Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mailbag: Time to Get Excited About Jarred Kelenic? Should Mariners Outright Cut Marco Gonzales?

Episode Date: March 6, 2023

It is time for another Mariners Mailbag Monday! On today's edition, the guys discuss a variety of topics including an appropriate time to be excited about Jarred Kelenic, Chris Flexen vs. Marco Gonzalez, Mason McCoy, DH'ing the catchers, and a whole lot more! Plus, find out how you can win Mariners tickets to an upcoming regular season game!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/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.LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONMLB.  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.

Jared Kelnick's making a lot of noise of Mariners camp. We'll be talking about him and a lot more in today's mailbag Monday. 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, March 6, 2023. This is Tadang Gonzalez and Colby Patnode for the Lockdown Mariners podcast.

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, the show where we answer your Mariners questions and stick around until the middle of the show to find out how you and a friend or family member could see this Mariners Ball Club up close and personal next month or even in May. We'll be telling you more about that about our next great lockdown. Mariners giveaway in the middle of the show after we come out of our first segment but first Colby

let's get into these questions show hey to Seattle yes we are already starting that campaign as it seems pretty clear to many that flexen is just a better starter than Marco wouldn't the mariners be better off with flex in number five in the rotation forget about contracts don't we want the best team out there Colby what do you think I think um let's see for a third time i i think that yeah real quick guys we've we've recorded this episode like we recorded this episode of full and then the audio was destroyed despite it sounding fine on either one of our ends when we were listening there was no way for us to know that that was going to happen and then we got about eight minutes into another recording and then it just decided

to stop recording so that's that's fun so yeah we've we've answered this question three times now Anyway, Colby, continue. So, yeah, obviously you do want the best team out there, but it's not having, you know, maxing out your rotation isn't the way to have the best team, especially since the difference between Marco and Flexen right now is pretty negligible. I mean, I know people love to talk about Chris Flexen,

like he's a number three, number four starter. And he has been, you know, slightly better than Marco the last few years, but it's not a huge difference. And when you look at it, both of these guys are going to be on the opening day roster. unless one of them is traded, and we all know which one would be traded, if either of them get traded.

So they're both going to be on the opening day roster. That means one of them is going to be in the bullpen. Jerry's already ruled out a six-man rotation. That's probably the right call. But if they're both going to be on the 26-man roster, then they're both very similar. You feel very similar about them as starting pitchers, then the tiebreaker becomes which one is better out of the bullpen?

And Jerry told us himself that we feel like Chris Flex and stuff plays better out of the bullpen. He was very candid with us. He all but named Marco the number five starter when we talked to him last month. And a big part of that is, A, you know, Chris's stuff we feel plays better in the bullpen than Marcos would. And B, Marco gives you, for the most part, if he takes the ball 30 times, then 21, 22, 23 of those, he's going to give you a quality outing.

He's going to eat innings for you. He's going to keep you in the ball game. And yeah, he's going to have a couple blowup starts. He's just not going to have his command one day and everything's going to be in the middle of the plate. and you're going to lose that game. Chris Flexen does the same thing when he's out there as a starter. Have a couple really good starts, a lot of quality starts,

and then a couple really bad starts. So if it's all the same in the Mariners eye and it's just a tie, then the tie breaker has to be who plays up in the bullpen because we're going to use a bullpen spot on one of these two guys. We don't want that spot to be a nothing, right? Are we willing to DFA and Marco Gonzalez and just swallow $18 million? No. and we probably shouldn't be.

Are we willing to just DFA Chris Flexen and swallow $8 million? No, we probably shouldn't be. So they're both going to make the roster and if they're both going to make the roster, which one makes more sense out of the bullpen? It's Chris Flexon because the difference between them as starters in the eyes of the Mariners,

negligible. We know that. We've heard that. We've been shown that. The Mariners don't see a big difference between Flexon and Marco. And if that's the case, then they should,

put Chris Flex in the bullpen because his stuff will play up better there. And that's not even taking into account the fact that Marco's the longest tenured Mariner and he has earned the right to kind of give one last shot at getting, you know, setting the course correct. So we'll see what happens. But one thing I'm very confident in is that Marco Gonzalez is going to be the number five starter when this team breaks camp. And look, you know, if talk, if we're talking about.

you know flex and potentially being traded here as well what's more valuable to you flexing in the number five spot and and basically because again look if if marco has to be relegated to the bullpen you might as well just outright cut marco because there are several relievers within this organization that are going to provide more value to you out of the bullpen than marco gonzalez so if he's not your number five there's no point of having marco gonzalez on your team that's just what it is so what's more valuable eating the that money of Marco and having Flexen, you know, be your number five or trading flexen for whatever you can get for them. And then, you know, going along with another rumor that's floating

out there that the Mariners are scouring the market for starting pitching, adding someone that is, you know, pretty much equal and ability to Flexen who probably provides more club control and or minor league options, which is going to be valuable to you from a roster construction standpoint. To me, the answer is pretty clear. And so, yeah, again, flexen, like, it's not even a question, really. If both of these guys make the team, flexen has to be the guy that comes out of the bullpen because this stuff just plays up more. Marco, I mean, Jerry DePoto even said it himself on this show when we had him on here,

that Marco's stuff isn't going to tick up out of the bullpen, that they don't really see any value in doing that. So even the guy that's running the show here has told you outright, we don't see any value in doing that. So that's your answer right there. And so, yeah, you know, for me, the most preferable route here is trading flexen if you can actually get something that helps you.

But that's a bit of major question mark as well. And we're probably going to talk about that a little later on because we have another question that kind of goes along with that. But if you can actually get a major league, you know, bench piece to help you with the loss of Tommy Lestella and maybe Dillamore's injury, even know that he's supposed to return in mid-March, then yeah you do that and then maybe you go out and get another starter you know or maybe you just

roll with with marco because marco at the very least i think is good bridge to whatever is next whether that's bryce miller or a trade or whatever happens here i think that marco at least serves as a quality enough bridge for the first couple months of the season to get you to where you need to go in the end all right next question here comes from tj what's the best outfield in baseball right now And how good does Jerry Kellnick have to be for the Mariners to be in that conversation? So Colby, I've, you know, I looked around the league in preparation for answering this question. And I've also said this three times now as we've tried to inquire this. So you know, but I'm saying this for everyone that hasn't heard those other recordings,

which is everyone that, you know, I looked around the league to kind of, you know, see, just refresh my memory here on, you know, what the outfield situations around Major League Baseball are and, you know, who's, you know, what, what the projected outfields look like and all that. And the thing that I saw really is that there are a lot of outfields out there, a lot of really good outfields out there that are in a pretty similar position to the Mariners, that they have, you know, one or two MVP or at least all-star caliber outfielders, and then a giant question mark in their third outfield spot, like a Jared Kelnick. And really, you know, again, this question can be answered in a multitude of ways.

You know, one, if you just want to throw defense completely out of the window, then the Astros are probably the clear answer there, you know, with Yvardanoffra is playing in left field, uh, and Kyle Tucker and Chas McCormick. Um, or the Padres with, you know, Juan Soto and Fernando Tatis Jr. and maybe a bounce back from Trent Grisham. But to me, in terms of just like a complete outfield, probably the Mets, Marcana, Brandon Nemo, Starling Marte, but even that has some question marks there. And to answer your question here about Kellnick, how good does Kellnick have to be? I think the Mariners are pretty close to having the best outfield in baseball already because of the things that I just listed. They have a perennial MVP candidate and Julio Rodriguez, so we think. And to Oscar Hernandez, who if he performs at his 100th percentile, he's also in the MVP

conversation. So Kellnick, to me, I think, needs to be an all-star or at least close, pretty damn close to be in an All-Star for them to have that best outfield in baseball. But if that actually swings in their direction, I think they have a pretty good shot at it. What do you think? Yeah. I think there are a couple of interesting ones that probably fall short of best in baseball. But, you know, the Angels with Mike Trout and Taylor Ward certainly have kind of have those two guys.

And then they're kind of in the same spot as the Mariners, really, right? Taylor Ward is kind of the Teosker. Teo's got a little bit of a longer track record, and then Trout is Julio, and then it's Joe Adele in left field. There's Kelnick. So I think if we're really going to, you know, give a lot of value to defense,

then I think the Blue Jays are certainly up there with Springer and Kirrmeyer and Varsho. But, you know, there's some real questions about Varshow and Kiermire, you know, they're bat, particularly Varshow. I think we know by now that Kierremyer, really can't hit, you know, at a good enough level to be in this conversation. But Varshow, even last year, he was just barely above league average. So there's some offensive questions there.

The Yankees, obviously, Aaron Judge, it automatically puts you in this conversation. So, yeah, there's a few that are out there that are interesting. But I couldn't find an outfield that has just three, like, no question. like you know exactly what you're going to get both offensively and defensively. The White Sox, you know, Roberts is a really good center fielder and Benetending's gold Glover out in left field. But Eloy Jimenez can hit, cannot play the field. Gavin Sheets, God no, cannot play the field. So there's a huge black hole defensively.

Like Gavin Sheets makes Teoscar Hernandez look like Kevin Kiermeyer. So, you know, Cardinals like, that might be the best defensive. outfield and all of baseball, but also Tyler O'Neill's coming off of a really down year. Dylan Carlson hasn't really hit his potential. Lars Newbar is fun, you know. Yeah. I think if O'Neill kind of bounces back to what he was in 2021, was it? Yeah, 2021.

And Carlson takes a step forward. Then I think there's are, I think the, I think St. Louis probably has the best outfield overall in baseball. But those are question marks. So we'll have to wait and see. Yeah, like another one, like that could be good, at least from an, you know, an offensive standpoint. Definitely not a defensive standpoint. But, you know, if Mitch Hanager and Michael Conforto stay healthy and actually perform at their, you know, close to what their 100 percentile is, then sure, along with, you know, Mikey Stromski and Austin Slater. But still, that's a lot of, that's a lot of question marks.

Yeah, pretty big hole in center field, too. And Slater's already hurt. So, yeah. Yeah, it's, there are a lot of really good outfields out there. a lot of outfields that have two like really safe pieces, then the third guy is the question mark. Right. All right,

we got a few more questions to go over here in just a moment, but real quick, a reminder of this episode of Lockdown Mariners. It's brought to you by Bilt Bar, looking for a delicious treat, but don't want all the fat and calories, and you've got to try a Bilt Bar. We just got through the holidays,

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You know get your friends to subscribe and and all that stuff to improve your chances at well All right. Let's get back into these questions here on mailbag Monday Cody wants to know Colby does Mason McCoy have a legit shot to make the opening day roster? No Next question But Colby he's seven for 13 this spring with an opponent call of 8.3.

No. Next question. He's 28 years old. He's never really hit above AAA. He's never got bad at the age. He's not 28 yet. He'll be 28 the day after opening day.

Which makes this his age 28th season. He's had one good year in AAA. It wasn't even an amazing year. It was just good, solid. He is hitting the ball hard this winter. That's great. You need depth, right? You need depth in AAA.

And that's what Mason McCoy is. If he's on your opening day roster, or something has gone terribly, terribly, terribly, terribly wrong. No, no, no, no. Legit. Forget legit shot. He has no shot. None.

Zero. Zip. Zilch. Yeah. In order for him to make it, Sam Haggerty has to be unable to make the opening day roster. Dillamore has to be unable to break camp with the team. Hell, even J.P. Crawford has to be unable to make the team at that point.

And even then, I'm probably trading for someone. So, just go sign Jose Iglesias or whoever. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. No, none. Maybe he gets an app at some point this year. But no. He gets the Brian O'Keefe treatment at the end of the year or something. Yeah. If Mason McCoy gets serious playtime with the Mariners and by serious, I mean, anything over like 10 plate appearances, something's gone horribly wrong. Or Mason McCoy has made me look like a complete moron. And I think we know what's more likely because this is not just a hat rack, my friend. So the moron thing. The moron thing. No. No. All right, let's talk about Jerry Kellnick here. Jordan says, Jared looked great against the brewers today, and it seems like each game he's looking really good. I know it's spring training,

but at what point do you allow yourself to start getting even the slightest bit excited that he's figured it out? So Colby, he obviously, yeah. Kelnick obviously had the really impressive home run against Devin Williams, got a cookie right up the middle, and drove it to outer space over the batter's eye and Peoria, very impressive home run and doing exactly what he needed to do. you know, with a pitch like that against one of the, you know, better relievers in all of baseball. Yeah.

I'm not going to get excited by anything that Jared does this spring. I need to see it an actual game action in regular season games when he's actually going up against pitchers who are actually game planning for him and game planning for his weaknesses, not game planning for themselves and working on things to get back in baseball shape and work on pitches and yada, yada, yada. Again, I say it time and time again. context is incredibly important when it comes to spring training, especially with pitcher performances. And so with that, while it's very impressive that he hit the home run, the way that he did off of someone like Williams, there's, again, that at bat may go a little bit differently of Williams is actually game planning for Calnick in that situation.

So I'll say this. I'm intrigued by what Kelnick is doing this spring. I'm intrigued by his process, you know, going back to that home run, working a two O count against Williams and then doing what he did with a cookie. Because let's face it, like he doesn't necessarily get props for, you know, homering off of a cookie. But this is the kind of gift that he has missed a lot on in the past where he's either just swinging right through it or fouling it off or whatever. There have been multiple occasions of Jerry Kellner getting the pitch, getting his pitch, getting his pitch, an absolute gift and doing nothing with it. So for that, that's great.

That's awesome to see and the process in terms of justice played approach has been a little bit different. I've noticed some differences in that. And so far, so good. But again, until I actually see him face pitchers and teams that are actually game planning for him looking to take advantage of,

take advantage of any weaknesses that they see in his game, it's nothing to me. It means really nothing to me at the end of the day. Yeah, it's, it's, there is no value whatsoever in spring training numbers. It's about process. It's about approach. And it's about health. And, you know, to his credit, Kelnick's process looks pretty good right now.

So that is something to be excited about. The overall numbers are not. I don't care. Kelnick was really good last, last spring. And that didn't translate. So it just doesn't matter. what the numbers look like. It's about process. And it's even

hard to really gauge the process right now because like Ty said, they're not game planning for Kelnick. They're not looking for weaknesses. They're focused on what they're trying to do and what they're trying to execute. So it's tough. It's kind of a tough spot right now with Kelnick

to, you know, drastically change what I view Jared Kalnick as right now would be foolish. So if you guys want to get excited about Jared Kellnick, I mean, go for it. I, I'm not going to stop you, but for us or for me in particular, where I'm trying to maintain some kind of, you know, some kind of, I don't know, professional, I don't know what you call. Objectivity. Yeah, I guess. You know, for you guys, so that I can,

give you my honest opinion. I'm not changing my mind on Kellnick being anything, you know, more than what I've seen in the 600 plate appearances he's had. at the big league level. I totally get a, I totally understand anyone getting excited about this because he's been one of the, you know, in arguably one of the best hitters in spring training this far across both the cactus and great fruit leagues.

Um, I think he's leading all spring training teams or, you know, all spring training players in home runs right now. Um, and that's, that's great and all. But again,

you know, the other thing too is like, home run power and all that stuff has never been a question mark for Jared. We know that he can hit bombs. You know, we can, he can absolutely hit nukes. That's not a,

surprised to me. It's just, you know, having a solid approach at the plate, being able to work counts, and being able to take advantage of those pitches like the one that he got from Devin Williams. That's going to be important and especially important in the regular season once he's actually going up against guys that, you know, flat out just want to kill him, you know, on the field, you know. Right. I say this about Kellnick. I'm comfortable being one of the last guys in the Mariners analysis community to decide that Jared Kellnick has a arrived as like a full-fledged big leaguer. So I'm not racing to be first to be like, yep, this is why this is going to work. Right. Right. I'm not going to be that guy. I'm

going to wait and I'm going to see it. And for me, process is great and it's what it's all about, but process has to eventually lead to results. And we'll see what kind of process Kelnick has when he goes through an 0 for 17 with eight strikeouts. That's going to happen at some point, even if Kelnick is good this year. That's going to happen at some point. How does he handle that? how does he bounce back? Does he throw everything overboard? Does he make small changes? Does he just kind of go with the flow?

I don't know. There's a lot of things that go into being a successful big leaguer that we're never going to see in the 50 plate appearances he's going to get down in spring training. Yeah. That's the thing that I'm really interested to see this year is that if he does, you know, if he rides this momentum into the regular season and starts out hot, how does he respond once he does get into a slump? Because that's going to happen.

I mean, Julio's going to enter a slump at some point this season. That's just no, no player is exempt from that, really. So how does Jared respond once adversity comes back around for him? Because he hasn't responded great in the past. So from the mental side of things, too, like it's not just what he's doing mechanically that I'm very intrigued by. It's also the mental side because is he going to be able to endure? That's really the big question for me. And so is he going to, you know, let that snowball again into,

you know, maybe he has a good first month, but then the rest of the year looks bad, you know, or is he going to be able to get back on the horse after a couple of weeks of struggling? That's going to be really, really key for him. So, yeah, but until we see that in the regular season, it's just, I, you know, I would love to be impatient

and, you know, just overreact here and get excited about it. And I'm, you know, I'm fine with doing that a little bit here. But for me personally, I just, I can't allow myself to jump that far into the water here. until I actually see it, you know, in full context of the regular season. All right, we got a few more questions here to answer in just a moment, but real quick, a reminder of this episode of Lockdown Mariners is brought to you by LinkedIn.

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LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to you faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com slash Lockdown MLB. That's LinkedIn.com slash Lockdown MLB to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Welcome back to the Lockdown Mariners podcast. Thank you again for making us your first listen here on Mailbag Monday. We got one, two, three, four questions left here on Mailbag Monday. Let's get into them.

Starting with Cal Sal, who asks, what do they do with Harry Ford if he looks, ready for the show in the next year or two. Unless Cal seems to be, to take a step back, where does he fit? Trade piece possibly. So that's the beautiful thing about Harry Ford here, Cal. He's so athletic that he can really play anywhere. It doesn't matter what Cal Raleigh is doing, really. If you think that Harry Ford is ready to go, he could play second.

He could play third. He could play center field. He could play in a corner outfield spot. He could DH. He can really do it all. He is truly a super, you know, utility. At least that's what his ceiling is right now. And so Cal Raleigh, whatever he does to me, is irrelevant within the conversation of Harry Ford. I mean, it's relevant to maybe the,

you know, the possibility of him catching in the future. But overall, in terms of just the timeline of Harry Ford and how he fits into the roster and all this, that doesn't really matter to me what Cal Rale is doing. Yeah. What's never going to be the case is that the Mariners are going to either trade Harry Ford or Cal Raleigh because they feel like they have to make room for the other one. Not going to happen. Both of these guys can coexist on this roster. And by the way, if Harry Ford does get to the big leagues in the next year or two, it's not going to be as a catcher. They will have moved him off at that point and he's probably playing third, which makes a lot of sense considering that, you know, A. E. Henio-Swaras, his contract

ends after next season. And the Mariners right now do not have a third base. ready to go in that time period. You never know they could acquire somebody. Somebody could pop. Maybe they draft somebody this year. But right now they do not have that answer for Gino after he, his contract in. So yeah, I think, you know, if Cal continues to hit like he has and he continues to show

he's this type of player, you just move Harry forward to third or you move him to left field or, you know, maybe he can play second or center if he keeps his athleticism. But, yeah, the Mariners for now, they're going to keep forward a catcher, but that doesn't mean that's a long-term plan. And if the back continues to progress to the point in your hypothetical, where he's up in the big leagues by the end of 2024 or 2025, it's probably going to be because they moved him off of that position so that they can get him to the big leagues faster.

Right. All right. Next question here comes from C. What do you think the chances are the Mariners keep flexing and trade Marco as opposed to trading flexing and keeping Marco if they do trade flex and what do you think would be a good trade so uh again this goes back to the whole discussion about you know who's more valuable out of the bullpen and that's just straight up chris flex and again jerry depoto told you that himself on this show a few weeks back so

the likelihood zero really for for trading marco over uh trading flexen because you know there's money involved here he's owed roughly six million dollars this year and then 12 million next year, that's guaranteed. He does have a club option after next season. So that's not guaranteed. I think there's a buyout. If I'm not mistaken, I would assume probably in the $1 million range. So whoever's acquiring him is potentially on the hook for about $19 million.

Obviously, the Mariners would likely have to chip in some money on that front to make that happen. But they're probably not going to get anything that's necessarily worth doing that for. So, I mean, again, you would rather do that than just outright cut Marco. I mean, if there's just, you know, if the answer is that Marco is just not going to be in your rotation, then, you know, I would rather trade him that just cut him and just eat that money for absolutely nothing. I'd rather get at least something for him. And of course, you know, there was a reported three-team deal that was apparently being hammered out between the Phillies and the Yankees and the Mariners that would have sent Joey Gallo to Seattle and then Marco to Philly. And obviously that fell through. who knows why maybe that was performance base maybe that was money pace maybe both whatever but then again

i just i don't i don't have any delusions of the mariner's getting anything useful for marco gonzalez so i think it's just better for them to roll with him as their number five for now again i think he's a pretty good bridge to whatever you know is next in the rotation by the way brice miller went three innings today, struck out four, gave up two hits. And that's probably what, and speaking of whatever's next in the rotation, that's probably it's probably it. Sat 9798 today. So yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree.

Flexing gets traded. Again, I continue to be on the side that you're not going to get what people think. There are some people who just make a generic, like go trade them for a top 10 prospect. You're not getting anybody's top 10 prospect for Chris Flexen. There are guys who do what he does in every organization. and they make less than $8 million like Flexen does. So to me, you're either swapping them for somebody else who's, you know, maybe the offensive equivalent of Chris Flexen where it's, hey, we have, you know,

seven outfielders and this guy's making $9 million and we want to go with the younger guy. Let's trade him for Chris Flexen. Like I think that's kind of what you're looking at or possibly a platoon bat. Maybe if you're lucky, I don't think you're going to get a ton for Chris Flexen. I at least, you know, at the time the trade is made. I don't think you're going to get a ton for him. But again, the Mariners, sometimes they make these trades where they trade, you know, veterans for for minor leaguers who we've never heard of or they trade minor leaguers or fringe major leaguers for, you know, A ball arms. And sometimes they turn out to be Jake Shiner and you don't really get a lot for them.

Sometimes they end up being per lander, Boroa. And we're all excited about that trade. So it just because we don't know who the guy is when they, if they make a trade, doesn't mean it's not a good trade. Doesn't mean it doesn't make sense. Doesn't mean the process is unsound. It's just one of those things you have to wait and see, you know, like trading Taylor Williams for Matt Brash. So, yeah, I just don't think it's going to be a huge name that people are going to be really pumped for. And I think it's, I think if Flexon is traded before opening day, I think a lot of Mariner fans are going to say that's a terrible trade when they make it.

But we'll see. Yeah. And I think, you know, at its best, what you could get for flexen is something that helps you offer your bench right now. Again, that helps kind of fill out that hole that maybe Tommy Lestella has left open here. But that's about it. And even if you get someone like that, it's probably someone that hasn't really found success at the major league level. Just a shot that you're really taking another Cooper Humple type. Something like that, maybe.

All right. Next question here comes from Zane. A few months back, you guys talked about uniform changes. Is it just no more road gray tops or is there something more? Will they bring back the black tops with the silver. piping anytime soon those were fire so uh yeah that's it along with uh potential city connect jersey which we keep on seeing leaks about we've seen socks uh stance socks and then a t-shirt that's uh that's leaked recently for a potential mariner's city connect uh uniform but that's about it so major league baseball

implemented a rule um that teams can only have four primary uniforms that they can wear like in their regular rotation. There's obviously exceptions for special, you know, nights or series or whatever, like, you know, the mirrors are going to weigh their steelheads jerseys. And then, you know, obviously they'll have the city connects if they get those. But that's, that's it. But they're, they chose to axe their road grays in favor of the navies. They're going to be wearing the navies as their primary road uniforms. Maybe we'll see the Northwest Grays on the, on the, or Northrest Greens rather, on the road more than we typically do. But yeah, that's about it. So it's the home whites, home creams for Sunday, and then the Navy and the Northwest Green.

Those are there for. And then, yeah, you know, that wasn't what we expected. That wasn't what we were talking about when we said that we had heard that there were going to be uniform changes. We, I was told at the wild card game that there was going to be a complete rebrand. But I've also, you know, Colby and I have heard things like that for the last couple years. And so, you know, maybe that's bad information simply. or things have gotten delayed. I'm kind of leaning towards the ladder because it's not just what we've heard.

There has been talk about this all over, really, about the Mariners and, you know, going to rebrand within the last couple of years. And I expected it before 2021, frankly. I expected it before this past season and I expected it before this season as well. And it hasn't happened. But when you, you know, see people like Kevin Martinez teasing it, you know, asking like, like, what would, you guys like to see in all this stuff, you know, a few months ago. It just seems like it's happening. But I feel like they ultimately missed their window here for a rebrand.

Because the changing of the guard for the Mariners has already happened. Lulio's here. The drought has already been ended. We're already in the new era of Mariners baseball with these same uniforms. And it just felt like it would, that it was just the perfect time knowing how everything was going to happen, especially once we got out of 2021 and you could start to see it happening. that this would have been in the perfect time to execute that and just it didn't happen. So I don't know if they're ever going to rebrand.

I'm not going to talk about it anymore because, again, I've been told these things for the last couple of years. And I've said, yeah, I expect a rebrand and then it just didn't happen. So I don't know anymore. No clue. All right. Last question here for the day. It comes from faithful immunity. How often do you think we will see Cal Raleigh-DH when Tom Murphy starts?

Will the Mariners want to take his bat out of the lineup to provide more true off days? Colby, what do you think? I think the goal should be to get Cal or get to Raleigh off his feet a little bit more. He caught a lot last year, particularly towards the end of the year. And we know now that he did that with, you know, half a thumb, more or less. So I do think that there is value to getting him true off days. And obviously, you feel better about doing that this year, assuming Tom Murphy's healthy, than you did last year when it was, you know,

Louis Terence who never really found his footing at the plate and Brian O'Keefe, you know, as primary backup. So you feel better about it. So I do think there's value to just limiting him, getting him off the field on days, you know, minus maybe a pinch hitting appearance or something like that. But I don't think we're going to see it as often as people are hoping for. I think a lot of people are like, you know,

Murphy's just make Murphy the DH. And I don't think we're going to see that. Scott's never really like to do it when he's carried two catch. years before. He's done it when he's carried three, but not when he's carried two. So my guess is we'll probably see Cal get 90 to 100 starts being on the plate, and then maybe 10 to 15 DH days, whereas I think we're probably going to see 50, 60 starts from Tom Murphy. And then maybe Murphy gets 15 to 20 DH days. And that's kind of how they get there at bat. So I do think we'll see them in the lineup together a few times, but I don't think it's going to be

to the extent that a lot of Mariner fans are hoping because it just, it doesn't make a lot of sense because Murphy's also coming off of a serious injury. Right. And as unrelated as this may seem at face value, I think Jared Kelnick kind of plays a role in this as well, if he's a viable option, particularly against the lefties, because if not, A.J. Pollock is probably playing left field. And then that opens the DH for, you know,

maybe it's Sam Haggody, plays in the outfield, and Teo is the DH. But there's also, I mean, again, you know, and Tom Murphy might be the next best option after Pollock or Cal, you know, whoever is not catching that day to, to DH. You know, maybe Dylan Moore,

but there's also the possibility that Moore is going to platoon with Colton Wong. So he might already be playing second in that scenario. So yeah, so I think that also kind of plays a role here. But at the end of the day, just get a good hitter and DH. Don't let that be a black hole in your lineup. that's it that's all I ask really all right uh well if you're hearing this the episode went

through it it's actually not all messed up so we're gonna cross our fingers here it sounds fine on our end uh but hopefully it actually the the final product actually sounds good again a reminder you know we're doing a giveaway we're giving away two main level value game tickets to any mariner's value game within the month of april or may that's your choice if you win all you have to do subscribe to the show on YouTube and leave a comment on this video or any of our other videos this week and we will pick up winner next week. 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 Note. I'm Taday and G-D-N-G-A-N-G-G-N-G-Zals. You can follow me at Dan G-N-G-Z-L-C-Pat-E and Colby at CPAT 11. That's CPAT-1-1. You can also follow us on

Instagram and TikTok at Locked-on Mariners. That's one word, Locked-on Mariners. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode and thank you again for making us your first listen now for your second listen check out locked on fantasy baseball when you're league by listening to matt and dom every day as they bring you the best fantasy draft strategies it's free and available wherever you get your podcast just like us part of the lockdown podcast network your team every day and with that have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you tomorrow peace