Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mariners Might Be on the Verge of Trading Luis Castillo

Episode Date: December 12, 2024

As the starting pitching market booms and the talent pool dries up, Luis Castillo has reportedly become quite the popular name on the trade market. Ty and Colby assess what it would take for the Mariners to trade Castillo and which teams fit best, as well as dissect the influx of rumors linking Seattle to several first basemen.Check out our Patreon!Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11Follow the show on Bluesky: @lockedonmariners | @tdg | @mlbcolbySupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.Omaha SteaksFrom legendary steaks to mouthwatering desserts and more, save fifty percent off site-wide at OmahaSteaks.com. Plus, our listeners get an extra thirty dollars off with Promo Code MLB and a thirty-dollar reward card when you shop early.IbottaDownload the FREE Ibotta app now and use code LOCKEDONMLB to get 100% cash back on your Thanksgiving feast starting November 1.FanDuelYou can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - if you win your first FIVE DOLLAR BET ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. 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 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Luis Castillo has been the subject to trade talks for the last day or so, with one reporter even saying it's almost a certainty he's dealt. Colby and I will dive into these rumors coming up here on the Lockdown Airs podcast. Colby, hit it. You are Locked on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. Ahoy, Sailors.

It is Thursday, December 12, 2024. This is Tuddinazis and Colby Patnaud for the Lockdown. Marrars podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Luis Castillo, who by the way, happy birthday, Luis, is apparently a hot name on the trade market right now. We're going to talk about why, where he could go and what the Marys are looking to accomplish by trading him. But before we get into all that, shout out to our title sponsor today, Game Time. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use the promo code Locked-on MLB. That's L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N-M-L-B for $20 off your first.

purchase. And if you want to hear from me and Colby even more and help support the show, check out our Patreon. All you have to do to check that out is click the link in the description of this episode. So I am going to try and do my best to recap what happened yesterday. Pretty much right after I edited yesterday's episode. Hop back on my phone, get a text from Colby saying, be on standby for an emergency pod. He sends a couple of tweets, one from John Marosi, saying that, that the Red Sox are working to acquire one of the Marers pitchers. And then another one from MLB insider Mike Rodriguez that says,

the Mariners are talking about Luis Castillo with teams, and it's almost a certainty that the Marys trade him. Then Adam Jude starts talking about it, says that the Red Sox and the Mariners are engaged in trade talks for Louise Castillo and mentions Tristan Kossis as a possibility on that front. Ryan DeVish confirms that and starts tweeting about it as well. Daniel Kramer reports that as well along with a report that the mayors are talking to free agent first baseman Christian Walker.

So a lot was happening. At the end of it. All came out about an hour and a half too. Yeah, this was a lot to keep up with in a short amount of time. at the end of that though no trade was made and as of now no trade has been made

we'll see if that lasts before we post this episode knowing our luck who knows but yeah a lot came out there was also what was the reporter Alex Spire from from the Boston area

I don't know what publication he's from but he also yeah he reported that he reached out to one of his sources asked them about a Luis Castillo, Tristan Casa Steele, if that had any legs to it. And the source said straightforward, no. So definitely no reason for him to lie. Sure.

So we're going to get into all the teams that were mentioned. There were quite a few of them. And we're going to kind of do an abbreviated version of what we did on the Patreon show yesterday and kind of eliminate some teams here. Like who makes sense, who really doesn't that got mentioned? And then we'll also dive into the first base aspect of this because obviously Casas gets mentioned. Christian Walker gets mentioned yesterday. And then also, Ryan Davis was on Jason Puckett's show yesterday and said that the Mariners want to try and get something done with Carlos Santano within the next week.

So a lot of first baseman being thrown around with the Mariners. So we'll get into that a little later on. But Colby, just general reaction to the Mariners now. seemingly getting pretty serious about trading Luis Castillo. Yeah. I think this is a direct reaction to the market really exploding for starting pitching. I mean, you look at the free agency, what's going on there. Luis Severino is getting $21 million a year.

Nathan Duvaldi just got three years and $75 million. And it's been reported that Sean Mania is likely to exceed that number himself. And these are all guys who are good quality pitchers, but they don't have the same track record as Luis Castillo. And they're making more money over the next three years than Castillo is going to. So I think what this is is teams looking out at free agency and going like, wow, after Corbyn Burns signs, you know, there's Manaya and there's a couple other decent arms out there. gets ugly pretty quick. And even if we want to dive into that market, Alex Cobb is getting $15 million.

Like Matt Boyd is getting $29 million. Like that's a big risk. When we could just pay $10 million more and have the floor and ceiling of a Luis Castillo who's not making, like we've been saying all winter, Luis Castillo's contract is a bargain. What he would get on the open market right now is laughable compared to what he's actually making.

And so I think what you're seeing now is you're seeing teams really kind of have a full understanding of what the market is. And they're going to the Mariners with offers or ideas that are significantly more than the Mariners thought was possible for them to get eight weeks ago for SDO specifically. And we'll be very clear about this. There are zero rumors about Kirby, Gilbert, Miller, Wu. All we've heard consistently is they're not interested in trading any of those. guys. Castillo's the only one. That makes sense because as we've talked about, Castillo is kind of in his own separate category from the other pitchers. You don't want to trade him, but if the market is going to pay you that Godfather offer, you can't deny the benefits of having a little bit of extra money,

potentially, and you can't just ignore an avenue of possibly getting better if that's your best shot. And I think what the mayors look at in free agency, I don't think they're huge fans of this free agent class to begin with, but even the guys they are interested in, people are getting paid right now, right? And so I think they're just trying to look around and this is an opportunity for them to take advantage of a market that may not be around next time they go to try and trade Louise Castillo, which would probably be next winter when this trade clause expires.

So I think this is just a reaction. And I think what's happening here is that the Mariners are feeling out the market. They like the responses they've gotten. And they've kept their asking price pretty high. And teams are at least starting to approach the level that the Mariners would strongly consider making this move. So I think that's what's happened. I think this is a reaction to the market. And instead of being just dead set, like, no, we're not interested.

It's like, well, if the market dictates that we can get X for Luis Castillo, we'll do it because you know again as we say and if you've ever read the book moneyball right one of the rules of trading know how much every player in baseball has worked to you you can put value on it know how much louis castillo has worked to you if somebody's willing to give you that you have to consider yeah and there's a very specific criteria that has to be met here in order for the meres to feel comfortable trading castillo now we don't know exactly what that is but i think we can take an educated guess, which is, one, you get a proven major leaguer back who addresses one of your needs on, you know, the position player front.

Two, you get the team acquiring Luis Castillo to take on most, if not all of the contract. And frankly, there is a precedent now for that team to not only give you a proven major leagueer but also take on all that contract because of what just happened with the blue jays and the guardians the blue jays just took on the entire contract of andre semenez who obviously is a couple years removed from a six-win season and is an elite defender but there are massive red flags with the bat they still gave up spencer horwitz who was a really good major leaguer this past year and wound up getting flipped to Pittsburgh for a legit, you know, number four starter and a couple of interesting prospects.

Yeah. So the Mariners, however, have Luis Castillo who, yeah, he's experienced some regression over the last year. He did get hurt. It wasn't a serious injury. Not an arm injury either. Important to note. But I think it would be too aggressive to say that there are red flags with Luis Castillo.

Yes, he's north of 30. what have you, but I don't see anything in Luis Castillo's profile that makes me concerned about him, at least in the short term. And at three years, $73 million, compared to what some of these other pitchers are getting right now, that's a massive bargain. So I believe that there has been a precedent set now in the league for whoever requires Castillo to take on all, that contract and give up something pretty valuable to the mirrors. And I think that's really the only way this works for Seattle is if they can accomplish both

of those things because it's becoming very apparent that they're not able to do what they want to do, what they set out to do this off season with the restrictions that they have right now, which are obviously self-imposed. But like last year, the front office has to do what it feels it has to do. to try and build the roster that it wants to build. And yeah, to me, it just seems like they're hitting some brick walls. So it's partly that. It's also, yeah, look at how much the market has boomed.

And now options are starting to run thin on the high end of the starting pitching market for other teams. So let's try and take advantage of this. Now, Castillo isn't the only big name being thrown out there in the trade market. Hazel Sozardo is potentially out there. Jared Jones and Mitch Keller are the pirates are potentially out there. They've been named. And there's probably some other names that either I'm missing or

Dylan Sees is someone that got thrown out yesterday by I believe John Heyman, which who knows. But yep. And there might be some other names that either I'm missing or you know, we don't know are available that are available. So it's a, it's a, an interesting situation that the marries find themselves in because on one hand you want to try and wait it out as much as possible so teams you know so like corbin burns signs and teams even get

more desperate right but also you don't want the market to pass you by and some of these other teams that are looking for starting pitching help then go ahead and trade for you know Lazzardo or Jared Jones or Mitch Keller or whoever. And also, you know, the free agents that you might want to spend that money that you save by trading in Castillo on, they might sign. So it's going to be a very interesting balancing act to see the Mariners take on. And yeah, but it seems, I mean, by all accounts, it seems like Luis Castillo, very real possibility. He's thrown his last pitch in a marries uniform. Yeah, and I can't, let's just say the reports and everything that's come from this,

the people who are reporting these things, feel pretty good about their information. So this doesn't feel like it's, you know, your kind of standard winter, like the yapper may have stumbled onto something here that's legitimate. It doesn't feel like this is just talk. These are very specific details that are coming out. once potential trade packages start to get leaked, things are moving in that direction.

And so I'm at the point now where if the Mariners play this correctly, then Luis Castillo probably isn't on the opening. I think if Luis Castillo is on the opening day roster for the Mariners, they made a miscalculation in the market because I think their intention now, based on what I've read and other stuff, I think their intention now is to try and trade Luis Castillo. And I think the market is there for them to capitalize on that idea, where I wasn't sure it was a couple weeks ago. So quite a few potential landing spots were put out there yesterday with all these reports.

You and I on our Patreon show, we went through every single one of them. And a couple of them make quite a bit of sense. Quite a few of them don't really make any sense at all. though. So we're going to dive into that in just a moment. But first a reminder, this episode of the Lockdown Aaron's podcast is brought to you by Fandul. Get ready to tackle the NFL action with Fandul, America's number one sportsbook, because right now new customers can bet five dollars and get $150 back in bonus bets if you win. The Fandual Sportsbook app gives you everything you need to place live bets on the NFL all in one place. So when you get a hunch in the middle

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And you're listening to the Locked-on Marinus podcast. So again, quite a few potential landing spots for Luis Castillo were put out there amongst all the reports yesterday. These teams include, of course, the Boston Red Sox, like we talked about with the whole Triss and Kossis thing. The Cubs, the Mets, the Yankees, the Orioles, the Phillies. Is that everyone? There were a lot of reports yesterday, but I believe those are the main teams that were reported. So, yeah, let's just kind of go through each one of these and maybe also talk about some other teams that make sense that weren't mentioned.

Before we do that, we should lay out what appears to be the parameters of what the, the Mariners are looking for. Sure. With Luis Cassio, and you talked about it a little bit in the first segment, but I think the specific criteria, like obviously an overarching, like, criteria for the Mariners is how do you replace Luis Castillo? Right. Because we've talked about this.

It can't be with Hancock. Like, that's just not no. It has to be somebody better than that. So take him off the board. Take that one off the board. But that's a very important one. But I think just specifically about this Castillo trade, I think number one, like you mentioned, you have to get 2025 help if you're trading Luis Castillo.

You have to address one of your positional needs. Right. And that specifically means an infielder. So I think when we look at... Divish, I believe it was Divish in his article, straight up said, like, they're looking for MLB infielders for Castillo. Yes. Somebody had speculated.

It might have been Jude this time around that said that the Red Sox were, the Red Sox, Mariners trade was like Casas and a prospect for Castillo. I believe that was also in DeWish's article. Right. So they're kind of working together on this one. So just keep that in mind. Number one, they have to get 20, 25 help. Number two, it has to be at a position of need, which for the Mariners is first,

second, third. And number three, I think this is a somewhat important one. It has, the team has to be willing to eat most of, if not all the contracts. Like you laid out in the first segment, right? those are the criteria the mayors have to hit and they have to hit all three and again to me the bigger bigger criteria than all that is how do you replace louise castillo but we'll shelve that conversation for if and when if or if and or when they actually trade we sure sure so when you're looking for at these teams that we're going to talk about keep that in mind can they offer you all those things so let's start with boston uh what do you think about tristan cossus i think he's a pretty good hitter. I don't think he's a great hitter. I think that Boston is trying to sell him as though

he's like a, you know, future MVP level type of hitter. Boston fans certainly are. Right. I don't think he's that. I think he's probably a 120-ish WRC plus guy, which is good. Like, again, I, he just seems Randy a Rose Arena. Like that's what I see. It feels like they're trying to sell him as like

the next Matt Olson, which from a defensive standpoint, he is not at all. He is not at all. he's not going to hit 50 home runs like Olson did. He's probably closer to a 30 home run power guy. The strikeouts are not high, but they're not low. I mean, he struck out like 31% of the time this year. Last year they were high, but typically he's around 23 to 25%,

which you can live with, especially for my power hitting first baseman. He hits a lot better at Fenway than he does on the road, like a lot better. Now, that's not that unusual, but it is something worth noting. The strikeouts are something worth noting. But you get him for four years. He's going to be 25, I believe. He's still pre-arb for one year. Right.

He's got one season under his belt, one full season under his belt. He was very good at the plate that year. Not a two-win player, though, because the defense is that bad, but first-based defense is also very hard to quantify. So, Kossis, I think, is a good hitter, a good hitter, and I think he would hit fine at Team Mobile Park. That's a guess, obviously. But yeah, I think he is a very nice solution to first base if that's what you get.

Yeah, so he's going to be 25. Again, he's not making any money. And if you trade Castillo to the Red Sox and they're taking on all the contracts, we've assumed that they have about $15 to $20 million right now to spend. So you would add another 24 on top of that. you can do some damage with that. And you already have one. Right.

That's, yeah. I mean, that's the other element to that. But, you know, if you have that money, theoretically, you can do some damage with that,

especially when you already have one of your needs addressed with causes. So that's really interesting. Let's talk about the Cubs. It's the usual suspects who we've talked about over the last week or so. Nico Horner is the first guy that comes to mine. There's also Esok Paredes,

Sayas Suzuki, who I don't really think works. And also, again, the mares are apparently looking for infielders, not outfielders, not just bats, right? So it's probably either Horner or Paratus on this front, and it's probably most likely Nico Horner. Right. Now, the Cubs are also talking to the Astros about Kyle Tucker, so that's a whole thing as well.

And if they trade parades to the to the Astros, then they're probably not trading Horner. But do the Cubs have the do the Cubs have the headliner type of infielder that you need to complete a deal? Yeah, they have one. The difference here between them in Boston is that Horner is making $11 million.

So you're not eating all of that salary. So it's less ideal. So basically it's, do you value the scarcity of the position or the value of the player more or the money more because while Kossis is a better hitter than Horner, Horner is a better player overall than Kossis. And he's making $11 million. He's still, you know, that's very good bargain. Like that's not anything you can't absorb. And you would still clear like $10, $13 million somewhere in that range. If you just trade a Castillo for Horner straight up.

So you're still clearing some money. You're just not clearing 20, you know, 23. million dollars. So yeah, the Cubs are interesting. They do have a headliner that makes sense for Seattle and what they're looking for. The money would not be quite as you wouldn't save as much money as you would. If the Red Sox deal is Casas for Castillo or whatever. But yeah, the Cubs are definitely a team that that makes sense here.

They have they have a headliner that Seattle would probably take. I think because of the money, I probably also need like Javier Assad back in the deal, Jordan Wicks. Right. And the Cubs probably don't have a problem giving you a sod if they're getting Luis Castillo. Yeah. All right. So now we're going to get into the teams that make

less sense. Let's start with the Orioles. You're not getting Jordan Westberg for Luis Castillo. That's too much for Baltimore to give up. It would be great. I do backflips if you could get Jordan Westberg for Luis Castillo, but that's not happening. So at that point, I'm struggling to find a headline.

here. Right, because obviously it's not going to be Gunner Henderson. It's not going to be Westberg. And so you look around and you say, okay, well, Kobe Mayo is a great prospect who did play in the majors a little bit last year. It didn't go well at all for him. So is that a good enough headline or a guy with no major league success? Like Mayo the talent is certainly, you know, worth Louise Castillo.

But does he specifically fill the need that the Mariners laid out. Is he actually help for your 2025 roster? We don't know. Right. You're guessing that he is, right? And that's a risk. And there's nobody at first. There's nobody at second. Like Jackson Holiday is the same thing. Ryan Mountcastle, solid player. He's not good enough to be a headliner in a Luis Castillo deal, though. No, neither is Heston Kirstead. He's an outfield outfielder slash DH. He doesn't fit either. So yeah. I think when you look at the Orioles, that's one of those teams where you kind of need co-headliners. Or you need like, it needs to be Mayo and somebody who you feel really confident can help you in 2025.

And at that point, are the Orioles interested? Yeah, like the Orioles do Mayo and Mount Castle? I have a hard time seeing it. Yeah, that feels a bit heavy. Yeah. So. Now, could you do Mayo and Mount Castle for Castillo and Harry Ford? Sure.

Would you do that? No. well yeah no I just I don't trust Mayo to help me in 2025 like I want a piece if I'm trading Luis Castillo I want the headliner to be somebody who I feel really confident is going to help me in 2025 maybe the mayors do feel that way about Mayo I don't I don't imagine they're going to feel that way about any other prospect in that system and again they're not getting holiday they're not getting Henderson they're not getting Westberg nor should they ask for any of those guys I mean well maybe holiday but they they have no business

asking for Westburg or Henderson. So yeah, I don't see the Orioles is a great fit. I really don't. So the Phillies, they're going to try and just offer you, Alec Boehm for Luis Castillo. And that's when you hang up the phone because no. No.

Baum is not a headliner. Boom. I like him. I don't love him. I like him. He would be a fine answer at third base. you know, take a shot. Possibly.

Yeah, but again, from May onward, the guy was a 96 WRC plus hitter. He was slightly below average. And then there's like this significant uptick in defense. How real is that? You know, because defensive metrics, they're not the most trustworthy. And we only have a year of data that says that he's an actual above average third baseman. Right. Plus the Phillies rotation's pretty good as is.

Yeah. Do they even need Luis? Castillo. That's kind of my question because like they have they have Wheeler. They have Nola. They have Sanchez. They have Suarez and Andrew Panor seems like he's about ready to go here pretty soon. Also. Yeah. So I mean, I don't know. Maybe the Phillies were mentioned because, you know, maybe Luis Castillo, that's a team Luis Castillo might wave is no trade clause. Maybe that's the only reason they were mentioned. Because I look at that roster and I go like, there's not a headliner. Like this is a situation. You need co headliners in this deal. And like, Yeah. Even if, even if they come in there like, hey, do you want Brandon Marsh who we know they're shopping and Alec Bome? Marsh doesn't really do much for the Mariners. And Bome is a question mark. Like they could always flip, you know, Marsh or try to.

And again, we're not even discussing the possibility of three team deals yet. Yeah. But, you know, just no need to complicate it. Straight up. Philly's a match for Castillo. Eh, I don't, I don't see one. Yeah. Well, not one that I'm comfortable with, though, because it.

If they, like, I'd rather just have $3 million less saved on that, that contract and acquire Nico Horner than I would to acquire Alephome. So the New York teams, the Yankees, I don't think they have anything to make a Castio deal happen. If you're looking for major league infielders, they're not trading Volpe and they're probably not trading Jaze. So, yeah, and they have their own infield issues right now, as is. Plus, their pitching staff is actually pretty good right now. it's their offense that needs a lot of help yeah yeah i don't even see a need for for castio in their rotation so uh their inclusion in the in the reports is a little weird to me i don't know who hits cleanup for the yankees if the season started tomorrow yeah now there's like there's

been rumors that the astros want louise heel but even then i feel like the yankees have enough starting pitching depth to survive that especially after signing max freed Uh, the Mets, kind of interesting, but it really comes down to just one guy, right? Mark Viantos or. We're not doing the Brett Pady thing. Oh, you said it. Fill in the blank in the comments section. Um, yeah, it's pretty much Fiantos because like, obviously you're not getting like the rest of that infield.

Like Alonzo's not there anymore. You're not getting Francisco Indoor. That'd be hilarious though. Um, you know, I don't even know who's playing. Jeff McNeil. Is he still playing second? No, absolutely not.

So yeah, it's Vintos. And don't see it. Don't see it. So, yeah, I mean, like the Mariners apparently

had interest in Brandon Nimmo. But again, Alfeeler, we're looking specifically for infielers. So the Mets don't make a ton of sense for me either. Yeah. So to me,

of the teams that have been named, it's the Red Sox and the Cubs. Mm-hmm. Then I just, yeah, I have a hard time seeing it with the other ones. The Braves, do make a lot of sense. They weren't mentioned.

They do make a lot of sense, though. If they are willing to trade either Matt Olson, now obviously that would be pretty much a wash in terms of the money. I think he would even be adding some money, right? A little bit. Yeah. Addressing a big need. Or Ozzy obvious. But they have their own middle infield issues, so probably not. But they have, after losing Max Fried,

they have Chris Sale, just want to Saly. They should be getting, Spencer Strider back at some point. And then quite a few question marks. I mean, Rinaldo Lopez had a good year, but can he do it again? And then they have a bunch of prospects who are good prospects. But yeah, that team for what it probably hopes to accomplish in 2025 could use some established starting pitching.

Yeah. Just don't think you can get Albies. The contract is so good. Yeah. But yeah, that. that would be the guy of everybody who talked about. I would be most excited the Mariners could somehow get Ozzy Alps, but I don't see that.

So yeah, the Braves, kind of interesting. It does feel like in a traditional, like one for one type of trade here, that the Cubs and the Red Sox are the two best suitors here. Yeah. So again,

a lot of first basemen were thrown around yesterday in the rumor mill regarding the Mariners. So we're going to dive into that and try and figure out what's going on on that front in just a moment. But first, a reminder, episode of the Locked-on Airs podcast is brought to you by game time. So I used to live in New Mexico and down in New Mexico there are zero pro sports teams and a lot of bands and artists I listen to skip going there more often than not. So when I moved to Toronto where there's a baseball team,

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But then you also have the Tris and Kossis report. And then you have, you know, divish going on Jason Puckett's show yesterday and saying that they want to try and get something done with Carlos Santana with them next week. So there are a bunch of reasons for potential reasons for this. There are a bunch of potential outcomes involving for a space here.

A couple of possibilities that are in that are kind of swimming through my mind right now is that two of these guys are being leveraged for the other. I just don't know which one. Or the mirrors are actually serious about adding a full-time DH. Yeah. What's interesting about that with the three guys that we're talking about here is that Santana and Walker are elite defensive first baseman. Now, I say elite, you know, with the like not Evan White.

They've won gold gloves, though. Right. They're very good over there defensively. So like if those are the two, it's like, okay, who's D.Hing? And, you know, the Mariners have never, or at least, you know, since the post-Nelson Cruz era, the Mariners really don't want a full-time DH, but they tried it last year with Mitch Carver and it didn't work. So I wonder if that's just something they see as value that DHS are going to make a little

bit less money than other position players. But if you're, you know, Walker, you're certainly not taking D.H money, your gold glove first basement. So, yeah, it's interesting specifically with those three guys that two of them are like not guys you'd want to D.H. And then also if you do acquire more of a full-time D.H, like, okay, that means Robles Rayleigh is on the bench every single day. So now it's not like they're going to sit there for five,

six days in a row. I mean, they'll cycle through other positions and all that stuff. Like it's not, I'm not saying you should have a full time DH, but it's like, you know, you want to get Luke Rayley at bats against right handed pitching,

certainly, right? And do you want to bench Robles was great against right handed pitching too last year? So how do you kind of manage that early in the season as you try and get everybody enough at bat? So, yeah, it's an interesting little thing here.

that the Mariners, the bats that they have been linked to this week, all of them are first baseman. Well, and there is also, you know, and look, it's John Heyman, but at the very least he is plugged into some New York stuff. He did mention the Mariners as one of the teams in on Piedelonzo, along with the nationals of the Mets. Sure. Which it's possible.

Jeff Passon also said that that the market for Pita Lanzer right now doesn't exist. Right. Nobody is. So I'm just putting. that out there to say that maybe the mayors have their sights set on doing something bigger at first base. We've talked about this, you know, earlier in the offseason. Like, it's really weird that the Mariners seem to commit to either Santana or Turner early on when the, the place they were most likely to find significant offensive upgrades to this lineup was at first base. The free agent class was deeper there.

There were more trade options there. obviously there are much better there are much better options at first base and there are at third base. So yeah, we talked about that how it was kind of weird that's like, yeah, they're just keying in on these two guys who are good player. Like don't don't get me wrong. But it's yeah, you know, if you really want to add some thump, you're probably going to have to do it at first base. That's your best spot. And that's where you have the most opportunity. And they seem to want to ignore that.

But now again, in the last, what, three days, they've been linked by credible reports to, uh, to Pete Alonzo, although that one again, Heyman. Credible. Yeah. It is a New York team, though. Like a New York player. Yeah. We'll call that half credible.

We'll go with, and then you have Christian Walker. And then obviously, Carlos Santana and Kramer and. And Triss in Kossus. Yeah. And Adam Jude threw on Kossas. So like, yeah, I'm not going to start doubting those guys when they say, the mariners have talked to these guys or that they're interested in these guys i believe them uh so all of them first baseman though so it's all of them kind of you know at different levels

too of like the economic scale you have the guy making league minimum you have the guy who's going to make i don't know five six million bucks you have the guy who's going to be 18 19 million bucks maybe 20 and you have a guy who's going to make you know well he thinks he's going to make 25 million dollars a year in pita lonso but doesn't seem like too many teams are out of interest right now So yeah, just all over the map, but they're all first baseman. And that's interesting, to say the least. Yeah. So let's say you get Tristan Kossis, right?

And then again, this is assuming that the mayors are willing to spend all the money that they free up, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. We know, pocket that money is going right into. And that they're actually, you know, that they would actually view it as like they're adding the Castillo money on top of, you know, the 15 to 20 million. that's been projected. You know, so you have Kossus who doesn't cost anything, right? All right.

So at the very least, I've addressed D.H. Right. Or for space. But it's possible that you could pull off Tristan Kossis, Christian Walker, High Son Kim, if you want to take that shot. I mean, with the $40 million,

again, it does feel like, you have to you're going to spend some of that on a pitcher well so that's so so that's where i was going with this so you know you could still address you know second or third maybe both depending on how much kim would make or whatever um or you could you know address one of the spots maybe get a reliever and then a couple of names that i would keep an eye on pitching wise would be via trade and they're just their number fives who are making like $7,8 million.

Aaron Savali with the Brewers, Merrill Kelly of the Diamondbacks. I would also say that there might be a scenario where you can get Jordan Montgomery and you could get the Diamondbacks to take on a contract and then- Mitch Hanager and Tyler Locklear, right, for Jordan Montgomery. And if you acquire Tristan Kossis, you definitely don't need Locklear.

So. And, you know, I don't know. Maybe the, maybe the Diamondbacks are looking for a long-term Christian Walker, like, or somebody they feel like could be Christian Walker in the future. And so, yeah, I do think something like that. And that would be acquiring Jordan Montgomery, but only acquiring like, you know, $7 million of his salary. So, yeah, stuff like that is definitely possible. obviously the Roki Sasaki thing is part of this too though because you know yeah it sounds like part of their big pitch to

Sasaki was going to be we're going to be a six-man rotation and nobody's going to have to skip a beat because all six of you are like really good so it's not like the teams you know we're not going to win as much because we're doing a six-man rotation well have you trade Castillo but if you're the mariners and you don't have some sort of like wink wink nudge-nudge agreement with Sasaki that he's going to sign with you by January 15th and you need to do something in the event that you're not going to get him.

Right. Yeah. So it's, it's a little interesting thing there because I think this, when we talk about this on on CTZ yesterday, or Patreon show, Patreon.com slash control the zone, I believe. That's right.

That's right. That's right. I get the slash and the backslash wrong. But like, I think like specifically in the Roki Sasaki realm, this Luis Cascio trade talk. Mm. you can kind of make it say whatever you want.

Like, oh, the Mariners think they're getting Sasaki. That's why they're willing to trade Luis Castillo or you can be like, well, the mariner's know they're not getting Sasaki now. So they don't have to worry about the six-man rotation. So that's why they're trading Castillo or trying to. So, yeah, it can kind of make, you know, make the argument either way there. And I do think that Castillo and Roki Sasaki are linked somehow, either way. Yeah.

I think we have to just because of what we heard about what the Mariners pitch was going to be. blah blah so basically what i want to know from you guys in the comments below for up to you would you rather just a very simple straightforward offseason where the mayor is signed carlo santana and like i son kim or they trade for nico horner and they sign you know a paul c wall type of reliever and that's it you know and we're removing rokey from the equation here for a moment or would you rather that they trade louise castillo signed christian walker maybe acquire you know tris and cossus or nico horner in the process um you know maybe acquire like a merrill kelly type what have you would you rather they do that or would you rather that they just keep castillo

and you know see see you know what they can get out of santana and maybe take a shot on cam or would you rather they have a major upgrade at first base while significantly downgrading the rotation or would you rather have basically the team they ran with last year that same situation? And obviously, you know, Julio could be better, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. You have Randy for the whole year, Robles for the whole year, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, we're not saying that.

It's like the team would only win 85 games that they just brought in Santana, but just, you know, similar lineup to the end of last year, not the beginning, the end. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, let us know down on the comments below what you think. Fan Fiction Friday tomorrow? Fanfiction Friday tomorrow? Friday is tomorrow. We'll be putting the tweet out.

Let's see how many non-Louis Castillo trades we can throw out there. Oh, man. Because last week it was all Cubs. Yeah, I have a feeling it's going to be a lot of Red Sox. A lot of Louis Castillo, a lot of Red Sox. Let me just nip this in the bud right now. No, you cannot get Raphael Devers. And we are at most.

No, you cannot get Jared Duran. And at most, we're putting up two Red Sox Castillo. trades. Yeah, so they better be good. Yeah. So the tweet for that will, uh, will be up soon or if you're on blue sky, uh, we'll also, uh, have just remember if you guys don't come with the good trades this week. We have a whole lot left over from last week's mailbag that just didn't make the cut. That's true. That's true. That's true. Step your game. I actually, I actually would like to dive into a couple of those. That's what I'm saying. We might recycle half of those. So we'll see. You guys better. Uh, you know, And by the way, if you submitted one last week that didn't make the cut,

feel free to resubmit. I don't think anything happened that would make that, like just, yeah, you know, so. But anyways. All right. So that's going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Merris podcast for Colby PetNode. I'm Tiding Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at LO underscore Merrers.

You can follow me at Tiding Azales and Colby at CPAT 11. That's CPAT 1-1. We're also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB Colby and the show at Lockdown Merrors. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day. and we'll see you next time. Peace.