Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mailbag: Are There Any 'Untouchable' Mariners Prospects Left?

Episode Date: November 7, 2022

On the first Monday of the 2022-2023 MLB offseason, Locked On Mariners brings back Mailbag Monday! On today's show, Colby and Ty discuss Emerson Hancock's value to Seattle, who the team may target to help the bullpen, and where the team can turn if they miss on Mitch Haniger, plus more!Be sure to follow or subscribe to Locked On Mariners wherever you prefer your podcasts! For questions and other inquiries, email: [e-mail] the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @danegnzlz | @CPat11For more of Ty and Colby, check out their Patreon: patreon.com/controlthezone/BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

From potential relief targets to how Major League Baseball's scheduled changes could impact the Mariners in 2023 and more. We're answering your questions here on the Lockdown Mariners 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. It is Monday, November 7th, 2022. This is Tidane Gazzalas and Colby Patnaud for the Lockdown Mariners podcast.

Thank you so much for making us your first listen. Subscribe, like, and turn on alerts. watching on YouTube or subscribe and leave a five-star review on your preferred podcast platform if you like what you hear. And if you want to hear from us even more, please consider signing up for our Patreon the link as well as our social accounts is in the description below on the show today. It's the return of mail Monday. Thank you to everyone who submitted questions.

We're into a few of them coming up. And just a reminder, we're planning on this being a regular thing every Monday from now until at least bring training. So if we don't get to your question now, it doesn't mean we won't get to it in the future. And first of all, Colby, you're back. Hi, Colby. How are you feeling? Okay.

There were a couple of people in the comments on the episode that were wishing you well, wishing a speedy recovery. How are you holding up? I'm doing okay. I would say probably like 90% now, at least how I feel. I don't know how I sound. But I'd say I'm probably about 90%. So, yeah, last, what was it, Thursday or whatever, that was rough.

So, yeah, I'm feeling better, ready to go. We'll see if I can make it through two shows today because we're recording for CTZ after this. So, yeah, we'll see how I do. But right now, I'd say I'm probably about 90%. Patreon.com forward slash control the zone. Be sure to check it out. We're going to be talking more about our offseason plans and just having some general off-season talk on there. So if you're interested in that, check it out. Our episode for our

tier two and tier three subscribers is going out today. And then our show for all of our subscribers goes out on Wednesday. All right. So with that out of the way, let's get into some questions. And let's see here. I got eight or so questions here that we could pick from. Not sure if we'll get to all eight today, but we'll try our best to. Let's start with this one. from CJ who asked with Julio getting rookie of the year

does it give the Mariners an extra draft pick and what would be some top I'm going to assume draft targets for next year

the Mariners might be interested in so the first part of that yes Julio will nut the Mariners

a draft pick if he wins a rookie of the year and it seems like that is going to happen and Joe Doyle at Prospects Live has projected

that pick to basically be a top 30 pick so a first round pick landing at 29 I believe he has it so basically the Mariners get two first round picks within the top 30 I think their other pick is slotted in at 22nd if I'm not mistaken right I believe so yeah yeah so the second part of that Colby have you looked at the upcoming draft at all for potential names the Mariners could be looking at there in that 22 and 29 range? I have some names of guys who I suspect will be first round picks,

but it's a little too early to know, you know, 22 to 29, a lot can happen. You know, guys can, guys who we think are going to be late first rounders this year, or right now, you know, next July they could be going top five. It happens every single year and the other way around.

So I have some names of guys that maybe if you want to watch some college baseball, try and get a feel for some of them, then I have some names. But no, I haven't really dove into the, I haven't really dove into the prep ranks at all. And I'm not really, I'm just, I'm just trying to keep track of some names at this point, because where they slot in is anybody's guess. Yeah, yeah, it's way too early to be looking at names. There still has to be a college baseball season that gets to be played.

There still has to be high school baseball that gets to be played. like all that stuff. Things are going to change drastically between now and next July. Including the talent level of the actual players who are going to be in this draft. So guys can get insane. The difference between sophomore and junior year for a lot of guys is massive. So there's probably a guy right now who's outside of like the top 60 who is going to go in the first round. And it's just that's part of Major League Baseball's draft.

So. So staying in line with. prospects. We got a question here from Evan, who says, since it seems like Jerry is going to get up to some wheeling and dealing this off season, do you guys have any prospects in the Mariners system who you think aren't necessary or integral to the next wave of players, guys that you would feel comfortable trading basically? Also, bonus question, how does the drafting of Harry Ford change Cal Raleigh's long-term outlook at catcher? Does Ford end up playing a different position? So to answer the first part of your question for me and I don't know how you feel Colby but for me the simple answer

is no there really isn't anyone that I view as like you have to keep as untouchable I think the closest to that would be Harry Ford but even then to me he could be had for the right price right like if that can help me get a you know perennial like if Harry Ford could help me get like a perennial all-star right I'm considering it at the very least depending on the situation. Is that the same for you? Yeah. I think probably the guy I would consider closest to untouchable would actually probably be Cole Young just because he's probably a little bit closer to the big leagues and he can play shortstop. We know he's going to do that. The thing with Harry Ford is that he's at least three years away, especially if he sticks a

catcher. But no, those guys even like, if I can get just like a really solid everyday three-win player for, you know, three or four years, two or three years for that guy, then yeah, I'm considering it because neither of those guys are Julio Rodriguez. You know, I know that, you know, Ford is the number one prospect, at least for now. We'll see what happens when they add Celestine. He's probably going to be number one for a lot of guys. I don't know. He's going to be top five, but we'll see what happens there.

But none of those guys are like Julio Rodriguez type of prospects, right? They're just not that guy. number one prospect doesn't mean what it used to when Julio was in your system. So, nobody's untouchable. Nobody should even be considered untouchable. And yeah, you know, it's interesting. A lot of the Mariners' best prospects are younger and they're down in the lower parts of the system. So why would you not consider training somebody who's three years away from being an impact big leaguer to, you know, try and help you win a World Series now? Yeah, and I think

With the way that you were wording it too With you know the next wave of players I mean Harry Ford's not in the next wave of players Cole Young's not in the next wave of players I think the next wave of players is guys like Taylor Dallard kade marlowe etc and again None of those guys to me are untouchable or I even think that right Like I even come close to thinking that

Yeah I don't think there's an all-star In the Mariners next wave because like you said, you're talking about Marlowe and Dollard and Bryce Miller and maybe Emerson Hancock. That's who you're talking about. I think those are all going to be pretty good big leaguers, but I don't think they're even like, you know, Cal Raleigh level type of prospects. So it's going to be a while before you get that impact.

And that seems troubling for some. But again, Julio's what, 22, Gilbert, Raleigh, like all those young guys that you just had that were such a huge part of your success. That's why it doesn't really matter that the next wave is, like the next impact wave is probably two or three years away. So for the second part of your question, how does the drafting of Harry Ford change Cal Raleigh's long-term outlook at catcher? It doesn't. It doesn't. And does Ford end up playing a different position?

If he stays in the Mariners organization and reaches the major league level, I would think probably so, honestly. Second base, center field, third base, there are plenty of options for him. he's incredibly athletic and gifted defensively and the bat's going to play. Right. Really wherever. That's what they're hoping. And I mean, like, like I see, he's at least three years away. We don't know what he's going to look like in three years.

We don't know what Cal Raleigh is going to look like in three years. We don't know what his ball club's going to look like in three years. Very true. Yeah, there's no reason to move him off a catcher right now. So you're just going to roll them there. And then, no, if Cow Ralee is still, you know, looks like he did you this year. basically, maybe a little bit better. He's going to be the starting catcher,

and maybe that means you have a backup catcher who can actually play second base three times a week and play third base and then catch twice a week. You know what I mean? So there's nothing wrong with having two really good catchers, especially when one of them can play even up the middle still without being the catcher. So, yeah, you keep forward a catcher for now,

but, you know, three years from now, that's a long ways away. Yeah, I would look at Ford as kind of a super Austenola. Yeah. Like that's obviously a very simplified version of it, but like that's basically what Ford could provide. That's what the, that's what one of his paths to the big leagues is. I mean, Russell Martin, I think is a pretty common comp, just a, yeah, a guy who's probably going to be a very good catcher, but can also even play some third base or, you know, like he's just that guy.

He's a very, just focus on the bat. If you're looking at Harry Ford, worry about the bat. The defense, he'll find a place to play if he can hit. Yep. All right. So we got more questions coming up here,

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Listen, let's get back into these questions, starting with Ethan's tech world. It says, Ty and Colby, how do you think the new, schedule having less division matches will affect the Mariners. Listen every day. You guys are awesome. Go Mariners. Thanks, Ethan. So, of course, the schedule is going to change in Major League Baseball,

cross Major League Baseball from here on out, starting in 2023. Every team is going to play one another at least once per season, which means that division matchups are going from 19 games a year to 12. So the Mariners will see the Astros 12 times.

A's 12 times angels, Rangers, etc. So how will this affect them? I don't think it really does. I think it ends up balancing out for the most part, right? Because like for as many games as you're losing against the, you know, Astros, you're gaining in games against like the Dodgers, the Mets, etc.

So you're still going to go up against the lead teams. And for every game that you lose against the Rangers and the A's, you're going to gain in games against the pirates and the Reds, etc. So yeah, I don't think that it really impacts the Mariners or really any team one way or the other. I think it just eventually balances out. And it makes those games, I think of anything, it makes those intra-divisional games all the more important because there are fewer of them now. Right. And also, we know that tiebreakers are now determined by head-to-head record.

Yeah. That's the number one tiebreaker. So I think maybe what it does is it's a little, it might change how you build your team a little bit. Like if you're in a division that has just a ton of lefty power bats, you might prioritize, you know, a guy who gets out lefties more regularly. But if you're going to face Yordon Alvarez and Kyle Tucker and Shohei Otani, you know, for seven fewer games, that's going to be like, what, 20 to 25, 26 plate appearances? maybe you don't need that. So I don't think it's going to change much, to be honest. You have more travel probably, which isn't great for Seattle,

but it's part of the tradeoff. But I really don't think it's going to change much, at least in terms of what you and I will notice. On the players, like I said, it might be more travel, more wear and tear. But I don't think it's going to be that big of a difference, to be perfectly honest with you, because the biggest thing like Ty said is like, oh, we're losing seven games against the Astros. That's good.

It's like, yeah, but you're gaining three at least against the Dodgers. So, and three against the Mets and three against the Braves. So yeah, it all kind of evens out at the end. All right. Next question comes from Hambone. Hambone McClone. Panager signs elsewhere. How concerned are you about outfield bats and gloves for that matter?

assume we pick up a free agent, then what? Is a Winker slash Kelnick slash more slash ham swaggerty rotation viable? For me, it does not pass the vibe test. All right. So we've talked a lot about corner outfield. We know the Mariners are going to be very active there, whether it's just bringing back Mitch Hanager and doing something else in

left field or what have you. They got to answer the question about Jesse Winker, all that. So are you concerned at all about those positions? or do you feel a level of confidence that the Mariners are going to be able to address both right field and left field accordingly? I think they'll address it because they have to. They're definitely going to have to get one guy at least. And in this hypothetical, they don't get Mitch Hanigar, which means they need two.

I think where I forgot who asked the question. I think where he might be on to something, though, is his. Hambone, Colby. Ham bone. Ham, bone. My bad. My bad. Ham bone.

Okay. Jeez. It's like bone saw. Anyways. Bonesaw is ready. Yeah, I knew that'd get you. I think where you might be on to something here is that like they go and they sign like one corner outfield or right. And then they throw guys at the second position, the second outfield spot.

And they kind of try and like build a, uh, a better outfielder out of a couple different guys. I think that's a possibility. I don't think it'll be Winker. I don't think it'll be in-house guys. So I think maybe one of them will be. But if you're planning on keeping around Jesse Winker, which, I mean, fine, they can. You really want him to be the DH.

So you still need an everyday kind of outfield options. So I think you're probably looking at is they're going to sign one guy and then go out and try to just kind of, you know, Kevin Kiermeyer and Mani Margo type of situation in right field or left field. But also, you know, we shouldn't rule out trades. So I know free agency is kind of

the way that a lot of Mariner fans want the team to go, but Jerry's not going to stop making trades and we shouldn't ignore trades because, I mean, we should just cross Ian Hap off the list because he's not a free agent. No, of course not. So, yeah, I'm not too worried about it. They'll get it figured out in the outfield. and finding corner outfield or corner outfield bats.

It's one of the easier things to find. Yeah. And it's one of the least expensive things to find even on the higher ends. But yeah, you know, there's going to be plenty of free agent possibilities like Brandon Nemo, like Andrew Benatendi, like Michael Conforto, Michael Brantley. We'll talk about those guys. David Peralta is another like under the radar guy that you and I have talked about a little bit. And then, you know, trades, Ian Hap. Maybe you can find a way to circle back to the Brian Reynolds conversation.

Probably not. But Tyler O'Neill, maybe. Anthony Santander. Yeah. There's a lot of, there's a lot of possibilities out there for you to get significantly better in the corners. And I think the Mariners will be exploring all of those. All right.

So next question comes from Josh Games. Given how the Mariners have been able to completely reclimate some veterans and have had a few young arms really hit the ground running in the majors over the last few seasons. How long until the pitching development slash scouting staff starts getting poached by other clubs? Colby? You know, we've already seen some of it. I think we've saw the Mariners pitching Marcello, I think Rob Marcello. He got poached a few years ago.

So yeah, I think you're going to start to see some guys get poached. but I don't know if it's going to be as widespread as people think. The Mariners proving to be a very good place to work, proving to be able to find this front office talent and add them to their staff and kind of regurgitate them. And in a way you want guys to get poached because it means you're doing something right. Right. But I think we just saw one way that the Mariners can kind of prevent that from happening

or try to at least promotions, right? we saw Justin Hollander go from assistant GM. He just gets named GM. Why? Because the Mariners knew they were going to lose them. Of course they are. So give them a title bump. And you can do that in a lot of different ways.

It's not like there's like, it's not like the Mariners scouting jobs are bad scouting jobs. And like the pirates scouting jobs are good. You know, like scouting is scouting at the end of the day. Maybe if you want to live closer to your home in the off season, maybe that's a reason why, but for the most part, scouts are paid roughly the same. They have the same assignment, you know, relative to where they travel in the country and all that stuff. So, yeah, it's not like, you know, being a scout for the Cardinals is inherently better than being a scout for the for the mariners.

It's roughly the same. So it really comes down to familiarity and, you know, comfort and things like that. So yes and no, we've already seen the Mariners kind of get, not pilfered, but we've seen the mariners lose. some guys from their staff that they really liked and they just replaced them and they haven't skipped a beat yet. So it's part of one of the, it's probably the biggest bit of Jerry Depoto's job that nobody talks about, but finding replacements for the guys that get hired away, you have to have this deep list and Jerry's done a really good job of that. So I think you'll start to see it some, but I don't think you and I will really notice it on the field for a long time.

Yeah, like you mentioned, Rob Marcella went to the Padres. He's now there. director of pitching. Yeah. That happened last year. Justin Hollander, of course, was reportedly one of the top two or three candidates for the Angels GM position before Perry Manassian got that job. So, you know, the league's taken notice to what the Mariners are doing and the talent that they're building kind of from within there and the staff that Jerry Depoto has built. So, and like Colby said, that's a good thing. That's a really, really good thing because it means that you're doing something right. All right.

So next up, we got a question from J-Qua. Our old buddy J-Quah is back. Says, hi, it's Jay-Quah. Hi, Jay-Quah. What are some relief pitching trade targets? And what would they cost? So Colby, you and I compiled a short list of some guys before the show. A lot of them are in the AAL Central.

I'm just going to say that now. One is from the Royals, Scott Barlow. He's been their primary closer. He threw 74 in a third innings this past season for the second straight season and posted a 212 ERA a little over 9Ks per 9.

This is a guy that, you know, the royals in the past under Dayton Moore, I think we're asking a lot for. But now that there's new leadership there and Barlow posted good, not elite numbers out of the bullpest. You think it's actually possible that the Mariners could go out and get him even though that the back end of their bullpen is pretty much loaded already?

Yeah, I think it is. Like you said, there's new regime there for the first time in like two decades. So, yeah, there's probably going to be some movement. The Royals, I think they learned last year that they weren't as close as they thought they were. Now they have some, you know, really exciting players. You know, obviously Bobby Wood Jr. comes to mind immediately. you know, they've got some pretty interesting young arms that they just haven't really been able to develop. So we'll see if the new regime can come in and do that or not.

But I think the Royals learned last year that they weren't as close as they thought. And so as a result, you start looking at, you know, who's around that could be expensive. That is kind of a luxury for a bad team. Relievers, always relievers. And Barlow is probably going to, like he said, he was pretty good last year, not great. I think you can probably get him for, you know, just kind of a mid-tier prospect. I think, you know, you're probably looking at somebody like something like Zach DeLoch and like Penn Murphy, I think is something that might get that done. And by the way, you shouldn't overlook the possibility of the Mariners trade a reliever to get a slightly better reliever.

I think that's something that they could really do. And, yeah, like Murphy's already a major leaguer. and Deloche might be. You get that for like two years of, you know, a slight upgrade over Murphy. I think that's a trade you should probably strongly consider. All right. The Tigers have a couple of guys that you and I like,

particularly Joe Jimenez and then Gregory Soto, who was a all-star this year. Now, Soto, since the All-Star break, was awful. Like, no way around it. Just straight up bad. Five-nine walks per nine, just an 869 Ks per 9, 403 ERA, 380 FIP, so not too bad on that front. But again, the walk's just absolutely atrocious.

But for both of these guys, what do you think it would take to get them? Yeah, I'm probably out on Soto. He probably carries still a pretty hefty price tag. I think he's got three years of club control left, and he's got the All-Star banner under his name. I just, eh, I'm not really big on Soto. So I think the tigers, they think they're closer than probably you and I think. But they would probably be looking for bats and they probably won't like Major League bats.

So I just don't really see a fit there. Jimenez, I believe, has one year left on his deal, if I'm not mistaken. This is his last year of Arv. And he's a guy who I think actually is pretty reliable and pretty, you know, just good. So one year of a really good reliever, you know, it's kind of tough to say. I do wonder if maybe this is where somebody like Chris Flexson has some appeal, just a veteran. It would cost more than Flexen, obviously, but just to kind of ease some of the prospect costs. But I would guess that Jimenez probably maybe somewhere in the Bryce Miller range.

I know that's pretty high, and that's going to sticker shock some people. But Miller is no safe bet to be a starter. And we don't know if he's going to be any good anytime soon. I think probably Jimenez is going to cost you a top, you know, 10-ish prospect and maybe somebody else in the top 20 as well. So tigers are a little weird because they spend a lot of money. They think they're close, but then, you know, we just watched them. And yeah, we know they're not. We know they're not. In fact, they were so bad that they consider trading Treek Scoobal, who I believe they're going to be without all next year as well.

So, yeah. Yeah, the tigers are bad. So they should probably get whatever they can for Jimenez. Maybe you can take some salary relief. I don't know. But like how much of Baez's contract do you want to take to get to get Jimenez? Not a lot. Not a lot.

56 and two third innings pitch for Yemenes this year. 12-2-3Ks per 9, 206 walks per 9, a 349 ERA, and a FIP of just two flat. So he was really good I'd probably give up Bryce Miller for him It's a yeah That's a really good reliever Obviously had a down year in 2021 Where he walked 6.95 guys per 9

But outside of that the walks haven't really been Much of an issue for him And he can really ramp it up Would you give up Emerson Hancock for him? That feels a little too Spicy for me It's mostly because like

I might be the low I might be the low guy on Emerson Hancock because I saw we got some Emerson Hancock questions and I'm just sitting here like, what are you guys watching? Yeah, no, it's just, I think it's because maybe the bullpen isn't as much of a need for the mariner's. Obviously, like, you never know what bullpins in general

because they're so finicky. Audreus Munoz could straight up just be bad next year. Eric Swanson could just straight up be bad next year, right? Like, I get that, but also. Like, don't, don't you want, like, wouldn't you want Seawald and Swanson to be like reasonably pitching the sixth and the seventh every night because you just have Munoz and Jimenez and the back and you're like, okay, well, yeah, we have like legitimate high leverage arms coming in in the fifth inning to shut you down.

But is that worth Emerson Hancock even now? Like at this point? To me, yes. But like I said, I'm probably the low man on Emerson Hancock. And I don't think it'll cost Emerson Hancock, but maybe. I also think Emerson Hancock is kind of overrated as a prospect. Still a good prospect. But some people like, he's going to make the opening day rotation, right?

What? Better hope not. Yeah. So we actually have a question. I mean, we can just, let's just answer that question. Then we'll get back to J-Quas question in just a second, since you brought it up. So James wanted to know, do you think Emerson Hancock will be on the opening day roster? If so, what would the rotation slash pulpen look like?

You better hope not. Yeah, well, also, no, there are, I would say, multiple guys ahead of Emerson Hancock, even with the lack of, uh, uh, just count them out. You have four right now, right? The four for sure. Then you have flexen. You have Marco. You have Dallard is ahead of Hancock right now. Bryce Miller, potentially. Bryce Miller's probably ahead of him right now. Heck, Brian Wu might be ahead of him right now. Like, well, maybe. You sure? Emerson ain't pitching in the fall league. So he's not that. So I'm just right there at least,

we just named seven guys at least that are definitely head of Hancock. And it's probably eight or nine. Because if the mayor's were in a position where Hancock was starting to look like an opening day starter, they go sign somebody for like a million bucks. Like Emerson Hancock should not be anywhere near your opening day rotation. Unless he just magically turns into George Kirby. Like that's possible.

Yeah. It's not impossible. but like no no i mean just but just because his path to the to the major league roster right now is not very clear doesn't i i don't know if that that means that i would just use that asset on a one year of a reliever that like i could use sure makes me better sure but i don't necessarily need you know you don't need it because i i i don't is your bullpen against the astros pretty good pretty good for the most part

if they if they use Eric Swanson it would look a lot better if they used Eric Swanson maybe if they maybe they had a reliable arm in the back end they would have used Eric Swanson a little more freely I don't know

I don't know but no I don't think it was I don't think it would cost like more than Taylor Dollared maybe somebody like Adam and Macco had kind of a down year but anyways now we're we're crossing questions here

Hancock Shonai be on your opening day roster. No. Even if disaster strikes and you six guys go on the IL, go trade for somebody, go sign for somebody. Hancock is not a major leagher. Not yet. All right, back to Jacob's question about. About reliance.

Emilio Paghan's another guy that we talked about former Mariner who's bounced around to the to the A's, to the raise. Right? He was on the raise. Yep. Yeah. And then now the twins. He was on the Padres for a while. This year,

he had a weird year. He had a 4-4-3 ERA and was worth negative point-1 war and had a 4-21 FIP, but then you look at his ex-fip, it was a 3-2-6. He threw 63-ennings this year, struck out 12 guys per 9,

walked just 3-7-1 guys per 9, which is, I mean, that's not particularly good, but it's not devastating. He's got one year left. We don't really know what the twins are going to do, but I think they would be okay

with trading one year of a reliever who wasn't all that good for them last year so what do you think about Paghan? That's kind of an interesting flyer to take, right? Sure, I'd rather just pay the difference for, you know, bona fide back-in guy, but yeah,

Pagon's interesting. Probably not going to cost much, honestly. You know, this is a guy you might be able to get for, you know, Travis Coon. Like, it's not going to be to cost a ton. Maybe it's, maybe they like Chris Flexon and you just do that swap and you try to save four or five million dollars on Flexon salary.

He's not going to cost a ton. Like you said, he only has a year left. He's kind of expensive. It wasn't great. Yeah, I think Pagan is a guy that honestly, very good chance he gets non-tendered here in the next week or so. So you might not have to trade for him. But yeah, if you like the player enough, then you're willing to spend,

million bucks on him. Like so, you probably get him for like, uh, Caden Polkovich. Like, he is not going to cost that much for the Mariners. Right. Yeah. All right. A couple other guys that you, uh, you wanted to talk about on here.

Rinaldo Lopez, uh, the ready for the white socks. I think he's going to be too expensive. But, uh, 868 case per nine, 152 walks per nine, two seven six ERA, 193 FIP, two F-F-4, uh, and 65. and a third innings pitch. He's a free agent in 2025. So he has two years of club control remaining. I thought he was, okay, I thought he was a free agent after this year.

So yeah, that'll be pricey, but, you know, maybe the Mariners have a first baseman that the White Sox want to play in center field. I mean, Evan White for Ronaldo Lopez. There you go. There you go. Done. There you go. I'll tell you.

this, I'd be a lot more willing to trade Emerson & Concorda Lopez than Joe Emines and more and more on top of Hancock. I would trade more for Lopez. I would also trade Dylan Moore for Lopez.

Yeah. So, yeah. I would also trade top prospects Zactoloch for Ronaldo Lopez. Yeah, that old chestnut. I hope they trade Zacta Loach just so we can have that meme for like one day and then it'll be gone forever.

I hope they trade them for actually like something that's useful on the major league roster. And then we can like legitimately say that. You probably get Emilio Pagan for him. And there you go. There you go. All right. So after Lopez, you also have Matt Bush on here. Really good for the for the brewers.

A little bit on the older side. What do you like about Bush? Big breaking ball, fastball velocity. I think there's he throws strikes you know he's he's kind of like a really good solid number seven or number seven like seventh inning type of guy

remember what Casey Sadler was for you a couple years ago I think he could be Casey Sadler that type of guy now Casey Sadler could be Casey Sadler but do you really want to risk that since you know he didn't pitch this last year I probably wouldn't but

maybe he did do. I just think that's another guy who, you know, kind of can go in the middle in the middle inning's kind of medium leverage type of guy. And that way you don't have to use like Matt Brash in the in the sixth with two guys on and one out because you need a couple strikeouts. Like, oh, no, I'll just go to Matt Bush. It's fine. And I can say Brash for, you know, two, three, four in the eighth of a one run game. So we'll see. But I just like the stuff. And I think he throws enough strikes to be interesting. So I also have some potential free agent targets here.

I don't know how deep into free agency the Mariners would be willing to go for relievers. I think maybe the most they would do on a guy is it was like five to six million a year. So I came up with three guys that I think kind of will probably fall in somewhere in that range. First up, Pierce Johnson, the ready from the from the Padres. I have them somewhere probably in the two year, $12 million range. He missed 119 games due to an elbow injury this year, but he was able to return and pitched pretty well in three postseason appearances didn't allow a run. He has a track record of being good against both lefties and righties, which is especially important. I know a lot of you want a lefty specialist.

We talked about that on Thursday show. Or Wednesday show, whenever we did the show about Otani and Judge and all that. he is a exclusively a fastball curveball guy his curveball was 92% and spin rate this year and it's generated over 30% whiffs in 2020 and 2021

so yeah some interesting stuff there Trevor May is a free agent again this is a guy that Colby and I really liked heading into the 2021 off season he had a triceps injury that held him out for three years or three years wow

three months. Yeah, that, wow, if it held him out for three years, he would not be on this list. I was looking at my note here about the, the contract that I have on, for one year, around $4 to $5 million. But yeah, missed three months with a tricep

injury, but was able to return and finish the year healthy. 504 ERA, but a 387 FIP with a 10.8 case per nine, 324 walks per nine. He's obviously a Washington native, so there's the connection there. Opponents hit 327 off of his fastball this

which is gross. But the slider was still really good and his change up this year, albeit, you know, while he didn't throw it that much, generated 45.8% whiffs. So maybe start getting him to throw the change up a little bit more

and build him back up. Lastly, Seth Lugo, another former Met who Colby and I really, really like, really liked for years. I have him somewhere, probably two years, $13 million. somewhere in that range.

He had a down year in 2022 by his standards, but he's really good against lofty's elite curveball spend rate, 99th percentile. And we were talking about this on our Patreon show the other day that he should probably just ditch his slider and sinker

because the fastball curveball combination was lethal for him even this year with all the struggles that he had. It was mostly the sinker and slider that were just getting punished repeatedly. So those are three guys that you can potentially look at on the market. I don't know how deep into the reliever market they're going to go, whether it's trade or free agency this year, especially with the return of Casey Sadler.

But again, you know, we've talked about it. Bullpen's are really finicky. You never know what you're going to get on a year-to-year basis. And it doesn't really matter how good a reliever is. I mean, shoot, even Edwin Diaz, who just made $20 million a year. And good for him. Get that bag. but we don't even know

like he's going to be elite next year, right? He could even fall off. That's just how relievers are. That's the nature of relievers. So if I were the Mariners, if I'm Jerry Depoto, if I'm Justin Hollander, I'm looking to get a little bit better on that front.

Or at least putting in some safeguards on that front. All right. So that's going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Mariners podcast. For Colby Patnode, I'm Taday Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at LO underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Dane Gonzalez,

This is C-A-N-Z-L-Z and Colby at C-P-P-A-E-E-P-A-T-1-1. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode, and thank you again for making us your first listen. For your next listen, check out the Lockdown Sports Today podcast featuring the biggest stories of the day, plus instant reactions, big game recaps, and the take of the day. It's available on the Odyssey app of YouTube and wherever you get your podcast just like us.

And with that, have yourself a beautiful baseball day, and we'll see you tomorrow. Peace.