Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mailbag: Looking Ahead to a MASSIVE Offseason For the Mariners

Episode Date: October 2, 2023

Unfortunately, the offseason has begun for the Mariners a lot sooner than Colby, Ty, and the rest of the fanbase hoped. Now it's time to face the difficult reality of a step-back season for the M's and assess how they can get back on track. In the first Mailbag Monday of the offseason, Colby and Ty answer questions regarding Cal Raleigh taking shots at Mariners brass, what to do about Teoscar Hernández's impending free agency, if landing Shohei Ohtani fixes everything for Seattle, and a whole lot more.Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @danegnzlz | @CPat11Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Jase MedicalSave more than $360 by getting these lifesaving antibiotics with Jase Medical plus an additional $20 off by using code LOCKEDON at checkout on jasemedical.com.  eBay MotorsKeep your ride-or-die alive at ebay.com/motors. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelMake Every Moment More.Make Every Moment More. Right now, NEW customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED in BONUS BETS - GUARANTEED. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.SleeperDownload the Sleeper app and use promo code LOCKEDON and you'll get up to a $100 match on your first deposit. Terms and conditions apply. See Sleeper’s Terms of Use for details. Currently operational in over 30 states. Check out Sleeper today!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) 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.

Well, because a certain team had one of the most brutal collapses you'll see in the month of September, it's our first mailbag Monday of the off season. This should be interesting. Colby, hit it. You are Locked-on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Ahoy, sailors. It is Monday, October 2nd, 2023.

This is tidings on us and Colby Patnaud for the Lockdown Mariners podcast brought to you by Game Time. Download the GameTime app, create an example. account and use promo code locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase. Last minute tickets, the lowest price guaranteed. 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're part of the crew and rock with us every single day, let us know in the comments

below. And if you want to hear from us even more, please consider signing up for our Patreon. You can now get a free seven-day trial to check out the show. The link, as well as our social accounts, is in the description of this episode. is a mailbag Monday, the show where we answer your Mariners questions. And we got 86 replies to our tweet looking for questions yesterday. So we might end up doing a part two. We'll see because we're only going to be able to get to about eight of them today.

And we're going to start with Gregory wants to know. And this was obvious that this was going to be the first question. How much did you love Cal's comments? How much did you hate his unnecessary apology? I don't think we need to go over what Gregory is talking about here. I think we all know unless you've been living under Iraq, what Cal Raleigh had to say after the mayors were officially eliminated on Saturday night. So, Colby, thoughts on all of it?

I mean, no lies detected. It was definitely a shot at the trade deadline. It was definitely a shot at the winter. and it's definitely a shot at, you know, everybody who makes decisions or has a say in player acquisition, which is obviously, you know, everybody in the front office and ownership. It's pretty clear, you know, he didn't mince words or anything like that.

And again, he didn't lie. He didn't make anything up. It's all stuff we've already known and we've said. And, you know, now this time a player said it. And he was backed up, you know, yesterday by JP and Thai France, among others. So, yeah, I mean, I mean, I don't think anybody had any issue with what he had to say. I don't think Scott Service had an issue with what he had to say.

I kind of doubt that Jerry and Justin had an issue with what he wanted to, with what he had to say. I mean, I know he apologized, kind of, you know, yesterday, but I don't think that's an apology that was, you know, asked for by Scott Service. I don't think that's an apology that was asked for by the front office. I think that was an apology that was demanded from, you know, people who are Scott's bosses. And so, yeah, I don't have an issue with what he said. The apology, it meant nothing because he doesn't believe it. We know he doesn't and he shouldn't. You know, and the very fact that he said, yeah, I apologize for that, but I'm not apologizing for wanting to win is, yeah, I'm apologizing, but I'm not apologizing.

And he shouldn't because he didn't say anything wrong. you know you want players who want to win you want players who uh you know are willing to criticize people in power who uh who are preventing them from you know reaching their goal and their goal happens to be the same as our goal as fans and that's to win a world series so uh yeah i don't i i have no issues with what he said um i'm not blaming scott for like you know i saw some people take and like oh Scott made him apologize and it was like did Scott make him apologize or right um yeah I I think Scott could have handled it a little bit better when he talked to the media I know he's obviously not going to come out and just outright say like yeah Cal's right

like because Scott's getting fired immediately if he says that um but he kind of framed it in a way where it's like Cal was wrong you know was at the height of his emotions yada yada yada right He didn't need to say that. Yeah, he didn't need to say that. He didn't need to say that. So I found that kind of disappointing from Scott. But yeah, loved what Cal said, because this is obviously what's on everyone's minds.

And this is obviously nothing that's coming as a surprise to Scott's service or the rest of that clubhouse. These are feelings that I think it's safe to assume are shared across the board in that clubhouse ever since the deadline and probably since before that as well. I'm sure there were a lot of people that took issue

with the off season in that clubhouse as well. Right. I mean, you remember the discussion we had back after the deadline where it's like, is there some kind of, you know, tension building between the front office and Scott because Scott wasn't mincing words either. I mean, he did it in the most, you know, politically correct or whatever like way he could, but he questioned the deadline and he wanted more help.

And I think it was a cow who also said after the deadline like, man that uh it sucks to lose paul not bring anybody in uh to you know and all that stuff so uh yeah this is this is something that there's a clear tension between uh you know the players and the front office and that's that's not unique to seattle let's just make that very clear that's certainly not unique to seattle it's not a situation that scott is you know going at alone or anything like that this is this is a tension that exists throughout all baseball but uh right absolutely Yeah, the idea that, that, you know, Cal threw his teammates under the bus or anything, no, quite the opposite. Cal believes in this more than the front office does and more than ownership does.

Yeah, this is, I've seen a lot of comparisons made between this and like the George Kirby thing down in Tampa, and those are very different situations, in my opinion. One last thing that I want to add, and look, I get what Cal is saying, and he's just using the Rangers as a very easy example. but I know there are fans out there that are looking at the Rangers and say I want the Mariners to be that and you really don't you really don't because like while they have spent a lot of money which is good

in general right generally speaking spending money is good some of what they've done in terms of spending and just their overall aggressiveness on the trade market as well has been kind of stupid right like getting in bed with someone like a Rallis Chapman and trading a

what looks to be a top of the rotation starter who could legitimately help them right now. Stupid. Anyone with half a brain cell knew that the Jacob de Grom contract would go horribly. Like, given all the reports about his elbow before he even had free agency. Like, you can see

the writing on the wall with some of those things. Like, the Rangers have, like, it's worked out with Semian. It's worked out with Seeger, which is great. Good for them. But some of what they've done feels like they're just spending money for the sake of spending money. I want the merits to spend more than more than they have in a very long time but I want them to do it intelligently I want them to do it only when it makes sense for them to do it two two things real fast on that we're not we'd spend the whole

segment on on this and we will spend we'll have conversations like this pretty much every day for the next you know three four months but the Rangers aren't the model you want to follow it's it's the Braves yeah first and foremost and the Braves will spend money but the Braves also developed their own and they acquire players via trade, not really free agency. But aside from that also, let's not pretend that the Rangers are only standing here because of the money they spent. Nathaniel Lowe was a trade and they developed him. Adola Garcia trade developed. Josh Young developed.

I mean, you look at Laotas Tavaris developed, Jonah Heim developed. Yeah. They didn't just go out and buy a team that won, what, one more game than Seattle, two more games in Seattle. they didn't just do that right they bought good pieces but the core of that team is built on the farm system and trades right and most good teams are

and that's the thing right is that they've spent all this money and the mariners are not that far behind them still and you look at that roster overall and it's like who really thinks that they're going to go and win a World Series this October like there's still a lot of work that they even have to do despite all the money they've spent so it's not just about spending money

you're not just going to magically snap your fingers and all of a sudden there's a Series in your hand. Like you have to be, you have to use money as a tool rather than it being the cast of your roster build. So again, like you said, Padres, how easy it is to buy a World Series. Go ask the Mets how easy it is to buy a World Series.

Right. There's no rhyme or reason to building a roster, to building a World Series contender. But the, the Rangers are definitely not the, um, the model of roster building. Like some fans, some Mariners fans seem to be treating them as such. And so just wanted to get that out of the way because I don't look at the Rangers and say that's what the Marers need to aspire to be. I don't really look at any team.

I think the Marys are just going to do it in their own way. And that's what I would prefer. But they do have to be willing to spend money when it makes sense for them. So all right, now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's get into more of your questions. But first, a reminder of this episode of the Locked-on Marys podcast is brought to you by GameTime.

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promo code Locked-on MLB for $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute tickets to lowest price guaranteed. And you're listening to the Lockdown Marriss podcast. Thank you again for making us your first listen here on the first mailbag Monday of the 2023-24 off season. We are 10 and a half minutes in and we've only answered one question. So we're off to a great start.

Let's get back to these questions. Yeah, brevity is not our strong suit. You guys know what the deal is, though. All right, Garrett wants to know, should we hope a. and or expect that this result will compel John Stanton to actually let Jerry Depoto and Justin Hollander do their jobs. No, next question. Hope, yes.

Expect that? No, absolutely not. Hope for the best, expect the worst, I guess. That's kind of where I'm at with this. Just expect, you know, the rich sports owner to not actually care about how good his team is. Yeah. No, the answer is no. You shouldn't expect that.

Yeah. You should expect it, but you shouldn't. Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You should demand it, but it, you shouldn't expect that it's going to, that it's going to change things. That it's going to give him the kick in the ass. Some people think this will, right? I'm sure.

That's probably not going to happen. I'm sure he's going to create another $10,000 box that, you know, 99.999% of fans will never see. Right. Including myself. Yeah, good use of money. Nice. All right. Next question.

Mariners jersey tracker wants to know. Now that it is the off season, where are you officially at with what to do with Teoska Hernandez? Oh, it's the age old question, Colby. Well, we're now at the end of the season. We now have the full contact for Teo's 2023 season. For me, I'm still a little bit on the fence, but I'm leaning mostly to letting him walk. I think I'm pretty firm on not giving him the qualifying offer at this point. but I'm interested in an extension still

I don't know because like think of it like this I'm kind of the opposite well but here's the thing right is like if he does take the QO it's $20 million which I think is a there's a legitimate chance of him taking the QO at this point so it's going to be roughly $20 million if John Stanton goes to Jerry to Poto and Justin Hollander and says you have like $40 million to work with

in terms of 2024 payroll to be added this offseason and that's probably even being generous like and that's just where I'm at pessimistically. But if that's what it is, right, then that's half of your your available budget for 2024. I'm probably not doing that because essentially you're just running it back.

And like, well, I think that Teo is definitely better than this. And I think he's going to have a great year wherever he goes. I do. I really do believe that. I don't think this is who he is now. I really don't think this is who he is. I just, I don't know if that's necessarily worth spending $20 million on a few other

mirrors. Two years in a row he's he's had you know less than what you would expect type of seasons yeah but he didn't do this. He's 31 like he's on the wrong side of 30. I'm actually the opposite of you I'm not really interested in extension if

you know if he wants to play her for one more year fine whatever but I'm I'm not giving him to Oscar three years I'm not giving him four years because if he just declines another 10 percent like he did, you know, from 2021 to 2022, from 2022 to 2023, if he declines another 10 percent, I'm paying, you know, 80 million dollars over the next, well, okay, like, what, $55 million over the next three or four years for a guy who's going to be a league average

bat who isn't really a good defender. Right. I had much better have him on a one-year deal. Yeah, I guess like for me, it would be two-year deal or nothing. I don't think he's to, I think he'll probably look for it. Yeah. Like why should he take anything less than what Hanager got? Honestly, I think he's going to go back to Toronto if I had to guess. I could see it. Yeah.

Which is fine by me. Tay Oscar is a guy who's quickly heading towards DH only. The strikeouts are an issue. And again, it's three years in a row. His WRC plus is dipped by at least 10 points. He's fine. Like I think he's if he's a $14 million a year, one year stop gap, fine. You do worse.

And I don't know where I stand on the qualifying offer. If Seattle gives it to them, like, fine. I'm not going to crucify them for it. If they don't and they let them walk, fine. I'm not going to, you know, get on their case about it. This is kind of one of those ones where you have to trust the, you know, the baseball ops people and, you know, understand that overall they've done a good job. So, you know, one way or another.

And there's no guarantee he takes it. I think you probably would. But, yeah, if Teoska, again, if I get Teosker back for one year, fine. Yeah, no, I'm cool with that in a vacuum. But again, if you only have so many dollars to work with and you think there's a real chance that he's going to accept the qualifying offer, you probably shouldn't do it. Because you can't afford to just run it back. You can't afford to just run it back. You can get more for $20 million than a two-win right fielder.

For $20 million, I can go get a seventh inning bullpen arm. I can go get, you know, I could probably go get a two-win outfielder. You know, maybe they don't do it with home runs and RBIs, but I can probably go get, you know, a guy who's going to make $8 to $10 million and give me two wins, you know, in right field. And I can go get a somebody to take some pressure off of Brash and I could, and I could go get somebody who, you know, sits on the bench and is, you know, useful and not prone to go six for his last 82 or whatever Dylan Moore did down the stretch. So, yeah, you could do more with $20 million. So if there is any kind of like serious financial constraints place in this ball club, then yeah, I'd rather spend the 20 million elsewhere. But if there's a relatively open budget and Tay Oscar is brought back for, you know, somewhere in that $20 million range, as long as it's on a short term deal, I'm like, okay.

Like that could work. Yeah. All right. Next question here comes from Allison. Is there any realistic way fans and players can hold ownership accountable for lack of spending on payroll? also considering an increase in 2024 season ticket prices, even though 2023 revenue and ticket sales were favorable, there's a regional media play a role in front office accountability.

So that's a multi-faceted question. As far as the players, no, I mean, the players aren't really going to do anything outside of what, you know, Cal did on Saturday night. That's really the extent of it, right? Because guys still want to have a job, right? Like they can't go, they can't step too far over the line. that's about as big as you can go with it from a player's standpoint.

As for fans, don't go to the games. Don't buy merchandise. Don't buy TV packages. That's really all you can do. Will it actually have an impact? I mean, if enough of you do it, maybe, but in general, probably not. But if you don't feel comfortable in supporting this product and in supporting the organization and by virtue John Stanton, don't do it.

Right? sure uh i'm a realist and the answer is no yeah i mean at the end of the day that yeah at the end of the day there's there's really nothing you can do you can't force him to sell it's not going to like he's not going to sell so really it's like at that point you have two options it's you don't be a fan of the team right or you just kind of hope for the best and that's not to like suck up to john stanton or excuse him or anything like that that's just the reality of what the situation is because he's not he's not he's not going anywhere. That coward wants to come on the show.

I'll read him the riot act. Like, I'm not afraid of John Stan. We have no relationship with the Mariners, none. So, uh, but the simple fact of the matter is is that he's, you know,

a very rich guy and rich guys don't do anything that doesn't make the money. Yeah. Uh, not to put too fine a point on it. So if you stop showing up, he'll spend less. Like, this isn't a thing.

And, and, you know, I'd love to be proven wrong. I'd love for John Stan to, you know, for us a year from now to be like, wow, look at John. He really stepped up.

And as a result, you know, And we'll give him credit when he does. But so far he hasn't, there's zero proof that he has. There's zero proof that he will. You know, you gave him the, the biggest surplus, you know, in baseball last year. Like he, he is the team he own made more money, more profit than any other team in baseball last year. And what did he do?

He built luxury suites that none of us are ever going to sit in. Like, who cares? He built a parking lot. Like, who cares, man? Like, this is put it in the team and he hasn't done that yet. So no. And part of the problem is the media role is that Seattle Mariners own root sports,

which is what all the Mariners games are played on. So really it comes down to, you know, is there anything Ryan Divish can do to, you know, or any of those guys can do to. Yeah. Embarrass them so much that they, they spend money. No, there's not.

So, you know, my, my philosophy on this is always just, you know, I just, all I can do is just stand here and keep poking them with a stick until they listen. like you're going to pay attention to us because we're going to keep poking you and bugging you. We're going to be enough of a nuisance that you'll eventually have to either answer us or you'll have to, you know, put up or shut up, essentially.

So that's really all you can do, man. Keep poking with a stick. Keep prodding. Yep. And, you know, you hope for the best. But, yeah, you know, it's our team. But John Stanton owns it because there's a terrible structure between a fan base. There's a terrible relationship between a fan base and the team.

and if you don't believe me, you could go ask Oakland A's fans how they feel. Yeah, exactly, exactly. And Colby and I recognize our role in this as content creators covering the team. And it's, you know, it's a small role, but it's still a role nonetheless.

And we're not going to shy from criticizing them. There's been this whole misconception created that we're like bootlickers for the Mariners organization. I don't care, right? I don't care about building connections or whatever. Like I'm just a guy who talks about his favorite. baseball team on the internet that's it and like i'm that's all i care about i want i want to win i want to get on this show one day and talk about a world series i would love that's what i want to do more than

anything here i want that more than having jerry depoto on the show or having john stanton on the show or having any of the players on the show i want to win that's why i want to do the most i want to celebrate that with you guys and that's all i care about at the end of the day by the way guys real Fast before we transition. I did a free episode of our Patreon show. It is available wherever you get or well, it's available on Patreon. Link will be in the description and all that stuff. But it basically outlines what we're talking about here about, you know, how Ty

and I plan to attack the offseason and hold people accountable. Right. This winter. So go listen to that. You haven't already for a more in-depth talk. Again, this one is free. And if you want to help us out, you know, it'd be nice. We would greatly appreciate it.

So, yeah, I'll put a link down below in the description. You're listening to the Lockdown Marius podcast. Thank you again for making us your first listen here on the first mailbag Monday of the off season. Get back into these questions. Alex wants to know, should the front office look to move on from A. E. E. E. E. Hennino-Swaras this off season or wait one more year to make a decision on third base. Should they look? Yes.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Will they actually do something about that? or should they given the market? Probably not. I would bet heavily on Gino being your starting third basement in 2024 still. Sure. But that aside, he ran a 392 slugging percentage this year with a 31% K rate.

That's just not good enough from your third basement, no matter how good the defense is. And yes, the defense was great this year. And Gino, like, Gino, the person, love him. Amazing. One of the best mariners just on a personal level that we've seen a, in quite some time. Right up there with Nelson Cruz. Absolutely.

Absolutely. But yeah, Gino, the baseball player has to be better. And specifically the hitter, given the position that he plays, given the fact that this, like,

because, like, you can survive with him putting up a season like this offensively, but you have to make up for it in another, at another spot

that you typically don't get that kind of production from. And right now, the Mariners have neither working for them. So you just need, Gino to produce more at the plate as a as you're starting third baseman but is there going to be an option for you to fix that?

Maybe not because like Matt Chapman isn't it? I know a lot of people are like Matt Chapman go get Matt Chapman. Matt Chapman was good for the month of April and then he's been an utter disaster. Like ask Blue Jay's fans. Blue Jay's fans are ready to say goodbye to him. Yeah, he's worse than Gino, you know, after April. So yeah, this is what I would say about Gino and I know the question wasn't asked, I'm going to shoehorn this here anyways.

Geno and Typhrance, both of the corner guys. You got 30 home runs between your two corner guys, 33. That's not enough. Neither of them slugged 400. That's not enough. No amount of defense makes up for both of those guys not hitting for any power. That being said, this is what I would say. I don't think you have to replace Gino.

I don't think you necessarily have to replace Typhrance, but you can't count on them. Right. You have to, you have to allow yourself to be wrong on those guys and have a backup plan. Preferably somebody who can, who can handle both. But, you know, whatever it is. Like, you can't just go in and be like, Gino is a starting third baseman. Ty Francis is a starting first baseman. No questions asked. And be like, we're going to run it back with the same bench too and all that stuff. Nope. Nope. That doesn't work. So I can Gino be part of the solution to third base? Can be part of the solution to first base? Yes, they still can.

Can they be the only solution? Can it be like those guys have to figure it out or we're screwed again? No. No. That is the difference. So can the Mariners have a good off season where Ty France still kind of slates, you know, slots in as the first baseman and Gino is still the third baseman? Yes, if you go get Jemir Candelario, who could play both and he's going to DH, you know,

and all that. Like you have to protect yourself. And having Dylan Moore on your roster is not protecting. yourself at third first. Sam Haggerty, Jose Cabiero. I'm sorry. Like, and look, I'm not asking you for, I'm not asking for this team to go out and get like eight players, eight new players.

No. But get like three to four new starters and push everyone else to your bench. Like Josh Rojas should be like a utility guy. Like you're like one of your primary. Yeah, like one of your primary utility guys. And there's nothing wrong with that. He's still going to get a lot of playing time. Like he's going to get.

He's going to get 300, 400 at bats. Yeah. You know, play four or five times a week. You just, and Rojas can be part of your solution at third base, too, by the way. Yeah. I think a big, I think a big error is Gino playing 162 games. Gino should be the last Mariner in the franchise's history to play every game of a season. Yeah.

It's stupid. It has no value. Yeah. Well, while I applaud him for doing it, like overall, it's really, really stupid. Nobody on your team should play more than 140-ish games. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Because you can see it. You could see the wear and tear. very clearly. And I'm not going to blame all of that on that. No, but still, can you, there's about 22, 23 weeks in a, in a regular season. Every player should have at least a day off per week. 100%. And the fact that the one day that he wasn't in the lineup, he still played that night in Cincinnati, no, no. All right. Got a couple more questions here before we wrap up today's show. Kip wants to know last minute

mailbag question. Even if the M's lands Shohei, will it be enough related if they do? What will the M's do with a regular D.H? Could show hey play first? L.O.L. So is Shoah enough? No. And we are going to say this a lot this offseason. If

you are going to go after Shohei Otani, you have to be willing to do more. And this is a John Stanton thing. You cannot go to Jerry DePoto and Justin Hollander and say, all right, here's the $45 million or whatever the hell it's going to take to to land him in 2024.

And that's it. That's all you get. You get Shohei and that's basically your off season. You figure out the rest with scraps. You try and trade on the cheap and all that stuff and try to build a roster that way. No. If all you get is basically the money you will take to land Shohei in 2024, you use that on multiple things.

You use that on bulk rather than show hey. You use that to go and get, like we just talked about with Teo. You use that to go get yourself a high leverage reliever. You use that to go get you a corner. outfielder you use that to go get you a Jemir Candelario or someone like that who can help on the corner infield you get a bunch of two to four win players well two to three win players more so instead of just the big you know six win guy uh-huh uh yeah no showy's not enough and if you think

it is welcome back to 2018 that was a lot of fun wasn't it uh no nope showy's not enough uh so again This is one of the issues we have when you talk about, you know, go get Otani. It's like, okay, yes, but do you have trust in the ownership to go do more? Right. Because you're not adding Shohei Otani to this lineup. And again, you're only getting hitter Otani. No, he can't play first base. He can't throw next year.

D.H only. What do the Mariners do? Well, Otani's the DH. DHS every day. He's healthy. He's just the DH. You have less at bats to go around. And that's fine.

And that's fine because it's showy. The bad is more than good enough. If you get Prime Nelson Cruz for the DH, like you're not like, oh, man, I really wanted to get Dylan Moore some at bats out of the DH spot. What do I do? Nothing. You just roll with prime like,

screw Dylan Moore, screw whoever, Sam Haggrey, like whatever. Yeah. So yeah, the DH thing's not really an issue. It's just the money is like,

will you do more? Because to answer the question as bluntly as possible, no. Show Hey, Otani is not enough. You still need a backup catcher. You still need somebody who can play first and third every day. You still need an outfielder.

or two, you still need a high leverage bullpen arm, you still need a number four, number five starter. Like, you can get all that with the money you would get to Otani. So no. Yeah. So this is the issue ultimately with going after guys like Otani and one Soto, because Soto's going to cost you about $35 million this year if you trade for him. And plus,

you're going to have to replace whatever you give up in a Soto deal, right? Like if that, you know, random account on Twitter is close to the mark and saying that it might take you, you know, Miller and Kelnick, etc. Like, again, let's just use that for example. you're going to have to go replace those guys. And you're probably going to need at least a little bit of money to do that.

And if Stanton's like, well, you spent $35 million on Soto, sorry, that's about it. That's about all I'm willing to write a check for. So you just, you don't go after one Soto at that point. And that's not a Jerry DePoto issue. That's not a Justin Hollander issue. That's an ownership issue. So let's make that very, very clear.

Again, we're going to have this conversation a lot, this off season. So we'll be sure to reiterate that quite a bit. All right. Next question here from the black Han Solo, which is a great name. Is the front office petty enough to put Cal on the trade block for his comments? No, no. That would be a PR nightmare first and foremost.

I don't think that John Stanton is that stupid, right? Because Jerry DePoto and Justin Hollander, they're not going to be the ones that drive that effort if that were to happen. That would be a Stanton thing. I don't think that he's stupid enough to do that. Also, the mayor's need Cal Raleigh. They need him more than what. whatever they would get for Cal Raleigh. Yep.

So. Nope. It's not going to happen. I do think Stan's dumb enough to consider it, though. Or maybe not dumb. It's not the right. Petty. Because if Stanton, you know, had any sense whatsoever, he should have come out yesterday

to be like, Cal's right. Cal's right. I need to do more. I'm going to. And it would have been that. That would have been that. We know he's a coward, though. He's too much by coward.

We know that the reason that Cal had to apologize was because, somebody in Stanton's inner circle made it known that I expect an apology for that. Because again, there's a zero percent chance Scott did that. I think it's highly unlikely that Jerry did that because Jerry's never had an issue with letting players, you know, take shots at him. Kyle Seeger took huge shots at Jerry to Poto. And Jerry never once sent shots back. Never throw him under the bus. Never, never shot back.

You just, okay, I mean, you know, we respect Kyle. And, you know, we wish him luck in retirement. That's what he said. After Kyle tried to like salt the grounds of Carthage after he burned it down. What did Jerry do? We wish him luck. He's a great player. He had a great career. So I don't think this is Jerry or Justin thing either. I think this comes up from higher than even those guys. And there's only a couple people higher up in the, you know, the Mariners organization than Jerry to Potoh. It's Stanton and it's the board. Yep. That's it. That's it. Jerry's second in command, at least as far as, you know, baseball ops goes. It's a distant seconds though

Yeah, it's a distant second Stanton and his cronies have all the power Yeah 100%. But that definitely came from the top But do I think that Stanton Will go as far as to demand that Cal get Be traded this off season? No, no, not going to happen.

Last one from CNC talks. Do you do there need to Does there need to be changes to the coaching staff and or front office? I assume that you're specifically asking about service and depoto. We don't have time to go down that whole rabbit hole. The very basic answer is no. Coaching staff changes in general, though.

I think it might be time to move on from Manny Acta. At third base coach. As third base coach at least. Like maybe not entirely, you know, on the coaching staff. I like Manny. Like nothing against Manny. But his like his sins this year at third base were rough to put it light. Right.

If I were a man, if I were like the general manager randomly of a team that needed a manager, uh, this, you know, I Maniacta would be on my short list. Yeah, 100%. Yeah. Yeah. He gets it. He's a, he blends the new flavor with the old flavor very, very well. He's, yeah, bilingual, which is a huge plus. And he kind of acts as a go between like Maniactor has tremendous value. I just don't know if third base is where he's going to give you that value. Um, and you know, look, it's, it's a tough job. Right. Nobody cares when you send a guy. and he's safe. But when you don't do it and the guy's out by 10 feet, like you're fired. Like it's it's crazy, difficult. But I just think his talents are better used elsewhere. But yeah, you know, I don't know.

I don't know. Do there doesn't need to be a hitting coach change? Maybe. I don't know. Maybe who knows. How would I know? But again, that's such a, that's such a common oversimplification by fans to be just like, fire the hitting coach.

It'll fix everything. It's, nope. Nobody wanted to fire the hitting coach after July after the All-Star break and tell about, you know, a week ago. So you see it just it doesn't matter. The fire scots service crowd like died out until things got bad again like it just yeah grow up. All right. That's going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the lockdown Mariners podcast for Colby Pat node. I'm Tad de G Anzalas. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at LO underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Dan Gonzalez. S D-A-N-Z L-Z and Colby at C-Pat 11. That's C-P-A-T-1-1. You can also find all that stuff in

the description of this episode. Thank you again for making us your first listen here on mail bag Monday. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you next time. Peace.