Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Our Top 10 Mariners Free Agent Targets!

Episode Date: November 10, 2022

On the first day of MLB Free Agency, Colby and Ty break down their top 10 free agent targets for the Seattle Mariners. Who does each host think the Mariners should pursue this winter? And which surprising players did and didn't make the cut? The guys break it all down on today's episode of Locked on Mariners!Be sure to follow or subscribe to Locked On Mariners wherever you prefer your podcasts! For questions and other inquiries, email: [e-mail] the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @danegnzlz | @CPat11For more of Ty and Colby, check out their Patreon: patreon.com/controlthezone/ SimpliSafe With Fast Protect™️ Technology, exclusively from SimpliSafe, 24/7 monitoring agents capture evidence to accurately verify a threat for faster police response. There’s No Safe Like SimpliSafe. Visit SimpliSafe.com/LockedOnMLB to learn more. 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.

Today marks the official beginning of free agency in Major League Baseball. So on the show, we're going to rank our top 10 free agent targets for Mariners. Colby, hit it. You are Locked on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. It is Thursday, November 10th, 2020. This is Tidane Gonzalez and Colby Patton for the Lockdown Mariners podcast. Thank you so much for making us your first list.

Subscribe like and turn on alerts if you're watching on YouTube or subscribe and leave a 5 our review on your preferred podcast platform. If you like what you hear. And if you want to hear from us even more, please consider signing up for our Patreon. The link as well as our social accounts is in the description below. And on the show today, Colby and I are ranking our top 10 free agent targets for the Mariners.

So let's just get right into it. Colby, let's start with your number 10 here, right-handed pitcher Jameson Tion, who spent the last season with the Yankees. Why do you like Tion for the Mariners? He's good. I mean,

That's pretty much end of analysis. You know, Tyone, 30 years old, right-handed pitcher. Kind of the thing that stands out about him is that he does not walk guys. He is a career 5.9 based on ball percentage. Major League average is 8.4. So he's significantly below that. 94th percentile in walk rate last year. But he also did some other things pretty well last year.

64th percentile and hard hit percentage, 69th percentile in chase rate, although only 35th percentile in K's. So pretty good stuff. He's just not getting a lot of swing and misses in the zone. But 85th percentile fastball spin, 83rd percentile curveball spin. It gets pretty good extension. He's 65, 2.30. He's a bigger dude. So, yeah, I think Tyone is probably a number four starter.

I think there's a little more in there that you might. be able to get out the Yankees historically. Not too great. When it comes to getting the best out of, you know, talented starting pitchers, you look at what happened with Sunny Gray. And you look at what happened most notably right now with Frankie Montes. Now, maybe that's injury. I mean, it probably is.

But it's still, it's the Yankees are not this, you know, pitching development juggernaut. The Mariners are kind of turning into one. So there's, again, he's 30 years old. You're probably not going to get a ton more out of him. but you know ran a 391 ERA a 420 XERA that's that's a number four and I think that's possible the Mariners can get him get him to a number three you know 94 mile an hour fastball really good curb on slider it's it's a profile I think the Mariners would be interested in

and I think they could actually help him by you know pitch pitch selection the sinker the cutter, the change up. Those are three worst pitches. They all got hit pretty hard this last year, but he threw him 30% of the time. So this is a fastball slider curveball guy. Maybe they can clean up one of those four pitches, but

he probably just needs to use those a bit more. And I think maybe just maybe he can get to a number three spot in the Mariners rotation, but he's also going to be pretty reasonably priced. So yeah, Tyone, interesting arm. Not

you know, definitely the number five in this rotation. But I think it's a number five. If Tyone is your five, you have an elite rotation. Let's just call it what it is. Yeah. Also want to mention here real quick before I get into my number 10 that, you know, this list is based upon, you know, who we realistically think could be options for the Mariners,

how they fit, what the Mariners needs are, all that stuff comes into play here when making this list. So my number 10 is also a right-handed pitcher from the, AL East. Nathan Avaldi from the Red Sox. I've loved Avaldi for a long time here. He's 32 years old. He's been unable to stay healthy, though.

That's been the issue for him. 67 and two-thirds innings pitched back in 2019, then 109 and a third innings pitch this past season. But when he was on the mound this season, he was pretty good. 387 ERA, 430 FIP, not great. 848 case per 9 165 walks per 9 The interesting thing that I found in reviewing of all these seasons This past year

He started throwing the splitter a lot more 39.1% whiff rate for the for the splitter Which was his second most thrown pitch right over his curveball Opposing hitters were hitting just 181 and slugging 229 off of that pitch So it seems like like maybe he's found something there with that splitter. The big thing is just can he stay healthy, but he's pitching a lot of big games and to add him to the back end of your rotation. I mean, like with Tyone, like with what you said with I own, you're building an elite rotation if he

had someone like Avaldi to the back end of it. So coming in at number nine for you, Colby, Michael Conforto, the outfielder formerly of the Mets, who is a Washington state native, grew up a Mariners fan, all that good stuff, did not play this past year because he was coming off of kind of a down year for him in 2021 and then had a shoulder thing that cropped up. There was also some issues with his vaccine status that was given teams hesitation as well. But now it seems like he's healthy again. He's of course a Scott Boris client, so it's not going to be easy to negotiate and land him. But why do you like Conforto as a fit for the?

the Mariners. Yeah, you know, he's a left-handed bat. He's a little bit of an upgrade defensively over Mitch Hanigar. I think he is, I think, believe it or not, he's less of an injury risk than Mitch Hanigar, which is odd to say, because Conforto has had his own issues staying on the field. But, you know, basically it's, it's, I need a Mitch Hanigar type on this roster. And Conforto is better than Mitch Hanigur and a better bet. So that's why he gets on the list.

And Hanager, spoiler alert is not on my list. Because honestly, they're two very similar players. But again, Conforto, a little bit better defensively, at least last time we saw him, he was. And he's a left-handed bat. He's also got a higher upside at the plate than Hanigar does. I think his skill set is going to age better than Mitch, who is basically turned into a dead power, dead pull power hitter. And that's not conducive for a ton of success at T-Mobile.

but we'll see. If you put Hanager over Conforto, I'm not going to like chastise you for it. I totally get it. But I just think Comforto is just an overall better fit. And it's a pretty thin market for corner outfields, quarter outfield bats, at least in free agency. So Conforto is just one of the best available

that I thought the Mariners had a realistic shot to go get. So he just barely cracks the list at number nine. My number nine as well is Michael Conforto for really all the reasons that you mentioned. And he's, you know, I don't think that he's necessarily a safe bet because we just don't know where he is right now health-wise. I mean, I presume that he is healthy at this point now. But what does that look like? And also he did, you know, as I said earlier, kind of have a down year by his standards.

232, 344, 384 back in 2021. That's still a slightly above average hitter, though. 106 WRC plus. He was worth 1.4F4. a 21.7% strikeout rate, 12.3 walk rate. And he's a career 255, 356, 468 hitter. That's a 124 WRC plus. I think he's probably somewhere in the middle, at least.

I think you can bank on that on him being somewhere in between his career norms and what 2021 was for him. Obviously, you know, taking the year off from baseball in general is concerning because you just, you really don't know. but he's still relatively young at 29 years old. He'll be playing the 20, 23 season at age 30. He turns 30 on March 1st.

But there's, there's still, you know, a lot to like there. And there's a, there's a nice story that goes along with it as well with him coming back, playing for his team now that they're, you know, perennial or not perennial. But now that they're, you know,

playoff contenders and possibly World Series contenders and for him to, you know, maybe help out. with him getting to that next step. All right. So coming in at number eight for you, Chris Bassett, who the Mariners,

as far as I'm aware, tried to trade for last offseason when he was still a member of the Oakland Athletics, but there was reportedly a AL West tax that the A's were placing on some of their players in those negotiations with the Mariners.

But Bassett now hits free agency. So assuming that the Mariners still have interests in him, why do you like him for Seattle? Pretty similar to Tyone. He's just a very good pitcher. Bassett, we know, works in the American League West. He's probably better than Tyone.

I think he's a pretty safe number three at this stage of his career. And again, we talk about how can the Mariners get an edge on other teams in the American League? Well, they could do it with their pitching because I went through four right now. is already, if not, you know, the best one through four in the American League, it's right up there with anybody's. And then you add another mid-rotation arm to the back end. And all of a sudden, you have an elite rotation that could, you know, even compete with the Dodgers, one through five.

And so Bassett, to me, is probably the most underrated player on the market right now. He's up and I feel like he's getting kind of overlooked by a lot of guys, by a lot of players. He's 34, 35 years old, so it's going to be a shorter term deal. I think there's a chance Chris Bassett is Charlie Morton, just in terms of a guy who just kind of, you know, older in his 30s, he's only going to get two, three-year deal, maybe a one-year deal even. It's going to be a little bit higher AV, but he's a guy that you can just kind of work

on a year-to-year basis with and just kind of pay to solidify the back end of your rotation. And there are times where he'll look like, you know, top of the rotation. option and he'll you know he'll push us to ask hey is Robbie Ray your number five which I mean if that's the case then again you just have an elite rotation

so Bassett to me is just a very good pitcher that I don't think gets enough love in this free agent class my number eight is Brandon Drury now more likely than not you are not going to land one atop for short stops on the free agent market so what is your fallback plan for me

that would be Drury. Obviously, there's some interesting targets on the trade market as well, but in terms of just free agents, I think Drury fits and makes a lot of sense here. He completely reinvented himself on a bad Cincinnati team, ended up getting traded at the deadline to the Padres, kind of fell off a little bit. He slashed 274, 335, 520 in Cincinnati with a 131 WRC plus. Then he ended up slashing 238 to 99435, with a 105 WRC plus in San Diego.

So still an above average hitter with the Padres ended up hitting 28 home runs in total on the season slashing 263, 32492 with a 123 WRC plus. He was worth three wins by Fangraph standards, 22.2% strikeout rate, 6.7% walk rate. It's at the very least, like I feel like there's bound to be some regression there because Brandon Drury has just never been this guy.

But the power is something that cannot be ignored here. And if you can add some power up the middle, I think that would be huge for the Mariners because they haven't really gotten power out of either one of those spots in the middle infield for some time now. And so to be able to add that, Drury is an average-ish defender there. You know, and he can also play a couple of other spots

along the diamond as well. so you know he doesn't necessarily need to be your everyday second basement either i think he makes some sense even if you do get one of the middle infielders um and play them at second or short whatever so because uh projections right now have him set to make nine-ish million dollars a year that's a steal for brand injury for who brand injury was this past season even with some of the struggles that he had in san diego and yeah the mariners didn't seem to have a lot of interest in jury at the deadline. I think that was more so, uh, because they didn't want to, uh, trade a lot for a rental, right? I think that's going, I think their interest, their level of

interest will change now that he's a free agent, now that you can get him for just money in years. Uh, so we're going to be, uh, doing seven through one on our top 10 free agent list in just a moment, but real quick, a reminder of this episode of Lockdown Mariners is brought to you by simply safe. If you thought about securing your home with home security, but I've been putting it off, you want to listen up. Right now, Lockdown Mariners listeners can order the number one rated Simply Safe home security system for 50% off. This is their biggest offer of the year, and you won't want to miss it. In an emergency, 24-7 professional monitoring agents use fast protect technology exclusively from SimplySafe to capture critical evidence and verify the threat is real so you can get priority police response. Simply safe is whole home security with advanced sensors for every room, window, and door.

HD security cameras for inside and out, smarter ways to detect motion that alert you only when a threat is real, and even hazard sensors that detect fires, floods, and other threats to your home. 24-7 professional monitoring service costs less than $1 per day. That's less than half the price of ADT's traditional professionally installed system. With top-rated Simply Safe app, stay in complete control of your system anytime anywhere, armor disarm, unlock for a guest, access your cameras, or adjust system settings. Don't miss your chance to say big on the only security system I recommend. Get 50% off any new SimplySafe system at SimplySafe.com slash Lockdown MLB.

This is their biggest discount of the year, so don't wait at SimplySafe.com slash Lockdown MLB. There's no safe like SimplySafe. You're listening to the Lockdown Mariners podcast. Thank you so much for making us your first listen. So number seven on your list, Colby, Andrew Benatendi, the outfielder formerly of the Royals, made an all-star team this past year, and ended up getting traded to the Yankees, had some injury issues there, didn't really perform up to their expectations, but why do you like Benetendi for the Mariners? Yeah, Benetendi has got who has just been pretty much the same player his entire careers, whereas that sounds. You're going to get a big upgrade defensively in left field. Benitenti's won a couple gold gloves out there.

He is probably the best defensive corner outfielder available. He's the left-handed bat. There's not going to be a ton of power here. Maybe it's 16 to 20 home runs somewhere in that range. But he's a pretty safe bet to hit 270, 280. He's going to have good on base percentage skills. He's still relatively young. I don't think the age is all that much of a factor here,

but he's just a good, solid overall player. He's not an all-star, at least not most years. He's not, you know, a foundational player, but he is one of those guys that, you know, the really good teams they all have. He's just a really solid piece. And there's basically very little concern that he's going to be a whole in your lineup. I think ideally he's been a 10th,

guy who hits like seven for you. But he is one of the best corner outfielder's on this pretty thin market. And he's just overall, just a good, solid player. There's nothing spectacular about Benetendi. He's just, just good. And the Mariners need good players. Outside of a shortened 2020 season, and by the way, Colby, Andrew Benetendi is my number seven as well here.

Outside of 14 games in 2020, that's all he was able to play due to injury, that, He had a 42 WRC plus that year. Outside of that, he's always recorded a WRC plus over 100 in a season. 2016, he did it, 2017 he did it, 2018 he did it, 2019 he did it, 2021 he did it, and then this year a 122 WRC plus, which is the second best mark of his entire career. 304, 373, 399. And that slugging percentage is, you know, it's not great for someone that's hitting, and above 300, but that's not what he does, right?

Like power is not his game. He hit five home runs. He has typically been a 15 to 20-ish home run guy in the past. He hit 20 in 2017, 16 and 2018, 13 and 2019, 17 and 2021. But that's kind of diminished as of late. And again, you know, playing a big ballpark like Kaufman as well is also going to, you know, hamper those numbers a bit. but you know he's just he's a sure fire bet to to give you a hundred plus

WRC plus and and good defense as well you know pretty good defense he's a decent base runner as well so yeah he just makes a lot of sense he's also very CTZ you know ranks very highly in chase rate what ranks very highly in walk percentage contact rates are all really good so yeah he's a very CTCZ type of bat and I would suspect Jerry and Justin are pretty interested in Benetendi. It's just going to be what's his market look like. But I think he's more of like a 4, like 60 than he is like a 5100 type of guy. Oh, yeah, for sure, for sure.

Especially, yeah, for a guy that's not going to give you a ton of power, at least that's what he wasn't able to give you last year. There's going to be a limit on, you know, someone like that's market. Yeah. All right, so coming in here at number six, a guy that we talked about on yesterday's show and a guy that the Mariners have outright said they're interested in. It's right-handed pitcher out of Japan, Kodi Senga. So why is Senga so high on your list?

You know, mostly the fastball splitter combo, we're being honest. It gives those two pitches give him a higher upside than Tyhone and Bassett. And also, but I think he has a similar floor to, to Tyone at least. Bassett is kind of probably safer than Sanga is, but he doesn't quite carry that number two upside that Senga does. So it's just a little bit of a, you know, you're kind of, you know, nitpicking here a little bit,

but I feel like Senga's fastball splitter combo is so lethal or so potentially lethal that it gives him a good chance to pitch towards the top. Not a good chance. It gives him a better chance to pitch towards the top of a really good rotation. than Bassett's current skill set does. But yeah, we talked about saying a lot yesterday. You guys know about him if you listened to yesterday's show. It's upper 90s fastball with a wipeout splitter and then the breaking balls.

They're kind of iffy. So the marriage can sharpen one up. I think they got a really strong number three, maybe a number two even. If they can't, then I think he's the number four, number five type. So it's when you factor in age and, cost probability, all that stuff. I just think he's a little bit of a better bet than Bassett, but I think they're very, very close.

I agree. So coming in at number six for me is your number eight, Chris Bassett. I'm not going to rehash everything that you talked about with Bassett. I would just say this. Chris Bassett to me is kind of like the pitcher version of Andrew Benetendee. He's just kind of a sure bet to give you number three, number four stuff, and you just roll with it.

And there's like a little bit of upside there, but I agree with you that, you know, someone like Senga provides a bit more upside, but I'll talk about Senga and just a little bit. Let's go to number five here for you as we enter our top five. This one's a little bit surprising for me because this guy, I'm just going to say it. He's not on my list because I think he's going to be way too expensive for the Mariners. But you have Carlos Radon on here. So why did Radon make your list? Yeah, that's he barely. did because I like you, I don't think that he's going to sign with the Mariners, but I think

there's enough of a shot, just hearing the Mariners connected to Senga, hearing that they're getting calls on both Flexen and Marco, and it sounds like they're actively pushing to trade both of those guys. It leads me to believe that the Mariners are looking to make a pretty significant impact into their rotation. And Rodon, to me, is the best arm that is a possibility, right? Like he's not as good as Verlander or DeGron, but neither of those guys are signing with Seattle.

There's a 0% chance that happens. So even though there's only probably like a 2 to 5% chance that Rodon would sign in Seattle, because of all the chatter we're hearing right now about how the Mariners are seemingly look pretty intent on trying to upgrade their rotation, which is not something we saw coming, really. I just went with the best guy who I think is the best, the best arm available who actually has a chance, any chance whatsoever to sign with the Mariners. I don't want to say a good chance, but I do think it's a possibility.

And hey, you know, I just, you want to give Carlos Rodan the, you know, Robbie Ray contract and go, you know, Castillo, Rodon, Kirby, Ray Gilbert, like, okay, works for me. So, yeah, he barely made the list. if we've done this a week ago he probably wouldn't have but it just the mariners seeming intent on you know really upgrading their rotation they're already good rotation uh it's just enough for me to put them on the list here yeah it seems like they're actually going to be aggressive on that front i just i don't know man uh there's some projections that have redan making like 27 million dollars a year and if that actually happens i just i can't see the mariners being in that kind of market

I think probably $15, $16 million a year is maybe their cap. But like you said, you know, I'm not opposed if they want to add Carlos Redonzo this rotation. That would be pretty great. That would be pretty great. Coming in at number five for me is Kodi Asanga. And again, not going to rehash everything that Colby said. But, you know, a fastball that can flirt with triple digits and that ghost's fork.

I mean, yeah. I also think that a major league pitching. and stuff can get more out of at least one of his breaking pitches, specifically that slider because the release point on that slider paired with his release point on his fastball. That's going to be really tough for guys to pick up on. So there's a lot that I like about, about Senga, and that's why he's, spoiler alert, my top pitcher on this list. So the next four, Colby, you and I are both in agreement on.

So we're going to announce these together, reveal these together, what have you. Number four, the man who the Mariners have reportedly formally reached out to, as of today, per John Morosi, outfielder Brandon Nemo. This is a guy that you and I have talked a lot about in the buildup to a free agency. And now that we're here, it seems like the Mariners are also an agreement that he would be a pretty good fit in Seattle. So why is that? Yeah, he's, you know, an outfielder who hits left-handed, very, very good on base skills. I would say elite on base skills.

He's going to hit for a high average. He can play center field if you need them to. He's actually fine out there. He's going to be really good in left field. He hits towards the top of the order. He's not a big stolen base guy, but there's plenty of speed here. There's kind of the slashing line drive type of swing that works really well in Seattle. So he's just kind of, again, there are no perfect fits in free agency, but he might be the best just standalone fit for this ball club because Nemo's a guy who's going to hit first or second for you.

He's going to play a really good left field. He's going to hit for high average. He's going to draw a ton of walks. And his swing actually works pretty well power-wise for Seattle. He's not going to be a big, you know, 25-30 home run guy no matter where he goes. But I think the swing actually fits. and he's going to hit a few more home runs. He's going to hit, you know, he's more of a double-triple guy,

but I think he hits a few more whole runs in Seattle than he would if he was playing back in New York. So he's just a great fit. You know, he's everything Jerry talked about, one, and he's corner outfielder, hits left-handed, runs the base as well. Good defender. He's just, he checks a lot of the boxes for the Mariners' current lineup. So I just, if he feels like he's the best fit, who also has a good chance of signing with Seattle.

In previous seasons, Brandon Nemo has walked 18.1% of the time, 14.7% of the time, 14% of the time, 15.3% of the time, the dude just gets on base. He's finished three separate seasons, Colby, with an on-base percentage above 400. It's ridiculous. plus he's a really good defender. His glove will play up really well in left field.

And he can also play center field pretty well. So if, you know, this year or if next year is like this year and Julio goes down for a little bit, knock on wood, then Nemo, you actually have someone in Nemo that can go out there and play what I would consider to be a slightly above average center field, if not pretty clearly. above average center field so that's uh that would be nice to have in your back pocket as well uh nimmo just he fits man he makes so much sense for this team it's not a surprise whatsoever that they reached out to him today or whenever they did officially um but yeah we would be i think you and i would both be ecstatic if they end up signing brandonimo this off season all right number three we're getting into the short stops here uh and let's just say it right now dansby swan is not on here.

Dan Zee Swanson didn't make it because Colby, I think you and I are also both in agreement that he's staying in Atlanta or he is going to another top tier National League team, right? I think it's more about he's just an East Coast guy.

Right, okay. Like, I could see Baltimore getting involved here. I could see Boston maybe getting involved here. But yeah, I just, I felt like the odds of Dansby signing here were so low that it was just kind of a waste of time to put them on our a waste of time to really talk about him and hey if he does end up signing here we'll talk about him a ton but it's just I just don't

see any any scenario where that actually happens so Xander Bogartz comes in a number three for for the both of us um I flip flop on this a lot personally you know it's just a lot of these guys are so close especially when you consider some of the contract uh are all over the place for these three guys. So that does factor in. That does bring them a little bit closer for me. Like if I can get Sander Bogart's for six years and, you know, $170, $190 million compared to 10 years, $300 million for Carlos Correa,

that's going to close the gap a little bit for me, you know? But Xander comes in at number three, nevertheless. So why is that? Why is he at the bottom of your three short stops here? Yeah. He's probably the worst defender of the three short stops here. He's also, I believe the oldest. He might be, I think he's, I'm not sure about Turner.

He might be younger than Turner, but I don't think so. I think he's the oldest. I also think he is the most likely to have to move to third base, the soonest, if that makes sense. You know, it's just a bunch of those little things that, you know, in 2023, they don't really matter. you're not really concerned about. By the way, he's a few months older than Trey. Okay.

So, yeah, like decades, basically in free agency. So, yeah, he's just a little bit older, a little bit worse defender, not quite as, I don't want to say not as dynamic. But he's really not. Like, he's, the other two guys just provide a little bit more. What's the word I'm looking for? like the ability to just like take over a game and win it by yourself. The other two guys just have that a little bit more than Xander. Xander's a great player.

And if the Mariners end up with Zander Bogarts, there will be no complaints on this end. But when you're trying to differentiate between these top three guys, you just kind of have to nitpick a little bit. And I just thought that Bogart's is warts, quote unquote, were just a little bit harder to ignore than Correa or Turner's. Yeah. You know, I think the one, you know, positive on him would be that he might be the most, he might be the easiest to land, even though he's a Boris guy because it's just there, there's probably no threat whatsoever of him getting an eight year, nine year, 10 year deal on the market.

So that fits more in line with what I think the Mariners want is to land someone more so in line with what Marcus Simeon maybe got in Texas. Yeah. And so I think that's honestly, I think Zander ends up getting pretty much the Marcus Simeon contract wherever he signs. And so I think that just that that fits better for the Mariners. I also don't think that his defense is necessarily as bad as advertised. And I think that Perry Hill can help with that a bit as well, potentially. So all right, let's move on to Carlos Correa here, who's our number two. That's right. Correa number two, not number one on this list. Why is that cold? Bobby. Because the guy at number one is just better. He's just a better player. It's really that simple. Also the thing with Karee is I think there's a chance that he ends up being the most expensive one of the quartet because he is the youngest by fairly significant margin. I think he's a year and a half younger than Turner.

I think he's a full year younger than Dan's me, maybe even two. he's just a younger player we know who Carlos Corre is he has all the pedigree in the world he's a plus defensive shortstop he's the best defensive shortstop on the market he's a guy who 30 home run power he's a guy who win healthy he's you know an all-star he is an elite

player in this league but I just I feel like the guy ahead of him is just simply better a better overall player but Correa, if not for the back issues surrounding Correa, he probably would get, you know, the Corey Seeger contract. And that's, I guess, good news for the Mariners that he does have this back issue because it seems unlikely he's going to get the Seeger contract.

But I think it's a possibility. I think there's signability concerns here with both of the top two guys in relations to the Mariners. But I do think they're interested in both. I do think they're going to make offers on both. So if they're showing the same amount of interest in these two players, I'm just going to rank the better player number one and the second best player number two.

It's really just that simple. So yeah, Correa is a very good player. He would be a very good fit here in Seattle. But he's just not Trey Turner. So he's number two. Yeah, it's for me, you know, I feel like Correa is overrated in the sense that, you know, people make them out to be the superstar. And I just, he's not, he's not a superstar.

It's a really, really good player, though, with tons of power and good on base skills and really good defense, you know, at a premium position, all that stuff. Yeah, no, exactly. He's like right-handed Corey Seeger pretty much. But the back issues do concern me. And, you know, going back to the whole star conversation, I think, you know, know if anyone out of this class that we're talking about at least you know obviously there's the Aaron judges of the world but if anyone out of the guys that we're talking about today is a star like a legitimate like superstar I think Trey Turner is closest to that and so that's why he's my number

one and I assume why he's your number one so let's talk about Trey Turner we've kind of avoided talking about Trey mostly because you and I don't want a dream we don't want to get our our hopes up here we don't even want to open ourselves up to the possibility because more likely than not we are going to end up being disappointed here because all sides point to Turner landing somewhere on the east coast there was a report from jason stark yesterday that said that people close to Turner believe that he really wants to play for the Phillies and reunite with Bryce Harper that makes a lot of sense you know obviously the Dodgers i'm i'm sure or still going to want to keep him.

There's going to be other good teams that are in on Turner because he's a really good player. He's been a six F4 player for the last two seasons. But, you know, there's been folks like John Marosi and Jeff Passon who have said, you know, I think Turner is actually an option for the Mariners. So we're listening, but again, we're not opening ourselves up too much here to the possibility because we both love Trey Turner. Colby is a Tray Turner Stan. He said that he would get a Trey Turner.

Jersey if the Mariners actually sign him. Yeah, so let's let's talk about, Trey Turner. Why do you love him? What does he bring to the table? All that. Pretty good shortstop, not an elite defender, but pretty darn good. He's one of the fastest guys in baseball still, despite being 30 years old. He has 20 home run power up the middle, maybe even 25. Fun little note.

Last year, he stole or he drove in 100. runs. He had 100 RBI. He scored 100 runs. He's a guy who can steal 30, 40 bags. He's just kind of the overall package. He hits righties. He hits lefties. You know, he can hit anywhere you want

in the order, one through nine, pick a spot. It's a good spot for Trey Turner. He's just, he's a great player. He draws walks. He puts the ball in play with regularity. He's just overall, there's very few weaknesses in his game. He's just a great player. You know,

know, he's got a ton of playoff experience or that type of thing matters to you. And it's just the power speed combo is pretty hard to find. And when you find it in a guy who can also play shortstop or second base, maybe even center field if you absolutely needed him to, when you find that type of profile up the middle, it's incredibly rare that those guys become available. And it's even more rare that those guys even get linked to the Seattle Mariners. So, yeah, ultimately, I think Trey Turner probably ends up with. with the Dodgers or somewhere back east,

but the Mariners are being mentioned a lot here and so much so that I have to wonder what like what's being said behind closed doors. Or is this like a legitimate thing the Mariners are really interested in? We've heard people say Jerry loves them and the Mariners just keep on getting thrown into this conversation. Is that real or is that a leverage play?

Is Trey Turner trying to leverage the Mariners to get a bigger deal from somewhere else? I guess we're going to find out because, you know, here in I think 20-ish minutes, players are free to sign with anybody they want. So Turner's not going to sign 20 minutes, but yeah, just there's enough smoke around Trey Turner going to the Mariners that it's enough for me to at least entertain it as a possibility, which is at that point makes Turner an easy number one for me. Yeah, that's exactly what.

why he ended up on this list, whereas Dansby did not, because we haven't heard anything on Dansby and the Mariners. But we've heard, honestly, you know, we haven't really heard a lot about Correa and the Mariners. We've heard a little bit more than Dansby, but not much. It's mostly been Zander and Trey. And I think part of that is because those would be the two likeliest guys to move to second base as well, because Trey did it when he went to L.A. with Corey Seeger there. He returned to shortstop this past season, though.

But he's done it. Real fast here, though. It doesn't matter what Jerry DePoto says. If they have an opportunity to land Tray Turner, but Turner wants to play shortstop, J.P. Crawford is moving. Period. End of story. J.P. Crawford will not stop the Seattle Mariners

from signing Trey Turner. So if Turner signs elsewhere, it doesn't matter what anybody tells you, the reason he signed elsewhere is not going to be because the Mariners are like, oh, well, you have to pull. play second base because we have J.P. Crawford, that is not going to happen. Yeah, no, no. But I think that, you know, the second base stuff does need to be mentioned here because he has done it. And, you know,

with the shift ban, you're going to need a lot of athleticism there at second and shortstop to cover more ground. And Turner can do that and then some. The other thing, too, you know, you mentioned it earlier, right? like I feel like Trey Turner gets looked at as like this little dude who just like you know he's a slap hitter and he just gets on base and he steals bases and all that stuff I mean first of all he's 6 to 185

according to the fan graphs he's probably a little bit heavier than that but he's six foot two and he's hit 20 plus home runs the last two years he had a 536 slugging percentage in 2021 in a 466 slugging percentage this past season dude rakes

he rakes he steals bases and if you put him at the top of the lineup with Julio Rodriguez that's the most electric top of the lineup in all baseball just gonna say it but I am not going to allow myself to think about Trey Turner and Julio Rodriguez at the top of the Mariners lineup because I will I'm too scared of getting hurt but yes he is our number one free agent target and that's going to conclude our list as we reached the 40 minute mark here. We are definitely going to hear from our overlords at Lockdown about that. Sorry, guys. This was a special occasion, however.

But that's going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Mariners podcast for Colby Patnode. I'm Tadangazales. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at LO underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Dane Gonzalez. That's D-A-N-Z-L-Z and Colby at C-P-E-E-T-1. also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. And thank you again for making us your first listen. For your next listen, check out the Lockdown Sports Today podcast featuring the biggest stories of the day, plus instant reactions, big game recaps, and the take of the day.

It's available on the Odyssey app, YouTube, and wherever you get your podcast just like us. And with that, have yourself a beautiful baseball day. And we'll see you tomorrow. Peace.