Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Power Ranking Every Mariners 40-Man Roster Move This Winter

Episode Date: February 14, 2024

Ty and Colby reflect back on every 40-man roster move made by the Mariners (minus Kaleb Ort, who's not with the team anymore) and rank them 15 through 1.Ask us questions!Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!eBay MotorsWith all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelNew customers, join today and you’ll get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS if your first bet of FIVE DOLLARS or more 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.

The Mariners have been one of the most, if not the most active teams of baseball this winter. Today, Colby and I are going to power rank each of the 15, 40-man roster moves they have made. That's right. Even the waiver claims. Colby, hit it. You are Locked-on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked-on podcast network, your team every day. Ahoy, sailors.

It is Tuesday, February 13th, 2024. This is Tiding Gonzalez and Colby Patnaud. for the Lockdown Marriss podcast brought to you by Fandul. Make every moment more. New customers join today and you'll get $150 in bonus bets if your first bet of $5 or more wins. Visit Fanduel.com slash locked on. That's L-C-K-D-O-N to get yourself started.

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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. And on today's episode, Colby and I are going to be individually ranking each of the mayor's 15, 40-man roster moves they have made this winner. That is not, including the waiver claim of Caleb Orte, because as we established last week, Caleb Orte, not a real person. It's because Ty's lazy. Not a real person. How hard would it have been to just put Caleb Oort at 16 and we move on? He doesn't exist.

So why would I put someone who doesn't exist on the list? I've purchased his baseball card. He's very much real. I refuse to acknowledge that. Colby, who's your number 15? Caleb Oort. Okay. Yeah, number 15 is the technically trade, more technically

glorified waiver claim. Yes. For Cody Bolton is my number 15. I bet most of you didn't even know who that, don't even know who that is. Don't remember that move because it was so minor that not even Ty and I would do an emergency pot about it. You tried. I remember you trying to get me to do it. That's because I am, as we all know, the man of the people. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah. So yeah, Cody Bolton, not a lot to go on here. He's on the full. 40 man, but I would venture to say he's actually below some of the non-40 man. Open options the Mariners have brought in on minor league deals in the, you know, on the pecking order. I don't know if he's going to survive spring training.

I don't know if he's going to get to spring training because it's always possible the mariners acquire somebody the next day or two, and he's the guy they choose to DFA. But, you know, there is something, you know, fastball is okay. And he's got a pretty, pretty good ability to spin a breaking ball. And the Mariners have done quite a bit with pitchers. with similar profiles. And like we say, anytime the mayor's acquire a pitcher,

you should pay attention. And Bolton is just another attempt at, you know, fixing somebody that other organizations haven't had a lot of luck with. So there's some skill here, but again, I bet I would guess he's below somebody like Crable and Butchery

and a few other, the minor league arms that they brought in for camp. And I'd be pretty surprised if he's not one of the first two or three guys DFA, if the Mariners were to make, you know, a couple moves throughout spring training. But we'll see. You never know. All it takes is one bullpen. And you can really open up the eyes of a lot of people.

So because that's what spring training is. It's just you see that curveball in video. This guy's amazing, even though opponents at like 500 against the curveball. So we'll see how it goes for Cody Bolton. But yeah, it's just like the least consequential and just kind of like move of the offseason. Coming in at number 15 for me is the Jared Kellnick trade I mean the Jackson CoR trade

sure fair I am a big Jackson CoR guy as we've established right right apparently not so yeah like I said I like CoR I really like Cole Phillips as well fun prospect and I'm pretty firm in the belief that

Jerry Kellnick was getting traded this offseason no matter what, even if the Mariners had all the money in the world and they didn't necessarily need to dump the contracts of Marco Gonzalez and Evan White. And I'm not losing sleep over losing Marco or Evan in this trade. I wish the best for both of those guys. I really appreciate everything Marco did for this organization, of course. I love Marco, wish I'm nothing but the best of luck in Pittsburgh. But what this trade ultimately represented, it's not great. Optically. It was arguably the lowest point of this entire offseason for the Marrars. And again, while they were going to trade Calnick, no matter what,

the reason behind the way that they actually traded him is very disappointing. It's number 14 for me. I call it a Jackson CoR trade because I'm just a bigger fan of him than you are, apparently. Right, right. And let's not pretend that Cole Phillips isn't anything. He is a very interesting arm. So yeah, they were going to trade Kellnick And they weren't going to really have a role for Marco

Like basically Marco was going to be Austin both That we'll talk about here and I don't know at some point And you know both is cheaper and probably just as good You know Evan White did just his timing to run out in this organization And you wish them luck and all that But this was about you know Is it better to trade? Let's say you can get like

coar and Phillips and, you know, like a top 30-ish prospect for Jess Kellnick. Like is, would you rather have the top extra top 30 prospect or would you rather have the, you know, $18 million or whatever when you don't know, you know, if you're going to need that money or not. It's, you could see why they would just thought this was a simpler route. But yeah, obviously, you know, it was it was probably the maddest Mariners fans have, have gotten this offseason. And our numbers reflect that. So, yeah, it's certainly like the lamest trade because just, you know, what it represents. But honestly, I don't think they did terribly in the deal. And since they've more or less replaced Kelnick with, you know,

a player with a better track record than Sherrod Kellnick even, I think this, the loss of this trade is pretty minimal. So coming in at number 14 for me, and I know you and I disagree on this, but I felt like this needed to be here because there are consequential trades that are good for the Mariners that are going to be higher on this list. Then there's the inconsequential moves, which are like the back end of the 40-man moves that they made, like, you know, the waiver claims and stuff like that. And then there's the consequential trades that were not, maybe not terrible for the Mariners roster overall now that we have the full picture, but still bad optically. So the Swara's trade comes in at number 14 for me. I'm biased. All right.

That's why this trade is so low. I'm a Gino fan. I'm sad that Gino's gone. I love Gino. Gino was one of my favorite players over the last couple of years on the Marys. That said, though, I'll acknowledge that like the Kellnick situation, I feel that the Marys would have traded Gino no matter what this soft season. Because there are valid reasons for trading him.

the bat speed is a legitimate issue. I think they truly felt that Gino had hit a cliff. You also just can't have your everyday third baseman slugging below 400. Just can't have it. No matter how good defensively he was. But again, that said, it's not really an overwhelming return.

Solid backup catcher in Sebe Zavala. Carlos Vargas is an interesting arm but he might be just another guy that throws hard but can't find the strike zone consistently. We'll see. And at least some of this trade was undeniably motivated by dumping his salary. Now it is from just the front offices perspective

a major win for them to be able to dump his entire salary because of what we would assume is the flexibility that that created for them and allowed them to do some of the other stuff that they have gone on to do this off-season. But the fact that that had to be, at least to some degree, a driving force of this trade,

puts this deal further down the list for me as well in combination with the fact that, again, I'm just a Gino fan. I'm really sad that Gino's not here. I'm not crying. So yeah, anyways, what are we on? Number 13, one more for this segment. Yeah, so this is kind of all the moves that we can just kind of bunch together.

I don't know if necessarily the rankings matter. So I'm going to go 13 Snyder, 12, Bolton, 11, Lavera, 10, Canaan Smith, and Jigba, and nine, Austin both. What about you? Levera, Snyder, Smith, and Jigba, and both. Okay. All right. So we got all of that out of the way. Now we get into the fun stuff in just a moment. But first, a reminder, this episode of the Locked On Marr's podcast is brought to you by eBay Motors. Passion, drive, and patience. What brings home the winning trophy is also what keeps your ride or die alive. eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to peak performance from superchargers, roof racks, exhaust kits, LED headlights, and more. Whether you're into speed, power or style, eBay,

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Marrace podcast. Thank you again for making us your first listen. 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 experts of Locked-on, plus our national shows covering every league.

Go to Locked-on Sports Today on YouTube and subscribe to the first-ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel, part of the Locked-on podcast network of your team every day. and before we get back into our Mariners move rankings just a quick reminder that we're going to be starting up a new giveaway next Monday so keep an eye out for that we just got thumbs up for that on all the legal stuff so we'll tell you more about it next Monday so be sure to tune in

for that all right let's get back into our ranking so we've done the the first what six seven moves yeah 10 through 15 yeah 9 through 15 right that we did nine. I didn't do nine. Okay. So you're number nine then because I did nine. Okay. My number nine is the acquisition of Sevis Avala and Carlos Vargas.

Okay. Because first of all, Sebi Zevi is awesome. Let's not forget. Right. Okay. Sure. Second of all, Gino's toast. Like, now here's the deal.

Gino's probably going to go down to Arizona and he's probably going to hit, you know, 25 homers again. Just because that ballpark is much better to him. hit in than Team Mobile Park is. But the bat speed is virtually non-existent. It's one of the slower bats in baseball all of a sudden. And basically his entire value last year was propped up on him being something he's never been before, not even close. Never been a gold glove caliber third base, but never been close to that.

And last year he was. At 32 years old, is it more likely that the defense reverts back to what it usually is? Or is it more likely that he finds it. bat speed at 32 years old and turns into, you know, the 450 slugging third baseman. I think we know the answer. I think there's a very real probability that, uh, Gino strikes out 30% of the time, you know, probably hits 25 homers, but slugs right around 400, hits 210 and is a mediocre third baseman.

That's not a good player. And that's a player that's worth less than the package you got. So, and you got the, uh, the diamond backs take on all of that salary, which again, unfortunately matters. So you upgrade at your backup catcher. You definitely have somebody more reliable than what you had last year. You have a plus defensive catcher. And you get a really interesting arm who ends up being,

I don't want to say pretty important, but he ends up allowing you to make another move further up, more easily make another move further up your, our list. So I think that's important too. So, you know, I like Gino too. I don't pretend he was anything that he was. was that he wasn't last year. Like he was a good defensive third baseman who had no business playing every day and

hurt his team with his bat. That's who he is. He's a great dude. Wish him luck. I would love to be wrong. And he had a bounce back in Arizona. I don't think the Mariners are wrong here. I think they made the right move.

Could they've gotten a little more if they had some of his salary? Maybe. But would have been significantly more? I kind of doubt it. I think the league is with the Mariners. And they look at, at Gino, and they say, if he's not cooked, he's pretty darn close like it's it's about over for him who's your number eight uh trade for samad taylor okay we're in agreement on this by the way yeah i mean like first of all called it um it was all me

i thought of that first nobody else had it um such a big brain well i mean it was the day after you were still chasing your cloud so i you know i had to put you in your place right right now samat taylor is interesting he is basically what samad taylor is is that he is Sam Haggerty's replacement in the org after this year because after this year Haggerty will be out of options he'll also be making like

a million five, two million bucks and Taylor is not going to make that he's got all of his options left. They're very similar players they both hit lefties pretty well you probably don't want to face a ton of Ritees they both are okay defensively in the outfield they could both play some second in a pinch they could both steal some bags like that's

who they are they're the same player and the Mariners got him for like cash like may a player to be named later i mean maybe this changes if in three months we find out they traded you know cheater martinez for him or something like that but based on the information we have now i i think this is a really good move to kind of solidify a depth and give you more options and to put more roadblocks in front of the potential like need to call up somebody like ryan bliss before he's ready so right um i think this is just a really good depth move and And it's the type of stuff that, you know,

we've talked about with them wanting to do at the end of, you know, at the end of the off season. It's just like keep on adding depth to your roster instead of just being like, well, you know, we, we claim Cooper Hummel.

Like that's good enough, right? Like, no, add players who could actually help you in multiple ways. And so the Taylor one is, uh, is pretty interesting for that reason.

Yeah, I love the steel because it's going out and getting a little too much on the back end of your 40 man roster, which is a good thing. thing. It's again, it's further pushing those options down, which is also a good thing because injuries are naturally going to crop up

over the course of a 162 game season. And now you are further and further and further removed when you make moves like this from getting to a point where you have to pull another Jose Caballero or Mike Ford out of thin air. So love the steel, and I love the upside

of Samad Taylor. I'm not sure if he can hit. I mean, he's hit at every level of the miners and he only has, what, 69 nice career-planned appearances at the major league level so there isn't really any sample size to make any sort of conclusion off of there on that front but at the very least I think he's going to be a quality defender

who can play multiple spots and someone that you can put on the base pass in games like there is definitely a role a major league role for Samad Taylor in his future so yeah I really like that deal number seven for you who's that Blake Hunt we're also in agreement on that

yeah Yeah, a really fun deal. You go out, you give up Tatum Levens, who is, you know, maybe a 40 catcher on the scouting scale. That's some interesting hit abilities. He's a lefty. And you just, you get a guy who Tampa obviously was trying to clear 40-man space. They knew that this guy was going to get drafted in the Rule 5. And they didn't want to add him because Tampa does have an actual 40-man crunch.

And so Seattle, instead of, you know, kind of waiting around and be like, well, we'll see if we can get him in the Rule 5. Like, no, we're just going to go get him now. We like this guy. There are a ton of Tom Murphy vibes when you talk to people about Blake Hunt. He is a right-handed hitter. He's an above-average. At the very least, I haven't heard anybody say that he is worse than average defensively. I've heard a lot of above-average defensively with above-average raw power.

Seems to handle the slider really well. And it's just a matter of, you know, what's the hit tool? Is it a 30? Is it a 35? Is it a 40? And he just feels like he's going to be a very solid backup catcher. And for the first time since that 2019 squad, the Mariners have three catchers that you feel pretty good about

in terms of like their major league quality. Sure. Catchers. I mean, obviously you don't need Austinola and Tom Murphy and Omar and Urbaez when you have one Cal Raleigh. Right. Like he's going to handle a bulk of it. But this is a position that's really important in the last couple of years.

We've seen them have to call up, you know, Brian O'Keefe and, you know, Jose Godoy and Joe Odom. Who's that one guy, veteran guy, Andrew Knapp. Yeah, Andrew Knapp. So it's good to have somebody like this in your system. Again, it didn't cost you a ton. You get them for six years,

and there's a good chance he develops into just like a really good backup catcher, who in a pinch could be your everyday guy, Cal hits the IL, you know, God forbid, for a couple weeks or a month. Like, you have, some offensive upside out of your catcher spot and pretty good defensive floor. Yeah, I love the upside of the steel.

And there might come a point where Blake Hunt is pretty important. Taking advantage of the, sorry, the raise of 40-man roster crunch is something that I wanted the mayor is to do because, I mean, the rays always have a 40-man roster crunch every off season, it seems. They haven't really done that in previous years. So for them to do that and compound that with also taking advantage of the royals essentially having a 40-man roster crunch even though they really don't, but the Samad Taylor deal was essentially that as well to make room for Adam Fraser. Love that they made both of those deals.

Love that they saw an opportunity there to get a really interesting player and took it. So yeah, I love what that represents. So number six, I think we're also in agreement on this. Maybe. I don't know. I had trade for Luis Urias. We are then, yes. Okay. Yeah.

You know, I know a lot of people thought, that they overpaid for him, but it's like, again, this is a guy who's a year removed from being an everyday player. You get him for two years, and you have the whole at third base. I mean, at the time, they didn't. Remember, at the time, this happened before the Gino trade. So people thought this was going to be a second base platoon with Rojas.

And no, he's the starting third basement for now, at least on paper. But yeah, this is taking a shot on the guy who's been a good, productive hitter in the past. And it cost you an asset of which you, replaced and then some and you seemingly grow on trees. You don't grow position players on trees. At least the mirrors don't yet. So I like the deal when they made it. I like it more now.

Now you see the whole picture. So yeah, I mean, there's just to me there's very little to complain about like yeah, I liked Isaiah Campbell. I was, I was on the hype train when they drafted him. I wanted them to take Isaiah Campbell in the second round in 2019.

So I liked the picture. And he was, he was good. he was valuable for you, but you got a potential everyday third basement for a middle reliever that you were going to replace in-house or with a minor league free agent signing anyways. So there's just very little downside of this trade. And unless you think Isaiah Campbell is like a high leverage arm for the next four or five years, there's really nothing to complain about with this deal.

And like I feel pretty comfortable that Eurius is going to come back and hit like, be like a one 105 to 115 WRC plus guy. they play pretty solid defense at third base. I love the steel. The more that I thought about it, I loved the steel even more. Always give a time. Colby's always right.

Well, you also got to give a time, especially for the full picture to ultimately develop, right? And now with the full picture in front of us, it's like this is really, really interesting. It's a very, very interesting shot to take because we're talking about a former top prospect who already has two win seasons under his belt. So essentially it was an everyday player by that standard.

And last year, yeah, it was terrible, but it was also completely derailed by multiple injuries throughout the entire course of the year. He also gets traded midseason. There are so many reasons to come to the conclusion that that is an outlier year for Luis Urius, especially on the injury front. It would be more of a concern if Luis Urius was 32 years old.

Yeah. Right. And had all those injuries. We're talking about a 26 year old here. Yep. What were you going to say? I was just going to say also he's 26 years old. Right.

Yeah. So like it's not like his skill set should be declining. Yeah. So, um, I think the upside here is very high. I think Louise Jureas could have a three-win season and I wouldn't be surprised by it. I think,

I think the safer bet is like one and a half two wins. I just find it really hard to imagine that he's not going to be worth the $5 million salary. Yeah. that they gave him. So, great. Yeah, there's basically no downside to this trade. So it's hard to rank it much lower than this.

All right. We are going to be ranking our top five Mariners moves of the winner in just a moment. But first, a reminder, this episode of the Lockdown Marrars podcast is brought to you by Fanduel. With football officially in the books and some time before baseball gets underway, why don't you try your hand at betting on some hoops? Get buckets with your first bet on Fanduel, America's number one sports book. Because right now, new customers get a hundred. $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet.

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Aaron's 40-man roster moves this winner. We are now in our top five. Colby, which move is number five on your list? The Robbie Ray for Mitch Hanager trade. Another one that we're in agreement on. The Robbie Ray deal is really the super fascinating one. It's probably the one that is like the most interesting because they give up Robbie Ray.

They get Mitch Hanigar. They get Desclophani. Descophony doesn't stick around long. But you are able to use him in another. trade, which is nice that he had value to you, even though he never pitched for you. So that does, you know, kind of go into the equation here. But essentially the reason this is a really good trade is obviously we love Mitch Hanager. He, he might be a mayor, Hall of Famer. Like, it's probably not, but he might be. But obviously, he's very well loved in that clubhouse. He's well loved by the fan base

and all that stuff. And that's all great. That's, you know, fine and dandy. But they traded Robbie Ray, they added two contracts, didn't add a dime of payroll to their 2024 number and actually shed about $8ish million from next year's payroll. And then in 2026, they shed $25 million. Yeah. So this deal while it is mostly about bringing up future payroll, it is also about, you know, hey, let's get Hanager in here. Let's get some, you know, excitement in the clubhouse.

Let's get a guy that we're familiar with and a guy who, if healthy, is going to produce. I don't have really any concerns that Hanager when he plays is going to be a productive player. My concerns are how often can he play? Right. And when you trade Robbie Ray, a guy who's not going to play for you, like 0% chance he plays for you until

at least the all-star break and probably just as good of odds that he doesn't play for you at all this year. When that's what you give up to get these two guys, it's a really smart and creative deal by Gary and Justin and it's a great way to clear future payroll space and

kind of reallocate that that money to, you know, you know, I know they've said like, reallocate it to offense. Like we, we want to balance how much we're spending on pitching and blah, blah, blah. It's like, okay, but you could also reallocate that money to George Kirby in an extension or Rob, or Logan Gilbert in an extension. Like, so yeah, I just think that was a creative deal. I think it's really savvy. I don't know why the Giants made it, to be perfectly honest, but whatever because they didn't save any payroll. So they must really think Robbie Ray's going to bounce back next year. Maybe he does and if he does, I'm happy for him.

But it's not going to hurt the Mariners whatsoever. Robbie Ray bounces back because he wasn't really going to help you this year. Like it's not even fair to predict that he would have helped you this year. So this is just a savvy deal. In addition to everything you said from a pure vibes perspective, I felt like this trade was necessary. You brought this up to Aaron Goldsmith, especially with the loss of,

leaders and clubhouse guys this offseason just over the last calendar year bringing back Mitch I think was very important just from that perspective alone and I think Mitch can contribute the only question here is can he stay healthy and that's a big big big massive question but on top of that I was concerned about how the presence of Robbie Ray's contract in 2025 and 26 was going to impact things so to eliminate some of that concern specifically in 2026 is a massive win for them because you just you don't know how he's going to bounce back from Tommy John's surgery and if you're paying $25 million in 2026 for a guy that's pitching at a number four number five level that's bad yeah that's really really bad so

to be able to just eliminate that from the equation massive win now you know you're on the hook for 17 to Mitch this year and what 17 I think next year as well that's kind of its own problem but that's less of a problem than what I just mentioned with Ray and one that's not going to last as long as the problem that you had, or a potential problem at least that you had with Ray. All right,

so number four. Number four for me is simple, signing Mitch Garber. You know, just money. And you get one of the best raw hitters on the market for $12 million. We see Solair just got 14. We saw Turner get like 13, like

I would bet on Garber's bat before I would bet on those two guys' bat. But it's just a good signing. Like there's there's really nothing to complain about here. He's, you know, DH. It was Christmas Eve when we learned about this. And it's just,

it's just money. Like there's no concern here. They were able to save a little, we think, by adding in a third year option. And that kind of, you know, freed up some a little bit more,

you know, salary relief for, for 2024's payroll. So there's just not really a ton to complain about. I mean, especially since they went out and they added another kind of middle of the order bat, maybe two, depending on how you feel about those guys. So you can make an argument that Garber is the second best position player they brought in, which I think is pretty good considering, you know, all the landmines that Justin and Jerry had to walk, walk around this off season. So I just like, how do you complain about signing Mitch Garber? I can't come up with anything.

Yeah. Number four for me is actually the Polanco deal. because I really like, I really love the garbage setting. I love the Polanco deal as well. The next four are pretty interchangeable for me. I love the Polanco deal. You know, obviously like losing Topa sucks and, you know, I really like Darren Bowen, but I'm not losing sleep over that at all either.

You got arguably the best second baseman that was feasibly available this off season. A very, very, very weak market at that position. And you were able to get essentially the top guy there. That's a massive, massive win for the Mariners. Yeah, it's a lot in terms of just quantity, but I don't really care about the return from the Mariners' point of view. I'm totally fine with that. And you potentially get Polanco for not just this year,

but also next year, if he hits well enough this year, I think they're probably going to pick up that option. I mean, we'll see money and John Stanton and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, all the caveats that we need to add. Right, but it's only $12 million. box. Yeah. You are getting a guy though that, well, and also, right, if you don't necessarily get the

the power output that you want out of third base from Luis Urias and Josh Rojas, which I think there is a chance that you actually will. But if you don't, Polanco is more than capable of making up for that at a position that doesn't really produce a lot of power output. So I also really like that aspect of it as well. It also just makes your infield more dynamic in terms of how you can move around these pieces. I just, I love that deal. Because again, we've talked about this when they made this trade.

Like a week before they made this trade, we were talking about, you know, Whitmerfield and Tim Anderson. And instead, they go out and get an all-star caliber second baseman. It was awesome. Yeah, it's number three for me for all the reasons you said. Also, just because like, again, this is a statement trade to the clubhouse. We believe in you because we were all prepared to just sign Whitmerfield and be like, okay, pretty good offseason considering.

And nope, they went out, they got an all-star caliber player. And this is what winners do. This is what teams that want to win the World Series, they make trades like this. So, yeah, I mean, I'm not losing sleep over anything they lost. I thought Gonzalez was the most overrated prospect in baseball. Still a good prospect, but overrated. And yeah, you know, I don't care that they had to spend a little bit of money to get the deal through because, like, we complained all offseason that the Mariners weren't willing to spend money.

and they do it to get pushed this polanco trade through and people lost their mind they they turned this trade from like a you know a b plus a minus into like a c plus because they gave up six million bucks or eight million bucks or whatever it was and like have you lost your mind right so yeah it's number three for me yeah uh so number three is signing garver um for all the reasons that you mentioned and i am hopeful obviously there's a lot of injury concerns here that come with Garver as well, like with Hanager. But I'm hopeful that if they don't play them in the field, you can actually get 120-ish games out of Mitch Garber this year. And if you do, Garber has proven to be on a consistent basis, one of the best hitters in all of baseball, one of the best power hitters in all of baseball. Mariners DHS posted a 92 WRC plus in 2023. That was eighth worst in the league.

Garber's career WRC plus is 123. If he hits just that, which he's gone well beyond that mark several times. If he just does that, that's a 31% increase. Again, you have no reason to play him in the field right now. So he can just be the pure full-time DH. And at that point, I think he's going to be able to stay healthy unless something freakish happens to him, knock on wood.

And if you do get relatively a full season, out of Mitch Garber, he might be an all-star. I mean, all of a sudden, D.H. Uh, in the American league, you could, you could be an all star there because certain somebody's not here. Yeah. Anymore and Jordan's an outfielder now. So like, you know, maybe.

Yeah. Um, but yeah, I, I, I like the Garber signing. Obviously, I don't think anybody actually hates it. No. Um, number two for me is the Gregory Santos trade. Okay. Um, yeah. you get five years of a guy and the best player you give up is a guy that you hope is Santos

sometime in the next three or five years. So you get Santos now for a guy who you were hoping might be Santos in a year or two. And you only have to sacrifice one year of club control to do it and like a fifth outfielder in Deloche and the 69th pick in what is like a B minus draft at best. Like I think a lot, I've seen some people say this is like the world. worst draft class in like the last five years. Like it's not good. So they give up really they give up one extra year of potential Gregory Santos for Gregory

Santos. So we'll see how the elbow is. Again, all we've heard is that they fully expect him to get into half a dozen or so spring training games and he should be ready for close to a full workload on opening day. So there's not a ton of concern there for me. I like this deal. and again, very little to complain about.

Number two for me is the Luke Rayleigh trade. You got Luke Rayleigh who during the first half of last year was one of the best hitters in the entire American league just absolutely popped off. I think he was posting like a 170 WRC plus or something insane like that over the first half. Second half did fall off. But if you're looking for the Jerry Kellnick replacement,

I think this is your guy and all it cost you was a guy. that was possibly not making your roster and Jose Cabbiero, who really fun last year and was very, very important for you last year too, but kind of fell off towards the second half of the season,

similar to Rayleigh, but fell off to the point where it was pretty clear that Scott's service wasn't comfortable even playing him, unless he absolutely had to. And again, I don't think it was a lot of, a slam dunk that he was making this roster, even with how things stood at the time that the

trade was made, which think about the way the roster looked back then. Yeah. So love that deal. I don't know if it'll, I don't know if, you know, the first half of Raleigh, or like even 70% of that will get that out of Raleigh in Seattle. Maybe the second half version of Ralee is who he is, and he's a below average hitter. but taking the shot for what it costs massive massive massive massive

massive massive massive yeah really is number one for me just because again like it cost you a guy who was I think somewhat surprisingly to some fans a DFA candidate because Jose Cabiero is basically Samad Taylor like basically the same steal some bags not a lot of pop play a couple

positions. Cabby probably better defensively, but he's just a dude. He was behind Dylan Moore. He's behind Rojas. He's now behind Polanco. He's probably going to be behind Taylor. Like, he just didn't have a path to making this team. And you were able to trade him for a guy who finished the year last year, you know, first half, second half, however you want to split it, he finished the year at a 130 WRC plus. Yeah. Yeah. And he's, you know, an average defender in the corner. He's got left-handed pull power, which is what you won. And again, like, he's just started his big league career. He's 29 years old. but he's barely graduated from rookie status.

So you get that guy for, I think Rayleigh has five years of club control left. So, you know, you trade a guy who's, you know, six years of a guy you're not going to use who had been pushed down the depth chart further and further.

You know, at the end of last season, even he got pushed further down. And then they continue to add to that. Then you get that guy and you trade him for a guy who might be an everyday player for you. There's no downside to this. Even a cabiero is a two-win player regularly.

it's well worth the risk and it's a really smart move by Justin to and Jerry to kind of like recognize it. And of course we talked about Tampa all winter long. We talked about a Rosarina. We talked about Ramirez and we talked about Yandy. And of course they found the one guy that we didn't spend a lot of time talking about. We talked about him a little, but yeah. A little. But we were thinking like this is going to cost you like it's five years of this guy.

Right. They might ask for Brian Wu. And you got him for Jose Caviero. Like no kicker. That's it. Yeah. Love it. I mean, it's, it's, there's nothing to, there's literally nothing to complain about with that trade. So number one for me is the great, Gregory Santos trade, which is my favorite trade by this front office since the Luis Castillo deal a couple years back, which slim picking.

So it's not really as bold of a statement as I'm probably making it sound like, but still, this is, I mean, you, you, you said it, right? The best player you traded in this deal is someone that you hope is Gregory. Santos one day. On top of that, you give up a fourth, fifth outfielder type in Deloche and then a glorified third round pick and you lose some bonus pool money on that front because the loss of the pick. But like you mentioned, this is considered to be one of the worst drafts in a while. So don't care about that, frankly.

We had talked so much about the Mariners getting that third guy, that third high leverage guy in this bullpen to go along with Brash and Munoz. And we got to a point there where it was like, okay, I don't think they're going to do it. We talked so much about guys like Robert Stevenson. And then Stevenson signed and some of the

other guys signed. It was like, okay, well, it looks like they're just going to trust their pitching development, which has been great. And they've been able to churn out relievers, more so mid-leveraged relievers than high-leverged relievers. But nevertheless, they've been able to

turn out a ton of quality relievers throughout their, just within their organization. And, you know, we were talking about Baroa possibly being that guy, Vargas possibly being that guy, Co-WR possibly being that guy, but instead they said, you know what, screw it.

Let's do one more thing. And let's go big. It's a move that winners make. If you went into the opening day with your bullpen, just being the way that it was before the Santos trade, okay, fine. And I think if, if, If the Mariners have earned the benefit of the doubt with anything,

at the very least, it's with the bullpen, right? If you're even the biggest Jerry Depoto and Justin Hollander detractors, you have to admit that they've been pretty good with the bullpen and been very good at being able to figure it out, even if it doesn't work out initially that they're going to figure it out at some point and that they're going to be able to put the pieces all together. So had they not made this edition, I would have been like, okay, fine. But the fact that they did, sick.

Like, this put my hype levels for the, the season through the roof, which I know is insane to say just about a reliever when they've added it every day second baseman, they've added a full-time D-H, etc., etc., etc. But Gregory Santos is one of the most exciting young relievers in all baseball. He has disgusting stuff. And that took a really good bullpen to possibly be in the very best. So that's going to do it for us. We've been well over time.

Probably going to trim some of this down a little bit. So we don't get an email from the corporate overlords, as we love to call them. That's going to do a first show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Locked-O-Darris podcast. Colby Pat. Right. Shill. For Colby Pat, I'm Tadeng-A-Zallis.

Be sure you give us a follow on Twitter at L-O-U-U-U-N-Rerners. You can follow me at T-E-N-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 day, and we'll see you next time. Peace.