Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - The Biggest Mariners Storylines We're Tracking in the First Month of the Regular Season

Episode Date: March 18, 2025

With Opening Day just nine days away, Ty and Colby preview the biggest Mariners storylines they'll be watching in the first month of the regular season.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!Wonderful PistachiosLooking for a snack that’s both delicious and nutritious? Get snackin’ and get crackin’ with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more.Supply HouseJoin the TradeMaster program today at SupplyHouse.com/TM and start ordering plumbing, HVAC, and electrical supplies with just a few clicks. Plus, use promo code S-H-5 for 5% off your first order. That’s SupplyHouse.com!UpworkVisit Upwork.com right now and post your job for free to connect with top talent and grow your business today! Just IngredientsVisit JustIngredients.us/Bryce-Harper and use code LOCKEDONMLB for 20% off your order! And for more wellness tips, follow @just.ingredients on Instagram.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with MonarchMoney. Use code LOCKEDONMLB at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLBfor $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.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.

Here's what we'll be watching for in the first month of the regular season. 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 Tuesday, March 18th, 2025. This is Tadda Gonzalez and Colby Patnaud for the Lockdown Marys 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. with code L-O-C-K-E-O-N-M-L-B. It's locked on MLB at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. And as always, if you want to hear from me and Colby even more and help support the show, you can check out our Patreon. All you have to do to check that out is click the link in the description of this episode. So today, we're going to go over some of the biggest storylines.

We keep it an eye on during the first month of the regular season for the Mariners. And let's start with the band who's on your t-shirt there, Colby, Julio Rodriguez. and we talked about this a little bit during our outfield preview. With Julio, we would like to see him get off to a faster start than he has in two of the three first months that he's had in his career. We all remember that April in 2022 his rookie year. He was abysmal that month. This past first month in 2024 was a little bit better, but it was an 81 WRC plus. He did hit for a high average, but he wasn't hit.

for really any power to speak of. He was mostly a singles guy, which is not who you want Julio to be. But in 2023, he had like a 109 WRC plus. I mean, I'd take that. What would constitute as a successful first month of the year for Julio for you? I think, you know, statistically, I don't know if it really,

I mean, obviously you want to get off to a good start statistically, but I think more than that is you want to see Julio do what he did. year, which is at the end of last year, rather, that is get to your pole side, and that is where the home runs are going to come. You want to see him hit more doubles. You want to see him hit more home runs. And it probably starts with doing damage on the fastball in the inner third. I mean, in the first half of last year, he really would just kind of slap that pitch the other way,

inside out, swing, and flare a single into right when he really needs to, you know, turn on that ball and hit a line drive down the left field line or hit a home run into the left center field to the foul pole somewhere in that area. and he did that at the end of last year. Obviously, he still wanted to hit mistakes. It'd be great if his walk rate could go up a little bit closer to league average. It'd be great if he could stop chasing that slider low and away. But I think, you know, what you're really looking for early out of Julio is kind of what we've seen this spring.

Hammer the mistake pitches. Stay within yourself. You don't have to swing harder or anything like that. Just do damage on the pitches you're supposed to do damage on. And, you know, if you get the good slider on the outside corner, And all you can do with that is just kind of, you know, hit it into right field or, you know, do that. Like, you don't have to try and crush every single pitch unless it's a pitch that you can crush. So I really do think it's a, it's an approach thing.

It's a game plan thing more so than statistics. And we need to remember that. You know, the Mariners play a good chunk of their games in April at T-Mobile Park. That's not always conducive to power numbers under the best of circumstances, but in April and like March and April, it's even harder to hit in that ballpark. So, you know, I think the statistics will take care of themselves. Julio certainly can hit the ball hard and obviously you can slice that ball through the marine layer. The numbers meant it look exactly how you want them to, but if he is, you know, driving the ball with some authority to the pole side,

then I think he's probably pretty well locked in. And we've seen him do that this spring so far. A lot of hard hit balls for Julio. The numbers aren't amazing there. The slugging is. but like if he did that like the batting average and the on base are a little bit down but the slugging is up in the first month. I think that would be a really good sign. Of course, if he just wants to hit 270, 340, 500 like in the first month.

Yeah. That would be great too. Yeah, I've been encouraged by what we've seen so far this spring. I mean, when he's hitting the ball to the opposite field, he's finding the right center field gap. And when he's pulling the ball, I think about that that double that he hit against the Cubs. about a week or so ago where he you know just kind of pulled a breaking ball out of the bottom of the zone

down the line was able to get two bags out of it like that's what I want to see out of Julio more so yeah and that kind of just that feels like a testament to the lightning of his load if you will that that agger kind of brought towards the end of last year and now you know is being reemphasized by

by Kevin Sizer as well as you know still Edgar, right, who's overseeing the whole thing. It just seems like Julio's in a better place mentally, and hopefully he's able to carry over that success that we saw at the end of last year and what we've seen so far this spring into the, into the regular season, into the start of the regular season. Because, I mean, if Julio could get off to a hot start, like, let's say like Julio's like a 120 WRS Plus bat in the first month of the season, you should be able to win quite a few ball games in the first month and start to create a little bit of a buffer there for you as you

get deeper into the season. So, uh, let's, uh, let's talk a little bit about. D.H. What are they going to do at D.H? Colby. I know you really want them to give as many opportunities as possible to Mitch Garver, but there's still the question about whether or not Mitch Hanneger is going to be on this roster. He's still dealing with the shoulder's comfort. He was on 710 yesterday. I haven't had a chance to listen to that interview. So I don't know if they asked him about his health, but he hasn't played it in a game since March 8th, and he's not in the lineup today. Feels like they need to make a determination on if he's going to be able to go for the start

of the regular season within the next day or two. And then obviously, Roddy Tellez has this deadline coming up on Sunday for him to potentially opt out of his minor league contracts. So they do have the open 40-man roster spot. If they do put him on the 40-man roster, that would. include a $1.5 million kicker for him, which to me would seem to all

but guarantee his spot on the opening day roster and probably confirm what they're going to do with Hanager, whether it's placing him on the IL or DFA and him. So how do you think this is going to shake out in the first month? Poorly. If the

game plan is just to give Rowdy to Les all the app bats against right-handed pitching at the DH spot, I think you're doing a major disservice to your ball club and also to Mitch Garber. Garber is the guy of all the players who are talked about in this DH spot. He's the guy who has the most upside. Like without question, he just did it in 2023. He was a 130 WRC plus bat. Teles has never done that in his entire career. Hanager hasn't done that since what, 2018? Like, you know, maybe 2019? Like, it just,

he hasn't been there. And you can't count. on them anyways. And the other options are not great. Now, I understand, like, maybe early on you do it because I know you're going to be facing a handful of lefties in the first week or so. So you can, obviously, Garber can DH against the lefties and catch a little bit against the lefties. So I think Garver will get time early. But I would like to see Garver get, you know, 20 of the first 30 starts at the DH spot against righties and lefties. I want to see what I have there. And Garber's made an adjustment. It's worked so well. It's worked pretty well this spring so far.

And so I want to see if that carries over to the regular season because, again, there's so much upside there. Like Garver should be the opening day DH. Garver should play close to every day. And the way you do that is you deach him because obviously you're not taking Cal out in the lineup more than you need to. And, you know, could Garber play first base? Sure, but like, you're going to take Luke Rayleigh out of the lineup? Probably not. So you need to deach him.

That's what I want to see. I would honestly Tolez would probably be my third option that I would like to see be the primary D.H I would rather see Garber and Solano ahead of Tiles be the primary DH but it sure feels

like we're rocketing towards some kind of true platoon split at D.H. Which is awesome because you also have a pure platoon at first base. Neat. Yeah, those are two spots that you really just don't have platoons. Don't platoon there. Because you're talking about a lot of guys

that don't give you really any versatility whatsoever don't provide really any sort of athleticism you're using quite a few roster spots on just frankly bad bodies relative to you know the average major leaker right yeah it just like if you're going to do that like can you pick one spot to do that in please like yeah i mean it's one thing if it's second base or in a corner outfield spot we're just like you know whatever but first base d h hathes no those are you want thumpers in those positions not guys are like oh you know he's going up against the lefty yeah so like i'm i'm fine with them having uh garver earn it this year but in order for him to earn it you have to give him the opportunities and again to your point he he has the highest upside like

yeah i know we we've kind of joked about the odd year garber stuff but in the odd years we have seen what Mitch garver can't be right you see what the ceiling is for him when he's really getting it going. And that's a difference maker. That's not just a guy that helps. Like, that's a guy that changes the complexion of your lineup. That's the guy who hits in the middle of one of the best offensive,

you know, teams we've seen in the last decade. Yeah. And that allows a team to win a world series with that lineup. That's the guy who hits three, four, five in that lineup. So, yeah, I mean, again, he's, he's done things that Tellez hasn't even come close to doing. So yeah, I would rather give Garber the shot than Tellez. But I had to guess, I would say Telez is probably opening day, DH. And while that's not a huge deal, I think it's a mistake.

I want Garber to be in there. Like I said, 20 times in the first 30 days. I want him deaching. I got to see what I have. All right. We are going to go over more of the things that we're going to be watching for in the first month of the season in just a moment. But first a reminder of this episode of the Locked On Airs podcast is brought to you by Just Ingredients and Monarch Money. When it comes to fueling your body, quality matters. That's why Just Ingredients is changing the game with clean, high-quality products designed to support better health and peak performance.

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Is it going to get to a point where maybe they consider Logan Evans pitching out of that spot? They have a bunch of off days in the first month of the season, so they could spread this out here where they maybe skip a couple of Hancock scheduled starts, kind of run with essentially a four-man rotation. I can't imagine they would, though, right? with how much they want to try and keep the other four guys fresh? Yeah, there's no avoiding the fifth spot in the first homestand, unfortunately. You play seven days straight, or seven games straight. So, yeah, he's going to have to make that start. But then you do have the third off on a Thursday.

So right now, Hancock would start on the 31st against Detroit. Then it would go presumably, we don't know, entire rotation order, but we pretty much do. It would go Logan, Luis, and then you have the day off. And then you could go Miller Wu, and Logan would still be on his normal rest that Sunday in San Francisco. So you could start that game. Right.

And then it goes Castillo, Miller, Wu again. And then you have that day off. That's four days off. Then you can do, you could skip that start again. And then you have that Monday off. and then you have the following Monday off. Like, you can't, you probably don't want to do it every time, but could you do it once or twice? And now, by the way, for all we know, Gilbert's back by that second Thursday off or Kirby's back by that second Thursday.

It doesn't matter. They could do it in San Francisco. You know, again, it's just like, do you want Hancock to skip San Francisco? You know, it's not a terrifying lineup, but whatever. his next start then would presumably come against Texas be at home but it's still Texas

right and after that he would start in Toronto so I'm kind of hoping he's in the rotation that long so you have to suffer like I do so I had to watch Easton McGee start two years ago and he threw like a seven inning one hitter I know I know so

what I'm saying is Emerson Hancock's going to have the start of his life and Toronto what I'm saying is Easton McGee is significantly better than Emerson Hancock We all know that's how you feel I mean it's not how I feel that's just an undisputed fact to look at the career numbers

Right Yeah so I highly doubt that they're going to skip starts I should I think we'll see Hancock pitch every every fifth day Until Kirby's ready to go Now if Kirby's injury lingers It's more serious

than we think then or it just takes them a little bit longer to ramp back up than we're expecting then I think at a certain point probably around the end of April if that's as far as it goes or if it's going to go

beyond that I think at that point you need to consider calling up Logan Evans because the upside is just so much more immense than Hancock yeah the nice thing the Mariners have a very helpful schedule early in regards to days off.

So they play seven games, they get Thursday off, then they play six games, they get the next Thursday off, and they play three games, they get that Monday off, they play six games, they get that Monday off, they play six games, they get that Monday off, they play two games, they get that Thursday off, they play six games, they get that Thursday off, and it's not until the May 16th through the 25th that they play more than seven games in a row. So it's a very nice schedule in terms of just managing your workload and all that stuff. So that's a benefit. Obviously you play Houston. Detroit owned you last year, Texas, Boston.

So, yeah, I mean, you play the Yankees pretty early on, San Diego. So yeah, it's not like the easiest schedule in terms of opponents, but it is makes a lot easier to manage a bullpen and get guys back-to-back days off with them only missing one game blah blah blah blah so if you're looking for a benefit that the Mariners have early so they have a day off pretty much one a week sometimes two a week actually but pretty much they have one day off a week for the first seven eight weeks of the season so they can do some creative things with their pitching staff thinking about the rest of the staff the one thing that I'm really interested to see is with Brian Wu and see if he carries over what he's been doing this spring into the regular season. You all know the deal by now. It's a fastball heavy approach from Brian Wu. But this spring, we've actually seen him use the sweeper quite a bit. One of his starts, it was his most used pitch.

A couple of other of his starts. It's been like the second most used pitch, kind of breaking up the four seam and the two seam. So I'm interested to see if we see more of like a, you know, a mixed bag from Wu to start the year. or if that's just going to be kind of like matchup dependent as we kind of saw last year where like he broke out the secondaries a bit more against the A's for example or if this is just who he is now and like he feels more comfortable throwing that sweeper and having that be a bigger part of his arsenal. Is there anything else on the rotation you're going to be watching out for? Yeah. You know, it's pretty interesting. I didn't see anybody else talk about this.

Mostly because I don't care about other people's opinion. So I tend not to look for them. but Luis Castillo and his last start, you get a really good slider and a really good change up. And he threw them a lot against lefties. Now, he was against the Padres and there was like three major leaguers. And like so, you know, whatever. Results don't really matter.

But he had like a 60% whiff on the slider. He had like a 40% whiff on the change up. And again, he was throwing them against lefties. And it was just, it was different. It jumped out as this is different. And I went back and I looked, is this something he did in his, all spring. No, in his last start prior to that, he was 50% fastball. Now, Luis,

last year was about 45% fastball for Seamer. And, you know, it's still a good pitch, but I was watch that and it was very effective and it was very interesting. I thought, you know, is Castillo, is this just a day where he's like, I need to work on my off speed stuff? So I'm going to throw it a lot today. Or is this maybe, as we get closer to opening day, kind of an attempt to throw a new wrinkle out there to kind of mix up the pitch usage a little bit, be a little bit more. 33, 33, 33. With the pitches that work, the sinker is still terrible, by the way, but whatever. Yeah, I mean, if the change-up is good, if the slider was good,

and again, the slider was really good against lefties in particular, too. So, yeah, I'm watching that. I think it would be interesting to see Luis, you know, kind of morph more into what Logan Gilbert was last year, which is kind of the kitchen sink guy, which might help the fastball even more, but obviously he has to have confidence in the slider and the change-up. So I'm interested to see if that carries over and if the regular season or if that was just simply a, you know, like, hey, I need to work on the slider and change up today.

So that's what I'm going to throw it a lot today, which starters do. You know, some Logan Gilbert a couple years ago had a start where he like only threw fastballs and sliders. Like he just, that's what I want to work on today. And that's all I threw. So pitchers do that. So I would say that's more than likely what happened here in Luis's last start. It was just I need to work on the change up. I need to work on the slider.

I'm going to do that today. but if it is, you know, a tweak that gets made and a change that gets made, I think that could unlock something pretty, you know, pretty important from Luis, and that's a viable way to get lefties out with consistency. All right. We have a few more things to go over here in just a moment. But first, a reminder of this episode of the Lockdownerror's podcast is brought to you by Supply House. Get the supplies you need from the site made for the skilled trades.

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your first order. That's supplyhouse.com. The NCAA tournament is here and so is the Bracket Breakdown. Lockedon Podcast Network and Amazon Fire TV channels are teaming up to deliver NCAA tournament coverage like never before. Watch Studio shows featuring former players and Locked On's local experts as they guide you through every upset, buzzer beater, and bracket matchup. Stream it all for free on Amazon Fire TV channels. Search Brackett Breakdown to see it all for free. It's your team every day.

and you're listening to the locked on areas podcast so we haven't gotten to this yet but we've talked about it a lot for the last couple months so obviously it's something that we're going to be watching out for in the first month of the regular season this third base how does that play out what does horace belonco look like now over the last week block has actually been hitting the ball pretty well he got off to a you know for in his first four or five games but since then he's been he's been tearing the cover off the ball for the most part so we'll see if he's able to carry that into the regular season but I don't think and look I don't want to put too much into spring training but I don't think I ever saw horace Polanco look the way he has over the last few games at any point in 2024 so hopefully that's a sign that he does feel a bit more comfortable at the plate coming off of that surgery and all that but again the biggest question here is the defense only 180 career earnings over at third base what is this going to look like Yeah, that's always an interesting, like, conversation because he's already has one air, and I think he's only had like six opportunities.

So, you know, there's going to be some bad moments. Like in April, there are going to be plays that aren't made. There's going to be, you know, probably a wayward throw or two. There's going to be a short hop. He doesn't handle correctly. He's probably going to get picked on a little bit with the bunt, although not that much because nobody bunts anymore, which is good. but yeah, it's going to be tricky, you know, and I think obviously the hope for the Mariners is that, like,

yeah, we're going to downgrade substantially at third base defense, but we're going to upgrade substantially offensively. And so obviously if Polanco wasn't hitting right now, I think there'd be even more freak out. But because he's hitting, even though people love to remind themselves that spring training stats don't matter, they seem to put a lot of stock in them for things that don't matter. so you know we'll see but polanco i hope he's good i really do i mean at the plate i know he's not

going to be good defensively no you know basically it's going to be bad it's just how much of a disaster is it going to be it's like is it a survivable disaster or is it like you know telling tie france he could play second base for 150 games like that that area of bad uh we'll find out um but uh yeah it's it's definitely a question mark and also how much does he play like are they going to kind of ease him in a little bit like I'm not saying how much workload is he able is he able to handle in general and he play like seven games and seven days right now because I would think it's kind of one of those things where it's like look the more reps we get him early you hope that pays off at the end of the year is just a little bit better but it's like can he physically handle it you know can he have we seen polanco play three days in a row yet this spring not to be fair I don't know we've seen any of buddy play three days in a row. I don't think anyone's played three days in a row. So I think they should probably go ahead and do that this week. But yeah, so I don't know.

Can he do that right now? Tough to say. We just don't know because he's coming off of the knee surgery. It's something to be concerned about. Obviously, it's probably going to limit his range even more. But the fact that he's hitting a little bit right now, the swing looks good. That's a good sign. But until you see it in the regular season, just a massive question mark.

Third base continues for me to be the most concerning position on the field, bar none. Like, it is the one position I have no idea what to expect from. And I'm afraid it might be an absolute disaster. But I will acknowledge there's definitely the potential that it's totally fun. You know, Polanco hits. That at the very least, the offensive production outweighs how much of a disaster the defenses. Like, is it possible that Polanco is, you know, by the end of the year, fringe average at third base maybe uh i'm seeing it yeah sure could polanco be like a 120 w rc

plus guy like he basically has been every year of his career except for last year if he does if he does that as long as the defense isn't just complete disaster you're going to be fine there and that's definitely a possibility so it's just if he's a 100 wrc plus guy like the defense has to be a lot better than we think it is for that to be a solid spot for him. But yeah, Palanco, third base in general, that's the biggest question. And that's the one that I'm hoping we get answers to pretty quick in 2025. Because I think you got to be, it's tough because you say like you have to be really quick to make that decision. But also, you just don't have that many options other than Polanco. Yeah. At the very least, Ryan Bliss has seemingly won the second base spot. So now you have Dillamor.

freed up to maybe be a late game defensive replacement at third or just take some of the load off of Polo over at third. You know, you'll have it seems like Master Boni is probably going to make the roster so he could be a late game defensive replacement as well. Yeah. But I feel like I'm going to close my eyes

every time there's a right-handed hitter in the box and I'm just sitting there like, oh, please, please, please. Hit it in the air, hit it in the air. But yeah, you know, I really hope Polo is very good at the play because he's a fun dude route for and all that. It seems like a really good dude. And I still think he can hit. I don't think he just go up a clip. And the fact that he chose to come back and I get it, they offered more money than the Astros and the Yankees said,

whatever. But the fact that he chose to come back in a very important year for him where, look, if things go sideways again for him, he's probably looking at a minor league contract next year. He's probably going to be a spring training invitee trying to fight to make a roster. he chose to rebuild his value playing half of his games at team of park i want him to succeed just for that fact alone the the the bet that he's taken him taken on himself how risky that is like i i like it like i i hope he succeeds i think now that we've seen bliss and you know i know people are freaking out about dylan more like people are freaking out about dillan more being one for 30 but horhe being you know

six for 20 is like the best thing ever. Interesting. So yeah, but I do feel like second base is more settled. I don't love it, obviously, but like whatever it is. By the way,

I think the writing is on the wall today. They have Bliss playing at second and Demo at shortstop. Yeah. It does seem like, you know, Bliss is starting to start there more and more and more and more. Yeah, he's been with like the A team.

Like look at a, what was it, Saturday? when they had the split squad. Bliss was with the A team. Demo was with the backups and the AAA depth. And he wasn't even playing second that day either. Yeah.

It feels to me like the Mariners are going to give Bliss first crack. And again, because we're going to see, you know, at least two lefties in the first four games, Dylan Moore is going to play early. Like he's not going to just ride the bench for four days. It's not going to happen. And we're going to see about second base a lot, too. Oh, yeah.

I'm sure. Yeah. like it might be like a 60-40 thing at second base and then it's just that on the 60% of the games where Demos not playing second base, it frees you up to use him or not use him in any way you see fit, which is a nice little bonus. And, you know, Dan Wilson didn't come out and say that Bliss is the second baseman, but he did talk about how he's been on a nice run. And, you know, they've got like seven games in the next seven days. And, you know, Ryan's going to play a lot. So it does kind of feel like they've made that decision that Bliss is going to be.

be the second baseman at least to start yeah uh so lastly any thoughts on the bullpen i mean we're kind of waiting to see how the back end shakes out uh there's the possibility that they might flip one of these guys for some bench help before uh they break camp um but you know munoz is the guy um do you think that they're going to get as aggressive with munoz as they did at the start of last year no because of santos being there Because of Santa. They also have Snyder. Yeah.

Inspire. Yeah. I'd be shocked if there was a four-out save opportunity in the month of April for Munoz. I just don't think they're going to do it. So, yeah. And then obviously you hope they get brash back by the end of the month. But the bullpen's really interesting because they do get brash back by the end of the month. Taylor is going to start the year on the I.O.

That was announced today by Divish. But they think he'll be back mid-April. Like it's only going to be a couple weeks. and the Mariners only have three guys in their projected bullpen right now that have an option left. So you're going to have to produce right away if you're in this Mariners bullpen. If you have a couple of stumbles here early, you're probably losing your job. And if you're not, you know, if you're not Santos or Saucato or Legamina, you're headed out on the waiver wire. You're not going to AAA.

You're going out on the waiver wire. So, yeah, you're going to have to figure this thing out pretty quick. but yeah it does feel like the bullpen is locked in and and i do think that they are going to be uh really i think they're going to try and i don't know if force is the right word but they're going to try and like get santos and spire in these high leverage spots uh pretty often uh early uh is would be my guess because spires had a good spring he had the one blow about him but he's had a good spring Santos a little hit and miss but I think they need to find another high leverage option.

And I think they're willing to take a couple shots early in the year where they won't ask Munoz to go get four outs. Now Munoz still like eighth and they might have Santos or Spire try to be the closer. But like I don't think they're going to get a five out opportunity like they did in what game two last year. Yeah. Yeah. Well, on that as well, Dan's a pretty traditional guy.

do you think that we see him just deploy Munoz as the closer no matter what the situation is like he's the ninth inning guy? No. Even if like the middle of the order comes up in the eighth. Like you think like he'll at least use Munoz in the highest leverage spots, right? Mostly. Yeah. Yeah. I mean like I doubt he uses them in like the sixth even if he should.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Seventh, eighth, ninth like yeah. I think if the Mariners really want to. to turn like overall decision power to Dan Wilson and like embrace that old school philosophy

Maniacca wouldn't be here like they would have they wouldn't have brought in basically built Dan's staff for him like they wouldn't have done that so I do think that it's still going to be a collaborative effort like it was with Scott's service and I think

one thing the Mariners have been very consistent about is that Munoz is the guy you use when the game's on the line regardless of, you know, if it's the ninth or not. So it's the reason Munoz has like 30 career saves in three years. He's just not pitching the ninth all that often. So, yeah, I think the bullpen usage will be situationally, very similar to last year.

But I don't think you're going to see Munoz be asked, or any reliever, really, asked to go more than three outs per out, unless, you know, obviously there's going to be, extreme circumstances where probably Hancock goes three and two thirds and you have to cover two in age they'll probably ask Saucato or Thornton to do that but no any of the leverage guys I'd be pretty surprised they were asked to get more than three outs in the month of April that's going to do it for a show thank you so much for joining us here on the lockdown mirrors podcast for colby paddode i'm taut gzalas be sure give us a follow on twitter at l0 underscore mergers you can follow me at tiding gz and colby at cped 11 that's cpat 1 1st we're also on blue sky you can follow me at tdg colby at melb colby and the show at

Locked-on Mariners. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day, and we'll see you next time. Peace.