Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mailbag: What Can the Mariners Do About Their Offensive Depth Issues Right Now?

Episode Date: June 1, 2023

After a big-time win against the New York Yankees to secure a 7-3 homestand, Colby and Ty open up the Mariners Mailbag to answer some of their listeners' questions, such as: is it time to move Ty France down in the order? Would you rather throw Luis Castillo or George Kirby in a Game 7? Can Julio get back in the MVP race? What's next for Jarred Kelenic?Help us out by filling out our survey!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 | @CPat11GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. 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.

Which Mariners starter do we trust more? George Kirby or Luis Castillo? Also, is it time to move on from Taylor Tremel? And where in the world is Mike Blowers? We'll answer all that and more coming up here on the Locked On Marriers podcast. Colby, hit it. You are Locked on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast.

Part of the Locked on podcast network. Your team every day. Ahoy, Sailors. It's Thursday, June 1st, 2023. Happy Pride Month. This is Tadang Azelis and Colby Patnode for the Locked-on Mariners podcast brought to you by Game Time. Download the GameTime app, create an account and use promo code Locked-on MLB for $20 off your first purchase. Last minute tickets, 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. And on this episode, we're going to open up the mailbag for the first time in a little while. I'm going to answer some of your Mariners questions, starting with Madden 44,

who asks, do you think Julio still has a shot at MVP? And also, should we still remain optimistic about Colton Wong? So a little bit of a two-parter here. To answer the first part, I mean, do you see what Aaron Judge is? doing right now. Do you think that Julio can dig himself out of the hole that he dug himself into over the first month and a half of the season and make up the ground and catch up to Aaron Judge? I have my doubts.

I still think that Julio can set himself up here for a season that full picture wise looks better than last year. But MVP? not as long as Aaron Judge is doing what he's doing. Right. So here's the thing about the most valuable player. I don't care who it is. I really don't.

Now, there are incentives in Julio's contract that are specifically related to the MVP vote. So he cares. I don't. I just want Julio to be good. But to answer your question, no, you probably shouldn't be. because I think for Julio to win the award over Judge and over Otani and, you know, probably even Trout, especially the Angels, are even remotely fringe playoff contenders, like then Julio's going to have to do something pretty special. And I think that's something special is he's going to have to like 35 home runs, 40 steals and that type of thing. And obviously, gold glove caliber defense.

And none of that is necessarily out of the question. for Julio because he's that talented, but it would take a heck of a stretch, you know, for that to come to your fruition. I think he probably has a good shot to finish inside the top, you know, seven or eight of MVP votes,

but I can't see him winning. He's just, you know, too far behind now. Again, a lot can happen. You know, judge can get hurt or you can go through a month-long slump or, you know, like anything can happen. So, especially when you're talking about Julio, but I think it's going to take something truly

remarkable. I think he's going to have to, you know, for the next, you know, over the next what, what do we have left? A hundred games or so. I think he's going to have to hit, you know, 300 with 30 bombs and like 25 steals or something like that. And even then, even then, he's going to need judge to regress, Otoni to regress, trout to regress, or get hurt, as you said. He probably also needs the Mariners to make the playoffs. Yeah. Things outside of Julio's control need to happen, probably in order for him to do that on top of being just out of this world i just i don't see it i don't see all of those things coming together yeah as for wong the second part of this question i mean we're two months in um a little over that now at this point are you able to still feel

even a glimmer of optimism when it comes to colton long right now uh not a lot uh he's just kind of running out of time and opportunity. I will say that Jose Cabiero, since being, you know, thrust into the everyday role at second base, not nearly as good as when he was a part-time player, which happens a lot. We saw it happen with Dillam Moore.

We saw it happen with Sam Haggerty. Now, Cabiero is still finding a way to help you. So he's still going to get a majority of the playing time. But kind of the good news, I guess, for Wong, is that the Mariners really don't have a better option. They're going to get Dillamore back here. hopefully Scott says, you know, in San Diego, we'll see.

We've heard a lot about how close Dillmore is, only to have him get pushed back again. So we'll wait and see there. Maybe that's a viable option. But I think Wong is going to get a few more opportunities. But you just kind of have to look at him as anything you get right now is kind of a bonus. Because, you know, it would be great. If Colton Wong went just the rest of this year, if you just put up the same numbers he did last year, the same slash line, for the rest of this season, then the Mariners have a really good second base situation because

they have Wong and Cabrero and more, and they can cover that position, even if Colton's not going to play every day. So I don't think optimism is necessarily the right term. I do think, though, that he's going to get a few more opportunities, but he's running out of time very quickly at this stage. And we'll see, you know, second basemen are incredibly hard to buy in July. So we'll see what they can do there. I don't think that he's getting axed anytime soon, like some of you think. But I do think that, you know, it's, like you said, we're two months in now. And he hasn't gotten really significantly better from where he was outside of that 10 game stretch before he hurt his wrist.

So, yeah, kind of. I hate to say it, but I think he's cooked. That's just how I feel. There's been a series of unfortunate events, but it is what it is. All right. Next question here from Pooh Crafter 2. All right. Based on what we've seen out of them,

the past 20 or so started stating back to last year's trade deadline, which pitcher would you trust more in a game 7? George Kirby or Luis Castillo? Castillo, right? Without hesitation. Yeah. Yep. Better stuff.

Better stuff. It's a veteran. Like Kirby obviously had the great game three performance against Houston. So he does have some experience. don't get me wrong on that front but i'm i'm going castio all day even though i i love kirby but kirby again it all comes down if if the command is elite because the stuff isn't overwhelming right it's good stuff uh but if you make some mistake it's prone to get hit pretty hard castile can get away with more mistakes um than kirby can but yeah it's it's a really good problem

to have uh because hey you know what they're probably going to get into a point at some point where you need to win game six to get to a game seven and it's like well yeah we have a good option for game six and game seven so uh you know it's it's purely hypothetical but uh i i would still give the edge to castile for now but that could change in the over the next few months but for now castile next question here comes from jace what would your order be versus right-handed pitchers tie batting two to me is too high i agree there needs to be changes first of all julio should be hitting two over france brance to me should be hitting like five or six in this lineup right now uh but specifically against rites i don't know colby how would

you um align this uh this batting order for the marries against righties uh probably something like j p hulio kelnik uh raleigh m Swares, France, or France Suarez, however you want to mix those two guys up. Tay Oscar. Pollock. It really shows you how much the merits need a left-hand of bat. Yeah.

And then I guess Wong slash Caviaro hitting ninth. Yeah. Yeah. Can we please let AJ Pollock hit against Ritees a little bit more? Just a little bit. Can we just try it? Can we just try it? Can we just, you know, go back to trying that a little bit here and there, just sprinkle it in.

He was hitting right. He's a lot better than lefties for most of the year. So, yeah, yeah, you just, you got to try something because Taylor Tremel ain't it. And we have a question about Tremel coming up here in just a moment. But first, a reminder, this episode of the Lockdown Mariners podcast is brought to you by Game Time. Buying tickets to your favorite events shouldn't be stressful. Game time is a fast and easy way to buy tickets for all the sports, music, comedy, and theater near you. And with killer deals on last minute tickets and their best price guarantee, you can stop stressing over the tickets and start getting hype for the fun you'll have.

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Last minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed. And you're listening to the Lockdown Mariners podcast. Thank you again for making us your first to listen. As we go through our mailbag here, Mariners enjoying a much-needed day off today. They'll get back after it tomorrow, heading back out onto the road. They'll be in Arlington facing the Texas Rangers

for a very, very important three-game series this weekend against the first-place Rangers. You can catch all the action on the Mariners' hometown broadcast with Sirius XM, rather, wow, on the S-XM. app. All right. So back into these questions here, Colby, Jace has another one. How long do you give Taylor Tremel till you start taking his at-bats away? Even lefty versus righty he's struggling. Does his struggles make the need for an outfielder that hits

right-handed pitching at the top of the list come trade deadline? Not necessarily an outfielder to just address the last part of that question. Just a left-handed bat doesn't really matter where he plays. but yeah, I think it's time to start exploring other options. Now there's obviously the question of do you actually have a better option right now than Taylor Tremel waiting in Tacoma? I mean, Mike Ford's been crushing it, but Mike Ford just opted out of his minor league contract.

And now the Mariners basically Mike Ford gave them an ultimatum. The Mariners have 48 hours to add him to their major league roster or else he's gone. He's out of here. So maybe. Maybe that's the move, but also you got Dylan Moore supposedly rejoining the ball club in San Diego here in a few days. So maybe more takes Tremel's spot. I would rather he'd take Sam Harrogate's spot, but I digress. So, yeah.

So, I mean, the one question here, Colby, is it time to move on from Taylor Jamel taking it? Is it time to take his hat bats away? And second of all, is there actually a better option than Taylor Chamell for this roster right now? I think the best option is to use AJ Pollock as much as you can at this stage, as much as he can handle. Yeah, Mike Ford's kind of the obvious one. And again, they'll have to make a decision on that. I feel like they already have because Mike Ford's made more sense for this roster

than, you know, the 26 guy on it for the last month or two even. So I feel like they've already made that decision. And, you know, just some of the other guys that maybe could replace Tremel, Cade Marlowe hasn't played a ton recently, and he's not really performing all that well anyways. Colin Moran is on the IL, so he's not an option. So you're kind of looking at like Cesar Hernandez, maybe, but he's not on the 40-man, so you'd have to make a 40-man move, which you could still do. You have a couple of, you know, Robbie Gray is still on the 15-day IL.

So you can clear that up pretty easy. But yeah, I mean, Jake Shiner, not really the guy you want to go to. also not a lefty, so it doesn't really help you that much there. So yeah, Tramel, there's just not really a great fit in the org right now. There's a couple of opt-outs that I'm watching today. Ben Gamal being one, Tyler Naquin being another. But, yeah, Tramel, I don't think he's, you know,

a major league quality bat right now, but you also, again, unless you're willing to call it Mike Ford, which is the Mariners said made it pretty clear they're not. They're just not going to. then Tremel and Pollock are kind of your guy. And so, yeah, you definitely want to add a left-handed bat. At the end of the day, though, you just got to add the best bat you possibly can, lefty already.

And it doesn't really matter what position they play because right now your DH is wide open. Nobody's taking that job and ran with it. So, yeah, it'd be great. They could play another position besides DH. You don't want a full-time DH. The Mariners would like to avoid that. But, yeah, at the end of the day, they need another bat. And if you're like filling out priorities after that,

then you probably prefer a left-handed bat to a right-handed bat. You probably prefer a left-handed hitting outfielder who can play some defense to a left-handed hitting first base only type of guy. But at the end of the day, you need a bat. And if you can't fulfill those other preferences and all you can get is a right-handed, you know, third base, first-base bat or whatever, then that's just what you have to do because you need the bat more than you need the positional flexibility right now.

Yeah. And positionally, I mean, you are still going to have four outfielders if you subtract Tramel and more obviously can go out and play in a corner as well. So when he returns. So you're not short of options there. It's just that left-handed outfield option is not really present there. So outside of Jerich, of course. Again, the mirrors are kind of in a bind here.

They don't really have too many avenues to go down with. this maybe Jake Shiner is someone that you look at but again like Colby said he's not left-handed so you're just going to get more right-handed heavy if you're essentially swapping out Shiner or Tramel for Shiner so I don't know there isn't really a perfect solution right now next question oh you got something else at shoot somebody who was recently DFA who was a left-handed bat and I just can't remember what his name was. It just literally ran out of the line.

Well, if it comes back to you, let us know. All right. Josh here has a question. Would Dillamore and Andreas Munoz coming back soon? Who's most likely to lose their roster spot? Seems like you can make a case to drop anyone on the bench aside from Merv. So we basically just talked about this. Jerry DePoto today told 710 Seattle Sports that Moore and Munoz are both expected to be back with the club.

once they get to San Diego, which is the second series of this three series road trip that they're about to go on. So that's what Monday, Monday that they're expected to be back. So when that happens, I think it's pretty clear cut because, I mean, this team for whatever reason seems completely unwilling to move off Chris Flexen. So I would assume that it's going to be Munoz for Matt Besta and Dillamore for either Taylor Tremel or San. Haggody my preference obviously is Haggody so because you're basically swapping out similar skill sets yeah it also kind of depends on like how much do you think AAA can help the player uh because if you've just given up on Sam Haggurdy then maybe it makes more sense to send tremel down so you can you know get regular at bats um but uh so yeah i think for me it's

i would like to believe that the mariners are finally getting ready to dFA chris flexen i don't believe it. I'll believe that when I see it. So yeah, it's probably Festa going down for Munoz and I would guess Haggerty going down for for more just because they're similar. And also, you know, you still want that lefty bat even if it's not a good one, I guess. So I think those are the moves. What would I do if, you know, we're up to me at DFA flexin. And I would probably demote Tramel because I just, I'm willing to. you know sacrifice basically haggerty because I don't think he's really anything how about this how about Dillamore and Jake Shiner for Taylor Chappelle and

Sam Hargurdy it's not great it's not great but you need to try something near not great is an understatement but sure such a hater such a hater you just don't want me to run with my you just don't want me to run with my narrative just not good it's only because you hate you me. No, it's because I'm not impressed by a 27 year old hitting in AAA. I mean,

the cabbiero was a 27 year old hitting in triple A. 26. 26, whatever. Cabiero also. One year difference. You know, I'm 27 years old. Base can play multiple positions, can steal bags. Yeah, that profile excites me a lot more than a hulking third base, first base only,

who's just a one trick pony right-handed bat, who's tearing it up in the PCL at 27 years old. I'm 27 years old. You call him you old? Yes. Damn. That shook me into my core.

You're listening to the Lockdown Mariner's podcast. This is our mailbag episode. Haven't done one of these in a while. Again, you can catch the Mariner's and the Rangers once the Mariner's get back to action starting tomorrow on the Mariners hometown broadcast with Sirius XM via the

SXM app. We got a couple more questions here. Nate Slaymaker. Is that your real name? That is pretty killer. I like that. Sleigh maker. Damn.

Do we know what has happened to Mike Blowers? He came back for like half an inning a month ago and then nothing. I would obviously grant him privacy if that's what he wants. But it's strange that Root is not addressing his absence. Wilson and hyphen are just not the same. So they actually did address his absence last night. Angie came on the broadcast. I don't know, like fifth, six inning, something like that.

because Larry Stone interviewed Blowers for the Times yesterday. That piece came out yesterday. And Blowers missed a bunch of time early on in the season with bronchitis. And then he went out for a run and I guess had an accident and suffered, unfortunately, a concussion and multiple facial fractures, I believe is what Angie said on the broadcast last night. So that sounds pretty rough. We're wishing him a speedy recovery over here. and yeah, that's where he's been.

Yeah, he's got some kind of crystal issue in his ear too, so his balance is off and he's working to get through that. And it sounds like he wants to be back or he's planning on being back at the start of the next homestand, which I believe starts on June 12th. So you're looking for a target date. It's probably right around there. All right. The last question of the day comes from Greg.

Kelnick slugged 423. it may mostly in the cleanup spot what does he need to change to have a more effective june in the cleanup spot or does he need a better spot in the lineup maybe the two spot colby yeah i don't love the idea that because he's hitting cleanup he has to slug a certain amount um so i'll reject the premise of the question right there uh the issue with kelnick right now in the cleanup spot is that he's striking out way too much um he's up over 30 percent now So that is something that he needs to clean up. I mean, just Kellnick is a,

is obviously a very talented player who's having a very nice year. But the strikeouts are starting to creep up, batting average, starting to slide down. And again, even though he struggled in May, it was still a pretty good month. So, yeah, I don't think that it's really a slugging issue. If he slugs 423 for the rest of the year, he's going to slug 450-ish throughout the entire year.

That's more than good enough for, for anywhere. So I don't want him to try and slug more to justify his spot. I just want him to get better, which is draw a few more walks, strike out a little bit less. Because we know when Kellogg puts the ball in play, it's usually hard hit.

So, you know, the more he can cut down on the swings and misses, the doubles and the home runs, they're going to come more naturally anyway. So I don't think there's anything he needs to change in terms of chasing home runs or extra base hits. I think he just, you know, needs to cut down on the strikeouts a little bit, make a slight adjustment.

And then those, those, you know, that slugging will go up when, you know, the on-base percentage and the average go back up a little bit because it's just how it works with a guy who hits the ball as hard as Jared Kellnick does. So, yeah, I'm not, I'm not worried about the power at all with Jared. It's the one thing I'm not worried about is can Jared slug. So, yeah, I think he's fine in the cleanup spot. I think it's totally fine. Maybe move them down to five or you put him at two or you try him at one.

Like wherever Jared's comfortable, wherever you feel like he can handle. And the Mariners have a pretty good beat on that. So I really don't care too much where he hits in the lineup. It should be somewhere in the first five spots. But, you know, other than that, I don't really care where he hits. And I'm just more focused on Jared, you know, trying to be the best player he can be instead of trying to fill a specific role on this team.

because when Jared Kellnick is good, it doesn't matter what his role in the team is, the Mariners are better. So, yeah. Kelnick of the month of May slash 250, 304, 423 with a 100 WRC plus. So he was exactly a league average bat in the month of May. 34.8% strikeout rate.

So that needs to come down significantly. 173 isolated power, 6.3% walk rate. He had 11 extra base hits, including three home runs. and a triple. So what are you seeing right now by your, you know, assessment? What are the issues? What's eating him up with strikeouts right now?

Yeah, it's right-handed change-up still. It's that pitch in particular, low and away. That Kelnik's having a hard time. He's either, you know, swinging through it or he's rolling over on it. We've seen him make adjustments to it already. We've seen them drive the ball to left field a little bit more. But they're going to keep pounding that spot with that pitch as long as they can. So, yeah, it's mostly the change-up right now.

It's kind of giving him trouble. He's out there hunting fastballs. And you don't want him to stop doing that. You don't want him to go up there and necessarily look for change-ups because you don't want him to start being laid on fastballs. So it's kind of a catch-22 there. He has to make an adjustment, though, because if Kellnick is going to strike out 34% of the,

the time for the rest of the year, he's not going to be a league average hitter. So, well, he'll probably still be overall because he got off to such a great start, but he's not going to be a league average hitter for the rest of the year. And the fact that he still put up those numbers, despite striking out 34% of the time, pretty encouraging. So, yeah, I think it's that low and away pitch. And then also we're seeing teams trying to bust them up and in with the fastball. So it's kind of a standard way to pitch any lefty.

Most teams in the league will prefer to pitch left. He's up and in and low and away. But I think we're starting to see that right now. And Jared is kind of caught in between on those pitches. He doesn't want to dive out to cover the change-up because they're popping them inside with enough fastballs that he's got to honor it. So I think it's just him having to make an adjustment

about how the league's pitching to him. But for me, at least to my eye, it seems like a lot of change-ups or a lot of breaking balls right now. He's just not getting a ton of really good fast balls to hit. So I just think it's about making a, you know, a tiny adjustment here and he doesn't have to be down to 22%. Like Kelnick could strike out 26, 27% of the time and still be a really, you know, great hitter. It just you can't be 34% right now. Right.

Speaking of Kellnick, he won our poll. So he's going to be the guy that we back for the All-Star game vote. We are going to be the unofficial official campaign managers of Jared Kelnick here on the Lockdown Airs podcast. still think that J.P. Crawford's the easiest sell. I know you disagree. You think it's a big dumper, but. I think, yeah. I think JP is the funnest campaign.

I would say that. How about that play last thing? Oh, that was, that was. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's washed, toasted. Yeah. No, JP's, you know, been great, particularly defensively. And obviously, he's hitting the ball really hard right now,

which is nice because we kind of thought after April we were like, yeah, well, you know, that's just JP's one good month. And then May, he kept on hitting the ball pretty hard. And it's not showing up a ton in the slash line or anything like that. But, you know, JP again, it's, he's kind of the unofficial team captain right now. He's playing an amazing defense. He's hitting the ball hard. He's getting on base.

And he's been one of your most consistent hitters throughout the entire year, which is kind of weird. and also kind of not ideal, but it is the reality. So, yeah, JP, you know, you feel really good when the ball gets hit to him, you know, the 10th ending of last night, notwithstanding. Out of these three players, Colby, can you tell me who has the highest hard hit rate? J.P. Crawford, Cal Raleigh, or Thai, France. It's definitely not Thai France. It's definitely not Thai France.

Yeah, you would be correct on that front. I would assume it's JP Crawford. It is. Yeah, it is probably. 2% by 2% well almost a full 2% 41.1% of the time compared to Cal's

39.7%. That's high and it also seems a little unsustainable just because the swing still isn't very good but whatever it's working for them right now you know Mariners lineup would be great if they could just put JP down at 789 and they could just you know put you know Jared back down at 6 and

pretty much you could do all those things if We have Colton Wong and Teoska Hernandez were just the guys we thought they were at the beginning of the year. Because Wong would be hitting, you know, first or second, and Teo would be hitting third or fourth. And everybody else would slide down to their natural spot. Thai France probably hits, you know, fifth in that case. And everything would be great. Your lineup would look at so much better. But unfortunately, Wong's been a disaster and Teo not a ton better, especially for a guy who pumped him up the entire offseason.

yeah yeah yeah that's uh yeah that's uh yeah that's my cross-boy you sold us for a show i sold us a faulty car tie you sit on a throne of lies yeah yep yep yep i do i do i do i do i blew it i blew it i blew up but you know what i'm gonna take a step back gonna reassess my can't wait for tay oscar to put up like a 140 WRC plus this month and watch Tybee like I told you after I admitted defeat after you denounce them yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah exactly that's that's that's that's totally what's gonna happen all right that's gonna do a for a show thank you so much for joining us here on the lockdown mariner's podcast for colby pat note i'm titan gzalus be sure to give us a follow on twitter at l0 underscore mariners you can follow me at dain gnzalus that's d a nzl z and colby at cpat 11 that's

cpat 1 1 follow us on instagram and TikTok as well over at Locked-on Mariners. That's one word, Locked-on Mariners. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. Thank you again for making us your first listen. Again, you can catch the Marriers and the Rangers tomorrow on the Marys hometown broadcast with Sirius XM via the SXM app. And you can join us tomorrow as we get you set for the Mariners and the Rangers.

But for now, have yourself a beautiful baseball day. And we'll see you tomorrow. Peace.