Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Should the Seattle Mariners Kick the Tires on THIS Former Top Orioles Prospect?! | Mailbag Monday

Episode Date: February 16, 2026

Ty and Colby answer your Mariners questions, including which position Brendan Donovan will log the most innings at in 2026 and if they should kick the tires of Coby Mayo.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/podcastFanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The Winter Games are on. And there’s no better way to follow them than with a bet on FanDuel. FanDuel - Play your game. 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.

Starting this week, the Mariners will be playing baseball almost every day until at least, hopefully, you know, late October, early November-ish. So let's kick the week off right by opening up the mailbag and answering some of your Mariners questions. Colby, hit it. You are Locked-on Mariners, your daily Seattle Mariners podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Ahoy, Sailors, it is Monday, February 16th, 2026. You're listening to the Lockdown Mariners podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast. Now the number one sports podcast network. My name is Tiding Gazzalas and I'm joined as always by McCos Colby Patnode.

We're two lifelong Maris fans who've been covering the team for over half a decade. And today we're opening up the mailbag and answering some of your Maris questions just like we do here every single Monday. But before we do, I want to shout out our title sponsor today. FanDul, use your profit boosts on an NBA future and get entered for your chance to win a trip to the NBA finals. Play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. kicking us off here on Mailbag Monday is Jonah who wants to know what position does Brennan Donovan get the most starts at this season. Obviously tough to say since we know Donovan's going to move around quite a bit.

Big part of the reason why the Mariners wanted him was his ability to play, you know, three or four different spots. If I had to guess right now, I'd probably still say third base. I think he's going to start the year there. You know, you never know Emerson could. you know, explode. And then all of a sudden, Emerson's the third baseman and Donovan's the second baseman, but then Cole Young goes down, blah, blah, blah.

Right now, just kind of reading between the lines, it sounds like, it sounds like Donovan's going to be the third baseman, and that they want Emerson to get some legitimate run down at AAA. I don't think this is one of those, like, sent him down for a week and a half to work on defense and then bring him up. Because no, if they thought he was ready to go, then they would just put him on the roster. for the shot at the draft pick. So I think third base, I think, you know, if you asked me on, you know, May 15th, like, hey, where is Donovan going to get most of his starts now? I probably, I don't know. It's probably not third base. But because I think Donovan's going to get like

the first six weeks, give or take to just play third base every single day until they call up Emerson, I just think he's going to stack so many starts there that that's where he's, he's ultimately going to end up. Like it, he'll still catch a few at third base just because they're going to want to give Emerson days off or J.P. Crawford's going to need a day off and they're going to slide Emerson to short. And, you know, this, and Donovan gives you the opportunity to do that. And one of the things we talked about at the end of the year that was, you know, a little bit

overlooked was, yes, the bullpen was, you know, the same four guys in the bullpen were used repeatedly over and over again, and that hurt. But we talked about Randy playing 160 games and JP playing 160 games and who, Julio playing $160 and Cal and all these guys, all your best players, just never got a day off. Donovan kind of allows you to do that. And so we know he's going to move around. But I just think he's going to stack up so many starts at third base that even when he moves primarily to second or to right or to left or, you know, just kind of stays in this constant rotation. I just think he's going to have stacked enough games at third base that that will ultimately be his primary position.

But I don't think he has a primary position once cold down. Emerson gets called up unless, you know, of course, like somebody gets hurt or Cole Young just really struggles and he needs to be sent down. But I just, I think he's just going to be a true everyday utility guy, but I think he'll get a plurality of his starts at third base. Ask me again tomorrow. My answer might change, honestly. Like you said, I think it ultimately depends on if Cole Emerson makes this club out of spring training or not. If he doesn't, then I think Donovan has his most played position locked up just with the games that he plays at third base. If Emerson does make the club, no idea, no clue.

I'll say second for now. I don't feel great about it, though. All right. Next question here from Jeff. What do you think about testing the Colby Mayo waters since MLB trade rumors has an article about him and Ryan Meltcastle? Colby Mayo that sounds disgusting Kobe Mayo is a former highly touted prospect

with the Orioles who has gotten a little bit of run in the big leagues I think he's probably played a well probably a couple dozen more games than Cole Young but you know it hasn't gone particularly great he was okay last year 95 WRC Plus if I'm remembering correctly he's just destroyed the miners he's

This guy who's ready to get big league at bats, the problem is if you're the Mariners, where do you play him? He's a first baseman, really, that's where he should play. Who can also dabble at third base. Well, you have Donovan and you have Emerson at third base. You have Naylor at first. And you're not going to trade for a guy just to be a backup first baseman. That's not really a thing.

A lot of people think it's a thing. It's really not. He does have an option left and he is very talented. So is there just a zero percent chance this happens? No, because I guess you could just stash him in AAA and see what happens. But I don't know what you're going to learn there. He's going to hit a AAA. We know he's going to hit a AAA.

So I don't really know what you're planning on learning there. You're just stashing him as a just in case you're trying to get them to hold until the deadline where maybe you trade them again. I just, and by the way, he's a highly tout of prospect who's major league ready and he's only 24 years old. What's that going to cost? You know, are you going to have to give up, you know, Gabe Spire for, for Kobe Mayo does go sit in AAA. I mean, that doesn't make a lot of sense for you. Unless you are getting him for like a package of prospects that is not likely to help you this year.

Like, I just don't really see the point in trading for him as much as I like the bat. I just, you can't give him playing time right now. And he's going to cost probably a major league piece, I would imagine. The Orioles are going for it this year. They could use some bullpen help, but you're not going to give up Brash or Munoz. I mean, you're going to, I doubt you can get them for Bizarro. Like you can get up Gabe Spire for a guy who's probably going to be in AAA for most of this year. No, no, that doesn't help you at all.

So I just don't think there's really much of a point here. Again, you can't get them regular playing time at the big league level right now. If, you know, if the Orioles are willing to take some like prospect bulk and kind of do this kind of weird swap thing, maybe. Like the only thing I can think of is like, would the Orioles? even entertain like Felman Celestin for Kobe Mayo like maybe something like that, a prospect who's a couple years away to kind of clear up their log jam a bit. But short of that, I don't see any reason for the Mariners to get involved here.

They just can't offer the at-bats or the attractive pieces to the Orioles that wouldn't hurt them more than it helped them to have this, you know, first baseman down to AAA who might be able to hit Major League pitching. Like I just don't see the point. It's just not a clean fit, clean enough fit, I should say. But again, because he has an option left, if there is some kind of weirdness with his price tag that we're not familiar with, maybe.

But I just don't think there's really much of a path here. I do wonder if his availability is tied at all to some of like the little things that I saw over the course of 2025 about him kind of carrying this like sense of entitlement, even though he hasn't really done anything. Now, is that just based off of him being openly disappointed that he didn't make the opening day roster last year because like that to me is just a young guy who's ultra competitive who wanted to make the big league roster just kind of you know like Jared cal maybe maybe not doing the right you know maybe not doing that in the right way but i think that

isn't something that should ultimately like hang over his head so i don't i don't know if maybe there's like a clubhouse thing there because we know how much the maris care care about that stuff so maybe he would be off of their radar just because of that reason i don't know and maybe that's why he's available now and maybe that's why his price tag potentially wouldn't be that high in general though like I mean it's all cost dependent right like if I can take a shot

yeah if I can take a shot on him and it's not really going to cost me anything that'll sting like sure why not but in general like would I give up something truly valuable for Kobe Mayo given how poorly he fits my current roster build no no I'm not giving up anything that I can't replace in five minutes off of my major league roster for, uh, for Kobe

Mayo. And that includes, includes Gabe Spire and that includes, you know, Bizarro, certainly Brash and Munoz and those types. And that's kind of what it feels like you would have to give up as a bullpen arm. I mean, if they want Carlos Vargas, sure. But, uh, yeah, I'm not giving up anything that I'm, I'm counting on to be, you know, a pretty big contributor to me in 26, just to stash a guy in AAA. It doesn't make any sense. All right. We'll answer more of your questions in just a moment. But first a reminder, this episode of the lockdown Marriss podcast is brought to you by Fandul. Ever wanted to experience the NBA finals live and in person? Then I have great news for you. Fan Duel is giving you the

chance to turn that dream into reality with their NBA sweepstakes. Here's how it works. All you have to do is use your profit boost on any NBA future and you'll automatically be entered for a shot to win an NBA finals trip for two. I'm talking flights, tickets, the whole experience. So if you're already looking at the board and thinking about which team can make a deep run, this is the perfect time to lock it in because now not only can you pick cash, but it can also send you to the NBA finals. Visit fanduel.com to get started.

Use your profit boost on an NBA future and get entered for your chance to win a trip to the NBA finals. Play your game with Fanduel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. And you're listening to the Lockdown 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 a live your team every day.

Now take it up a level and go ad free. Join the Everydayer 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 Lockdown Mariners. at supercast.com or check the link in the show notes to learn more. There you can also find the link to our Mariners fan survey that we're currently conducting and we've been hammering home to you for the last week or so. And if you haven't participated in it just yet, please do so.

We'd love for you to participate in it. We'd love to have as many responses to it as possible. So we can have the biggest group possible to pull from once we react to the results of the survey in an episode. sometime in March. Almost a thousand. Look at that. I'm thinking we'll probably, in Ty and I will hammer this home off the air, but I'm thinking we should probably end it this week, because next week we kind of have to get into our other project for, and we need to get that voting started so that we can run with that starting in, you know, early March. So yes, at least another week, guys, to vote. Again, we're at 910 or something like that. So you don't need to give us any information.

just go there, leave your honest answers, hit submit, and you're done. You don't need your email. We don't need any of that stuff. It's just anonymous survey that helps us out. So thanks to everybody who's filled one out and see if we can get to a thousand. That'd be pretty fun. Just a nice round number. That'd be cool.

Yeah. So again, link in the description of this episode, whether you're watching it on YouTube or listening to it on your preferred podcast platform, just be sure to check the description. And the link should be there. All right. let's get back into your questions. Mitch wants to know with the ABS challenge system being implemented this season, who should and shouldn't use the challenges?

Cal is the best at it. I mean, last year he went in spring training. I think he went like 11 for 11 in his challenges. So Cal obviously should do it either at the plate or behind it. It doesn't matter. I think you probably trust George Kirby. I mean, he can get a little temperamental sometimes.

so maybe there's a bit of a problem. I don't trust any starting pitcher on any team to do it. I think it's just like let Cal do it. Let your catcher. Yeah, that's that's what I was in a case. You guys don't challenge it. Let let Cal handle that. He'll tell you.

You know, it's pretty funny. I have a feeling Julio would be pretty good at it. Like Julio chases. He expands his own. Don't get me wrong. But like he doesn't take a lot of strike. Like when he takes a pitch, it's generally a ball. I just, I feel like going back to the starting pitcher thing real quick, I just feel like starting pitchers will get too caught up in the moment.

Yeah. To actually make the right call. Like we have to really be careful here. So just like Cal do it. And you know, Randy's got really good plate discipline. He has a pretty good knowledge. Again, it's funny. Like Julio and Randy, they very clearly know the strike zone, but they chase.

Like they go outside of the zone and they know they are when they do it. So I wouldn't be opposed to them, you know, being guys who could challenge because they're, I do think they have a pretty good idea of the zone. It's just they chase, you know, and so it's a little bit of a dichotomy there. Naylor, maybe, I think Cal is pretty much the only one who should do it ever. And then, you know, if you get into like the ninth inning and it's a three one, or it's a, you know, a one, two counter or whatever.

And you're down by one and like, screw it. Might as well, right? Like just throw it out there. There are times where it's like, doesn't matter. Take a shot. But I think in general, just probably just like Cal do it. And I think I'm going to say, many as many of them as I can like obviously only get two per game but like over the course of the

entire season I think I would like 70% of my challenges to be from the defensive side like save it for that side all right baking tycoon that's a great name once in now there are a lot of bounce back candidates but who's the biggest or most worrisome candidate for regression call doesn't count okay so who's the so who's the second most yeah worrisome regression candidate that because like, yeah, like Cal going from like 60 home runs to like 35 to 40. Well, like 35 to 40 home runs is still incredible. Like that's a significant drop off. Yeah, it is.

Like we're talking about going from like nine wins to like five to six. Yeah, which is still, you know, an all-star candidate even. Or MVP candidate even. But like, that's a huge drop off. That's still a huge chunk taken away from your team. And I don't think a lot of Mariner fans are properly accounting for that. Anyways, I've talked about that. But, yeah, I mean, like right off the top,

Bizarro jumps out just because, I mean, he was, I don't want to use the word abuse because we're just talking about baseball. But, like, he was run into the ground by the end of that year. And I think he appeared in, like, all but two of playoff games on top of the 70-some-od appearances he made in the regular season. Like, he didn't get a break. And, you know, this was kind of his breakout year. So there's also on top of that, that whole, like, is this a mirage or is this the new thing?

And also, like, now the league's seen him. They know how he's going to attack them. Is there a readjustment by the league back to Bizarro? So I think Bizarro is the one that jumps out right away. Another guy who steps out, although possibly of less impact, is Dom-Can zone. because we might have already seen the cliff come for him in the playoffs because woof. But yeah, I mean, it was only 250 played appearances last year.

And if he does struggle, it's not like the Mariners don't have, you know, backup plans on backup plans there. So that one's probably a little less impactful than Vizarro. I don't think they have the bullpen depth to withstand Vizarro, you know, being terrible. But, I mean, you never know. We talked about some of the pile arms last week. So maybe. But yeah, I mean, I don't really, Randy, Julio, Naylor. I mean, Naylor from his pace last year with the Mariners is going to regress.

He's not going to be a six-win first baseman. Yeah, he was on a six-win pace once he put on a Mariners uniform. Yeah. But, I mean, he'll still be really good. I think he was, what, a three-win player overall last year? I could see him doing that again. So, yeah. Yeah, I mean, JP, I guess maybe it would be a candidate for this.

been probably not yeah like could jp go back to who he was in 2024 sure and that would be a problem but i don't have any reason to suspect he will is kind of the thing so yeah i think it kind of by default has to be bizardo this this isn't really a regression thing but it's more like they didn't progress the way you kind of needed them to it would be the rotation yeah that's where my biggest concern lies is that the rotation is just kind of again. I mean, plus it's like Brian Wu was so good last year. Could you possibly be that good again?

Maybe. Maybe. But maybe not. I mean, it's asking a lot. But yeah, I don't know. The Marrists have a bunch of high floor guys, which is part of the reason I like their roster build. So, you know, even if a couple of them like, like if Victor Robles is bad, it's like, I mean, okay. I mean, like, could the curse of Colton Wong

strike Brennan Donovan? Evan sure sure I mean I wouldn't put anything past you know this team and what could happen to this team because I you know there's there's things that I'm like you know what happened that have absolutely happened. Donovan's going to hit like a buck 85 in the first three weeks and people are going to freak out. Yeah like you know because that happened sure because Mariners but not for any actual real reason. All right. We will answer a couple more of your questions in just a moment.

but first a reminder of this episode of the lockdown airness podcast is brought to you by turbotax. Look y'all tax season doesn't have to take over your life, all right? Because this year, TurboTax is making it easier than ever to just hand things off and move on with your day. With TurboTax full service, you can have your taxes done for you by a trusted local expert, start to finish without the stress or guesswork. Instead of spending hours trying to figure out forms, you can meet with a local TurboTax expert in person or connect online. They handle everything from W-2s to self-employed forms and work to get you. you every deduction. You can upload your documents, go about your day, and get updates right in the

TurboTax app. It's a huge time saver and gives real peace of mind knowing an expert is handling it. For 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. All you have to do is filed by February 28th. Take taxes off your plate and get back to your life. Visit turbotax.com slash local to book your appointment today. And you're listening to the Locktime Mariner's podcast, part of the Locktime 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, Mariner, Seahawks, all that good stuff. For more information, go to patreon.com forward slash control the zone link in the description of this episode. Next question here on Mailbag Monday comes from Seasports 22. I know you can't take much from spring training, but all early indications are that the staff, is in love with K to Anderson as to be expected. In a perfect world with no injuries or anything, Cade probably starts in AA. How fast do you think he makes it to the big league club

because he's just that talented and they can't hold him back anymore? Basically, what's the earliest I could see him forcing the Mariners hand? Like, you have to put me on the roster. I'm that good. Yeah. August. I mean, I just, I don't see the benefit of them calling him up

to be a starter unless somebody gets injured. Yeah, that's my question. I was like, who, if he's forcing his, if he's forcing their hand, like, who's getting the axe? Or are they going to six-man rotation? Are they just throwing him in the bullpen? Does that really benefit you or him putting him in the bullpen? Is he so good they actually trade one of their starters at the deadline?

Like, that'd be, that'd be crazy. Yeah. I think, like, if you're making a move to the bullpen, it probably should be September rather than August. Yeah, but I mean, like August, you get the, you know, get his feet wet a little bit. I don't know. That August schedule is brutal. So maybe they call them up in August and they do go to a six man, just try and get some guys some rest and, you know, push those guys back. But again, without injury, right, which is kind of the key to this question, what's the earliest I could see them being called up?

Sometime post-trade deadline. Yeah. if because I just I can't believe that he would be so good and like Bryce Miller would be so bad that the marriage is like look we can't Bryce you got to go to AAA and figure something out I just I don't I don't think that's going to be a thing so yeah I mean that would be the guy though right like if there is someone I can't imagine the rotation like the only guy could be is woo and I no that's not going to happen yeah yeah so like if someone disappoints the rotation it would kind of have to be Bryce Miller. So like maybe, but that seemed pretty clearly tied to the to the bone spur thing. Now today he literally said like,

I didn't feel it during the offseason. So we didn't have the surgery. So like technically the bone spurs are still in there. If he misses, if he spends time on the IL this year with the bone spurs thing, it'll be one of the most like criticized decisions briefly so

that like you could possibly imagine. imagine for this front office and for that medical staff because it very clearly impacted him last year. But then, you know, we could also just watch what he did in the playoffs. And he looked pretty healthy to me in the playoffs. So I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. That one's a little sketchy, though, to me.

So, yeah, it kind of feels like the door that would have to open for Cade any earlier than August, any earlier than like a six-man rotation, bullpen type of situation would have to be Bryce. Miller either getting hurt or just regressing again. But we have to assume he's healthy according to the question. And if he's healthy, I can't imagine he's bad enough that they're like, let's give Kate a shot. So I really don't think you're going to see Cade, again, unless there's an injury, I don't think you're going to see him before. You know, like around the time you'd be like, oh, well, he's kind of running out of

innings. Let's put him in the bullpen and have him come up and then throw some innings out of the pen for us because that's the other thing, too. He's going to be on some kind of innings limit. not as aggressive as like Ryan Sloan because he threw like 130 last year. But this guy who's just fairly recently off of Tommy John. And so, you know, probably want to cap him at 140, 150 inning, something like that this year. And he's going to get to that.

If he stays in a five-man rotation in Arkansas, he'll get to that by about August. So we'll see how they manage it. But yeah, short of injury, I'd be shocked if he was up before the trade deadline. Our last question here comes from NWFXC, who wants to be. to know throughout the Seahawks recent Super Bowl run there seems to be a constant alignment between ownership, coach, and players. Is that something that can be achieved

by this regime for the Mariners? No. Short answer is no. I think the closest you will get is how things were around the trade deadline this past year, where ownership just kind of got out of the way. Yep. Now you need to spend the money?

Yeah, go ahead. We'll cut the check. But clearly they're not going to do that in the offseason. it's really hard to compare ownership groups from two different sports with just two completely different CBAs. Yeah, because like when you buy an NFL team, you know what you're signing up for. You know that you're going to have to spend money on your club. Like you're going to be forced to have to spend money on your club. So like, right.

Prioritizing like at that point, it's like, well, yeah, we might as well try and make the best decisions possible to go win the Super Bowl every single year. You know, but there's still bad ownership groups that in the NFL like the Bengals, like the Browns. Dallas, whether they want to admit it or not. No. It's not a spending problem in Dallas. We know that. So yeah, it's tough to say, but my answer is no. No, I don't think, I don't think John Stan and Chris Larson care enough about winning the World Series.

And whether or not the Seahawks ownership has to care, kind of, because they kind of do or not. I think it very clearly matters more to them than it does to John Stan and Chris Larson in that group. So the answer is no. All right. Well, let's get out of here. That's 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.

And once again, if you never miss an episode, it's time to make it official. Join the Lockdown Every Day or Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only-only, and more all built for our most loyal fans. For Colby Pat, Pat, Note, I'm Tadigazales. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L-O-U-N-Square-E. You can follow me at Tading Azales and Colby at C-Pat-E-1. 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 find us on Instagram at Lockdown Mariner's. I have yourself a beautiful baseball day, and we'll see you next time. Peace.