Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Projecting the Seattle Mariners' 2026 Roster + What Could Be ADDED to It

Episode Date: February 4, 2026

Ty and Colby make their first 26-man roster projection for the Mariners before pitchers and catchers report then discuss how Seattle could still add to its club.Participate in our Mariners fan pollClick to learn more about the Everydayer Club!Join the Ahoy, Sailors Discord server!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!Turbo TaxFor a limited time, you can have your taxes done by a local TurboTax expert for just $150 — all in, if a TurboTax expert didn’t file for you last year. Just file by February 28. Take taxes off your plate and get back to your life. Visit https://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today. IndeedListeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast FanDuelIf you’re a new customer, bet just $5 and get $200 in Bonus Bets if you win. Make it count — because after the Super Bowl, the season is over. Last call for football on FanDuel, an Official Sportsbook Partner of Super Bowl Sixty.  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.

Here's who we think we'll make the Mariners roster before pitchers and catchers report. Colby, hit it. You are Locked-on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Ahoy, Sailors, it is Wednesday, February 4th, 2026. You're listening to the Lockdown Marries Podcasts podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Now the number one sports podcast network.

My name is Tadang Azalas, and I'm joined, as always by my host, Colby Patnode. We're two lifelong Marys fans. We've been covering the team for over half a decade. And today, we're going to do our first 26-man roster projection of the spring. And after we do that, once we have it all laid out in front of us, we're going to talk about what we would change and what the merits can potentially add from the outside, all that good stuff. We'll also tell you about one of our new projects we need your help with.

But before we do, I want to shout out our title sponsor today, Fandual. It's the last call for football on Fandual. And if you're a new customer, just bet $5 and get $200 and bonus bets, if you win. So Colby, you've got a 26-man roster projection. I've got a 26-man roster projection. I think we attack these a little bit differently from one another,

but we're going to go through these. And again, like I said, we will then talk about what we would change and all that stuff. You want to kick us off, buddy? Boy, do I? Oh, yeah. This is going to be literally the greatest 26-man roster projection prior to pitchers and catchers reporting that you have ever heard. Uh-huh.

Yes. Yes. So I guess we'll start, you know, behind the dish, since it is number two in your scorecard. I think Cal Raleigh probably makes this team and is the everyday catcher. That would be my hunch. To quote Colby Pat node. Yeah.

This is a news. Colby. So I know you guys are disappointed by that, but yeah, we'll see how long that last. Yeah, so Cal obviously going to be the catcher and then the backup catcher. It's not as cut and dry as, you know, we thought, you know, about a week, I don't know, a couple weeks ago. The days are running together. But I still think Kisner is going to be the backup. He doesn't have an option left. So if he doesn't win the job, then you'd have to DFAM and with the state of backup catcher around the league probably gets claimed or he probably declines an assignment and you know goes and signs with the major league team so yeah paradea might be better i think they're pretty similar uh but

he's got an option left and so you can just stick him in triple a all year and not have to worry about you know oh we need a catcher now we have to go and call up no disrespect to friend at the show brian o'keef but you know uh yeah so yeah i think kisner gets the not just because, again, you can't, he has to make the team, otherwise you risk losing him. He does appear to be a slightly better pitch framer than Pareta, but, you know, Parada is probably better blocking, probably a better arm. Offensively, it's hard to say with either of these guys. You're not expecting much from your backup catcher anyways.

And I think the thing that the Mariners value most out of their catchers defensively is the pitch framing aspect of things. And I think they like Kisner a little bit better there. So I think he'll get the nod, but, you know, it's worth noting that. both of these guys. They did perform very well in AAA, which, you know, makes sense since they're both, let's say seasoned veterans. Because they're not old. They're not old. They're, Kisner's 30 and Paredes is 29, but like, I'm turning 30 this year. I'm old. So they've been around the block of baseball for quite a bit. So they should perform well in AAA. But Kisner,

I think there's been some, some changes that he's made to his game that the Mariners, probably want to see through. And again, if it doesn't work, then they'll go with Perida. And Perida is just flat out better. They still might do that because they only gave Kisner a million dollars. They're not going to be afraid to walk away from that. Yeah, like you said, like Kisner, you know, he could get cut out of camp just because they don't really owe him anything financially. But I think he sticks to start things off. And then, you know, we'll see how it goes after a few weeks. I think they like what progress he made over the last couple years with the pitch framing, all that. And that's still going to be an important part of the game even with the challenge system being in place.

Because not every pitch is going to get challenged, right? Not every borderline call is going to be worth challenging for guys. Yeah. Yeah. So odds are he's not going to give you anything offensively. But hopefully he's decent enough defensively that it's not an absolute disaster. If it is, at least you have Parada in your back pocket. So, you know, you can keep Kisner on a short leash.

All right. Let's jump to the outfield because I don't think there's really any surprises coming here. It's Randy, Julio, Victor Robles, Luke Grayley, Dom Kahn, Zone, and Robref Snyder. Yeah. Yep. It's possible one of these guys gets traded before opening day. and obviously that would open up another spot. But for now, I'm going to stick with this,

although I did make maybe one or two outside additions in my projection, but we'll get to that later. But I'm not going to do too many of them because this is not what I would like the 26th man to look like. This is what I think it's going to look like. We'll get to what I wanted to look like a little later. But yeah, I mean, those, I think the outfield is pretty much set, unless they trade one of these guys. I just don't see them sending down Cairnsome.

And I don't think that they're going to trade Rayleigh for, you know, a bag of balls. I think they're going to want something of value for Rayleigh. And I don't know if they're going to get it. He still fits because he can play all three outfield spots just like Robles. And as we know, the Mariners really think Luke Rayleigh can also play first base, which is why they put Ref Snyder as, you know, a first base slash outfielder as well. So you can never have too many backup first baseman, as I've often been told on Twitter. So yeah, get your face out of the camera.

I'm trying to fix my screen. We're having technical issues mid-show right now. We're good now. We're good. All right. So yeah, that's the outfield. I mean, I don't think there's going to be any big surprises there. Yeah.

Yeah, no, not at all. I mean, again, I mean, we'll talk about this later when we get into like what we would change and all that. yeah one of these guys could get traded or canzone could get sent down that's probably not going to happen but like that is an option available to them though and the mariners can run with a seven man bullpen right exactly it's it's basically the same thing as talking about that like it is an option yeah it's an option available to them are they actually going to do it no so it's not really worth talking about most years the mariners would prefer to have a nine man bullpen and a three man bench if they were allowed to so yeah um so there you go my projection

is what I think the Mariners will do. No more moves, all that stuff. You know, all that assumed. So the infield, this is where things kind of start to get interesting. Naylor, Young, Crawford, Donovan. I got Cole Emerson making it. I don't. Okay.

I have, yeah, I have Naylor, Young, Crawford, Donovan, Rebus. So, yeah, it comes down to how important. is it to have a right-handed option who can play in the infield for the Mariners? Because they don't have one right now, of not Rebos. And, you know, just based on the history of the Mariners, yeah, they care about handedness more than they maybe should or should, but they do. And I think when you look at the, I think what it comes down to is Young or Emerson, one of these guys, it doesn't make sense to have one of these guys on the bench, right? You want them playing as much as you can. I think they're going to give the edge to Cole Young just because he's been in the big leagues.

He's a couple years older. It's a second crack at it. He's more proven in the minors. You can send Colt Emerson down. He can get every day at bats against lefties and righties down in AAA. You can get a maximum amount of reps at third base down there without having to worry about. He can work out some of the finer details. Also, it allows Brennan Donovan to get maximum amount of reps at third base early in the year.

so that if, you know, you do call up Emerson in these struggles and you have to send him back down, well, now you're not like Donovan started the year at second and now he's having to learn third on the fly. You do that early in the year. So you can kind of kill two birds with one stone there. You get the switch hitting presence of Rebos to be kind of the backup shortstop, you know, platoon infielder to kind of help you with Cole Young a little bit. Again, this is where I would like them to add a veteran. And I almost did have them at a veteran, but I decided not to in this particular.

particular case. But yeah, I think, I just, I think when I think of the Mariners, I think they care about handedness quite a bit. And I think it comes down to Emerson or young. But I think the benefits of sending Emerson down, letting him play every day at AAA for more than a week, letting him learn third base, letting Donovan get comfortable at third base. We know he's comfortable at second. I think you've had that all up and you add the having. the right-handed hitter. We'll move around the infield two on your bench. I just think that that's going to be too enticing for the Mariners.

It's interesting because I know they've been hyping up Emerson all winter and like he's the guy, he's the guy. They only just got Donovan. So we haven't really had to them explain or, you know, we haven't heard them talk about the infield mix since Donovan's been added. And I wonder if that changes things in their mind. Maybe it doesn't because I do think that they're interested in the draft pick thing. But I think it's kind of.

a long shot that he wins it anyway so they kind of have to do a balancing act here but i just went with young but it could very well be emerson now they might have just been doing this in case you know we they didn't get donovan and they wanted to get fans excited about something so that's why they've been you know hyping up cold emerson so much but i don't know i would just find it weird after like all the hype this winter that they have done um when they they haven't had to do that for Emerson. I just think it would be weird and kind of anti-climatic if he didn't make the club. So we'll see. But obviously, you know, if Emerson makes it and nothing changes in the outfield and they keep eight relievers, which yeah, they're going to do like we talked about.

Like there's no point in talking about that because they've always kept eight relievers, especially at the start of the season, especially with how much they've talked about like, you know, how much these guys have thrown and all that stuff. Of course, they're going to keep paper livers. Then that means that every single one of your infielder is left-handed. So we'll talk more about that. We'll also do our pitching side of our 26-man roster projection in just a moment. But first, a reminder of this episode of the longtime Marys podcast is brought to you by Fandul and the Space Needle.

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Mariners podcast part of the lockdown podcast network, your team every day. Thank you so much for making us your first listen for all things mariners. And also thank you for making locked on the number one sports podcast network. You are you, live, you're team every day. Now take it up a level and go ad free. Join the everyday or club today and get locked on Mariners with no interruptions. Members only discord access and more all for just $5 a month

or $50 a year. Go to locktime mariners. dot supercats.com or check the link in the show notes to learn more. So let's continue our 26 man roster projection here Colby. We're on the pitching side of things now. The rotation Boo Gilbert, Kirby, Castillo,

Miller, nothing to talk about there. Let's get into the bullpen here. So I got Munoz Spire, Brasbazardo for Rare Vargas. I think those six guys are all locked in. Now we get to the last two spots. Kind of interesting. Two of the last three spots really available. There's one in the infield, and then there's two bullpen spots up for grabs.

I think that's the way to look at it. Yeah. So again, my projection is based on no more moves. Everyone stays relatively healthy, all that. Sure. blah blah blah and this is also based on what i and this is also what i think the mariners would do if they didn't make any any further moves i'm gonna go like amina because he's out of options i think he's the first guy that gets you know the first crack at it uh and he did grade out pretty well

even though that he you know the overall numbers he struggled but he did grade out pretty well in some areas you know missis bats yeah mrs bats got strikeouts so got destroyed when he did give up contact. Yeah, but that might be a guy that we see, you know, because you never know for laborers. He could be off the roster before the end of March. Yeah. Or he could, you know, or he could stick, right?

Like maybe he finally booms this year. Who knows? A lot of people thought Carlos Vargas was the guy who was going to be off the roster by, you know, the second week of April. And he ended up sticking. So. And then this last spot. I don't think this is where Alex Hoppe gets called up yet.

I think they give him some more time down on the minor. I think that's part of the reason that they also went and traded for him instead of waiting to see if they could get him in the Rule 5 so they wouldn't be forced to have to put him on the Major League roster out of the gate. So I don't think Hopi's the guy here.

I don't feel great about this because I just don't know what the Logan Evans injury means for him if anything. But I'm going to go Emerson Hancock here. Good. There's a long-reliable. leave, you know.

Clearly they like what he could potentially bring out of the bullpen. I'm fine. I'm fine with them continuing that experiment to start. And then at the very least, they have some options here in case it's just not, it doesn't go well. So. Yeah. So for one of my spots, I went with a guy who's also out of options, but is not an upside play per se.

I went with Cooper, Chris Will. Okay. Because the Mariners, the injury to Logan Evans, and because of the, I do think they're going to keep Emerson in the bullpen. They really started to push that transition last year. Emerson, you know, his arm slot dropped all the way from low three quarters, like true sidearm by the end of the year. And I really think they like what he's doing there.

So he could get the nod here. But I think Chris, well, he's out of options, but he is a viable number five starter. Is this stuff going to play up in the bullpen? No, but I think they want to keep him around for a little bit just to see, right? They kind of want to, hey, well, how does Cole Wilcox look? how does, you know, some of the other starter pile arms, Randy Dobnack, how does he look down in AAA?

Like, are these guys who can come up and give me five, six innings of three, four, run ball on a fairly regular basis? And once they feel that way, then I think they'll probably send Chriswell down, or they'll DFA them and see if you can clear waivers. They might do it at the end of camp too, though, because a lot of times guys clear at the end of camp because everybody has players. They're trying to push through, you know, out-of-option guys. who they're trying to push through to their minor system.

So I'm not saying it's definitely going to happen, but I just think the Mariners are going to value the versatility of Chriswell, being able to pitch out of the bullpen and also in the rotation if needed, particularly early while, you know, they're still kind of waiting, hey, Kate Anderson going to be able to help us this year. It's Ryan Sloan going to be able to help us this year. Morales, you know, Taylor-Dollard. Yeah, how about that, a Taylor drop?

You know, are all these guys going to be able to help? Any of these guys are going to be able to help us early in the year if we have it? probably not Chris well could he help us if you know we have another George Kirby situation like we did last spring yes Chris well would be the guy that they would replace you know any injured starter with I think they're going to have that safety net at least for the first part of the year so I give the nod to Chris well but yeah it could be Hancock because obviously Hancock has plenty of starting experience too it's just Hancock has an option left yeah so I think that's kind of the difference there um for my last spot I'm going Paul Seawald. The return of the king. That's right. I'm going Paul Seawald. The Mariners, by all accounts, including what you and I have heard personally, have been shopping for this reliever for the last few weeks. And I think it is trade more than likely.

But rather than trying to predict a trade and figure all that out, I just went with a guy who you know, might be able to get on a minor league deal at this point. And he might battle it out with the likes of Casey Legamina. But Seawald is a guy who has pitched him a lot of roles. He hasn't been as good recently, but I don't need him to be. I have five leverage arms that I'm comfortable with. Vargas and Seawald to kind of cover the middle innings, I feel pretty comfortable with as well.

So I think it is going to be somebody like a Paul Seawald. I think that, you know, Paul is just the easy guy to pick. because A, the Mariners know him. And B, I think he is, you know, a guy who would take a little bit less from a team like Seattle to get that shot. And, you know, again, it very well might be a minor league deal. And if he makes the opening day roster, we're probably talking about a salary of like a million, a million five. That's just where we're at right now. So we'll see.

But I do think the mayors are going to add a bullpen arm from outside the org to be the seventh guy. And that will effectively, you know, leave one. spot in the bullpen open and then the guys who are out of options uh the you know the chris wells and and the leguminas they're going to be battling for that final spot i think yeah like i know that they're looking at relievers i just don't know if they're looking at the paul seawald types of the world there's just not really any other types out there in free agency like yeah yeah yeah free agency was for sure uh right just i don't even know if they're they're scanning the free agent market i i yeah

Yeah, like, Seawald is really more of a placeholder. It's just a guy who's not in the order. And that would be, and that would be totally fine. I'm, I'm super down to see if, like, you can still get something out of him. I don't know. The cliff might have come for Paul, unfortunately. But maybe there's something there. And I mean, like, it's Paul.

So, like, I'm not going to say no. Of course. I mean, you're asking him to come in in the sixth inning, you know, when you're up three to one with a runner on third and one out. It's that pivot guy role. that the Mariners like to, you know, find a veteran to do J.T. Chardua types. Drew Steckin-Rider did it. Yeah. Seawald could do that too.

Yeah. It's just my, my assumption has been that like, if they do add a reliever from the outside, it's going to be like a pre-arb guy or an RB one guy. Yeah, I think they prefer that, obviously. But again, easier said than done. I don't think they're looking necessarily for like a high leverage guy. I think they're looking more of a mid-leverage guy. And again, like we talked about yesterday.

yesterday I don't I don't think now because like you know they've traded sanger they've traded for they've traded the cop round b-pick I'm not sure if they want to trade anything more you know from that like group so we'll see Danny Coulomb would be really nice ad but do they want to carry three lefties maybe but they never have so yeah yeah I was a little surprised that Romero wasn't involved in the in the Donovan deal just given the smoke around that leading I'm convinced that the Romero thing was, you know, the heavy-handed from the Cardinal side to be like, oh, well, we'll give you Romero if you give us Lazz. And there's the marriage just like, no, we don't want a Romero there. Yes, you do. Yeah. So, no. So it's still like they would love Riley Green, like that type, or Riley Green.

Who wouldn't, right? Riley O'Brien. Right. Yeah, of course. I still think it would like that type of arm to be added. but do they want to spend the resources it would take to get that guy after, you know, the Ferreira and the in the Donovan trade?

Maybe, maybe. But yeah, and I mean like, could like Amina pop into being that guy? Could Alex Hoppy be that guy? Maybe. Sure, but the beauty of the hoppies and the Robinson Ortiz and, you know, the other pile arms is that like every single one of them has at least one option.

And I think basically everybody the mayor has added to the pile this winter has two or three options, with the exception of, I believe, Ryan Lutos, remember him? Chriswell, if you want to tell him as part of the pile. I think Chriswell mostly is rotation depth. So not so much a full pin pile arm, but whatever. Dane Dunning, I guess also fits that role. Yeah, maybe Dane Dunning makes the team. I don't know, but I do think that there's going to be an outside addition to the

bullpen before, uh, maybe it doesn't happen to tell Dana's spring training. somebody loses their job and then they're you know they d-fayed or whatever and the mariner's make a small trade for him but i do think the mariners are going to add a open arm to their 26 man before opening day and you're listening to the locked on mariners podcast part of the locked on 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 mariners sea hawks all that good stuff for more information go to patreon dot com forward slash control the zone link in the description of this episode's Colby.

The most interesting spot on this roster is that last endfield spot. So again, if it's cold Emerson, they don't make any other moves. Like we talked about yesterday, like I talked a little bit about earlier in this episode, all of your infielders are left-handed hitting, which might not be an issue, but we know that the mayorers care about handedness. Scott Service cared a lot about handedness. Dan cares about handedness quite a bit as well. I have a hard time seeing them go into the season

with no right-handed hitting option in their infield. And Rob Ruff Center doesn't count, even though that they listed him as a first basement. Like I'm talking about someone that can play some third, someone that can play some second, maybe even a little bit of short stuff. Like an actual real infielder. Yeah. Right now that guy is Leo Rivas. I don't think Ryan Bliss is an option here.

I know some people in the comments will bring him up, but I think right now, Bliss, like he's only played six baseball games since April. And then he had another surgery after those six games. Like, he needs to just go play some games and get his legs back under him. Yeah,

and then we'll reassess after a couple months on that front. Yeah. So, you know, so like on one hand, I have a hard time seeing Emerson not make the club out of spring. just given all the hype around him, but on the other, I can't really envision them going into the regular season

without a true right-handed hitting option in the infield. So something has to give here, right? So either it's as simple as Emerson doesn't make the club, but look, even if Emerson, you know, makes the club on May 1st instead of March 26th, there still might be a thing that the mayors have to address. At least at that point, you know, you might have more information on Cole Young, right?

and then like you swap out young for Emerson you know revas is already on the roster whatever or you know you have more information on luke raley and maybe you're at a point where unfortunately you know you dFA him yeah or can zone you know you just you just send him down yeah so like at that point you might have more information to do something like that but maybe you don't right and you still have to kind of deal with this conundrum if you will This is sort of the problem with having multiple platoons in your starting lineup. Three is basically impossible. Two is really pushing it.

One is fine, usually. But this is one of the problems. Now, one thing we can keep in mind also is you go, you know, all these lefties. If Donovan and Naylor are like 88 to 92 WRC pluses against lefties, that's fine. That's not really a platoon problem that you have to address. Just, you know, Donovan last year was 75. In his career, he's been closer to 88. So it's, you know, which version of Donovan are you getting against lefties?

Naylor, kind of the same thing. He's been okay against lefties, mostly playable. But, you know, JP's pretty much always been good against lefties, even better against lefties sometimes than right. So you're not really worried about JP and his platoon. Emerson's never had platoon splits in the minors, but again, that's the minors. it's quite a big difference there. And then Cole Young is kind of like, you know, we'll see the Mariners very much wanted to protect him against lefties last year.

How do they feel about them this year? Like, again, if your lefties are putting up like, you know, 15, 5 to 10% below or 5 to 15% below like league average numbers against lefties, you're probably fine. You just live with that. You wait for them to bring in the righties that, you know, they're going to eventually. but yeah you would like to you know not have Cole Young and Colt Emerson in your lineup when you're facing Max Reed or Garrett Crochet or like you know you probably want to give those guys at least one of those guys a blow on that particular day so I I just think that the Mariners desire to have you know some balance in their lineup is going to outweigh because that's been

consistent throughout the entire, you know, Jerry, you know, tenure here is like they like right, left, right, left, right. They really like to build bindups like that when they can. And they are right now what? It is two true righties and a switch hitter, Randy, Julio and Cal. Yeah. And then on lefty days, Russ Snyder, maybe ropedless. so maybe they think they have enough.

But again, I think they would like a right-handed, right-handed hitting infielder. And they're in luck. There are actually a few options here that aren't going to cost really anything that they can go get. So we'll see if they do. And even if it's just Rivas, like, that's fine. Sure. But the issue here, though, is just I don't want to trade Luke Raley to make room for whoever,

for Rivas or whoever it is for a bag of chips. Like that that's a tough pill to swallow. I'm going to trade really. I want that reliever that I'm looking for right now. So we're talking about a guy that like clearly

injury has had a huge impact on why he struggled last year. And you know, going into last year he was coming off a back to back 129 WRC plus seasons. Pretty athletic dude. Destroyed right in pitching. He does.

the, you know, the little things, the dirty things, all that. You can hit at Team Mobile Park. Like, he's a really good fit for this club. So trading him for essentially nothing just to make room for probably a worse player, that wouldn't sit right with me. So, like, ideally if you're moving on from Rayleigh, it's to get that seventh reliever. You know, help you get that seventh reliever, like an actual good. Can you do that, though? Is that realistic?

Sure. I think, you know, like if I'm trading Luke Rayleigh, I want a major leaguer. I want a major league for major league or it's like, okay, can I trade Luke Rayley for, you know, a comp round A or comp round B pick? Yeah. Like can I, I don't want a 25 year old double A reliever. I don't want a 28 year old, you know, career AAA infielder. That's not what I want for Luke Rayley. I want a major leagueer, like one who's definitely going to crack the 26-man roster for me.

Or I want, like, again, kind of an overpay on prospect capital, which is probably, you know, I mean, I would say comp round B-pick, but apparently Ben Williamson's worth the comp round B-pick. And if he's worth that, Luke Rayleigh should be at least worth that. So, yeah, we'll see what they do. But again, I just, I think they're going to want that, you know, that right-handed hitting infielder. and I do think that the benefits of sending Emerson down to start the year, I do think they outweigh the small, small fringe possibility that he wins rookie of the year in this super crowded, you know, class.

That includes, again, you know, Murakami and Amai and Akamoto, they all ended up in the American League. And he's going to have to beat all those guys. And that's not counting the other very talented rookies like Buseo in Baltimore. Yeah, he's savage. Yeah, exactly. So, like, to me, that is such a, if he does great, like, if, look, if he ends up, like, winning the rookie of the year and you don't get a draft pick because he wasn't fine, that sucks. But that's the risk you run. Like, that's the ball game.

And by the way, it only sucks a little bit because that means he was a really, really good player this year. And you're probably won the West and you're probably World Series favorites if that happens. So not exactly a bitter pill to swallow. No I guess as far as right-handed hitting options go though Again, Revos would be fine How good is he really just in general?

We don't really know But how good is he specifically against righties He didn't hit for average against them This past year, but he walked a ton Against him, he walked out at like a 21% clip So You mean against lefties? Sorry against lefties

I mean Yeah, I mean as a righte against lefties So yeah But if they do go outside, there are some options like he said, you know, Luis Renhifo, that's another switch hitting option who can play, you know, some third,

some second. Andy Abagnas, though, that's the guy that really stands out to me. He was DFA by the Dodgers yesterday. He has historically crushed left-handed pitching. This past year, he was only a 99 WRC plus against

lefties, but year before that, I think he was like a 129, the year before that, he was like 118. So, all right, maybe crush is pushing it a little bit, but like he's been really good against lefties. He was a really good option off the bench for the Tigers. And he's actually not that bad of a defender. And he can play some third, he can play some second, he can play some first, can't play shortstop. But so like, I think that would be the guy. If it's not Rivas, I think Abanya is the is the dude here. And I would like for them to try and claim him.

here or try and trade for him. Though I'm not sure how that works because he did get signed by the Dodgers this off season. And typically you can't trade free agent signies, you know, until June. But because he was DFA'd, I assume you could trade him. I think you'd have to claim him. I don't know if he's like, I know like if you have five years of service time, you can decline the like sending back down to the miners,

which would make him a free agent. I don't think of Bonas is there. So he might, if nobody claims him, he might just. end up in you know triple a for for the dodgers and abanya's it's kind of a kisner thing right like he's making 1.3 million dollars so like if you did claim him and you just took on the salary that the daughters gave him like yeah you can just move on from them because it's really not that much more than the league minimum no and not wanting to give you know it makes sense now much more since now to sign abanya as than it did even a week ago or whenever abanya signed because now you have

you know, the everyday player that you were looking for. Abanias is not really an everyday player. I'm still more of a Ramon Urius guy myself. He's just a better defender, better against Rides in general. Like, he actually could be an everyday player. But, you know, he also play shortstop. He can play shortstop, which Abanias can't. So I, but again, Urius is a guy.

Abanias is a guy that's out there who are in Hifo, still a guy who's out there. He's bad last year, but he's traditionally crushed left-handed pitching. He can also play second and third. Probably fake it at short for a day or two, but whatever. Like, there are some legitimate options out there. And I think, you know, the ideal, like, best thing that could happen, like, that's remotely plausible is some kind of like Luke Rayleigh for Edmundo Sosa trade with the Phillies. I think that would be phenomenal for the Mariners, because Sosa plays all three spots. He's pretty darn good there defensively. And he's, actually hits quite well.

And you don't have for a year. But yeah, so there are some legitimate options out there that, you know, could be had for probably less than two, three million bucks. Like, the money is not going to be the reason why the mayors can't go get this piece. If they so want it, we're so close to pitchers and catchers. Eureas and Renhifo might have to take minor league deals. Like, you know, so we'll see how it goes. And then obviously, Abanya's, if he clears, it'd be because.

as a free agent, he might take a minor league deal, especially since I'm pretty sure he still gets that $1.4 million fully guaranteed. So, yeah, there are options out there. Like, this isn't one of those cases where it's like, oh, well, you know, I'd like for them to get a right-handed hitting infielder, but there's just not really a lot out there. I'm not saying there's a lot, but there's quite a few pieces and they all fit and they all make sense. Yeah, that's the easy part. The hard part here is the corresponding move. How do you make the room? for that guy if Emerson makes the club. Then yeah, then I think you have to send Canzone down.

But does that feel like, you know, does that feel like something? Yeah, that's just, that's not going to happen. No, it just, it feels pretty clear to me that it really is the guy. All right. Before we get out of here, we got a few projects that we've been cooking up that we're going to start doing here over the course of the spring leading up to the start of the regular season. that we're going to need your help with.

And we're going to announce one of those right now. So Colby, what are we working on? A couple things. But most notably right now, we're doing our annual fan poll where we ask you guys essentially the same questions every year. We're just kind of trying to gauge where you guys are at with the franchise. And we did this last year. We ended up with just shy of 550 responses.

So, you know, if we could get 600 responses, that'd be nice, maybe even 1,000. I don't know. But it's just a poll where we ask you, I think there's 11 questions on here. It's just stuff like, how excited are you about the current roster? What do you think of the front office? Do you trust ownership? And then it's a bunch of like, who's going to win the team MVP and all that stuff? It doesn't, you don't have to give us your name.

You don't have to give us your email. Nothing like that. You just answer the questions, hit submit, and that's it. We're not after your date. or anything like that. So we're just trying to get a gauge of where, you know, the listening audience is on this team. And, you know, I imagine if we did this poll a week ago,

it would be a little bit different than it is right now. But hey, we do this every year around. Yeah, we do this every, every year around this time. We usually collect data for collect data. We usually collect your responses for about a month. Yeah. Careful. And then we'll shut the thing off.

And then sometime in March will reveal the. results and it's just a fun little thing that we do just to kind of gauge the reaction of the band base and where they sit so the link i assume will be in the description uh down below and again you just fill it out uh and it's just multiple choice there's just hit 11 button well 12 buttons uh and you're done and it just helps us out uh and just you know lets us know where you guys are at yeah so that'll be going on throughout the month of february but we're money now. Click the link. We'll remind you throughout the month. We'll probably close the, we'll probably close down that poll around the first of March. So it's going to be, you know,

a little less than a month up. And then when we do, once we're done with that, we have another fun project that, uh, you guys are going to get to, uh, participate in as well. So yeah. Yeah. Tis the season. That's right. That's right. So yeah, be sure to vote in the poll. And then we'll be doing a show around the results, uh, of that poll sometime in March. So. Yeah. All right. Well, that's going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Merrers podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Once again, if you never miss an episode, it's time to make it official. Join the Lockdown Everyday or Club and get out of free audio, access to our members only Discord and more. All built for our most loyal fans. For Colby, Pat, Gazzalas. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L.O underscore Marrers. You can follow me at Tadigazales and Colby at C-Pat 11. That's CPAT 1. We're also on Blue Sky. You can follow us. I'm Tadno. We're also on Blue Sky. You can follow us. me at TDG Colby at MLB Colby in the show at Lockdown Mariners. You can also find us on Instagram at Lockdown Mariners. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you next time.

Peace.