Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mariners in on Every Big Free Agent Shortstop?

Episode Date: October 21, 2021

Locked On Mariners host Ty Dane Gonzalez has co-host Colby Patnode answer four trivia questions related to past Jerry Dipoto trades, then the two discuss Buster Olney's report on the Mariners' involvement in the shortstop market this winter, as well as how Semien's desire to return to the position could impact the team's interest in him.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/Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus. 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, your home for Daily Seattle Mariner's News and Analysis. Thank you so much for making us your first listen of the day. We are free and available on all platforms. Today is Thursday, October 21st, 2021. I am your host, Tidea Gonzalez. Join, as always by my co-host, Colby Patnode.

Follow us on Twitter at L0 underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Dane Gonzalez. It's D-A-N-E, G-N-Z-L-Z, and Colby at C-P-A-E-E-P-A-T-1-1. That's also in our description of this episode, wherever you're listening to this. Be sure to also check out our Patreon where we talk more about the Mariners

and also get into some non-baseball talk. Twice a week, visit patreon.com forward slash control the zone for more information. Just got over 70 patrons. So if you want to make it number 72, 73, 74, 75, etc., etc., how about you join? and tell your friends and family and all that good stuff, because we are putting out even more Mariners content on there,

hour-long episodes, or even more sometimes. Today on Lockdown Mariners, we are going to be talking about the latest report that links the Mariners to some of the biggest names in the upcoming free agency class. We're also going to continue our Marcus Simian discussion from yesterday's episode. So if you like what you hear,

get the show a follow or subscribe wherever you're listening to this. We greatly appreciate it. But first, it's time to put Colby's Mariners knowledge to the test here on Trivia Thursday. I have four questions, all related to past Jerry Depoto trades. Colby, are you ready? Sure. I'm sure this will go well. So we are going to start with an easy one.

We're going to go easiest to hardest, at least this is how I view these questions. When the Mariners traded Carlos Santana and $6 million to Cleveland for Edwin and Carnacion and a competitive balance round B pick, it was part of a three-team trade, of course. Who was the third team and which current Mariner was dealt from the mystery team to Cleveland? Tampa Bay Rays and Jake Bowers. That would be correct. The Bowers Rangers are vibing. In the 2016 to 2017 offseason, Depoto dealt left-handed reliever Vidal Nunoz to the Dodgers for which veteran position player?

Dal Nunoz. I'm surprised this is. then a Louis Sardinias question. Wasn't Sardana signed to like a minor league deal? I don't think so. What's he traded for? Huh. Let's see.

Can you give me a position at least? I feel like they would really give it away. Oh, really? But. All right. Can you get the year the trade was made again? What year was it? Yeah, it was a 20, it was the 2016 to 17 off season.

It was in the offseason, okay. Yeah. Let's see, but Al Nunoz, 2016, 2017. So he would have played on the Mariners in 2018. No, he would have played on the Mariners in 2017. Sorry, sorry, yeah. It was, yeah, the 16 to 17 off season. Okay, so 2017 position players for the Mariners.

Did he play a lot of games? Or was this like one of those, like he was there for two weeks and he was gone? no he played quite a few games i don't i don't remember the specific number uh okay probably give you that um for some reason i i keep thinking it was for a catcher but i i can't i can't remember who it uh was it uh 2017 he played 54 games for the mariners and was worth negative point two f war 27. I believe that was the year of, I said, 2016 of Chris Ioneta and, so it's not Ioneta, so it has to be Carlos Ruiz. Yeah. It was Carlos Ruiz. There he goes. Catcher. Yeah. When you said catcher, I was like, don't say anything. Don't say anything.

Yeah. That's why I said it would probably give it away if I told you it was a catcher. Yeah, I just remember. I was trying to remember who the catcher, because the first thing that popped in my head was catcher. And then I was like, wait, but who are the catchers on the 26, well, 2018 team? And it was like, no, way, 2017. I think Ioneta was 2016. And the only catcher I could remember from that time was Ioneta and Ruiz.

And so Ioneta, I'm pretty sure it was a free agent signing. And he played for the Angels. So I guess I left Ruiz. Who was the primary catcher in 27? It was the Nino. Yeah. so yeah it was zanino yeah zanino and rues okay all right

ready for the next question sure all right in august of 2016 the mariner's acquired right-handed reliever archimedes caminero from the pittsburgh in exchange for two players to be named later can you guess one of them oh boy

uh jacob bents uh it's the you're close on the name that's not the the the the last name you you that's that's the guy from uh cesspitus barbecue Jake Vince. I was that's a very similar sounding name. Yeah. I'm pretty sure that there is a major leaguer with that name.

Well, there's a there's a player that is named Jake that has a very similar sounding last name. but it doesn't start with an M. An M. Didn't you say Mince? I said Jake Brents. Oh, I heard mints. Yes, it is Jake Brants. Okay.

I, that, all right, that's on me. Yeah, the answer is Jake Brits. Who is the other one? I don't even remember. It's a consequence. He didn't even write it down. Well, so is Jake Prince. well Jake Brent's at least is on a major league team right now is he which one the royals

oh yeah that's the guy that uh that was in the uh the Cory Brock yeah the Cory Brock yeah the Corey Brock piece yeah so that was Jake Brent's yes not Jake Mance who I for some reason totally I totally heard an M for some reason I don't know why I guess it's just one of those days for me. All right. So that same day, the Mariners also acquired a fame switch pitcher Pat Vendetti for the Blue Jays. Also for a player to be named later.

Can you name that player? Clearly it was Jake Brent's. Or must have been Jake Mence. Actually, I do remember that day. I was in North Bend. I think I was headed to a Mariners game maybe. and I remember the player was actually somebody was it Tim Lopes

it was Tim Lopes There you go It was all Temi Lopes I love Tim Lopes He was He was fun Is he still in the Brewer's organization? I think so

I think he got hurt So he didn't play much He So he got waived But he cleared waivers And went to AAA this year at the major league level he played in seven games for the brurs and slash 100 182 100 so uh that was in 11 played appearances and then he was in uh triple a for the

rest of the year at slash 226 305 401 there uh but in 2019 with the mariners yeah in 20 2019 with the mariners though he slash 270 359 360 for a 101 w rc plus and was worth uh point 4F4 and actually it was not bad in a corner outfield spot. That's a guy I would bring back on a minor league deal. Yeah. I like Tim Lopes. He's a fun player. Yeah.

Yeah. Future manager. Feel very good about that. I like that. It's a good call. All right. We're going to talk about the latest report that links the Mariners to some of the biggest free agents in the upcoming free agency class.

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your first listen of the day every day. We're free and available on all platforms. We'd greatly appreciate you tuning in every single day. Listen to us, ramble on about this wonderful, stupid, silly at times, but great baseball team. We love them so much and we're really excited about this offseason. And Buster Olney of ESPN has given

Mariners fans even more reason to potentially be excited here reporting that the Mariners could be a sneaky presence in the free agent market this winter and saying that they could be in on the markets of Corey Seeger Carlos Correa Marcus Simeon of course who we talked about yesterday and we're going to talk about even more later today and also Trevor's story what do you think about this report here Colby not not that surprised to be quite honest I uh it's it's something that we've talked about all, you know, well, pretty much for the last two, three months. So it's funny to me to still see national writers be like, oh, Seattle's going to surprise some people, whereas, you know, here in Seattle, we've been bracing and getting ready for

this for the last few months. So still a bit of a secret to everybody else out there, which is weird. But yeah, no, I expect them to be pretty aggressive in free agency. I really don't think they're going to be after Seeger or Correa, though, to be quite honest with it. So, yeah, I think their interest in the shortstop market is primarily begins and ends with Marcus Simeon. So everybody else is either too much of a risk or is going to take way too many guaranteed years to get. And so, yeah, to me, their interest really just begins and ends with, with Simeon and then, you know,

these executives are just saying, oh, they have money, so maybe they do something. Like nothing like, there was nothing that was, you know, I hear the Mariners are actually very interested in Carlos Correa. That would be no, that would be newsworthy, right? But it's just,

hey, they have money to spend. And they just won 90 games. So why not them? And that's how a lot of the connections were made. So with Seeger, with Correa, going one by one here, you know, what's a comfortable number, money-wise, and year-wise, for you to be legitimately interested in them?

And, you know, what's the likelihood you would put all that at for each player? Does it vary at all, or is it just pretty much across the board for you with each one? Each player is different. So you want to start with story, you said? sure let's go with story first uh like one year 20 million dollars something like that um 25 and that's if he's willing to move to third base uh so right yeah there's just you know there's some injury questions here there's some performance away from course field questions here he's not coming off with the best year um he's about average i think he finished with a 100 wrc plus

just not a guy i'm comfortable giving you know, multiple years to, uh, if, you know, if he's at the beginning of a decline or if the numbers away from course field are, or something that are real and, and should be considered. So yeah, one year is about all I'm willing to do on, on Trevor story. I'm interested to see what his market, or how his market takes shape because the player that we saw this year from Trevor story is still a very good productive player, but not the Trevor story that we're accustomed to. How is that going to affect his market this year and really what I think it's going to be is it's probably going to have to sign a one-year deal

or maybe a one-year deal with a club option or something that's going to pay him, you know, what he was initially expecting to make this offseason heading into this season. It's going to be real interesting. If it gets cheaper, though, if it gets to a point where he could come affordable and and he's willing to play third base, I think the Mariners should certainly throw their hat in the ring there. So what about Seeger? I know a lot of people have pointed to Seeger, of course, the connection with Kyle Seeger. How much do you think the relationship between Kyle Seeger and the Mariners front office right now impacts their chances of potentially get into the Corey Seeger sweepstakes?

Probably takes them from 0.005% to 0.0.001%. But Corey Seeger's not going to be Seattle Mirror. He never was going to be. Whether Kyle Seeger was here or not, this was one of the. more ridiculous arguments for bringing Seeger to Seattle is that, oh, well, he would want to play with his brother. Well, A, we don't know that.

And B, you're going to keep around Kyle Seeger just to get Corey Seeger, who is probably going to get because he's 27 years old, he's probably going to get eight, nine, ten, eleven years at probably about $30 million dollars, AAB. I'm not touching Corey Seeger. you know if it's a one-year deal fine i'm interested in anybody at a one-year deal but seger is kind of overrated to be honest he's had he's dealt with a bunch of injuries uh he's not a very

good short stop he's going to have to move to third base sooner rather than later uh again good player really solid player but is he a 300 million dollar player no he's not i think he's going to get paid like it though because you know he's an all-star who is 28 years old and can play shortstop for another year or two, but eventually is going to have to move to third base. I'm just, I'm not, I'm not interested in Corey Seeger for what I think he's going to get. I think you can do pretty much just as well for a lot cheaper.

So it's, do you want Corey Seeger or do you want, you know, Marcus Simeon and Stephen Mats or whatever it is? I'd rather have the two guys. Totally fair. Totally fair. All right. So moving on to Quere. here last. This is obviously a guy that you've seen quite a bit of over the last few years.

Unfortunately, he's hurt you quite a bit whenever you've had to face him. 27 years old, had, you know, by F-4 standards, the best year of his career, 5.8 F-4 this year, 279, 366, 485, and 148 games played. He's had some health concerns, played only 75 games in 2019, 110, in 2018, 109, and 20. 2017, but when he's healthy, when he's on the field, he's one of the better young players in this game. You know, what's a comfortable number for you in terms of getting involved in Kray's market? And how luckily do you put that? Because I know that you believe that he might end up with the Tigers, another team that is kind of comparable to where the Mariners are right now.

Yeah, it's been one of my long held, you know, bold predictions for this offseason that the Tigers land one of these short stops. And it makes sense. You know, Hinch is there. He's got a good relationship with Karea. Tigers have plenty of money to spend. As for me, what I would do with Krea.

Again, I don't want to give out eight, nine, 10-year contracts to guys. There's very few players who are worth that type of investment and Carlos Krea, as good as he is,

is not one of them. It's, you know, honestly, it's pretty much trout. And even trout, that the money is not a big deal. If the Mariner signed,

Carlos Correa tomorrow for one million, or sorry, one year, I have $50 million. I don't care because it's one year. And it's not your money. Right. And so it's just, it doesn't, it's fine. Like, but they're not going to do that. But I think Correa ultimately is probably going to get, you know,

something like 12 years, $350 million. Like, he's probably going to get the mooky vets deal. And that's probably going to come from like the Yankees or the Tigers or the Rangers will just come out of nowhere. For me, that's a hard pass. If he wants, you know, if for some reason the market slips and he just wants to wait and, you know, if somehow you can get him for three or four years at, you know, 35 million AAB, then fine.

But, you know, anything past six, seven, eight years, I'm just, I'm not, I'm not interested in that. And I'm pretty sure you're going to have to do that to get Correa and outbid the Yankees, which, I mean, good luck. significantly outpid the Yankees. Yeah, once again, totally fair on that. It's just, it's a lot of commitment, both from a financial and from a year's standpoint, and you don't want to tie your hands because you don't want to end up in a similar situation

to the one that Jerry DePoto inherited, which was a lot of money wrapped up in four to five guys, and then you are completely financially crippled at that point where, you know, if you need to add contributing pieces, you're not going to be able to do that. And of course, they're in a better position from a four. farm standpoint, but still, that's just, that's a hard thing to navigate, especially when you're kind of a mid-market team right now. That's not going to spend $200 plus million a year in payroll. So, you know, we'll see how it turns out, but it seems like Marcus Simeon is going, you know, if they're going to sign a big name, it's going to be Semyon this, this offseason. And we talked about him a lot on

yesterday's episode. We're going to talk about him some more in terms of where he fits positionally and where he wants to play. But real quick, I want to remind you this episode of Lockdown Mariner's is brought to you by Bet Online. We're back and better than ever. A new web interface for the start of the basketball season and more props, odds, and lines than ever before. Bet Online remains your

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Yesterday, our whole episode was centered on him. If you haven't listened to that already, I suggest going back. and listening to that before you listen to this. But after talking to some folks in the, you know, Blue Jay's realm and just kind of looking into it myself, it seems that Simeon is really set on playing at shortstop. And that's one of the reasons that Blue Jay fans kind of expect him to leave this off season because they're unlikely to move Boba Shet off of shortstop.

So if Simeon is really hell bent on playing shortstop, then are you still interested, Cole? do you would you be willing to move jp crawford off a shortstop to second base to sign marcus simeon or are you looking elsewhere that's a tough one um because obviously what what you really want is you want simian's bat in the lineup and it's not that he's a bad shortstop uh he was earlier in his career he's ironed that out he's he's solid there um he's not j p cropper and i i wonder you know how JP reacts how the organization reacts,

how, you know, the clubhouse reacts. If you just had this 91 season and Marcus Simeon, who's great and you bring him in, but he just had this great season at second base. And you say, well, sorry, JP, you have to play second base now because we have to give Simeon shortstop duties. Like, I'm sure, you know, I don't, is JP okay with that? And I know you don't build a team to, you,

you know, cater to the, the feelings of, of a, one particular player or anything like that, but J.P's voice is, is a little bit different. It carries more weight with the young guys.

It's, it's a leadership role that he has. And so is he open to moving the second base? Because if he is, then fine. And, you know, his bat probably plays just fine there.

And his glove should be really solid there as well. But I just, I want to know if J.P.'s okay with that. Because the one thing I don't want to to do is I don't want to, you know, it's, you have to walk this line where you don't want to disrespect the, like, the clubhouse leader. Yeah. But you also care more about winning games than anything else. So it's, I'm going to, I'm going to put that on JP, you know, and if JP is willing to move to second base and telling Simmy and he could be the shortstop is, is, you know,

what gets him to sign there, then so be it. But if JP's hesitant and I'm worried that it's going to ruin my relationship or his status or anything like that, then I'm probably going to try to go back to Marcus Simeon and convince him, you know, here's why playing second base is better for you and better for us. And, you know, if I have to spend a little bit of extra money to make him feel better about that, then so be it. Totally agree with that. You know, and it really is up to JP. And whatever he decides, I think, you know, you should respect that because he's earned that.

He's earned the opportunity to be this team's shortstop moving forward. So if that's where he wants to be, then I think you should follow that. But I do think, you know, just, you know, from what I've gathered of JP as a leader, I think he would be willing to, you know, to move to second if that's what helped team the most, right? if it meant getting an MVP caliber player and Marcus Simeon. Yeah, but, you know, JP might win his second gold glove this year. So, I mean, it's tough to win back-to-back gold gloves and be like, all right, well, we're going to put an inferior defender at your position. So you got to move.

True, true. You can see how that might dent the ego a little bit. And I don't know that JP has much of an ego to begin with, but we don't know. We're guessing based on the public opinion. appearance that JP puts out there that he wants us to see. For all we know, he would be furious if they signed simeon. And that's why, you know, it's important for Scott and for Jerry to, to reach out if this starts to look like it might happen and have that, have that honest conversation

with him. And, you know, it's, it's tough because you don't want J.P. Crawford to be the reason that you don't sign this MVP, MVP candidate, right? sure but jp is still a useful player and he's kind of a leader and so it's it's a very tough little uh you know it's a very tough needle to thread if jp isn't all that open to moving to second base then you kind of have a situation but if he is then no problem from a pure value standpoint though just eliminating feelings and all that stuff here are you okay with starting an inferior defender at shortstop and moving J.P. Crawford over to second base?

I mean, we're talking about like, what, 35% improvement at the plate by WRC Plus? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm fine with that. And by the way, it also is an improvement at second base offensively because the JP is a 100. WRC plus guy. That's, you know, what, 15, 20% more than what Seattle got there this year. Sure. So you could improve offensively in two spots, you know, two positions, but. But the, yeah, like, if that's the, that's the, the hold up, fine. But, you know, this is a, if you really wants to play shortstop, that's kind of a problem for the other contenders too.

You look at Toronto, they have Bo Bichette. I mean, is Bo Bichet going to move? I, maybe, maybe not. You look at, you look at San Francisco. Yeah, they, they just gave Brandon Crawford a pretty nice extension. Now, Crawford seems the most likely of the three to, to, to. have reason to move to second base, but, you know, are they going to do that? Because Crawford has more tenure than Crawford and, and, uh, Bichette. So yeah, this, there are, so maybe he signs

with the Yankees and he's their shortstop. And that, that's how he gets to play shortstop. But, um, it'll be interesting to see. Ultimately, I think at the end of the day, uh, money and situation is going to talk more than position. I, I think, I think Samien's probably more likely to ease up on the shortstop thing if he's compensated, um, like a short stop, basically. For sure, for sure. And I don't think the Mariners are going to have any issues paying him what he's worth. So, um, just, just depends on, you know, if he's, if he's willing to come or not, but

it does seem that, um, Marcus Semyon is going to be the Mariners guy this off season that they're going to key in on as their biggest addition. And we'll see if they, uh, they, uh, they, end up pulling through, but definitely not a non-zero chance that that happens. So it should be a lot of fun and we'll see how it plays out. But like we said yesterday, we're kind of expecting a Simeon decision pretty early on in the off season. But we'll see how everything goes with the CBA and how the market reacts.

But it could be a pretty fun time in November if things go the way that we think it might. So that's going to do it for today's episode of Lockdown Mariners. Thank you so much for joining us here. for Colby Pat note, I'm Tidey Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L-O-U-U-U-N-S-Rerriner. You can follow me at D-N-Z-Z-L-Z, and Colby at C-E-P-A-T-1-1. You can also find all that stuff

in the description of this episode. Thank you again for making Lockdown Mariner's your first listen of the day. Every day. We'll be back tomorrow with Fan Fiction Friday. Send us your Mariners trade ideas on Twitter and we'll read and grade them on tomorrow's show. Now make your second listen

of the day locked on MLB where Paul Francis Sullivan and please call him Sully brings you his unique perspective on the major leagues president pass it's free and available on all platforms have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you tomorrow