Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mariners Non-Roster Invitees, Position Battles to Watch in Spring Training?

Episode Date: February 10, 2025

It's Mailbag Monday! Ty and Colby answer your Mariners questions, including which non-roster invitees they have interest in watching this spring, what could happen between Ryan Bliss and Dylan Moore at second, and much more.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!Wonderful PistachiosLooking for a snack that’s both delicious and nutritious? Get snackin’ and get crackin’ with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more. FanDuelRight now, new FanDuel customers can get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins!Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.  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) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Which non-roster invitees are we keeping an eye on in spring training? We'll answer that and more coming up here on Mailbag Monday. 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 Monday, February 10th, 2025. This is tighting Azales and Colby Patnode for the Lockdown Marys podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

We'll be opening up the mailback like we do here every Monday and answer some of your mariner's questions. But before we do that, quick shout out to our title sponsor today. Fanduel, right now, new Fandual customers can get $150 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. Download the app or head to fandul.com to get started. And if you want to hear from me and Colby even more and help support the show, as always, you can check out our Patreon. All you have to do to check that out, of course, is click the link. in the description of this episode. So if you didn't know from all the literal millions of tweets that said it last night,

baseball is back now that the Super Bowl is over. Pitchers and catchers are reporting across the league as we are speaking. The mayors are going to have their pitchers and catchers report on Wednesday, officially. So spring training is here. Baseball is here. And as such, Colby and I are back to five shows a week. here on locked on so be sure to join us every single day so kicking us off here on mailback

monday is a good buddy jake who wants to know what uh non-roster invitee outside of cole young are you most excited to watch spring training this is the most uninteresting spring training like roster that i can remember because like everybody who we know is good obviously you know who cares? Like, you're not there to watch those guys. You're not tracking those guys all, you know, spring. And you look at the NRI guys outside of Cole Young, there's nothing. There's like no, there is no minor leaguer position player who has signed that has really any shot of impacting this club.

With the possible exception, I guess, of a guy named Nick Dunn. That's only because second base is so shallow. and Dunn's like a 28-year-old quad A guy who's produced at AAA because, you know, frankly, he's just a veteran who knows how to hit AAA pitching. Like, cool. So you have that guy. There's nobody else on the offensive side of things. That is remotely interesting. There's always a semi-intering group of bullpen arms that the Mariners bring into camp every year.

So really, it's, you know, pick your favorite arm out of that group. and that's the guy that you want to watch. I guess for me, that would be Medina because I want to see that change up, see how that looks. But, you know, aside from that, like Drew Pomerantz, cool. Maybe there's some upside there, but he hasn't pitched in the big leagues in four years. Neither has Neftali Feliz. So, you know, you're just kind of looking at these guys, like,

there's just not a ton of that's exciting here who has a shot, really a shot to impact the 2025 roster. There's always guys, you know, like Harry Ford is an interesting guy, as he is pretty much every spring. And then there's, you know, the Hunter Cranton types, the, you know, Brandon Garcia types, technically non-roster invitees. So there's guys like that. So, but in terms of guys who actually could, you know, be a big help to the 2025 roster, it's pretty much Cole Young. And then, you know, one of the bulls, open arm piles and then it's Garcia and Evans. That's about it.

So it's just not a very fun, uh, more exciting group of, uh, players to, uh, to, look at this spring. Uh, you know, it's, we all know Julio and in Cal and Luke and Randy, like, whatever, go watch those guys. They're fun. But in terms of like, you know, who is this year's,

I mean, to be fair, I guess most years the Mariners don't have that guy in spring training that you're like, oh, that's kind of interesting to see. There's no tie france yet on this minor league list. So there's not even like a Gavin Sheets where you're like, oh, you know, maybe the mayors can figure something out there and help them out. But it's a very boring, like, it's going to be a very boring spring training, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It just is what it is. It's just no. Yeah. There aren't a lot of roster battles except for, you know, minor roles.

Like if Troy Taylor isn't able to make it back healthy in time for opening day, then there's a bullpen spot that it's open. But the other seven spots in the bullpen seem to be accounted for already. And then, you know, who kind of fills out the mayor on his bench, right? We'll talk a little bit about the second base role a little later on. We have a question about that. But, yeah, again, there aren't that many position or just raw. battle in general heading into spring as things currently stand now. Injuries could obviously happen, hopefully not, knock on wood.

But yeah. God forbid the Mariners acquire somebody who might, you know, challenge for a 26-man spot before opening day. But short of that, I feel like we know who the 26 are. All right. Jeff wants to know who would the second baseman job and finish out the bullpen. So, yeah, just kind of talked about that. The last bullpen spot, again, assuming that Troy Taylor for a second, isn't able to make it back healthy in time he's dealing with the slat strain.

It could go to literally anyone. It could be Cody Bolton. It could be Hagen-Danner. It could be Blas Castano. It could be Will Klein, yeah, Will Cline, Casey, Legamina. Or it could be any of these in our eyes, right? It could be Shantaro Fujinami, Donis Medina, Drew Pomeranz, etc, et cetera, et cetera. could even be someone that they end up bringing in that isn't on the roster right now or isn't on the NRI list right now so

second base though is is kind of interesting we've talked a little bit about this it just depends on what they want to do with Dillamore right yeah I mean even if like looking at this roster though even if Dimo is going to essentially float like he has on the past it does seem like most of the opportunities that we're still going to come at second base for him so it really comes down to just how much do they want Ryan Bliss to play? How much are they actually willing to commit to see them what they have in him? To start the year.

Because unless you know, Cole Young knocks their socks off in spring, which maybe it happens. But unless he does that, I would say like the optimistic outlook for

Young making his major league debut is probably June. Yeah. Maybe May, like maybe it's like a service time thing. And so like once whatever it is, like April 27th, whenever the deadline is for that, once that passes, maybe at that point he can get called up at any given point. But at the very least, you're looking at a month of a bridge between, you know, opening day and whenever Cole Young arises for you to at least gather information on Ryan Bliss.

So I don't know. Now that you've kind of thought about this a bit more, you know, we've had more time to kind of settle on like all right this might be the roster how do you think this might shake out i think ultimately dylan's going to get the first crack at second base and that into the regular season not just oh you know he went you know 10 for 55 in spring training like oh he shouldn't play second i mean like he's going to be the opening day second baseman he's going to get some run there uh i think it's how it's most likely to play out uh it is possible young just, you know, pulls a Julio and forces his way onto the big league roster.

But that seems awfully unlikely. So, yeah, I think Dylan's going to get first crack at it. I think you'll see Dylan still kind of fulfill that roving infielder. So, like, when JP gets his first day off, Dylan Moore will play shortstopping. we can surely assume that Palanco is going to get, you know, scheduled days off. And at that point, I think more will move to third. And I think that's where Ryan Bliss will get his opportunities. But I do think Dillmore is going to get the first crack at it.

He's the veteran. He's got the best track record, you know, in the majors of any of them. And I think he's going to run with it pretty much until they think Cole Young is ready. And then Ryan Bliss will have to be very opportunistic. when he gets the opportunities, he's going to have to perform if he's going to push Dylan Moore for any serious playing time. That's how I think it shakes out right now. But things can change over the next six weeks. And it's one of the only interesting things to track all of spring is what's going to happen at this spot.

But right now I would say Dylan Moore is the heavy favorite to be the opening day second basement and really the everyday second basement, at least for the first couple of weeks to months of the 2025 season. Yeah. And we'll see how it shakes out, but that's probably something that we're also going to be talking about tomorrow. We're going to be talking about some interesting storylines for the Maris heading into spring training. There are none. Colby, the optimist is ever. All right. So we are going to be answering more of your questions here in just a moment.

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Ross wants to know a Pocoda projection has us in third place in our own division on the fringe of wildcard contention Is that how you guys see us at this stage? Yeah roughly I mean like I said this last week I think this team is probably a 84 to 86 win team which means like things go really well then they could be like a 93 win team. And if things go poorly, they could be like a 77 win team. Like injuries happen or just guys don't perform the way that we think that they're going to all that. So yeah, so being kind of just in the mix.

Like I don't think there's a massive gap between them and the Rangers and the Astros, even though I really like what the Rangers have done this off season. I still think that the Astros, even after trading a top 10 player in baseball and Kyle Tucker, they're still going to be very competitive this year. but yeah i would i would say that's roughly in the same range that i'm in and i would say that i would say that i couldn't care less about pakota projections or anything like that like of course look at the day they're they're like within three games of each other that's a tie that is a tie in any projection model uh so are the mariners about as good as the rangers and the astros yeah i think they

probably are. Is that a good thing? No, because it wouldn't be that hard to be better than them, but here we are. So like, I can't say Picota is wrong because like, could the Mariners be the third best team if everything breaks a certain way? Like, yeah, sure, absolutely. Could they be the best team out of those three? Yeah, they could. Like, there, there certainly could they be the wild card team? Yeah, could they be the first team to miss again? Yes. Again, this is all feeds into the frustration of the entire off season is that they put themselves in this position instead of being, you know, the clear favorite, which they would have done with like another $15 million.

So it's one of those things where it's like, yeah, I think like I don't need Pocoda to tell me that this is going to be a three team race. I don't need Zips to tell me this is going to be a three team race. Like, yeah, I'm pretty sure it's probably going to be a three team race. It's probably going to come down to the wire. We'll see maybe one of these teams just deals with a ton of injuries and they kind of knocks them off the pace like kind of the Rangers last year. But yeah, I do think these are three, you know, probably 85 to 90 win teams somewhere in that range.

And I could see any of them winning the division. I could see any of them winning the wild card. And I could see any of them kind of bottoming out and being, you know, 78 win team this year. So, yeah, I mean, I guess Pocoda is technically right. Big Lobb wants to know. I'm going to a couple of Mariners spring training games with my dad in March, one in Peoria and one in Surprise, Arizona. I've never been.

Have you guys been? What is I can't miss for a spring training first timer? So I was there a total of one day. I experienced a total of one game. It was at the very end of spring training in 2023. So yeah, I am not the most seasoned spring training visit. if you will. But Colby was there for what, a couple weeks?

Like five days. Oh, really? Okay. Five to seven days, somewhere in that range. Yeah. So you're a bit more seasoned. Not really, but a bit more than I am, at least. So any tips for big lob here?

Sure. Be prepared to drive on the worst road you've ever experienced in your life. For real. In terms of like spring training, like, no, the games are pretty boring, mediocre at best games. Well, actually, you know, it kind of depends when are you going? Like, are you going in the middle of spring? Because at that point, the guys, the boys are playing like seven innings. They're getting their three, four at bats.

You're going at the beginning. The good thing there is you get to see a lot of the younger guys play, five, six, seven innings, which, you know, kind of a double-edged sword because your pain kind of. of major league prices to watch minor league baseball it is not that as cheap as you would think to go to those games um yeah good job avoiding whatever the the hell hole the angels play in whatever that ballpark is that is that mesa i think so that is the worst facility i would tell us to anybody like if you're going to have a day where you don't go to the ballpark skip the mesa game it's it's it's a high school ballpark that they play and it's a joke um

so you can skip that ballpark. But no, you know, I like sitting on the lawn. Those are really good seats and just kind of first come first serve and kind of spread out with the blanket. And it's just very casual and relaxed. So if you can get lawn seats, I would recommend that. But obviously, you know, I don't know if your dad can handle those, you know, that up down, up down. Maybe you need a seat back. But yeah, no, it's for the most part, it's pretty far.

on. You do see some weird like stuff with the fly balls get a little dicey sometimes and the wind can really kick up. So you do see sometimes some cartoony type of baseball things. But no, I think, you know, enjoy yourself. Lots of sunscreen applied probably every two innings reapply just to be safe. Don't forget your earlobes. Okay.

But yeah, no, have fun. I recommend the lawn seating. The Peoria complex is very nice. Where's the other place he was headed? Surprise, Arizona. Did you go there? It's a pretty solid one. The best one is the Rockies.

I don't remember where their spring training is. That is the best facility. It's gorgeous. Great place to watch a game. Wear a hat, right? Sunscreen. Wear sunglasses and just enjoy yourself. It's typical ballpark food.

I don't have any like food recommendations. for you. I did go to Matt Matt's big breakfast. Maybe you're looking for kind of a place to go before the game. Pretty solid breakfast restaurant. And then for like real like food recommendations and all that stuff. You might want to tweet Ryan DeVish or

billionaire. Lio's Island barbecue. I haven't had it, but everyone I've talked to you that's gone down there says it's amazing. Now I don't know if you, like I don't know where you're from. the person so maybe you know this already but in and out overrated is overrated but if you're looking to not spend a ton of money and just get a burger in and out does the job Ily recommend you skip the fries they are straight up garbage they're they're pretty bad they're pretty

they're packing peanuts that are always cold so don't get the fries get a milkshake get a burger but skip the fries go to Matt's big breakfast sit on the lawn if you can. And lots of lots of sunscreen, lots of water. Your body, if you're from the Northwest right now, your body is not ready for the extreme shift you're about to experience.

And don't forget the earlobes. Sure. When you sunscreen up. I would also say get to the backfields early. Because you'll probably catch. If you're an autograph. Yeah. Great place for autographs.

Great place to just like chop it up with Samarist players if you want to. Like I had some conversations with guys. you might even catch like the really young dudes that are going to be playing in like the ACL and low A A like they might be playing in a game against like the Padres. Yeah, I saw those kind of yeah. It looks like a pickup game almost. Yeah, I saw Laz. I saw Gabriel Gonzalez.

I'm sure I saw Michael Royo play, get an app at one of those games. Yeah. So that's really cool. You might see that at the very least you'll see guys getting workouts in and all that. And again, you might be able to get some autographs or at least. you know, talk to some people. And then, yeah, you might see like, like I got to see Brian Wu throw a bullpen. That was dope.

Have fun. Sunscreen, leather up. Get there about two hours early. You can see all the stuff on the backfield. And that's the nice thing about lawn seating too is that just kind of chill. Lay out in the sun a little bit. Watch some ball. It's a very chill, relaxed atmosphere.

So yeah, enjoy yourself. You're listening to the Lockdown Marys podcast. Got a couple more questions here on Mailback. Monday before we get out of here. Brandon wants to know. Brandon Garcia going to be the leverage left-handed pitcher in the pen. And also if Cole Young rakes, do they start him on the roster for the first round pick considerations? So let's talk about Brandon Garcia first.

Yeah, that sinker, slider, cutter combination that he has, that should play up pretty well out of the bullpen. I like his odds of being able to impact the bullpen more than like a Gabe Spire or a Taylor Saucato. So, yeah, of the options that they have, currently in house, I would say that he has the likeliest shot of being the leverage lefty in the pen.

But that's definitely not a, not a guarantee that he will be. I think in terms of the lefties, I think people are forgetting how good Gabe Spire was in 2023. He is. Now he's got to be healthy, right? That's the important part. But I think you have the leverage lefty out of your pen if Gabe Spire's healthy. Do I think Garcia could be another one?

Yeah. And I think there's a shot, Garcia. is also going to be really good against or righties with that cutter slider combo. So yeah, there's a shot, but I don't think he's going to start that way. I think that Mariners probably keep him stretched out to some degree.

And then when they decide that he can help us the most out of the bullpen, that's when they'll make that switch like they did with Edwin Diaz, like they tried with Logan Evans last year. Yeah. Then Cole Young, we've already talked about, you know, he would have to really impress the club to make the opening day roster i mean justin hollander back in december i think it was december said like he's

going to start the year in tacoma now things have maybe changed in terms of their outlook of how like the infield was going to play out exactly how they wanted it to play out they told us so it's like three days ago so yeah so um they don't have a hole at second base they have cole young right so yeah so maybe maybe now young has more of a shot to make the opening day roster that than he did a few months ago. But I would say that it's still. Yeah, I would say that it's still very unlikely. I would also say that bringing him up for the first round pick potential would be foolish.

Because right now we're looking at like Jason Dominguez, Jacob Wilson, Roman Anthony, Kobe Mayo. Is Dominguez still eligible for that award? Oh, good Lord. And he's leading the, uh, every book that I looked at is, he's the leading. That's a bad bad, but okay. Yeah. So, yeah, you're just, I don't, Cole Young just doesn't seem like a rookie of the year type of player. You know, like he's not going to put up the flashy numbers.

He's not going to steal 20 bags or 20 home runs or, you know, score 100 runs or anything like that. They'd probably be very solid. If, you know, if he did make the opening day roster, my guess is that the Mariners, like, he would literally have to blow. them away because I think the Mariners are smart enough to look at it and be like, look, he's not Julio Rodriguez. The odds of him winning rookie of the year in a normal year aren't that good, whereas Julio's odds of winning rookie of the year, very good because he's that type of guy. So yeah,

I don't think that's going to factor in. I guess they could try it and then send them down if it doesn't really start off well. I mean, there's not much of a harm in that, but I do think ultimately that, like, no, they're not going to, I don't think they're going to service time. him and call him up in mid-April, you know, and do that. Because if that was the plan, then you might as well just call them up, you know, on opening day and take that shot. But I don't think that's factoring into their decision-making at all, to be quite honest. So, no, I don't think if Cole Young is on the opening day roster, it's not going to be

because the Mariners think he can get them another draft pick. It's going to be because he blew their doors off. So I don't think that's a factor for Seattle. All right. last question of the day comes from adam uh who hits the first spring training home run so i believe last year saman taylor was i think you're right that hit the first uh mariner's home run in spring training so should we go with a little weird one here i mean like you like it feels easy to go with a weird one but also it could just be like bullio right like it's probably going to happen

on the first game but how many starters are going to play in that first game. The Mariners really slow play their lineup, which has worked out fantastic the last couple years, gotten off to some real hot starts offensively. So I'm sure they'll do the same thing this year. So like, is Julio even going to play? Or are we going to get like one of those games where it's like Spencer Packard is the starting right fielder for the Cactus League opener? Like, you know, there's one starter and it's J.P. Crawford in the opening day lineup for the that's actually that's actually kind of a good call. Spencer Packard. That's why I was kind of thing.

Oh, I was thinking JP. Or JP, yeah, yeah, JP as well. So, yeah, do you want to go, like, the guy who's going to play a majority of the game, or do you want to go with the starter who's going to get, like, one at bat that first day? I'm going to go Mitch Garver. Oh, I like it. Yeah. I like it.

I'm going to go. I'm going to go Cole Young. Nice. Just for the, just because that feels like that would, you know, we'd get a million question. That would definitely happen. Yeah. the basement right like that that would definitely happen just because we would get a billion questions about just like this one moment meaning that he's now going to make the roster some super wind aided

bomb to like left center field when's blown out at 18 miles an hour apparently we're going to get stat cast data now at the games that are played in peoria i think a lot of the other spring chating ball parks are also getting all but like five or six of the mariners games will have stat cast data yeah So we'll have the data to back these things up now. Yeah. So Cole Young for the like is the vibes pick. I'm going to like in terms of like actual mariners, like they're going to be on the 26th man. Sure.

I would, I'll take Mitch Hanager because he'll give everybody help like, oh, Hanneger's healthy. Yeah. No, no. Now they can trade them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think it was Smat Taylor last year was the first one, though. Yeah.

Who is going to be in camp? He is still in New York. It's true. It's true. Maybe he does it again. But yeah, it's probably going to be somebody like if you're just playing the odds, it probably is somebody like Williamson or Young or what would be like Nick Raposo. Oh, man.

What would be the funniest? First home runners. I think it might be Cole Young. would be the funniest Hanager would be pretty funny yeah just after like the the offseason discourse that would be funny

yeah yeah yeah who would be funny Nick Raposo would be hilarious Jacob noddingham yeah yeah all right that's going to do a fair show thank you so much for joining us here on the lockdown Marr's podcast for Colby Patnaota I'm Tiding Gonzalez be sure to give us a follow

on Twitter at L.O. underscore mirrors. You can follow me at Tiding and Goulis and Colby at C-Pat-11. That's C-PAT-1-1. We're also in Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB-Colby, and the show at Lockdown Marers. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day, and we'll see you next time.

Peace.