player now. Yeah. I mean, again, he was in the past, just not the past couple years. So. And he's only 27. And he was hurt the last few years. Yep. So there's plenty of excuses. There's plenty of, of like,

actual real world, like evidence to suggest that this is more real than not, but I think you just, the totality of the player you look at and you'd be like, we'll see. I think that's the best way to kind of handle the Robles expectation this year. Yeah. So very quickly, you know how we feel about Mitch Hanager in that whole situation. I don't think we really need to regurgitate that again. Dude's toasted, get him off the roster. It's basically that.

Yeah. Dominic Canzone. We'll see. Did you know that dominant Canzone is the same age as Victor Robles? I don't know if that's a positive or a negative. Yeah, I'd rather have Canzone on the bench than Hanneger because Canzone at least is athletic-ish. Yeah.

I mean, not graceful, but athletic. He's having a pretty good spring, but he also just kind of feels like one of those dudes is going to pop off in spring against lower-level competition and we'll, you know. I don't know, we'll see. A guy, but we'll see if he gets an opportunity and maybe you can change the narrative on him. Yeah, it would be great.

I mean, I mean, you know, who else was kind of a foray guy until recently? Brent Rooker. Yeah. So, you know, these things happen occasionally. Yeah. So. You heard it here first. Colby says that Dominic Canzon is Brent Rucker.

Exactly what I said. Mm-hmm. But yeah, so I don't know. We'll probably see Canzone at some point. over the course of the of the season. But yeah, he's just someone that I'm... Oh, sorry. I was just saying that he's just someone that I kind of feel

he's just a 4A guy like you said. But hey, hopefully it proves me wrong. That'd be great. I think he's got an option left so you can kind of use him as that 4A bounce back guy this year. And then Luke Rayleigh's obviously going to factor into some degree, but it does seem like his primary concern his first base this year.

It would be cool if eventually over the course of the season they do something at first base where Rayleigh can actually play some outfield a bit more because Rayleigh's a good outfielder. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure we'll see days where, you know, Solano's playing first and Rayleigh's and left, like today. Rayleigh's and left.

Yeah. So that Randy can DH. And that means Solano's in their third. Because your best defensive outfield grouping is Julio, Rayleigh, and Robles. Yeah. Yep. So if you're actually able to deploy that group, at least occasionally, the course of 2020, that would be great.

And again, they're going to rotate their outfielders through the DH a little bit too. So really will play some outfield. But I mean, I don't know. You go trade for like Vlad Jr. really is a full-time outfielder now. Some to think about. Could be fun. Could be fun. Could be fun. You're listening to the Lockdown Merritt's podcast. So you know what else was fun, Colby?

Justin Turner and what he had to say today and Bob Nightingale's article that came out on USA today this morning. So Nightingale wrote an article just about the bearers offseason in general, and he got a chance to speak to Turner, who of course just recently signed with the Chicago Cubs. Turner said about the bearers inactivity this offseason, quote,

the fact that they missed the playoffs by one game and didn't go out and add an impact bat or two when you have the best pitching staff in baseball just seems absurd to me. Honestly, as much as I wanted to be back there, if I was the only piece they brought back in, I would be saying the same thing. What the hell are we doing? Are you trying? Shout out to our self-awareness king, Justin Turner. Yeah. I mean, there you go, right?

I mean, Justin Turner just said what we've all been saying for the last five months, really. I want to get into what he said about Jerry DePoto in a second. But yeah, Turner also said, quote, there's not going to be a better time to go for it. So I don't know what they're doing. I'm very confused. It's a head scratcher for me. I told them several times this offseason,

you have a unicorn of a pitching staff. This might be the best five starting pitchers in the history of the game. The disrespect to those Dodgers teams with Kofax. Drysdale. Yeah. He also said that he thought that Pete Alonzo was a slam dunk for the team. How can he not go after him? Are you kidding me?

That's what he said. Yep. Yeah. And so it sounds like he's just taking a run at Jerry for not being active enough. Clearly, clearly. Or. Or. Perhaps.

He says, quote, I think Jerry catches a bad rap for a lot of these trades and how crazy some of these trades have been. But now being a part of it, I kind of understand. He doesn't have any money to spend. So he's got to create money. Like, okay, is it really Jerry's fault? He's doing everything he can to create a budget to be able to do things. It's like when we traded or when he traded Graveman to Houston for Toro.

You're thinking, what in the world? He's probably needed to trade guys just to be able to spend money in the off season, which is nuts. Two points to this. I want to make. A, we told you so. be still jerry shut up no talking

yeah so there's obviously issues that I have with this front office and what they've done in terms of acquiring talent specifically specifically free agency and their history in that department 100% but my main issue with with jerry de potto

has always will be how he speaks to the media you know whatever the guy gets a microphone in front of his face. Right. It's like his brain shuts off. Yeah.

So yeah. I mean, this is what we've been saying though, right? It's like, all right. Yeah. There's absolutely like the stuff,

the baseball related stuff that you can criticize Jerry and Justin Hollander and this front office for. But also they have a really narrow path that they have to go down because of ownership. They don't get to make a lot of mistakes. Dude. No. Basically,

they make one mistake. They're toast. Yeah. Like the team. is toast. And so, yeah, they're going to be super cautious about it. Yeah, they're going to, you know, do these things. So yeah, I mean, like, Justin gets it. He's been around the block. And you would think, like, if Justin Turner gets it, if he understands, a lot of these players also understand. But, you know, this also, we heard this week, Cal Raleigh say, I want to be a mariner. We've heard Logan Gilbert say, I want to be here. And I'm not just saying that, which kind of makes me think you may be just saying that, but like, whatever. So, like, it doesn't appear that, like, Seattle is the problem here. It appears that once again, what we already knew, but maybe now

is kind of becoming more of a national focus here, is that no, the front office wants to win. The players there want to win. There's only one group that doesn't care about it. And it's not

the one that's catching most of the blame right now. Yeah. Now, does Jerry Depoto carry John Stanton's water? He kind of has to, but yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, again. Yeah. And he says some really dumb things into the microphone whenever one is put in front of his face.

When he's trying to do the mental gymnastics to, well, here's really the thing, right? It's like he doesn't have to do those things. Like he doesn't have to say things of the way that he does. He can still like carry Stanton's water and ownership's water without wording things specifically how he does. Like he doesn't have to do that. And so that.

Yeah, that's really my biggest criticism of Jerry DePoto. But yeah, also, you know, the misses and free agency, some of the misses via trade, all that stuff. Like absolutely should be criticized for it. But that's really my biggest issue with Jerry. And again, his biggest problem is certainly the message.

Communicating to the fan base is the biggest issue with Jerry DePoto by far. But yeah, it's just, again, like Turner laid out here, when you have an ownership group that is just so restrictive, you have very little wiggle room. You have very little room for error as a front office, and it makes things very difficult, especially if you're having to trip, just make trades to free up payroll,

I mean, which we saw last year. And, you know, with the Gino trade, which wasn't all entirely about money. Like, let's make it very clear. The Gino trade, they, I had also heard, like, they thought he was just cooked. so and they they were right for the first couple months and then they were very wrong based off of 2023 and the first half of 2024 they were right yeah and then and then based off the rest of it

oh boy yeah yikes that is a geno size swinging a miss and and looking at what's happened at third base here over the last 16ish months yikes so yeah so that was great great to hear from Justin Turner. Shout out to him. Should put him in the Mariners Hall of Fame just for that. Yeah. Wish him nothing but the best in Chicago. The Cubs coming to town this year? Or are we going there? I think they came to Seattle

in 2024. Yeah. I think we're going there. Yeah. So, but yeah, shout out to JT. And, yeah, hoping for the best for having. Not a fair chance is a mariner again in July. Yeah, we'll see. Yeah. It would be fun.

Yeah, could be fun. fun could be fun yeah so yeah good for him good for him saying uh you know what we're all feeling right all right so that's going to do it for us uh thank you so much for joining us here on the locked on mariner's podcast for colby patting gzalus be sure give us to follow on on twitter at l o underscore merrars you can follow me at tiding gzalus and colby at cpad 11 that's cpat one one we're also in blue sky you can follow me at tdg colby at melb colby in the show at locked on mariners have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you next time peace