Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - The Best Remaining Trade Partners For the Mariners

Episode Date: December 30, 2024

It's Mailbag Monday! Ty and Colby answer your Mariners questions, including which teams line up best for a trade with Seattle at this stage of the offseason, where Harry Ford may wind up playing, if Luis Castillo makes sense for the Blue Jays, and more.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!Rocket MoneyCancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to RocketMoney.com/lockedon today. SelectQuoteGet the right life insurance for YOU, for LESS, at SELECTQUOTE.COM/LOCKEDON.SelectQuote - They Shop. You Save. GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelYou can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - if you win your first FIVE DOLLAR BET ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. 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.

Who are the most likely trade partners for the Marriss at this stage of the off season? We'll answer that and 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. It is Monday, December 30th, 20, 24.

This is Tedding Azolk and Colby Patnode for the Lockdown Marys podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. It's our last show of 2024. you know, someone wants to make a move, but, you know, probably not. So we're wrapping things up by opening the mailbag like we do here every Monday. No title sponsor today, but hey, if you want to hear from me and Colby even more and help support the show, check out our Patreon. All you have to do to check that out is click the link in the description of this episode.

So kicking us off here on Mailbag Monday is Dave, who wants to know who are the likelyest trading pairs are mating out of the Tampa Bay raise. Arizona Diamondbacks and Chicago Cubs. And what could the trade be? The raise are always the most likely. And then I think Arizona is probably a pretty distant third. They just sign Burns, which means, you know, they're probably looking to trade some pitching.

But until you trade pitching, if you do, there's really not much of a reason to go and acquire starting pitching right now. They've been shopping Montgomery all winter. So that's not surprised. I doubt they're going to move Zach Gallen all of a sudden. And like, why would you try and trade for like Merrill Kelly? He's not even in your rotation right now as things stand. So.

No. Yeah, I don't really. If you trade Castillo and you don't get a pitcherback. Kelly's an interesting option because he's only making, I think, seven million this year. Something like that. Montgomery, too, depending on how much money you save. But unless that happens, I just don't see it. Like, I don't think that air is.

Arizona is going to trade you, Catel Marte. I don't like that Arizona is going to trade you. Like Jake McCarthy, I like, but not a great fit on this roster. They don't really have a first baseman to give you. So, yeah, I just don't see much of a fit with Arizona. So I think the Cubs, as unlikely as it is, I think the possibility of acquiring Nico Horner is still out there. There was a report today from Mark Feinstein that said that they are very interested in

Josh Rojas. now that could just be as Matt Shaw insurance at third base but Rojas does have a lot of time at second base as well we know he's a good defender there blah blah blah so maybe that's a sign that like hey the Cubs still want to upgrade their rotation

they just need to find a horn and replacement first and maybe just maybe that's Rojas but I would say the rays are far and away number one then it's the Cubs and then pretty big gap between the Cubs and the Diamondbacks on top of that. Yeah.

When in doubt, trade with Tampa. That's kind of the slogan here when it comes to the mayor is because it seems like those two teams, no matter what, we'll always find a way to link up on trade. I mean, they already technically have this offseason. The Austin shouldn't deal. So, yeah, I mean, if I had to guess who it would be from Tampa, Brandon Low. And that's probably only if the Mariners lose out on high song Kim. It doesn't have to be, but that probably is what it would take.

Right. I mean, we saw the report over the weekend that the raise have had interest in Harry Ford in the past, and they see him as a catcher, which is kind of a prerequisite for trading Ford. We know, just from what we know, that they were very high on Tai Peet on draft day. And so that's another guy. The Mariners would, you know, conceivably have that the raise would be very interested in. I don't think it takes either of those guys to get Brandon Lough, who as far as we can tell, doesn't have much of a market.

And yeah, so I don't think that you'd have to trade either one of those guys straight up to get Lough. So I don't know, maybe it's Lough in Fairbanks. Maybe it's that that would cost more than Ford. But you get the point. There are options in Tampa. And, you know, again, aside from Corner and Chicago, like, maybe say a Suzuki still is out there, but I kind of doubt it.

And then in Arizona, you don't need any of their pitching. They've been shopping Jake McCarthy, apparently, and you do have room for another outfielder. But what does that cost? Does it make a lot of sense considering the cost? Probably not. Tyler wants to know,

could the Royals be a team that is going under the radar as a trade partner? DePoto made the Samad Taylor move last offseason. So he's definitely worked with their front office recently. Yeah, that's someone that we've talked about. I don't know what exactly their plan is. I'm sure they've said by now what their plan is after adding Jonathan India,

but I haven't seen that personally. But, you know, from the outside looking in, taking a glance at their roster, you would think that with the addition of India, that Michael Massey or Michael Garcia are available, at least to a certain degree. So it would probably be one of those two guys. I mean, there's always the possibility for a much smaller trade between the Marys and the Royals, but on more of a, you know, from more of a top end perspective, I would think it would be either Garcia or Massey if something was going to happen between these two teams.

Yeah, the Royals have talked about playing India and left field some too, but I think that's just about kind of, you know, trying to maintain some leverage. And that outfield? Yeah, exactly. So yeah, probably not. I think Garcia or Massey, my guess is that the Royals would like to move Garcia. We've talked about this in the past. He's interesting, but you'd much prefer him in a utility role. More of a second baseman than a third baseman.

The bat doesn't profile there at all. He does hit the ball pretty hard. He just hits it on the ground a lot. So that's a problem. Massey doesn't get on base a ton, but he hits for a lot of power. the bats are kind of like inverse like Garcia's bat plays well at second Massey's bat plays better at third but whatever so either of those two guys make sense I'm not sure if the Royals would trade Massey but maybe they're kind of tough to

yeah it's kind of tough to lock down on like what they would want for these guys they could probably use some bullpen help but you're not trading Munoz are they moving Massey for anybody but Munoz maybe maybe not I could throw a name at you that I don't think it's been talked about but also I mean that would be great too but I think that's probably like a Miller or Wu thing and no that's not happening so maybe MJ Melendez is a guy that I think they can get something out of a former catcher he's played a lot of left field not particularly good out there you know and it's kind of one of those things where like there's really not much in the data that tells you like like melendez can't get better

but every time i watch him play which granted is always against the mariners he destroys you and so it's like hmm like i wonder if that's actually true or that's just like a mandela effect type of thing like if melendez actually destroys the rumors tell you what we'll look it up during the break and sure you guys know but melendez is a guy that i've always kind of been like there's more because i feel like that too by the way Yeah, but also the only thing that I can really remember is him hitting that one home run in that series at Kaufman this past year. Yeah. And by the way, my MJ Melendez love has almost nothing to do with the fact that I absolutely rake with him in the show.

So yeah. Melendez is interesting. Do I think the Mariners are all that interested in Melendez? No, not really. But that's just a name from Kansas City who maybe might be available. who, like, he's pretty much a DH only though, and that's kind of the issue. Maybe he could play first base for you.

Yeah, I mean, going back to Garcia, I think there's some upside there, but we have over 1,100 played appearances of data that suggests he's a well below average hitter. And 1,164 plate appearances, he's slashing 251, 301, 344. It's a 76 WRC plus. Yeah.

good defender good athlete good base runner really really good base runner but yeah you know you have to get on base in order for the base running to matter and doesn't really do that like he doesn't even really walk

by the way we were Mandela Mandelaid not whatever you want to call it against the Mariners he hits 220 258 373 19 strikeouts just three walks.

19 strikeouts. He's played that much against the Marrists to strikeout 19 times. 19 times and 62 plate appearances. Wow. He has 62 played appearances against Samaras. That's crazy. He played 15 games against the Mariners, yeah. Wow.

Score 13 runs, but at three doubles and two homers, 10 RBI. So it seems like maybe like when he does do something against the Mariners, it's impactful, more so than he always does something against the Mariners. Interesting. Well, there you have it. Yeah, I just, I don't know if there's a great fit here with the Royals. Like, I would be severely underwhelmed if the Marys go. Michael Garcia is our third baseman in 2025. Yeah.

Yeah. All right. Well, we are going to answer more of your questions here in just a moment. But first, reminder, this episode of the Lockdown Marys podcast is brought to you by Rocket Money. Did Rocket Money help you find any subscribers? you forgot about or that you were paying for twice? That definitely happened to me. I had a few subscriptions that I didn't even realize I was still paying for.

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It is Mailbag Monday. We're answering your Mariners questions. Got this one from Brandon. If Harry Ford isn't moved, any chance they work him at other spots in the infield. It seems his best chance to make it to the bigs with the M's as if he can play some third. He's going to have to hit for a hell of a lot more power than he has for him to play third base. Well, they've already kind of messed around with the idea of him playing somewhere other than catcher. They had him play out in left field a little bit towards the end of the season.

So, yeah, that is something that they are experimenting with. We'll see if they put him elsewhere in the infield to answer your questions specifically. They could. I mean, like back when he was drafted, you know, there was talk about him eventually winding up at third or second pace. So it's certainly possible. I mean, he's a great athlete. He could play pretty much anywhere you want him to. And that hasn't really changed over the few years that he's been in the organization.

But I think they're going to try and keep him at catcher for as long as possible. But yeah, if he's if he's starting to actually like knock down the door, which he really isn't at the major league at the major league level right now, they'll figure that out. We'll figure out a place for him to play. Yeah. Like Harry's progressing normally. He's only 21 years old. And he's probably going to start this year in AAA. I think we heard that from Justin.

I believe you already mentioned that Ford was likely, you know, going to Tacoma. So he's progressing at a totally normal rate. It's just that with the way the power has progressed or not progressed, like his value is going to be as an athlete who gets on base a lot. those guys typically have to play up the middle to be super valuable. And Ford isn't a shortstop. He's a good athlete, but he's not a shortstop. Second base, probably a bit of a stretch as a result. Center field is less open than even catcher for him.

So, yeah, I think they just roll him a catcher and, you know, let him. He basically has to hit his way up. And if he does hit well enough, they'll find a spot for him. He'll play some first. He'll play some left. You know, he'll catch on occasion. Like they'll find a way to get the back. And you'll be tipped off to it too, by the way.

If they're thinking about him making his major league debut and they want to create a spot for him, you're going to start seeing him play at that third base or second base or left field or whatever. Right. Yeah. Like down in Tacoma. So, yeah. He has to hit. Tis way to the big league's position is secondary. But I believe they also, he was also working with Perry Hill last spring training as well. he was actually taking reps at like second and third.

So the Mariners have already kind of started to think about this. But the bat hasn't really forced their hand where it's like, look, catching is slowing down his development. Let's get him off that position. So we can accelerate the bat and get him to the big leagues. The bat hasn't done that yet. It hasn't shown consistently enough that the Mariners should look at this and be like, the bat is more valuable than, you know, his profile is a catcher.

So let's move him off there, get him to the big leagues faster. Hasn't happened, not going to happen. and Ford maintaining the ability to catch is not only important for his trade value, but it's also important for the positional flexibility of the Mariners if Ford can't be the everyday guy at third base. Like you want to be able to play. If he can't play every day somewhere, you want to be able to play a lot of different places and help that way.

And so you should maintain his natural position, which is catcher. Jeff wants to know, should the mariners have countered Boston's offer with them taking Hanager's contract. I'm not saying it was a good or bad trade proposal, but having Hanager's money gone as well would have done wonders. So Jeff is referring to the report that the Mariners apparently had the ability to say yes to a deal that would have sent Luis Castillo to Boston for Tristan Kossis and Masatagi Ishida, but the hangup there was taken on Yoshita's contract. Yushita, obviously not a great roster fit for the marries and would have essentially been a contract swap for Cassio, which is just a no-go for the Marriers.

They want to try and free up as much money as possible by trading Castillo on top of getting something that helps them. To answer your question, I mean, who said they didn't counter with that, right? But that obviously would have defeated the purpose of what Boston was attempting to do there, which is we want you to take on money. Like, we don't want to pay for most of Castillo's contract. Right. And, you know, Kossis is a guy who has its own problems. Yoshida is a DH only who doesn't hit for any power.

And so if you're the Mariners, like, are you sacrificing the flexibility that the money provides to basically, would you spend the money on Yoshita if he was a free agent? Is that the guy you'd spend the money on? No, he doesn't fit this club really. at all. So I think from that standpoint, it doesn't make any sense. I think if you're the Red Sox, why would we like, if we cared about, if we didn't care about money, like, why would we just put Yoshita in this deal at all? We just eat that money. So clearly the Red Sox care about money enough that they were trying to offset some of Castillo's salary. So the Hanager thing would have pushed them further apart. Also, yeah, who's to say we didn't try that? And also,

Breslo came out today. Again, and so, said we're not trading Tristan Casas. We never really got anywhere close to that. Blah, blah, blah. Now, Breslo hasn't sent it to lie. Certainly more than all the beat reporters who said the opposite. But whatever. So the simple truth is that we actually really don't know what the discussions between these two teams were because we keep hearing conflicting reports like every other day. And ultimately, it doesn't matter. They didn't get a deal done. It's not going to happen. Move on. But no, I don't think that countering by saying, okay,

well, then you take on Hanager's contract, I don't think that did anything. I don't think that would do anything but push the two sides further away. So no. I don't, I mean, I guess they should have. Like technically, should they have countered that? Sure, why not? But I don't think it would have helped facilitate a deal at all. So the goal was for the mayor is to, the goal is for you to find a way for the mayors to take that trade.

Hanager isn't the way to make that happen. and the only way to make that happen would probably be the Red Sox adding Cutter Crawford. Yuri wants to know outside of two to three teams in the league, Major League Baseball trade market doesn't appear interested in the Marist's prospects. What other avenues can they take to improve the team and get bets if they had payroll restrictions and don't want to train arms? I would say Munoz is a guy. You might be able to trade and get better.

But maybe not. And obviously that doesn't help you with your payroll issue either. So yeah, it basically if you can't trade arms or you don't want to trade arms, and in this case, I think we're specifically talking about the starters because I don't think the Mariners are letting Colin Snyder stand in the way of them acquiring an everyday bat, you know, so you can't trade your starters or don't want to. And you can't add significant payroll, which they can't. How do you get better?

Well, part of it is in-house guys, development, guys that you already have have to get better. You know, saw JP back at Drive line. Hopefully that's, that's, you know, a good sign. Maybe it means nothing. I don't know. But, you know, Julio has to be more consistent. And, you know, some of these young guys need to take a step. And that's all something you can do.

You could also swap like prospect for prospect where you give up a better process. for a guy who's like close to the big leagues or is big league ready and you kind of do that kind of go down that avenue. You can try and identify, you know, undervalued players and it's either now the mayors have done this like in the bullpen in particular where it's like, yeah, you know, they say they want you to throw your fastball this amount and they want it in this location, but you know, we think it's better if you throw it up in the zone and blah, blah, blah, and they do that. Can the Mariners do that with a. bat or two because i mean josh johnelson was one of josh donaldson was one of those guys

that jason turner was one of those guys max munsey was one of those guys can the mariners find their version of one of those guys maybe i mean i wouldn't bank on it but it's possible uh that's a possibility um and then yeah it's pretty much you know trading from your bullpen or it's trading for example like just randia rosarena for two like pre-ar not at least guys, but, you know, like they can fill a role type. So it's kind of like sacrificing a starter for two role players that you're going to try and use as starters. So yeah, none of it's very good. I'll tell you that much. They should just spend the money. But I think we're all, you know, wise enough to know that that's not going to happen. So if they can't trade a starter and the

market doesn't eventually kind of flip for them where they can trade some of their some of their prospects, then they're in a tight spot. And then it is taking the shot on the high song Kim's. And you're taking a shot on, you know, you know, the Curtis Mead types or the, or the Austin Shinton types.

So, yeah, I guess the only other thing they could do is they could be so ridiculously, stupidly aggressive with their prospects that it literally wouldn't make sense for a team to say no. But that's also not smart. You know, so yeah, they're in a tight spot. You're listening to the Lockdown Airs podcast. It's Mailbag Monday.

Matthew wants to know, as unlikely as it seems, over the weekend. I saw you guys mention a Blue Jays trade for Luis Castillo. What do you think a package with them would look like? So this is something that I briefly, briefly mentioned yesterday on Twitter. Not sure if you've also mentioned it Colby, but obviously, Corbyn't Burnes, signed with the Diamondbacks. That was a bit of a surprise. The Blue Jays were reportedly one of the teams aggressively pursuing him, as well as the San Francisco Giants.

So you would think if both of those teams were interested in Burns, they would then be interested in Castillo as kind of a fallback, right? Because at this point in the market, you're not going to get a pitcher that's better than Luis Castio, at least not on the free agent market. So, yeah. Now, I haven't worked on a specific package. package between these two teams where Castillo winds up in Toronto because frankly I think it's a waste of time. I mean, no one has been willing to take Toronto's money this offseason or last offseason for that matter. And yeah, Castillo isn't going to wave as no trade clause to go pitch north of the border,

especially when he's going to get tax more. So I think that's just kind of dead on arrival there. But on the surface level, yeah, a deal where Castillo goes to Toronto and Boba Chet goes to Seattle that wouldn't be the whole deal but that does make a bit of sense given what both of those teams needs are and the fact that both of those

players have been floated as being available this offseason and both of those players are making money now Bichette isn't making as much as Castillo but and he's also a rental but yeah that

kind of makes some sense but That wouldn't have to be the whole deal. But again, I think it dies immediately with the Castillo no trade clause. I just, I don't envision him waving his no trade clause to go pitch for the Blue Jays, who to me are being incredibly delusional about what their situation is. And they're, to me, definitively, the fifth team in the ALE East right now. Well, all right. So that's going to bring us to the end of the show.

And again, unless the mayor is want to do something. something, which, sure. I mean, to be fair, leave it to the Marriss to do something right at the buzzer of the year. But unless the Marys do something, this is going to be a wrap on 2024 here on Locked on Marrars, our third full year doing this show, by the way. We've been doing this for about three and a half years in total now. And it was a season.

unlike really any other that Colby and I have covered. It was, uh, I mean, very disappointing on a lot of different fronts, uh, but there were also some fun moments like, obviously bringing in guys like Luke Rayleigh and Randy a Roserana,

Victor Robles and Justin Turner and obviously the year this pitching staff had and the year that Cal Raleigh had. Um, so there was certainly a lot of bright spots and obviously getting to, uh, interact with you guys more and talk ball with you guys every single day is always a pleasure and we added even more of you guys to the community over this year i believe we added about two and a half thousand new subscribers on the youtube channel we don't have a way of tracking new listeners on the audio only side of things but if you started listening to us on spotify or Apple or any other podcast platform this year. I want to welcome you and thank you for joining our community here.

We eclipsed 1.2 million views for the whole year on YouTube. And look, we switched our platform that we used to distribute the podcast and track our numbers on just podcast platforms. so that's excluding YouTube. But I believe last time I checked, we were over 800,000 downloads. That happened in April. We don't have access to our data from January to March.

So I would say that it's safe to assume that we also eclips a million downloads on our podcast platforms as well. So that's what, you know, a little over two million combined views on YouTube and downloads slash listens on podcast. platforms, which is incredible. So thank you so much from both Colby and I for that support, for your support.

And we're looking forward to, you know, bigger and better things in 2025. And, you know, hopefully the mayors can finally give us something to talk about here in the coming weeks. And hopefully they can give us a little bit better of a season to cover in 2025 as well. So looking forward to experiencing whatever the Maritors bring us with you guys in in 2025. So thank you so much for joining us here on the lockdown Mariners podcast, not just today, but over the course of the whole year. For Colby Pad No, I'm Tad de Gazzalas. Be sure you give us a follow on Twitter at L0 underscore Marins. You can follow me at Tidang Gazzalus and Colby at C-Pat 11 at CPAT-1.

We're also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG. Colby at MLB Colby and the show at Lockdown Mariners. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you on Wednesday in the new year. Peace.