Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Our Seattle Mariners Christmas WISH-LIST + Remaining Bullpen Options

Episode Date: December 24, 2025

Ty and Colby answer a pair of questions from listeners, including what "Christmas gift" (acquisition) they want most from the Seattle Mariners, then discuss what bullpen options are left for the club and more. Click to learn more about the Everydayer Club!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.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA and NFL seasons are here, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The mayors have said they want to add another established reliever, but options are dwindling. We'll talk about who's left and more coming up 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. Ahoy, Sailors, and a Merry Christmas Eve, to those of you who celebrate your listening to of the locked on mirrors podcast for the locked on podcast network now the number one sports

podcast network my name is tiding is all us and i'm joined as always by my host colby patnode we're two lifelong mayors fans who've been covering the team for over half a decade and today while it's not monday we're going to answer a couple of questions from listeners we're also going to talk about the remaining bullpen options for the mirrors now that pete fairbanks is off the board he went to the marlins this morning and we'll revisit a couple of dh slash third base options we've talked about in the past but before we do i want to shout out our title sponsor today, Fanduel. If you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit fanduel.com and place your

NFL live bets all season long. Transactional healing wants to know, oh boy, two years ago today, the Mariners signed Mitch Garver. What is the best Christmas present acquisition the Mariners can make today to put you in the holiday spirit? I'll tell you one thing, transactional healing. You haven't put me in the holiday spirit reminding me of that move. what happened two years ago today so uh shut up colby uh no i'm not saying it no i'm not saying it mary christmas mariners fans yay there might be a reason that i have not been clipped for another one of

those mirrors hype videos since just saying uh yeah colby you you can kick us off here what we put you in the holiday spirit i mean it's not even really a transaction action that they need to make um but if brennan donovan just was off the market like if you got traded either to seattle or any literally anywhere else i don't care yeah that was going to be one of my answers because like i'm tired of talking about brennan donovan in a theoretical sense like if they actually acquired him i'll be happy to talk about him all off season long but i'm just can we finally get a resolution to this it's been weeks now i'm i'm over it Right. And it's just like, I don't think there's really anything new to say.

Donovan's a good player. He's not a great player. We all know that. Well, most of us know that. He's not worth nine wins. You know, he's not worth three. He's a nine win player in a three win body. Oh, well, then I guess he's only a three win player. So, yeah, it's, you know, the whole discourse is stupid. I'm tired of seeing Cardinal fans act like he's, you know, prime Bobby Witt, Jr. And he deserves the package of like Ryan Sloan and Bryce Miller. Like I'm tired of that. I'm tired of seeing Mariner fans be like, dude only has an 88 WRC plus against left. He says a platoon bat.

We should be able to get him for Thai Pete. And it's like, no, can we just have a normal conversation? You're both wrong. You're both wrong. You're both really wrong. Like, so he's a good player. He's a nice player. I'd like to have them sure

but either way I would like the discussion of what is he going to cost to be over and done with so yeah that would be the one move and that's not really something the I mean I guess the Mariners could give that to me if they acquired him but that's kind of a high bloom thing that

has to happen so that would probably be the best gift you know short of the Mariners doing something crazy like I'm trading for Gunner Henderson or something like that so sure yeah it's probably can donovan either be here or just like not be here can you be traded today to seattle or just san francisco like or kansas i don't care where just make it happen today that'd be great yeah that that would be

like my realistic ask my unrealistic christmas wish here is like hey you know maybe just spend some money and just go out and get alex bregman or boba chet because they're right there and there's your very clear answer to third base it's so simple like here's like two really good players just go spend the money and just get this over with that would be awesome but it's not going to happen so you know but that would make me very happy on christmas all right next question from that mariners guy understandably the mariners want to give the young guys playing time to develop do you think the combo of gino and donovan would be the best of both worlds adding two impact bats that can move around d h slash infield leaving one spot always open for them to grow i think you can do that and donovan would be the best of both worlds adding to impact bats that can move around dh slash infield leaving one spot always open for them to grow i i think you can do that and don't Donovan, again, can move around. Gino can at least D.H. play third, play first. So there are going to be plenty of opportunities to get young and eventually Emerson enough playtime to make that all work.

So, yeah, I think something like that is probably ideal. And I think that's probably what the Mariners are trying to do. Now, if they don't get Donovan, if Donovan gets traded elsewhere, then maybe they sign Gino and that's it. I don't think they'll add a second base, you know, or third baseman. to the mix if they can't get Donovan. He's just a unique fit because of his versatility

because of his cheapness. We've talked about this. But yeah, I think that's probably what the marriage would like to do. I don't know if it's Gino specifically, but I think it is, you know, some kind of combination of Donovan

and then you get a guy who mostly is going to DH for you, but on the days Cal Raleigh needs to DH or literally anybody else, that guy can play somewhere on the field and, you know, a position that you don't. don't have an established guy like third base or second base would be ideal and gino certainly

checks that box as well yeah i'm still under the impression that the mirrors would like to add a guy who's like kind of a full-time dh but also could you know play like third base or second base if needed you know like what they were essentially looking for and nor a polanco uh and also add brendan donovan on top of that like brendan donovan to be is calling him a bonus is not accurate because he's obviously like a priority for them clearly as it's been reported um but he's like an extra like i still don't really know how to like classify him but like what i would say is just like him and the idea of acquiring him i don't think is necessarily dependent on anything else the mirrors do this offseason yeah i agree um again i just

don't think, like, if they miss on Donovan, I don't think they're going to add two bats. And I think the only way they're adding, like, two everyday type of bats is if one of them is Donovan. Yeah. And again, that's because of the flexibility he gives you because he's only set to make $5.4 million this year. Yeah. So I think they're willing to do two bats if one of them is Donovan.

And, you know, it obviously comes down to, like, how much is Gino going to be asking for? like what's this market looking like and how many years ultimately is gino going to be looking for i think that's really the big key here because for me i really don't want to give them more than two i'll give them like a third year mutual option but that like i'm not giving them a guaranteed third year yeah i mean if you're gino you're like okay well look at what horay just got i had a better year than horay i'm getting at least that and it's like i don't think the mariners are willing to do that so we'll see what the market says on gino but uh Yeah, I think something like that is probably what the Mariners would really like to have happen.

It's just, again, is Gino's market going to come down to a place where the Mariners feel comfortable offering that contract? And specifically on Gino's market, are there going to be teams who value him as a third baseman specifically? Are they going to be willing to pay a little bit extra because they think, well, he can play third base. And third base is obviously just a barren wasteland basically in Major League Baseball right now, especially in the free agent market after Bregman. So, like, once Bregman goes, and Bichette goes, like, if Gino's still out there, does he kind of strike a premium because of that? Like, I don't know.

We'll see. But, yeah, I do think, like, Donovan's still on the board, independent of whatever else the mayors do. So at the winter meetings, a couple of weeks ago, Jerry DePoto, even after the mayor's added, Jose Ferrer said that they would like to add one more established arm to the bullpen. But a lot of names have flown off the board. since then and the mayor is still haven't gotten a guy.

So we'll talk about what's left and who the mayors might target in that regard in just a moment. But first a reminder, this episode of the Lockdown Marys podcast is brought to you by Fanduel. NFL Sundays move fast. One big play and suddenly everything feels different. That's what makes live betting with Fanduel so exciting. You're not just watching the game. You're reacting to it in real time. With Fandul, you can place bets as the action unfolds.

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members only Discord access, and more, all for just $5 a month or $50 a year. Go to Lockedon Mariners.com or check the link in the show notes to learn more. So again, Jerry DePoto at the winter meetings a couple weeks ago told the local media that the Mariners would like to still add another established arm to their bullpen. They haven't done so yet, though. and a lot of guys that we really liked as that second arm have gone off the board like Sean Armstrong and today Pete Fairbanks signed for one year and $13 million with Miami Marlin. So I wasn't, I'm not sure if the mayor has actually had much interest in Fairbanks,

but still he was a guy that I liked personally for the mayor's. Luke Weaver has gone off the board. We talked about him quite a bit. Matt Strom got traded to the to the Royals. We talked about him quite a bit. So a lot of these names that you and I have talked about Colby, they're no longer available for the Marys, but there's still some guys out there

that the Maris could circle here. So let's talk about a few of them. You got anyone that stands out to you for the M's? You know, I think most of the, like, pretty much all the expensive relievers, like the guys who, you know, get more than $10 million. I think they're pretty much off the board right now. And I don't know how many of them were actually on the Mariners board

to begin with. This is not an area where the Mariners typically spend much money. You know, we did hear that they liked Phil Maeton and they were in on that and Mayton ended up getting seven and a half. So that may be, you know, about what they're willing to spend max on a guy. So that does limit their market a tad. But yeah, you know, in free agency. The guy I like is Tyler Kinley. Yeah, the Mariners to the moon here also wanted to know about Tyler Kinley saying we heard that the mayors have done work on the Rocky's bullpen at the deadline could they look to sign Tyler Kenley now that he's a free agent yeah I think so I like I like Kenley he had a really good

strong uh finish to his year uh and he is a guy who I think kind of fits uh what the mariners are looking for what they're trying to get uh you really have to buy into 2025 he wasn't all that good in 2024 um not I mean not really that good any other year but he doesn't throw from the typical slot that the Mariners typically like from these guys, but that's fine. We talked about the need for something different to come out of this bullpen, and it is an elite slider, or at least it was last year, 99th percentile in Breaking Bowl run value, 93rd percentile on average exit velo, 89th percentile on whiff, 81st in Chase, which didn't, you know, good strikeout rate, not elite, though. It wasn't anything to write home about, so there's actually more swing

and miss here than he actually got last year. The walks are going to be a bit of a problem, but again, if you get as many swing and misses as he does, or he did last year at least, then the walks can be mitigated. Also, 100th percentile and hard hit rate. He's a fly ball pitcher, not a ground ball pitcher. That should play a little better at Team Mobile Park than it did at

course field, certainly. And, yeah, I feel like this is a guy who slots in really nice to that, like, seventh inning rule, who if you make a tweak, can maybe get more strikeouts to go along with all these swings and misses he already gets, he could be a guy who's, you know, right in there with the big four that the Mariners ran last year. And if they can make that tweak with Ferrer and get him to where they think they can and they can do it with Kenley and they stay healthy, it's probably the deepest bullpen in the American league or certainly one of the best in terms of back-end options.

So I think Kenley would be the guy that jumps out to me. Yeah, a couple of guys that I've talked about in the past. um one of them i highly doubt this would happen because they dumped him during the 2024 season but like they know him and he has still has a really good underlying numbers even though the you know the standard numbers are not great that's ryan stanick uh but again because they they dumped him midseason i don't know what that relationship is like and i don't know if stanick would actually have any interest coming back to seattle but again he's a guy with really good underline numbers still um michael Copac's another guy. I talked about him

early on in the offseason. How's the knee holding up? That's really the big question right now. Just where is he at physically? But he's a guy that just throws gas. You know, it's four seamer cutter slider. You know, having to have it a cutter out of the bullpen would be cool.

I've always liked Copac dating back to when he was a prospect still. So I'd be stoked about that. And, you know, coming off of the injury, he he's probably only going to sign like a one year four five-ish million dollar deal if I had a guess maybe even less than that yeah I mean and then there is a you know there are always a couple of lottery ticket types that you can go out and and you know take a shot on probably pretty

cheap or even on minor league deals including a couple of former mariners uh Paul Cwald see if he's got anything left in the tank and uh Trent Thornt Thornton who we know know, you know, the Mariners really like and the clubhouse really likes, and he's almost certainly getting a minor league deal. But outside of that, I think you're looking at the trade market now for relievers. We've talked a lot about, you know, the guys who are still in Colorado. So obviously, St. Louis has got some interesting guys. If you're trying to get Donovan, maybe that's an avenue you can go down. But yeah, for agency, you're probably tapped out. If you want to add another lefty, you want three lefties, Danny Kulom is still pretty good.

he'd be really interesting at i like jalen beaks uh as well but uh yeah it's kind of one of those things where like free agency right now that the very top tier believers are all gone so you're kind of looking at that second tier uh i think that's a tier that's probably going to get you know seven to nine million and then after that i don't see a ton where it's it's worth not just like hey we'll just get paul see wall two million cv has anything left we'll sign thornton or maybe Drew Smith to, you know, minor league deal, see what they have left, that type of thing. But, yeah, I think if they're going to add a significant bullpen piece, like somebody who could be a leverage arm for them, I think it's either Kenley, who might end up getting $9 million, $10 million, just because he's the best guy left,

or it might end up being a trade, you know, a cheap arm, like a Gregory Santos type of deal, probably something they're looking for right now as well. one mehia would be the guy that I would circle that regard from Colorado you know like marries to the moon mentioned they they did quite a bit of work on the Rockies bullpen guys so yeah Mejia Seth Halverson Victor Vodnick maybe with a lot of Jake Byrd even though he's with the Yankees that did not go well so that that's a pivot there

and obviously we've talked a lot about Riley O'Brien and Matt Svonson as a couple other guys that makes some sense there. Yep. Yeah. We have another suggestion here from Zach. Would you have any interest in Scott Barlow as the final major league bullpen piece should be relatively cheap and despite the walk still strikes out a decent amount of headers?

I don't know if you've looked at Barlow's savant page. There's still quite a bit of red there. He really limits hard contact. It's just the problem is he walked a lot of guys this year. He was first percentile walk rate. Yeah. So Barlow's fine, but to me he's kind of one of those guys that is like in that middle tier that you try to avoid. Like he's a guy you give five, six, seven million dollars to and you're probably better off just, you know, going after the guy who's going to make one or two million because their floors are going to be basically the same.

So Barlow fine, like at the right price, four or five million isn't the worst thing in the world for early. it's just again at that price i'd rather just drop down a tier and try you know take a shot on a couple of guys uh but barlo's fine i kind of put him in that like junez range where it's like yeah i mean cool like still pretty good stuff could probably help you junis has a little added bonus of you know a history of starting so that actually helps him a little bit more too but i've always felt like he would be a jerry guy yeah well we kind of thought that about brandon low and here we are so So, yeah, oh, by the way, Yseda, Clevenger, also guys, that makes sense on the trade market, depending on if Tampa's actually trying to take a step back or not.

But, yeah, I think Barlow would be fine. It's just, I don't think, I think he's in a tier below the Kinley type and that whole tier down there. It's like three, four million bucks, fine, five, six, seven million bucks. And I mean, I get it. Like, what's the difference between four million of? $5 million. I get it. But like, yeah, I wouldn't be super excited about it. But it'd be a nice, it could be a very nice move. It could work out. So I wouldn't rule it out. I just. Yeah. I like that call. I like that call. That's interesting. I mean, like if they feel like maybe they

have a tweak to maybe get them in the strike somewhere, limit those walks. And yeah, it could be interesting. And you're listening to the lockdown errors podcast for the lockdown podcast network, your team every day. As always, if you want to hear from me and Colby even more and help support the show, we have a Patreon. It's called Control the Zone. And on there, we talk Maris. We talk Seahawks, all that good stuff. For more information, go to patreon.com for slash control the zone link in the description of this episode. So before we get out of here, I want to circle back on a couple of DH slash third base options. I use that term kind of loosely, specifically for one of the guys that we're going to be talking about here

and Mark Vientos. But Colby, you wanted to talk about Viantos and voice Lewis today. You tweeted about them last night or earlier today, whatever. So, yeah, floor is yours. Why do you want to talk about those two guys today? Well, I don't want to, but there's not really a lot of options.

But you have to. Yeah. Let's be very clear about that. It's not like, My preference is to talk. I demanded to talk about these two guys today. Look, you know, you might start to have to, you know, the meritors might have to start going down the list a little bit here.

Yeah. They look for help. Sure. Viantos, as we know, had the great 2024 and pretty much has been mediocre every other season of his entire career. And the Mets are very clearly willing and ready to move on from that idea. And it just seems like we've reached the point there where the market, like the Mets aren't going to be asking what they did last year. And they know that they have very little leverage here.

So I think Vantos would be pretty cheap. He can stand at first and third. I mean, he's not good at third at least, but he could stand there, you know, once or twice a week to allow Cal the DH or what have you. He would be the primary DH. He's a right-handed hitter. I don't think the profile works particularly well at Team Mobile Park. He's, you know, hits a lot of balls in the gap. I mean, it's really good power.

It's just, you know, it's not dead pole power. So, you know, we know what happens if you, if your guy collects a lot of home runs from left center to right center field, team mobile park's not really the place for you in theory. But Vantos, again, if you can recapture his 2024 form, he's probably, you know, one of the best bargains in baseball. And I think he's pretty cheap to acquire. Royce Lewis would be the fun one for me, but, you know, dude just can't stay healthy, super talented. And even when he has played the last couple of years, he's been pretty disappointing. I mean, he was really bad this last year in particular.

And in 2024, it was still a disappointing outcome. But the talent is still there. He's only 26 years old, former number one overall pick. He's had some, you know, great stretches in his career, can't stay healthy. and there's some murmuring that the twins are kind of like done with him. Like they just want to move on and get rid of him. There's been some, you know, rumblings about some kind of clubhouse issue in there, which might scare the Mariners away entirely.

But I don't know how legit that is. I only saw it from one guy. But, yeah, it's kind of one of those things where it's like, if the twins are tired of this guy and the Mariners just want to take a shot on talent, which Jerry's known to do he likes these former highly rated prospects then he can make sense as a DH primary DH also play some 30s actually not bad at third base like Viantos he's solid there it's just how long can he do it I think he's only played in over 100 games once in his career and yeah his his production last year which I think was last year he played in over 100 but

it was 88 WRC plus if I'm remembering correctly like he that that is a pure talent shot that you're taking. It's not guaranteed to work. And it's honestly, it's, it's, you could question like, okay, is he worth acquiring if he's going to keep at-bats away from Colt Emerson? Maybe he might be because he's so cheap, it's really not that big of a risk. So it all depends on the trade cost to acquire. But if you can happen, if you can, you know, kind of like get that, that unicorn season where he

plays 140 games and he hits his ceiling you could have a 5-6-1 player there like that is within his skill set it's a little bit like the iron buxent thing except for buckson's actually done it and been productive for a couple years whereas we're still really waiting on royce lewis to be healthy and productive at the same time i'm gonna be honest with you i missed about half of what you said because i was so distracted by the mayor's photoshopping brian woo's face on a will feral's body on this elf poster that is crazy work uh yeah viantos like like we talked about the other day when was it was a fan fiction friday yeah it was fan fiction friday that we got a trade proposal involving him i just see that going sideways and see i like i just don't see

how his bat works in seattle and i also don't really see why the mares would like him in general because he's just so, like, anti-CTZ. I mean, to be fair, Gino kind of is as well. I mean, yeah, but Gino, obviously, they like Gino for other reasons. Non-gousal reasons. What Gino have, like, a six WRC plus at home last year?

How much worse could Vantos really be? Ignore the other 81 games that they play on the road. Right, right. As a lot of Mariner fans like to do. Yeah. so including me a little bit yeah that's that's fair but like yeah it is a problem which you know obviously yeah yeah it limits what he's worth to you but yeah again don't really want either of these guys in particular but if the mariners really want to add a primary right-handed hitting dh which

is kind of the word they want a right-handed hitter they want them to be the mostly mostly be the dh but they would also really like it if you could play second or third it's like well that's a short list. I mean, it's Gino and you're not going to pay Bichette, you're not going to pay Bregman. They're not going to be primary DHS anyways. So after that, like, it's a short list and Bantos and Lewis are two guys who they do, you know, fulfill that, that, you know, ideal circumstance for the DH, where they are right-handed

hitting and they could play third base. So technically they should be on the list, but yeah i mean louis can play third base can can viantos play third base you can stand there yeah i could also stand at third base no you couldn't

no you couldn't i mean like one ball hit your way you're done you can put my body physically there is what i'm saying sure but you'd still be significantly worse than viantos i mean sure yeah that's that's that's So, yeah, it's, you can stand there. And you got your overlooking, I'll just cut this off in the comments.

Perry Hill can turn anybody into a gold glover. So clearly, he would fix me in touch. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that is going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the lockdown Marriss. Part of the Locktime podcast network, your team every day for Colby Patnode. I'm Tadine Gazzalas.

Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L.O. underscore Merris. You can follow me at Tading Azales. Colby at C-Pad 11, that's C-PAT-1-1. We're also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB-Colby, and the show at Lockdown Mariner's. You can also find us on Instagram at Lockdown Mariner's. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day,

and we'll see you next time. Peace and Merry Christmas.