Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mailbag: When Will We See Julio and Kirby?

Episode Date: February 21, 2022

Hosts Ty Dane Gonzalez and Colby Patnode answer your questions, including which former Mariners player who never made the All-Star game with the team they would add to the 2022 club, when Julio Rodriguez and George Kirby could be called up and more.Be sure to follow or subscribe to Locked On Mariners wherever you prefer your podcasts! For questions and other inquiries, email: [e-mail] the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @danegnzlz | @CPat11For more of Ty and Colby, check out their Patreon: patreon.com/controlthezone/Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You are Locked-on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome to Locked-on Mariners, brought to you by BetOnline. Bet-Online has you covered this season with more props, odds, and lines than ever before. Bet-Online, where the game starts. Today is Monday, February 21st, 2022. Thank you so much for making us your first listen of the day.

I am your host, Tadine Gonzalez, joined as always by my co-host, Colby. hat node. Follow us on Twitter at L-O- underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Dane Gonzalez. It's D-A-N-Z-L-Z and Colby at C-P-A-E-T-E-A-T-1-1. Be sure to also check out our Patreon where we talk about the Mariners even more and also get into some non-baseball talk twice a week. Visit patreon.com forward slash control zone for more information

on that if you are interested and what more of us. And it is Mailbag Monday on today's episode of Lockdown M's. We're going to be reading and answering as many of your questions as we possibly can over the next 30 or so minutes. And if this is your first time joining us, welcome to the show. If you like what you hear, give us a follow or subscribe. Wherever you listen to this, we greatly appreciate it. Let's head on over to our email, locked on mariners at gmail.com. We got four questions over there. Let's start with Hayden, who asks us about Juan Soto. With news that Juan Soto turned out a huge deal with the nationals, do you think the nationals would

like to get something for him? Would you trade? Julio Rodriguez and Emerson Hancock for Juan Soto. Thanks for the show. To answer your question, yeah, I absolutely would. The Nationals would never take that, though. Here's the thing with Soto. Still got three years left on his deal. The Nationals don't have to trade him right now to take advantage of his market or take advantage of his value while they can. There's no real threat of him leaving just yet just because he declined the extension offer that they gave him. that doesn't mean that his future in Washington is going to be over in three years. That isn't a guarantee of that.

He's just waiting out the market because he believes in his talents, as he should. He's an incredible baseball player already who has already won a championship. He's one of the most talented players in today's game, and he's only 23 years old. He's going to be in line for a massive payday whenever he hits the open market and even waiting a couple years or even. in just another year for another extension offer from Washington could pay huge dividends for him. So the nationals aren't going to trade him, at least not right now. Maybe when it gets to a year left on his contract, and it just doesn't seem like he's going to resign there, sure. But yeah, right now there's no urgency for that on Washington's side of things.

And Julio Rodriguez and Emerson Hancock are just not going to get it done. there's really nothing that you or any other team probably could offer the nationals that they would take for Juan Soto, right? No, it just, it doesn't, it doesn't make sense for Washington to trade Wonsoto because he still has three years of club control left. And there's a decent shot that you can be good inside those three years. And if you're going to be good in three years, you probably want Wonsoto. And just because Soto rejected this extension doesn't mean he won't. doesn't mean that he's not open to an extension. Maybe this is the best the nationals are willing to offer right now.

And Soto says, well, when I go out and I win the triple crown this year, we'll see if you're willing to go 13,400, right? Maybe he should be holding out for a Mike Trout contract. We're being, you know, perfectly fair because he's worth that and then some. So, yeah, I don't think that him rejecting that, that extension. means anything. You know, we know, Jared Keltnik rejected an extension offer from the Mariners.

I mean that Kelnik will never resign with the Mariners. No, it doesn't. So, you know, these type of things happen all the time behind the scenes. It's a big amount of money, but Soto's actually risking very little. Because that type of extension, no matter how bad he is in 2022,

will still be on the table. like if he wants to sign that deal next offseason, the nationals aren't going to say no. So he's not risking much, but he might potentially, you know, gain so much by, by just sticking it out and kind of going year to year. And maybe he doesn't want a long-term deal.

Maybe he wants to be a national, but maybe he wants like a, you know, a three-year extension instead of 13. With an opt-out or something, yeah. Yeah. So maybe the money was really close, but they wouldn't give the opt-out until like after year eight.

and he wanted it after like year five or something like that. So yeah, of course, if Soto was actually available, the Mariners should in pretty much every team in baseball should go all in their efforts to acquire them. And that would mean everybody in your farm system is available. Everybody in your Major League roster is available. But that's just not the case with Juan Soto right now. All right. So J-Quah wants to know if the lockout continues and we have a shortened season like the COVID season,

how could that change the Mariners free agency and trade strategies? I don't think it really does whatsoever. I think the Mariners are going to be aggressive no matter what. I don't think that really makes them more aggressive or less aggressive. It doesn't really matter. The Mariners are on a particular timeline right now with where they need to be and they need to get to where they want to go, whether there's going to be 60 games, 100 games, 120 games, 162 games, whatever in 2022.

So the amount of games, the way that the season is structured should have really no impact on that whatsoever in my mind. Yeah, the only way, because again, the Mariners aren't just trying to put the finishing touches on a championship team. They're still trying to build it. And so they would still be interested in Chris Bryant on a five-year deal on Trevor's story in a five-year deal. You know, maybe it might change some things for players. Players might be more willing to take one-year deals. That's a possibility. Or players, you know, may want longer contracts as a result.

Like, we don't know. The bigger impact would be on the players. The only time I could see maybe Seattle thinking they could take advantage of that is with the starting pitcher. because if, right, if you only have to cover 10 starts with your number five starter versus 30 starts, right? The pressure to get that number five is a lot less. However, if you're the Mariners, you're still want to do damage if you can make the playoffs. And so you want to add that mid-rotation arm either way. Like, I think in a perfect world, you want Marco or Chris Flexen to be your number five to start the year.

Right. And, you know, that's even better, like, obviously it's better if Sunny Gray gives you 30 starts and Sunny Gray giving you 10 starts wouldn't be as good. But if it's 10 starts and then, you know, two playoff starts. You'd rather do that than, then, you know, give Chris Flexon two playoffs starts if you even get to two. You know what I mean? And also someone with, and also someone like Sunny Gray, you're going to have them under club control for 2023 as well. Yeah, we haven't really heard the Mariners linked to any kind of like rental pitching. I guess Bassett, they kind of in Mania, but we've really connected them to those two guys more than, you know, the Mariners have given us reason to.

Yeah, it was more so the comment from Jerry to Potos saying, hey, we like all those guys. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, but based on what we've heard, the guys that they're targeting. Yeah. The guys that they're targeting, though, are under club control for more than one year. of right now. Yeah. So I don't think it really change as much at all. All right. So Connor says, happy Monday gentlemen. Assume the Mariners don't land any of the top free agents. So Brian's story,

Conforto or Suzuki and instead making a number of smaller moves like trading for Joey Gallo, Kevin Kiramire, Sunny Gray, Mike Moostakis and signing Jonathan VR. Does that team have a shot at making the playoffs? I ask because I am worried this is what will happen. So a Mariner's roster that adds, instead of Bryant's story, Conforto, or Suzuki, and instead goes after Joey Gallo, Kevin Kiramire, Sunny Gray, Mike Mustakis, and Jonathan V.R. Colby, does that team have a good shot at making the postseason? It has a shot. In a 17th playoff, it would probably be one of the favorites to be one of those seven teams in a five-man playoff.

they would need work at the deadline. It's still a pretty good rotation. But the infield really lacks punch. And really, I mean, Kiermeyer is great. But if you have Gallo and Kiermeier, what are you doing with Kelnik? What are you doing with Julio?

What are you doing with Lewis? Like, how are you managing Hanager's health? Like, you kind of want, I mean, obviously in an ideal world, you would get Gallo's power and Keirmeyer's, like, defense. But, like, that's, that's Mike Trout. Like, like, there's a reason you can't get that guy. So, um, I think that's a, I think that's probably like an 84 win roster,

give or take, um, before they do anything. I think it's the seventh best team in the American league. I think it's that type of roster. And that's not a big margin for air. Yeah. So, um, it's, they can have a solve good off season and not get one, you know, one of those big names. But I kind of don't think that they can,

it's the Mustakis thing, really honestly. That is like, that's your answer at third base. Yeah. Aim higher. It's not better. It's not a better roster than Chicago. It's not a better roster than Houston. It's not a better roster than New York.

It's not a better roster than Boston, even though, you know, some of the losses that they've had. It's not a better roster than Toronto. It's not a better roster than Tampa. You could argue it's not a better roster. roster than Oakland as Oakland's roster stands right now. So right. Minnesota even.

Yeah. Yeah. So I mean like so I mean I mean like like the rotation is the rotation is good. That's a good rotation. You like what you have in the bullpen. It's just offensively it's it's life. It's tough. You know.

It needs a lot more punch. Yeah. Because what you don't have in that lineup though is you don't have a lot of guys. You don't have like the Kansas City Royal. where you can just kind of re-cavick with your running game and, you know, you're basically relying on Gallo and Hanneger for power. And nobody else is, you know, nobody else you feel comfortable. Yeah, but you feel comfortable that Kellogg's going to hit enough for that power to matter?

I don't. Not yet. I mean, personally speaking, but yes, but I get why there's some hesitancy there. You can't think on that. Like they're already, in my opinion, they're already counting on. Kellnick too much for 2022. So to do that even more, I feel like you're doing that even more if you don't go get a Conforto or a Suzuki.

But you know, it doesn't have to be what instead of Moostock is you get Jeff McNeil, you know, that kind of changes the conversation. So to answer the spirit of the question, yes, the Mariners can still be a good playoff contender without getting any of the big names that are left. that particular circumstance I was described. I'd say that probably puts them a very fringe

playoff contender that needs some serious upgrades at the deadline. So which former Mariner who never made an all-star team with the M's would we add

to the 2022 roster if we had the chance? We're going to answer that and more in just a moment but real quick, a reminder this episode of Lockdown Mariners is brought to you

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Rock Auto.com. You're listening to Lockdown Mariners. Thank you again for making us your first listen of the day, just like you do here every day. And just a reminder to check out Locked on MLB Prospects. Host Lindsay Crosby is a prospect encyclopedia. And he's going deep on the MLB stars of tomorrow. And it's free and available wherever you get your podcast just like us. So let's continue answering these questions with us.

our last one that we have in our email. This comes from AJ says Colby and Ty. You can add one non-all star Mariners players season to this team with the caveat that they couldn't have ever made an all-star team as a mariner. So you can't pick 2010 Felix, for example. So who would you pick? AJ says he is picking 2012 John J-So. So for me, I think the answer is pretty clear. I mean, I didn't have a ton of time to think about this after reading the question. But for me, it's 2017 Mike Zanino. You had a guy that went 251, 331, 509, 126 WRC plus with some of the best catcher defense in the league.

He was worth four and a half wins that year. Yeah, he struck out a ton. But I mean, except for his 2021 season in Tampa Bay, this was the best we've ever seen. Zanino, honestly, you can make the argument that he was even better than he was in 2021, which is a year that he actually did make the All-SAR team. So yeah, and that's exactly what 2022, what the 2022 Mariners could use as a really, you know, high upside, highly productive offensive catcher with good catcher defense as well. I mean, they lack kind of in both areas of the catcher position right now.

So yeah, that would be a huge upgrade, adding someone with that profile to this team. you know and obviously there's probably you know some some other options there but uh yeah zanino is kind of the clear one for me colby uh first of all dumb question because now i can't pick 2016 kyle seger because he made the all-star team in 2014 makes sense sure why not um so in spirit of your question i am also going to cheat um much like the the asker of this question and I'm going to say Cliff Lee in 2010, who did make an All-Star team, but was not on the Mariners when he was at the Midsummer Classic.

So 2010 Cliff Lee would be my answer. Nice try. Can't put me in a box. Boo-ya. Creative solution right there. As always. Proud of you, buddy. All right.

Let's move on to Twitter. Aidan wants to know, when should we expect top prospects like Julio Rodriguez and George Kirby to be called up this year? So this is a question that we've answered a couple times this off season. I've been asked this question on Twitter and whatnot. You know, I'm sure it's going through a lot of folks' minds. So to just reiterate, if you've already heard us answer this question before, apologies, but just to reiterate,

I would expect Julio Rodriguez to be called up sometime in May or June. You know, I highly doubt he will make the club out of spring training, especially considering where things are. heading right now. Obviously he can't join the minor league camp right now because he's on the 40 man roster. He's a part of the MLBPA so he is technically locked out right now. So that's going to

you know, that's going to hinder him a little bit and get him ready for the season. Whenever that starts and whenever he's able to go down to camp, organize camp and start working on things and get ready for the year to come. You know, I would say that it's

it's almost a certainty. I would pretty much put it at 100% that he is going to start the year in AAA Tacoma whenever he is able to get back to organized ball. And at that point, I would say it's probably going to take a month plus and there's probably some things that he's got to work through and remember,

look, everyone thought that Jerry Kellnick was going to be ready as soon as he got called up. He wasn't. I would expect it to be maybe around the same time, you know, time frame that we saw Kellnick get called up, which was about, what, five, five weeks after the MLB season started, six weeks after the MLB season started around then, but I could also see it be in June. As for Kirby, I'd probably say June, maybe July that we see him. It just,

it really depends on the progress that he makes. And the, really the situation with the rotation as well, you know, where is the rotation at that point? Your guys hurt? Is it performing well or, you know, are they completely healthy and guys are performing well? And there's just not enough opportunities. I think eventually he'll get an opportunity no matter what the circumstances. But I don't think that they're going to go into rush it unless, you know, they feel that there's an opening there and make it happen. So I'd say Julio May, Juneish and then Kirby somewhere in the summertime.

I think Julio is probably. mid-May would be my guess and he has to perform. I think people forget that Julio really doesn't have that much time facing upper-level competition. He was very good last year, but again, just a handful of games above AA or at AA or higher. And, you know,

he's missed, you know, some time over the last few years with some wrist injuries. He got hit in the wrist a few times. So he's missed a little bit of time there. So Julio is still barely new to professional baseball, if that makes sense, at least in terms of games played. And he moved a lot last year as well, right? Like he didn't have a consistent season because he went to the Olympics.

I just think I think people are like assuming that he's ready to go right now. And maybe he is. He is certainly talented. But that's a huge assumption. So I would think that the Mariners want to be sure about this. And I don't see any time before mid-May really making much sense. I think it's going to be closer to June 1. But we'll see.

Hopefully we get a spring training. Hopefully, you know, we get Julio down to AAA in time for the start of the season. And who knows. But Julio, I would say mid-May to very early June and probably the same for Kirby. And with Kirby, it's more about managing his workload so that he has bullets left at the end of the year. Because, again, you know, Kirby basically didn't get a 2020 season. And last year he did get shut down for a little tiny year. bit.

So they're not going to ask him to go out and throw 170 innings this year. They're probably going to put him at about a hundred. And again, and it also has to make sense within the circumstances of the roster at the time as well and the circumstances of the rotation.

Right. You know, it just can't be, you know, they're not going to just shoehorn him in even if they feel that he's ready, right? Like it has to make sense because they are competing for, you know, a postseason birth and more. That's the intention

of the, season. So they got to do what they feel is best for them moving forward. And so, yeah, you know, whenever they, they feel that George Kirby can legitimately help them. That's when you're going to see them. So that could be June. That could be July. That could be even later. Who knows? But yeah, it really depends on the circumstance of the season. And like Colby said, it depends on, you know, his workload and managing that. So, All right, let's move on to Bo who says, I'm curious if either of you could create a mock trade.

The other would give a grade of 60 or above. So I guess we're going to have to do this on the spot. Colby, have you thought of anything since you saw this question a little while ago? Devin's Sweet for Kevin Kiermire. Makes some sense. I feel like Sweet would would appear. appeal to the raise. I think that's kind of the level of prospect that makes some sense in that deal because you're taking on money for Kiramire. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's pretty good. I feel like really the most 60, you know, the most 60 potential is with the raise in general because there's a lot of fits there that makes sense with the Mariners and rays.

Nick Markavichis for Kevin Kiermeyer Tell me Nick Norgaagis isn't a future Ray Get out of here I mean yeah but would they want to add a 40 man guy Who's also coming off of a significant injury for Keirmeyer I think they care more about the $14 million that

Kiermeyer is costing them than anything else And I mean like That's just basically off of all the empirical evidence. So, yeah. I know the tricky part is to get the other person to give you a 60. It has to be somewhat realistic and it has to appeal to them.

So it'd be nice if you could put in one of their favorite trade targets. So like Ty can think like, oh, well, I'll just trade like Juan Tane for Max Meyer and that has to be a 60. And it's like, well, I mean, obviously that would be amazing. but that's obviously never going to happen. So like... Yeah. Yeah. And I'm still trying to think, honestly.

Ooh, I got one. I got one. Okay. All right. Ray Kerr and Corey Rozier for Adam Frazier. That's a 90. There you go. Did it. Boom. The Mariners should do something like that.

Yeah. Yeah. If only the Mariners could trade Taylor. Williams from Matt Brash. Yeah. Wouldn't that be something? What an idiot. The other GM must be.

There's no way anybody thinks he's good at his job. Man, being on the spot for this is hard. I'm having a hard time thinking of something. I'm having a hard time thinking of something that we haven't heard in a fan fiction Friday, by the way. Because that's what sticks in my mind, right? I don't want to take anyone's idea here.

Yeah, I don't know I'm gonna have to come back to this, I think And maybe we'll do this on the next Actually, you know, this is a good idea for for Wednesday's show, Beau I think maybe Wednesday show we should dedicate a segment to Creating our own fan fiction Friday trade For one another Kyle Lewis for Max Kepler

No All right, so next segment of the show, our final segment of the show is basically the Daisy and the dingo segment of this show. Daisy's got three questions that we're going to be answering in just a moment, but real quick, a reminder of this episode of Lockdown Mariners

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situations for example he starts a few games throws some one plus any relief in higher leverage spots closes a few games out and ultimately ends up with around 100 to 140 innings pitched I think at the end of the day just thinking of how this season will likely go and how the roster will be constructed. Hey, Colby, if we're thinking about the geometry of the roster, right? I think that it kind of makes sense to have brush and that and something of a similar role to what you're describing. I don't think that he ends up being in a spot where he's closing out a few games or really any games because of just the depth that they have in the bullpen, particularly guys that project as high leverage relievers.

so I'm not sure if he ends up doing any of that but I think yeah I think you'll see him kind of work out of the bullpen make some spot starts I think that that's a good role for him on this 2022 roster Colby yeah it's just kind of interesting to see what they want to do workload wise because with Brash you know there's kind of this weird juxtaposition of you know we we want to maximize this asset for 2022 because he could help us.

But at the same time, we don't want to sacrifice a ton in 20203 for this for this guy. And then there are some concerns still about Brash's durability. So, you know, this is a guy who because of his size, people are always going to assume he's got a limited number of bullets. So can we, can he handle a role where he's kind of yel? yo-yowing back and forth between starting and going to the bullpen and high leverage and long relief. Like can he handle that mentally? Can he handle that physically? You know, like what's what's the body like? Can he pitch on back-to-back days? You know, can he go three innings one day, rest two days, and then go two and a third the next?

Or does he need that time off? Like we don't really know. He's done a little bit of both. but I don't think he's done it like in the same season. You know what I mean? So you're kind of in a tough spot with Brash where it's how do we maximize him to help us in 2022, but we don't want to give up on his long term future as a starter for 20, 23 and beyond. And we want to give him those opportunities to prove that he is a starter. And you do want to give him those opportunities because if you could have a, you know,

a mid-rotation starter on the league minimum for three. years, you want that because then you don't have to go out and, you know, trade prospects and pay Sunny Gray $12 million a year. And that's a good deal. So yeah, you're kind of in this weird position. Like what, what role do we want? And is it going to impact him in the long run? If we, if we put him in this role where he doesn't really have a role, he's just kind of, you know, or do we, do we want him to have a defined role? Is he only going to start for us? Is he just strictly a reliever for us this year or is he both like it's it's kind of

tough so um it'll be interesting so I feel like he could be your right handed Brian Yarbrough yeah but is that is that the but do you want to put him in that position to start with because Ryan Yarbrough is yeah I mean as much as I like him

he's a ticking time bomb like he is there's no real like upside to Ryan Yarbrough solid pitcher um you're not dreaming on Ryan Yarbrough being a top of the rotation arm. You can do that with Matt Brash. You could also dream on Matt Brash being like an elite reliever. Yarbrose not really that either.

So do you want to aim higher with Brash? Or are you okay with that being the, you know what I mean? So it's just, it's just one of those things. How do they want to handle them? You know, this year versus the long term.

If you could do all that stuff this year, great. Yeah, do it. That's a really good. role for him, but can he do it? I don't know. Yeah. Yeah, the, the Yarbrough comp is more in terms of, you know, production level, right?

For 2022 Brash, you know, because like, I think Brash obviously has a, has a higher trajectory. Like, there's no question about that. But yeah, role, productivity, et cetera. I think that that kind of makes sense for him because it's like, it goes back to the conversation. that we're just having about George Kirby's. It has to make sense with the circumstances of the roster and the rotation as a whole. And so does it make sense to, because like you also don't want to just like, you don't want to just keep him in the minor leagues where he's overpowering competition,

etc. Like if he's, if he's already like, it's very clear that he's surpassed that level. And it isn't just yet, right? like we haven't seen him perform at the major league level and we haven't seen him really perform at at triple a either so we don't know where he's exactly at but i mean you don't want to also just waste him down in the minors either if he can help you and so for me personally just looking at again how the whole roster is constructed it feels like it would be best and i get what you're saying that like you don't want to mess with his role too much you you don't want to oh overwhelm him essentially and overwhelm his body essentially because there's obviously you know concerns with that but it feels like at the end of the day given how everything is put together right now and how we feel the rotation is going to be finalized with someone like sunny gray or frankie montas or chris bassett or whoever just doesn't feel like there's going to be a whole lot of opportunities there

for guys like Brash and Kirby and Williamson to get a ton of starts. Obviously, injuries are going to happen. That's the nature of the game. That's the nature of pretty much every rotation. But yeah, it's just like in terms of just general role, what you're heading into 2022 envisioning for Matt Brash, I feel like it's kind of like that. I feel like it's kind of the Ryan Yarbrough thing.

It's like, hey, like you're going to start sometimes. But for the most part, we're going to be relying on you as relying on. as kind of a multifaceted arm who can do a bunch of different things for us. Right. I mean, it's worth noting that, obviously, last year, Brash set a new career high innings pitched at 97. It's also the most games he appeared in in a single season with 20. So those are both career highs.

How much further do you want to push that? Like, do you think he can go 160 innings this year? Probably not. Probably don't want to push that. I feel like it's probably 120. Yeah. So. And,

you know, that minor league innings count towards that too. So is he going to start in AAA? You know, if you use up, if he uses up 30 innings in the minors, that's 30 innings he's not going to use for you.

But, you know, it's also keeps him in the rotation and it keeps him fresh and it keeps his projection going as a starter instead of a reliever. Like, you know what I mean? So it's the plan that they have for Matt Brash is going to be one of the most interesting things to track,

the rest of the year. Because again, it really is. It's all about how can he help us best this year, but how can we maximize this asset in the best way, long term? It's a short term versus long term type of thing. So we'll see what their plan is. It'll be interesting to track. Yeah, yeah.

He's one of the more interesting guys going into the season. I think eventually once we get some clarity on when the season starts and we start getting into season previews and whatnot, I think that's probably one of the longer discussions we'll have is what do you do with Matt Brash? He's the wild card. He's versatile, you know? There's so many things that you feel that you can probably do with him and that he's going to be able to do well for you. Right.

So he's really useful. All right. So Daisy's last two questions kind of go hand in hand with one another. So I'm going to ask both here. knowing that Conforto is a Scott Boris guy could you see Depoto slow playing his interest in Conforto and getting more involved later into the negotiations he named Drop Conforto as a control of zone guy

earlier in the off season and expressed his desire for a left-handed power bat in the outfield also do you think that DePoto tries to avoid Boris guys there's currently nobody on the roster represented by him and we've heard the Mariners tied to story who's with Excel and not much yet to Bryant or Conforto who are with Boris. Well, look, you say Kikuchi and James Paxson were Boris guys. So I don't think that's an issue.

It seems like Depoto has spoken about Boris. I've heard him speak about Boris before in the past that they seem to get along in negotiations. In terms of the Conforto thing, though, just going back to that to answer your first question here, I don't think there's really any time to slow play. we're, you know, considering where we're heading, right? It's going to be a lightning round of a free agency period whenever these negotiations end because spring training presumably is going to get underway a couple of dates, honestly, after things get hammered out.

So guys are going to want to get into the door with their new teams, with their new respective teams. And they're probably going to take the whatever is the best offer on the table. you know a day or two in so yeah i don't think you can really slow play it um i think a lot of teams already have the information that they need on a lot of guys and so if the mariners are interested in confordo they're going to have to get into his market pretty quick here and uh and figure it out because it's just there there's only going to be so much time um so i don't think so on that and i don't and to answer the boris thing again i don't think there's um i i don't think there's anything to

that because they've had koochee they've had Paxton, it seems like Depoto's, you know, has a fine working relationship with Scott Boris. By the way, they have been linked to Chris Bryant. That's, I just, I don't agree with that assessment. And Michael Conforto, because he's not like a star player, you're going to hear less about his market naturally. And the Mariners, again, are very tight-lipped. So really the only people who would leak that are Boris or depoto. And it's almost never the Mariners who are doing the leaking. So if Boris just isn't leaking because maybe he thinks he's close, maybe he thinks he's got the best deal you can get.

So just because we haven't heard them specifically attached to each other, doesn't mean they're not. So I just, I don't think the Boris thing is an issue at all. And like Ty said, when this thing kicks back up, you're going to see a flurry of deals made because you have to. You have to get these guys in the camp, ASAP.

you don't have time to kind of dance around. And honestly, if Boris feels like, you know, holding out and it may be playing a little bit of chicken here, the Mariners should move on to somebody else. Like, we don't have time for this. This is the best offer we have. Do you want it or not? No. Well, you want to wait and see?

Well, then we're going to move on because we have to. We can't wait for you and have the last chair in this, you know, game of musical chairs. Right. Yeah, it's also a detriment. He's trying to reestablish himself and get back on the. market and missing a chunk of spring training. And he's also coming off of a down year for my. So I'm saying.

So missing a chunk of spring training could knock him down for a month or two until he gets things figured out. And if he doesn't recover from that, then his market is going to crash again next year. So for a guy like Conforto, they don't have to wait. They don't have to slow play him because it's too Conforto's benefit to get into a camp as soon as possible. So if like I said, if Boris wants to try and play this game of a musical, chairs, the Mariners should just walk out of the circle. They don't have to, they shouldn't wait for the chair to get pulled out from under them and be left with nothing. They got to move on. So, yeah, I don't think slow play is going to happen once the lockout is lifted for anybody.

Yeah, yeah, for really any free agent, for that matter. Yep. All right. So that's going to do it for our show. And thank you so much for joining us here on Lockdown Mariners for Colby Patnode. I'm Tiding Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L-O-U-U-U-N-S-Mariners. You can follow me at Dane-G-N-Z-G-N-Z-L-Z and Colby at C-P-Pat 11. That's C-P-A-T-1-1. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. And thank you again for making us your first listen of the day, just like you do here every day. Now, make your second list of the day.

Locked-on bets, your daily one-stop shop for all your gambling needs. Locked-on bets hosted by Your Boy Q with expert analysis and insight from Lee Sterling. And just like us, their show is free and available, wherever you get your podcast. So have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we will see you on Wednesday and hopefully hey, you know, MLB and MLBPA are meeting right now as we're recording this show. Maybe we have an agreement to talk about, but probably we won't. We'll see. Let's just hope for something positive to talk about on Wednesday. How about that? See you then.