Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Some Team Tried to Get the Mariners to Trade Luis Castillo Last Week?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Some team apparently called the Marrars about Luis Castillo last week. We'll talk about that. More coming up here on Mailbag Monday. 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.

Starting point is 00:00:24 It is Monday, April 14th, 2025. This is Tad of Gazzalus and Colby Baton for the Lockdown Merrists podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. This episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use the promo code locked on MLB. That's L-O-C-K-E-O-N-M-LB at MonarchMoney.com for 50% off your first year. And as always, if you want to hear from me and Cole, even more and help support the show, you can check out our Patreon.

Starting point is 00:00:50 All you have to do to check that out is click the link in the description of this episode. So we're going to open up the mailbag and answer some of your mayor's questions like we do here every Monday, starting with this question from Jeff. What's your opinion on the Bob Nightingale story of, trade rumors louise castillo for an infielder so yeah if you missed it bob nightingale put out an article uh yesterday morning uh talking about the mariners uh and the injuries that they've suffered over the last week to victor ralus and and ryan bliss and because of those injuries apparently a mystery team reached out last week to the mariners asking for louise castillo and offering up a

Starting point is 00:01:29 young infielder so we don't know who that is or who the team is of course apparently According to Nightingale, it was a very quick no from the Marers. And that does not come as a surprise whatsoever. Because I'm going to assume here that at best, this was a fair value offer from that team to the Maras for Cassio. And look, we've seen what's happened every time that fifth spot in the rotation has come up. Now you're asking the Marys to open up another one of those spots while George Kirby still recovers. We still don't know exactly when he's going to make it back. Better be a damn good player that you're offering. And again, I'm going to assume that it wasn't.

Starting point is 00:02:15 So yeah. Yeah. I'm going to assume this is a team looking to take advantage of the Mariners and be like, oh, you guys are four and eight. You just lost your second basement. Third basement disaster, blah, blah, blah. Your season's basically over. You might want to do something. And the Mariners chuckled and heartily said it's 12 games dude like we're not panicking about this uh and also we don't have a louise castillo placement on hand we don't even have a george kirby replacement as it turns out on hand uh at least not one more willing to use uh for any major league experience whatsoever but uh yeah so it's one of those things like we can speculate which team it was and probably create a pretty accurate list because we're talking about a team that's almost certainly willing to take on

Starting point is 00:03:05 all of Luis Castillo's contract and Castillo's been paid once so it's still basically all of his contract at this stage also has a need in the rotation also would be willing to part with an infielder, a young infielder or whatever. So yeah, I think we could speculate and I think it'd be the usual suspects, the Dodgers being one of them. I do think this feels kind of like a Mets type of move. The Mets have already had injuries in the rotation and it's already a shaky unit as is. And my guess is they offered a cunia or Beatty for... It's so disrespectful if it was Beatty especially. And I assure you the Mariners felt the same way. Yeah. So yeah, I imagine that was a pretty brief phone call and the Mariners maybe not even

Starting point is 00:03:54 respectfully declined and that was that. So it's an early season thing. The team looking to take advantage of another one, hoping that they're going to panic by. And the Mariners, they're not going to do that. For all we can say about this front office, they really don't panic, make panic moves. They're sometimes patient to a fault. And so they weren't going to panic after just 12 games. So yeah, this is a team looking to take advantage of the Seattle Mariners. And the Seattle mayor said, no, we're not that desperate.

Starting point is 00:04:25 We're not that stupid. So again, you speculate who you think it is in the, comments. I kind of lean to it being the Mets would be my guess. Yeah, the Mets, maybe the Red Sox with like Grissom or Raphaelah or someone like that. Yeah. It could be anyone though. I mean, imagine if it was the Phillies trying to offer Alec Bohm, who has a negative 0.7F4 right now is literally the worst qualified hitter in baseball. They're like, now we're willing to trade you boom, but you still have to give us Luis Castillo for him. Right. And again, the Mariners, even if they thought, like, it would have had to have been.

Starting point is 00:04:58 such like an amazing player for Seattle to trade Luis Castillo this early in the year with the state of their pitching staff right now. It would have had to have been a, I imagine a star near like star type of infielder to get the mayor's attention whatsoever. And obviously, teams are not going to offer that in April. So yeah, this is probably nothing burger. And like I said, it's probably just a team checking in, seeing if they could maybe take advantage of Seattle and see if they were panicking and they're not. So, yeah, I don't think there's much to this at all. Yeah, for the record, I don't actually think it was the Phillies, but it would be funny if Dombrovsky actually had the gall to do that.

Starting point is 00:05:38 I'd still guess the Mets. Yeah. The more interesting thing that came out of the Nightingale report was that the mares are out of the market looking for help. So we'll see if they actually find something there. but we've seen some kind of like minor trades here and there over the course of the last couple of weeks so maybe they're able to find something on the fringes but I don't think that they're going to be able to make any sort of like impactful trade for a while yeah the Louisa rise trade is the earliest impact trade I can remember happening you know once the regular season got started and

Starting point is 00:06:19 even that we're still about three weeks away from when that trade was made so yeah It's like I don't I don't envision the Braves panicking enough to be willing to start selling off pieces. I'll see how these. Yeah. That would be great. Yeah. The twins not yet. Like, yeah, there's just really no reason to make a big trade this early in the year for anybody.

Starting point is 00:06:41 Yeah. Yeah. And then White Sox, Rockies, those teams, like, it's the same conversation that we had in the off season. So nothing's changed on that front. Maybe the pirates, but yeah. Probably not. Like, would the pirates be willing to trade like? kind of falafa. That wouldn't necessarily be an impactful move, but that would be a, you know, a name that you've heard of.

Starting point is 00:06:59 Next question here from SBR. SBR wants to know with Troy Taylor back for this road trip and Brash not too far behind is Thornton the odd man out. Casey Lawrence. Who do you guys think will be to come about when they returned? So I assume this was already asked before the move that happened today. Troy Taylor was officially added to the 26 man roster ahead of the road trip. Casey Lawrence got DFA to make room for him. but I still wanted to answer this question because the mayors are going to have another decision to make this weekend when that fifth spot and the rotation comes back up.

Starting point is 00:07:33 They decided to skip that start this turn through the rotation. So everyone's gotten bumped up a day for the Red series. But either Friday or Saturday against the Blue Jays, they're going to have to have someone start because Luis F. Castillo was sent down a few days ago. I would assume that it's probably just Casey Legamina, who was called up for Castillo. Have we seen him pitch yet? I don't think we have. Yeah. So that seems to be the obvious move there, but I don't think that it's going to be Thornton, to answer your question.

Starting point is 00:08:11 I mean, they just threw them out there in another high leverage ending yesterday. No, I think you could argue that it should be. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. I don't think that's going to have. I don't think he's even under consideration. could it be Gregory Santos, who still doesn't have a strikeout in seven games and does have a minor league option? It could be.

Starting point is 00:08:32 But Legamina also has an option. I'm a little worried it might be Colin Snyder because they seem to not want to use him at all. And again, you should be reversing the role of Snyder and Thornton, if anything. But yeah, it's either going to be Santos or Legamina. I would guess it's going to be legamina. That would be my hunch because I don't think Santos is throwing the ball terribly. He's just not generating a lot of whiffs. And, you know, he's never been a huge strikeout guy,

Starting point is 00:09:03 but he's certainly been better than zero. So, yeah, there might be something they want to tweak there. And we need to remember Santos has barely been on the mound since his injury. So maybe there is a little something they want to work on without the pressure of getting big league hitters out. So I could see Santos being sent in. My guess is it would probably be like a Mina. If I had to pick somebody that I would send down or with DFA, I would probably pick Thornton.

Starting point is 00:09:29 To be honest, I just trust him the least out of everybody out there. But the Mariners are going to do that. Dan Wilson treats Thornton like Jerry DePoto treated Andrew Romine. So just untouchable for some unknown reason. And again, it's not like Thornton doesn't have a role in a big league bullpen. It's not like he's not a big league pitcher. It's just he's being misused. used right now.

Starting point is 00:09:51 And because he's being misused, the warts that are obviously always been there are being exaggerated. And so, you know, no disrespect to Trent, but he's the guy I'd probably trust the least right now. And considering that, you know,

Starting point is 00:10:03 three weeks ago, we were like, how on earth are you going to justify Carlos Vargas making this roster? And now we're not even discussing him being the guy who might lose his job, uh, speaks volumes not only about how well Vargas is thrown the ball, but how poorly other guys in this mirror is both in half thrown the ball. So yeah.

Starting point is 00:10:20 Yeah. Carlos Vargas has to shut me the hell up. And Gino is really bad right now. So you do have to wonder who won that trade. Bear to ask? No, no, it's not. It's still the worst trade Jerry's ever made, fine. But, yeah, he's been very good.

Starting point is 00:10:40 And he can fill a couple different roles for the Mariners and he has so far. So yeah, my guess is they'll just play it safe and it'll be like amina, which kind of stinks. but this is the I guess the good thing about having a deep bullpen even though the marriage really don't it's the illusion of having a deep bullpen but

Starting point is 00:11:00 yeah Legamina probably gets sent back down and I think we know it's probably going to be him because he wasn't used in either of the last two games including in a 9 to 1 blowout they still went to Bizarro and Santos in a 9 to 1 game instead of Legamina so I think that might tell

Starting point is 00:11:19 little something. Yeah. And also Matt Brash might be back relatively soon. He had his first AAA appearance yesterday. So maybe by the next homestand.

Starting point is 00:11:32 I bet we see him sometime in the next homestand. Yeah. Assuming there are no setbacks, of course. Yeah, that gives him what, like 11 more days until the next home stand? Yep. He can be in the miners for 30 days as a pitcher. So they don't have to call him up until,

Starting point is 00:11:47 you know, May 10th. give or take. But yeah, I imagine they'll are going to rest them for a couple days and they'll throw them out there. And then they'll probably ask him to pitch with one full day rest. And then at that point, if you can do that a couple times in a row, then they probably feel pretty confident that he's ready to go. But yeah, they'll have to make another move there.

Starting point is 00:12:09 And yeah, you're just running out of arms. At some point, you're going to have to DFA somebody. Yeah, barring injury at that point, then we have to have more of a discussion about, you know, Snyder or Santos or Thornton, one of those guys. Yeah, Bizarro. Yeah. So we'll see. Maybe I'm biased by that point, but right now.

Starting point is 00:12:25 Yeah. Yeah. Plenty of time for, for things to kind of naturally shake out before we get there. So we'll see. All right. We are going to answer more of your questions here in just a moment. But first, a reminder of this episode of the Lockdown-Ares podcast is brought to you by wonderful pistachios.

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Starting point is 00:13:31 And you're listening to the Locked-O Maras podcast. It is Mailbag Monday. Let's get back into your questions. Jack wants to know. Ben Williamson has been called up. How does he produce enough offensively in order to stay with the big league club? Is that the plan or is it just short term until the Maras find a replacement? I think it might honestly depend on.

Starting point is 00:13:50 whether or not it's a short-term thing or whether or not it's just the way it's going to be probably depends on Williamson. I mean, if he's good, then the Mariners are probably going to focus more on second base, you know, looking for a solution there or maybe even first base. So, yeah, my hope is that the Mariners did not call up in Williamson to only platoon him and only have him start against lefties. you have like four platoons if that's the case right now and that's three too many but he didn't start yesterday and so that that's interesting at the very least uh they would call i guess they just wanted to get him acclimated i guess but they don't typically do that usually they get guys in games asap but who knows we'll see he's almost certainly going to make his debut on tuesday uh congratulations you may be facing a lefty, but it's a really good one.

Starting point is 00:14:43 So we'll see what happens there. But my hunch is that this is more of a, I think the mayors would like it to be more of a short term thing. Well, they probably would like it to be, you know, the solution for the rest of the year at third base. But I think this is like, hey, let's at least get some value out of third while we see what our long term options are or rather our short term options are.

Starting point is 00:15:03 Like, is there a guy we can go get that we could plug in at third and get reasonable production from while Williamson goes back to the miners and kind of continues to work. because there's still work to do here. There's not a lot of power in Ben Williamson. He's not really a safe bet to hit for a lot of average at the big league level. But he should make enough contact and he's going to play really good defense and he'll give you value that way. So I think this is just the Mariners being like, look, we have to get something out of third base.

Starting point is 00:15:32 And if we can't get offense out of that position, then we need to at least get defense like they did last year with Josh Rojas. and the mayor and third base situation while frustrating last year was a productive one. And I think that's just kind of the same idea with Williamson right now. Yeah, it was the fifth most valuable third base situation in all baseball last year by F4, which is saying a lot about the state of third base and major league baseball, really. I think it says more about that than anything else. But it says that the F4 formula factors in defense a little too heavily. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 00:16:05 F4 is not a perfect stat, far from it. So you're just kind of looking to stabilize the defense there. Because just more hasn't been the answer there. And Polo probably just can't do it. So yeah. As far as like offensively for Williamson, like we know that it's not going to be an ideal third base offensive profile. He's not going to hit for really any power.

Starting point is 00:16:30 And if he does hit for some power, it's going to be more doubles than over the wallpower. You know, hopefully you can at least hit for a little bit of average. So that he's just not a complete black hole there. Can you hit 230 with like a 300 on base and play plus defense? Can Ben Williamson do that for you right now? If he can, that's probably a two and a half one player just right there. And that's not counting.

Starting point is 00:16:55 Williamson's actually a pretty good base runner as well. You can steal a bag here and there and he cuts the bases pretty well. So yeah, excited to see Williamson. I think he's a little bit overhyped. by the fan base, just based on the reaction of getting called up that I saw. I think he's going to be a solid contributor at the big league level. I don't see an everyday player. And I don't think he's the type of guy who just comes up to the big leagues and performs right away.

Starting point is 00:17:22 I think it's going to take him a couple cracks to really figure out big league pitching. And again, he's barely played above AA. So there's going to be some growing pains here. But I do think the defense will translate very well. And right now you'll take what you can get from the third base position. Next question from Desmond. Who is an ideal third base trade target for the Marys? I don't think there is one.

Starting point is 00:17:43 Third base is just bad around baseball right now. It really is. There's just not that many options. And the teams that are secure at third base for the most part, they're contenders. So they're not going to be trading that guy. And if they are willing to trade that guy or if there is a team that isn't competing, but they have a really good third base option,

Starting point is 00:18:04 they're going to charge a hell of a premium on that. Which, you know, depending on what that actually is, the mayor should still be willing to pay. Sure. In general, just quickly, like,

Starting point is 00:18:18 looking down the list, I don't see one. I don't see an ideal target for them at third base. Especially if we're talking about, like, a guy that they could acquire relatively soon. Yeah. Like,

Starting point is 00:18:29 not only are, is there a lack of good third baseman out there, but there are a lack of teams that would even consider selling a player that you would feel comfortable, starting at third base, you know, this early in the year. So it's probably still somebody like Willie Castro, who we talked about and the twins are struggling right now, but they're not going to punt the season in the middle of April.

Starting point is 00:18:52 They're probably not going to be willing to punt their season until middle of June at the earliest. Yeah. So there's a lack of. And Castro even then is not like, he's not an ideal third baseman. Well, I mean, yeah, but it's probably the most. it's probably the best player you could somewhat realistically acquire. Yeah. If you're going to fix third base,

Starting point is 00:19:14 you're probably going to have to go acquire somebody who doesn't play third base every day and then ask him to play third base every day. Yeah. It's just such a thin position. Kind of like what the Yankees did with jazz last year. Right. Or what the Mariners did with Josh Rojas, except for he went from third to second, like kind of the inverse of that.

Starting point is 00:19:31 So what they did with Abraham Toro. So sometimes you can be a little creative here. But yeah. So I think if you're looking for who, like, you're asking me, like, who could be the Mariners starting third baseman on August 1st, because I think that's the day after the trade deadline this year, then I would tell you, like, well, go look at the list of short stops in second basement before you look at the list of third baseman. Because there's just not that many. And again, if you're talking about right now, there's not a third basement out there who's available right this second that you could go get that you would feel significantly better starting at third base than Ben Williamson right now. It's too early for that type of thing. And even when it's not too early, now we're talking about a lack of options at that thing.

Starting point is 00:20:14 Like, can you go get Curtis Mead? Sure, but you're hoping he hits and, you know, he's not going to play a great defense out there. And I mean, get Aggie Rosario maybe, but again, same thing, right? Like, you're not really sure what you're going to get. Neither of those guys are significantly more likely to be a valuable big leaguer right now than Ben Williamson. Yeah. All right. We'll empty out the mailbag in just a moment, but first a reminder of this episode of the lockdown

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Starting point is 00:21:45 And you're listening to the Lockdown Merritts podcast. It's time to wrap up Mailbag Monday with a couple more questions. BT wants to know is Miles Master Boni for real. Does his data back up his results? Or is he getting lucky? He's not getting lucky. He's leading the team right now in Hard Hit Rate. He's had 10 hard hit balls in the last four games.

Starting point is 00:22:07 and right now considering what the infield situation is for the marries you got to ride the hot hand so yeah um do i think this is going to last forever no given what he's been leading up to this point don't think that at all um until he proves otherwise i mean there's always the possibility that he is like 2023 Travis jankowski right he's just like one of those one year revelations that just you know he kind of helps you he gives you a one to two wins of production. Cool. Great. A solid role player. Right. But yeah, right now, as far as things are going, like, it's been solid.

Starting point is 00:22:48 The process has been really good. He's also given you a really good plate appearance. Most of the time that he's gone up there, he's only struck out twice. He's walked a few times. He's had some big moments late in games. And again, he's stinging the ball right now. So until that diminishes, you should play him with some. regularity. But yeah, but odds are what he's been leading up to this point. That's going to run out.

Starting point is 00:23:15 Brian wants to know, how long is the leash for JP? Seems like he's going down the France route of one really strong year and then decline to the point. He's just about unplayable. JP's leashes this year. Yeah. I wouldn't, I also wouldn't say that JP's been unplayable this year.

Starting point is 00:23:30 He hasn't been good at the play, but at least he's walking and he's playing solid defense. He's giving you some production. He hasn't been a complete nothing. Yeah. But the answer is at the very least, at the earliest, he hasn't until like the trade deadline. Like if he's bad, could the marriage go get a shortstop

Starting point is 00:23:51 and move JP to either second or kind of a bench roll? Sure. Yeah, that's possible, although unlikely. But yeah, I think he has the whole year. Because I don't think they're going to bring Cole Young up and supplant J.P. Crawford with Cole Young. I don't think that's going to happen. Now when they already have a hole at second base and third.

Starting point is 00:24:07 base like they're not going to do that so like you said he's playing enough defense he's walking enough that he's still providing some value uh to the club uh does he need to hit more yes uh you know can he be does he need to do much more than have a 350 on base and and play you know solid defense at shortstop to be worthy of being the everyday guy no not really i mean it'd be great if he was sit in like 2.30 with, you know, 15% walk rate instead of a 22% walk rate to really inflate his numbers. But no, I mean, J.P. Crawford is still playable. And unlike Ty France, he gives you something. He's a good base runner, not a base stealer, but he's a good base runner. He is at least an average shortstop defensively. I would say probably slightly above average is where I would

Starting point is 00:24:58 put J.P.'s defensive prowess at the position. He still draws a walk. He still gives you good at bat. And he still just has some pull power. He just hasn't tapped into it yet. So we'll see. We'll see where it goes. But the absolute earliest I can see J.P. Crawford either being benched or moved off a shortstop entirely would be the trade deadline.

Starting point is 00:25:16 If the Mariners could find somebody who was obviously better than J.P. Crawford. And I don't see that happening. So I think he's got the whole year. And then this winter, I could absolutely see them moving on from JP and maybe even trying to trade him. but I don't see anybody coming out externally or internally to bump JP off of his spot with any significant relevance. Yeah, the only possibility there is if Cole Young pops,

Starting point is 00:25:43 and even then you might need them at second base. So. Yep, exactly. Yeah. So at that point, then it's not JP versus, uh, it's not JP versus Cole Young. At that point, it becomes JP versus Dylan Moore as an everyday player. versus Miles Master

Starting point is 00:26:00 Boni as an everyday player like maybe Ben Williamson yeah maybe so at that point like no you'd rather have Cole Young and J.P. Crawford than Cole Young and Dylan Moore, Cole Young and Miles Master Bonney so yeah I think he's got the whole year.

Starting point is 00:26:16 Yeah I think JP is going to be around here unless the Maris Crater maybe he has some trade value at the deadline and they move him then but I would suspect that I would say that that odds are by the end of the season,

Starting point is 00:26:34 J.P. Crawford's still a Mariner. Now, is he still a Mariner by opening day next year? I'd put, I'd put those odds pretty low. All right. That's going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us for Join us. For Colby PetNode. I'm Tiding Azales.

Starting point is 00:26:48 Be sure give us a follow on Twitter at L.O. underscore Marers. You can follow me at C-Pat-E-1 or also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB-Colby, and the show at Lockdown Merrors. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day. We'll see you next time. Peace.

Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Some Team Tried to Get the Mariners to Trade Luis Castillo Last Week?

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