Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mariners Fans Shouldn't Assume Anything at the Deadline

Episode Date: July 28, 2022

On today's episode of Locked On Mariners, hosts Ty Dane Gonzalez and Colby Patnode discuss the implications of Diego Castillo's injury, why fans shouldn't be quick to trust reports and the word of general managers nearing the trade deadline, and Jeff Passan of ESPN's confidence that the Mariners will be aggressive at the deadline.Be sure to follow or subscribe to Locked On Mariners wherever you prefer your podcasts! For questions and other inquiries, email: [e-mail] up to date with all things Mariners at Inside the Mariners - a FanNation website covering the Seattle Mariners on the Sports Illustrated network.Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @danegnzlz | @CPat11 | @InsideMarinersFor more of Ty and Colby, check out their Patreon: patreon.com/controlthezone/Sports Card InvestorDownload the Sports Card Investor App today and easily browse over 630K cards from every sport, with hundreds more added each week . Available for free in the Google Play and Apple App stores or go to sportscardinvestor.com/lockedon. 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.

On today's episode of Locked on Mariners, it's time we talk about GM speak and the dangers of buying in too much on it. Plus, a big blow to the bullpen just reemphasizes an often overlooked need for the Mariners at the deadline. All that and more coming up. Colby, hit it. You are Locked on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. What's up, everyone?

Welcome to the Locked on Mariners podcast. It is Thursday, July 28th, 2022. And thank you so much for making us your first listen of the day. We are free and available on all platforms with new episodes dropping every Monday through Friday. I am your host, Tadayne Gonzalez. joined as always by my co-coes Colby Pat node. We cover the Mariners over at inside the mariners.com for Fan Nation over on the Sports Illustrated network.

Be sure to follow the show on Twitter at L0 underscore Mariners. Follow Inside the Mariners at Inside Mariners. You can follow me at Dan Gonzalez, this D&E, GN, Z, LZ, and Colby at C, Pat, that's C-P-A-T-1-1. Be sure also check out our Patreon over at patreon. com forward-slash control the zone. We post two additional podcasts on there every single week. Again, that is patreon.com forward-slash control the zone.

And if this is your first time joining us here on the Lockdown Mariners podcast, welcome to the show. If you like what you hear, give us a follow or subscribe wherever you're listening to this. And if you're watching us on YouTube, hit the subscribe button, turn on the notification bill and give this video a thumbs up. We'll greatly, greatly, greatly appreciate it. So Jerry DePoto made some comments on 710 Seattle Sports today that has Mariners fans riled up. At least some Mariners fans riled up.

And I'm going to tell you why there's no need to get all excited about that. We got five days left to the trade deadline. Let's just relax. I'll tell you why later on in the show. We're also going to look at or, well, rather talk about Jeff Passon's comments on 710 Seattle Sports yesterday as well. He had some pretty interesting things to say about the Mariners. what he expects from the Mariners at the deadline. And, but first, we need to get into this injury news for the Mariners that unfortunately

came down earlier today. Right-handed reliever, Diego Castillo, is heading to the injured list with right shoulder inflammation. And Matt Brash has been called back up in a corresponding move. And of course, this seems like. like something that may have been expected here over the last couple days. Of course, Castillo struggled in his last appearance against the Rangers. He was unavailable yesterday. And apparently according to Benjamin Ranieri, who we of course had at the ballpark this

past weekend for inside the Mariners said that Castillo wasn't even with the bullpen sitting out in the bullpen for the last week or so. So it seems like he's maybe been dealing with stuff getting treatment during games, etc, etc. and now he's unfortunately on the injured list. And Colby, this just greatly emphasizes a need that I felt was already present for the Mariners. I felt that they needed to add to the bullpen, but this just emphasizes that even more, right? Yeah, I mean, Matt Besta certainly has the stuff to just kind of slide right into Castillo's role and be good at it. But you can't trust the controller or the command right now.

Eric Swanson just he's been pretty good but not quite as good as he was pre his IL stint. So he's he's kind of tough to trust in that, you know, eighth, ninth inning type of high leverage role. So really you're down to Andres Munoz and Paul Seawald. And even Seawald's been a bit sketchy at times this year. Overall still very good. But, you know, seems to get into a lot of three ball counts. you know, giving up a little bit more hard contact this year, it seems susceptible to the home run on occasion. So, yeah, you know, the Mariners bullpen, I'd still classified as good.

But I see a lot of people they throw around the numbers since like May 23rd or something like that. And it's like, oh, the Mariners have the best bullpen in the American League. No, they don't. They don't. That was true. Before the Castillo injury, it's certainly true now. So, yeah, the bullpen is an area of need. And I think there are actually a couple ways to address that.

you can go add a starter. Take away, you know, the five-inning starts from, let's say, Chris Flex in this time, and have a reliever go, and have a starter who can frequently go six or seven. That's fewer innings your bullpen needs to cover. You could also go get a couple of middle guys and kind of play matchup in the sixth-seventh inning. Or you can go out and you can get somebody who's as good or better as Diego Castillo and then Castillo kind of

becomes your middle guy if he gets back healthy. It's a shoulder thing so I want to say if not when. To be fair, he did deal with the shoulder thing last year and was able to come back and he was pretty good when he came back.

Yeah, and Eric Swanson dealt with right shoulder inflammation earlier this year as well and was able to return from that. So it's definitely not a death knell. It doesn't mean that he's out for the year. It also doesn't mean that he's not out for the year.

It doesn't mean that he'll be back in 15 days. Yeah. And by the way, even if he, even if it didn't mean he was coming back for 15 days, you still want an arm for those 15 days, as many of those 15 days as you can. Yeah. Plus, you're on an incredibly difficult road trip beginning today.

And that, I mean, not having Diego Castillo taken away from arguably your biggest strength on your team, just in terms of position groups, taken away from that, taking away a big piece from that, while you're going to go into Houston for four and New York for three,

that is incredibly scary. So, you know, obviously if they make a trade today, it's not as if that pitcher is going to be ready to pitch tonight or maybe even tomorrow, but the sooner... Unless. Unless he so happens to pitch for the Houston Astros.

Have the Mariners and the Astros ever exchanged like relievers before they played each other? Imagine the return of Raphael Montero. Abraham Toro for Raphael Montero. No, but yeah, it's still, I mean, the player technically has like three days, I think, to report. So, yeah, you kind of want that guy coming with you to New York at the very least. We'll see. We'll see how it goes.

There are always relievers that you can grab. They're not going to be terribly expensive, but they're not going to be free, not at the deadline. You know, so it kind of depends on what Jerry, is he looking for Joe Jimenez or Jimenez, or is he looking for Dylan Floreau? You know, is he looking for another Matt Festa or is he looking for another Andres Munoz?

And that will obviously greatly impact the price tag. But he does need to get something done because the Mariners just, they don't have that guy. I like Devin Sweet quite a bit. It doesn't seem like the Mariners are interested in him getting a shot. I like Brian Wu's been great, but he's not ready for the big leagues just yet. And those are kind of, it's kind of, I mean, I guess you still have Travis Coon, who's really opened up some eyes.

So it's not like you don't have anybody that you can throw out there in the bullpen should another injury happen. But, you know, you're also Tommy Malone is still around. yeah Tommy Mellin's still around like there's and I mean like you know Matt Festa's looked really good you know at times but there's also been a little shakiness as the as well there you know so do you maybe you know add a guy there and just keep Festa's depth in AAA or do you move you know someone like Festa down the line or do you move someone like Baraki down the line etc you know because like there's going to be spots and ultimately at the end of the day right

this isn't the only injury that's probably going to happen to the Mariners' So right and this is also where juries are going to get opportunities This is also where jerry's creativity can come into play he can go acquire a starter maybe who's who's struggling a little bit right now and be like hey We're putting you in the pen like that's You know I don't have a specific example for you But that is something that teams do that's what happened with drew pomerance right when he was traded like Like, he was a starter. I think it was the Giants who acquired him.

Immediately put him in the bullpen. And then he was just dominant for them. I think it was the Giants and Drew Pomerantz. But the type of stuff does happen. And I wouldn't be surprised if Jerry goes that route because it's possible that somebody like this year's Pomerantz is actually cheaper than somebody like, you know, Joe Jimenez or Jimenez. Jimenez? Jimenez. Yeah. So some other names to consider here. Joe Mantiply of the Diamondbacks. I was trying to figure out his name yesterday. I couldn't remember it on air, but I remembered it now. So Joe Manz apply of the of the Diamondbacks, John Schreiber of the Red Sox, Kyle Finnegan of the Nationals, Will Crow, Chris Stratton of the Pirates, Daniel Bard of the Rockies, David Robertson of the Cubs, a lot of a lot of different names that are going to be available.

or should at least be available. Marlins have a couple of guys. I mean, really any team, even contenders might be looking to sell off, you know, a reliever or two, depending on, you know, what they are particularly looking for. And, you know, if they have access there, certainly, you know, because that can help them, you know, that can help teams get a bench bat. That can help, you know, and honestly, I was even entertaining the idea of the Mariners potentially doing that before this injury happened where I was thinking,

well, maybe the Mariners would actually trade from their major league bullpen to go help them get maybe like a backup catcher or something. You know, maybe they would trade like a Matt Festa or Eric Swanson or someone like that to go get, you know, an offensive player that helps them. That lengthens their bench a little bit. So, you know, really any team is technically on the table when it comes to relievers, I would say. Because you just, you never know. I mean, like the Astros of the Mariners made a reliever-based trade near the deadline last year. no one saw that coming so um so there's always you know always that to look out for but yeah the mariners have to add to the bullpen i just i i feel like that would be a massive mistake on the

mariners part on jerry depotos part to leave this deadline without adding something to the bullpen without bolstering it a little further because again guys are going to get opportunities some way somehow i know that it looks like they are deep in the bullpen i know some fans feel that way um But having depth is nice as well. Having depth that you can rely on when injuries occur because injuries are going to occur. Unfortunately, it's just the nature of things. Having that depth is massive. So with the deadline coming up, we are five days away now.

And Jerry Depoto is starting to do more radio interviews, more television interviews. He's constantly being asked about his feelings on the market. and his feelings on what his team needs. But this is the time of year now, especially when we're talking about buyers that can't really believe anything that anyone says. Can't believe what a buyer says to the media

around this time of year. We're going to talk about why in just a moment. But real quick, a reminder of this episode of Locked on Mariners is brought to you by the sports card investor app. And once again, you're giving away a sign Mitch Haniger card once we reach 2,411 subscribers on YouTube. So subscribe if you haven't and you'll be entered automatically.

And now, you know, this is far from the first card giveaway we've done. We like cards and a few like cards. We have a great new app to tell you about the sports card investor app. It is a one-stop shop for all your card collecting needs. You can check the market activity and trends for over 630,000 cards. See all the eBay listings and make purchases right through the app. And if you want to find the going rates for who, Julio Rodriguez, Ty France, Logan Gilbert, and other Mariners cards, and even scoop some up for yourself.

You can find all the info you need on the sports card investor app right now on your mobile device available for free on the Google Play and Apple App stores. Or you can go to sportscardinvestor.com forward slash locked on. Speaking of that giveaway, I believe last time I checked, we're only about eight subscribers away. So Colvin, say by to Mitch. because I think he's out of here. Oh, oh, no. Not Mitch. I love Mitch.

Colby and his 200 burner accounts are suddenly going to unfollow the channel on right before midnight on August 1st. Maybe we'll see. Mm-hmm. Yeah. The great withdrawal, let's call it. So, uh, thank you. you so much for listening to locked on mariners and thank you for making us your first listen of the day the MLB trade deadline is of course uh august 2nd and locked on MLB has all the breakdowns and locked on

mariners will have rapid reactions to any move made subscribe now to your favorite locked on MLB team on on youtube or wherever you get your podcast so you get notified when each episode premieres so again with the deadline fast approaching we have to keep and I'm talking about we as fans here all of us all of us collectively as Mariners fans as a fan of a team that is going to buy we have to be very very wary

of the things that we hear in the media both from the team itself and members of the team and members of the media as well because some reports are out there just for the sake of teams trying to inflate costs, right? Trying to garner more interests

or trying to generate more buzz that really isn't there and drive up the cost of their players for negotiations with other teams. So sometimes if you hear that the Mariners are involved in negotiations with a team, that's not always 100% true.

It's possible that they called. It's possible that they checked in, but that might be the extent of it. But now that team can go and tell a Jeff Passon or Bob Nightingale or whatever. Yeah, the Mariners are in. They're in. They're in on this guy. They're in on Juan Soto. They're in on standard bar guards, etc.

Right? But they may not actually be. So we should be wary. And when we hear that maybe the mariners are close to acquiring a certain player, it doesn't automatically mean that they've landed that. player. Right. And, you know, sometimes things are, things are wrong.

Reports, you know, wrong reports are made. I mean, hell, a couple of years ago, or what was it last year, you know, it was reported that I'm sure it was going to the Padres, right? He wasn't going to the Padres? It's the Dodgers. You know, so it just, those things happen. We have to keep that in mind. We have to be very cautious.

We have to be very much on our toes around this time of year. And there's, of course, the fake accounts as well, if you're on social media, if you're on Twitter. There are going to be fake accounts that say like, oh yeah, the Mariners traded for Juan Soto and Sandra Bogart's all in the same trade somehow. They figured it out. They got both of them in the same trade. And yeah, that's definitely not true. But the other side of that as well is what the general manager or in this case, the president of baseball operations has to say about his team's interests. And if you're a buyer in a market that is B&DMDA seller's market, you are going to want to play things very close to the vest.

And today, Jerry DePoto on 7th Seattle Sports talked about or was asked by Mike Salk about, you know, his feelings about the team and where things stand heading into the trade deadline. And to basically keep a long story short here, Jerry more or less said that, you know, he more or less just left it up to interpretation. You know, he said things like, you know, I don't want to have to send players down to Tacoma. He, you know, more or less acted as if he's okay with the way the roster is currently constructed. At least that could give that impression. At least that's the impression that has been left on a lot of Mariners fans right now on social media. But the thing is, that is wrong. That is wrong.

It's pixie duck. It's fictional. It means nothing. What Jerry Depoto said on 710 Seattle Sports Day means literally nothing. It means absolute dittily squat. He's not going to go out and say, well, yeah, we're going to send this guy down and we're going to send this guy down and we're going to send this guy down because we're going to be adding this guy and this guy and this guy. He's not going to say that. Right.

He's also not going to say he's desperate to make trades. He doesn't believe in the group he has now. He's not going to say those things. Why should he? No GM in baseball is going to go around and say those things three days before the deadline, five days before the deadline, whatever it is. That's just not how it works. And you have to be really careful here. when you see

Jeff Passon or even the big guys Passon, Rosenthal, Morosi, I mean, you trust them a little bit more than you would trust guys like Nightingale or you know who. But it's still,

it's not, it's just really hard to, the Mariners are very quiet, right? They always happen. Even last year, the Kendall Graemean trade, I think, got officially broken by, I think it was Shannon Dreher. And it was like a minute before the Mariners put out the official release. So, you know, it's just one of those things where the Mariners don't leak.

So if you're hearing things about the Mariners from national media folks, understand that that is probably coming from teams not named the Seattle Mariners. It's coming from other front offices. So in Jerry's radio interview this morning is the reason why. They just don't want to talk about it. I feel like Jerry's very open when you're talking about like broad topics here. But the trade deadline really is anything but broad. And when you're asking like, what's your strategy? How are things looking?

You know, blah, blah, blah. Jerry's not going to be like, well, you know, we're trying to get Ian Hap. But here's what they want. And we're just not willing to do it. It's just not what's. GMs do. And it's also it's also a lot easier to be open about transactions, stuff like that, about the the temperature of the market during free agency and when these things are spread out, not when there's like five days to go until the trade deadline and you and you and seven other

teams are basically competing for trading for Luis Castillo or Frankie Montes or what have you, right? Right. He's not going to say anything about that. He's not even going to let on to the fact that they're going to do a single thing at the trade deadline. And no, that does not mean that they're going to stand pat. The Seattle Mariners are not going to stand Pat at the deadline. They're not. That's just not going to happen. I'm just going to tell you that right now.

I know that, you know, it's easy to be pessimistic in this fan base right now because of the 20 years of misery and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The issue with that, though, is this is a different regime. This is a different, these are different circumstances. These are like everything about this from the last time. that you can remember the mariners truly being able to compete and everything that has and everything that was in place at that time has changed right like it is it is severely severely severely severely changed over even since 2016 2018 when they were in the thick of things they didn't have a great farm system to

trade from they had to kind of pick around the edges and and just try you know things that you know And hopefully that would work out for them, right? You know, the, the Santui Valala trades of the world, right? It's like, that's the best that they could do. Adam Warren, et cetera. Cameron Mabin, you know, that was the best that they could do at that time. You know, but like now they have such a, you know, a great farm system to trade from. They have payroll, or at least, you know, in theory, they have payroll.

Like, they are going to be able to do things. They're going to be able to do things. They have, this is just a different time. This is just these are different circumstances. And they're not, they're not going to let this moment pass by. They're just not. That makes no sense. And if they do, I will eat crow.

I will absolutely eat crow next week on the show. But this, I feel more than confident that the Mariners are going to be able to do something and something significant over the next five days. And be able to really bolster this roster. And I think anyone who doubts that is not really living in reality. here because this is just this is just a different time it's a different time from any other time that you can remember with mariners competing in the deadline where they could actually feasibly buy at the deadline it's just different every single circumstance with this is different it's more beneficial for the mariners in every single way they're in such a great spot to be able to add

and to add impact and then i feel so confident that they're going to be able to do that so so so confident. So I just don't, don't blow this up. Don't let this drive you to a place where you just, you automatically think the mariners are going to be cheap. They are going to be complacent. And they just feel that they're going to be able to succeed with what they have in place. The mariners are not stupid. Marriers are not stupid. They know that they have holes. They know that they have needs to be addressed. They're not going to let that slide by. they're not they're not no um you know it's it's it's there's a there's a large contingent of same old mariner fans who won't even wait until the team actually does or doesn't do something

before they criticize the team for not doing or doing something you know they're they're not willing to wait uh to let this thing play out but it's not like there's been a flurry of moves and the marines are just sitting there right there's been one major deadline trade just happened last night it was a player the mariners were not connected to whatsoever and you know we still have teams like uh like san francisco like boston like chicago uh cleveland that just won't sell and if they won't if they don't if teams don't believe that they are selling the other sellers their prices are still going to remain remarkably high when were those prices go down, July 31st, August 1st, August 2nd.

That's when the prices will start to go down. So it's, it's something might be another three days before we hear anything. It might be, it might be deadline day before the Mariners make their move. But the Mariners are going to do something. Now, whether or not it's going to be enough, whether it's not, it's going to be something that we like. I don't know. I'm not in those rooms, but neither are you.

And so this idea that, you know, oh, the, aren't going to do anything based on what the long extensive history of jerry depoto sitting on his hands like what are we talking about here of course jerry's going to do something of course he's going to downplay his interest in anybody and it's just funny because like last week jerry gets on there and he says well you know we we definitely want to add somebody to the top of our rotation and and we want to add somebody to to kind of share the load with george kirby at the back end and and so it's it's like do you think that in a week he's completely changed his mind on that or do you think it's just we're getting closer and closer the prices have remained

super super high and jerry's going to start to play the game like the other general managers are like the cubs think they are by saying oh well we might not trading in half like okay sure right you know so it's just it's one of those every gym is playing a game right now it's very similar to the NFL draft where everything gets leaked and oh no these pictures of this guy doing something dumb for a college kid got leaked or, you know, it's just every team is trying to use the media to their advantage. So all the leaks are strategic. All the reports are strategic. They're all being leaked for a reason, right? They are not just, you know, the Red Sox aren't like, oh, well, let's be nice to John Morosi and tell him we're going to trade Nathan of all.

Of course they're not going to say. They're going to be like, oh, no, we like Nathan. We still think we can compete here. We're going to try and sign them this offseason. And why would they do that? So other teams go, oh, well, maybe they'll keep them. And it doesn't work. It's a stupid game.

And every GM knows the other GM is playing it. But they all play it. So there's no reason not to. So it's going to be fine, guys. Just relax. Maybe they don't do exactly what you want them to do. They're going to do something. Don't worry about it.

Yeah. And the thing too, right, is like I've been seeing a lot of, and this is why I wanted to emphasize the fact that I believe, I feel confident that they're going to add impact to this team. It's because I see a lot of folks on Twitter right now saying, well, I've set my expectations now to they're just going to get Tyler Anderson again, you know, this year's equivalent of Tyler Anderson and Abraham Toro. And that's it. Okay. Again, let's talk about circumstances being a lot different. even last year circumstances were a lot different first of all you didn't have a superstar in tow second of all you didn't win 18 of your last 21 third of all you weren't in a wild card spot at the time

you were trained and you were in the middle of like six out of the teams you're like where the where the white socks and the orioles and those guys are at right now like yeah you're that you were that team last year you were that team last year you were were not the team that everyone is chasing. So things are different here. Things are very, very much different here. So the opportunity

is right there for Jerry Napoto and company. It is right there. It is right there for grabs. And if they don't take it, absolutely. We're going to criticize them. Absolutely. Like if they don't take advantage of this opportunity, if they do just add their equivalent of like Abraham Toro and Tyler Anderson this year,

they're going to get criticized by us, by everyone. But right now, there's five days left until a deadline. Let's not assume anything until the deadline actually happens and passes. Yep. It's not. So I want to quickly talk about Jeff Passon's comments before we hop off here, because he was on Seattle Sports yesterday as well with Mike Salk and said a lot of interesting things about the Mariners.

And what do you expect the Mariners to do this offseason? Or this off season, this trade deadline, rather. And I think the really the big thing that came from this, aside from him saying that they're not in on Soto, or at least he doesn't expect them to be in on Soto because of everything that, you know, we have said here. He mentioned the George Kirby and Logan Gilbert thing, that it's probably going to take one of those guys.

And at that point, that according to him, torpedoes any deal for the Mariners. So aside from that, though, the really interesting thing that he said was that he feels that the Mariners are going to be very, very, very aggressive at the deadline. One of the most aggressive teams at this year's deadline. And part of that he says is because he feels that there's a little bit of a little bit more of a driving force there because of the 20 year playoff drought than there would be if they were just in this position that they're in right now in a wild card spot about a 20 year playoff drought. But that's certainly adding them to their aggressiveness. Do you buy that at all, Pauli? A little, but I don't think it's the main motivation for their aggressiveness.

I think the reason the Mariners are being, or I think the reason the mariners are going to be as aggressive as Pass and is saying he believes they'll be is because they're in a playoff position. It's, like you said, it's different from last year where they were trying to catch three teams and they were four games back at the deadline. you know, they are three, three and a half, three games up from, you know, the last team out or the first team out of the playoffs. So they have a bit of a cushion. And not only that, they have a shot to, you know, win the number one wild card, a pretty good one, which would mean home playoff games, not just getting to the playoffs, but getting to home playoff games. So I believe that's the motivation for their aggression more so than, oh, well, we have to end this playoff drought because I, I, I, I mean, obviously, they want to. It's one thing you can check off the list.

It's a major bonus towards your rebuild. It's kind of a validation of everything you've done over the last, you know, three plus years. So I do think it's part of it, but I don't think the fact that it's been 20 years matters. If it has, like, if it had been 10 years or five years or three years even, I still think they would be just as aggressive. So I do believe that there is like, yes, obviously the 20-year playoff drought, they want to end that. Of course they do. what is it you know is it maybe make them a little more willing to to overspend slightly maybe but is it like the number one primary reason no i think the number one primary reason that seattle is going to be

aggressive at the deadline this year is because they think they're a good team we can make a deep playoff run if they are aggressive so that to me is the number one motivator for jerry depoto and his crew it's not just to get into the playoffs uh because they could stand pat and have a decent shot of getting in. They need some health luck and things like that, but they're in a pretty good spot right now. So it was just about breaking the drought. They could just go out and they can get, you know, a reliever and attention and probably be fine and probably, you know, sneak in in the wild, hang on in the wild card. That's not what they're going after. We've heard them link to Pablo Lopez and Frankie Montes and Juan Soto and, you know, Louise Castillo. Apparently, they're

still very aggressive on him and Brandon Drury. We've heard them connected to just about every big name that's out there right now. So to me, that doesn't scream like, oh, our main motivation is to sneak into the playoffs. To me, that's, we feel good about ourselves. We think we're in a really good position to make the playoffs. Let's not only improve our odds of making the playoffs. Let's actually give ourselves a chance to make a deep playoff run. Why not? So I think that's their motivation more so than just getting into the playoffs. I think they're looking at it and saying, well, we feel like we're a playoff team right now. How do we get as close to possible? to be a World Series contender.

How do we get to an ALCS? I think that's the motivation right now. Well, yeah, and that's what you want the motivation to be. You want to win now. You want to win now. You want to be able to do damage. You don't want to just show up to the party and leave after five minutes. You want to get in.

You want to dance your tail off. You know, you want to be able, like, and you have the pieces in place. You have a superstar, and Julio Rodriguez is on your team right now. like you want to like take advantage of that take advantage of that take advantage of the fact that you have guys like ta France on your team right now performing at career high levels you get to take you know take advantage of the fact that you have someone like a eugenio swore's take advantage of the fact that you've been remarkably healthy in your rotation you know take advantage of the fact that you have a strong bullpen an above average bullpen take advantage of all that and then further build upon that because the sky's the left at any point at any point. You know, so like once you get to the to the postseason, anything can happen. Anything can happen. Absolutely anything can happen.

Get there and build yourself. And this is why I said, you know, yesterday, this is why you and I both said on yesterday's show, that pitching is so, so, so important. Pitching is so, so, so important because it's so important in the postseason. So getting pitching at the deadline right now has to be priority number one for the Mariners. has to be because pitching is so so damn important and it's so right now as it's currently constructed so many things have have gone in the right direction for the mariners it's just like you don't want to be able you don't want to have to put all your eggs on the basket of that

just continuing right you know i mean like like it's like you said anything can happen when you get into the playoffs the 85 win Atlanta Braves won the world series last year how did they do that did they make some big huge splashy deal at the deadline no they pitched and they it around the fringes. Ronald Acunia went down. Their star went down. And they went and they got Eddie Rosario and Jorge Saler and I don't even know. And then they just pitched their butts off.

And they got in. Enough hitters got hot. Pitching continued to be dominant. They have a World Series ring as a result. So anything can happen once you get in if you have to starting pitching. That's the attendance. And I don't know if the Mariners have it yet. That's a good reminder to that if the Mariners add someone,

you know, maybe in the outfield or in the infield, someone that isn't a huge name, though. It's not Sandra Bogart's. It's not Juan Soto. That doesn't mean that they failed. Again, the Braves added Adam Duval and Eddie Rosario and Jorge Salarer. And those three guys massively help them win a world series last year.

So just because the Mariners maybe, so maybe if the Mariners only come away from this deadline with, you know, a big name starting pitcher, but they walk away with like Brandon Drury. Brandon Drury could massively help them. Donovan Solano could really help them. You know, a lot, there's a lot of guys that are, you know, that you're not even thinking about Ratney.

Yeah, exactly, exactly, exactly. Brian Anderson, Miguel Rojas, like, if they go get a, if they go get a Pablo Lopez or a Tariq Scoobal or Frankie Montes, Cassie, you guys know the names by now, they go get one of those guys. And they get just even a platoon guy who can maybe help you. Or maybe it's some outfield defense for latent games. Maybe it's Kevin Kiermeyer's injured, but, you know, somebody like Kiermeyer who can hit a little, but is mostly defensively. Those guys can make massive differences because once you get into a position where you're talking about not just getting into the playoffs, but trying to win series, those little things like the guy who can steal a bag off the bench, the guy who can come in and play left field for Jesse Winker, those things tend to add up.

And while they're not as valuable as, hey, we're going Ray, Gilbert, Lopez twice in the seven-game series, obviously that's more important. But those little tiny things that you can add at the deadline make a huge difference. It's why Terrence Gore is on every World Series team for the last decade, it seems. So, yeah, don't, don't discount those smaller moves because they can really help you in the playoffs. Yeah, I think the moral of this episode today is don't assume. Don't assume anything until you actually see it. You know, don't assume that the Mariners are not going to do anything because Jerry DePoto, because of something Jerry Depoto said on the radio.

Don't assume that the Mariners failed the deadline just because they didn't add Juan Soto or Zander Pogart's, right? Don't assume anything until you actually see it unfold. So again, wait until the deadline before you, you know, make any statements about the Mariners and the Mariners front office and everything like that. Don't just assume that it's going to be the same as always. I think that's really the big thing for Mariners fans in general, right? With just this season as a whole, everyone doesn't want to get hurt right now. Everyone doesn't want to buy in too much because this team has just consistently disappointed over the last 20 years.

I get it. I get it. But this is different. It's a new year, new circumstances, new everything. And so, you know, that doesn't, like, whatever happened in the past doesn't matter. It doesn't. It's irrelevant. It means nothing.

It really, really, really means nothing. So again, do not assume anything until, you know, you see, see how it actually turns out. I think that's the thing that we all need to do here. So that's going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Mariners podcast. for Colby Pat node, I'm Tadayin Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at LO underscore Mariners. You can follow inside the mariners at inside mariners.

You can follow me at Dan Gonzalez, this D-A-N-ZL-Z, and Colby at C-P-E-E-N-Z-L-Z-L-E. And Colby at C-PAT-11. 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. Now make your second listen to the Lockdown MLB podcast. MLB expert Paul Francis Sullivan brings it brings humor, passion, and unique perspective on every team and the biggest story.

and the biggest stories around the league. Follow the number one daily league-wide podcast Locked on MLB on the Odyssey app, YouTube, and wherever you get your podcast just like us. And with that, have yourself a beautiful baseball day, and we'll see you tomorrow. Peace.