Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mariners Lose Taylor Trammell + Chris Flexen For IKF?

Episode Date: February 17, 2023

On today's episode of Locked on Mariners, Colby and Ty discuss the unfortunate injury of Taylor Trammell and how it impacts the Mariners' outfield plans. Could the team go acquire another outfielder? Who is available? Plus, could a Chris Flexen for Isaiah Kiner- Falefa work?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/Join our Slack!FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Place your first FIVE DOLLAR bet to get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Free Bets – win or lose! Visit Fanduel.com/LockedOn today to get startedBuilt BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)  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, Taylor-Tremel Spring is unfortunately over before it even began. What does this mean for Jared Kellnick and Cade Marlowe? Well, 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. It is Friday, February 17th, 2023.

This is Tiding Azales and Colby Patnaut for the Lockdown Mariner's podcast. Brought to you by America's number one sports book, Fandul. Make every moment more visit fanduil.com slash locked on today to get started. Thank you so much for making us your first list and subscribe, like, and turn on alerts. If you're watching on YouTube or subscribe and leave a five-star review on your preferred podcast platform, if you like what you hear. And if you want to hear from us even more, please consider signing up for our Patreon. The link as well as our social accounts is in the description below.

On the show today, we'll be discussing Taylor Tremel's unfortunate injury, Robbie Ray's new pitch and some other quick takeaways from camp. Also, Colby has a trade idea that he wants to go over. and we're also going to go over how teams like the Mariners might circumvent the new shift restrictions. So yeah, we have a pretty jam-packed show today. So a lot to cover. We're going to start here with some bad news, though, on the Mariners front. Taylor Tremel is going to be out for at least seven weeks with a hamate bone injury that's going to require surgery.

Jerry DePoto confirmed on Wednesday. We're actually recording this on Thursday, but this is going to post on Friday morning. but yeah so yesterday for us jerry depoto confirmed this a little bit after we posted our wednesday episode uh and we're pretty bummed about it for a couple of reasons one because we really like taylor you know we're big fans of taylor and you guys know that and two you know jerry depoto has spoken very highly of taylor over the past few months with everything that taylor's been doing this offseason working at um drive line seems like uh he kind of reinvented his swing a little bit. There was some excitement building around Taylor and what he might be able to do this spring in terms of, you know, competing for that left field job with Jared Kellnick and maybe pushing Kellnick for that role. But now that's, that's all falling apart here. And Tramel is going to miss the entire spring at the very least. We'll see even how much longer that's going to take for him to get back on the field. But Colby, your reaction here to the rough news that Tramel is once again injured.

Yeah, it's just a real bummer. Not only for Taylor, who has really worked hard this offseason, and we started to see some glimpses of what he could be last year, you know, in the middle of the year. It's a bummer, and it's a wrist injury, too. We know that wrist injuries tend to linger throughout the entire season. They drain power, it seems like, which is obviously a big part of Taylor's game. So, yeah, it's not only that it's a,

surgery and he's out for seven weeks and he kind of has to restart his entire ramp up period. But it's the fact that it's a wrist injury and that that drains power and it's it's the lead wrist too. It's not the top risk. So just it's a really bad injury just in terms of something you can come back and play with eventually. But it's it's one of those injuries that lingers for a little while. So it's a bummer for Taylor. It's a bummer for the Mariners whose outfield depth was already a little questionable heading into this because you were relying on Jared Kellnick and Taylor Tremel and Cade Marlowe to get some pretty serious at bats for you, at least in theory. And now you kind of, your backup plan, your safety kind of doesn't exist anymore.

So now you really need Kellnick to hit or you're going to end up playing Pollock every day, which is not ideal, as we've talked about. So it's unfortunate. It's a bummer for Taylor, for the Mariners, and, you know, what happens? happens next. We don't really know. We're not really sure what the plan is. But I don't think that it should be, you know, just Kalnick or Marlowe now. Like I think they need to go get somebody. Well, this does create a huge opportunity for Marlowe, who's someone that you and I have said, we're very excited to see this spring and we're going to be watching a lot this spring.

and we talked on Wednesday about how Julio and Teosker going to the WBC is going to open the door for more important opportunities for Marlowe more high quality opportunities for Marlowe against better quality pitchers earlier on in spring games but

you know that's a again we've talked about the pitfalls of Marlowe and the strikeout issues and why that's a bit of a concern and why we think maybe Marlowe might not be ready to make his major league debut right out of the gate. And then, you know, obviously there's a big question mark with Kellnick. So now, you know, I think, and you just alluded to this, think the Mariners need to go out and get some more outfield depth.

Not necessarily go out and, you know, make a major league signing, but a minor league signing, maybe someone like Ben Gamble, who you love. I think that would make a lot of sense for the Mariners at this point just to get that depth. You know, maybe Leonis-Martine is someone like that, but he hasn't played a major league baseball for what? years now. I just, I, I have no idea if he can play at the major league level at all now. So I'd rather they go out and get someone that's played in the league as recently as this past year, to at least provide just some depth there. Is there anyone else outside of Gamble that

maybe stands out to you as an option there for the Mariners to add some depth? There's a few guys. I don't think you have to go out and get a pro far. Because to me, if you were going to get pro far, it made sense to sign him. even when you still had Cal or you still had Tramel. So I don't think like anybody who's saying go get pro far now, I think they're probably going to be disappointed. But yeah, there are a few guys out there. Gamble is my favorite, A, because of the hair, obviously.

But he is at least a replacement level major league are a little bit better than that. And, you know, he's been that for five years now since he left Seattle. So I feel like that's a pretty safe bet. Robbie Grossman is still floating around out there. Kind of the issue with Robbie is that he is, you know, kind of Pollock-like where he should be facing lefties and then right-ease isn't great, but he can still fit on this roster, sure. Also, Tyler Naquin is still out there.

That's a guy I like quite a bit. He hits righties very well. He would be a great fit to kind of protect yourself against Kelnick struggling. but also, you know, you still have that DH spot open right now. And I know that it's Tommy Lestell is going to be the guy and AJ Pollock's going to be the guy for a while. But you still kind of have this open spot on your roster. And we're not even factoring in. Sam Haggertie might not be ready by opening day.

Delamore might not be ready by opening day. So you kind of want this extra bat on your bench. And so for me, I look at it. Naquin probably makes the most sense for me. And that's probably a major league deal, which fine, whatever. And then I would say Gamel and then Grossman. But yeah, I mean, there still are some options out there. You're not completely screwed.

You don't have to go and overpay for, you know, David Peralta, that type of player. You don't have to go overpay for that guy. You can still go get a majorly quality corner guy who might also be able to help you at the DH a little bit. Yeah, Neckwin's really interesting because he had a really good year. Cincinnati kind of fell off a little bit when he got to to New York. You know, and obviously, you know, given how bad Cincinnati was last year, the the year that Naikwin had is going to be highlighted even more so because of that. But, you know, that would be a solid, you know, sneaky little move that you look up in a month

or two from now and go, wow, you know, how do the Mariners get that guy so late in the whole process. So, yeah, I'd be down for for Naquin. And, you know, obviously I've talked a lot about. my concerns over the whole DH spot on this roster right now. So yeah, that would that would help address that situation at least a little bit here. But they got to do something, man, because it's like, again, if, you know, we talked about how if Kelnick doesn't work, okay, you go to Trammell. And then if Trammell doesn't work, okay, you go to Marlowe. And if Marlowe doesn't work, then, okay, you know,

you figure it out from there. You go after Brian Reynolds or whatever you want to do at that point to figure out your left field situation. But now you've lost one of those steps. That's a at least, you know, a couple weeks of leeway that you could afford yourself in that position at the minimum. And so now, you know, if Kelnick doesn't work, I mean, you can only ride that out for so long. And then if Marlowe's not working out, then again, you can only ride that out for so long because you have high aspirations this year. You know, you want to try and wait it out. Jerry DePoto talked to us about, you know, how important that would be if Kelnick, you know, where to pop or Tremel where to pop. But if, you know, if that doesn't have.

happen. I mean, you, you got to be fairly quick on the trigger here. I talked about how aggressive I want this team to be with with things like that this year. And so, yeah, just getting yourself some insurance there would be crucial. Right. And you don't want to be in a position in June where you have to go make a trade because you're going to overpay. You know, maybe you get lucky and there's an outfield version of Carlos Santana out there for you this year. But most years, there's not. There's not a DeNard span that you can pick up on, you know, on Memorial Day weekend. Like that that trade is very rare. And if you have to go out and get a guy in June,

it's going to cost you probably 150 cents on the dollar for that player. One other name I'll throw out there. We've talked about him a lot. But maybe now he makes even a little bit more sense. Max Kepler. We know what he can do defensively. Offensively, he's about league average. And if Kelnick does hit, which would be, again, great, amazing.

Kepler still makes sense on this roster because he can be the right fielder. and Taye Oscar could DH a good amount of the time. So I still think that Kepler makes a lot of sense. Naquin is a guy that I would go out and look for. Gammon a minor league deal. Robbie Grossman also makes sense. So there are options out there for the Mariners. It's just a matter of how aggressive do they want to be.

Yeah, Kepler and Wright with Tay Oscar, D.Hing would be the most optimal route for the Mariners to take here because three well above average defense of outfielders at that stage. And again, I've said this time and time again, but Tay Oscar is incredibly athletic, just not a great defender. So if you're able to keep him out of the field in both states and replace him with the guy that was literally first and out's above average and right field this past season,

that would be pretty nice. Right. And it's just, it's worth noting that Kelnick and Kepler can both handle center field for a day. So you can still get Julio his DH days. You can still rotate A.J. Poll again for either of them and kind of roll with that. So Kepler's a pretty good fit because now he's not keeping at bat. away from Tremel, which we know was at least a factor in Jerry not really going out

and pursuing corner outfielders. Yeah. And the twins, of course, have like a billion outfielder now after acquiring Michael A. Taylor. You know, I know there's some that are not sold on the idea of Kepler being moved this off season, but it would make sense for at least one of those guys to end up getting traded. Right. Or maybe it's Nick Gord, right? Or maybe there's some kind of prospect swap with Carol Off or whatever.

But the twins do have a lot of outfielder. So keep an eye on that. all right so we're going to go over robbie ray's new pitch and some other spring training takeaways and also a trade idea that colby has in just a moment but real quick a reminder this episode of locked on mariner's is brought to you by built bar looking for a delicious treat but don't want all the fat and calories and you got to try built bar we just got through the holidays and i know my goal is to see it a little healthier this year and if you're like me where you want to eat healthier but don't want to compromise taste the man i've got just the thing for you you got to try built with built healthy is actually tasty seriously they're so delicious you won't think they're good for you which is perfect for your new year's resolution what makes built bar so good well for starters they are all covered in a hundred percent real chocolate that's right real chocolate and they come in unbelievable flavors like churro peanut brownie and coconut almond i'm not sure how built does it but these bars taste like a candy bar while maintaining an amazing macros and what's even better is that they are healthy only 130

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So Colby, before we get into our next segment here, we are running a little bit of a giveaway. This is our last reminder for those of you that want to enter the giveaway. So let them know what they can win and how they might be able to enter. Sure. So I am being forced to give away one of my most prize possessions, this lovely autographed numbered Walter Ford card. the vanilla missile,

so, uh, so yeah, entering is incredibly easy. All you have to do is make sure you're subscribed to our YouTube channel. If you're watching on YouTube, just go click the button.

It's like right over there somewhere. Um, if you're listening, there will be a link to our YouTube channel in the description. Go ahead and just click that and subscribe. And you just need to leave a comment as well. Any comment. We don't care what it is as long as it's,

you know, not mean, not mean spirited. Um, as long as you're leaving a comment, you are entered and it's really that simple. but we're also doing a little bit of a bonus giveaway here. If our channel gets to 6,500 subs by Monday,

which right now, as we're recording this, it's at about 622.20, so it's got some work to do. But if we do get to 6,500, I will give away another one of my autograph cards. One of, you know, a couple of possibilities here. Ty will pick the card at random. But of the cards that he can pick, there is a Mike Cameron card, there is a Cal Raleigh. There's a Jared Kellnick, Taylor Dollar,

to Colton Wong and maybe a couple others. So yeah, it's just got to subscribe to enter that one. And then we will pick a comment, another comment on Monday when we announced the winner of the Walter Ford card. So as of now, as of the time we're recording this, again, reminder that we're recording on Thursday instead of Friday. This is, it is 131 Pacific Time on Thursday. And we are at 6,229 subscribers.

So we got a little ways to go. But if you can help us out here, tell your friends. tell your family, tell your enemies, come over, subscribe, or if you just want to create a bunch of, you know, fake accounts, uh, we won't judge you. We're not necessarily recommending it, but we're also not saying no.

So wink, wink, we can't control what people do, right? Like, exactly, exactly. You know, we, we, we are not, uh, we're not financial advisors here, but, uh, you know, we're, uh,

we're just putting it out there. We're just, you know, acknowledging all the possibilities. All right. So, um, got a few things, a few quick things to go over here. Uh, I'll let you do your thing, though, first because, you know, before the show, you know, I was like, hey, let's talk about this and let's talk about this. And, uh, you were like, no, I don't want to unless we talk about this one thing. So I'll give you the floor here.

You, uh, you saw a trade idea yesterday. And by yesterday, again, I mean Wednesday. I'm not going to say that anymore. Uh, but, uh, you, uh, saw a trade idea coming off of our talking about the Yankees and the Frankie Montes thing and how, you know, maybe Chris Fluxner, Marco Gonzalez could be of interest to them now that Montes is supposedly out for the year. So tell me what that is. Let's talk about it a little bit. I changed my mind. I don't want to.

Okay. Cool. We're going to talk about A. We're going to talk about Gino's new hair. It's gorgeous. Oh, yes. But, no, seriously. So not my idea.

I saw it on Twitter. I don't even remember what account it was, but it was probably Yankee. Yankee fan. He had pitched a very simple trade. That is interesting, although I don't think very likely, but we'll throw it out here. Chris Flexen for Isaiah Kinerfalefa. You guys might remember Kinerfalefa. He used to be the catcher for the Rangers, and then he was the shortstop, and then he was the third baseman. And now he's the shortstop for the Yankees, but he is in a position battle and he is not expected to win that battle with was it paraza and volpe both you know battling it out with kinder-filefa it seems like he's probably the odd man out it's not impossible and and obviously you know

if they want to service-time volpe or anything like that then he'll stick around but would you just kind of think of the player in general right like Isaiah kinder-flefa what does he bring to the table that the mariners need well for starters you know he can play all over the field, which is something that Dylan Moore brings to the table, but Dylan Moore is hurt right now, and we don't know when he's going to come back. So that's not ideal. Kynarflefa kind of fills that need. Kinerfleff also plays shortstop.

He's pretty good over there. He really struggles coming in towards the plate. If you look at the metrics, but going left to right and back, he's phenomenal. So you can also play third base really well, and he can handle second base. And hey, emergency catcher, there you go. If you guys want to carry three catchers, but you don't like Cooper Hummel, because you shouldn't as your third catcher Isaiah kinder for lafahua there you go but uh no and you know at the plate

there's really no power here what to speak of but he does hit for a pretty high average considering the area he plays and he's going to be in the 260 270 range doesn't draw a ton of walks again not a lot of power a lot of base hits up the middle a lot of you know line drives down the line that type of hitter um you know decent runner not a great runner uh he's just kind of ideal he is your utility guy. And I think that's what the Mariners would be acquiring him to do.

At worst, or I guess at his best, he's right-handed hitting J.P. Crawford. It's a very similar profile. And that costs you Chris Flexen, who right now is the odd man out, but we know how important pitching depth is. So it's a little bit of a sacrifice.

So I don't know, again, I don't think it's likely. I think the Yankees are just going to stick with in-house options. And I don't even know of a straight-up trade works for either side in this, but it seems more realistic than the Glaber Torres idea that I saw floated out there by some of you guys, but we'll have to wait and see because, I mean,

I tell you what, if J.P. Crawford goes down and is going to miss a couple weeks, knock on wood, the Mariners are going to be very interested in Isaiah kinder-falefa. So I don't know, what do you think? I don't care. Yeah, you see, that just doesn't hit when you do it. I mean, you know, don't you see, you know, how that feels, though, you know, when you, you try to create a discussion and then the person next to you just says, you know, I don't care about the topic. No? Doesn't affect you at all. Damn.

No, because you're the one that looks like a jerk because you just stealing my bits. So there you go. I think I stole your bit and then approved upon it and made it better. We'll let the comment section decide. We'll let the comment section decide. How about that? Actually, no, no. They're giving away the card.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, of course. No, no. I picked the wrong day to do this. If I did it next week, it would work. But if I did it, but doing it today, it's not going to work because I mean, even in the Gary Hill video, you know, everyone's just like, oh, I love Colby. Please, please pick my, pick me for the card, Colby. Please.

Oh, oh, hi, Ty, Ty, I just remembered something. Shut up. You don't care. Yeah, you don't care. Yeah, I just remember that. So predictable. Yeah. So anyways,

kind of falafo. Yeah, I mean, all right. So from a financial standpoint, it makes a ton of sense because essentially the money is about the same.

Counterfelefa is making $6 million. Flexon's making about eight. So that essentially is a wash, more or less. The Marco's situation gets a little more complicated if it's him instead because he's got the extra year, or well, technically two extra years of club control,

one of them is an option. But yeah, so, I mean, it's just do I would I rather have the starting pitching depth than the you know the infield depth that I might not even need if Delamore and Haggerty are okay or at least more like that's really like it is a pretty large hypothetical I feel like starting pitching depth is just outright more valuable than that um counter-fil-fah is just

Ty hates Bryce Miller confirmed. Go ahead. Right, right, right. Naturally. Yeah, you know, counterfelefa, though, I mean, doesn't hit for any power to speak of, but he does hit for a pretty high average. He's been 280, 271, 261 the last three years. Not a big on-base guy, but I mean, you know, those are decent numbers.

He's been worth over a win the last couple of years despite all of that. And he's a pretty good defender, like you mentioned, with all the metrics. he's a he's a fine player especially if he's coming off of your bench that that helps um but again how does he fit on this roster if dillamore and sam hargurty are healthy you know because like flexen does fit the roster he's he's better than sam haggerty so that's how he fits he is he absolutely is you lost me with that one he absolutely is it's not even debatable like against left-handed pitching fine haggerty who do the mayor's going to face 65% of the time, right-hand pitching.

Haggurty was terrible against right-hand pitching, and Haggurty was also terrible when they asked him to play every day. So there's a role. But Haggurty also provides value on the base pass. He's not a terrible defender out in a corner. Like, I would like to see him. I would like to see him back in the infield a little bit. What's more valuable?

The one time a week I need him to pinch run and steal me a base or the 15 to 20 at bats I need to give to him. to justify his roster spot. Yeah, but that's only if Delamore is not healthy. That's only if Delamore is not healthy. Oh, so you just want, so you just want a guy on the bench who literally does nothing but run. Okay.

That's interesting. That seems like a waste of spot for me. But, I mean, it's valuable in October. Is it valuable in May? Mm. I don't know. Is it? You tell me.

So, all right. Let's move on. Yeah. But, yeah. Side note, obviously, if Dylan Moore was healthy, this wouldn't be a discussion because you just need somebody who can play shortstop, right?

Somebody needs to be on the bench, you can play shortstop. And again, it's like... The Mariners don't have that right now. They don't, you just, don't say Gino. I'm not saying, you know. Don't say Lestella. Don't say Wong. None of those guys are, have played shortstop or are any good at it. So, don't even go there.

But for one day, can you just live with it? No. Why? You can't. Why? For one day. All right, fine. Like, clip this. And then when they, they win 96, games, but the Astros win 97. We'll play it back. Okay. All right. Let's talk about Fandul, and then I got some other things that I want us to go over here.

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Thank you again for making us your first listen. So let's go over some quick little spring training takeaways. I think the big one from today, again, Thursday, the day that we're recording this, is that Robbie Ray, not just Logan Gilbert, is also working on a splitter. Now, Ray wanted to play coy with the media and was like, oh, I'm working on a new pitch, but I'm not going to tell you what it is. And then only for an hour later, Jerry Depoto says, oh, yeah, he's working on a splitter. So, yeah, much of a secret there, Robbie.

So let's talk about this real quick Because like a lot of things that I hear about You know from fans talking about Robbie is like oh he needs something more off speed So is this potentially the answer for him to get something more off speed Colby No Because the splitter right now is fictional We haven't seen it right it doesn't exist

And for all we know Robbie Rick and say he's throwing a splitter but it's just a submit mixer who just kind of floats up there and it's a bad change up right the splitter is not an easy pitch to master so i think i think there's a lot of people who are out there just being like oh well we're going to see the splitter so much from these two guys probably not you're probably not going to see it for a while maybe they mix it in here and there but that's a difficult pitch to master and it's going to take a while so until i see it from robber ray i don't consider it anything it's it's it's existence is totally predicated on you know seeing it and we're We haven't. So maybe we'll see it in spring. Maybe we won't. Maybe we'll see it during the regular season. Maybe we won't. Robbie Ray can work on a pitch all he wants, but until it's good, it doesn't mean anything. So would Robbie Ray having a good splitter help? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. With the way that Robbie Ray's fastball is, you know, especially if the fastball velo is going to be down around 92, 93 again, the splitter will help. It will help get more value out of the fastball and also the slider. So yeah, it would be a valuable pitch if it actually exists.

I guess we'll find out. I mean, Jerry DePoto has seen it with his own two eyes. So you don't trust Jerry? I'm just saying in the court of law, eyewitness testimony is historically not viewed as credible. So there we go. Colby is calling Jerry to Trump lately. Yeah.

No, I didn't say that. All right. Let's talk about some other spring takeaways here. Some quick ones. Marco Gonzalez cut his hair. You've been clamoring for the same. for the last two years, pal. Yeah, because he's been bad the last two years.

And it's all with the long hair. Buzzcut Marco is all-star Marco. That's all I'm saying. I mean, he took it a little too far. I would like for him. Yeah, a little bit. I saw the picture. I was like some hair.

Yeah, yeah, that was like zero on the sides here. And I'm like, you need like a one or a two, Marco. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. You probably just got a cut. So like, but still it.

Also. Evan White is working out with the outfielders. So that's a thing. That's not an excuse not to go get Robbie Grossman. Okay. Jerry, I know you're listening. Don't do it,

buddy. Don't do it. No, and I know our listeners are like, well, what about Evan White for the outfield situation? You don't need to go get anyone. You have Evan White.

No, no, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, no, no, no, thank you. Need to see him in AAA. Need to see him hit in AAA. For months. Need to see that he can make contact consistently.

and then we'll talk but yeah you know white in a corner outfield spot is something that I always felt was going to be an inevitability especially once Ty France moved over to first and was pretty good over there and is also hitting obviously and so

you know he's athletic enough to do it and what oh white why okay yeah sorry what that Thai France athletic enough to be like a really good first base when I was like no no no white

good enough to play in the outfield. Yeah. White is athletic enough to play in the outfield. As far as we know. Yeah. As far as we, I mean, a couple hip injuries.

A couple of hip injuries. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Post injury, White, who knows. But, you know,

everything that we do know about his profile in general, suggests that he should be athletic enough to handle it more, you know. And so, you know, so we'll see. But again, the important thing on White is the bad.

Can he hit? Can he make contact consistently? If not, then that's a non-starter. Yeah, I mean, and I don't even think we can begin to have the conversation about Evan White being back in the big leagues until he's hit for two and a half, three months. Like if we get into June and he's hitting like 280, 350, 550, 550 or whatever in AAA, fine, then we can have that discussion. But I'm not having that discussion on April 14th, like let alone on February 16th. So no. Evan White has to hit and he's got to hit for a few months, like plain and simple.

And if he doesn't, he's not going to be in the big leagues unless there's a dire emergency. If he does, he's got a good shot to make the big league roster because, oh, to, you know, play in the big leagues this year, not make the opening day roster. Because they do have the DH open. And Evan White at first base with Thai France at DH makes your entire infield better. So, you're probably going to get to see a lot of Evan White in spring too. I imagine he's going to get a lot of bat bats. For sure. All right.

lastly here you know some of our listeners have asked us to talk about the shift restrictions and how the mariners might approach that whatnot here we go there's the i roll there's the here's the i don't care yeah yeah see see guys see what i do with all right let me let me show you this diagram as he goes on his phone uh look at this diagram this is this has been going around the last few days on on social media this is apparently one of the ways that major league baseball teams are are looking to circumvent or counter attack the shift restrictions by I mean look at this convoluted mess so essentially this would be against lefties forcing the lefty to go opposite field where they're this looks like a CFL football play like like what the hell is this they got the third baseman is essentially going to

sprint out into left field they are going to have the center field or like um roam either to to left field or, well, he's essentially going to position himself in left center and then either roamed to back to center or into left field. And then they have the left fielder moved here in the outfield, which is still legal. As long as he's touching the grass, that's completely legal under the new rules. The left fielder is essentially going to put himself in between the second basement and the shortstop. But in the grass, this is wild.

This is mind-bogical. I mean, it makes sense if you have someone like Dillon Moore. or jerks in pro fire or something like that. Colby, are we going to see like Jared Kelnick lining up in between the second baseman and shortstop this season? Like, what the hell is this? Exactly what Major League Baseball asked for.

Yeah. They put in the shift restrictions. Did they think teams were just going to stop trying to get an edge defensively? Of course they're not. This is what you wanted. Not you, but this is what Major League Baseball wanted. Rob Manfred wanted this and they said,

oh, we're going to stop you from doing all these smart, creative things. In Major League Baseball, the teams in the front offices are going to say, no, no, you're not. I saw one person, they were like, I'd rather see this than, you know, because, you know, they take the defense takes the risk of a ball going over the third basement's head and it's an automatic triple or inside the park home run. How much of a risk is it really? Because they've been deploying a very similar setup, you know, for the last five years. The left fielder basically plays left center field. And the third baseman's playing shortstop. So, yeah, balls in that corner right there.

Has there been like a huge explosion of inside the park home runs over the last five years? No. Has there even been a huge explosion of triples? No. Because who's a dead pole hitter? Who's a lefty who pulls the ball really like 95% of the time? The guy who runs like eight seconds between first and home. Like, who cares?

They're big lumbering dudes. So no, this is exactly what Major League Baseball gets. They thought they were going to do something cute. They thought they were going to circumvent things. No, major league teams aren't going to allow that. They're going to do things differently. And this is what Major League Baseball gets for a half, a half-hearted attempt to generate offense.

Like I said, I didn't think the shift was going to be a huge, the shift restrictions. I didn't think it was going to be a huge boon for offenses anyways. And I also think that this drawing right here, I don't think we're going to see this all that often. I really don't. So I'm not all that concerned about it. Jerry's talked today about like

trying to play in the spirit of the, you have the quote. Yeah, yeah. He said MLB will govern this rule change as a, uh, something in the spirit of the rule. I don't think they want to see somebody trying to find the loophole, end quote. They didn't set up the rule so that there wouldn't be a loophole. That's on them. They wrote that they wrote the rule. It was a bad rule. They didn't write it well. And by the way, that formation right there is been 100% legal for the entire history of baseball.

The only rule that has ever existed on where defenders could stand is that all eight of them, minus the catcher, have to be in fair territory. That's it. That's been the only rule in history. So they've added this rule, and now they're shocked that Major League Baseball teams might try and find a way to circumvent it. That's on them. They should have written in some kind of thing about, no, not moving the left field or

whatever. It's just dumb. It's really dumb. So I'm not surprised. Yeah, like have it where like the left fielder can't cross second base. Yeah. Like I don't know why it's not. You have to have at least one outfielder on each side of second base.

Yeah. Because they did that with the infield. But but you could circumvent it with that drawing as well because the center fielder is technically. Because the center fielder, right? Yeah. I would say, well, then it's you just say, okay, well, your corner outfielders have to have one on each side of second base. Yeah. because it's pretty easy to tell who your center fielder is.

Right. I mean, he's only going to move so much. So whatever. Like I said, Major League Baseball gets what they deserve. It was a poorly written rule. It was a poor attempt to try and fix offense.

It's not going to help much. It might help a little bit. Like we said, like we said, we're going to see more singles. Cool. Cool. I just.

Cool. An uptick and batting average? Like a, like a, maybe a 10 point uptick and batting average and on base? Maybe. Maybe.

Maybe. Maybe. That's probably on the extreme side. The bigger issue is still that pitcher's stuff is so ungodly right now. Like the big issue is strikeouts, not hits. So how do we get fewer strikeouts? You shrink the zone, right? You eliminate part of the strike zone that the hitter has to cover.

That would have been a more effective thing. And by the way, just to throw this out there, I don't care what your minor league data says about these rules because minor league baseball compared to major league. Baseball, it's not even a comparison. Two different animals. You're basically comparing college. It's like when people are like, oh, could Alabama beat the Jacksonville Jaguars? No. No, they absolutely could not.

So, yeah, it's a pretty similar thing. We'll see if it helps. I'm certainly open to it and we'll see how it goes. And I'm sure Major League Baseball is going to keep this around forever anyways, but I think it's dumb. And I think when I see diagrams like that, it's funny to me because maybe, Major League Baseball really thought that they were going to outsmart Major League League front offices.

Yeah. Major League Baseball is playing checkers. MLB front offices are playing 40 chess. Like it's done. This is, yeah, this is assinine, though.

This is, what is this? I just, I would rather have the regular shift instead of this. This is like, what is this? Like, having the third baseman have to sprint into the outfield essentially.

Like, what are we doing here? This is too much. Uh, plus I'd, we'll get to see more. bunt attempts. Ooh,

everybody loves the bunt, right? Dave Sims does. Dave Sims is stoked. All due respect to Dave Sims, who I love, you know, we're pro Sims on this show. He still links J.P. Crawford

can steal 20 bags. We're like six years into the J.P. Crawford thing, and he sucks at it. And Sims is still holding out hope that he can swipe 20 one day. So, yeah, I mean, come on, Dave.

You're better than that. Simsie, simsie, we love you. but yeah. Come on, man. Please tell me that's not something you're going to push in spring training again. Boy, I'd like to see JAP get out there.

I think you could swipe 20. Based on what? Anyways. Well, that's going to be a wrap on our first full week back on Locked On M's here. And thank you so much for joining us here. For Colby Patnode, I'm Tadian Gonzalez.

Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L0 underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Dane Gonzalez, G and ZLZ and Colbya at C-Pen 11, that's C-PAT-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. Now make your second listen.

Lockdown MLB Prospects host Lindsay Crosby is a prospect encyclopedia. Knees going deep on the MLB stars of tomorrow. It's free and available wherever you get your podcast just like us. And with that, have yourself a beautiful baseball day and a beautiful baseball weekend. And we'll see you on Monday. Peace.