Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mariners Prioritizing Roki Sasaki + Land Third Pick in 2025 MLB Draft

Episode Date: December 11, 2024

It's been a very quiet Winter Meetings for the Mariners, but found a way to make some noise on a couple fronts: officially announcing their pursuit of Japanese star pitcher Roki Sasaki and defying the odds in the draft lottery to land the third overall selection in the 2025 MLB Draft. Ty and Colby react.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.

It's been a quiet winter meetings for the Marrars, but yesterday they made some noise by define the odds in the draft lottery. Plus, Roki Sasaki is a priority for the Maras this winter. And that comes straight from Jerry Napoto himself. We'll talk about all that coming up here on the Locked On Maras 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 Wednesday, December 11th, 20. 24. This is Tadding Gonzalez and Colby Patnode for the Lockdown Merrers podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcasts Network, your team every day. And even though they didn't make a move, it was a big day for the Marys yesterday. We'll talk about their ridiculous jump in the draft lottery, as well as Jerry DiPoto outright saying that Roki Sasaki is a priority for the team this winner. But before we get into all that shout out to our title sponsor today, Fandul. New customers can place a $5 bet, and you'll get started with $150 in bonus bets if you win that first five. dollar bet. Visit fandual.com to get started.

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 is click the link in the description of this episode. So yesterday, I decided to watch the MLB Draft Lottery. Even though the Mariners were, you know, expected to probably just land where they were projected to at 15. They had the, uh, just a 0.5% chance of landing the first overall pick. But hey, last year, the Guardians had a 2% chance to land the first overall pick, and they got it. And then the Reds had a 0.8% chance, and they got the second pick. Both of those odds higher than 0.5.

Certainly. But hey, you never know. And what else am I going to do with my time on a random Tuesday night? I would have watched it, but no, I'm not paying for MLB network subscription. It was free on MLB.com. I couldn't find the link. They hit it very well. It was literally on the front page.

I was literally there. They didn't show it. They lit. I was literally on there. And I was like, you didn't look hard enough. I'm like simulcasting this on MLB.com or YouTube or nothing. No.

Okay. I refuse to play to pay for an LV network though. It is trash. Anyways. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's the Colby's little soapbox moment here.

So. There's only going to be one. Yeah. No, there's going to be plenty more as I'm sure all of you. are well aware and fully expecting heading into every episode of the lockdown Marrace podcast. Now, so yeah, so on the off chance that, hey, maybe the Marys make a run, I'm going to watch this thing. And sure enough, they made the jump into the top six.

All right. That's interesting. But you're still wrong. I mean, yeah, they didn't get the first overall pick, but, you know, whatever. A consolation prize, though. Yeah, yeah, pretty nice. So we get into the top six. and then I'm like, all right, well, maybe they just got the six pick, which is still great.

Still a lot better than 15. But number six gets called, not the Mariners. Number five gets called. Not the Mariners. Number four gets called. It's the Rockies who had the highest odds of landing the first overall selection. What's happening? Well, finally the Marys got called at number three, which like at that point, you know, you're

of riding the high a little bit of a bummer because it's like oh my god are they actually going to land the first overall selection but still i mean they got the third overall selection in the 2025 MLB draft which is insane for a multitude of reasons one means the mergers are probably going to land a pretty damn good prospect next summer two it adds even more uh bonus pool money that they weren't expecting about four-ish million dollars uh just judging from last year year's slot values last year 15th overall pick was 4.88 million dollars and the mayor has actually made that pick to you know taking gerangelo sanja they gave him that slot value as well at 4.88 the number three pick last year charlie conden the rockies that slot value was 9.07 million dollars

they ended up giving condon 9.25 so yeah so about four million dollars gained here by the And it might be even more. We'll see what the slot values wind up being once we get to the draft. And that is also on top of the slot money that they added from getting the competitive balance round a selection they were awarded last week. So it's been a really good last seven-ish days, eight days for the mayor is regarding the 2025 draft. So there are a lot of ways that we can attack this, Colby.

First and foremost, yeah, just getting the number three pick. what's your reaction? And obviously we got a whole season of amateur ball to still be played. I mean, like you and I were talking about off air, Charlie Condon wasn't on anyone's radars, you know, at this time last year, before he went on to hit 40 bombs or whatever it was, and they ended up being the third pick. So we don't know.

There might be someone that rises the ranks and lands on the mirror's radar. Who knows? But who are you keeping your eye on right now? Yes, first and foremost, congratulations to Scott Hunter. honor. Yeah. He's done a phenomenal job. Him and his team running the Mariners draft and has done a fantastic job,

not only picking good players, good prospects with these picks in the middle, usually in the middle or late in the first rounds, not only has he done that really well. He's also picked guys that the player development staff can work with and that they have strength and they can help actually get to the big league. So it's a really good marriage between Scott Hunter and his staff and the player development folks. And it's produced some really good results over the last few years. And now he doesn't have to pick 15. He doesn't have to pick 22.

He doesn't have to wait until, you know, pick 30, right? He gets the third pick. There is a high probability that he will get to pick, you know, the best player on his board. Like the number one overall player on his board, even though they don't have the number one overall pick. So congrats to Scott Hunter. It'll be interesting to see how they approach this, particularly if they keep the 35th pick, which they can trade. And it does make some sense to trade. But if they don't end up trading it, that could add a lot of intrigue, both at three and at that later pick because of the bonus they now have.

Yeah, because you might be able to bring down whoever is the top player on the board, whether that's, you know, Ethan Holliday or J. the Violet or whoever. Again, we got a full season of amateur ball to still be played here before we get to the draft. So things can significantly change. But yeah, having that competitive balance around A selection gives them errors a lot of options here, both with regards to the draft and also on the trade market, like you said. So do you think that landing this pick, adding the extra bonus pool money that you weren't

expecting to add makes it more likely that they trade that? that competitive balance pick, which they have traded that pick before, or they have traded competitive balance picks in the past? Never around a selection. Yeah. This is only the second time they've ever had one. So, yeah, I don't know, like, I would probably be more likely to aggressively shop that pick, but I don't know if the Mariners are more likely.

I don't think they're less likely as a result of the draft lottery yesterday. But I don't think they're more likely. I think it's probably still about the same proposition. But yeah, I mean, one thing they could also do is they could also go under slot a little bit at pick three and kind of maybe push somebody who's supposed to go in the middle of the first down to them. Yeah. And they can maybe get instead of getting like a top five player and a top 40 player, maybe instead they get like a top 12 player and a top 15 player. Right. Like they can do something like that.

So there are a lot of options here. Now, again, I am typically like wait until May, June before I die. really deep into like the draft because again prospects change guys get hurt you know guys declare that they're going to go to school and a lot changes guys have good years they have bad years uh you know they new pitches get developed all that stuff is happening right now uh so it doesn't make a lot of sense for me uh to you know spend a lot of time on that so usually it's not till may where i really start to dive in and and start to formulate opinions on guys but just based on what I've read from, you know, other people, and based on the very limited things I have seen from this draft class, it's pretty good, pretty good, especially at the top. And obviously most years, if you have a top five pick, it doesn't really matter what the quality of the draft is. You're getting a good prospect. But this year, it's pretty, it's pretty good in the top 10. And so the Mariners are almost certainly going to get top, I'd say top 50 prospect in all baseball is going to get added to this farm.

system in July. Yeah. So you got a couple of names that you're keeping an eye on here in the early going? Sure. Because again, everyone's on the table now, which is fascinating, which is something that we haven't really in our time doing this together. That hasn't been the case. No. The closest we got was 2020 when they took Emerson Hancock at six.

Right. Right. And that's still, I mean, that's big difference. Yeah. Like, think about any player, amateur player, right, who is draft eligible in 2025 in the entire, well, not the world, because it's not a world draft, but you know what I mean. They could be a mariner in six, in seven months. Like, that's legit. Even the guy you think definitely won't be there.

He could be. He could be. That's what the number three pick gives you as well as the extra bonus money from the 35th pick, but whatever. So, yeah, a couple of guys early on that I really like. a couple of Pacific Northwest guys actually jumped up really quick to me. Xavier Nions is a third base prospect who goes to Mount Vernon high school. Well, he goes to high school in Mount Vernon. I don't know if it's Mount Vernon high.

But Washington guy, left-handed bat, six foot four, already about 200 pounds. So there's some room here to add strength and add good weight. a pretty good athlete plus plus raw power maybe 70 grade raw power and a pretty good feel to hit like it's a good lefty swing the power is kind of you know blossomed late here as he's made a little bit of a swing adjustment but there's a shot here that this guy hits you know this guy could have hit 280 with 35 bombs and sounds like he's got a real good shot to stay at third base so and if he's not going to stay at third base he's going to be just fine in right field again good athlete still projectable uh you know strength gain there Oregon stay commit

But yeah, if you're in the Mount Vernon area, I'm going to go watch this kid because he might be the Mariners' third basement of the future here as early as July. So he's the guy that jumped out right away. Ava Arquette is another guy who jumped out right away. He played at UW last year and he absolutely destroyed. Unfortunately, he didn't quite have the supporting cast around him to help all that much. So he transferred into Oregon State. He'll be playing in Oregon State this year.

but he is just a hitter. Like he is a pure hitter. Maybe, I mean, he might end up being when the time comes the best college bat in college ball. So he's about 6 foot 4. He's about 215 to 220, but he's still a really good athlete. He's still agile. He's a second baseman by trade. He can play shortstop.

He proved that this summer. He can play short. He can play second. He can play third. So lots of opportunities. He can stay up the middle. He might have to move to third. But it's probably a.

60 hit tool with 50, 55 game power, more raw power in there. Again, 6-4-220 well-built, strong arm, really good player. Just a high floor guy, pretty high ceiling two. There's All-Star games in our Kett's future. And he's probably a pretty quick mover to the big leagues as well. So those two guys really stood out. And then from the pitching side of things, Jamie Arnold, I noticed, was a very popular mock draft selection for the Mariners in some of the mocks that dropped

yesterday. I'm actually more of a more of a Tyler Bremner guy from UC Santa Barbara. But obviously, you know, he is, you know, a good bet to go in the top five. So he might not be there. But already gets tremendous fastball value. Pretty good breaking ball plus change up and throws a ton of strikes. So Brimner is the guy, 6-2-190. There's still some projectability left. throws a ton of strikes. Already gets plus fastball value. Already has a plus off speed pitch and a pretty good breaking ball that is actually his third pitch right now. So those three guys, you got a couple college guys who are probably going to move pretty fast into the system. One of them's in infield or one of them is a pitcher. And then from the prep ranks, Xavier Nions from Mount Vernon,

huge raw power. Like maybe the most raw power in the entire class. Left-handed bat, local kid. It's going to make a lot of sense. So yeah, yeah, it's, those are just three guys. And those aren't even the consensus top three on most people. Like those are, you know, know, guys who are in the five to eight range from what I've seen. Right. It's, it's, it's, the mayor's going to get a very good, very exciting prospect. Oh, yes. Oh, yes.

All right. So we are going to turn our attention to another young, very exciting player who's, uh, ready to make the jump to major league baseball. He was posted, uh, just the other, uh, other day. Uh, and teams now have 45 days or, well, a little under that now, uh, to, uh, to, uh, see if they can land him. That's Roki Sasaki. And then the Marrars, they're apparently making him a priority this winter. And that comes directly from Jerry to Potos mouth. So we'll talk about that in just a moment. But first reminder, this episode of the Lockdown Marys podcast is brought to you by Fandwell.

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So Roki Sasaki was officially posted. He is up for grabs now, even though his agent, Joel Wolf, said that he is not going to sign until sometime after January 15th, which is when the new international signing period begins in Major League Baseball. But teams are now allowed to start communicating with him officially. And this winter meetings, we've heard a lot of teams, the mayor is included, just outright express their interests in Sasaki, which is, you know, not typical. You typically don't hear clubs outright say like, yeah, we're interested in this guy specifically. We think this highly of this guy, what have you. But because this is more of an even playing field, you know, because he is an international free agent. he's only subject to bonus pool money and not, you know, a regular free agent contract like Yoshinobu Yamamoto or say a Suzuki or whoever, right?

Teams are probably more willing to just say, yeah, we like this guy. We're going to go after this guy because every team should be going after this guy. It's kind of like a no-dust situation, right? So we've heard Brian Cashman today say how much they like, how much the Yankees like Broke. we heard Freeman from the Dodgers yesterday say that they think he can be the best pitcher in the world and yeah even the merits

Jerry DePoto and his media appearance a couple days ago with like Adam Jude and Daniel Kramer and all those guys said that the mayors are going to be very aggressive in pursuing Roki Sasaki. They have a presentation plan for him. They feel good about their chances

which is something that we had heard over the last couple of weeks that they were planning to pitch to him and that they feel confident in their abilities to land him. And Depoto went as far as to say that, you know, getting to the second round, the third round of negotiations with Sasaki is a priority for the mayor. So let's attack it from there because we also have a lot of stuff from Sasaki's agent yesterday and his media appearance that we can get into. that some of which some of the things that you said confirms a report that was out there a few weeks ago. But yeah, the Mariners officially announcing they're going after Sasaki. They really like him. What do you think about that? Just like the Mariners like being like this vocal about, you know, how much they like Sasaki. That's unusual. The Mariners are very tight-lipped, although recently not as

much, but traditionally they're very tight-lipped about how they view players and all that stuff. but you know again this is kind of a special circumstance last time i remember them talking this openly about wanting a player like this desperately was showy otani and he was also an international yeah yes and he was also a special circumstance so yeah um you know i to me it's it's noteworthy at least that the mariners are like publicly you know publicly i i don't know lauding a player uh yeah that's not something they do ever like it's very rare that they'll do that so uh the fact that they do i think like do i think that means that they think that they have a really good shot or no shot or anything no i don't think that's what's happening here it's just interesting to me that

they're being that open about it because again traditionally they're not about players but uh yeah it is interesting and we talked about this before you know all seriousness aside even when you know i gave the rokey thing like about as much chances the mariners getting the number one an overall pick. Almost. So, you know, if it was truly a level playing field, the Mariners have a phenomenal case to make Giroki Sasaki. From the ballpark, from the city, from the history with Japanese players, from the pitching

development, from the ability to win right away, the ability to run a six-man rotation without really skipping a feat. Also, you look at like some of the metrics on Sasaki. His pitches, fastball, very similar, or sorry, the splitter, very similar to Logan Gilbert's splitter. You look at the one thing Sasaki is kind of struggling right now, fastball shape. He throws it hard, but not great shape, you know, guess what the Mariners are really good at? Teaching fastball shape, getting fastball value out of guys.

Look at Bryce Miller. Look at Brian Wu. And it's, again, it's not like, it's not like Sasaki has no fastball value. It just could get a little more out of it. And the mirrors are very good at that. So the Mariners also have a great history of developing young guys and keeping their young guys off the IL. They're very, very good at a lot of the things that would make a ton of sense for any pitcher,

particularly one like Sasaki. It makes a lot of sense. Like the Mariners in a truly level playing field, just like who has the best case, the Mariners are in the top three or four to have just the best case, the best pitch. They don't quite have the best pitch. though because there's three things they can't say.

They can't say we just won the World Series. They can't say we have Shohei Otani. They can't say we have Yamamoto. And one team can say all three of those things. So that's a top pitch to beat. But again, like when you look at just like if you eliminate those things, which you can't, but let's just do it. Put it on the side.

The Mariners have a much better case to pitch to Roki Sasaki than the Dodgers, then the Padres. Because the track record is there, the history is there, the specific thing that the young Roki Sasaki was never thrown over 120 innings, talk about bringing guys along, avoiding injuries, pitcher development, all that stuff, great ballpark to pitching, great division to pitch in, a real shot in a wide open American league to maybe pitching the playoffs and all of this thing, you know, and pitching in a great pitching staff with, by the way,

the best defensive catcher in baseball, catching your starts, like all of it makes so much sense. They have a heck of a case if Sasaki's actually open to hearing from all these other teams. And he hasn't already picked a team, which seems to be the general consensus, is that he's already picked the Dodgers or the Padres. But again, if you ignore that and you just look at each team and the case they could actually put before Roki Sasaki, the Mariners would be a favorite if you could ignore all

the predetermined stuff that's already out there. Yeah, so the mares are also, they're pulling out all the stops for this. Eitro is going to be part of the pitch. That's been confirmed, as you would expect. But yeah, you know, Jerry outright acknowledged what, you know, you're talking about, though. Like, we don't have the trophies, obviously. But what we do have is four homegrown dudes here that are all mid-rotation or better quality pitchers. who are here for multiple years to come,

look what we've done with these guys. Look what we can do for you, right? Look at the ballpark you'll be pitching in, right? If you want to be the best pitcher in the world, we can make that happen for you. And the other thing too here is, again, Roki Sasaki, like every other pitcher that comes over from Japan is not used to the kind of workload

that Major League Baseball demands. He's not used to pitching once every five days. Now, other teams are very much well positioned to run a six-man rotation. The mergers are best positioned to roll out a six-man rotation, though. They already have, from a one-through-five standpoint, the best rotation in baseball. Right? When you're talking about strictly just depth of talent, one through five, no rotation can match the Seattle mergers right now. Even with the Dodgers adding Blake Snow, because there's still the question of, like, who's their number five and all that.

So you got Louise Castillo, George Kirby, Logan Gilbert, Bryce Miller, Brian Wu, and Roki Sasaki is essentially your six. And you can help manage his innings that way and all that stuff. If that's something that appeals to him, the mayors have the best argument of any team to make in that regard. So now let's get into what his agent, Joel Wolf, had to say yesterday. He had a big media gathering tons of reporters all around him yesterday at the winter meetings. This is the most interesting quote to come from that. I think that there's an argument to be made that a smaller mid-market team might be more beneficial for him as a soft landing. So that is the first we've really heard, first thing we've really heard that corroborates that report a few weeks ago from Jim Allen, the reporter out of Japan, who said the same thing.

thing. Because again, we've been assuming like, oh, he wants to go to the Dodgers. It's obviously slam dunk. Otani's there. Yamamoto's there. It's L.A. Why wouldn't he want to go to L.A.? But that Jim Allen article said, no, pump the brakes. It's not a slam dunk. He goes to L.A. In fact, I don't even think it's that likely because Sasaki feels he was mistreated in the media. He doesn't want to go to a high pressure situation, all that. Well, his agent basically just confirm that. So if that's true and, you know, the Dodgers, the Yankees, the Mets, etc., they're kind of playing at a disadvantage because of market size.

And I mean, if he feels like he was mistreated by the Japanese media, he probably definitely doesn't want to go to New York or Philadelphia. But that's a whole other thing. But if that's true, then, yeah, it seems like it's anyone's ballgame at that point. And if it is, then like we've talked about, the mayors have. as good of a pitch, if not better, than anyone else in the league to make to Roki Sasaki. Because of what they've done with their pitching, with their homegrown pitchers, and the ballpark they play in,

and what they can offer him in terms of a six-man rotation and all that. And by the way, that's something that I think fans have to prepare themselves for if they do land Sasaki is, I think the likely. the outcome here is they're going to roll with a six-man rotation in 2025. I don't think that suddenly means, oh, they're trading one of the pitchers. No. I think they still could, but at that point, I think they then bring in another veteran to be the sixth guy in this rotation.

So, like, I really do think that they land Sasaki, they will run with a six-man rotation. Will it be with the same five plus Osaka as last year? probably not 100% but probably but it certainly doesn't mean they're like oh louise castillo's gone now nope nope it i don't really i think the odds improve a little bit that they might trade one of the five guys they have right now but it's not a whole lot i really don't think especially if part of your pitch to sasaki is that like yeah we're going to run a six-man rotation with you and again we'll see that matters to sasaki um or not i mean i don't know maybe he just wants to jump right in and try and work through it.

Well, if he wants a soft landing, right? And that doesn't just have to apply to the media market. Yeah, right. Then there's no better soft landing than being the sixth guy behind. Again, Luis Castillo, George Kirby, Logan, Gilbert, Bryce Miller, Brian Wu. Yeah. So like we're talking about one of the most talented rotation. And I mean, this was true even without Sasaki, but you add Sasaki to the mix.

We're talking about one of the most talented rotations ever. And you're talking about giving that super talented rotation an extra day off between every start. Go look at the numbers. Which the Barriers have also talked about on multiple occasions over the last couple of years. So I think if the Mariners had like a legitimate, like another legitimate number for starter, they would be considering doing a six-man rotation with or without Roki Sasaki. They don't. It's not Hancock.

It's not Evans. it's not, you know, and maybe they will in a year with Sanger or something like that. But I do think the Mariners eventually will be a team that runs a six-man rotation. And the game is trending that way anyways. It's just no team has really taken the jump, the leap to do that for an entire season. Like no team's done that yet. I think if the Mariners land Sasaki, they'll be the first team to run a six-man rotation for a majority of the season.

Maybe not all of it because maybe you just want to shelve Sasaki for a couple weeks. um or injuries obviously yeah injuries play role and then at that point it's like oh bryce miller went on the aisle for you know a month with blisters or whatever it's like do we want to have emerson hancock and continue to take starts away from these other four guys just to keep the six man rotation or do we just want to go with a five man for the next month and then like slot him back in like yeah so i i do think that the game is you can also it can also help shorten your bullpen a bit and you know you're going to get guys deeper into games and you know Maybe that takes some pressure off of having to add significant talent to your bullpen,

all that as well. Right. I mean, still do, but, you know, sure. But I mean,

also, by the way, if you get to the playoffs with this rotation, think of the number of starters who are going to go into the bullpen in a shortened series. Think about Rokey Sasaki pitching out of the bullpen. Yeah. Or Brian Wu or like, you know,

think, like, I don't know. It's like, oh, man, they had to use, they had to use low. even Gilbert in the last game of the year to win the division or whatever it's like what are they

going to do i don't know start george kirby roki sasaki brian woo and put bryce miller and louis castillo in the bullpen for a three-game series like yeah it could it would be absolutely filthy assuming they can all say healthy which again the mariners track record on that pretty good yeah and that's a selling point oops so yeah uh again i my my thing with sasaki has never been like the Mariners don't have a good argument to make. They don't have a good sales pitch. It's just the Dodgers exist. The Dodgers exist and they have Otani.

They just won the World Series. They have Yamamoto. Yeah. They also. Yamamoto, who by the way has the same agent as Sasaki. Yeah. So if you really want like even a five or 10% chance the Mariners can get Sasaki,

you really want that report about him not wanting to be in a big media market. You really want that to be the truth. because if it's not, it's already over. And if it is true, I mean, I don't know what, like still 5% or 10% chance. Like, what would you put it? If you said right now, like he's not going to sign with the Angel or the Dodgers, the Yankees or the Mets, like none of the big Chicago, none of the top five media markets. He's not going to sign with them plus San Francisco. Then I think it's as close as 50-50.

between them and the Padres. Yeah. Now, like there's probably some other teams that are involved that will be given a shot that will get to give him an in-person pitch and all that stuff. Maybe like the Rangers or the Astros or the Brewers or the Cups, whoever, right? But I think ultimately comes down to the Maris and the Padres at that point. Right.

And the Padres have something that you can't offer, which is, you know, one of the best, well, that, but also one of the best Japanese pitchers of all time, Udarmish being there as like a mentor and all that, right? Does that matter for Roki at all? Maybe it doesn't, but. Yeah, does the report, one of the things we did here is that Roki isn't concerned about whether or not there's another Japanese player on the team.

Like that's not going to be a factor. But again, is that true or is it the media market thing? Or is it just posturing or is it? Is it trying to get as many teams involved? Like if you're Rokey's agent, you should be wanting to hear a pitch from all 30 teams. Yep. Absolutely. Even the White Sox.

Like you should want to hear what the White Sox have to say, which should be a short meeting. But you should listen to them. Maybe you should. Definitely not the Rockies. No, no. But, uh, you know. Hey, Rogi, you want to come pitch at Coorsfield and play with, and play with some of the greats like Chris Bryant. Like over.

But. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, just to, we're at the end of the show here, but I just want to reiterate this because we've had some fun and all that. Yeah. Sok-Saki thing. At the end of the day, do I think Roki Sasaki is likely to be a Seattle mariner? 100% yes.

It's already done. Colbius switched his way. Just wait until you hear what he's told me his next heel turn is going to be. That's like an. There's a clue out there. It's an M-night Shaman level twist. There is a clue out there. already that by the way.

You know how to find it. That's the only hint you get. So with that, we are officially on Roki Watch. So be sure to stick around here to lockdown Mariners over the next month or so because we're going to be talking quite a bit about Roki Sasaki leading up to his decision sometime next month, which again, his agent said sometime after January 15th. He's going to make his decision. So nothing is imminent as of now.

But yeah, thank you so much for joining us here on the Locked Onerner. podcast for Colby Patnode. I'm Tiding Azales. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L-1 underscore Marrers. You can follow me at Tiding Azalus and Colby at C-Pat-E-E-T-1. We're also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB-Colby, and the show at Locked-on Marrars. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you next time.

Peace.