Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mailbag: How Patient Will Mariners Be With Jarred Kelenic?

Episode Date: January 9, 2023

It's time for another Mailbag Monday where we see what's on the mind of Seattle Mariners fans! On today's episode, Colby and Ty discuss how the team could use their four outfielders, how long of a leash will Jarred Kelenic has, the Gregory Soto trade package, and what the bullpen looks like, 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/Join our Slack!BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order. 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.

With AJ Pollock now in the mix, how creative can the Mariners get in their outfield? And speaking of the outfield, how short will the leash be for Jared Kelnick? All that and more here on the Locked-on 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, January 9th, 2023.

This is Tadang Azales and Colby Patnaut for the Lockdown Mariners podcast. Brought to you by Bet Online. And Bet Online has you covered all season long with more props, odds, and lines than ever before. Bet Online is where the game starts. And thank you so much for making us your first listen, subscribe, like, and turn on alerts. If you're 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.

It is Mailbag Monday. We got a few questions from you on Twitter, including this one from Max. If the season started today, would you put Jared Kelnick in right field, AJ Pollock in left field, and have Tay Oscar Hernandez as the DH instead of the platoon idea? This gives Kellnick more at bats to see if he can turn into the player we are hoping to see. Could this happen a lot in April? So maybe against righties, but definitely not against lefties. In my opinion, Colby, how do you feel about it?

It's the dumbest idea of that, no, no. So here's the problem with it, Max, is that part of the reason you brought in, AJ Pollock is to not overexposed Jared Kelnick. You really want to get him going early. The best way to do that is to really pick and choose your matchups very carefully. That means facing basically no lefties. He's really struggled against them. And maybe even a couple of righties that might maybe have like a really good changeup or something.

Maybe you see him sit and Pollock gets those at bats. So I think the idea of trying to get Kelnick going. early so that he has some success and he can build on that is what the Mariners are doing. They're just doing it by protecting him and picking his matchups very closely. They don't want to overexpose him. They don't want him to be facing guys that he probably shouldn't be facing and has very little little chance of success against. And that's why Pollock's here.

It's Kalnick and Pollock. They're one player is essentially how you need to look at it, which is why I think the mariners need to go out and still bring in another bat, somebody who can DH. And the other thing is you don't want Pollock out in the field every single day. he's still a capable defender in the corners, and you can get away with having to play center field once or twice, you know, every 10 days or so. So I'm sure we'll see him out in the field some pretty early on.

And I'm sure we'll see Tao D.H. And, you know, Kelnick play left. I'm sure we'll see that configuration a couple of times in April, but I wouldn't say a lot because the whole point of AJ Pollock is actually to protect Jared Kelnick and to try and avoid, you know, a really slow start with Kalnick, where he loses confidence and now you now you have this black hole in left field.

Like that's the point of AJ Pollock. So I think it's counterproductive. If you just put Tay Oscar in the D.H. And you play both of them, you know, a ton in April. I just, I think that's kind of defeating the purpose

of the whole signing to begin with. So for me, no, I'm sticking with the plan. It's Kelnick against Ritey's mostly. It's Pollock against lefties, mostly. And then every once in a while,

they might both be in the lineup, maybe once a week. Yeah. And if you're going to run this combination, of the four of Julio, Taye Oskar, Kelnick, and Pollack in the same lineup, I'd much rather have

Tay Oscar play in the field than Pollock and have Pollock D.H. Because like, Tay Oscar's not a great defender, but he is very athletic. You can get away with it a little bit better than Pollock and also just Tay Oscar's younger. Right. Just overall, you know, probably a better defender at this point than

AJ Pollock. So. Well, even if you're not, you don't want to run Pollock into the ground, right? It's not such a big difference in outfield defense that, you know, it's actively hurting you to have Tay Oscar out there. You want to keep Pollock fresh because there is the chance that if Kellnick, even if you give him, you know, every opportunity to succeed. He might fall flat on his face and you might need to use Pollock more like an everyday left fielder for a month or two

until you can find a replacement type player there. So you don't want to burn him out too early. You really want to be smart with how you use Pollock. Pollock, you want to be not cautious, but you don't want to be reckless with it either. All right. Next question comes from Zach, who asks,

at what point do the Mariners surrender on the Jared Kelnick experiment? He's a popular piece in trade predictions, but his value just diminishes as he continues to fail to perform at the MLB level. I worry continued failure and the Bigs takes his, or tanks his confidence

forever. So whenever we talk about Jared Kelnick, you know, we have the caveat of he's young he's 23 years old I don't think that if he struggles again this season it dooms his major league career but I think it dooms his future in Seattle I think this is his last shot in Seattle to

make it happen because the Mariners are getting to a point now they can't afford to wait and see on someone like Jared Kellnick if he doesn't work out and if Pollock can't play every day they got to go out and get someone better or you know they got to hope and pray that Taylor Trimel or Cade Marl or someone like

that can be the guy that they're hoping that Kelnick can be or at least you'll be able to produce a little bit better than Kelnick can. So yeah, this is it for him for me in Seattle. And I think the lease should be pretty short as well because, again, the Mariners are at a point now where they just can't wait and see. So if it's not working after, you know, a month or so, I think, you know, I'm exploring other options at that point. How do you feel, Colby?

Yeah, I think with Kelnick, um, This is his last shot. And he doesn't have to hit right away in April. You know, if he has to go down and then he comes back up and say like July and he's hitting 230 with, you know, good power and average on base skills, then you probably get another year. So it's not like he has to be good from start to finish. But he has to show at some point for probably at least six weeks that he is a major league hitter to get another shot next year.

And even that shot is going to be less of a – because right now Jared Kellick is the everyday left fielder. I mean, that's his role, for the most part, right? If he has this up and down year, but he finishes on a high note, he might come back next year, but he is probably the fourth outfielder. I mean, that's probably how they're viewing him. So I think Kelnick gets one more year, one more full year. If he's just steadily consistent at like a 100 WRC plus, just plays his good cornered outfield defense, hits some home runs, I think he's going to get another year because at that point, You still have, I think, five more years of Kelnick before he's a free agent. He'll be 24, right?

So I think it's just important. He just has to be a big leaguer this time around. He doesn't have to be an all-star. He doesn't have to be, you know, this four-win guy. Can he just be a two-win guy? Can he just hit 220 with a 3-10 on base and, you know, hit 20 home runs? I mean, can he do that? Because if he can, then he's going to be around next year.

If he can't, and he just kind of repeats what he's done this first two times up in the big leagues, first two years up in the big leagues, then I think the Mariners probably move on. And at some point, it's a sunk cost, right? You just can't keep running them out there to try and improve his trade value because now you're just costing yourself games and at bats and wins. So I think this is it for Jared. It's no or never.

And so to Zach's point about his, you know, him being an interesting piece for teams and trade discussions and whatnot, you know, we're hearing it from some reporters out there that Jerry Kellnick, someone that teams are calling on. But isn't there a certain point where the Mariners just have to go, okay, he doesn't have a future here. We have to trade him and get whatever we can for him. We got to take advantage of his value while it's still there.

I think the problem is right now his value is not as high as some people think. And so taking the risk that he can figure it out is more valuable to the Mariners than trading him for what they can get right now. because you can't trade Jared Kelnick for Brian Reynolds straight up, right? That's not what we're talking about. Right. If you're trading Jared Kelnick for somebody straight up right now, it's either a veteran who has coming off of a down year or two,

maybe some injuries, or you're trading them for like a mid-reliber, a middle reliever type, maybe a Paul C-wall type, or another failed prospect from another team. That's really always worth right now. So to me and to the Mariners, that is worth more, it is worth more to have Kelnick get these at-bats and see if you can figure it out than it is to trade them for those type of players right agreed all right we got more questions coming up here in just a moment but real quick a reminder this episode of locked-on mariners is

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Thank you so much for making us your first listen. It is Mailbag Monday. Let's get back into these questions. Mark wants to know who has a better chance of being extended this season? George Kirby, Logan Gilbert, Cal Raleigh, or Tay Oscar Hernandez. So Colby, we've talked a little bit about this in the past. And we've talked about how tricky it is

with these starting pitchers, with catchers and handing out extensions. So I would say that it's Tay Oscar Hernandez because right now the only tangible evidence leading to any sort of extension for the Mariners for any of these guys points in the direction of Tay Oscar Hernandez. We have reports that the Mariners have,

have talked to Teosker about an extension or at least there's going to be an opportunity for that dialogue here in the near future so yeah I would say right now and you know he's he's the guy on the one year contract he's a free agent next year I think

of all four of these guys right now I would say the most likely to sign an extension and I don't think really any of them are all that likely for being honest but the most likely of them if I had to put money on it would be Tay Oscar Hernandez What about you?

Yeah, I think that's the only option. Cal Raleigh and Logan Gilbert each have five years of club control left. They're nowhere near free agency. And we're talking about a catcher. And we know that catchers typically age like milk. You know, once they hit past 30, it's a sharp decline. And sometimes they have to move off the plate. Well, if Cal Ralee has to move off the plate, then he's a DH, right?

Like he's not athletic enough to do anything else. Gilbert is, again, five years away still. not even more close to free agency. And he hasn't really peaked yet, I don't think. So if he goes out and he gives the team a deal that's, you know, team friendly enough for Seattle to be interested, he's probably leaving 30, 40, 50, maybe $100 million on the table. So that's not going to happen.

And Kirby's six years away from free agency. So the Mariners don't have to do anything with those guys. They're not even, they're all going to cost the Mariners less than a million dollars each or right around a million dollars each. So they don't have to sign those guys. And those guys probably don't want to sign. yet because they're leaving money on the table they do right now. So, yeah, it's Tay Oscar.

He's the one. I would be, I'd be shocked if either of the other three signed an extension this year. It just doesn't make sense. You can wait a couple of years, see what the player is like, see, you know, how your relationship is, see how they're developing before you decide to make, you know, that kind of commitment to them. So, yeah, it's Tay Oscar. And the other three, I'd be absolutely shocked if they signed an extension in Seattle this

year. Next question comes from Skydray who says thanks for the Gregory Soto discussion the other day. Oh yeah, you were the one that submitted the Gregory Soto proposal that got us on our whole discussion about that. What is the M's equivalent of what the Phillies gave up? Did they overpay and by how much keep up the great work? So Colby, we talked a lot about Gregory Soto. It was our segment of the week the other week. And we were not shy about how we truly feel about Gregory Soto, who I'll just say it vastly overrated. He's an all-star because the rest of his team was just that bad and has been that bad for quite some time now.

Guy that has great stuff, but can't really find the strike zone, a lot of walks. So what do you think would have been the equivalent of what the Mariners' equivalent of what the Phillies gave up for Soto and what that would have all looked like? Yeah, it's a little tough. is a little bit more experience than a lot of the prospects that are kind of similar major league experience, but he's also got a little more upside than some of the major league guys who maybe are equivalents. So it's always tough to find like exact trade package. But to me, this feels a little bit like Tom Murphy, maybe Cade Marlowe.

And real quick, the trade package in full was Matt. Matt Veerling, Nick Matten, and Donnie Sands for Cody Clemens and Gregory Soto. Right. And even Murphy doesn't really fit because clearly the tigers are looking for some club control. And Murphy's only got a year. So the Mariners don't have that catcher that that really fits here. The infield type, Mayton, maybe Haggerty. Maybe they like Haggerty.

And that's a natural kind of fit there. They don't really have the catcher. And then Virling is Taylor Tremel. maybe something like that yeah but vireland's like had more success at the major league level so right but it not much more

um so for me it's it's like tremel uh it's definitely bulk it's like tremel haggerty marlowe

something like that or um maybe if it's just all prospects maybe it's marlow Marlo Baroa, maybe, something like that. It's tough to say. The Mariners don't have

exactly what Detroit got. They don't have those type of players. They have better players, and they have similar players. They're just different positions, different points of their career. So to me, I have a hard time imagining Seattle not giving up at least

Tremel and Haggerty would be my guess, roughly. And I personally would just rather have those two guys than Soto. So. All right. We're switching gears a little bit here with our next question. This one comes from Tyler, who asks,

any way you see the Barroners retiring the number 51 twice for Etro and Randy Johnson in the coming years? They should, and I think they will. And teams have retired the same number for, for multiple players in the past, like the Yankees with the number eight. So it can happen.

I think they should do it. I think for both guys. Should, but will they? And does Randy Johnson care? True. Randy Johnson has not like disdained for his time in Seattle, but that's definitely a fractured relationship. It is not as strong as Randy's relationship with like the Diamondbacks, right?

So it's kind of one of those interesting ones, whereas Ichero is, you know, bending over backwards to be a part of the Mariners. any way you can. So it's kind of one of those things. Like, yes, they're both deserving to have their number retired. But the fact that they gave each row the number like so quickly after Randy left town, I should rephrase that so quickly after the Mariners ownership like, like try to ruin his career by saying he had these massive back issues. Yeah, Randy still holds resentment towards that. And I can't blame them. I mean, they, but a lot of those people are not involved anymore. I know, but still.

Still, it's still that team, right? And so maybe you can bury the hatchet, but what about Randy Johnson since retirement has given you the impression that he has any interest in being part of the Seattle Mariners organization in any capacity? I mean, hasn't he been involved in some of the celebrations that they've done? I think he threw out one first pitch. Hasn't he come to some of the Mariners' All the Fame inductions? He hasn't? No. No.

I don't like he's. I swear I remember him. I think maybe he came to Dan Wilson. Huh. I swear I remember him being at a couple of them. Nope. He wasn't at each row. Obviously, they weren't teammates, so that's fine.

But he wasn't, I don't think he was at Edgars. I don't remember him at Edgars. I don't remember him. I think he sends messages, but he doesn't come to those things. Was he at Griffiths? I don't think so. I really don't. There's definitely, you know, Randy's not,

and you know, Randy's always been prickly, let's say, I guess is a good word for him. But he just, he doesn't see. to want to be a part of the Mariners, like, he's like reluctantly a part of their history. At least that's how it comes off. So I don't know. I would like to think that the Mariners organization would do the right thing here and extend the olive branch for a franchise great.

Or maybe they have. I do know, hey, Randy, we want to retire your number. But wouldn't they want to do it at the same time at this point as Eitro? I don't think so. I don't think so. No. In fact, I guarantee you this, each year is first. they're going to put each row they're going to retire each year old 51 and then maybe they'll ask randy

hey do you want to do your own thing and we'll double retire it but each row is definitely going first there's a zero percent chance randy johnson gets his number retired before each row because if they were going to do that it would have already happened yeah i would have already happened yeah so yes they should i had both are obviously deserving to have their numbers retired I just wonder, you know, is Randy interested in being involved in that at all? Because if the player doesn't want to show up and they don't want it like, what's the point? You know, the whole point of the number of retirement is that you celebrate the player and you let the player know you appreciate them. So I don't know, man, it's been so long since Randy's really been involved in this organization.

I just have to wonder if he's, you know, vetoed that idea even. And I'm not saying he has. I don't know. Yeah. I'm just saying I have to wonder at the very least. like maybe maybe they've approached me. It's just like, nah. It's just hard for me to imagine them retiring one, but not the other.

I mean, it's, that would be so weird. That would be so weird. It's already weird that they gave each year 0-51. Yeah. Like a year and a half after Randy left. Different regime and all that. Knowing that Randy Johnson was going to the Hall of Fame. Like when they traded Randy Johnson, they knew he was a Hall of Fame.

Yeah. Even at that point. Now, the fact that he was like, the best pitcher of all time when he was with the diamondbacks for three or four years. I mean, I'm not mad at him for going in as an Arizona diamond back, right? That's the team that's on his hat in the Hall of Fame. Like, sure, that's fine. But I don't know, man.

I just, I don't know, like, based on what I know about Randy Johnson's personality, he still holds a grudge against the organization, maybe not his teammates, but definitely his organization or that, I don't know, not his organ, that organization. and it's, you know, it still might be in play. Randy Johnson is not traditionally known as a nice guy. And if he's so upset with the marriage that he doesn't want anything to do with them or the number of retirement, fine. Like, I'm not mad at him for it. I just like, I'm not going to deal with that, right?

I'll put each row in and then, you know, the door's always open, Randy, but I mean, we're not doing this without you. There's no point. So we'll see. All right. We got a couple more questions to go. here but first a reminder this episode of lockdown mariners is brought to you by built bar looking for a delicious treat but don't want all of the fat and calories and you got to try a built bar we just got through the holidays and i know my goal is to eat a little healthier this year and if you're like

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first up is Kyle, who says, I know bullpins are tenuous year to year. What are the chances Diego Castillo steps back into a high leverage role if he can figure his slider out? What pitchers do you see making the most impact in the bullpen other than Brash, Seawald, and Munoz? Colby. Oh, DBD.

I have no idea what to do with Diego Castile. I really don't because even last year, there were times where he was really good. and then times where he was the worst pitcher on the planet. Like, and you're right, it is all about that slider. It's a very flat slider.

It's really, it's not a big sweep or anything like that. It's almost more like a cutter. So he has to have really good control of that because there's just not a ton of value coming off of the fastball or sinker, really. So it's all about that, that slider.

He has to have good control. And if he does, then yeah, he's probably going to pitch, you know, some high leverage situations. And he's probably going to be fine in those spots. But if he doesn't,

he's going to lose you games. you know, the Atlanta game comes to mind immediately, even though the Mariners won that game. But he will lose you games if he does not have that slider. So it's really interesting. I thought maybe he was an on-tender candidate. We're way past that point. I thought maybe they could extract some trade value from them.

It doesn't sound like that's a possibility. It sounds like their plan is to have him come back and have Castillo be a big part of their bullpen. So I sure hope he can figure that slider out. But it's like, it's not a great pitch. He really does have to locate it. And when he does, it plays it off well with the fastball.

But if he doesn't, it's a cement mixer. That's usually in the middle of the plate. Or it's way off the plate and it's ball four. So, yeah, I really don't know. Like you said, it's kind of a year-to-year outing-to-outing type of thing with Diego Castillo. But the Mariners seem to think that they can get more good than bad out of them. And he's someone that has dealt with injuries the past two seasons, including that shoulder issue, you know, almost right after they, acquired him in 2021.

So yeah, you know, the big thing for him, really, for me at least, is that he's got to stay healthy here. And he just hasn't proved that he can do that the last couple years. So yeah. But yeah, right now as the bullpen currently stands, he's going to get high leverage opportunities. It's just the way the bullpen is currently constructed right now.

Right. At least mid leverage because typically there's only one real high leverage. spot in a game, right? Maybe two. And those are going to Munoz and Brash for the most part. And then C-Wald. So, yeah. Yeah, but after those three, it's, it's anybody's guess, you're asking me who I trust the most after those three? Probably Festa, which, you know, is probably why the Marin should go ahead and add another arm to the

bullpen. Agreed. Agreed. And that's why, you know, we talked about, when we're talking about Matt Brash potentially going back to the rotation. I mean like yeah the upside there is great but also that does pretty significant damage to your bullpen after also losing eric swanson uh to answer the second part of your question kyle uh i would say festa as uh you know one of the big guys that i would think uh contributes outside of the uh you know the three names that you mentioned in castillo um you know we saw some nice stuff with that slider uh obviously he was he was running like a 13 15 k's per 9 for a while there.

I think he ended up finishing around like 10 or so. He was pretty solid though. He, you know, yeah. And so maybe he takes a step forward, you know, Penn Murphy's solid. But the guy that I want to talk about is Isaiah Campbell. We're going to talk about him a lot. And I think Campbell's going to,

going to fairly quickly make his way into this bullpen and proceed to become a rather big part of it. he's got some really nice stuff, man, and he just dominated the minor league levels this past season. It sure feels like the Mariners are expecting him to have a really good shot of making the bullpen because, I mean, yeah, Topa is a guy that's really interesting, but he hasn't really performed at the big league level at all. And then, you know, what's his name?

Trevor got. Also interesting, the Mariners clearly think they can get more out of him than Milwaukee did. but he's also been okay he's he's Penn Murphy right like that's they've gotten two guys that they think they can get more out of than Milwaukee can't right and so it's just one of those things where

if they don't go out and and I know they don't want to do like spend money on the bullpen I get it and they're really good at finding guys but yeah you have to have something he had to have something out there and that's why I think Matt Moore is a really interesting guy I think Andrew Chafin is a really interesting guy they don't have to be lefties

those are just the two guys that came to mind and they both happened to be lefties. And they could always go trade for somebody, right? So I hope they're not done. My guess is that they add somebody in spring training via trade at the end of it. But it sure seems like the Mariners are banking on, you know, I would say right now, Isaiah Campbell or Travis Coon being huge parts of this bullpen in 2023. 59 strikeouts and 46 innings for Isaiah Campbell this past season. dude's going to be really good I think

and I think he's being vastly underrated right now do you really want him to be your your third best reliever though at any point this year I don't but I think with the way that he's performed as of late I mean if he becomes that five but do you want to bank on him

and Mariners do-Judu and all that stuff yeah he's going to end up being one of those guys but no no I don't want to bank on that no no absolutely not to answer your question no yeah no I would like for them to go out and add another bullpen arm and, you know, spend a little bit of money on that arm to, uh, to land it as well. Uh, if that's right. I mean, we're, we're probably doing prospect week, not next week, but like the week after unveiled the top 30 and whatnot. We're,

we're probably going to talk about Campbell. Uh, or like, or like go trade for Kendall Grapeman or go trade for Joe Kelly if you think you can fix them. Like, do that. Just go get somebody who is at least in Paul Seawald's realm. Go get another Seawald. Yeah. Yeah. I really think that they need to do that and that's kind of been an overlooked part of this roster here for a while. Either they need to go buy one or

they have to develop one and they can't wait until July to do it. Yeah, everyone's so hyper-focused on the bats and I get it and obviously the Mariners still need to add one more guy outside of that but the bullpins being pretty severely overlooked here, I think. All right. Last question of

the day comes from Sage, who who asked, do you think Tom Murphy is lined up to be a big part of this 2324 squad? Honestly, forgot about the fellow. My buddy said, have said he could be a good trade chip or a great primary DH. So the reason why I picked this question, Colby, is because from the CTZ account, I believe, a few days ago you tweeted that you think that Tom Murphy is being vastly overlooked. Speaking of things that are being vastly overlooked. So, yeah, I want to get your thoughts on Murphy. overall in how he fits into

this roster and how he fits in a line with Sage's question here. Sure. So let's get this out of the way. He would not be a great DH option. Tom Murphy is a guy who's had one fantastic year.

And that was in 2019. Then he was hurt and missed all of 2020, the short in 2020 season. 2021, he was okay. Wasn't great. He was fine for a catcher. And then last year he got off to a really good start, but unfortunately got hurt. Major shoulder surgery, that is a question.

Big question. We'll see how that impacts his swing and obviously is his defense. But when you look at Tom Murphy's career as a whole, he has plus power. He crushes left-handed pitching, destroys it. And he's been a solid average or maybe even slightly better defensive catcher who pitchers generally like throwing to. So there's a lot of value there in a guy who, like Tom Murphy, probably only going to catch 45, 50, maybe 60 games.

And I just feel like people look at that and they say, well, that's not that valuable. You could just throw anybody back there for 60 games. And I point to 2022, Louis Terens. And then when Terence didn't work out, it was nap. And then when that didn't work, it was okay. Like, you know what I mean? So like it's one of those things where, yeah, you're only upgrading that spot for, let's say, 60 games. 60 games is the third of the season.

I mean, that's a pretty significant chunk. that's 250 plate appearances, give or take. And again, that's not counting. You could DH him sometimes against left-handed pitching or you can DH Cowrally against left-handed pitching and put Murphy behind the plate. So I think Murphy's probably going to get 300 plate appearances. And as much as I love Luis Turenz, he was not very good last year. Murphy should be better than Luis Trenz was last year.

Again, the shoulder thing is a serious issue. So we have to see how he looks in spring training. It's definitely something we're going to watch. but Murphy is a guy who, if you use him correctly, is going to crush left-handed pitching. He can catch, if Cal Raleigh needs to go on the 10-day, I-out, 15, whatever, I-L, you know, knock-on-wood, he can be your primary catcher for a few weeks

and not absolutely kill you, even against Rides. And, you know, he is a guy who is thought of pretty highly in that clubhouse as a leader. He's just, he's a really, really good guy to have on your bench. And that's why I wouldn't trade him. I see a lot of people like, oh, trade Tom Murphy for this middle relievers.

No, the backup catcher is more valuable than another team's Penn Murphy. It just is, especially a good one. So, yeah,

I think Cal Rale or I think Tom Murphy is being overlooked. I'm not saying he's going to be a 3-1 player or anything like that, but I'd think for the role that you want him to play, there's probably not more than five teams that have a better situation

at catcher than the Mariners. So don't mess with it. Yeah, and if you can get like, Tom Murphy at his 75th percentile this year, you probably have the best catching situation in all baseball with him or Raleigh. You know, so because... Yeah, again, why would you mess that up?

Like, you have something great that a lot of teams don't have and would kill to have. Why would you get rid of that? Right. And Murphy, again, it's like, Murphy's a guy who could put up a 130 WRC plus against lefties and then like an 85 against Ritees, 90 against Ritees.

that's an insanely good catcher. That's a, like, Tom Murphy at his best is starting for 20 other teams in this league. Or at least, you know, he's the primary for 20 other teams in this league. So don't just get that guy away. In fact, if the shoulder checks out, I would look into extending him. Hey, Tom, you want an extra year at like $5 million? You want to do that? Like, I would consider that because I think the backup catcher spot is insanely overlooked

because they play a lot. and people just kind of act like it's just another bench guy. You just go down to AAA and get the next backup catcher. Doesn't work like that. Yeah. Yeah. And like why would you sacrifice that for the sake of outing a middle reliever? Like I just, I don't get that.

But the thing that obviously, you know, and you already mentioned it, the shoulder and how it impacts the swing because major shoulder surgeries can just mess up swings entirely. and deep rail players careers. So, right. And by the way, he's a question mark. He's a question mark. Yeah, I'm not as soon.

Like, like, even though, like what I'm saying, like with like the, you know, one of the best catching situations of baseball and all that, that's the upside there.

But right now he's a walking question mark. There are no assumptions to be made right now. Right. I mean, to be fair, even the downside of Murphy, the Mariners still have one of the best catching situations of like that's just how good Cal Rale is.

Well, yeah. And obviously things can, if Cooper Hummel is somebody you really believe in and he looks great in spring training and the Mariners really think they've figured something out with him, then maybe they do trade Tom Murphy at the end of the at the end of spring training.

There's just no reason to trade him now. Right. Great. All right. Well, that's going to do it for our show. We're a little over time here. Sorry about that, folks. But thank you so much for joining us here

on the Lockdown Mariners podcast for Colby Patnaud. I'm Tadang Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at LO underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Dan Gonzalez, S-A-N-Z-L-Z and Colby at Steve Hout 11. That's C-P-A-T-11. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. And thank you again for making us your first listen.

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