Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - The Mariners Are Broke Boys? What Does This Mean For the Rest of the Offseason?

Episode Date: December 5, 2023

This is far from the first winter that payroll has been a big topic of discussion within the Mariners fanbase, but it is one of the few times the organization has openly admitted it's an actual issue.... Jerry Dipoto told media members at the Winter Meetings on Monday that the team's offseason essentially began with the trade of Jarred Kelenic to the Braves, which allowed Seattle to offload the contracts of Marco Gonzales and Evan White. So what does this mean for the rest of the offseason? Ty and Colby discuss.Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @danegnzlz | @CPat11Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Jase MedicalGet $20 off these lifesaving antibiotics with Jase Medical by using code LOCKEDON at checkout on jasemedical.com.FanDuelScore early this NFL season with FanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook! Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning FIVE DOLLAR MONEYLINE BET! That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – if your team wins! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON 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) 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.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 The Mariners are poor, or at least that's what they want us to think. Either way, Jerry DiPoto and company have been forced to get very creative this offseason. So how should they attack the off season now that they say they have financial flexibility? Let's talk about it. Colby, hit it. You are Locked on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day.
Starting point is 00:00:29 Ah, Hoy, Sailors. It is Tuesday, December 5th, 2023. this is tidang is awesome. Colby Patnaud for the Locked-on Mariners podcast. 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're part of the crew and rock with us every single day, let us know in the comments below.
Starting point is 00:00:49 And if you want to hear from us even more, please consider signing up for our Patreon. You can now get a free seven-day trial to check out the show. The link as well as their social accounts is in the description of this episode. The winter meetings kicked off yesterday down in Nashville, and both Scott Service and Jerry Depoto spoke about as candidly about their financial situation as they possibly can't without getting themselves fired. DePoto said that after trading Jared Kelnick to the Braves to dump the salaries of Evan White and Marco Gonzalez, the Mariners offseason has essentially begun just now, and it's allowed for them to expand their list of targets.
Starting point is 00:01:28 So we're going to talk about who some of those targets could be and how the Mariners should attack this off season. But we're also going to talk about the state of the Mariners' finances and some of the other interesting things, both service and Depoto had to say. So let's start here, Colby. The general sense coming out of yesterday is that the Mariners, even after the A. E. E. E. Hennio Swarrest trade, basically had no money whatsoever to work with. Ryan Debis said as much in a response to someone on Twitter that, quote, they have money now. They didn't yesterday.
Starting point is 00:02:05 What do you make of that? I make of it that John Stanton's a coward who needs to talk to the fans instead of hiding behind Jerry Depoto. Also, it's pretty shameful that Jerry DePoto has been put in a place where he has to be in charge of not only the baseball ops department, he has to be in charge of your business somehow. That doesn't make a lot of sense, especially when you said you were going to separate the two. But I don't know. It sure looks like the business side is dictating to the baseball side instead of the other way around. So, you know, do I think that they had no money before they made this trade the other day?
Starting point is 00:02:41 I really hope not because this trade only cleared $15 million. What are you going to get with $15 million? Like one good bat, one good bat and a bench guy? Whoopty-do. So I don't know if it's about, you know, all of a sudden. son John Stanton did a 180 and he's given Jerry more money. That doesn't seem likely because we know Stanton's a coward and he's cheap. So what do you do?
Starting point is 00:03:06 I don't know. I don't know what to think of Divish's statements because they're contradicted by other people and then they're confirmed by other people and nobody seems to have any clue what the Seattle Mariners are doing or what they're willing to do this winter. And that is the fault of John Stanton and the ownership group. and I don't know how Jerry and Justin are supposed to handle a situation where the amount of money they have to spend is basically dictated by the whims of one person, which seemingly can happen at any time because apparently the reduced payroll number wasn't given to Jerry until about three weeks ago. You know what was three weeks ago? the opening day of free agency. So the day of free agency or right around there, they got told they had less money to spend is what I'm gathering here.
Starting point is 00:04:02 So I don't know what to think of Divish's article because I don't know how much of it is true. I don't doubt Divish has been told those things, but nobody seems to be able to get a firm answer on the Mariners, where they're at payroll-wise, what to believe, what not. everybody's kind of got contradictory reports with the final numbers is allowed to be and all that stuff. And, you know, meanwhile, the ownership group just sits back. Let's Jerry and Justin and Scott take all the arrows. Let's the players get furious because they don't understand what's happening.
Starting point is 00:04:32 And, you know, let's the fans basically run around, run amok because we're just trying to understand what's happening here. And nobody will just speak to us like we're adults because that's what cowards do. they hide in the shadows and they just reap the rewards of what other hardworking people have actually put into, you know, turning this franchise around. So I don't know. I don't know what to think. If John Stanton was a good owner and an accountable owner, he would get on the Mariners flagship station right now or set up a press conference and say to the fan base, there are a lot of reports out there about what money we have or what money we don't have and who we're in on and who we're out on. this is what it is. Let's just cut through the BS and talk about it.
Starting point is 00:05:22 And he's not going to do that. He's not going to do that. He's going to continue to allow Jerry Depoto to take arrows for him. Jerry to putto to continue spewing word vomit every time he gets in front of a microphone and make things ultimately worse with every little thing he continues to say because even Jerry right now is kind of contradicting himself with the statements that he's making. And it's not just reports out there. It's Jerry himself is contradicting himself because, you know, he says on the end of season press conference,
Starting point is 00:05:52 payroll is going to go up beyond where it was in 2023. Then, obviously, you know, they trade a Johanio Suarez, which is at least partly a money-saving move. They trade Jared Kelnick in order to dump the salaries of Evan White and Marco Gonzalez. But then after doing that, doubles down and says, yeah, payroll is going to go beyond where it was in 2023. But then yesterday says, well, our office. off-season actually began today because of that trade. And we weren't really able to do the things that we want to do until we opened up more payroll. So what's the truth here?
Starting point is 00:06:30 What's going on? I, you know, and I assume that this is some sort of cover for the fact that Stanton once again has pulled the rug out from under Jerry DePoto and Justin Hollander, as he has done in previous off-season. So this isn't the first time we've heard this song and dance from Jerry to Poto. This isn't the first time Jerry has gone up there for the end of season press conference and has spoken more optimistically about the financial flexibility he would have only to change his tune midway through the off season. In the past, the excuses have been the effects of the pandemic. And then it was, oh, well, let's see if this team is good enough to,
Starting point is 00:07:14 to win and sustain winning. Well, they won 90 games in back-to-back seasons and ended the longest playoff you're out in professional sports. And then it was, oh, well, our payroll is going to Crest in 2026. So we have to account for that. Now this year it's the TV deal.
Starting point is 00:07:30 And while the RSA stuff is an actual problem, not just for the Mariners, but across the league. We know that this is having an impact. But it's hard not to buy that it's at least to a certain degree an excuse to maximize profits because the Mariners are projecting that they're not going to make as much off of their TV deals as they have in previous years. Right. It's about profits above all else. And it's not about just making a profit. It's about making a specific profit that will make the ownership happy. And if anything goes wrong or anything kind of messes that causes the profit number to go down, not below zero.
Starting point is 00:08:14 But just to go down at all, they're taking it right out of the baseball budget instead of just taking it out of their own profits, which is what a responsible owner would do. So, yeah, you know, there's no shortage of mics. If John Stanton wants to get in front of a mic and tell people what's up, they're going to be 1,000 of them shoved in his face. He can go on MLB Network. He can go on Root Sports, which his team apparently owns, allegedly. He can go on 710, which is the flagship station of the Seattle Mariners. Of course, they're going to put him on the air. He can even pick Mike Salk to a lot of him softball questions,
Starting point is 00:08:48 but he needs to do something. And what is he going to do? Nothing, nothing. Because he doesn't care about you. He doesn't care about his ball club. He doesn't care about the fan base. He'll tell you he does. All I care about is winning.
Starting point is 00:09:02 And yet he's done zero, nothing to back up his sports. Nothing. So, yeah, step up or shut up. And shutting up. not really an option right now because your franchise right now, kind of the laughing stock of baseball, nobody's quite sure what you're doing. Your fan base is furious and obviously your manager is not too happy with you either.
Starting point is 00:09:28 And neither are the players in that clubhouse. You're losing the fan base. You're losing the players. You're losing momentum that has been hard built over the last three or four years. All because you don't want to step up and be a man and have some account. ability for your decisions. Yeah. We're going to keep talking about this, but first, a reminder of this episode of the
Starting point is 00:09:52 Lockdown Errors podcast is brought to you by Jace Medical. You know, we spend a lot of time talking together, you and I. We get fired up together on wins and losses, who starts and who sits. And I'm thankful for that connection we have. But today, I want our chat to be a little more personal. I just learned that you can get a one-year supply on ED medications. You realize what that? that means? Bring on extended travel. Bring on the next natural disaster or supply chain issue because
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Starting point is 00:11:11 that's O-C-D-O-N, $20 off your purchase. And you're listening to the Lockdown Marys podcast. Thank you again for making us your first listen and as a reminder, Locked on has launched the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel on YouTube. Locked-on Sports Today is here for you 24-7 covering the top sports stories of the day with the local experts of Locked-on plus our national shows covering every league.
Starting point is 00:11:36 Go to Locked-on Sports today on YouTube and subscribe to the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel, part of the Lockdown podcast network, your team every day. And once again, a reminder, this is our last five show week of 2023. And for the next couple of months, we'll be going back to five shows around the time that pitchers and catchers report. But in the meantime, starting next week, we are going to be three shows a week here.
Starting point is 00:12:06 We're going to be posting Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. CTZ over on our Patreon will be posted on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So Colby and I are just recording one show a day here for the next couple of months. But of course, if the mayor is, you know, make any deals on the weekend or on a Tuesday or a Thursday, you can be sure we'll do an emergency podcast on those days if, you know, we're available. So lastly, question of the day. I don't have one. Colby, do you have a question of the day?
Starting point is 00:12:36 Why is John a man such a coward? Ooh, why is he such a coward? better yet what would you say to john stanton right now and try to try to keep it clean try to don't get too unhinged with it down in the comments i don't want to have to like delete any posts down below be creative with your discuss so the mariners apparently now have financial flexibility oh now just now now after they removed you know seven guys from the 26 man roster now Now they have okay cool, cool. Good to know now.
Starting point is 00:13:16 Right. Just now. Scott's service is even pissed. It's pretty clear. You should be. Service with the, you know, we're working with the cards were dealt is the best way
Starting point is 00:13:30 he would put it. Essentially what he said yesterday. And you know, even Jerry, I mean, the fact that Jerry is being pretty open about the financial situation says a lot because he knows
Starting point is 00:13:47 how the fans are going to take that. He knows that those quotes are going out there and he knows what the temperature of this fan base is. He knows what he's doing by saying that. And I don't really blame either one of them for being furious about this, especially again, you know, I mean, they outright basically said
Starting point is 00:14:07 that the rug was pulled out from under them, but it makes their job, infinitely harder. It opens up the door now for the front office to make more mistakes to fail because now there is more pressure
Starting point is 00:14:24 upon them to take shots on players to trade valuable assets whether those are major league players or minor league players to try and get better because they don't have enough financial flexibility
Starting point is 00:14:40 or enough financial support from ownership to at least have some fallback options, to at least have other avenues to explore where they're not pinned in a corner. And who is going to suffer the consequences if things go sideways again, folks? It's not John Stanton. It's not Chris Larson. It's not any of the other minority owners who are lurking in the shadows up there. Because ownership, folks, is a constant.
Starting point is 00:15:09 John Stanton is a constant. Chris Larson is a constant. GMs, presidents of baseball operations, managers, they all come and go. Ownership is forever until the owner says otherwise. And so, you know, this has been very in line,
Starting point is 00:15:32 very within theme of what the power dynamic has been in the mayor's organization since Stanton took over. Service takes Stanton's arrows from the players, Depoto takes Stanton's arrows from the fans While Stanton quite literally sits behind the cameras Like he did at the end of season press conference That's not an exaggeration He literally did that he was literally there in the room
Starting point is 00:15:55 Lurking in the shadows As Jerry DePoto nationally embarrassed the organization Because he once again is having to cover up For stuff that he really has No business dealing with his side of things has this is why they split up the president position that was the point of bringing in katie griggs to handle the business aspect of the mariners and have a president of baseball operations with jerry depoto so he could just focus on baseball stuff but the jared kelnick trade as we talked about yesterday and on sunday is not baseball stuff that's a business decision jerry depoto and justin hollander have a plan for this off season, or they had a plan, they had a vision for this off season and thought that they were going to have X amount of dollars to execute that vision.
Starting point is 00:16:50 And then all of a sudden, no, you actually have this amount of money. And so now they've had to manufacture a way to get back to the point where they feel that they can accomplish what they feel they need to accomplish this off season. And it includes dumping fan favorites and getting less value than you could. for Jared Kelnick. And now it's probably going to include the need to overpay and prospect capital for pre-arbitration players who are not going to make a ton of money instead of just going out and getting similar players for $12, $15 million in keeping your Harry Ford's and your,
Starting point is 00:17:28 you know, your Brian Woo's and, uh, Brian Woo. Uh, you know, now he's not a prospect. Uh, you know, Harry Ford, Cole Emerson, uh, those guys. Now you have to give those guys away. Uh, because your ownership. ship is cheap and all of a sudden now you're because of the alleged lateness of which you know this this change in in available money came down the pipe now you're kind of starting from ground zero uh you you have to go back and that why why haven't the mariners made any ads yet like legitimate ads yet
Starting point is 00:18:00 because they've spent the first month of the off season just trying to get back to a place where they could go out and make more ads and they're probably still not going to make the get to make the number of ads that they thought they were going to. So yeah, it's a mess. And now Jerry's job gets infinitely harder. The idea that you're going to build a sustainable winner without spending free agent dollars, pretty laughable. You kind of look at it, the one team that's managed to do that, Tampa Bay, and that's a
Starting point is 00:18:32 unicorn. And they also haven't won a championship. Right. So, I mean, Atlanta doesn't play big in free agency, but they, acquire guys and then they give them big extensions like Atlanta's running the top 10 payroll right now. So you kind of look at it. You got a unicorn out there and you got a bunch of teams who are trying to build sustainable winners and the ones who have built sustainable winners, they they aren't afraid to spend.
Starting point is 00:18:58 And John Sand is petrified to write a check. Right. Because again, it's not about spending as much money as you possibly can. It's not about just throwing dollars recklessly at players. it's about having that at your disposal if the opportunity arises and it makes sense. And like with the Otani thing, right? Like none of us expected that they were going to actually land Otani. But if the reports are true that they just blanched out the money and didn't even try,
Starting point is 00:19:32 like that's very disappointing that they didn't even put their hat in the ring for an all-time. talent who actually showed some interest in playing for them six years ago. You know, it's just, so, it's so, so that's obviously on the high end, but even if it like, again, if it keeps you from getting Jordan Montgomery,
Starting point is 00:19:55 Blake Snow, or whatever, so you can then turn around trade some of your young pitching for the bad or bass that you need, like we've talked about so much this off season, if it even keeps you from doing that, which is an area where you should be able to pay market value because pitchers actually want to come to Seattle whereas hitters don't
Starting point is 00:20:13 like that's a problem that's a problem and and if it's even stopping you from being able to just add a couple of you know 10 to 15 million dollar players that's a legitimate problem it's a major
Starting point is 00:20:29 major problem you're listening to the lockdown airs podcast thank you again for making us your first listen so Colby you wrote an article on your substact I believe last night, sort of sports dot substack.com, about some more affordable players in terms of dollar figures that the Mariners could potentially target here. So I don't know if you want to rehash that or at least talk about some of the names on there or you have any other ideas that kind of fall in line with that that you want to go over.
Starting point is 00:21:02 But who are some players that you think the marries could target now that it seems we have a better idea of where they stand? No, I'm done. Show's over. I'm out. All right. I don't blame me to be honest with you. I'm very tired about talking about this. You know, guys, we try to not do the payroll discussion as much as possible because it's, it's, there's so much of that out there already.
Starting point is 00:21:30 Whether you go on Twitter, whether you listen to the radio, it's it's so much. All the discussion around this team right now is understandably dominated by payroll. but it's unavoidable right now. They've outright just said, which they haven't in the past, right? There's always been, I mean, Jerry, even last year came on the show and said,
Starting point is 00:21:51 you know, we have money. We have money to spend. But this time he said, no, we actually didn't. We had to make a move to get money. So,
Starting point is 00:22:04 yeah, we have to talk about it. We're not going to make this the identity of the show now. We're not going to make every show about this, but right now we we do have to talk about this a little bit. So sorry. Anyway, but I'm just as tired of it as I'm sure you guys are as well.
Starting point is 00:22:20 Yeah. So yeah, obviously, unfortunately, it looks like it is now going to be basically impossible for Jerry and Justin to add the number of bats they need to add with the impact they need add without getting somebody who's making league minimum, which,
Starting point is 00:22:40 you know, impact bats who are making league minimum are incredibly, incredibly expensive and they're not often traded unless you're giving up Juan Soto or like a legitimate number one starter or whatever. Or you're paying a ton of prospect capital more than it's probably smart, but that's kind of where we're at. And it also doesn't help that right now, 25-ish teams probably are going into this winter thinking like if everything goes pretty well.
Starting point is 00:23:12 We have a legit shot to make the playoffs. So if there's only four or five teams who are even contemplating selling players like this, you're in trouble. You're going to have to pay more. So I went around. I found six pre-R players, three left-handed bats, three right-handed bats that makes sense for Seattle. But honestly, the list maybe two of these guys, I would classify as,
Starting point is 00:23:39 likely movers. So it's, you know, it's a bit of a risk here. So just go through some real fast. Kerry Carpenter of the Tigers. He talks about him on Fan Fiction Friday last week. Yep. He crushed it in Seattle. And in the one series he was here, he's a really solid hitter.
Starting point is 00:23:59 He's a career 278, 334, 474 hitter. And just under a full season worth of at-bats. It's left-handed pole power. That plays really well at Team Mobile. He should have 20, 25 home run upside, no problem. He's Teoscar Hernandez with a better on base and obviously five years of club control and on the upswing of his career instead of the downswing like Teosker is. So he's a guy, Michael Garcia. You know, remember you guys remember him from Kansas City.
Starting point is 00:24:31 He and Bobby Witt did a number on the Mariners, those seven games that they played, as well as another guy on this list intent. How do the Mariners go six and one in that season series? I don't know, but they did. Garcia is a fantastic defensive third baseman, one of the best in baseball. He has no power whatsoever, which makes him kind of a weird fit. He's a good athlete, not an elite athlete. He's a really good third baseman, kind of was averageish at second base. Can play shortstop if you need him to.
Starting point is 00:25:04 No power. He had 272, and yet somehow he only slug three. 58. And the weird thing about him is that he hits the ball hard regularly. Like this isn't a guy who just slapping the ball. You know, no, he hits line drives. He hits ball hard. He was in, let me see if I have it here in my notes. He was in the 93rd percentile in hard hit rate last year. And he's not hitting for power? He hits a lot of ground balls. He gets a lot of line drives. Neither of those are going to turn into home runs at Kaufman. So it's a launch angle issue? So it's a launch angle issue? apparently because it's certainly not an exevalo issue. It's not anything like that. That's interesting because maybe that's actually something you make a tweak and then he starts hitting more doubles and
Starting point is 00:25:51 homerons. But he's 23. He's got five years of club control left. That's a guy that's going to cost you Bryce Miller plus. And at least as of now, the Mariners don't seem likely to trade one of their stars. So that's the other thing, right? Jerry yesterday said that trading one of their pitchers. It's less likely than it was before the Kelnick deal, which Marco, I guess. I could put on,
Starting point is 00:26:17 maybe, but if we want to put our tinfoil hats on here, maybe it's they know that they can get a bat for just money, like the bat that they would, that's pretty much in line with what they would trade Miller or Wu for just with money. Maybe, but that guy is, there's only like two of those guys out there.
Starting point is 00:26:35 Yeah. And I feel like you're going to have to pay for what they're going. Well, and I also feel like, oh, well, yeah, there's that. But also like, I mean, even if it's just someone like Jorge Saler or whatever, I feel like you're going to have to overpay to get him to Seattle. So it's like, is that really the smartest thing to do with your money? Which is why I offer the following Jorge Saler light option. The Jorge Saler cope.
Starting point is 00:27:02 Sure. Brent Rooker of the A's. the A's are one of the few teams who does not think they have a shot next year because they don't. They also don't care about putting a competitive baseball team out there because nobody's going to show up to those games. And Brent Rooker had a good year. Now he strikes out a lot. That is a problem. He doesn't play good defense, but he walks.
Starting point is 00:27:19 He hits the ball very hard. And he doesn't chase. He's not striking out because he's swinging at everything. He just swings and misses at strikes. She tells me there might be a tweak there where you can get him to make more contact. And if he can drop his K percentage from 30% to 26. percent or whatever. It's a very good D.H.
Starting point is 00:27:38 You get them for five full years, and Oakland is the type of team that might take bulk. They have in the past. So maybe this isn't, you know, we have to give up Harry Ford. Maybe this is, we have to give up, you know, Emerson Hancock and Jonathan Clase and, you know,
Starting point is 00:27:55 Alberto Rodriguez. Maybe it's something like that. So I think Rooker's probably the most likely guy on my list to be traded. But I think the Mariners probably would, prefer to go elsewhere. But Brooker at some point is going to make a ton of sense. At some point pretty quick, I would say. Maybe my favorite guy on the list, though,
Starting point is 00:28:13 MJ Melendez is a guy I've talked about a lot. Well, not a lot, but some. He, you know, decent year in Kansas City, but it's really his second half that has me intrigued. Last year in the final 64 games for Kansas City at 273, 352, 485. he's hit 16 to 18 home runs in a ballpark that isn't really conducive to left-handed pull power in the way that T-Mobile is. He is a guy who draws, has no issues drawing walks throughout his career.
Starting point is 00:28:47 He's an 11.11.5% walk guy. Strikeout rate is a little elevated. It's about 26%, give or take on average. But again, he's 25 years old. You get him for five years. Good athlete, graded out as one of the best base runners in all of baseball. Not a good defender. you know, in a corner outfield spot.
Starting point is 00:29:04 But this is a guy who was a catcher until last year. So right. There might be some room for improvement there. You could also, you know, again, you could squat behind home plate for a couple games a month and not absolutely kill you there. So there's some versatility there. Again, that guy's probably going to cost you Miller or Wu as well. But I would be interested in that because it's still five years and he's 25 years old
Starting point is 00:29:24 and he's coming off of a 124 WRC plus that saw his K rate drop over the last 60 to 65 games of the year last year. So just a few guys. There's a couple more. You guys can check out. Again, nothing earth-shattering. But yeah, I think those are three or four guys that are pretty interesting and would be to the Mariners. But they're going to cost because that's what these type of players do.
Starting point is 00:29:49 They cost a lot in trade capital. And that's the downside of not being able to go out and spend, you know, $18 million on Jorge Salar or whatever. It cost you prospects instead. Which makes sustainability take a hit. What about spending $25 million a year on Cody Bellinger, Colby? Because apparently John Morosi thinks that's possible. This is where we throw our heads back and laughter. Ha, ha, ha, ha.
Starting point is 00:30:16 Even if the Mariners all of a sudden now have like $35 million to spend on free agency, you need three bats at the very least two. Why would you go spend? Probably four. Yeah. Like, why would you go spend 26 to 20s? million of your 35 million on one player if you even have it. Right.
Starting point is 00:30:37 Now, you got to spread it. Unless you're going to go sign Cody Bellinger and then go acquire two of these guys on your list and completely got the top end of your farm system. Doesn't make sense. You got to spread that money out a little bit. Unfortunately, Jerry has to think about that type of stuff because,
Starting point is 00:30:52 again, John Stan is a coward. So John Morosi today, he checked off another player that, he's linked to the Mariners. This tweet today was a bit more substantial than, like at least in terms of the wording, right? On the surface,
Starting point is 00:31:10 it feels a little bit more substantial than when he talked about like Jamir Candelario for the Marrists. Like he said the Mariners are considering Cody Bellinger as one of their free agent options. Like outright just said that. Like that's as if that's something that he's heard. I've been told though that that's false. Like that they're,
Starting point is 00:31:27 they haven't considered Cody Bellinger that they're not like in on Cody Bellinger right now or anything of the light because again unless they have a lot more money than they're letting on right now for some reason which weird strategy if that is the case they're not going to spend that the money you would take on Cody Bellinger when they still have to address at least two more spots after that and probably three we're being very honest about where this roster is right now where this lineup is right now especially after subtracting
Starting point is 00:32:03 a. E. Oh, Henni Oswares, and Jared Kellnick from the equation from the everyday lineup. Like, they, they have two outfield spots wide open, wide open. They have the DH spot wide open. Right now, you're DH. If you had to play a game tomorrow, probably Dillemore, Sam Haggurty. That worked out well at the end of last year. Yeah, yeah, it was great. And then, you know, I like the idea of Luis Urius. I think he's going to be a lot better than he was this past year.
Starting point is 00:32:33 But you could certainly add another infielder, and I wouldn't bat an eye at that at all. You're a Luis Urias, suppressive person. Right, right, right. Alstar Eureas is going to hit so good for me. Right. I bet it will. And you're more than, I know you're going to take your victory lap.
Starting point is 00:32:55 I know you're going to do it no matter what I say, but you're more than welcome to. I'll just say that if that happens. But yeah, so you need, at least three bats. Depoto yesterday said two, possibly three. No, it should be definitively three and probably four. That's what I would much rather hear from Jerry Depoto,
Starting point is 00:33:16 but also that depends on how much money he has to spend. And eventually that well is going to run dry. So that's going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for making us your first listen. For Colby Patnode, I'm Tadangis. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter. at L.O. underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Ty Dane Gonzalez.
Starting point is 00:33:38 You can follow 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. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day, and we'll see you next time. Peace.

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