Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Seattle Mariners SEND DOWN Colt Emerson: The Right Thing to Do?

Episode Date: August 14, 2026

Ty and Colby react to Colt Emerson being sent down and Brock Rodden being called up, then discuss how the Mariners have one last shot to salvage their season. Check out our Patreon! Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11 Follow the show on Bluesky: @lockedonmariners | @tdg | @mlbcolby Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Amazon This Back To School Season, spend less on your kids, with Amazon. With Amazon’s low Back To School Prices, just spend less on your kids. Because every dollar you don’t spend on them, is a dollar you haven’t spent on them.    Nutrafol Find out why Nutrafol is the only hair growth supplement brand trusted by MLB. For a limited time, Nutrafol is offering our listeners $10 off your first month’s subscription and free shipping when you visit https://Nutrafol.com and enter promo code LOCKEDONMLB. Stance Check out the ICON collection from Stance—premium comfort, performance, and durability designed for whatever your day brings. Use promo Code LOCKEDON at checkout for 20% off your purchase. Learn more at https://Stance.com. Stance. The Official Sock Partner of Major League Baseball. Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at https://Indeed.com/podcast   KALSHI For a limited time, download the Kalshi app and use code LOCKEDON to get ten dollars when you trade ten. Kalshi. Trade on anything. Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. From the opening whistle to the final kick, Let There Be Goals on FanDuel. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started now.   FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Colt Emerson's struggles finally caught up, and the Mariners have sent him down. Let's talk about it. 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 Friday, August 14th, 2026. My name is Tadding Azalus, and I'm joined as always by McCos, Colby Patnode. On today's show, the mayors are off to Houston for a last chance to salvage their season.

We'll talk about that as well as brought. Rodden getting his first call to the bigs, but we start with the reason Rodden is here. Colt Emerson has been sent down. Despite a hot start to his career, Emerson wound up slashing 190, 246, 335. He was just never able to turn things around. Now, I feel a couple of different ways about this, because I'm surprised that the Mariners actually pulled the trigger on this, though I'm not surprised that they actually came to this conclusion, if that makes sense.

Because, you know, when we talked to Ryan DeVosch a few weeks ago, you know, he talked about how the things that Emerson needed to work on, those weren't things that he was going to be able to work on in AAA. Those were things that he needed to work through at the major league level. He just didn't think that sending Emerson down was an option. But this just did not look any better over the last few weeks. It just kept getting uglier and uglier and uglier and Emerson. outside of really that Homer that he had last week on Wednesday against the Tigers,

he just wasn't giving you anything. And while the defense has definitely been better than J.P. Crawfords, there's also been some issues defensively with Colt Emerson yesterday, where he doesn't hang on to that ball on the would-be inning-kought stealing, which, you know, that could have, you know, things could have gone real sideways there very quickly for the mayor's and thankfully did not. And thankfully, thankfully, they were able to win that game. I don't know if that was necessarily like the last straw for the Maris,

but it definitely wasn't a good final look for Emerson's first stint in the Biggs. So yeah, just a lot of issues with Colt. And I just felt like it was time. I've felt like it's been time for for a while, frankly. I just, I didn't think that they were actually going to do this. So that's why we didn't really talk about it a ton. I just thought that they were going to, especially as the season has gradually gotten worse for the Marys and they've slowly become. more and more out of it.

I just felt like they were just going to let it rock with him and let him get this playing time at the major league level and just try and work through things. But yeah, they've finally made the decision to send him down. So what do you think? Yeah, it's about time. It's well past time. If we're being honest, this is why we wanted them to go out and get an infielder at the trade deadline.

You know, it became pretty apparent that this was going to have to happen at some point. The league figured out how to get Colt out. and Colt was not able to make that adjustment here at the big league level. He just kept on chasing the high fastball and he couldn't get to it. That's something he obviously is going to have to work on down in AAA. So, you know, long term, not really that much concern. It was kind of funny. Basically the exact same thing happened to Cole Young.

Last year he just started really struggling against velocity and he went to work this offseason. And now he's, you know, an All-Star or he should have been. So long-term, there's really not much, you know, to be concerned about here. he's also, you know, just turned 21 like three weeks ago. So there's not a lot to be concerned about here long term. But yeah, it's just it wasn't working right now. And you kind of already have a black hole at catcher. You cannot afford a black hole at shortstop as well,

especially when the rest of your offense struggling a bit. Like you have a bunch of guys not performing up to level and up to your expectations. And then you have two guys who just aren't major league hitters by any, you know, stretch of the imagination. and you can't send down Cal. So you have to send down Emerson. And like you said, I mean, the defense has been fine,

but it hasn't been otherworldly. Like it's certainly not enough to justify carrying a guy who can't, you know, hit his weight at the major league level. And it's just slowly getting worse and worse and worse. Like there was no light at the end of the tunnel for Colton Emerson. There was no sign that he was close to turning it around. He was just getting beat by the same pitch over and over and over again.

And it was time. time, you know, and so whether you're competing or not this year, you just can't leave a guy, especially, you know, a young 21-year-old who you kind of, you know, taking a personal stake in as part of the future of your franchise. You just can't let that guy dangle out there in the wind and continue to struggle over and over again when there's such an easy path to get him back on track. I would expect to see Colt Emerson again at some point this year. I don't think that this is he's in Tacoma forever. But I think you need to send him down there for at least a couple of weeks. He has some very real things he needs to focus on.

And, you know, by the way, keep in mind, the Mariners called him up earlier than they wanted to because of all the injuries. They said themselves like, hey, if Brennan Donovan hadn't gotten hurt, would you have called him up? Probably not. But he was pretty close to where we wanted him to be. And you remember when they called him up, He had strikeout issues in Tacoma, too, that he was trying to figure out.

So this is not surprising. Again, he's a very talented player, but this is baseball. It's professional baseball at the highest level. It doesn't get any more difficult than this. So for a 20-year-old to go out and struggle the way he did, shouldn't be surprising to anybody. What should be surprising is that the Mariners just seemingly were okay living with this for as long as they did.

And I understand that, you know, the JP injury complicates things a little bit because that's kind of the, the fail safe there. But JP got injured before the deadline. You had an opportunity to go out and get an infielder to kind of cover your bases here. And you chose not to. We heard that they may have at least tried. They were interested in Zach Netto to some degree. But those talks never got anywhere serious. So that was pretty much it at that point.

And so now you have to bank on Leo Rivas to be. or starting shortstop, because we have no idea when JP's coming back, if at all. So, yeah, the Mariners, unfortunately, put themselves in a position where they had to trust Colt Emerson longer than they should have, and it burned them. And Colt is going to be a very good player. I have no doubt about that. He's just not major league right now. And the adjustment he needs to make is clear and it's obvious, and he needs to get to work ASAP.

And again, I suspect we'll see him again in a couple weeks. but yeah just very clearly things weren't happening for him. Yeah, he was the youngest player in the American League and he looked like it, which we talked about going into the season when preview in the infield. You know, you guys can refer back to our infield preview where we talked about Emerson and we talked about how like, hey, you know, those guys that come up at 19, 20, 21 years old and they take the league by storm there, they outlier, right? They're not the standard.

You know, it's very reasonable to expect that Cole Emerson's going to come up and he's going to struggle and he's going to look like he's not yet ready for this thing, you know, because it's, it's pretty remarkable in itself that he even got to this point where he proved like, hey, I'm ready for at least a taste of the majors at such a young of an age. And, you know, at first, the raw talent took over and he had a really nice start to this thing. But, you know, once the league got a book on him, it became like, you know, a matter of if he was going to be able to adjust back or not. And unfortunately he wasn't able to.

He wasn't able to make that adjustment like you said. So it sucks. It's disappointing, but I don't have any, you know, long-term concerns. I think he's going to be a great player. We've already seen, you know, what the level of talent is there. But when you just look at his season trajectory as a whole, like, you know, he goes to AAA. He struggles for a bit. Then he's got the wrist thing that he's dealing with.

And he's just kind of starting to play catch up. And once he's starting to finally turn things around, well, the Donovan injury. happens, right? And then they call him up and now he's got to figure things out. And he kind of carries that momentum for a little bit there into the start of his major league career. But eventually it teeters off. And so yeah, I think, you know, a little bit more AAA time for him. We'll do him some good. So, and I think this season in general, there was just a lot of stuff that was on that was put on his plate, not just at the major league level, but right out of the gate and AAA as well, that, you know, he'll, that he just needed to work through. And, you know, I think that,

that's a lot to ask of a 20-year-old, 21-year-olds. There's also a mini-transition to third base. Remember, that was his original plan. So he's kind of trying to learn a new position on top of all of it. It's just one of those cases where it makes the most sense for the player, and it makes the most sense for the team to send this guy down and hope that he can get right over the next couple of weeks before you kind of bring him up in September.

And maybe it's not September 1st, but like it could be. You call him back up in September. And you see where you're at. But, you know, also we have to mention it. There's an outside shot. This team gets hot. And all of a sudden, they're in the playoff race in September. And then we just kind of see where they're at.

And maybe they don't want to call a Colt Emerson in September because they don't think that he can help them in the playoff push, whatever, right? Right. Like that possibility does technically exist. So, yeah, it's, it was just time. It was just time. And the Mariners, I think are doing right by the player. I think they're doing right by their major league roster. And again, I would be a little.

surprised we didn't see Colt again this year. And he will enter 2027 as the opening day shortstop or maybe third baseman, depending on what they do this offseason. But yeah, he'll be on the opening day roster next year, assuming he's healthy. All right. So let's switch gears here. Let's talk about the player who's taking Emerson's spot on the roster. That would be Brock Rodden, who's set to make his major league debut, probably at some point

over the course of this weekend down in Houston. We'll talk about him in just a moment. But first a reminder, this episode of the Locktime Maris podcast is brought to you by dose and stance. Can we talk about one of the most underrated organs in your body? Your liver. It's your body's filter processing everything you consume and performing more than 500 functions every day.

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Thank you so much for making us your first listen. And also thank you for making lockdown. the number one sports podcast network. So again, taking Colt Emerson spot on the Mariners roster is Brock Rodden, former fifth round selection by the Mariners back in 2023. Rodden enjoying hitting in the PCL this year, 262, 342, 499, with 19 home runs. That is by far a career high for Rodden down in the miners.

Switch hitting utility man won the gold glove. in the minor leagues back in 2024, I believe that's second base is where he won that. So a pretty good glove. Again, he can play multiple spots. Could be a really useful major league as we've talked about when we've ranked

him in our last few prospect re-rinks, which by the way, we're going to be doing our prospect re-ranks soon. Probably once I get back to Toronto, we'll start working on that and put those episodes together for you guys. But yeah, so Rodin is up now.

And for me, the thing with him is I want to see him play, especially while J.P. Crawford is still down. And we still don't really know how much longer J.P. is going to be down. But I don't want to see Leo Rivas playing ahead of Rodden much, if at all, really, because honestly, I think Rodden might be better than Rivas right now. I think it's pretty clear he is. Yeah. It's been a rough year for Leo. Unfortunately, it seems like the Mariners plan is for Leo to be the everyday shortstop and for Rodden, it'd be kind of backfill on the roster. Rodden had a good year.

It is the PCL, so the numbers have to be taken with a grain of salt there. But he was not really hitting left-handed pitching this year, but he is sitting right-handed pitching very well. He's a good runner. He's a good defender. He's got some pop. He is a switch hitter, although, again, not really hitting lefties this year, all that much. He's a really classic kind of utility guy in that sense. He does a little bit of everything well instead of doing, you know, having an elite tool anywhere.

So I don't think he's going to be an everyday player. I don't think that he's going to pop or anything like that. But again, this guy who can run, he's got some versatility to his game. and he's a pretty good defender around the infield. And, you know, you kind of see where you're at with the hit tool and all that. That's going to be the big question. You know, is he going to hit 2.30 and find a way on base and pop the occasional home run? Or is he going to be a, you know, 180 high strikeout guy?

Because that was a problem for Rodden before this year. He really got his strikeouts back under control in 2026. So that's not really a problem per se. and he walks enough. So not an everyday player type of profile, but very much a solid bench piece type of profile. And Rodden was the guy who had to be added to the 40 man this winter anyways. Otherwise,

the mayors were likely to lose him in the Rule 5, assuming there is a Rule 5 draft, which there wasn't last time we had a lockout, but who knows. I know they're trying to push it up into November before the lockout. So, yeah, we'll see. Yeah, but yeah, he was going to have to be added anyways. He made sense to call up in September anyways.

Again, he can play shortstop. He's played a lot of third base this year, but second base is his primary position. He's gotten a handful of games in left field and one starting center. So there's some versatility here. Take a shot. Maybe he's your new Dylan Moore. And again, you have six weeks until the end of the season. You might as well collect some data here.

So can Brockmore be my utility man entering 2027? Or is that a position? I might have to go out and, God forbid, I might have to spend resources on my bench if Brock Rodden can't get it done. So yeah, Brock should play a little bit here. Especially since, you know, his competition right now is is Weston Wilson, who actually had a phenomenal game yesterday. And Leo Rivas, like, this guy should play a little bit, but we'll see how much he does.

Because it does sound like the plan is for Leo Rivas to be the shortstop until or if slash win, J.P. Crawford returns. and we have no updates on that. So we'll see. All right. Well, starting tonight, the Mariners have really their last chance to salvage their season.

We'll talk about that in just a moment. But first a reminder, this episode of the Lock Time Airs podcast is brought to you by game time. There's nothing like watching a Mariners game. Even better when you get to watch it live. The excitement, the fans, the only problem,

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Download the GameTime app today. And you're listening to the Locktime Errors podcast, part of the lockdown podcast network, your team every day. As always, if you want to hear from me and Colby even more and help support the show, we have a Patreon. It's called Control the Zone and on the air we talk, Mariner, Seahawks, all the good stuff. For more information, go to patreon.com forward slash control the zone link in the description of this episode.

So the Marys are kicking off a three-game set with the Houston Astros today. They trail the Astros by five games in the AAL-West standings. And this series feels like really their last shot to try and salvage this thing, to try and turn this season around. And at the very least, stay within striking distance of the Astros. Who are playing better ball, I wouldn't say that they're suddenly great. but they are playing better ball. They're in first place for a reason,

but they're not necessarily running away with this thing. I mean, again, the Marys are eight games under, and they're only, you know, five games back of first place, which is pretty remarkable. But, yeah, this is it. This has to be it. Yeah, it's now or never.

And, you know, unfortunately, because of the way you've played over the last month, you kind of have to sweep like simply winning the series doesn't really do that much for you you gain one game you're still four back at that point and you

at the very least you won a series on the road but then you still have the rest of this gauntlet to go at which you're barely likely going to give that game back so if you can find a way to sweep this this series all of a sudden you're two back depending what Texas does

but you're two back. And at that point, you're, regardless of your record, you're very much a contender. If you're within two games of your division on August 18th or whatever, however you got there, you're a contender. So you're right back in the race. Again, if you get swept, your season's over. You're eight games back. It's done.

You're toast. If you lose this series, it's like 99% over. If you win this series, I don't know. I'd probably give you like a, I don't know, 10, 15% chance to get back into this thing. If you sweep the series, you went all three and you're only two games back, I'd give you like a 30, 40% chance, like a real good chance to win this division. Because again, you've already got the tiebreaker against Houston. Texas lost Devaldi.

It sounds like they're going to lose DeGrom. He left last night's game with lat soreness, I believe it was. Doesn't sound too good there. So Texas is kind of fading a little bit. they just lost three or four against the Angels. They didn't do much at the deadline. So this is your opportunity to get back in the race. You have to sweep.

I mean, it really is that simple. Vives-wise, if you take two out of three, fine. But then you have to go to Milwaukee, where you're probably going to lose two out of three if you're lucky. So it really is. You need to sweep this team. And it's not going to be easy because, again, while you're better than them,

that has not mattered for 125 games. so I doubt it matters here. And they're also playing better baseball than you. Now, they did nearly get swept in San Francisco. They played three really close games with San Francisco. At one point, they were down one to nothing in the eighth, and it took two errors for them to get their first run on Wednesday, I believe. And on Monday, they were down to their last strike.

And it was a passball and then like a C&I single to tie the game before they wanted an extra. So, yeah, Houston's playing a little bit better right now, but they also just nearly got swept by the giants. So anything can happen. You are going to face Hunter Brown on Sunday. And unfortunately, you're countering with Road, Brian Wu. So we'll see. But it's Kirby versus Lambert tonight.

And Lambert's actually been really good for them. So that should be a good pitching matchup. And then tomorrow it's Hancock versus West Nesky. So pitching matchups, again, not that these have ever mattered at all this year. But you do have a slight advantage there. The Astros bullpen is pitching much better since the last time you saw these guys. So that is something to keep in mind. You do want to get out to an early lead on them.

But yeah, this is a team that is beatable, certainly. And this is like the only team you've handled all year. I think you're what, seven and one against them. So unfortunately, because you've been dog water for the last, you know, 40 games or so, you have to leave the series having gone 10 and 1 against them to really make any kind of dent in the hole that you've dug yourself. So we'll see if they can do it. I certainly have my doubts,

but it would be very marinary for them to pull us back in because they just happen to sweep the Astros of all team. I mean, I don't know. Has Seattle ever gone down to Houston and swept a series from them before? Yeah, it's a huge series. I mean, you know, if you've given up on this season and you're just like whatever about it, like I get it. Like, yeah. So like, I'm not trying to oversell this thing.

Like, I know what the reality of the situation is. But yeah, if they are going to turn this thing around, this is the series. Like, they have to do it. The series. To quote the lyrical geniuses at O-Town. Yes, that's a real sentence that I just said. Wow. When you reach the bottom, it's now or never.

is it all? Are we just friends? Is this how it ends? Anyways, yeah, it's, I want to end the show now. This is it, man. This is how it goes down. And on Monday,

we'll either be talking about a brand new enthusiasm with the Mariners having won four in a row and getting to within two games of the Astros, like relatively speaking to how we're talking right now, yes. Yeah, yeah, sure. be like, so why haven't we called up Kate Anderson and Michael Arroyo yet? Because now we're eight games behind the Astros and like we're 11 under 500 or whatever it is. And we're clearly toast.

So we shall see. But you do get one last chance here. And I wish they were. I mean, they didn't play horrendously against the Rays or the Yankees, but they won one out of five games. who cares how they played. But yeah, we'll see how it goes. But it's just hard to trust this team that they're going to give you their best three-game stretch with their backs up against the wall because, well, it'd be the first time. All right.

That's going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Locktime Mariner's podcast. Part of the Locktime Podcast Network, your team every day for Colby Patnode. I'm Tadding Gazzal. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L0 underscore Maritors. you can follow me at Taday Gonzalez and Colby at C-Pat-11. We're also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB Colby,

and the show at Lockdown Mariners. You can also follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Lockdown Maritors. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you next time. Peace.