Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - The Mariners and Carlos Correa, a Full-Time DH and the 'Next Mitch Haniger'

Episode Date: December 28, 2022

We are back from our Christmas break to talk about all things Seattle Mariners! Carlos Correa remains unsigned, but is there any chance the Mariners can sneak into the chase for the best remaining player? Plus, as the outfield options dwindle, Colby shares some more traditional DH candidates still available in free agency. Finally, Ty has a list of players he believes could be Jerry Dipoto and Justin Hollander's next Mitch Haniger! All of that and more on today's episode of Locked On Mariners!Be sure to follow or subscribe to Locked On Mariners wherever you prefer your podcasts! For questions and other inquiries, email: [e-mail] the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @danegnzlz | @CPat11For more of Ty and Colby, check out their Patreon: patreon.com/controlthezone/BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!NHTSADrive sober or get pulled over. Click HERE to learn more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Carlos Correa's deal with the Mets has hit a snag. So is it time for the Mariners to strike? We'll talk about that and more on today's episode of Locked on Mariners. Colby, hit it. You are Locked on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. It is Wednesday, December 28, 2022.

This is Tadang Gonzalez and Colby Patnaud for the Locked on Mariners podcast. We are back. It's almost been a full. week since we last saw you. Hope you had a great holiday. And thank you so much for making us your first listen. Subscribe, like, and turn on alerts if you're watching on YouTube, or subscribe and leave a five-star review on your preferred podcast platform.

If you like what you hear. And if you want to hear from us even more, please consider signing up for our Patreon. The link as well as our social accounts is in the description below. On the show today, how the Mariners might address their designated hitter as options on the market continue to dwindle. And is there anyone, Seattle, Catalan? target to be the next Mitch Hanager, the next Thai France. We'll talk about that a little later on.

But first, our lead topic of the day. Can the Mariners, Colby, get involved in the Carlos Correa saga? Because, you know, Carlos Correa was a San Francisco giant for about a week. And then like an hour or soish before he was supposed to go in front of the media to be introduced as the newest San Francisco giant. The Giants pulled back on the deal. raise some concerns over his medical review. And at that point, he goes, you know what? Never mind.

I'm going to New York. So he signs a 12-year, $315 million deal with the Mets. And now more medical concerns have been raised by the Mets. And this is not over a back issue. And we talked a lot about Correa's back at the start of the off season. It's about an ankle. And so now it looks like at least this. iteration of the deal that we've seen between the Mets and Kraya has been Nix.

There is there are reports though. They're saying there's still motivation on both sides to get a deal done with one another. Colby, if a third team gets involved here, if Carlos Correa signs with a third team, could that third team, Colby, be named the Seattle Mariners? No. And that's going to do it for this segment.

Let's tell you about bet online. No. I knew you were going to say that because that's what you say all the time. Whenever I ask you any question, it could be a very simple question. No, no. Next segment, no.

Because I knew that, I'm going to rephrase my question here and ask you, why are the Mariners not going to land Carlos Correa here as the third team to sign Correa? Because they can't. and that's going to do it for this second. No.

More than anything right now, it's still the years. There are reports that the Mets are maybe thinking more along the lines of eight years. That's not going to line up with the Mariners timeline at all. We know the Mariners prefer shorter deals for free agents. And with a shorter deal comes a higher AAV, which has its own issues, you know, in the long-term budget. So it's not quite as simple as just being like, oh, well, just over- look at the physical and give him, you know, seven years and $200 million. First of all, we don't know that Kray can't beat that.

In fact, we heard that the Minnesota Twins had a 10-year, $285 million offer on the table. And the twins are very familiar with Carlos Kraya's, you know, health. So it seems like the deal with the Mets falls through, the twins are probably next in line. And, you know, does Kraya want to go back to Minnesota? I mean, I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. but can the Mariners beat 10 and 285? No, I mean, they could, but should they?

No, probably not. Cray is not that good. Cray was going to be overpaid at 12 and 300. So how does this thing fall far enough for where it makes sense for the Mariners so that they get a good player who helps them without, you know, sacrificing potentially sacrificing somebody like Logan Gilbert or George Kirby in a few years when it's time to re-up those guys. So I just think the timeline is going to be too.

messy. I still think he's going to get, you know, seven, eight years. I still think he's probably going to get 30 million plus AAV. And I just don't see the mayor is going down that road, not for Carlos Correa. So, you know, unless the market just absolutely crashes, it's not like they have the worst chance. I would say they're still probably top 10, but that's only because 20 other teams are just, they're not going to pay that much for anybody. So, yeah, I just, I don't see it because I don't see any path to a ideal that works for the Mariners long-term, you know,

budgetary plans. I just can't see Karea falling to the three, four years type of range, which is what I think it would take for the Mariners to become interested. And when you have a team like the Mets who this offseason is spending money like a kid

who stole his mom's credit card on Fortnite, and they're raising concerns and they're not willing to go 12 years. and $315 million because of this ankle issue. If you're a team like the Mariners, that is being a little more conservative, to put it lightly with their money, they're definitely going to take pause with that.

I think this ultimately gets to a point where if the Mariners are going to get involved, it has to get to the three, four year range. I personally would do six still, knowing everything that we know now, I'd still go six. But after you get to that point, it is risky especially if this is this ankle issue plus the back as well because the back

that hasn't gone away if those two things are legit then you know that that's that's a major risk that you've taken on with with korea can't you know at that point you know do you even get halfway through the deal where he's still able to play in the field or is he just a bat first guy so you know the thing that we've heard though from jerry depoto and jesson hollander this offseason is the word opportunistic. We want to be opportunistic. And if it does get to a point here where Correa is legitimately looking at having to

prove to the league once again, I can stay healthy, I am healthy, and takes another, you know, three-year deal with a bunch of options, and he ends up, you know, having a path to hit the market again next year, then maybe, maybe the mayor's, you know, like to me, the mayor should be in on that.

They should be, um, aggressive on that front. But yeah, if it gets to the point, though, where he's like, where he's actually legitimately entertaining the twins offer, if that twins offer still exists, if they haven't pulled that back and moved on. If he's still entertaining that and then telling, you know, teams like the Mets, like that's where you have to get to in order to land me, then, yeah, I'm still, I'm out. If I'm the Mariners, especially with what we know now. So I do think, just to kind of wrap it up, I do think that there, we do get to a place here, or, that we can get to a place here where it does make sense for the mirrors and it makes a ton of sense for the mirrors but i just i don't know if we're actually uh if that's actually going to happen here all right so uh the other thing that the mariners need to address right now and by the way real

quick on the korea thing uh it doesn't matter that you acquired colton long it doesn't matter that you acquired j p crawford you figure that out afterward go get the player go get a really good player in carlos caria and figure it out afterward those guys could be depth they can be a nice trade piece doesn't matter you can hey there's no rule from major league baseball that says that you can't trade a player that you just acquired via trade so you could just trade cold long if you wanted to doesn't matter uh but that's like a non-discussion that's like way way way down down the list um in terms of you know the reaction to uh to a potential career deal uh but yeah so the other thing that the mariners need to address right now a pretty glaring hole on the roster is designated hitter now we know

that they want to keep the DH spot open they typically have in the past to rotate guys through there but Colby I've said this on the show before that I don't really see anyone on this roster right now I don't see a good amount of quality hitters on this roster to really justify having that DH spot open so let's talk about how they could address that in just a moment here but real quick a reminder this episode of Lockdown Mariners is brought to you by Bet Online betonline.net is your number one source for sports betting info, stats, news, and analysis. Get the latest odds and trends for every professional and amateur league out there from pro football to college bowl season and basketball. We've got it all over at betonline.net.

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You told me today you wanted to talk about it. It's a very glaring hole on the Mariners roster, as I said. So at this point in the off season, we've seen guys like Brandon Drury and Will Myers come off the board that we talked about quite extensively here. Now that those guys are off

the board, I mean, there's still options out there, but who or how could the Mariners address DH? Yeah, so the Mariners plan the entire offseason has been to have four they call starting caliber outfielders and then just kind of rotate the extra outfielder through the DH on any given day. And that's a good plan.

It makes a lot of sense. You know, a lot of good teams do that. The issue is that if that plan doesn't come to fruition, you can't just be like, well, we're so desperate not to have a full-time DH that we just, we're not going to. And we're going to cycle through Cade Marlowe and, you know, Cooper Hummel through the DH spot just so we can keep that open that you can't do that that that's a massive hole in your lineup that you just can't afford so at some point a primary dh makes sense and and ideally you want that primary dh is still be able to play somewhere on the field on any given day um i think ideally it would still

be out field i think that's the way you want to go um but if it doesn't work out it doesn't work out you have to pivot you just can't roll with with you know unknown kade marlowe and you can't have your backup catcher dh that you're asking for trouble there so I think there are some free agents who are still available who makes sense. They can play at least one other position reasonably well enough that I think you can make it work. But yeah, the free agent market's pretty dry right now. And in terms of, you know, the fourth outfield type, there's not a lot of guys like that. There are some platoon options available.

But at that point, you still need a DH. So, yeah, there are a few guys that we haven't really talked about that I think makes sense. and so I think we should at least mention them as we kind of inch our way slowly, but surely to pitchers and catchers reporting. All right. So who you got for me? Okay. So I got to,

there's a couple of minor league free agent types. There's a couple of guys who don't fit positionally all that well. I guess we'll start with those guys. Three guys that kind of stand out. they lack defensive versatility. They're really first base DH only, which is why they're not extremely high on the list. But Yuleiguriel, former Astro, had a terrible year last year,

but he has hit pretty much every other year of his career. Very CTZ type of bat, doesn't strike out much. An interesting guy, Brandon Belt of the Giants, formerly of the Giants, I should say. He's pretty interesting. He also had a very bad year last year. But the year before, he hit 28 home runs, 29 home runs, and 94 games. He is an interesting bat. He hasn't played the outfield since 2019, though.

So that's kind of an issue. The strikeout rate has jumped up to 27% each of the last two years. But there's enough, I think, to be interested in the bat. Dominic Smith is kind of an interesting guy, former Mets prospect, had one good run of success, but never got consistent enough playing time in New York to really show what he can do. He's only 28, but he is also first base and DH only. The Mets tried to put him in the outfield. They shouldn't. They shouldn't have. He is not good out there. It is Mark Trumbo-esque out in left field, and that's just no, just no.

You know, as for guys who can maybe play another position aside from first base, which would be ideal, oh, I should also throw Luke Voight into that last group. should probably only DH, but he can play first base if you need them to. Other guys who can kind of, you know, maybe play multiple positions or a different position, I should say.

Harley Culverson is kind of interesting. He's more of a platoon guy, crushes lefties, but, you know, there's some versatility there. He's played some third. He's played some left field.

The name I really like right now, Evan Longoria, is pretty interesting. Still a really good, a defender at third base by just about any metric, which is surprising considering he's 37 years old. He's about an average bat still, but, you know, there are some health concerns, but he's going to primarily DH and then he'll play some third, you know, maybe once or twice a week and maybe some first as well. So you can kind of rotate, you know, three guys through first base and

third base and DH. But I do think that bat plays pretty well in Seattle as well. So I think he can still hit. It's not ideal. None of these guys are. And then you kind of look at the outfield, you know, the platoon guys, Adam Duval, hasn't really been all that good the last few years. Robbie Grossman still crushes lefties. He's a good platoon partner with Kalanick. And he's actually a pretty good defender. Is he a full-time DH type?

Probably not. But, you know, he's good enough that you might be able to get away with it. David Peralta is a guy that we've talked about a little, but he's more of your full-time, you know, guy. and he's probably the guy that if you're looking for like a starting outfielder, like four starting outfielders, he's probably the best bet of who's remaining in free agency to be that guy. And then, you know, a couple of maybe minor league signings.

These guys might be interesting. Chad Pender, formerly of the A's kind of move around a little bit. He's hit left. He's pretty well in his career. It's been a rough couple of years for Chad Pender. Same goes for Steven Piscotti, We kind of play all three outfield spots. Crushes lefties, but he has had a rough few years here, both on and off the field.

So, yeah, there's, it's not a lot of guys, but, you know, we've talked a lot about Brian Anderson. We've talked a lot about, you know, Mancini. We've talked a lot about McCutcheon, but there are some other guys out there could still help you. I guess we should probably throw Kevin Pilar on the list, a guy who didn't really play last year, but does have a track record of hitting lefties and tie to play all around the outfield. So, again, not a ton of guys. And if you just want to straight up D.H, just a pure D.H, like he's not going to play anywhere but D.H. You want to take a shot on Nelson Cruz?

I know Seattle loves Nelly, but he has been bad since he left Minnesota. He was pretty bad for the raise when they traded him. And he was pretty darn bad for the nationals last year. So do you want to take that chance? it's a full-time DH. You're not getting any defense from Nelson Cruz, even at first base. So, again, nobody ideal, but those are some names that are still floating around out there that could fit in a full-time DH-type role. Yeah, I think with Nelly, like, if you don't have anything squared away there, if you don't have DH squared away, like trial run.

First, you know, a month or two, if, you know, it doesn't work, DFAM, you know, it sucks. But, like, hey, you bring back a fan favorite. A guy who's going to fit well in that clubhouse, a guy that, you know, Scott and Jerry are very familiar with. I think it could make some sense. But, yeah, I think you, you know, preferably don't want to get to that point. Because, like you said, it's been a struggle for the last year and a half for Nellie. He had a really good month, I believe, in June this year in Washington.

That was about it for him. So, yeah. And those are all, again, those are all just free. agents, the trade market, which we know the path Jerry prefers is the trade market. That's probably where it's more likely they would fill that role. But again, if you're going to look for free agency, those are just some of the guys that make some sense. And Friday, we got a trade proposal for Christian Walker of the Diamondbacks. And we actually kind of talked about this whole thing, the DH spot.

When does it make sense to just get a full-time DH? I think Walker would make a lot of sense if they're able to hammer out a trade there. I think he might be a little expensive, especially as far as, you know, first base slash DH types go because he had a really great year this past season. So, but yeah, maybe that's an option. I just to kind of, you know, circle back here and just wrap it all up. I think there really is like, like I think we're getting very close to there, to the mayor just saying, you know what, let's just get a full-time DH.

Let's just see, you know, we like let's just get the offense by any means necessary. Right. That's kind of where I'm getting. to as well just in terms of like how I would like to see things go. Right, but you still need an outfielder because you just can't roll with Jared Kelnick. And I love

David Peralta, by the way. I think that's a great idea and I don't think the Mariners should limit themselves to a right-handed bat in the outfield either. I know that they want to try and create some sort of platoon with Kelnick in order to get him at-bats, but... You can still get Kelnik plenty of at-bats. Even with Peralta. Peralta is still

pretty good defender too. Yeah. And he's not terrible against lefties either. He can hold his own against lefties. So yeah, you know, I think you can still get, I still think you can get Kelnick plenty of at-bats. I think you can get them three, four starts a week, mostly against Ritey's. You can use them late in games off the bench. Like, and honestly, getting Kelnick 500 at-bats shouldn't be the goal, right? The goal should be to win the division. And so David Peralta helps you with that. And if Kelnick does earn 500 at-bats, great. Then you have a really good fourth outfielder to protect yourself from injuries in case Julio needs

a week or to Oscar, you know, hurts his shoulder and he's out a month like, okay, well, Kelnick is now the right fielder and Paralto's left fielder. You know, so you can still get Kelnick plenty of at-bats, even if you go sign a guy like Paralto to be the left fielder and go get like Luke Voight to be the D.H. You know what I mean? You could still get Kelnick plenty of at-bats in that scenario. I like Peralta so much that like even if they're, you know, some of these other guys were still available and they ended up signing David Peralta, I would have been really cool with

that I actually would have been very excited about that. So if they end up getting Peralta here, that would be nice. That would be a really nice addition. All right. So we're going to be talking more about trades and whatnot because we have a question from a friend of the show. We're going to get to that in just a moment. But first, a message from the NHTSA. You're hanging out with some friends and putting back a few with drinks, but a few becomes a few too many.

And as the evening comes to an end and people start to head out, you think of calling for a ride. but not. You live nearby. You can make it home okay. It's no big deal. What are the odds you'll get pulled over anyway? And even so, what's the worst that could happen? Your insurance goes up. You lose your license. You lose your job. You total your car. What if you kill someone? Everyone knows about the risks of driving drunk. The results are tragic and often deadly. However, it still doesn't stop everyone from getting behind the wheel while under the influence. That's why police officers are out there right now looking for impaired drivers on our roads to save lives. So if you think you're okay to drive after a few drinks, think again, play it safe and plan ahead to get a ride. It only takes one mistake to change your life or someone else's forever, drive sober or get pulled over. And you're listening to the Lockdown Mariners podcast. Thank you again for making us your first listen. So we have a question from friend of the show, Ben Rennery, who actually guest hosted a show with me during the summer. and Ben wants to know, is there a Mitch Hanager slash Thai France type player out there?

Both players were great minor league hitters being blocked by big league talent. So could Jerry look to find an option like this instead of an expensive player like Brian Reynolds? So thank you, first of all, for the question, Ben. There's a few names that I think could kind of fit what you're looking for. None of them are really perfect comps in terms of situation. But Colby, I was thinking we could get into a few of these. I know you like Pavin Smith from the Diamondbacks. You mentioned him in our DMs today.

He's a guy that hasn't really found his way at the Major League level last three years. He made his Major League debut in 2020, posted a 97 WRC Plus in 12 games. He played 145 games in 2021, played a hell of a lot for the Diamondbacks. Slash 27, 328, 404. It's a 96 WRC plus, but that slash line is not too bad. The issue, though, is, you know, he's a first base corner outfield DH type. That's really, you know, what he is, and you would like to see more production out of there from that position. And then this past season, the 75 games, just a 220, 300, 367 triple slash line with an 87 WRC plus.

down in the minor league level colby you know we know how much uh jerry and justin hollander love their minor league performers he crush it down in the minor league so uh what do you think of smith who's 26 years old now as a potential bounce back candidate obviously the the diamondbacks have a ton of outfield depth right now or at least a ton of guys that they're going to rotate through those spots right now and the dh and first base they just added lord esgerie l jrille junior to that mix now. So what do you think about Smith as a potential bounce back option here? Someone that's not going to cost you a ton. What do you think? I think he's okay. I don't think he's good enough that I'd rather give him at bats than somebody like Jared Kelnick, for example. But he's an interesting guy. He's kind of decently athletic. He can stand out in the outfield and even played a little bit of center field last in 2021. But yeah, he's left field first base. I think I'd probably rather take the chance on like Brandon Belt,

if that's the type of profile I'm going to go get. But he's interesting. And, you know, there are definitely some things that Jerry and his analysts are going to like about Smith's game. There are some things that that aren't a perfect fit. So I think he's interesting. I don't think he'd be all that expensive. But he does have, I think, four full years of club control remaining.

So he's not going to be super cheap either. We'll have to wait and see what Arizona decides to do. Again, very weird team. They just traded Varsho. It looks like maybe they could be, you know, starting to rebuild, but it doesn't sound like they want to trade Cotel Marte. It doesn't sound like they're interested in taking offers on Walker or Gallin. So who really knows what the Arizona Diamondbacks are going to do?

They're one of the great mystery teams in Major League Baseball. They never seem to know what they want to do either. And let's just go from one mystery team to another here. There's a couple guys on the race that I think fits this bill, at least a little. little bit. Josh Lowe, this guy that's actually had a little bit of success at the major league level, but overall just slash 221, 284, 343, and 52 games this past year was worth 0.3F4. So a positive F war overall. He was 87th percentile in sprint speed this past season. He didn't register for a lot of the baseball savant metrics, but he he did in sprint speed.

It was 87th percent all that. And he's just, he's done everything that you could possibly do at the AAA level the last couple of years. 142 WRC plus in 2021, 151 WRC plus in 2022 down in AAA. He doesn't need AAA anymore. He needs to be playing at the major league level and he needs to be able to get fairly consistent reps. Now, the thing with that is right now the Mariners are kind of in a similar predicament with Jared Kellnick.

So why would you add another type of guy? And honestly, Lowe is not that far off from Kelnick either in age. 24 years old to 23 years old. However, though, he is going to turn 25 in February. So a little bit of an age difference there. But similar situations in general, I just, I don't know if you want to add another one of those guys, but that's kind of interesting because I just don't really see him getting the playing time in Tampa from here. Any thoughts on low?

I like him. I like the profile. I like the athletic skills. But like you said, he's so similar to Kelnick, just in terms of the role that he would fill. I don't think you want two KELNICs on your roster. So I'd probably pass, but I mean, depending on the price, you're certainly interested because there are a lot of tools to build on with low. Yeah, this is a guy that, you know, again, I mentioned the sprint speed. He had 30 steals back in 2019, 26 steals back in 2021, 25 steals in AAA this past season in 28 if you want to combine his MLB numbers.

So he certainly would provide value on the base pass and would give this team some much needed speed, right? Like this, you know, they've added a little bit of that. They've added some better base running skills and guys like Colton Long. But they were so bad on the base pass last year and so slow overall as a team. There's an article about that that you can read on Prospect Insider by Luke Arkins that really dives into that. It's just, yeah, they need to get more athletic. So Josh Lowe would help them do that. Now, on the complete opposite end of the spectrum is Jonathan Aranda, who's not going to give them any athleticism at all.

I believe FanGraphs actually has them. Yeah, Fangraphs has them here as a 20-grade runner. So, yikes. Aranda is basically Yandi Diaz. They have two Yondi Diases. Now, Aranda hasn't found success at the major league level. He played in 32 games this year after making his debut. he slashed just 192, 276, 321 with a 74 WRC plus, negative 0.2F4, just two home runs, 6 REI,

struck out 26.4% of the time. But in the minor leagues, he's, you know, high on base guy. He's cracked a 400 on base percentage twice in his minor league career, three times, actually. Or no, two times because the other time that he did it was like only two games. So he's cracked it two times He's you know Just big bats of all skills guy Walks a lot

The what you're getting here is a hit tool and plate discipline That's really all you're you know All you're getting here He doesn't hit for power Just like Yandi Diaz Like I mentioned like that's There's a lot of comps to be made there He's just he's a lefty

Yondi Diaz really And we know about the mess of You know middle infielder's the race have On their 40 man roster right now Ronda is on their 40 man roster right now Ronda is on their 40-man roster as well. Of course, you know, he played out the major league level. So, you know, I could see an opportunity here.

I think he was actually even mentioned in some rumors this off season. I could see an opportunity here for the Marys to maybe get a Ronda and actually give him some opportunities, especially if they do have that DH open because he's a guy that would certainly fit that. You don't want him playing in the field a lot. So, but that hit tool is really interesting. If that actually gets going, yeah, he doesn't hit for a lot of power, but you can get on base, you know, 370, 380, 390, something like that, and, you know, hit for a 320 average and walk as much as he does, that's a really valuable hitter.

Yeah, there's a little tie France to the profile as well, just like ultimately, probably a first baseman, but, you know, the race did play him some at third, some at second, but he really shouldn't play there. He should be your first baseman or your DH. And, you know, it's funny. You talk about the two years he had an on-base percentage of over 400. Last year, it was all the way down to 394. So he's clearly a declining player. But no, he's interesting, but he's interesting enough and he's cheap enough that I wonder of maybe the Rays want to make him the guy that they use.

And maybe that makes them more open to trading somebody like Yandi Diaz or maybe somebody like Esauk Parades, who had a really weird kind of year last year, only at 200, but he did hit 20 home runs, and there is some versatility there defensively. So yeah, I don't know if he's going to be available because I could see the race just being like, oh, well, you know, Yandi only has a year left, so or two years left. So let's just trade him and parade, and, you know, and Aranda is the same guy. So we'll just, we'll just make that swap. So if he is available, though, I would be interested. I like the bat enough to think that that can play and I think you can hide him around the field

enough to get him enough at bats that you can really see what he can do at the major league level. Lastly on my list, I don't know if you have anyone else, Colby, but lastly on my list is David V.R. Who's just crushed at every level of the minor leagues. Finally got a chance at the major league level with the Giants this year. He's 25 years old.

He right-handed hitter, right-handed throw. replaced third base uh mostly he's played some first he's dhed a little bit played some second a little bit uh so he's played pretty much all around the diamond except for short um 231 331 455 uh this past year that's a 124 wrc plus and 52 games that's not nothing he was worth almost a full win uh this year nine home runs uh 24 rbi i now the giants didn't sign carlos karia so i think if you know if they signed correa this would make even more sense because he would be even more blocked But, you know, they do have Wilma Flores. They do have Brandon Crawford.

They do have Thiro, Thiro Estrada. They do still have Tommy Lestella. I can't believe that contract is still going on. They have guys. They have J.D. Davis. So they do have guys that are taking opportunities away from VR. But he's also 25 years old. He's shown some success at the Major League level.

I don't think that they're really in a position where they're wanting to get rid of him because he's nice depth to have. but if they were, I think this is kind of an interesting swing for the mirrors to take. Yeah, he fills more of the corner infield bat type of thing

that Jerry was talking about. Not a very good defender. Not terrible at third, but you really don't want to, you really don't want to overexpose him there. So yeah, his first base, third base, DH.

Yeah, the numbers were pretty surprising when you mentioned them. I started to look around at his numbers, and there are some really, promising things here in the miners. He wasn't in any of the summer camps in 2020 during the pandemic year. And he came back and essentially he found power in that break. And that's really is what changed his profile because I don't think there's enough hit tool here that he was going to hit like, you know, 280 with a 370 on base. And then you could survive with the 400 slug at third base.

I didn't think that was going to be possible. So he found some power. There is a little bit of swing and miss here to be. concerned about. And again, his defense is not great. It's it's workable. You can make it work, but he ultimately probably comps closer to, to Thai France than like Mitch Hanager, who was at least able to give you something defensively when he, when he was healthy. So, yeah, I'm interested to that guy, though, because I think, you know, like, I don't think you can get him for like a Penn Murphy, but maybe Matt Besta for David V.R. Maybe that makes some sense, that type of deal. But we'll see what happens with him.

But he is an interesting guy. And the Giants are fairly good at player development. So it's possible that they found something here that, you know, has turned his bat into a legitimate bat. Also, have we considered that maybe the next Mitch Hanager next type France is just on the Mariners already? Cade Marlowe. Cade Marlowe.

I mean, it makes a lot of sense. Like in terms of just, you know, comping the situations. Marlowe's 20, 25 years old. He's crushed every level of the minor leagues. Did Mitch Hanager ever have a 30% strikeout rate in the high miners? Let's look. Let's find out. I'm like, it's a legitimate question.

I'm going to guess no, but I would guess no as well, but let's see. Wait, oh, no, it's not showing his minor league numbers. No, he did not strike out that much. He struck, I think the most he struck out on the miners was, 19.9%. It's a little ways off from the, what, 28, 29% Marlowe ran last year? Yeah, he ran,

ooh, he had a 38.3% in AAA. 13 games, though. 13 games though. Yeah. He was, he was 25.7, which is fine, is. That's a little higher. It's a little high.

It's pretty high for AA in his age at that level. Like, I hope I'm wrong about Cade Marlowe, because he is a fun player. Like he's got some speed. He's developed some power. There's there's average skills. Like, but that's strikeout rate at his age at those levels. Yeah.

That's, that's tough to ignore. It's very concerning. And, you know, I think defensively he's going to be pretty good too. Like, I'm excited to see. I think we're going to see a lot of Cade Marlowe this spring, especially with the number of mariners who appear to be headed to the World Baseball Classic.

He's one of those guys that like if we do like a, hey, five guys, I'm watching really closely in spring training list. He's going to be on that list because he's a really interesting guy. But man, that's strikeout rate. Like if you're striking out 25% of the time as a 25-year-old in AA, and then you go to AAA, and even if it's only two weeks, you strike out almost 40% of the time, like, yeah, essentially all of his at bat's ended at a hit or strikeout.

That was Cade Marlowe in AAA last year. Two true outcomes. Yeah, man, but yeah, he's he's fun. And the mayors have had success finding guys like this. Obviously, Hanager and France are the two big ones. But, you know, look at what they were able to turn Austenola into and look at what, you know, Austinola became, it became Thai France. And you also, even on the smaller end of success, they've had success with guys like

Dylan Moore and Sam Hagridi, who were both, you know, role players, I guess, who were minor league nothings. They were minor league free agents, I think. when the Mariners found them. So the Mariners do have a pretty good track record of finding these guys, but every team in baseball is looking for, you know, the upper 20s minor leagher who just hasn't gotten the right chance for one reason or another that they just find.

And all of a sudden they get prime production for like three years at no cost. So every team's looking for Mitch Hanigers. The Mariners have found one, I would say two. And they've also found varying success with a few other guys, just not quite. Mitch Hanaker levels. All right. So that's going to do it for our show today.

Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown News podcast. For Colby Patnode, I'm Taday Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at LO underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Dan Gonzalez. It's D-A-N-Z-L-Z and Colby at C-Pad 11. That's C-P-A-T-1-1. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. And thank you again for making us your first listen.

For you next listen, check out the Lockdown Sports Today podcast. featuring the biggest stories of the day, plus instant reactions, big game recaps, and the take of the day. It's available on the honesty app, YouTube, and wherever you get your podcast just like us. And with that, have yourself a beautiful baseball day, and we'll see you on Friday.