Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - REALISTIC Seattle Mariners Trade Targets | Mailbag Monday

Episode Date: July 20, 2026

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We're exactly two weeks away from the MLB trade deadline. So who can the Mariners have their eye on? I'll discuss Saddam more coming up. 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 Monday, July 20th, 2026.

My name is Tadding Azales, and I'm joined as always by my co-host, Colby Patnode. This episode is brought to you by Fandul. Join all the action at, fandual.com to play daily dingers and make your free pick on who's hitting a homer this MLB season. On today's show, we're going to open up the mailbag and answer your Mariners questions, starting with this one from J.B. Who wants to know who is realistically a trade option for the Mariners? So we're a couple weeks out from the trade deadline.

Exactly two weeks out from the MLB trade deadline. So Colby, who do you think the Mariners might have their eye on? Who do you think they could realistically get here in a couple weeks time? Boy, Ty, I'm glad you asked because somebody wrote a top 20 piece on their substack yesterday. Did you? I have no idea. Yes, I know. A pointless countdown where they are not in any order whatsoever.

But people like lists. So give them 20 names and put a number next to their names. And that helps. Ooh, shiny. Yeah. So go check that out. And that's the answer to my question. Go read that.

Yeah. So obviously, you know, the Mariners right-handed hitting. Yeah. And bullpen help. Pretty obvious. I mean, they haven't been shy about what they're looking for. Now, for me, I wouldn't eliminate left-handed bats so long as they hit lefties. Like, to me, the more important thing here is you need guys who hit left-handed pitching.

It would help if they were right-handed. But you need guys who get left-handed pitching. So I wouldn't eliminate a guy like we just saw him, Jean-Houli. You make some sense, you know, because he is, you know, corner outfielder. a little more contact oriented. But he hits lefties very well, even though he's lefty. So I wouldn't rule him out, but I don't think he's going to be high on their list. So you look at relievers, you look at right-handed bats.

I think, you know, any list of relievers starts with Mason Miller, who is apparently, I mean, it sure starting to seem like consensus that he will be shopped. And there's also been a report that the Padres would like to buy and sell. Like they'd like to do a little bit of both. the Mariners are one of the few teams in a unique position to do that because of their depth in the rotation, because of a guy like Luke Rayleigh. They do have some guys who could legitimately help the Padres, who need starting pitching and some pop in their lineup, left-handed pop to be specific. So in other words, to directly answer J.B.'s question here, do you think Mason Miller is realistic for the Mariners? Yeah, I do. I wouldn't say he's likely, but it's certainly the Mariners have the pieces.

they line up well with San Diego. They have a good working relationship with Preller and company. So, yeah, it's absolutely realistic that they could acquire Miller. Now, pretty much every team will be in on Miller, so it's not a slam dunk. But, yeah, it's very realistic that they get him. You know, and then also his teammates, like Adrian Morohan, if you're going to talk Miller, you might as well talk Moroan. Ty France, another guy on that team that makes a lot of sense for this roster.

Luke Weaver is another guy. to thumb degree, although I doubt it, but he's in town today, so we'll mention him. E. E. E. E. E. Hineos Juarez, I mean, we're probably reaching a tipping point here with Colt Emerson, where over the next couple weeks, the Mariners have to decide if it's more important to win this year or keep playing Colt Emerson every day, who's a black hole in the batters box right now. Had some moments, though, this weekend, that's for sure. So, yeah, I mean, I think when you're looking at Bullpen, any reliever who's going to be out there, is a very realistic option for the Mariners,

because they can afford to go get that guy. They have the pieces. So any reliever, you might as well start at the top, and that's Mason Miller. And then probably from there, it's like Luke Weaver and Morahone. And then, yeah, right-handed bats, Lane Thomas, Ty France. I don't know if there's a, I mean, say a Suzuki, maybe Taylor Ward.

Like I think the right-handed bat is much more likely to be a role player, like a platoon player. And I think the big ad will be in the bowl. And, you know, honestly, if I were the Mariners, I would look to add two bolt pin arms, one of more of the high leverage guy and then maybe like a pivot guy who kind of works in the middle endings there. So, but yeah, I think Miller is is like the best player that you can get or the most valuable player you can get who is also quite realistic. I think he threads that needle. There are less realistic options like CJA Abrams and Curtis Mead. But yeah, I do think that Miller, Morohen, Weaver, like those three. be ideal if the Mariners could walk away with one of those three guys. Yeah, meat is fascinating because, and we're expecting to have a guest tomorrow who I would love to ask this question to as well.

You know, we're all kind of assuming that if the Mariners trade from their rotation, it's Luis Castillo, but could they actually trade one of these other guys from their rotation? That's the case. Emerson Hancock kind of lines up very well for a Curtis Meade trade. former top 100 prospect enjoying their first breakout season after a couple of years of, you know, mediocrity in the big league level. Do the nationals need pitching? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. They sure do. Exactly. Oh, yeah, it really does line up very well.

But again, are the mayor is going to be willing to trade Emerson Hancock? Who knows? But yeah, that is a very specific. One of the only specific deals I mentioned, or at least tease in the piece that I wrote yesterday. So it does make sense there. I'm just not 100% sure if they would trade Hancock. But yeah, Miller, Weaver, Morahom, those are the top three to me. And I'd be pretty disappointed if the Mariners didn't come away with one of those guys. Yeah. And I feel like whatever bat or multiple bats they come away with are probably going to be more of the complimentary variety rather than an everyday high impact addition. I think if they're going to add a high impact player at the deadline, it's probably going to be an arm, specifically a bullpen arm.

I think so. Again, I think the bats are more of the platoon or part-time player, maybe a little bit of versatility in one of them who could play every day if you need them to, but you're hoping he doesn't have to. But yeah, I do think the impacts come from the bullpen arm would be my guess. Next question here from Texans Can't Drive. Who wants to know which has been the more egregious regression from 2025 to 26, Cal Raleigh or the American League as a whole? I mean, are we deep enough to say that this is one of the greater hangover seasons in the history of baseball with Cal Raleigh?

Yeah. I mean, he's gone from a 161 WRC plus last year to a 68 WRC plus. And obviously, there's injuries and all that to account for here with Cal. But it is, I mean, what's happening. And it doesn't seem like it's getting any. better anytime soon. No. You know, in truth, the American League was pretty mid last year.

No, not this mid, but also we don't know how mid the AL is right now or will be at the end of the year. What we do know is that there is basically no chance Cal gets anywhere close to what he did last year. And at this point, probably not going to get anywhere close to what he did in 2022 to 2024. So it's not just Cal fall off from 2025, which we expected. It's Cal falling off to levels not seen since his rookie year where he had to get sent back down because he was so bad. So to me, the answer is Cal. You know, the American League has always been, or well, not always, but has been recently, like clearly less talented than the National League. And always, you know, fewer dominant teams in the National League.

So this is not all that surprising. And again, I bet if we went back and we looked at the standings last year compared to this year, it wouldn't look all that different. Now, the teams would be different. But in terms of like how many teams are within X number of games of the playoffs and blah, blah, blah. Because I remember having very similar conversations last year where we were like, yeah, there's just not going to be a ton of sellers in the American League because everybody's kind of jumbled up there and the National League. It's definitely to a much more extreme degree.

but I don't think it's as egregious of a fall as Cal's fall has been. Yeah, I think Cal probably has to be the answer. And we're talking about top five player to like a bottom five player in a year. Yeah, I mean, it's just the fact of the matter is as, you know, unfortunate as this is to say, the best the Mariners' catching situation has been this year, has been when it was comprised of Mitch Garver and Johnny Parada. It was the most effective that the Mariners catching situation has been in the year in the year of our Lord 2026.

And that sucks. We'll answer more of your questions in just a moment. But first a reminder of this episode of the Lockdown Mariners podcast is brought to you by Fandul and Odu. Locked on Mariners is brought to you by Fandul. Baseball fans, if you think you know who's hitting a homer today, Fandual is giving you a free chance to call your shot with daily dingers. It's easy to play. Just make your free pick for who you think will hit a.

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Let's get back into your questions here on Mailbag Monday. Your running back's favorite running back wants to know of the Julio Naylor, Donovan, and Cal Forsome. How many do you think will be a 120 WRC plus or better bat the rest of the way? Well, Naylor has already done it for sure. stretch this year. So I feel pretty decent about that, you know, from about mid-April to mid-June, he was a 130-ish WRC plus. So I think he can do that reasonably so over the second half. Donovan, I think, will be around there because that's typically where he hangs around when he's

on the field is about, you know, 115 to 120 WRC plus. Julio, obviously, the, you know, second half, Julio, we know the deal there. Cal though, is the one that's really hard to see. right now with just the way things are going for him at the moment. Yeah. I mean, you know it's bad when we're getting excited about the number of foul balls that were almost fair balls that he hit.

Like, man, he said a couple of nukes down the right field line. They just all gone foul. And it's like, yeah, that's not a good thing. You know, those are strikes.

So, yeah, that's kind of where we're at with Cal. At this stage, any kind of offensive performance you get from Cal is just got to be looked at as gravy. Yeah, Julio, I'm pretty confident Julio will be very good down the stretch. He always is,

and he's a very good player. Yeah, Nailer been awfully streaky this year, which is kind of weird for Josh, but then Donovan, like, he was your best player when he was healthy, which granted was for only, what, 25 games? But he's been really good this year, and

you know, they'll probably protect him some against lefty since they have some depth and he's not going to play every day. So yeah, I think three of these four are actually really, I would say very likely to be, to be, you know, 120 WRC plus or thereabouts. I just, I think I'm done betting on Cal to figure anything out. And I'll just wait to hopefully be, you know, proven wrong by that over these next 62 games. But yeah, we're 100 games then.

like that every time we think Cal is taking a step forward, he takes two steps back. So yeah, I'll go with the three of the four, go 120 the rest of the way. All right, Max wants to know, what are your thoughts on Lazaro,

Montes and Michael Arroyo and AAA so far? Small sample size for sure, but it seems like at least Arroyo is going to get a shot this year to help the Mariners. You know, Las still kind of a boomer bust look like he's missing a lot of pitches. inside the strike zone, his end zone contact rate right now, I think is only 52% at the moment.

And then in Royos, you know, he's, he's hitting everything in sight, really. I think he's, you know, and maybe people are smarter than I would disagree with this, but just seeing how he's carried over his production from double A to AAA, I think he's ready or just about for his first. of the majors. He looks really good right now. Laz, obviously,

we know what the potential is there, but yeah, there's definitely some work left to do there for him. I would say, like, as expected, but Oroyo's been really good. Like,

really, really good. And Laz has had his moments, got a home run double. He's made some nice plays out in right field, actually. Yeah.

So, yeah, I would say, you know, so far, so good, certainly. So far,

so great for, for Royo. And yeah, nothing, nothing too concerning from, you know, Laz's performance thus far. We'll see what happens, you know, over the course of the next two months. I don't see any scenario where Laz joins the Mariners this year. In fact, I think it's, I would say it's significantly more likely he's wearing a different uniform on August 4th than it is that he puts on a Mariners uniform at any point this year. But, yeah, as for Arroyo, yeah, man, I mean. Isn't he already better than Buddy Kennedy?

Isn't he already probably better than Weston Wilson? Again, I don't dislike Weston Wilson, but like, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, like, is Michael Royo one of your 13 best offensive players in the entire organization? And obviously, offenses and everything, there's defense to consider and all of that. But yeah, I think Royo is proving that he can't help you this year. And I wouldn't be shocked at all if he was their, you know, position player call up in September. And maybe even sooner than that, like we don't know what's going to happen here. If, you know, Randy pulls a hammy or whatever, he's got to go on the IL.

I think Arroyo has to be part of that conversation to get called up. So, yeah, Royo, you know, just crushing AAA, we knew he would. The guy's a really good hitter, really good hitter. The question has always been, how much power is there? And I think we know it's probably 15 to 20 home runs. And then it's, you know, where does he play defensively? And, you know, they're varying reports. Some people say, you know, he's actually fine at second base.

he's like he's fine in the outfield. He's not a gold glover, but he's fine. There are others who act like he's the worst, you know, player to ever put on a baseball glove. So hard to know defensively before we see him ourselves. Obviously, it's not going to be great, but since one did the Mariners care about defense. Fair point.

Yeah, Arroyo is going to be up at some point this year, I think, and it might be sooner rather than later. I don't think they're going to like trade Randy to make room for Arroyo down the stretch or anything like that. But yeah, unless they're out of it, Unless the next two weeks just go completely sideways. That's always the caveat.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I think we're going to see Arroyo at some point this year. And maybe I would say in more of an active role than like when they brought up Harry Ford at the end of last year. Yeah. Agreed. No, they're going to call for them.

They're going to use them. Yeah. I think there's a clear role. Even if they go out and they get a right handed, you know, platoon bad or something even better than that, you know, if they went out and got Taylor Ward, who would be essentially like an everyday player. them even if they did that i think they would still be like a pretty clear and defined role for for a royal on this roster so i mean he could play second base and cole young can finally get a day off against a tough lefty or he could play left field and randy can dh or you could get you know

colt emerson off his feet against a tough lefty and and do a bunch of stuff or you could just send down colt emerson roll with j p at short and go get a real third baseman you know crazy i know but uh yeah there there's a lot of who's that real third baseman though that's yeah that's is the hard part, right? Gino, is he really that much? But, by the way, get on your feet if you're going to the game tonight

because Gino deserves a five-minute standing ovation. Absolutely. So, yeah. Yeah. He still makes a little bit of sense. I mean, he's going to cost you nothing. I'm just saying, he's literally going to cost you nothing.

But, yeah. It's been really bad this year. You know, go look at the Mariners' production at third base when it's not been Brennan Donovan. Yeah. it can't get first. And at least he's going to pop some dingers.

But anyways, yeah, Arroyo is going to be up at some point this year. I'm pretty confident about that. You know, I think he'll have a notable role, I will say, in the last couple of months of this season. It's still, though, it might be another two or three weeks before there's a real conversation about Arroyo coming up. But I think we're going to have it here pretty quick

because AAA is not a challenge for him. All right. We will answer more. of your questions in just a moment, but first a reminder, this episode of the Locktime on Airs podcast is brought to you by Stance. It's time for the everyday icon presented by stance. As the official sock partner of Major League Baseball, Stance knows greatness isn't built in a single moment. It's earned over time through consistency, preparation, and showing up every day. That's why each week we're recognizing one player whose performance embodies those same

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For more information, go to patreon.com forward slash control the zone. Link in the description of this episode. Let's get back into your questions here on Mailbag Monday. Code Mode wants to know. what point should the Mariners consider bringing Johnny Parada back and having them split time with Cal? So apparently the Dodgers are looking for catching help with the whole Will Smith thing going on right now. I wonder if there's like a small trade there involving Mitch Garver and then Parada gets called up. Yeah, I mean, I think the Mariners would probably look at that and be like, look, how big of a gap is there between Parada and Garver for the limited amount of playing time?

they're going to get. And is that worth, you know, disrupting the clubhouse. And again, because we know Garber, look, he's a backup catcher. He's a fine backup catcher. Pretty good backup catcher, actually, who still hits lefties very well. And pitchers really like throwing to him. Yeah. Like, he is an important part of that clubhouse.

And so the marginal, if there is an upgrade, you get by going to Parada in their minds, plus whatever small piece you get from the Dodgers is that worth kind of upsetting the Apple card a little bit here. I don't know without knowing the details of what you could get, which again wouldn't be a lot, but I don't know. But to answer the question there, you're not putting Cal Raleigh in a platoon

because you need this guy to figure it out. And the only way he can figure it out is with consistent at bats. Because like Pareta was good in a very small sample size, but what happens when the league sees him, you know, the second time through? Like he's probably not going to be

much better than Garber. he'll probably hit for more of an average, but there's going to be less pop. Like, again, you kind of caught lightning in a bottle the first time around, and that's great. And, you know, there's nothing wrong with, you know, him being your backup catcher next year because you know you've got that in your back pocket and you can have him be the backup catcher for the next three or four years.

But you're not benching Cal Raleigh. And even if you talk about putting him in a rotation, like that's still a benching. If Cal goes from playing six to seven days a week to three or four, Yeah, that's, you're benching, you know, your captain, essentially. And the upside for that just is not there with Parada. It's just not going to be worth it. You're much better off putting Cal Raleigh out there. Don't hit him third or fourth, right?

Hit him sixth. Hit him seventh. Hit him eighth, whatever. Doesn't matter. But put him down the lineup. Let him try to work through this because if you can get Cal Raleigh, like the real Cal Raleigh to show up, even for like a month, he can carry your offense and he can,

be the difference between you, you know, winning the World Series and missing the playoffs entirely, depending on when the month hits, you know, so you're just much better off just continuing to throw Cal out there and just see if you can figure it out, rather than soft benching him for, you know, no disrespect, like a career for a catcher.

And a guy who's sealing is a backup catcher. Like, that's just not going to happen. So, yeah, I would say the odds of that happening are zero. The small trade that makes Paradea come up and be the true backup up catcher who plays once a week like Mitch Garber does right now. Yeah, that's possible. I don't think it's likely just because, again, the relationships. But yeah, it's possible.

But in terms of parade of being like catching three or four days a week, no, zero percent chance. Yeah, I just did wonder about maybe a Garber trade when I saw the reports about the Dodgers and what they're looking to try and do. Sure. I'm sure Dodgers are looking more at the Hunter Goodman. but also right a long-term catcher so right right yeah so you know I'm not sure specifically what

waters they really want to swim in there in that regard so what's awesome barns up to these days they just bring him back like they do Kikee like they do Kike Hernandez every single year yeah just bring back Austin Barnes

why not all right our final question of the day comes from our good pal here's Ham Swaggerty 69 who wants to know with Brendan Donovan starting his rehab at second base. Does this mean we'll see Cole Young at short and maybe Colt Emerson sent down? I still think the plan with Donovan is to play him a little bit of everywhere. I think we might see him a little bit in right field even when he gets back.

Depending on, you know, obviously what his body can handle and all that. You want to protect the player first and foremost. and you know and maybe he just kind of winds up going back to being the primary third baseman depending on what they want to do here with with emerson and they they move jp back to shortstop it's just yeah emerson's really struggling at to play right now um you know and he had some nice moments over the weekend um but still it's been it's been rough for the last what six weeks with colt um and it hasn't gotten that much strikeout right yeah hasn't gotten that much better and obviously you know um you want to be understanding of the

situation because he is 20 and obviously the upside is and he and he has yeah happy birthday to cold emerson um you know and obviously he has uh you know had some big time moments this year but yeah it's been been rough more often than not so i'm interested to see what they do once when stonovan gets back into the fold here but my guess is he's going to kind of play a little bit of everywhere, which is what we initially thought was the plan with him going into the season. And then, or at least like, you know, once like Cole Emerson was in the mix, but if Emerson eventually gets sent down, I think he probably just winds up at third base again. Yeah.

I think JP just moves back to short. You're just kind of in this weird spot where you do have to do what's best for the player. You have to try and do what's best for your team also. But again, Emerson is like, you've kind of put him as a, you know, a, you know, a. a pillar of your organization. When you gave him that extension, you said, this guy is like a foundational player. So you have to value his development

almost as much as you value winning because you've made that commitment to him. So like, is this good for him to sit up here in the majors and just be terrible for six weeks? I don't know. I know he's a mature guy. I know all that. But like, I think at some point you got to really,

there's a cost benefit analysis here where it's like, is it actually worth it having him up here? Should we send him down with the hopes that he can work on these things and come back up in September and actually help us? I think we're at that point. But, you know, as for Donovan playing second base, I think that's just more about it's your first time out in the field since, you know, this whole thing started. Let's put you out of a position you're most comfortable with, kind of get your feet wet a little bit. And then we'll see how aggressive they want to be with the rehab. I don't think the rainiers play today.

So we'll see where he's at on Tuesday or Wednesday or he might be going to Everett. I don't know if Tacoma is going on the road or not. I don't know the minor league schedule. Apologies. But we'll see where he's playing the next time out again. He hasn't played back to back yet. I think Donovan's going to be out until around the trade deadline. I think they're going to take just about the max amount of time that they can with this.

And so you'll probably see him play second. I wouldn't be surprised if he played second, his first, you know, like three or four games out in the field before they try and put him in left field, right field, third base. And I think that's, again, just mostly because just get him out here, you know, movements, his body's very familiar with. He's going to be very comfortable there. He doesn't have to worry about, you know, trying to make this play that he doesn't normally make when he's playing third base. And just kind of build on that.

So I think that's why he was at second. We could see Cole Young play short. Sure. Like, it's possible he plays a game or two there. But I don't think the plan is to have him be the primary shortstop down the stretch of this season. that'll be either Emerson or JP I guess a small outside shot they go get somebody to be the primary shortstop

but again who is that? I have no idea who that would be. It's like CJ Abrams and CJ Abrams makes J.P. Crawford shortstop defense looks like Brennan, Brennan Ryan's shortstop defense. So that's maybe not the best solution either. Unfortunately, the Red Sox

have won 18 of the last 20 which means Isaiah kind of Plefa probably not an option anymore. He's also heard. Oh, is he? Yeah. How are they doing that without ICF? Wow.

Yeah. Yeah. When we had that discussion and we were going down the list and I mentioned IKF when I was editing, I actually put this in the video. Like I recorded a little thing being like, wait, actually is there like I looked at fan graphs and it was like, yeah, he's got like a forearm thing or something that he's, yeah, it's pretty bad. Yeah, it's not a great. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So. Yeah. he's yeah i don't know he's he's he's been yeah he's been shut down from swinging yeah he's not playing this year yeah yeah so even more confusing i don't know who that shortstop would be no clue no clue so yeah it's probably going to be emerson or jp is going to be the primary shortstop down the stretch and again i think we're at the point now offensively where it's time to have a legitimate question of how valuable is the the the extra range you get from colt emerson vis-vis the the bat uh the black hole And again, JP's not exactly crushing it, but he at least gives you a quality at bat.

Basically every time it goes up there, Emerson is just having these horrific at-bats every night. And JP at the very least is working counts, Fallon pitches off, still getting on base at a fair amount. He's walking a lot more recently. So JP's at least, you know, like a major league hitter. Whereas Emerson right now, he's not. But he's a very good shortstop. So we'll see how they want to walk that tight rope. but it's not going to be Cole Young at shortstop.

All right. That is going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Mariner's podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day for Colby Patnode. I'm Tadeng Azales. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at LO underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Tading Gzales and Colby at CPAT 11, then CpAT 1-1. We're also on Blue Sky.

You can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB Colby in the show at Lockdown Mariners. You can also find us on Instagram and TikTok at Lockdown Mariners. have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you next time peace