Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Let's Talk About the Seattle Mariners Trading For Ronald Acuña Jr.

Episode Date: July 3, 2025

Ty and Colby react to the Mariners' 3-2 win over the Royals and Joel Sherman suggesting the Braves should trade Ronald Acuña Jr. to Seattle.DONATE TO OUR FEEDING AMERICA FUNDRAISERCheck 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 PistachiosGet snackin' and get crackin' with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more! Supply HouseJoin the TradeMaster program today at SupplyHouse.com/TM and start ordering plumbing, HVAC, and electrical supplies with just a few clicks. Plus, use promo code S-H-5 for 5% off your first order. That’s SupplyHouse.com! Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONMLB at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

All right. We'll bite. Let's talk about Ronald Acuna Jr. coming up here on the Lockdown Marriss podcast. Colby, hit it. You are Locked on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Ahoy, Sailors. It is Thursday, July 3rd, 2025.

This is Tedding Azales and Colby Patnaud for the Lockdown Marys Podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. This episode is brought to you by Game Time. download the GameTime app, create an account, and use the promo code Locked-on MLB, that's L-O-C-K-D-O-N-M-L-B for $20 off your first purchase. And as always, if you want to hear from me and Colby even more and help support the show, you can check out our Patreon. All you have to do to check that out is click the link in the description of this episode. So on today's show, we'll talk about the Mariners 3-2-2 win over the Royals. Then we'll discuss Ronald Acuna Jr. and the Mariners.

but let's start with last night's game. The Mariners rolled out a hilarious lineup. Probably the worst lineup they've rolled out this entire year. Donovan Solano was hitting cleanup, folks. And you know me, I'm a big Donnie Burles guy, but even I can realize that that's just ridiculous. As soon as I saw this lineup, though, I knew they were going to win. But yeah, this lineup,

up not only didn't feature, you know, the team's MVP candidate in Cal Raleigh, it also included all the right-handed hitters that they use against left-handed pitching, which are typically, you know, their worst hitters, including Dillamore, who after last night is now, has now struck out 22 times in his last 36 at-bats. So let's start there Is it time to DFA him? Because like I get it from the mariner's side that you know Wanted to stay the course and stick by your guy

He's the longest 10-yeared mariner yada yada yada yada But 22 strikeouts and 36 at bats I mean we've seen Dillamore go on some bad stretches before Over the last you know half decade plus However this is the worst stretch by far for him in his career but I think I've seen of any player ever like 22 strikeouts and 36 at bats is insane yeah I mean that's it's literally a 60% strikeout right like yeah we've seen great hitters be terrible for a month

and it's you know it sucks it's not fun but you kind of live with it and you get through the other side and everything's fine. I've never seen somebody run a 60% strikeout rate over the course of essentially an entire month. Now you see here and say like, oh, well, it's only 30 at bat. 60% strikeout rate. He has one hit in like 33 days. Mm-hmm. A little broken bat bleeder off of Garrett Crochet.

So he's not making contact. He's not walking. He's not playing good defense. Like his defense is significantly down from where it was last year. So right now, his entire value to this team is as a pinch runner late in the game. There's a reason Billy Hamilton, you know, never found long-term staying power in the big leagues. There's a reason that Terrence Gore was just kept around for September rosters. Like, they're not valuable players.

of all you can do is pinch run. And by the way, at least Billy Hamilton could play some center field. Like, Dylan Moore right now is a worthless player. Like, his presence on the roster alone is actively hurting you. So how long are you going to hold out for the upswing? And how do you get him to find that upswing when you can't possibly play him? Right. Like, you cannot give Dylan Moore at batts right now.

but you can't expect him to get out of it without giving him at bat. So you're stuck in this weird spot where what you really need is you need Dillan Moore down in Tacoma, where he can play every day and the results don't matter and he can figure something out. He can't. You have to put him on waivers. You have to DFA him and he has to clear and then he has to accept the assignment. And right now he might. He might clear.

I mean, he almost certainly will accept the assignment because he doesn't want to forfeit the rest of his salary. I mean, for only a couple million bucks, I could see a team just taking him on, knowing what he has been. Maybe, but what he has been for the last month is the worst player in the history of Major League Baseball. It's been so bad. And you can easily see how loss he is. I forget if it was the first strikeout or the second strikeout last night, but he gets a hanging breaking ball in the middle of the plate and he just flails at it. It's off the plate. It's in it's on the plate and he flails at it

This is an awful looking swing and now look Thillamore has some pretty bad looking swings like his his whole setup in general is not aesthetic pleasing But that was bad That was that did not look like a major league hitter and obviously the the numbers are not reflective of a major league hitter right now over the last five weeks Again it's been one hit since may 27th it's July 3rd folks right and I mean they're giving him his at batts against lefties right they're not asking him to go out there and face the murderer's row of Ritees and putting him in situations where he hasn't succeeded in the past he's just not capable of hitting major league pitching right now and you know there's nothing he does on a baseball field that Leo Rivas can't do better like Rivas is a better player right now um does Zill

Oran had him more upside. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Well, we know DeMor has 20 home run pop and he can steal 20, 30 bags if he got enough opportunities. And yeah, he's going to be terrible for a month at a time, not this terrible.

This is the first time he's been this bad. It's the first time I think anybody's been this bad. But yeah, so like there's definitely upside with Dillamore. But like, how do you fix him without giving him reps? But how do you give him reps when he is objectively the worst player in Major League Baseball right now? you can't. You're fighting for your life every night to hold on to a wild card spot

against like seven other teams that are within three games of you. How do you pull that off? You don't. So yeah, I think you probably should DFA him. Take a shot that he clears waivers and you can put him down at Tacoma where he can play every single day. Call up Leo Rivas as your utility guy. And go from there.

And if somebody claims Dylan Moore and they save you a couple million bucks, thank you. Thank you, Dylan, uh, for all the work you did. Thank you for some really awesome memories, uh,

that we'll have of you. But, you know, we can't. We can't make this work without playing you. And we can't play you because you're the worst player we've ever seen. So we're going to catch 22. We have to be able to send you down.

It's that simple. And if, if another major league team wants to keep you on their roster, fine. go ahead we'll save two million bucks we'll put it elsewhere it's a bummer of a situation but it's time like i don't have time to be sentimental here um it's it's time to put up or shut up i'm finding for my life every single night to scratch out a couple runs and i can't afford to give you at bats and the most advantageous matchups i could possibly give you yeah i can't play

short-handed every single night for an entire year again. Yeah. The other team has a 26-man roster. I'm trying to make this work with a 23-man roster because I got two guys in the bullpen I'll never use. And I've got Dylan Moore, who I can't use, like it, you can't do that. It's not manageable. So you need a DFA, Dylan Moore, hope he clears, put him into Tacoma. And if he doesn't, oh, well, you saved a million five, you know, a million eight,

whatever it is. If you don't think those little savings matter to the, ownership group. So yeah, they need to DFA Dillmore. It's time. So minimum 30 plate appearances since May 28th.

Dima has 39 played appearances. So 372 hitters qualify. Dillamore dead last. 372nd out of 372 hitters in WRC

plus, a negative 59 028 103 028 the slash line his 56.4% K rate is by far tops in all of baseball over that stretch Martine Maldonado is second with a 47.9% K rate which is also god awful I haven't seen anything like that that's insane and that's just not a major league ball player think of how bad Donovan Solano was in April, better than Dillon more. This is significantly worse than Donovan Salano starts at the year.

I mean, this is worse than A.J. Pollack. This is worse than Tommy Lestella. Yeah. It's not tenable. It's one of, if not the worst stretches we've seen from an individual player in Seattle and quite some time, if not in my entire time watching the Seattle mirrors. I can't remember. That's not an exaggeration.

It's over a month of just absolute pitiful baseball from Dillmore right now. Yeah. So they got to do something about it. We'll see if a team, given his track record, takes a shot on him. It's still not a lot of money. Yeah. Especially for some teams out there that are contending. So they might be willing to just take the shot on them.

But we'll see. But they, yeah, I just. Like for all the reasons that you mentioned like they just they have to do something here with him They just can't keep going on like this, but I kind of think they will Yeah, unfortunately. Yeah, I kind of think they'll just stay the course and they won't make a decision on him until uh, you know, around the deadline until after they make a move or two. Yep. All right.

Uh, we'll keep talking about this game. We'll talk about uh, Randy Rosarana and Logan Gilbert in just a moment. But first, a reminder of this episode of the lockdown. podcast is brought to you once again by game time have you ever decided at the last minute to amara's game either by yourself or with friends or family you know maybe it's game day and suddenly you realize i want to be in the stands well that's exactly where game time comes in it's the easiest way to grab last minute tickets without the stress with the money you save on tickets you can splurge on food drinks merch or even invite a bigger group to come with you game time makes it possible

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Again, create an account and redeem the promo code, L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N-M-LB for $20 off. Download the GameTime app today. Last-minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed. And you're listening to the Lockdown Merrers Podcasts for Instant Reactions following every Mariners game. Be sure to tune in to the Marrers Postcast with Anderson Hearst, Christopher Crawford, available on both the Lockdown Marries YouTube and podcast feeds.

So we didn't get too many donations between yesterday's episode. and today, however, we have a pretty significant update for you still regarding our Feeding America fundraiser because not only did Ben come through with $15, Mo Mo Movers came through with $500, say Mo Mo Movers loves locked on Mariners and hates hunger. So thanks to the folks over at Mo Movers for that because their donation, a long with Ben's now brings us to a grand total of $9,256 a raise for feeding America. So you're getting close to that $10,000 mark. I'd love to get there here with how many days do we have left now?

9, 10? 10, I think. 10. Yeah, the All-Star break is coming up pretty fast here, folks. Colby, for anyone who, even though we've been doing this for almost a month now, for anyone who may not know what we got going on with Feeding America. Tell them all about it. Feeding America is a fantastic organization that aims to do exactly what their name says,

Feed America. Despite all the wealth that resides in this country, one of every five children have no idea when or where their next meal is coming from. And over 50 million adults have no idea when or how. they're going to eat. And if you don't know where your next meal is coming from, nothing else really matters. So Feeding America aims to change that. They work directly with wholesalers to buy food at a drastic discount. And so every dollar we raise, they can turn into at least 10 delicious meals for people who desperately desperately need them. So we partnered with them a few years ago.

We ended up raising around $15,000. So we're back doing this again this year. And like Ty said, we are nearing the $10,000 mark, which would be awesome because it's a nice round number. But hey, there's nothing saying we have to stop at $10,000 either. So if you guys want to donate to this great cause, the link is in the description of wherever you're listening or watching, you know, this podcast. You can also talk to your employer. Some employers will match your or, you know, double match or whatever your donations. So, you know, maybe mention it to your employer or tell your friends, tell your family, share the link with them and ask them to donate.

That would help out a lot too. If you tapped all that out, then you can still donate simply by pushing the subscribe button. For every new subscriber tie and I get, we are donating 10 cents. At the end, we'll do a big lump some donation. And we're up over 200 new subscribers since we started this, which is 200 plus meals. It's really that simple. Push the subscribe button and you're donating a meal to somebody who's starving. So it really is a lot of ways you can help out and we appreciate everybody already has.

We enjoy doing this and we probably need to do a little more frequently. We didn't really do one last year. But yeah, we really appreciate everybody who's pitched in, especially over the last, you know, two, three days. We've seen a huge influx of donations, both in terms of money and also just the number of individual donations. So it's been awesome to track over the last, you know, four or five days. And it's, it's nice to see us, you know, finishing strong, I guess, as we approach the end of our give or, I keep calling a giveaway, the end of our fundraiser.

Yeah, but like Ty said, only about 10 days to go. So let's dig deep. Let's see if we can get to the 10,000 mark and, hey, you know what, maybe even beyond. So we'll see how that goes. Thank you guys so much for donating. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for subscribing and all that so that we can help, you know, help feeding America, feed America.

It's awesome. And the support we received so far is greatly appreciated. Yeah. So thank you guys, again, so much for your generosity. And again, let's see how far we can take this thing before we wrap things up here in the next week and a half or so. All right. So let's tie a bow here. on last night's game before we move on to the to the Acuna discussion that I'm sure a lot of you clicked on this video for or clicked on this podcast and start listening to it for randy rosarena hit his fourth home run of this series he's doing a little bit of a cow raleigh impression against the Kansas City Royals right now goes two for three last night adds a sacrifice fly that winds up being the difference in this game had three hard hit balls on the night he's

He is locked down, which is really nice to see. He's kind of being the robin to Cal's Batman right now, and the Marin is absolutely need that at the moment. Logan Gilbert only goes four and two thirds last night. That was the other pretty big hurdle the Mariners had to overcome. He only gave up one earn run, you know, seven strikeouts, led the game on whiffs, only three hard hit balls given up. but he throws 95 pitches and again can't even get through five

which is just not good enough so you know this is we've seen this a lot from Logan this year even pre-IL stent like he'll get the strikeouts he's not having a ton of damage done against him but the pitch count continues to get inflated he's not able to put guys away early and last night he walked three dudes as well and so that ballooned the the pitch count even more

so I don't know just watching him right now what do you think is going on with with Logan at the moment yeah it just looks a little off stuff is still fine but the command is not where it needs to be the control is spotty three walks is a lot for for Logan especially in less than five innings. So yeah, you know, it's, the stuff is still pretty good, which is great, but he's just not spotting it well. And to his credit, Kansas City is a team that prides itself on, you know, not striking out. And he was still able to find the strike out quite often. But, you know, you got to get some quick outs. You got to get some quick innings. His night was effectively cut pretty substantially after the first inning.

He had to throw 26, 27 pitches after the first, and he just never really found that, you know, eight, nine pitch inning to kind of counteract that. So, you know, it's, I don't think he's unhealthy, but I do think there's still some lingering effect with his elbow that is maybe affecting command and control just a little bit.

And it's something he needs to adjust to. And, you know, the splitter is kind of his best pitch and it's also a pitch that he's kind of trying to, you know, move around and use less frequently, but it's the pitch that's generating the most whiffs. It's the pitch that's most likely to get him quick outs. And so, you know, he's kind of walking that, like, how often do I use it? How often do I, like, is there a point where this is too much and I need to switch it up? So, yeah, he's kind of trying to operate with, not without his best pitch.

he still throws it, but it's, he can't, or he's not going to throw it as much as he would like. And it makes the fastball less valuable. So it's easier to lay off of the split and it because you're going to see less of them. And the fastball doesn't play up as well. So I think it's just a lot of little things that he'll work his way through. I think he'll come out the other side on this. But yeah, he needs to go back to, or he needs to get back to going six pretty much every single time out like he did most of last year. But I think he'll get there.

It's just he's not quite there yet. Yeah. Quickly running down the lineup a little bit here, Mitch Carver with another multi-hit game. Neither of his two hits were hard hit, but still another multi-hit game for Mitch Garber. We should have threatened him with a Harry Ford call-up sooner, honestly. J.P. Crawford with two hits, which is nice to see because he's been slumping a little bit.

So nice to see him get on the board there, especially with an opposite field double. Ben Williamson with the big double last night to kind of set things up for the for the game winning inning for the mirrors. Yes. Almost screwed it up. Yeah. Williamson driving that ball to center field and then earlier on in the game actually

pulled a ball in the air, which is insane to see from Ben Williamson. I haven't seen him do that much since hitting his first and only home run in Toronto. you know we know the deal with ben like most of the time that he's making contact with the ball that ball is going into right field uh but so yeah so that was a little bit of a weird outlier night for for ben last night but hey maybe this uh this lineup could use uh i don't know someone named ronald de coonia junior we'll talk about that in just a moment but first a reminder this episode of the lockdown marriage podcast is brought to you by supply house get the supplies you need from the made for the skilled trades supply house whether you're in plumbing hvac or electrical work supply

house is a reliable way to order products online their easy to use website is packed with helpful resources and the latest product info to help you get the job done right plus with a complete inventory of over 200,000 parts from 400 plus top brands you'll find exactly what you need delivered fast from coast to coast join the trademaster program today at supplyhouse.com slash TM and start ordering plumbing, HVAC, and electrical supplies with just a few clicks. Plus, use promo code SH5 for 5% off your first order. That's supplyhouse.com. And you're listening to the Locked-on Mariners podcast.

So we don't have anything better to talk about. So why not? We'll bite yesterday on MLB Network, Joel Sherman. throughout the idea of the Braves trading Ronald O'Cunia Jr., who has been the hottest hitter on the planet since returning from his second ACL injury, to the Seattle Mariners. And basically his argument for this, both from the brave side and the Marist side,

we'll get into that a second, but from the brave side is, like, you're terrible this year. Spencer Schwellenbach is now on the IL with a, fractured elbow. Spencer Strider has been hurt. Rinaldo Lopez has been hurt. Chris Sale's been hurt.

Ozzy Albies has been terrible. Michael Harris has been terrible. Awesome, Riley hasn't been as good as you need them to be. Things are going to are going sideways as far as this year is concerned. And your future outlook isn't that great because your farm system kind of stinky.

So are you going to be able to win a championship in the next three years, which is as many years that Ocuna has left on his deal or should you maximize the value that he has go talk to a team that has right now per baseball america nine top 100 prospects and go restock your farm and set yourself up for the future and then from the merit side of things it's pretty obvious what his argument would be you've only made the playoffs once since 2001 you've never been to the world series if not now when

so funny enough just a little bit before Joel Sherman went on MLB network talking about this our good buddy jage at the jage page on Twitter put out a hypothetical Ronald Ocuna Jr. trade

and so we're going to kind of use that as the reference point here for what this could potentially cost now maybe it costs more than this maybe it costs less than this Maybe the package in general just looks different than this, whatever. We're not saying that this is actually what it's going to take to trade for Ronald Acuna Jr. just to be clear.

But Jage here has the Mariners sending George Kirby, Matt Brash, Lazaro Montes, Colt Emerson, and Johnny Farmello to Atlanta for Ronald Acuna Jr. and had a poll accompanying that, that at the time of this recording, has 1,983 votes on it. And 57.5% of the vote, and I'm going to assume at least a good majority of the people who voted on this poll are Mariners fans, voted no.

And I don't get why. Because obviously this is a lot. But we're talking about, Ronald Acuna Jr. Yeah. The, what, 27-year-old?

So just entering his prime, who you have control of for the next four pennant races. Yeah. And is only going to make $17 million a year

each of the next three years. Who's got a nine and a half win season under his belt. He's got a 40-70 season. under his belt and he just made the All-Star team despite missing the first

50 games of the season and by the way, rightfully so made the All-Star team. That's how insane. He's been worth what,

two and a half wins in 35 games. Yeah. He is a threat at the plate. He's a threat on the basis. He's a threat in the field. He's got a great arm. He is marketable as heck.

He is what you hope Julio will one day be and he might be available. No, we don't know if he's going to be, but maybe if he is, even slightly. Your farm system's never been in better shape. You have nine of the top 100. You're probably going to add another one at the draft this year. You have an opportunity to even restock your farm system even more with the bonus pool that you're about to have.

You're also set to have a pretty nice international free agent class by all account. you have young pitching in place, you have young position players locked in at some of the most important positions. You are in the middle of a competitive window and you haven't won a division in 20-some-odd years. If not now, when? Yeah.

If not a kunia, who? Right. And I'd just like to point this out that the Juan Soto thing that happened a few years ago, the Mariners were apparently in on that. Yeah. Like they looked at that and they were willing to part with either Kirby or Gilbert. Yeah, Ryan Davis just publicly said this.

I believe on Ben Minerese podcast. And the Nationals apparently just didn't like George Kirby, didn't like Logan Gilbert, which weird, but considering they got McKenzie Gore and James Wood and C.J. Abrams, like, okay, Seattle probably couldn't compete with that package. Now they can. They can compete, they can outbid anybody for Ronald Acuna Jr. And the nice little thing about this is that the Braves, their biggest hole in their organization, middle infielders. The biggest strength of the Mariners farm system, middle infielders.

And, you know, as Joel Sherman pointed out as well, if you're the Braves, you've won a World Series in the last decade. You did that without Acuna. you made the playoffs last year without Acuna. You still have Riley. You still have Olson. You still have Murphy. You know, you're probably not going to have Albies next year. So you really don't have a second baseman or a shortstop going into next year.

The Mariners have Col Young. The Mariners have Colt Emerson. The Mariners have Felon and Celestin. The Mariners. Heck, the Mariners have JP Crawford. Michael Royal. Yep. So I just have to ask.

again, to Mariner fans. If not now, when you have Cal in his prime, when you have a young Julio who's not making any money, when you have the rotation that you have with all the talent, when you have the farm system depth that you've never had in the history of your franchise, if not now,

when? If not Acuna, who? And how often do these situations line up where you have an all-time player in his prime, become available via trade, where it not only makes sense for you to spend the assets because you're right in the right window to do this,

but you also can't afford to do it and still have pieces left over to go out and fix other holes on your team. When is this all going to line up again? Right. The odds are never. If not now, win. Yeah. So I want to talk a little bit about what the game plan would be after.

Like, let's say they actually make this deal, right? Let's just work off of Jage's hypothetical trade here. So you've traded Kirby. You've traded Brash. So now you have a couple holes in your rotation and your bullpen. A couple of pretty significant holes now. So what do you do? Hini and Bednar

Yeah I mean Those are two guys that aren't going to take elite prospects Those are two guys on a team That's definitely looking to sell He needs a rental And oh by the way What do you think is going to be easier to do

LOR effective starting pitching to Seattle In the offseason Or lure a nine-win hitter Yeah And then as prime to Seattle So in terms of what it does in 2026, whatever. I have a starting outfield of a Rosarena, Julio, and Acuna that I then get to go around to the, you know, to the Seth Lugos of the world, to the, you know, Zach Gallons. Yeah.

Like I get to get the Merrill Kelly's. I could say, hey, not only you get to pitch in the best pitcher park in baseball. your starting outfield has three guys whose floor is 20-20 offensively. You're throwing to the best catcher in baseball. We just put ourselves out there and said, we're trying to win the World Series every year for the next four years. Yeah. That's an incredible pitch.

And oh, by the way, again, look at our history on pitching development. We're great at this. You're going to be in a rotation with Brian Wu and Logan, Gilbert like Bryce Miller it is such an easy sell to make to pitchers much more so than it is to hitters so for this year go get Andrew Heaney go get David Bednar maybe go get Connell from from Baltimore the reliever part is fine you'll take care of that yeah yeah yeah that's yeah that's it's really the starter thing right and look are you going to downgrade from George Kirby yeah I mean you're not going to guys get as George Kirby no way yeah the difference between

Kirby and Andrew Heaney. I don't know, maybe actually, since you've already traded for Acuna, does that maybe make Seattle go, well, screw it. Let's go trade for Zach Allen. Maybe it might. Now, is there going to be enough money to do that? We'll leave the money aside for now. But yeah, you're not going to do better.

But the difference between what you've been running out there in right field all year versus Ronald Acuna Jr. Yeah. is significantly higher than the difference of going from Kirby to Heaney or Kelly or whatever you have to be opportunistic because here here's what I would say if the Astros have the farm system you have they would absolutely be on on this yep 100% yeah they just they can't afford it right now they don't have they don't have the they don't have the pieces to put together to it to make it happen

but if they did they would be doing this yep And you know what? You're probably going to have to outbid the Dodgers. Even though the Dodgers are stacked, they would still be looking to do something like this. The simple fact of the matter is you're in a rare position where nobody can really outbid you at this juncture. You have the thing that the Braves need the most in spades. You have the opportunity. You have the timing is right.

you have the ability, the means, like, it's never going to be this obvious again. And I get it. We're talking about a hypothetical that the Braves are almost certainly not going to trade Ronald Cooney Jr. But if they did, if they kind of let it be know, like, we'd listen. If we didn't hear the Mariners listed as like the top team every single time it was talked about, it would be an indictment not only on Jerry DePoto, not only on Justin Hollander, but on John Stanton and Chris Larson and everybody

who works in this organization that is any hand whatsoever in talent acquisition. It's a scaling indictment on them because, again, this type of opportunity almost never happens and it especially never happens when you happen to be in a position to be the high bidder. Yeah. Yeah. You know, what are you afraid of? you'd be trading in this hypothetical again on top of Kirby and Brash three of your top five prospects and uh you know we want to do what's best to build a sustainable winner uh you know what you have to do in order to build a sustainable winner you have to win yeah and i'm not talking about winning regular season games because jerry depoto loves to mention their their record among all the

85 regular season wins every single year who cares yeah no i'm talking about winning playoff games, playoff series, penance, etc. I just, at the end of the day. At a certain point, and we've talked about this on the Patreon, and I won't say exactly what I say on the Patreon when describing this, because it's not for this platform. But at a certain point, you just got to put it all out there. Yeah.

Especially year 10 into this regime. If this is a real thing, and I have doubts that it's a real thing. I have doubts that the Braves are actually going to explore this. What they should do, what blah, blah, blah. What, yeah, the opinion of one very respected writer thinks that they should do. Blop, we get that. I just, I, I, I do not think the Atlanta Braves are going to trade Ronald Lacuna Jr. Junior, at least not this year.

I agree. However, if, if they are willing to do that, you have to do everything in your power to make that happen. If you're the Seattle Maris, I firmly believe that because it is not often. and that these opportunities come to pass, especially this year in this particular market where any other option pales in comparison to Ronald Acuna Jr. To mention the American League is historically weak this year. Historically weak.

Plus, you're not only setting yourself up for this year, for a run this year. You're setting yourself up for the next three years. And oh, by the way, you're concerned about the return that you give up. Guess what? You can probably get a lot of that back if things go sideways and you want to trade Ronald Acuna Jr.

with two years left, a year left even. Look at what the Padres did. They rented essentially Juan Soto for a year and a half and then flipped him for two fifths of their very good rotation and they're still playoff contenders. They're still World Series contenders. Yeah. Because they know, give them credit.

And again, it's not like they fleeced them. The Nationals got James Wood, who's an all-star. They got C.J. Abrams, who's an all-star. They got, you know, McKenzie Gore, who is probably an all-star. They got three all-stars. And Wood might win a couple of VPs. Yeah. Like, the Nationals did really well in that deal.

Yeah. You think Padres care? No, they don't. And I think I would, I would, you know, my final point would be this. What are you afraid of in doing? this deal. Oh, what if it doesn't work out and we're just kind of good but not great? Oh, no. What would that be like? We've only witnessed it for the last five years. Yeah. Like, oh, well, what if the farm system's bad and, you know, we end up having to trade

Logan Gilbert or, you know, just trade Ronald Acuna. There is no justification. No. For not getting aggressive, very aggressive on a Ronald Acuna Jr. trade. None whatsoever. Nope. The cost isn't far from prohibitive. Talking about the money involved here. It is an insane deal for one of the five to ten best hitters in all of baseball.

Age 27 through 30 of Ronald Acuna should cost you $500 million. No. So a lot to think about but that's going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Locktime Airs podcast for for Colby Patnaud. I'm Tadangazales. Be sure to give us

follow on Twitter at L0 underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Tading Azalus and Colby at C-Pat-E-11. We're also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB Colby, and the show at Lockdown Mariners. You can also find us on Instagram and TikTok at Locked-on Mariners. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day, and we'll see you next time. Peace.