Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - The Mariners Are Reportedly Prioritizing the Best Bullpen Arms on the Market

Episode Date: July 28, 2025

Ty and Colby react to the latest report suggesting the Mariners have pivoted to prioritizing bullpen help then answer your questions.Click to read Adam Jude's full article on the Mariners' trade deadline priorities.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!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!OpenPhoneStreamline and scale your customer communications with OpenPhone. Get 20% off your first 6 months at www.openphone.com/lockedonmlbMonarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONMLB at monarchmoney.com/lockedonmlb for 50% off your first year.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get ONE HUNDRED FIFTY 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.

It's our last mailbag episode before the deadline. Let's see what you want to know. Colby, hit it. You are Locked-on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Ahoy, Sailors. It is Monday, July 28, 2025.

This is Tanya Gazzalus 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. Use the promo code locked on MLB. That's LOC, KED, ONMLB 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, click the link in the description of this episode. All right, let's open up the mailbag like we do here every Monday and answer some of your Mariners questions.

Ham Swaggerty 69 wants to know. Do you feel better about the Mariners playing a playoff series on the road, than being home, feel better about Julio on the road. I don't know about the whole team, especially not the pitching. Yeah. I mean, where on the road? Because, like, for example, if they go to Kansas City,

no, I don't feel better about it. Oh, oh, God, no. If they go to, like, I don't know, Texas, then, yeah, I probably feel about as good as I would at home. Because, you know, we basically own Texas. So, yeah, it really depends on the ballpark that you're going to prefer not to go on the road to play the Yankees, which is a very real possibility, just because, you know, playoff games at Yankee Stadium. You tend to have some things go against you in those games. I don't know why, but the ball seems to bounce pretty well for New York in those games at those stadiums, minus what, game five last year.

But yeah, I think in general, no, you want to play at home. It's your home ballpark. It plays to the strength of your team. Well, what's supposed to be your strength? Whether it is or not right now, I don't know. Talk to me after the deadline. But no, I think in general you want to be a home team. Like, of course you do.

There's the advantage you get last ups. And obviously, it's your home ballpark. You know it very well. You're comfortable there. You don't have to travel. You know, you get to chill at home. home, you know, during the off day and all that. So, no, I do think that you want to play at home.

I mean, of course, you want to play at home. Yeah. Well, my faith in the offense would slightly go up on the road. It's very possible they can lay an egg. I mean, they just did against Kyle Hendricks in the year of our Lord 2025. So I'd rather go with where do I think my pitching is going to play up the most? That's at T-Mobile Park. So, yeah, I would still.

rather they play at home, even though the pitching has been wildly inconsistent, like we've talked about ad nauseum. All right, JJ wants to know. I heard Dillmore is being shopped around. Any chance above zero percent we find someone who'd trade for him? Yeah, maybe. I don't know. I could see a team like, you know, the Dodgers or whatever, just being like, yeah, let's take a shot on this guy. We've seen teams like that do that in the past.

Sometimes it's worked out pretty well for them. But yeah, I did find that a little funny that Ken Roosevelt reported that the merits have made Dillamore available. It's like, yeah, duh. Yeah. Yes, there is more than a 0% chance because technically 0.001 is greater than 0. So, but yeah, no, I think there's actually a decent shot that they could flip him to somebody. Because, again, for a team or for a fan base, hasn't watched him in two months. you're looking at a guy, Scott Popp off the bench,

particularly against left-handed pitching. He can steal bases. He's very good base stealer, base runner, and he can play seven, eight, nine positions. I mean, like, he's pitched, right? I think the only position he hasn't played is catcher. So, yeah, I actually think there is a team that would actually like to have them as their 26th man.

And, you know, for a team that doesn't need their 26th man to play, like the Mariners kind of do, even though they kind of refuse to use that roster spot. then yeah, Delamore saw some value, and he's only going to be due about a million bucks. So, I mean, it's a very, very small lottery ticket to take. So, yeah, I actually think there's a shot that they could trade Dillemore. And I think it would just be a deal to try and clear some salary of your Seattle.

And, you know, very similar to the Ryan Stannock for Rylan Thomas trade last year. You might get another Rylan Thomas. And, you know what, Thomas helped you for a couple games this year. So you never know what those things can bring. But yeah, I would say, I don't know, five to 10% chance. I can find somebody to take him. Yeah. Yeah, I feel like they might be able to because, again, there's some tools.

There's track record obviously there. So maybe there's a team out there willing to take a shot on that. All right. We are going to answer more of your questions here in just a moment. But first a reminder of this episode of the longtime errors podcast is brought to you once again by Monarch money. Ever check your bank account and wonder, where did all my money go? Between dining out, online shopping, and entertainment, it's easy to lose track. That's where Monarch Money comes in, your personal CFO giving you full visibility and control over your finances.

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That's Monarchmoney.com promo code L-O-C-D-O-N-M-L-B for half off your first year. And you're listening to the Locktime Marries Podcast for instant reactions following every Mariners game. Be sure to tune in to the mayor's postcast with Anderson Hearst and Christopher Crawford, available on both the Lockdown Marrers YouTube and podcast feeds. So before we get back into your questions, there's an article that just dropped from Adam Jude on the Seattle Times that I want to quickly talk about here.

Apparently, the Mariners are still very much interested in reuniting with AUNIOS Juarez, but their top priority has shifted, according to Jude. Now the Mariners are looking to add a high leverage bullpen arm. Spoiler alert, they can do both. But apparently that's the thing that they most want to get done right now. And Jude brought up a bunch of different relievers like Ryan Helsley or David Bednar.

Those guys he was more so speculating about. However, he just outright said the mayors would love to pry away one of the Minnesota twins' arms, either Griffin Jacks or Yon Duran. on. Colby, what do you think about that? Yeah. Do both.

First and foremost, do both. It's really not that hard of a concept to grasp and you need high leverage bullpen arms. Absolutely. Nobody's disputing that. You also desperately need a third baseman because Ben Williamson, ain't it. Do both.

Yeah, to me, this reads more as a, Seattle's made their best in final offer for Gino. And if the Diamondbacks want to accept it, fine. If they don't, we're looking elsewhere. And I think, you know, the interesting thing about Jacks and Duran, there's also a guy who plays on that team called Willie Castro, who we've talked about a lot who could fill that third base void. So I think part, and again, something else to keep in mind is that everything you hear

for the next, what, 72 hours now, give or take, it's all being put out there with an ulterior motive because Seattle says, hey, we're focusing on this. Does it put more pressure on Arizona to, hey, we can't let the Mariners leave

because if the Mariners leave these discussions, we have even less leverage than we did when the Yankees were around and now we've lost the Mariners. So keep that in mind that everything you hear is being leaked for a reason right now.

But in general, like, yeah, it makes sense. We've talked about this. Bolpin is still absolutely a need. so is third base. So you cannot leave the deadline with Ben Williamson as your primary third baseman. It doesn't have to be Gino, although he would definitely be my preference, but it cannot be Ben Williamson. So you better figure out a way to get Willie Castro on these deals or something.

It can even get anything done with them. So we'll see. But yeah, you know, it's right now it's tough for me to take anything, any speculation, in any kind of GM speak too seriously here in these last 72 hours because it's all just it's all for show. And like for all we know, the mayors do want to do both and they're or maybe this is 100% accurate and they're not really interested in Gino because maybe they've gone far enough along the line with

Minnesota. They think they can get Duran and and Castro and that's what their plan is. So it's tough to say again, it's one of those things like I'm not I'm not like upset. they might not get Gino. I knew that was a possibility. And I'm not upset that they're prioritizing bullpen, right? I'm going to be really upset if they prioritize the bullpen and don't fix third base. Or don't add somebody to at least help at that position. Because again, Ben Williamson is not it.

He's a black hole. It's just Ben's been great defensively. Don't get me wrong. But his ad bats are so bad. And the upside of his at bats are opposite field singles. that's it. There's no power upside there. Like he's,

if he's hitting a double, it's pretty much by luck that he just found the gap in right center field. It's just you need more offense, particularly out of third base. And I just, and also in general, they need to just go out and get a right-handed bat or someone that can hit right-handed,

which is what Willie Castro can do because he's a switch header. They need a right-handed back. because yeah, Josh Naylor is great and Josh Naylor is a better player than what they had been rolling out at first base. But that didn't necessarily address the issue with the offense

and how other teams are able to manipulate their splits. So they still need to go out and get a right hand at bat. Whether that's Gino, whether that's Castro, whether that's, you know, Ramon Luriana, whatever.

They need to go out and get a right hand about it. So, yeah, that still needs to get done. But yeah, glad that they are being aggressive on the high leverage bullpen arm front because they they do need it i mean you know we saw how like scary saturday could have gone thankfully they were able to place some ad on there but yeah with muno some brash not available that was

war bizarro yeah war bizardo that was that was terrifying thankfully they got to a point there where they were able to just cruise and thornton and vergas were able to get the job done but they can really use that extra high-large arms for sure. All right. So let's get back into your questions here. Moonlight wants to know. Who will the Mariners inevitably trade for from the raise? Hopefully Pete Fairbanks,

if they're not getting Duran or Griffin Jacks. Yandi Diaz doesn't really work now unless you traded Jorge Polanco. But apparently they've kind of softened on the idea of potentially trading him. So it's possible that he gets moved here in the next. three days. Brandon Lowe, maybe, I don't know, anyone else on the raise? I mean, one thing to keep in mind is that Cole Young isn't necessarily locked in to the Major League roster, like, you could send him down.

So in theory, if you trust Polanco enough to play second base somewhat regularly, you could put Diaz as the DH and you could put. polo at second base and then obviously there's concerned about the wearing terror there but right like there's a way you can still get po like uh you know deez is the full time d h and nailer's the full time first basement and then you know polo

you know there's a rotation there where you could probably get everybody four or five games a week but is that ideal no uh same goes for brandon low you could also just acquire brandon law and he's the second basement and you just send col young down like and that would as much as i really like cole young that would be an upgrade offensively but again another lefty.

So, yeah, it's kind of one of those things where I think at the raise you're looking at the bullpen, that would be Fairbanks. There's a couple other guys in that bullpen that would help. But Fairbanks is the high leverage guy that's there. So, yeah, I think Fairbanks is the guy most likely to be traded from Tampa to Seattle. And they're still a tremendous fit because, obviously, Tampa really needs a guy like Harry Ford and the Mariners don't really need a guy like Harry Ford. And they're not going to give Ford away, but they can get, you know,

Fairbanks out of it. They might be willing to trade them. So I think it's guys like, I think it's bullpen guys mostly, but it would be a weird kind of fit. It wouldn't be perfect, kind of like Gino would be a perfect fit for you right now. But Diaz and Lau, I wouldn't rule them out. It's just I know that the asking price for DS has been astronomical, like, laughable almost, really last summer and this winter when the Mariners did check in both times. So they clearly like Diaz.

And he is the right-handed bat that they really need in this lineup. It's just how do you maneuver him and all that? Like it'd be tough bit, but I think they could figure it out. So I wouldn't rule out Diaz entirely. But I would say it's more than likely going to be Pete Fairbanks if there is a deal to be made between these two teams. next question from mariners only if and they put in parentheses big if ford doesn't get moved at the deadline talking about harry ford how could the merrers utilize him when rosters expand or even possibly during a playoff run as a third catcher so we are getting close to the point now where it's like how do i best maximize my roster and harry ford definitely factors into that conversation here we're not there yet but we're getting close to talking about just bringing him up no matter what the situation on the major league roster is, if that's what you feel makes your roster better. Yeah.

Teams don't really carry three catchers in the playoffs. So obviously, if he did stick around, and that's the caveat here over the entire question, he would definitely be on the playoff taxi squad. That's for sure. But yeah, we are getting close to the time where it would be like, look, he's gotten his at-bats and he's played a lot. So if he comes up and only plays once or twice a week, that's okay. I think we're still probably about three to four weeks away from that being the case,

give or take. And again, the Mariners have not moved him off a catcher at all. He has not played any position this year except for catcher and DH. Well, DH at-bats just got harder to get because you're probably not giving Harry Ford at-bats over Luke Rayleigh and Canzone and Polanco and Naylor and Nailer. like not happening. And as we've talked about, Garber is a perfectly good backup catcher.

Like he totally works. So there's really no point in, there's probably not a lot of, there's probably not a good chance that Ford is actually an upgrade over Garber and what he's giving you right now. Just because, again, you count on a first year, a rookie making his first go at Major League Baseball to be better than

league average behind the dish and at the plate, because that's what Carver has basically been. So, yeah, it'd be interested to see. I could see him being a September call-up and getting his feet wet there and maybe getting a couple starts. But again, do you want to use a rookie catcher when you're battling it out for a playoff spot? Right.

The problems are still the same as they were a month ago. Right. And a lot of fans just look at it as like, well, you know, he's hitting right now. So clearly he's going to be an offensive. of upgrade over Mitch Garver, but there are other things here that have to be factored in, like learning this pitching staff, learning how to call a game at the major league level, all that, right? So you're putting a lot on a rookie's play if he's actually going to play behind the, behind the dish. And so that might have an impact on how he, you know, plays on

the batters box as well. So. And again, he doesn't have any position, positional, you know, flexibility right now. It's something you could work on this winter, but right now he is a catcher. He's athletic enough to play in the outfield. Sure, he's not good at it because he hasn't had to do it. Like he's never had to learn it. So he's a catcher only, even though athletically he can pretty much play anywhere,

but he's a catcher only who may or may not hit is actually not on fire right now. Like he's slowed down as we knew he would, but he's still having a very good year and I get it. I would be excited to see him too, but I just don't know if there's really a fit beyond like a September call-up third catcher type of thing. But yeah, I guess if they trade Carver

at the deadline, they could in theory trade Garber and probably trying to save some money and then call up Harry Ford. But I just don't see it. I think if Ford is in the organization on Friday, then the earliest we would see him, barring an injury, of course, would be September 1st, and it would be to come up and get his feet wet. And honestly, they might not even call him up until like September 15.

Because if you're just going to come hang out in the major league clubhouse for, you know, four or five days, you don't have to do that on September 1st. So I get the same problems that we've talked, quote unquote problems that we've talked about all year with Harry Ford. They're still here. They still exist. Not a lot of change in that regard. No.

All right, we got a few more of your questions to answer in just a moment. But first a reminder of this episode of the Lockdown Marys podcast is brought to you by Game Day Hugh. Today's episode is brought to you by Game Day Hugh. And so is this hat that I'm wearing. For Marys fans like me, this one hits the mark. Game Day Hugh makes clean, no logo gear with team inspired colorways for every pro and college fan base. It's all about letting your colors speak for you. No giant logos, just smart, versatile style that works on game day on the course or anywhere in between.

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Let's get back into your questions. D. Panky wants to know. Canzone is four for his last. last in 29 with 11 strikeouts and zero extra base hits. His OPS has dropped from 944 to 816. Why should the Mariners count on him instead of Rayleigh's track record? For what it's worth, Rayleigh struggled last July and had a great August and September. I swear Canzon hit a double recently, like towards the end of the homestand.

That isn't in that last 29 of best? All right, whatever. Maybe, whatever. I don't think they're counting on Dominic Canzone. I think they're writing this out to see what they have in him, knowing they still have Luke Grayley in their back pocket. Now, if they trade Luke Rayley and they don't bring in another outfielder, then yeah, then they're counting on Dominic Canzone.

Right now they're not. They're just kind of running this out, seeing what it is. And if he continues to fall flat on his face, okay, I have Luke Grayley. I can throw him out there. I'll be okay. So I think this is more just kind of writing, writing this out, seeing if you can make the adjustments. and all that while you still have Rayleigh on your roster.

So I don't think they're actually like necessarily counting on him. Like why are they giving him more at bats and Rayleigh right now? I don't know. But Rayleigh also apparently had on a pretty big back brace at the in the Angel series. And he didn't appear as a pinch hitter even. So like you just might not have been available the last couple of days. So it's tough to say. But I don't think I wouldn't worry about them counting on Canzone as an ever.

everyday player for the rest of the year until they trade Rayleigh, if they trade Rayleigh, or if Rayleigh, you know, has to have an extended IL stent. So, yeah, Rayleigh absolutely can be one of those guys that carries an offense. You're right about that. So I think right now they kind of look at it. They said, look, we have one spot open for two guys. And they both have very similar skill sets. So it's not like we can split the workload evenly.

let's ride with the guy who's been better this month, and that's Canzon, even though he struggled a little bit recently. M's to the Moon wants to know, if you could acquire one player from the 2001 Mariners to play the rest of the season, who would it be and why? I mean, probably the guy that won the AL MVP that year.

Each row. Yeah, but to be a little less obvious, I'll go Casasaki. I mean, third best reliever in that bullpen, but okay the disrespect to Jose Pontiagua I thought as the very least

you were going to say Arthur Rhodes or Jeff Nelson but okay you got a zig when everybody's eggs time that's how you make it in this business yeah each year is number one

Edgar Martinez was pretty good in 2001 yeah Brad Boone yeah Brett Boone would be huge uh unfortunately not David like David Bell'd probably be better than than Ben Williamson right now offensively at least but yeah you don't really have a third baseman there's no way that I'm taking David Bell over Brett Boone over each row over Cammy no it's just well I Cameron to me isn't even on the list like well right-handed I'll feel that yeah I guess but

like I'm kind of thinking of it like one for one swap sure And like, even 2001 Cameron isn't better than current Julio Rodriguez. Is he better than no? Yes. Yeah. Yeah, I'm playing him at a different outfield spot. Okay. And we're playing him and right.

Then yes, Cammy is definitely in a conversation. But you're not taking Cameron over Ichro, who also needs to play right field. So, yeah. Ichero is number one. I think Brett Boone's probably two. Yeah. As unnatural as a. it may have been. He's probably number two.

And then Cammy three, Edgar, four. Okay. And then maybe So all position players. Yeah, I mean, there's really nobody. I guess you take like Freddie Garcia and put him in a five spot.

Yeah, I was like, what about Freddie over Logan Evans? Yeah, I mean, that'd be big. I mean, heck, Jamie Moyer over Logan Evans would be big. Arthur Rhodes would be a very nice add to this bullpen, certainly you could use another high leverage lefty. Jeff Nelson, just Jeff Nelson,

like for a decade was like the most underrated reliever of baseball. Yeah, but I mean, we're just naming names now, but the answer is each year. Gordon wants to know. Question, why do the mayor has always seem like 500 ball club? Supplementary. How does a team fall one game short of making

the playoffs year after year. To answer your first question, I mean, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, probably a duck, which is why the marries need to make more significant additions to their roster before Thursday. Why does it seem like the mariners are always perpetually a 500 ball club? Because that's where they want to be. And by they, I mean ownership. Yeah. And it hasn't changed even though they fired what's his name, the idiot, uh, the racist city at Kevin Mallory resigned.

He told you very clearly. He's like, yeah, we want to win 85. He's still has a stick in the team,

by the way. Yep. We want to win 85, 86 games. Maybe everything breaks right every couple years and we

win 90, but we're always in the race so we can always sell tickets. Like that is still their philosophy. Yep. And it was the

philosophy of the previous ownership group. It's the philosophy of this ownership group. They stay mediocre to slightly above

average because that's where they want to be period they're intentional about it and they're unfortunately good at it that's why they always seem like a 500 team all right that is going to do it for our show thank you so much for joining us here on the lockdown mirrors podcast for colby pat node i'm tiding gzalas be sure to give us a follow

on twitter at l o underscore mirrors you can follow me at tiding azales and colby at cpad 11 that's cpat 11 we're also on blue sky you can follow me at tdg colby at melb colby in the show at lockdown merrers you can also find us on Instagram at Locktime Errors. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day, and we'll see you next time. Peace.