Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mariners Trade Jarred Kelenic to the Braves

Episode Date: December 4, 2023

The Mariners have traded outfielder Jarred Kelenic to the Braves for pitchers Jackson Kowar and Cole Phillips in an effort to offload the contracts of first baseman Evan White and pitcher Marco Gonzal...ez and make way for... something. Maybe. Ty and Colby offer up their initial reactions to the puzzling deal from Seattle.Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @danegnzlz | @CPat11Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!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 The Mariners have made a stunning trade. Jared Kelnick, Marco Gonzalez, Evan White, and Cash to the Braves, Jackson, Coar, and Cole Phillips to the Mariners. Let's talk about it here on the Lockdown Marries 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.
Starting point is 00:00:25 Ahoy, Sailors. It is Sunday, December 3rd, 2023. This is Tedding Azolus and Colby Penn out for the Lockdown Mariner's podcast, brought to you by FanDuel make every moment more. And right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 money line bet. That's $150 if your team wins. Visit VanDULE.com slash locked on.
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Starting point is 00:01:06 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. So here I am enjoying my Sunday night. And all of a sudden, I see the Mariners have traded Jared Kelnick to the Braves. It's Kelnick, Marco Gonzalez, Evan White, and Cash for pitchers Jackson, Coar, and Cole Phillips. and I'm going to be honest, I'm still processing this about 20 or so minutes
Starting point is 00:01:38 after the rest of you. So I'm behind in processing my feelings on this one. So you're going to see me probably go through the sessions a little bit here on the show, live on the show. So Colby,
Starting point is 00:01:49 what the hell is going on here? Jerry's a genius and you all are haters. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. No, no, no. No, no. No, no. Okay. I told you. I stayed up to choose violence tonight. Yeah,
Starting point is 00:02:03 he did say this before we got on that. Let me tell you the brilliance of this trade. Oh, no. I got nothing. So I like how do you want, do you want, I feel like we should start with what this, what they gave up because obviously that's the shell shocking point.
Starting point is 00:02:19 Then later we'll get into what they got and then what this could mean. I think is probably just the natural progression. Sure. So obviously a big part of this trade, uh, without knowing the exact dollar figure. is the money you save in trading what are unquestionably bad contracts of Marco Gonzalez and Evan White Evans do about $7 million this year. Marco was due 12 and a half. Evan had a couple more.
Starting point is 00:02:45 I think he had another year on his deal after this year for like $11 million. So Mariners clear quite a bit of payroll from a guy who in Evan White is not proven that he's a major leaguer at all. So there's a pretty good chance he gets DFA'd. You know, and he, I mean, Atlanta probably puts him back in the minors, but I wouldn't rule out that he just, they just put him in free agency and Seattle re-signs them. Wouldn't shock me at all. But Evan's not a major leaguer, and that's unfortunate.
Starting point is 00:03:15 I really like Evan White, but he can't stay healthy. He hasn't hit at the big league level. It's a bummer. And obviously, you know, I wish you would have stuck around in Seattle. But if you have the opportunity to get that money off your books for a guy, again, who's, you cannot even consider a major leaguer, you, you should consider that a win. Not to all extent, but you should consider that a win. Then obviously the big one here is, well, the big one in terms of, you know, like fan favorite is Marco, who, you know, put in a lot of good years here, stuck through the rebuild.
Starting point is 00:03:46 He was here before the rebuild started. He went through it. And he came out the other side. And he was, he's a big part of kind of rebuilding the culture of Seattle, of the Seattle Mariners. And it's an absolute bummer. But the simple fact of the matter is is that Marco is not a major league quality starting pitcher right now. Or if he is, he's a very, very fringe number five starter. Again, it's a real bummer because Marco's great.
Starting point is 00:04:12 His family's great. They really ingrained themselves in the city of Seattle. And it's a blow. Like there's no denying that. And this is the ugly business of baseball is that sometimes you have to say goodbye to players that you've grow really fond of because they just don't fit anymore. And Marco coming into this offseason was probably the sixth or the seventh guy in the rotation.
Starting point is 00:04:35 And we know the Mariners are actually looking to add to the rotation a little bit too. So it was very clear the Mariners did not see Marco as part of the long-term, you know, plan here. And even though he only had a year left, again, to be able to clear any of that $12 million does have value to mid-market teams. And that's what Seattle is. Now, again, we'll argue in a minute about whether or not. this is an appropriate trade to make, even if you're clearing salary.
Starting point is 00:04:59 But obviously, you know, losing Marco, who is just a great human being and really, you know, gave us all to Seattle, that sucks. It really does. Yeah. We'll see if, you know, Atlanta wants to carry him at the very least. If he does get to be on the Atlanta roster for any extended period of time, he went to a really good team. And, you know, he went to a team that is also understands how to help pitching. So it's a pretty good landing spot for Marco, but it's still, it just, it sucks. It really does.
Starting point is 00:05:27 And so I understand missing Marco, even though just like, we would probably come into the separation at some point. Yeah. If it wasn't today, it was probably going to be in May or, you know, March or it's just, it's a bummer still. It feels kind of unceremonious. But it's, if you take away all the emotion from it, Marco Gonzalez is not worth $12.5 million. And he was, he wasn't one of your five best or one of your six best probably. So, right. All fair.
Starting point is 00:05:55 Not logically. All fair. But now we get to what it taught you to get rid of those contracts. Yeah. Yes. Who, you know,
Starting point is 00:06:05 had a bit of a breakout year for you. No, no question. Took huge strides. Yeah. But we still don't know if he's a major leaguer, like an everyday player. Right.
Starting point is 00:06:15 He's a major leaguer. We don't know if he's an everyday player. And, you know, there's a possibility that maybe his, I don't want to say his act, but maybe his, issues controlling his emotions,
Starting point is 00:06:29 finally caught up to him in Seattle, and they just wanted to try something else. But yeah, it's unfortunate to me that you have to trade a talented player like Kelnick, who is still, I mean, he's still got five years of club control left. He hasn't even hit his prime. He's like 24 years old, and he's coming off his best season in the big leagues. I feel like we all know what's about to happen with Kelnick in Atlanta.
Starting point is 00:06:54 He's going to have a very nice career. going forward. And it sucks that John Stanton has put Jerry to Potto in a position where he has to prioritize $15 million over, you know, kind of catching the upswing of Jared Kellnick's career. But that's kind of what it appears this trade is, because if that's not what the case is, it just doesn't make a lot of sense. And it's not something Jerry would do.
Starting point is 00:07:20 So to me, this screams that, you know, either of the Mariners or, or in what We'll get to this again a little later, so I don't want to dive too deep. But either the Mariners are trying to do something big, salary-wise, or that, you know, the ownership is prioritizing profit and is not letting Jerry and Justin do the job of building the best baseball team they can. They're putting up roadblocks. Build the best baseball team you can with this amount of money. And we're not going to give you more ever. like this is what you get. So it's,
Starting point is 00:07:58 it's a bummer because Kellnick also like, you know, he, he was the guy who kicked off the reap. Like that trade signified like what the Seattle Mariners could be, what they were planning on being. And you stuck through them through some really lean years and you developed them. And then you finally see it,
Starting point is 00:08:17 you know, blossom and come to fruition for the first half. And it does feel like when you bring it up from that perspective, it feels almost like a betrayal of the Kellnick deal, right? Just to, especially when he's starting to finally come into his own to just attach him to a salary down. It's disgraceful, quite frankly. Like, I'm sickened by it.
Starting point is 00:08:42 Like, the more, now it's, like, starting to settle in for me. This is gross. This is really gross, especially when you compound it with the Divis article last night, which I know a lot of you asked us to talk about on the, mailbag tomorrow and I'm sure the mailbag is going to change a lot if we even do a mailbag tomorrow we'll have to figure that out but we're doing a mailbag and we're not making the entire thing about Jared Keldick well but maybe there's something else here and again we'll talk about that later on but there might be something else that crops up here that we'll have to talk about tomorrow
Starting point is 00:09:11 but if if jerry depoto and justin hollander being restricted financially to uh to an even more significant degree than I think all of us really imagined or expected here. This is disturbing. Yeah. Like I said, it's, I'm annoyed that Jerry and Justin can't just make the best baseball moves that they can. They have to also constantly have this restriction placed on them. And it's just, it's not fair. It's not, it's not fair to the fans.
Starting point is 00:09:46 It's not fair to Jerry and Justin. It's not fair to this clubhouse. not fair to and Jerry DeBoto said like payroll is going to go up this off season but so far we've seen it significantly go down so is that
Starting point is 00:09:58 is that a matter of Jerry thought he was going to have more going into the off season and now Stanton for one reason or the other has pulled the rug out from under him which we know has happened in previous off seasons where Jerry thought that he was going to have more
Starting point is 00:10:14 to work with and then didn't is that what's happening here or is there a bigger plan here? And that's obviously the cope, right? That's the hope amongst Mariners fans right now. I mean, that's really all you can do at this point is hope that this leads to more rather than this is just we're trying to get rid of as much salary as possible. Is it cope or is it logic? We'll talk about that in a minute, but first.
Starting point is 00:10:40 Right, but first. A reminder of this episode of the Lockdown Airs podcast is brought to you by Fandulul. Good job, Colwe. Score early this NFL season with Fandul, 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. So if you've been thinking about joining Fandual, 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.
Starting point is 00:11:15 And the Mariners might not be playing right now, but cracking and Seahawks are. So whether the action is on turf or on the ice, whether it's Jared McCann or Gigano Smith, you can bet on it all with Fandwell. So visit Fandwell.com slash Lockdown. That's L-O-C-D-O-N and kick off the NFL season. Fandwell, official partner of the National Football League. And you're listening to the Lockdowneer's podcast. Thank you again for making us your first listen after the Jared Kelnick trade. And as a reminder, Lockdown has launched the first ever 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
Starting point is 00:11:56 experts of Locked-on plus our national shows covering every league. Go to Lockdown Sports Today on YouTube and subscribe to the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel, part of the Lockdown podcast network, your team, every day. So what does this trade mean? What is the purpose of this trade beyond just freeing up more payroll? And we still don't know exactly how much money they are saving here. There is cash going to Atlanta in this deal. How much is going to Atlanta?
Starting point is 00:12:34 We have no idea. I would imagine, though, if the Mariners were willing to attach Jared Kellnick to this thing, that the Braves are eaten a significant chunk of the White and Gonzalez deal. So we'll call it a cool $20 million for the full, you know, for the full allotment of money here between the three guys the Marys have traded. And yeah, for 2024, we'll say, I mean, just to be safe and maybe it's more, maybe it's less. Let's just say it's $15 million for the same conversation.
Starting point is 00:13:09 As in the Mariners send the Braves $5 million. As in the Mariners have sent... They send them 25%. Essentially, yes. Just for easy math. So this obviously says a lot about ownership, at least in theory, right? Says a lot about ownership and how much Stanton is willing to spend and afford Depoto and Hollander to spend on their ball club right now.
Starting point is 00:13:38 Certainly looks that way. certainly looks that way. So from the front office's perspective, what's the practicality of this? What do you think they're doing this for? Well, don't say it.
Starting point is 00:13:56 He used to play for a division rival. I'm just going to throw that out there. Interesting little note that just came by. According to the Bray's general manager, Anthropolis, I think is how you pronounce it? Yeah, yeah, Alex Anthropolis. Yeah. He said this deal came together today.
Starting point is 00:14:10 as in like it started today and they finished it today, which tells me that the Mariners have something close. They have something that they felt like they needed the money for right now. Now, that could be maybe it's a Yamamoto, maybe it's desperation to sign Yamamoto, who sounds like his market is climbing to near the $300 million range. Maybe it's two things. Maybe it's Randy Roserena and, you know,
Starting point is 00:14:38 Max Kepler, Kepler was quickly thrown out there. and Randy Rosarina kind of hearing conflicting reports about the Mariners' interest in him, but, you know, that those two guys would make roughly what you just saved. And then the big one, which is being, you know, talked about by, like, John Boy Media, threw out like a little tweet about Juan Soto and Julio hanging out and stuff like that. So the problem with the Juan Soto thing is that it's not just the money you cleared. Now you're going to have to go trade, like probably Miller, Wu, you know, and in a really good prospect package.
Starting point is 00:15:12 We saw with the Yankees. And only get won Soto for one year. Yeah. And we saw what the Yankees are apparently what the, what the Braves or what the Padres were trying to get from the Yankees. Yeah. For Soto, like that just to me doesn't make a lot of sense. So unless they just,
Starting point is 00:15:26 they love Bryce Miller so much that it's him straight up. And even that doesn't make a ton of sense. Well, and also it just, it feels a bit weird that after you clear salary, you're going to go out a $33 million player for one year, for just one year. Like that just seems so anti-Jerry DePoto, anti what this front office has been about.
Starting point is 00:15:45 So I just cannot imagine that this is for Soto, that this is a precursor to Soto. Yeah, it might not. And obviously today, was it Marosi or Rosenthal? He did mention, I think it was Rosenthal. Both of them. He did mention that the Mariners and Rays are like really, there are two teams to watch making a trade. And, you know, along with Randy a Roserena, there are a couple of guys making money on that Ray's team. that makes some sense.
Starting point is 00:16:12 Perhaps somebody like Tyler Glassnow, who we know the mirrors are looking to add pitching, he might make some sense. We know that Brandon Lowe is making some money, play second base, play third base, left-handed power bat, he might make some sense.
Starting point is 00:16:25 So there's a lot of different ways they can go with this. What I don't think is happening with this particular move is I don't think that sand's just going to pocket the $20 million. And I'm giving him a lot of benefit of the doubt when I say that.
Starting point is 00:16:37 but well why why should we feel confident that that's the case that he's not going to pocket that money that they haven't in front office is actually doing this for you know there's actual practicality to to saving this money the fact that the deal came through in one day came together in one day tells me that there's something the fact that the mariners now have four open 40 man spots tell me that there's something the fact that we haven't heard that they were like actively shopping this idea this i mean this literally came out of nowhere. It tells me that perhaps the Mariners got told something in the last 48 hours that they were not expecting to hear in regards to money.
Starting point is 00:17:20 Now, Yamamoto seems like that's the most likely case, but also we've heard Yamamoto is pretty heavily, you know, considering the giants. And they might be the favorite now. So again, I'm just going to throw it out there. There does leave that one guy. who is just floating around out there. And I just say, what if, what if that's the difference? So again, I don't know what it is.
Starting point is 00:17:44 I, you know, we're all afraid to say show Hey, Otani, but dude doesn't sign yet. So technically, possible. But I, I think ultimately what this is is this is about adding, what this, it's about, you know, getting essentially bad players off your roster. No disrespect to, to Evan and Marco, who I like a lot. But it's about getting bad players off your roster and just kind of redistributing that 20 million bucks. Because at the end of the day, if it's hypothetically, let's say it's Bryce Miller, Jared Kalnick, Evan White, and Marco Gonzalez for and then, I don't know, Jonathan Claus. Just to even out these trades. What if you traded all of that so that you could afford Randy, Rosarina, and Max Kepler?
Starting point is 00:18:30 Are you not better? Because I think you are. So. Depends on what you're doing. depends on what your plan is pitching-wise. So the other thing we have to acknowledge right now is you now have two outfield spots open. You have, in theory, a spot in the infield somewhere,
Starting point is 00:18:48 third base, second base, maybe even first base, that you need to address. D.H spot is wide open right now. I mean, undeniably at this point, I said this after the Swara's deal, but now this can be applied even more so. The Mariners are going to own, undergo significant turnover on their roster this off season, significant.
Starting point is 00:19:11 And they have massively changed the culture in that clubhouse. And right now, optically speaking, when you're trying to sell this to a clubhouse, that literally finished the off season, saying we want our organization to support us more financially and go out and get some guys like the Rangers did. And they just watch the Rangers go win a World Series after paying big on guys like Jacob de Grom and Marcus Simeon and Corey Seeger, etc. And now the baroners are going the other direction. This, I don't want to blow this up too much because, you know,
Starting point is 00:19:49 a lot of the times clubhouse culture and all that stuff does get blown out of proportion. But this right now, as things currently stand, we'll see what they have up their sleeves, if anything. This feels like this could get really out of hand in that clubhouse. it could um but can can we stop for a minute with the whole oh the mariners are rebuilding again thing really they're rebuilding because they traded a declining third baseman in a young outfielder really well it does that does not line up when we hear that they're in on isaac parades or randy a rose arena or what have you right so something's not lining up here i just don't know what i don't know it's almost
Starting point is 00:20:36 like we don't have the whole picture yet. Yeah, we don't have the whole picture. We don't have the whole picture. And but what is the whole picture? What is this all leading up to? That's the, that's the key to all of this, right? But I don't fully trust that this trade is actually going to lead to something else.
Starting point is 00:20:56 I don't fully trust it. I don't think that it can't, if that makes sense. Right. I, like, I think that's what's likely happening here. The logical side of me is telling me, yeah, that is what's happening here. There is a bigger plan here. But there is a part of me.
Starting point is 00:21:10 I just, I have to admit it. That is a little bit worried here that, like, they're just shedding payroll. Apparently, all it took was for the marriage to trade, Jared Kalnick for Tide of lose his nerve. That's,
Starting point is 00:21:22 I didn't have that on my bingo car this offseason. Well, things just somehow continue to get worse. Like, things just seem to like, they're looking worse and worse. It's going to be hard to find a 110 WRC plus outfielder, corner outfield bat stop this stop this this is why people call you a bootlecker and me by
Starting point is 00:21:42 you my association you've already replaced gino with somebody better i don't know i don't know we can say that i don't yeah um i think i think you probably will end up have doing that but i yeah obviously you can't say that quite yet um yeah i don't mean like like i get it like i'm not trying to make light of people who are who are really upset uh with this deal because it it doesn't make any sense in a vacuum and because we don't get to see the whole picture. We're not privy to the conversations that are going on with other agents and other teams. We don't know what the deal is. And honestly, we don't know what the Mariners payroll situation is.
Starting point is 00:22:16 Like a lot of people are speculating. It's really easy on days like today to point to it and be like, yep, obviously. But we still don't have any evidence whatsoever or any more evidence to suggest that the Mariners are only going to spend 120 as we do that they might spend 180. We really don't. We have loose speculation from Ryan David. We have loose speculation from Daniel Kramer who aren't hearing these things from the Mariners themselves. They're hearing them from teams that are negotiating. And if you're hearing these things from teams that are competing against the Mariners,
Starting point is 00:22:46 do they benefit from leaking out there that the Mariners have a really restricted payroll this year? Yes, they do. So I don't know what to trust. I think, obviously, if you just look at the evidence that we have in front of us, yeah, the payroll isn't going to go up nearly as much as it should. I think that's the most logical conclusion to draw. but it's not a slim dunk. We don't know.
Starting point is 00:23:06 And also, by the way, I'll say this again in case Ty forgot because apparently he has, I don't care what the final payroll number is, as long as you're net better at the end of the year. Or at the end of the off season. At the end of the day, build the best ball club that you can.
Starting point is 00:23:20 I mean, some can argue that the only way that you can do that is by spending money. But if you build what I, if you build what I can look at going into pitchers and catchers reporting and say they have a legitimate chance to compete, for a division and ultimately compete for a championship, that I don't care what you spent.
Starting point is 00:23:38 Right. And I don't care. I don't care who you lose along the way as long as you replace them. So they got 10 weeks roughly until pitchers and catchers report. Let's just give them that much time at the very least. But I get it. Like I said, this deal doesn't look good on paper, although I think it looks better than a lot of people think.
Starting point is 00:23:55 This does feel like something else is coming at the Winter Menions. It feels like it has to. The winter meetings start tomorrow. We heard more Mariner buzz today than we have all. all winter. Real fast. Quick note here from Adam Jude. He said, I'll just read the tweet. Mariners continued to methodically shed payroll with this deal,
Starting point is 00:24:15 but Jerry DePoto just told Daniel Kramer and me and I, come on, Adam, that payroll, quote, very likely will rise from what it was at the end of 2023. Mariners remained in the market for multiple bats. So kind of just GM speak, but double, down again. Okay. So, all right. So let's say, so they were at 133, I believe, heading into tonight, heading into the steel. If we're just going to play it safe again and say that it's $15 million shed, that's $1.18. They finished where at the end of 2020, at the end of
Starting point is 00:24:51 2023? At the end of 2023, it was about 140. So they have at least, so if they're going to exceed that, then they have at least $30 million to play with in 2024 payroll. I think that would be fair. Yeah. To get back to where they were last year, they'd have 30. 25. 30? Okay.
Starting point is 00:25:18 Be about 30. I think it was 146 was where they ended last year. And they're at 112, 113, depending on how much money they sent to Atlanta. Okay. Well, uh, quick, quick another little, uh, we could, we could legitimately do this podcast for an hour. we were allowed to. Yeah, yeah, no, we should, we should talk about what they're getting. Right.
Starting point is 00:25:39 Do you want to say that for tomorrow? You want to say that for tomorrow? I don't know. Let me tell you. Like, I know, I know there are, there aren't many people out there right now that want to hear about what the Mariners are getting. I know,
Starting point is 00:25:50 but I feel like it would help because like, I like the notes I've gotten on. Let's cope. Let's go. Hold on, hold on. One last Jerry to Poto quote, because I'm sure everybody's in the mood to hear from Jerry right now. Right, right.
Starting point is 00:26:00 This comes from Daniel Kramer. Jerry Depoto indicated that the Mariners intend to be, quote, industrious with the payroll flexibility that tonight's trade freed up, quote, we do intend to go out and put it to immediate use to make our team better. Immediate use. I just, it feels like something is. They've got something. They know something is happening. Like it's not, we think something is happening. They know that it's happening.
Starting point is 00:26:27 Going to go down. Yeah. Here. Maybe it's, maybe it's like Woodruff and Adama. just throwing that out there. But anyways, let's talk about what they got. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:26:35 Sorry. Burns. I always get them mixed up. Because I was like, it's a pitcher that's not going to pitch until 2020. It's like, Madre Zario and Andre Seminez or whatever. I'm always like,
Starting point is 00:26:45 right, which one's the shortstop? Which one should be playing shortstop? Yeah. All right. So the Mariners are getting back a major league pitcher in Jackson Coar, a former Florida product.
Starting point is 00:26:56 It's a bit stronger statement. Fringe major league pitcher. He has pitched. 40, man. He is thrown innings at the major league level. He sure has. Yes. That is the correct way to put that.
Starting point is 00:27:09 Yes. I think we liked to COR coming out. That was the first draft you and I talked. That was the first draft you and I covered, quote unquote. So yeah. So they're getting they're getting co. They're getting coar. They're also getting a minor league pitcher named Cole Phillips.
Starting point is 00:27:25 He's a righty as well. So yeah, what do you got for us on that? Cope. I need. I need that sweet delicious. It's not cope. It's really not. Like, I think that Phillips is a legit get for the merits.
Starting point is 00:27:38 Okay. Is he worth, you know, Jared Kelnick? No. No. No. Is he worth it if you dumped $20 million? Probably still no, because I would like the marriage to be in a position. And they absolutely are.
Starting point is 00:27:51 Don't let anybody tell you otherwise. John Stanton is in a position to just eat that $20 million and just, you know, keep Kelnick, too. But whatever, Jerry clearly isn't. And that, that's annoying. but Billups is a legit prospect. He is 20 years old. He was a second round pick in the 2022 draft. He's good size, 6-3, about 200, 210, electric fastball, upper 90s.
Starting point is 00:28:16 He, you know, hit triple digits in a few games, but he mostly sits 95 to 97. And this was again at 18, 19 years old as, you know, a prep, basically. and it is a good breaking ball. Now, I've seen some people refer to it as a curveball. I've seen some refer to it as a slider. Obviously, I don't have film on the guy, but it is a good breaking ball. He was a guy who was seen coming out of the draft as a guy with helium, like his stuff was actually ticking up as he was getting drafted.
Starting point is 00:28:47 And then unfortunately, Tommy John's surgery after he was drafted has not pitched a pro ball yet. So it's going to be a while, right? This isn't a quick get back to the big leagues type of thing. But this is a guy who's profile when he was drafted in the second round, double plus fastball, upper 90s with some run. Good breaking ball probably projects to be 55, 60 grade. Usable change up, good size, fringe average control. So one of the comps that I saw doing my quick little research on him, probably a little smaller, but Nathan Avaldi, like that type of velocity, that type of stuff. And again, there is obviously
Starting point is 00:29:30 huge reliever risk, but that's true of every single pitcher not named George Kirby and Logan Kilford. So this is the guy, I think he's probably going to be I'd say top-flot. Is he the best pitching prospect on the merit system now? Obviously, low bar to clear, relative. Right. In terms of just raw stuff and upside, yes, I think he's ahead of Teddy McGraw. But because he hasn't pitched yet professionally,
Starting point is 00:29:55 it's kind of hard to put him in that range. I think, yes, he is the, he represents the best chance at having an ace in the mariner's entire system right now. And again, it's not a good chance. I want to make sure, like, I'm not saying that he's an ace or anything like that. But this is a guy who, if he can get back healthy and the Mariners have to feel pretty good about where his elbow is, the medical's on his elbow. If he can get back and he can get into the rotation, just number three profile.
Starting point is 00:30:19 We'll see how your rebounds from Tommy John this first year out is probably going to be a little shaky. It's a second year where we'll have to see. And if he doesn't, it screams high leverage reliever to, in two or three years. if they really want to speed him up. So I'm hoping to get more like, like not filmed, but I'm hoping to see,
Starting point is 00:30:34 you know, more videos of him throwing to see what the windup looks like. I'm hoping to hear more from a couple, you know, of the people in the scouting community that I can actually talk to. But just based on the stuff that he had coming out of school, coming out of the draft, I really like this arm.
Starting point is 00:30:52 I think this is the chance to be at least, you know, number four starter with serious. with a serious upside to be a top of the rotation guy and a pretty high floor, again, assuming health, where he's at least a mid-leverger reliever with a wicked fastball curball combo. He's 20 years old.
Starting point is 00:31:09 Again, it's going to be three or four years, but I think there's legit upside here. I really like, I think I would put him ahead of the, it'd probably put him ahead of like the classé, that tier. I think he's at least in that tier of not above it. Like, I really like that arm. So the other thing to know here with trading kelsey,
Starting point is 00:31:27 Nick, it's another high strikeout guy, gone. The Mariners have just outright said no strikeouts. That's offseason. I'm going to really laugh. Sabby Zabala. Yeah. Well, I'm going to really laugh when they go trade for Brent Rucker, too. We got to cut down on strikeouts.
Starting point is 00:31:44 It's part of the reason we trade Kellnick. 32% strikeout guy. Hey, we just signed Brandon Belt, 34% strikeout rate. Yeah. Interesting. There's so many, but the Mariners traded another left-handed bat and they keep talking about how they want to add right-handed bats.
Starting point is 00:32:01 Kind of feels like they need to add a leftie back in this lineup. I'm sure we'll talk about all this at a later day. Juan Soto, obviously or Shohei Otan. I'm just saying, Otani. What side of the play does Otani hit from? Cody Bellinger, obviously. Interesting. But seriously, Max Kepler, my boy, right here.
Starting point is 00:32:18 So connection, connection right there. All right. So, yeah, again, we can talk about this for an hour. And obviously, I'm sure we'll have some questions that are connected to this in the mailbag tomorrow. And yeah, unless they make another major deal, I imagine we'll talk a lot about this on CTZ tomorrow as well, especially as Ty wraps his head around the fact that I'm right. He's wrong. This deal is going to work out great. I'm still, I'm just still catching up, to be honest with you. I'm still processing my emotions. All joking aside, I totally get it.
Starting point is 00:32:48 Like, I totally understand where if you're, if you're understanding this deal and you're looking at it from the optimistic lens, totally get it. If you're just screw John Sandler. screw the Mariners, I'm out. I think you're lying to yourself, but I get it. I get the reaction. I really do. About being out. You're not going to boycott the Mariners because they traded Jared Kellner. Like, get out of here with you're not.
Starting point is 00:33:09 I'll talk to you in three days when you calm down. Okay. But yes, on the surface, I totally, I totally understand the, uh, the angst that Mariners are feeling right now. Absolutely. I'm mostly there with you. I'm just trying to keep my, my head on the bigger picture. Cool that Jerry said, you know, payroll's still going to go up.
Starting point is 00:33:26 he doubled down on all this. Yeah, that great. Go do it. Yep. Go do it. Can we actually, can we actually get a move here this off season that I don't have to like. Like a pure addition.
Starting point is 00:33:37 Yeah, just like I don't want to cope myself into anything. Can I just get a good player? Can we just get a good player? If they trade for Issafei is tomorrow, you would still have to cope your way into liking that. Yeah, because I have concerns about that.
Starting point is 00:33:53 Isok for it is four win third baseman who had 30 home runs last year. they could trade i have concerns about parrida's bad so yeah they could trade emerson hancock and like josh rojas tomorrow for him and i'd be like ooh i don't know that's that's that's pretty stupid at that point i'm good i'm good but we'll see we'll see yeah i i do think a move is coming so i i would say i don't think this is the only emergency podcast we're doing this week that's that would be my prediction yeah yeah i think i think that i think that's a pretty safe bet i would say i wouldn't be shocked it was too especially with the smoke around the raise right now. And who knows, maybe they're going to do something very un-Jerry-like, very
Starting point is 00:34:33 un-Mariner-like, and they are going to trade for Juan Soto. Who the hell knows? I don't hope not. That's, you know what, man, I'll just, I'll take it. I'll take whatever I can get at this point. I just, I kind of hope not, but whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we got to go.
Starting point is 00:34:51 Yeah. All right. Well, thank you guys, uh, for, Being here for watching this, for tuning in to our show. I'm sure a lot of you are not feeling great. And I'm right there with you. I do not understand it. As of now, hopefully, hopefully though, in a couple weeks or maybe even just a couple of days,
Starting point is 00:35:15 we can look back on this trade with a little bit more clarity. I'm going December 12th. I get it. I get it. All right. I mean, there's a very easy way to make me get it.
Starting point is 00:35:31 Showing it's a tiny baby. Tonny or bust. Yeah. Put all my eggs in that basket. All right. Well, we'll see how I feel tomorrow. But I hope you enjoyed this.
Starting point is 00:35:45 For Colby Pat out, I'm Tidding G-N-ZL-S. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L-O- underscore Mariners. Follow me at D-N-Z-L-Z-L-Z and Colby at C-P-E-E-E-E-T-E-E-E-T-1-1. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. Thank you again for making us your first. Listen, have yourself a beautiful baseball night, and we'll see you next time.
Starting point is 00:36:03 Peace.

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