Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Should the Mariners Pick Up Kyle Seager's Club Option?

Episode Date: August 12, 2021

Join Locked On Mariners hosts Ty Dane Gonzalez and Colby Patnode as they discuss the Mariners' 2-1 walkoff win against the Rangers, whether or not the team should pick up the $15 million club option on third baseman Kyle Seager and if free agent right-handed pitcher Jake Arrieta should be an option for the team with Logan Gilbert potentially heading for an innings cap.Be sure to follow or subscribe to Locked On Mariners wherever you prefer your podcasts! For questions and other inquiries, email: [e-mail] the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @danegnzlz | @CPat11For more of Ty and Colby, check out their Patreon: http://patreon.com/controlthezone/Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.Wild Alaskan CompanyUse the URL wildalaskancompany.com/mlb for $15 off your first box of Wild Alaskan Company high quality, sustainably sourced seafood.BetOnlineThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You are Locked-on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Before we get into today's episode of Lockdown Mariners, let's talk about Locked-on MLB. Join Walking Baseball Encyclopedia Paul Francis Sullivan, and please call him Sully every day on Lockedon MLB for a unique look at the majors, both present and past,

featuring exciting guest interviews and routine check-ins from the Lockdown MLB networks team of local experts. Subscribe to Lockdown MLB today on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast. It is Thursday, August 12th, 2021. This is the Lockdown Mariners podcast. Your home for Daily Seattle Mariner's News and Analysis. My name is Ty Dan Gonzalez and I am joined as always by Colby Patnode. We're the new host of Lockdown Mariners.

So if this is your first time tuning in since the change, welcome. It's going to be a pretty fun show because this, Colby, is the first time since we started that we'll be recapping a Mariners victory, a two-one win over the Texas Rangers Luis Terrans with a walk-off single that almost went out of the park in the bottom of the ninth, giving the Mariners their 60th win of the season. We're also going to be talking about whether or not the Mariners should pick up Kyle Seeger's club option this winter. And then we'll wrap things up by taking a look at Jake Arietta, who was just released

by the Cubs and see if that's a potential fit for a Seattle team that could always use the pitching depth. Be sure to follow or subscribe to Lockdown Mariners wherever you're listening to this. We'll be posting a podcast per day Monday through Friday every week as the season moves along. Colby it wasn't at all

pretty, but a win's a win I guess. The Mariners offense was still downright awful for the most part, but luckily the Rangers are just that much worse and the Mariners were able to make a minor comeback to win last night's game. But let's start

not with the offense, but instead looking at the man who started the game for the Mariners, left-handed pitcher Tyler Anderson and his third start since being acquired from the Pirates of the trade deadline, Anderson's pitch count went up pretty high right away. But he was able to give the Mariners five in the third settings pitch of one-run ball, six hits allowed, four strikeouts. And surprisingly, despite the high pitch count, he didn't walk anyone. What did you think about Anderson last night? Yeah, he was solid.

It was it was kind of funny. You know, I saw the lefty on the mound, who's a soft tosser, and he's, you know, he's got his pants up a little bit. And the delivery is not similar at all. But I just got Jamie Moyer vibes from him, you know. Again, it's not the same. I mean, but it is a, you know, cutter change up heavy lefty who throws pretty soft compared to the rest of the league. So, yeah, you know, I just kind of got those, those Jamie Moyer vibes. while I was watching him pitch.

And he was good. You know, like he said, the pitch count got up on him a little bit, but he did manage it pretty well after the, after I believe it was the first inning was pretty. It was after the second inning. Through two innings, he was at 44 pitches.

Right. And he gets through five at 94. So it was a good, good night for him. The changeup was really working. He got six whiffs on 21 swings. Um, not a, you know, Anderson's not a swing and miss guy. He wants you to make contact.

He wants you to, you know, make very specific type of contact. But, you know, he mixed it up pretty well, uh, mostly fastball change up, but he did throw a fair amount of cutters in there as well. Uh, you know, he just challenged guys. He went right after him, got, uh, you know, very aggressive in the strike zone, as evident by the zero walks. He will look like Tyler Anderson, you know, it's, it's, it's. It's becoming cliche to say, you know, what is Tyler Anderson looking like?

And we keep saying, well, he looks like Tyler Anderson. But he does. He's going to give you five, six innings. He's going to keep you in the ball game. Probably not going to give up more than three or four runs. And that's exactly what you need from your number five starter. And, you know, it just kind of continues this nice little role that the Mariners pitching staff is on where they've been pretty good. Unfortunately, the offenses has not been carrying its own weight.

Yeah. And unfortunately, every team ahead of them in the wild card race won last night, so they don't make up any ground. They do stay at five and a half games back. Yeah, a little bit, a little bit. You never know. Wake me up when they're within two. Then I'll care. Yeah. You're just solely focused on development right now, which, you know, I don't blame you. Let's talk about Joe Smith. I think, I think, I think this dude deserves some air time. here because you know they make the kindle graven trade they get abraham toro who's been incredible he had another two hit night for the mariners last night joe smith uh you know i mean the the the whole thing was

oh well you're depleting a really good bullpen you're depleting your strength by trading graven by you know you're giving up two months of graven you get back joe smith who had been struggling uh with the astros this year but now smith has come over five Finnings pitch and he's only allowed one base runner as a mariner. And last night he came in in a big, big moment with a runner on third one out. And he comes back with a strikeout, start things off, gets the second out and comes out of that completely unscathed. He's been pretty much everything that Kendall Graveman gives you. It's not as, you know, fun as as Graveman.

but it's been just as effective, if not more so. So yeah, and we always kind of saw this, this kind of rebound coming because you look at Joe Smith's track record. And it is unparalleled. The guy is closing in on 900 games pitched at the big league level. And we knew he was a great clubhouse guy. So we knew that this was going to serve as some kind of positive regression here for Seattle. and so far it has. So, yeah, he's been really good at the very worst.

He's adequately filled the Sharkwa role, which, you know, obviously Sharka, was traded for Castillo. So, yeah, Joe Smith's been a good find. And what do you know, another really good, you know, impact player that Jerry got at the deadline. And it's just interesting, you know, because last night, Tyler Anderson, Diego Castillo, Joe Smith and Abraham Toro were huge and you don't win that game without those guys and I just I can't remember what those guys

all have in common. Do you? I feel like there's something about those guys that maybe we should be talking about a little bit more especially at those who were critical of some of the moves that Jerry made but you know, who's got time for that? To quote my

one of my favorite personalities of Mariners Twitter Savage DePoto chills. DePoto did it again. Toro reached three times last night. Uh, man. He's,

uh, he's been fun, man. He has been fun. Yeah, that's been really fun. Um, Jerry Kellnick had a hustle double in the ninth inning to get

things started, uh, to, um, become the, the winning run eventually. Um, he's, you know,

like we talked about in our first episode of lockdown Mariners on Monday. Seems like he's really starting to figure things out. let's talk about you know a potential lineup reshuffle because clearly what they have right now isn't working and the top of the order has been somewhat of a problem so if you were to reshuffle the lineup how would that look like um yeah for me i'm probably going uh as weird as it sounds i'm probably going tie france in the leadoff spot yeah i agree with that actually.

He's been your best hitter since the break. It's really, I mean, it's him or Seeger or Toro. And honestly, I feel like those three guys should be in the first three spots in your lineup somehow. Maybe you want to keep Hanager in there. Fine. I think that's probably a good idea. But you probably going something like France, Toro Hanaker, Seeger or Seeger Hanaker,

depending on the matchup. I think it's important to get France and Toro at-bats in the first. first inning and also, you know, just more at-bats in general. If you're ever, you know, filling out a lineup card, I think a pretty helpful exercise is to say, okay, who, let's say, you know, average, you get four at-bats a game, right? Who do we want to give the fifth at-bat to? Like, which hitter do we want to have the fit that bat? And right now for the Mariners, it's probably France, right?

So hit him lead off. who's the second guy you would most like to get a fifth that bat too probably toro probably probably toro so there you go and you just kind of go down the list and you know to get when you get to j p crawford you're probably down somewhere around sixth which is a fine spot for him so yeah and you know and jp's been okay he's been better recently um but i just i think the the problem with jp is that you're basically you're you're capping yourself that he's going to maybe hit a single. Maybe he draws a walk, although that's, that's been hit or miss lately. Yeah.

France might pop a double. He might hit a home run, you know, and so it's not like J.P. Crawford can steal bases either. So, uh, I just want somebody in that lead off spot who could actually do some damage, uh, you know, because he's going to get more at bats than anybody. And I'd rather not that spot not go to a, a singles hitter is all. Yeah, a lot of folks look at the lead off spot in a very, um, one track mind. type of thing where it's just like, well, we only really care about the first inning with, you know, we want to set things up, you know, to score right away. And but I mean, you got to think about it, you know, from a nine inning perspective, um, that you won't, I mean, you know, mathematically speaking, you want your best guys to get the most at bats. That's going to give you the best chance to win. So, um, we'll see if Scott service reevaluates that, uh, coming up, we're going to be talking about, Kyle Seeger and whether the Mariners should pick up his club option next winter, or this

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Make sure to use our URL to let them know that we sent you. This is Lockdown Mariners. The M's are getting set for an afternoon rubber match against the Rangers this afternoon. We'll be breaking down the action in tomorrow's episode of Lockdown Mariners, along with a preview of their big weekend set against the Blue Jays. But now let's talk Kyle Dewar Seeger. This year, Kyle Seeger has slashed 217, 291, 441 with 25 home runs, and a WRC plus of 102.

He's been worth 2.3 fan graphs wore, but a big decision. It's coming up for the Mariners. Will they pick up his $15 million club option this winter or will they let him walk? This is something Colby and I talked about on our Patreon show on Monday. So if you want to hear a more extensive look

at the Seeger situation, visit patreon.com forward slash control the zone for more information. So Colby, you know, Seeger's still playing at a Kyle Seeger level, but there's a clear rift between him and the organization. He's one of the players who took the Kendall Graemean trade, the hardest. Of course, earlier in the offseason, former Mariners CEO, Kevin Mather, called him overpaid amidst the whole rotary club debacle. So, you know, what are you feeling on the Seeger situation?

Yeah, you know, it's for the longest time I was on the, you know, bring a back train. They don't, they didn't really have any in-house options that made sense. They clearly never thought Ty France was going to be that guy. guy. So yeah, for a long time, I was on that train. But now it appears that Toro is the guy that they are, I don't want to say grooming, but he's definitely the frontrunner next year if Seeger doesn't back leave. On top of that, you add in the comments that he made publicly about the Kendall Graveman trade. And it seems clear to me that this situation is ready for a for divorce.

I think it's a fairly amicable divorce. I think it's something that both sides want. But it does seem to be trending that direction. And again, with the addition of Toro, yeah, it's, I'm probably to the point now where I think it's probably time to move on. And, you know, there's also baseball reasons, certainly, to move on from Kyle Seeger. His strikeout rate is way up this year. He's chasing a lot more than he ever has. Um, you know, the bat speed looks like it's a little bit.

It's, it's, it's half tick slower. Um, the defense has been declining, but it's still, it's still quite good. Like, Seeger's not a bad defender at their base by any stretch, but he's not, you know, the, the top. He's not a gold glover anymore. No, no. He's probably about average. Um, makes some plays better than, than other plays. But yeah, he's still a good player. Um, so yeah, like if Seattle did pick up the option, you're fine with it. It's, it's, it's Kyle Seeger is. he worth $15 million? Yeah, probably. And he is having a fantastic start to the second half. I mean, you look at his second half number since the All-Star break.

I believe he's posting a 141 WRC plus, mostly driven by power. But the on-base skills, they're not there right now. He's not hitting enough for enough average. The walk rates are fine. They're about where they're supposed to be. just not hitting for quite enough average. And, you know, it seems like he's cheating on the fastball, which makes him more susceptible to breaking stuff,

which is what he's chasing, you know, this year. And that hence the strikeout numbers have gone up. So I think it's just probably time to send Kyle out on a high note. And, you know, keep the door open if something changes this winter. But it feels like Toro's the guy they want to go with. And you can see why. it's Toro's just probably a better player than Kyle Seeger right now and he's yeah and even if they were to come across another third base option they can move

Toro to second base he's looked more than fine there so you would be fine with that but you know and that's a that's a whole another discussion of course but you know in terms of Seeger you know I think really you know because obviously you know we've talked about this on control the zone we're definitely going to talk about this more on lockdown Mariners that you got to come away from this off season with either another third basement or another second basement in tow. I think while you're searching for that option, you leave the door open with Seeger. You let them know that, hey, this is a number that we would agree to bring you back on.

And if we're not able to find something else, we'll come back around. And if you're not able to find another place that you're satisfied with, we'll come back around. I don't know if Seeger would be open to that right now because of the relationship with the with the franchise. But leaving that door open and maintaining that line of connection just in case as a fallback, I think would be pretty smart overall. And then, of course, Seeger is going to take a while to probably sign with a team. No team is going to jump out right away and try to sign Kyle Seeger. That's just not going to happen. He's not going to be a priority. He's not going to be a priority for other teams.

Yeah. So going off of that, tell me why maybe, you know, picking up the option with the intention of trading him would work or not work? Tell me why. Tell me why. Yeah. Fantastic song. Best song of the 90s.

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picking up the option and trading him doesn't work. Because I think you're going to have to send a fairly substantial amount of money to trade Kyle Seeger for what's probably going to end up being a Jake Shiner-esque prospect. That I just, I would rather have like hypothetically, right? Let's say it's $6 million, right? They have to give $6 million to the Mets to get whoever their version of, of Jake Shiner is for Kyle Seeger.

Probably just rather, you know, have the $6 million than that prospect. Now, obviously there's a tipping point where the prospect becomes good enough. Or maybe it's a reliever or whatever. Maybe it's a major leaguer. There's a tipping point where, yeah, it's worth more to get that player than to have the extra money. but I don't see that tipping point coming with Seeger. I really do think it's going to be a Jake Shiner,

Donovan Walton, a Patrick Frick type of prospect. So I don't think that's worth $6 million. I'd rather just have the money, especially if, you know, I don't think they're going to do it. But if Stanton pulls the whole, you know, oh, we can't really afford, blah, blah, blah, blah. It would be nice to be like, well, you cleared $15 million on Seeger. So, yeah, again, I don't think he's going to do that.

But for me, I don't think the scales are going to tip to where the player you could get for Seeger is going to be worth more than the extra money that you'll have to spend in free agency or in the trade market. Yeah. Yeah, my recommendation to fans that if you want to see Kyle Seeger in a marius uniform, you should probably get tickets for that last home series. it's just it's probably coming to an end by the way you should send him off with like it sorry I was just going to say you should send him off

with a with a Felix Hernandez level of love and appreciation because the dude has been the rock of the franchise for what 10 years now? He is and he deserves every bit of the celebration that fans can give him

he's worth it. that he's been a great teammate, a great guy, and, you know, obviously his family has, been very, uh, you know, important, uh, to, you know, the Seattle landscape. So I, I, I feel like, yeah, we, we should be sending him off with some kind of big, thank you at least. Uh, so yeah, get tickets for that last series and, um, you know, go, go, go give him a standing O every single time he comes to the plate because he's earned that. All right. Up next is Jake Arieta an option for the Mariners, but first, a quick word from our friends at Bet Online. Bet Online is the fastest and easiest way to bet on all your sports action.

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experts this is locked on mariners and they say you can never have enough pitching and though justin done and justice sheffield appear to be getting closer to making a return it would still potentially behoove the mariners to add more depth jake erieckiq Rietta, veteran pitcher and World Series champion, was just released by the Cubs this morning. And this is a player that Colby and I had talked a little bit about during the offseason on control the zone. Not a great year for him. And that's being very kind. Hence his release from one of the more mediocre teams in Major League Baseball to Cubs.

688 ERA 612 FIP, 771 K per 9, 407 walks per 9, and 86 and a third innings pitch. Uh, yeah, pretty ugly. Uh, but in terms of just a depth play, what do you think about Arieta as just in case you need a body? No. Very, very straight to the point. I would rather use Darren McCacken. I would rather use Ian McKinney. I would rather use Robert Dugger.

No. No, no, no, no. No. 35 years old. In the 11th percentile and average average exit velocity. 11th percentile in hard hit percentage, fourth percentile in XWOBA, fourth percentile and expected ERA, 29th percentile in barrel percentage, 14th percentile and K percentage, second percentile and whiff percentage.

Eighth percentile in chase rate. The one positive, the one positive, curb all spin, 78th percentile. That's literally it. Like, Jake Areietta is bad. it's, you know, it's unfortunate because Arieta for a three-year stretch there was one of the best pitchers in baseball, but went to the Phillies was okay, not great, and now he's just, he's bad now. Opponents are hitting 371 off of his sinker with a 634 slugging. Jeez. I mean, it gets a little bit better with a slider.

Opponents there are only hitting 261 with a 568 slugging. The curveball has been his legitimately only good pitch. He gets 35% whiff rate on it. Opponents are only hitting a buck 84. They're slugging just 347 on it. So if Jake Arenda wants to come in out of the bullpen and just throw a bunch of curp balls, then okay, I'd still rather have Robert Dugger. So no.

Just hard pass, no. If you want to add some depth, go sign Bartolo Colon and Edwin Jackson. just leave Jake Areetta out of your organization. Yeah. So in the event that Logan Gilbert hits his innings cap,

which seems fairly like, we don't know exactly what that innings cap is, what that limit is going to be. But assuming that happens at some point, what are the options for the Mariners? Um, they would be who I just mentioned. Uh, it's, it's, you know, macaquecaken, uh, yeah, hopefully McKinney before either macaqueen or dougar, for some reason they seem very hesitant to, uh, to go that route,

which is odd to me. Um, because McKinney's been pretty good. Um, so that, that, that seems odd. Uh, sounds like Sheffield is going out on a rehab assignment. Um, done might be going out right after him. So they'll have some options, but I mean, not any good ones. Dunn is probably your best option.

And he hasn't pitched in two months. So it's, you're kind of stuck, which is, you know, makes the Tyler Anderson acquisition all the more important because without him,

you'd have to fill two spots. You know, so it's, I hope they give McKinney a shot. He's better than McCack. And I don't even think that's debatable. and obviously he's going to give you more depth or more innings than anybody like Robert Dugger

or any of the guys in the bullpen can. So I think it's, you know, you would see his Sheffield or Donner ready to go. And if they're not, then I would hope McKinney would be next. But so far, Seattle has not wanted to go that route. So we'll see. All right. That's going to do it for today's show.

Appreciate you tuning in and hope to see you tomorrow as we put a bow on this Rangers series and preview what's to come. on the weekend against Toronto. For more on the Rangers Mariners series, check out Lockdown Rangers with host Bryce Paderick for the other side's reaction to this week's series. For Colby Patnode, I'm Ty Dan Gonzalez,

and this has been Lockdown Mariners. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L-O-U-U-U-U-N-Rerriner. You can follow me at Dan-G-N-Z-L-Z and Colby at CP-E-P-A-T-1. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day, and we'll see you tomorrow. betting on Major League Baseball doesn't have to be a guessing game if you listen to the new Lockdown Betts podcast hosted by your boy Q and handicapped and expert Lee Sterling. Get daily picks, blowout specials, wrong team favorite picks, and Lee Sterling's lock of the day. Follow the Lockdown Betts podcast brought to you by betonline.ag wherever you get podcasts.