Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mariners Reportedly Eyeing New Hitting Coach Who's Worked With Cody Bellinger and Jorge Soler

Episode Date: November 15, 2023

Colby and Ty comb through the aftermath of the Rule 5 protection deadline, identifying potential Mariners targets that were either designated for assignment on Tuesday or will be eligible to be select...ed in next month's Rule 5 Draft. Additionally, the Mariners are reportedly zeroing in on a new hitting coach who has a history of success with some of the biggest free agent hitters in this year's market.Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @danegnzlz | @CPat11Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Jase MedicalGet $20 off these lifesaving antibiotics with Jase Medical by using code LOCKEDON at checkout on jasemedical.com.FanDuelScore early this NFL season with FanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook! Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning FIVE DOLLAR MONEYLINE BET! That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – if your team wins! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON 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 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Coming up on the Locked-on Marrers podcast, Colby and I will look at the aftermath of the Rule 5 protection deadline yesterday and determine if there are any interesting players who either went unprotected or would DFA to make room for the players who were protected. Plus, the Marers might have a new hitting coach on the way. Talk about that. 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, November 15th, 2023. This is Tining Azales and Colby Patnaud for the Lockdown Marys podcast brought to you by Jace Medical. Empower yourself when you purchase a Jace case, providing you with a personal supply of five antibiotics at treat 50 plus infections.
Starting point is 00:00:47 Get yours today over at Jacemedical.com. That's JASC Medical.com. Thank you so much for making us to your first. Listen, subscribe, like, and turn on alerts. If you're watching on YouTube or subscribe and leave a five-star review on your preferred podcast platform if you like what you hear. And if you're part of the crew and rock with us every single day, let us know in the comments below. We'd love to hear from you. And if you want to hear from us even more, please consider sending up for our Patreon. You can now get a free seven-day trial to check out the show. The link as well as our social accounts is in the description of this episode.
Starting point is 00:01:19 And on the show today, we're going to look at the aftermath of the Rule 5 protection deadline yesterday. Who are some players who went unprotected that the Mariners, could select in the major league portion of the Rule 5 draft next month. And were there any interesting players who were DFA to make room on their respective teams' 40-man rosters? Plus, it looks like the Mariners might be on the verge of adding a new hitting coach. We'll tell you about that a little later on. But let's start here with the guys that were DFAed. Were there any interesting players who were DFAed yesterday, Quil?
Starting point is 00:01:53 I don't know. I was hoping you would figure that out. honestly just the one that really caught my eyes cal qual calquantral uh from the cleveland guardians um you know former first round pick uh he was actually picked a couple spots out of kyle lewis in in that draft um which seems crazy to say seems like that was not very long ago but um yeah he was dfaed yesterday he's he was bad last year pretty good September, but overall just bad. You know, he's your classic back end of the rotation guy.
Starting point is 00:02:29 He'll give you innings, but he's going to give up hits. He's going to, you know, not strike out a ton of guys. You know, his runs allowed metrics, not ERA or traditionally in the fours, like right in that range. But he has had some success yet. He has, you know, a track record of eating innings, which we know Seattle kind of needs with the questions surrounding Wu and also the health of Hancock. and Gonzalez and effectiveness of those two, kind of up in the air.
Starting point is 00:02:57 But yeah, he's just, he's a strike thrower. You know, he's not going to walk a ton of guy. He's not going to strike out a ton. He's going to pitch to contact. He's going to give up hits. He's going to give up some runs.
Starting point is 00:03:06 But in, throughout most of his career, he's produced, you know, ERAs of, you know, number fours, like number four starter stuff.
Starting point is 00:03:16 But the stuff is a number five starter. The, you look at FIP and X FIP and all that stuff. It's mostly number five, uh, type of numbers. and he's just he's a he's an arm right he does have a couple options left a couple minor league options left um however six point six million dollars is what he's projected to earn an arbitration this
Starting point is 00:03:35 upcoming year that's a lot for right-handed marco gonzals or as we can call him now expensive emerson hancock same thing so uh is is it likely that anybody's going to claim you know a number five coming off of a bad year and pay him six million dollars No, probably not. But if a team is willing to claim him, it's probably not going to be Seattle. So you hope he clears, you hope he chooses free agency. I think he's got enough time that he can opt for free agency. I'm not 100% sure on that.
Starting point is 00:04:08 And if he does and he's willing to sign, you know, like a million five or something like that and with incentives, then yeah, then that's a good guy to stash in your organization. You definitely have room on the 40 man. But aside from that, there really wasn't. I didn't see a ton go down. And even Quantrel is is an interesting idea, but there's just not a lot of upside here. He is basically what you're hoping Emerson Hancock will be. But there might actually be a little bit more upside in Hancock right now than there isn't Quantrel.
Starting point is 00:04:37 So we'll see. But that's the one guy that I saw that really stood out. But even that, like at six million bucks, you could probably do better. Yeah, this past year for Quantrell, 99. and two-thirds innings pitched. He posted a 524 ERA. 479 FIP. 0.7F4 was what he was worth.
Starting point is 00:05:02 Just 524Ks per 9, 316 walks per 9. He doesn't strike anyone out. But the year before, 186 in a third innings pitch, 618Ks per 9, 227 walks per 9. 338 ERA, 412 FIP. He was worth two wins. It's a good pitcher, solid pitcher. And then the year before that, 149.
Starting point is 00:05:21 point two innings pitch 728 Ks per 9 283 walks for 9 289 ERA 407 FIP It's 1.8 F4 I mean that's a You know that helps That's solid depth
Starting point is 00:05:33 If you're able to even get You know close to that That would be solid depth to have But just not at that number So if he elects free agency If he's able to I don't know exactly what the situation is there If he's able to do that or not
Starting point is 00:05:45 But if he's eligible to do that And he elects free agency Then I'm interested but yeah even if you're like you know in arbitration the arbiter is probably going to side with the team if they lowball him but even then that's probably still you're probably still looking at three and a half four million dollars at the lowest possible end it's still a little much for me given what his role in particular would be in Seattle which is essentially a stash play down in triple a so again if he hits free agency and there's a deal there that makes sense, then I'm, I'm into it, but otherwise,
Starting point is 00:06:24 probably not. Outside of Quantrill, Dom Smith got DFAed by the Nationals. He's someone that we've talked about a little bit, but that kind of feels redundant, given that you did, you know, recently DFA Mike Ford.
Starting point is 00:06:38 I think Smith is also out of major league option or minor league options as well. I'll double check that real quick. But do you like the idea of Dom Smith at all? I liked him a lot more when the team was rebuilding and they had back, at bats to give and they can take a shot on him. Smith is a guy who a lot of like prospect guys really liked,
Starting point is 00:06:56 they thought the bat would play. And he's been, I think, painfully mediocre at the big leagues, if he's even at 100 WRC plus, first base only really shouldn't be in the outfield. Again, if you're looking for org depth and you want to try and stash him in AAA on a minor league deal, sure, but I wouldn't give him a 40-man spot entering the year. If you want to give him one now,
Starting point is 00:07:18 you want to claim him and just, you know, have them on your 40 man and bring him into spring training, fine, whatever. But, uh, yeah, honestly, I just, I would have rather you paid Mike Ford, the 1.4 million dollars or whatever. But, yeah, uh, on a minor league deal, yeah, Smith, Smith is fine, but I'm not interested in claiming him. I don't know what his, uh, ARP situation is off the top of my head, but, uh, I, I probably don't want to spend a 40 man, uh, spot on, on him. Uh, but again, as org debt, maybe, although you do have Evan White coming back, uh, in theory. and you want to give him at Bats at AAA. So we'll see what happens there.
Starting point is 00:07:56 But I like the idea a lot more like two, three years ago before you kind of started to turn and before he started competing for division titles, or at least you should be. Assuming that he clears waivers and he decides to elect for free agency, that's probably a solid candidate for a minor league deal and an invite to spring training. So at that point, yeah, I'm down. To me, there's no such thing as a bad, like, minor league deal. Unless there's off the field issues. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:08:26 But even baseball-wise, that's not a bad deal. It's just, you know, PR-wise and, you know, all that stuff. But, yeah, I think that should go without saying, but yeah. Yeah. Did he have any options left? Did you, did you check that? It says not available on VanguardGraph. So I'm going to say no.
Starting point is 00:08:45 Yeah, I'm going to say no. Usually it says zero instead of NA, so that's why I mentioned the difference there. But yeah, the safe bet there is that it's zero. And I mean, he's going back to his time in New York, he was going up and down, up and down. So it makes sense that he's out of minor league options at this point in his career. But yeah, again, if he reaches the free market, then, yeah, minor league deal with an invite to spring training. I'm down for Dom Smith. Yeah, keep an eye on those two guys.
Starting point is 00:09:15 Now let's turn our attention to the prospects that went unprotected from the Rule 5 draft. Are there any interesting names there for the Mariners that they could draft in the Major League portion of next month's Rule 5 draft? We'll go over some names in just a moment. But first, a reminder of this episode of the Lockdown Mariners podcast is brought to you by Jace Medical. You know, we spend a lot of time talking together, you and I. We get fired up together on wins and losses, who starts and who sits. and I'm thankful for that connection we have. But today, I want our chat to be a little more personal.
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Starting point is 00:10:44 supply of any daily med, go to jacemetical.com to see if it's offered for you. Remember to use the promo code Lockdown, that's L-C-D-O-N, $20 off your purchase. And you're listening to the Lockdowne, Marriott. Thank you again for making us your first listen. And as a reminder, Locked-on has launched the first ever
Starting point is 00:11:03 national sports 24-7 streaming channel on YouTube. Locked-on Sports Today is here for you. 24-7 covering the top sports stories of the day with the local experts of locked on plus our national shows covering every league go to locked on sports today on YouTube and subscribe to the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel all right so a lot of guys got protected from the rule five draft yesterday uh and a lot of interesting guys got or we're left unprotected from the rule five draft. Before we hop into those names, you know, some of you might not know what the Rule Five draft is. So, Colby, could you give us a quick explanation of what the Rule 5 draft is?
Starting point is 00:11:50 Sure. We'll start with the fact that it's stupid. But essentially, any player who is five, I believe it's five years removed from being drafted as 18 or younger, or four years removed from being drafted at 19 or older. They have to be added to the 40-man roster. Otherwise, they are eligible for the Rule 5 draft. So I think what are we in this year? That would be 2019, I think, is if you were drafted as a college player in 2019, you have to be added to the Rule 5, or you have to be added to the 40-man or
Starting point is 00:12:27 your Rule 5 eligible. Basically, the Rule 5 is you, it's a draft, just, it's the same order as the MLB draft next year. teams don't have to take anybody they can pass once they pass they cannot make any selections for the entirety or for the remainder of the draft it keeps going until the last team passes so you can keep picking guys and picking guys as long as you want but once all 32 teams pass or all 30 teams pass once it's over uh the rule on the rule five draft is pretty simple you have to pay the team that uh you are taking the player from you have to pay them a hundred
Starting point is 00:13:06 thousand dollars if and you have to sorry you have to keep that player that you select on your 26 man roster all year you can't option them down uh you know you can you can work out a trade uh which is interesting you can select a guy bring him in if you like him but you don't want to keep him on the 26 man you can't go to that team that you took him from and work out some kind of deal and then you can option them down but until that trade is made until you officially acquire that player it's more or less, you're trying the guy out. If you don't want to keep the player, he gets offered back to the team that you selected him from for $50,000. So it's only a $50,000 gamble on a guy.
Starting point is 00:13:47 But the trick, again, is that you have to keep them not only on your 40 man all year, you have to keep them on your 26 man roster all year. And that is why most of the time, these Rule 5 guys never pitch for the team that, or never play for the team that selects them. it's more and more rare that, you know, anybody of significance gets to a Rule 5 situation. So it's really stupid. It's trying, it's,
Starting point is 00:14:12 it's a way to try and prevent teams from hoarding talent at the minor league level and just, you know, artificially keeping them down. But if you want to do that, you could just give them free agency, which they don't have until after six years in the minors. So, um, yeah,
Starting point is 00:14:26 it's, it's basically a scam. Um, it's a nothing event for the most part. and the players that are available really don't carry much impact potential. And it's typically not something that a lot of teams, I mean, not every team will make a pick.
Starting point is 00:14:43 Very rarely will more than a dozen or so teams make a pick. But the Mariners always seem to make one. They always seem to make one pick at least. So yeah, it's just something to keep in mind. None of these players that we're talking about here coming up, none of them are stars. None of them are potential like everyday players even.
Starting point is 00:15:00 You're basically looking for bullpen. arms and you know yeah maybe all of them utility types and even the bullpen arms they they have flaws so big time yep yeah it's just if you if you think there's something interesting here that you want to take a flyer on because at the very least you get them into spring training you allow them to throw a little bit in front of you and get to work with them a little bit on some things and maybe tap into some stuff there but uh that that's really just the you're just taking a shot What the Rule 5 draft ultimately is just taking shots on guys and just seeing.
Starting point is 00:15:33 And then, you know, like you said, if it doesn't work out, then it's not really that much of a loss for you. I suppose one thing that can happen is that you can offer the player back to the team and they could just say, no, you can keep them. Right. But usually what happens is there's a trade and usually it's just cash. Past Mariners Rule 5 draft picks that you may have heard of, Will Vest, a rule 5 pick.
Starting point is 00:15:56 I believe Brandon Brennan, you remember him? Brennan Brennan. Yep. I think he was a rule five. Yep. Yep. So, you know, they have had some guys stick. Uh, I think Johan stuck all year.
Starting point is 00:16:07 Well, it was 2020. So he only had to stick for 60 games. But, uh, yeah. And then last year they took somebody from the Cubs. I can't remember his name. And they just gave him back. Oh, yeah. Uh, Chris Clark, I think.
Starting point is 00:16:19 Yeah. Yep. And that was his name. Yeah. So again, not, you're not, you're not looking for major contributors here in the rule five draft. So the rule five draft. takes place on the last day of the winter meetings,
Starting point is 00:16:30 which is, of course, next month, mid-month. So, you know, keep an eye on the mayor is there, because, again, they usually take someone. And it's, I don't think they've, at least in the depoto era, I don't think they've ever taken anyone other than a reliever. So I have like four guys that I kind of have my eye on.
Starting point is 00:16:53 They're all relievers, but, you know, is there anyone that you are looking at? in particular here. Sure. I'll butcher some names along the way. Sure. Stay with me. C.J. Van Ike,
Starting point is 00:17:07 I believe so you pronounce his last name. From the Blue Jays. You know, I remember him when he was coming out. I think he pitched a Florida State. Did, you know, second round pick. I think second round pick. Had a Tommy John surgery,
Starting point is 00:17:21 which caused him to miss, you know, basically two years. But I do remember him having a really good curveball. It apparently flashed a, in the Arizona Fall League. So, you know, he doesn't have a ton of innings under his belt at the pro level, but he was a college guy. He does have a plus pitch right now.
Starting point is 00:17:38 So that's a guy who maybe the Mariners might have interest in trying to, you know, sneak into their bullpen or at least take a shot on, right? Devin Mann is a kind of a utility guy for Kansas City. You know, he was traded from the Dodgers. to Kansas City this year. And, you know, he can play all four spots in the infield. Fine. Not great, but fine.
Starting point is 00:18:05 And he put up, you know, really good numbers, 20 home runs. But it's a lot of mediocre skills across the board. There are swing and miss issues as well. So is he better than Dylan Moore or Sam Haggurty? Probably not. So that's probably not an avenue that they're going to go. There is a, an interesting name, J.T. Gin. You remember him?
Starting point is 00:18:26 Yeah. He was a second round pick in the 2020 draft. He had a lot of round one hype, but he got hurt. And he really just hasn't stayed healthy. But, you know, it's sinker slider. We know how much the Mariners like that. And there's a lot of upside there. Could they take him and then see if they can get him into the bullpen?
Starting point is 00:18:44 Sure, probably not, but they could. The name that I'm going to, I don't even know if I want to attempt this. Anthony, whoopee. Oh, yeah. He's like, he's like, he's by. Yeah. Tui Neota? I think
Starting point is 00:18:59 We'll just call him A-H-T. How about that? Yeah. Anthony Hoopi Tuio-Notoa. Tuio-Notoa. I believe that's what it is. Hoopi-Tuia-Notoa. Okay.
Starting point is 00:19:12 Well, that guy from the Rangers organization actually pitched here in the state of Washington, Pierce Community College. He was a 30th round pick back when that was still a thing. But I've watched him some. a really good upper 90s fastball with some run at the top of the zone and a pretty hard firm slider, which we know the marries will occasionally turn into a cutter.
Starting point is 00:19:35 But again, not a ton of innings under his belt, but the stuff is legitimate, you know, middle relief type of stuff. And the Mariners could take a shot on that. So yeah, you know, again, none of these guys are like that exciting or anything like that. But yeah, those are three. There are a couple from the rays that got left off. but for obvious reasons, Ian Seymour, lefty, but just I think like 15 innings over the last two years,
Starting point is 00:20:02 like almost no work whatsoever. And then Cam Mizner is a, is a fun one, but there is a ton of swing and miss. And again, he's another left-handed hitting corner outfielder. Seattle has a lot of those on the 40 man right now. I believe Cole Will Cox is another guy. Yep. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:20:19 But, yeah. Yeah, so I had a hoopy, chewy, Tuo, Natoa on my list. well who do uh Ian Biddell bet bettel um yeah yeah he is a uh pitchability back in right-hander uh whose stuff might play up in in the uh in the bullpen a little bit but yeah he just throws a ton of strikes um you know knows how to pitch that type of guy pretty similar to emerson hancock uh just the idea at least of what we thought hancock could be next year uh so that's another guy for from the uh cardinals organization right so a couple other guys Harold Torino from the Burrers missed most of 2023 with a torn lat, but a nice sinker, breaking ball combo.
Starting point is 00:21:02 He struck out 22 dudes in 14 innings before getting hurt this year, just three walks. Cole Franklin is a righty from the Cubs. He got smoked as a starter this year and should be a reliever. Control has been wildly inconsistent, and his command of his fastball is pretty spotty. has been hovering around 95 to 97 miles per hour. He dealt with an oblique injury a couple of years ago and just kind of hasn't really been the same pitcher since then. But I do wonder if he could tap into more VLO
Starting point is 00:21:36 if he just let him rip it. Nice slider as well. He's also the nephew of former mariner Ryan Franklin for those that care about that stuff. Justin Jarvis is a guy that came over to the Mets in the Marc-Canada deal with the Brewers. a solid four pitch mix he's a starter but
Starting point is 00:21:54 the idea here with the Mariners in particular is he would be a multi-any reliever who provides some spot start depth really struggled with the walks this year but his pitches have apparently continued to develop nicely in terms of stuff so maybe that's an option there yeah I just I don't really see them adding a position player
Starting point is 00:22:15 because they just they've never done it so I only focus on the relievers that were left unprotected or starters that would probably profile better as relievers. Yeah, of the guys there, I don't know, I feel like Franklin might be the most interesting ball of clay because he also has a nice change-up
Starting point is 00:22:36 from what I've read. So maybe, but again, you know, this is about taking shots. If you like just a particular area of a guy's game here, take them in the draft and just see what you can do it with them in spring training and if you find some success there if you find something interesting there you know put a money your 26 man roster to start the year or work out of trade right um and that's where guys like hudson haskins and uh yeah uh cam mizner like i wouldn't rule them out entirely
Starting point is 00:23:05 but i'm i'm with you it's it's they're gonna take a pitcher uh almost certainly um there's a couple lefties who i left off my list like i didn't write them down because i thought we'd only need four names uh but uh and then And there's one more for Arizona. Christian Robinson. Remember him? He basically missed four years with some issues off the field issues. He came back and had a nice return to baseball.
Starting point is 00:23:37 But that's a, I mean, there's a 0% chance you're carrying him. But if you want to take a shot and put him on spring train, and see if you can work out a trade with Arizona later and then, you know, put him in, you know, the problem with that, though, is that he automatically goes on the 40 man. And while you have 40 man space, not sure you want to waste down my guy who hasn't played baseball in four years. So, or barely played baseball in four years. But, yeah, there are some position player shots you can take. But the goal there has to, or the thinking there has to be like, we're going to try and work out of trade.
Starting point is 00:24:06 Also, real quick, you know, Austin Shitton was protected. We know that the mayor has had interest in bringing him back into their organization. That doesn't mean that the possibility of that is over. like they could still trade for him for sure. But, but yeah, he will not be available in the Rule 5 drop. And of course,
Starting point is 00:24:24 they, you know, they were not able to make a trade for him before the deadline. Right. And that doesn't really matter because Seattle would have just, the result is the same, right? Seattle either trades for him and puts them on their 40 man or they just,
Starting point is 00:24:38 Tampa puts them on the 40 man and you trade for him. And it's the exact same situation. One thing I did want to point out real quick because I did see some confusion on this. The Mariners added Blake Hunt to the 40, man roster the day they traded for him. So I know I think pipeline has him listed as unprotected. That's not the case. He was already on the 40 man.
Starting point is 00:24:56 That is why Zach Deloche was the only player added to the 40 man because Blake Hunt was already on it. So don't worry. They didn't trade for a guy who they're going to lose in the Rule 5 draft. They were ahead of the game on that one. So it looks like the Mariners are going to have a new hitting coach, or at least it looks like they might be on the verge of landing a new hitting coach. We're going to be talking about that in just a moment.
Starting point is 00:25:20 But first, a reminder of this episode of the Lockdown Airs podcast is brought to you by Fanduel. Score early this NFL season with Fanduel, America's number one sportsbook. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 money line bet. That's $150 if your team wins. If you've been thinking about joining Fandul, there's no better time to get in on the action. The app is so easy to use, and there's a wide range of betting options, including spreads, player props, over unders, and a whole lot more. And yeah, the Mariners might not be playing right now, but the Cracken and Seahawks are.
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Starting point is 00:26:32 we have a little bit of Mariners news to talk about or some Mariners' rumors. Craig Mish, the Marlins Beat Reporter. He's essentially the Ryan and divish in the Marlins world is reporting that the Mariners are going to be interviewing or maybe have already interviewed Marlins hitting coach Brant Brown. So the interesting thing with Brown is that he used to be the Mariners minor league outfield and base running coordinator for a little while before he was hired by the Dodgers back in 2017.
Starting point is 00:27:06 He was the Dodgers assistant hitting coach and minor league hitting coordinator until 2019, when he became the Dodgers hitting strategists. And obviously those Dodgers teams from 2019 to 2020, pretty good offensively. And then in 2022, he was hired as the hitting coach for the Marlins. And while they didn't grade out particularly well in terms of WRC Plus, they were one of the highest average hitting teams in baseball. I think they were fourth and batting average.
Starting point is 00:27:33 And obviously, Louisa Rise was a big part of that. But this is something that Jerry DePoto has alluded to. Tony Arnrich is going to be moving on from being one half of the Mariners hitting coach duo that they've liked to employ over the last few years. He's going to be the bullpen coach replacing Stephen Vogue, now that Stephen Vogue is going to be the manager of the Cleveland Guardians. So they want to find a new partner for Jarrett to Hart, and it looks like Brent Brown might be that guy. Mish did say that there would be a bigger role for him on the hitting side of things in Seattle if this were to happen. So maybe it's not necessarily just a strict partnership with DeHart like we've seen in years past. But it's interesting.
Starting point is 00:28:27 And obviously, Brown is someone that has a really, really nice track record when you look back on it. So Colby, the fans and the people in the comments section might actually get what they want and get a new hitting coach. Yay. But if I'm going to get into the mind of the fans here, which I don't like to do because mostly gross. But let me throw this out there because either you're going to think about this or you already have. Might the Mariners be hiring the hitting coach that gave Jorge Saler his best season? in hopes of loring Jorge Soler to Seattle. Just saying, just throwing that out there.
Starting point is 00:29:12 But yeah, we'll see what the larger role is. Or Cody Bellinger? Sure, sure. Bram Brown was the hitting strategist the year that Cody Bellinger won MVP. I mean, Justin Turner. Everything is something. It's the MLB off season. Everything is something.
Starting point is 00:29:31 But first of all, I mean, let's wait and see if they even hire the dude. or even takes the job is probably more accurate way to phrase it. But yeah, it would be interesting to see like what his larger role is. Is he, you know, a bench coach or is he just like the director of hitting strategy? Like is it more of a front office role or is it a,
Starting point is 00:29:49 right? Is it something that also bleeds into the minor leagues? That's kind of what I'm interested in here. Is it strictly a major league position? Right. Or is it more of like an overarching thing? Right. And we know,
Starting point is 00:30:03 Seattle has really dipped into development of hitters recently. You look at who replaced Andy McKay. It was Justin. Now it looks like they're going to go out and add another really highly regarded offensive mind to the, at least to the coaching staff. Maybe the front office will see, again, we'll have to wait and see if there is a role here for him what it is, what the official title is and what they have in mind for him. But yeah, you know, it's, I don't know. know it's the same thing like remember when edgar got got hired to be the hitting coach people were like oh this solves the mariners hitting problems it's always about the players
Starting point is 00:30:41 guys it's always about the players so uh cool i mean it's nice to see the mariners linked to anybody even if it is just a coach but uh you know based on how slow the offseason's been so far uh across the league uh then yeah just to see your team mentioned for a a person who seems to be held in high regard across the game like cool I guess I'll take it but ultimately I don't care what his role is do we think the whole market is being held hostage by whatever Otani does like is everyone just like waiting god I hope not because that'd be so stupid of of the market in general and also like like like why would feel like Otani is going to decide anytime soon like that feels like a late
Starting point is 00:31:26 December maybe January type of thing but also like if you're like the like the Detroit Tigers or you know you have no shot at Otani. Why would you let his market hold up anything? Because Otani is such a unicorn that like there's no other free agent that can look at that and be like, that's the deal I want. Yeah, it's not like, yeah, it's not like he's setting the market. Like he is his own market. Right.
Starting point is 00:31:47 It's not like Michael Walker waiting to see what Sunny Gray signs for or Lucas Gialito waiting to see what sunny gray signs for. Like no, he is his own market. He's special. Do we have a question of the day? I don't really have one. Do you have one? I can offer you a.
Starting point is 00:32:03 question that plays off of yesterday's question, but I don't know, we want to do a Marvel question two days in a row. Whatever. There was some heated debate down in the comments yesterday. I don't know if you saw that debate. I saw a few people throw there. And hey, but guess what? If you don't like comic book movies, that's fine. Don't leave a comment. Yeah, I saw some Martin Scorsese's down in the comments yesterday. It's like, okay, cool, take your opinions and take them to someone else. But here's your question of the day, Ty. And this might be, news to you might not. Heavily rumored right now that Marvel is closing in on a Reed Richards actor, and it's heavily
Starting point is 00:32:44 rumored to be Pedro Pascal. Let us know what you think about that down in the comments. Or if you want a real question, if you want a different question of the day, uh, we're glitching out. If you want a real question today, I'll give you this, which fast food restaurant has the best fries. McDonald's. Not even close.
Starting point is 00:33:07 You let us know down in the comments. Can anybody unseat McDonald's? That's going to do it. Thank you so much for joining us here on the lockdown podcast. Colby Pat node. I'm Tadangazales. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L0 underscore Mergers.
Starting point is 00:33:21 You can follow me at Dan Gonzalez, the C-A-N-Z-L-Z and Colby at C-P-E-E-E-N-Z-L-Z and Colby at C-Pat-E-E-1. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. And thank you again for making us your first. listen have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you next time peace

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