Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - The Mariners' Magic Number Is Now 3... Wait, Make That 2!

Episode Date: September 29, 2022

Just as Ty and Colby finished recording this episode, the Mariners' magic number went from 3 to 2 as the Orioles lost again to the Red Sox. With the opportunity to clinch a playoff berth coming as soon as Friday, the duo look at the best possible chance for fans to see the team secure its place in the postseason at T-Mobile Park, discuss Eugenio Suárez's return to third base and more.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/BlueChewTry BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code LOCKEDON at BlueChew.com,-just pay $5 shipping. 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.

Three is the magic number. The Mariners are well on their way to clenching their first playoff birth in 20 years this weekend. And if you're looking to be there in person, we'll tell you which day could be the day. This is the Locked-on Mariners podcast. 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 Thursday, September 29th, 2022.

This is Tiding Gazzalus and 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 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, will the Mariners be able to clinch on their own terms

or will the Orioles do it for them? We'll be talking about that. Plus, Jerry DePoto made a comment about Luis Castillo's extension today that should excite Mariners fans. We're going to get into that a little bit later on, Colby, yesterday we talked about how emotions are going to be up and down, up and down, up and down for the next couple weeks. So maybe, you know, disregard any takes that come from emotion. So I am here today to you officially pivot and say the Mariners are going to win the World Series now that they have won a game again.

So that's just what I'm doing. I'm sticking to that and y'all can deal with it, basically. Mariners winning it all. They're going 12 and 0 in the postseason. Deal with it. Yes, let the record show that Colby is the one who stayed level-headed throughout this entire ordeal and didn't, you know, I don't know, exhibit some of the signs that you guys have often attributed to me as being a worry ward and not even liking this baseball team. It was actually I who stayed calm in rough waters and Ty who tried to abandon ship before re-barnacling himself to the SS Mariner. Also, it would be 13 or no, right?

You've got to win 13 games in the postseason, right? You've got to win two. Two, three, four, four. Four, four, yep. Yeah, so 13. Yep, 13. So, yeah, so all jokes aside, though. The Mariners are back in the wind column.

They're 84 and 70. The Orioles lost last night, so the magic number is down to three. And so the opportunity to clinch is right around the corner here. could be literally any day starting tomorrow. Right now as we're recording this, the Orioles and the Red Sox are playing their last game of their series, and it's three to three. It was three to two Boston,

but the Orioles just tied it up on a solo home run by Kyle Stowers. So we'll see how that goes, but the magic number could come down to two. But the Mariners, it's starting to kind of look like the Orioles will be the one that ends up clenching for the Mariners instead of the Mariners themselves. because, you know, the Orioles being on the East Coast and they're going to be playing all these games on the East Coast and the Mariners are going to be staying at home. The time difference just doesn't really work out for the Mariners here.

So if the Orioles go, you know, they lose their next two games. The Mariners win tonight. The Orioles will essentially clinch for the Mariners if they lose the Yankees tomorrow night. So that is, I mean, not super ideal. But again, we will take it. We will take this any way that we can get it, of course. so not going to complain too much about that. But you know us.

We are proponents of the Mariners being able to clinch themselves and celebrate on the field and celebrate with the fans there in the stands instead of everyone already knowing. I think that just would be a great moment. But so, you know, for those that are trying to get to the ballpark now and trying to see this team and trying to see this team clinch its first playoff birth in, you know, over 20 years now, it's kind of hard to figure out, you know, what day to actually go.

And Colby, you're even doing that yourself right now. You're trying to figure out what day to go. So from your perspective and just kind of what your strategy is, what should our listeners be looking for right now in terms of, especially for those that might only have one shot to go? What day do you think is maybe the safest to aim for here? Because, I mean, to me, there's no day that's safe. It's really, it could happen at any time.

time and we don't know how, you know, if the Orioles are going to be able to beat the Red Sox Day. We don't know if the Orioles are going to be able to beat the Yankees tomorrow. So it's really hard to predict. But what is kind of your, what are you kind of looking at right now? I think the most likely scenario, and the most likely day that includes the Mariners clinching on the field scenario is actually tomorrow. Just because, you know, again, hypothetically, right?

Let's say Baltimore wins today and you win today, then it's two. Then tomorrow, you know that if Baltimore loses to the Yankees, you have that number, that one, right? That magic number is down to one. And if you win, you're in. So I think that's the most likely spot that they could perform that because the issue is if you don't get it on Friday and the magic number is still one, the Yankees and the Orioles play at 10 a.m. the following Saturday, you're going to know. Now, the Orioles could beat the Yankees, and then it's still in your court,

ball still in your court, but it just feels kind of like, are the Orioles going to beat the Yankees twice in a row? No, probably not, but it's possible. So again, there's about a thousand different things. There's a scenario where, you know, Seattle doesn't clinch until Monday. I mean, it's not likely at this stage,

but it's out there. So I think for me, like, the dream scenario, right? The Mariners get the 27th out, and that's how they clinch. I think that is most likely to happen if it's going to happen that way on Friday. I think what ultimately is most likely to happen is I think Baltimore clinches for Seattle by losing to the Yankees at some point this weekend. There's just nothing you can do about that because they're playing back-to-back, you know, 10 a.m. games in New York, and you're playing three hours later on Sunday and, you know, eight hours later on Saturday.

So unfortunately, it's not lining up to get that magical moment like we want. But if it was going to line up in that way, I actually think it's most likely to be Friday night. So if that's what you're hoping for, right, you want the Mariners to win tonight. You want Baltimore to win one of these next two, either today, right now or tomorrow before the Mariners take the field. That's what you're looking for. Mariners win two in a row. Baltimore wins one of these next two. That's what you're looking for to have a shot.

It's really your only shot to clinch by yourself. Unless Baltimore beats the Yankees and you can do it Saturday night. But I think Friday night is probably, like if I had to lay money on which way is most likely for the mariners to clinch on the field, which day that's most likely to happen, that would be Friday. If you're asking me which day I think is most likely they clinch just in general. I'd probably say Saturday. So it's not lining up great for that.

It's a bummer. But again, there's nothing you can do about it. But I would say Friday is, is, tomorrow is probably your best shot. Yeah. So the Orioles losing this afternoon or the Mariners losing tonight could significantly change things in one way or the other. So, you know, again, if the Orioles win or the Mariners lose tonight, at least, one of those things happens, that lines up better for the Mariners to clench on the field. Because then if the magic number stays at two exiting today, then Orioles lose tomorrow to the Yankees around.

Yeah, about probably an hour before the final pitch in the Mariners game. So you would probably know at that point. Unfortunately, because the Orioles are not playing in the afternoon, like if you're trying to buy tickets quick, you know, like just on a whim, that's, that's, that's, not going to happen for you. But yeah, so it's kind of just one of those things where you you just got to pick the game. And hope. Yeah. Yeah, it's

pretty much like these people that are, that have been trying to go to the Aaron Judge games right now. Right. And you know, trying to get the home run. It's just you got to be lucky. You just got to hope that you pick the right day. Gotta be luckier than Frank Lausagna. Frankie Lausagna. By the way, if the Mariners beat the Blue Jays in the postseason,

well, if they face the Blue Jays in the postseason and beat the Blue Jays on the postseason, taking my wife to Frankie Lausanneas restaurant. There you go. Where your Mariners gap with pride. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, by the way, I kind of feel like Seattle's going to end up with a five,

which is like worst case scenario, but like you take it, right? Like you're like you're not spitting on the number five, but like I don't know, I just feel like Tampa's fading pretty fast and Seattle, I don't know, part of me has to believe that Seattle's going to play better here in the next few days. They played pretty well last night, all things considered.

which I'm sure we're about to talk about. But yeah, I just, my strategies right now is I'm going to be, I'm going to head over for the entire weekend and hope that, you know, the right opportunity comes for me to buy a ticket to a game where they clinch on the field as opposed to, you know, probably watching MLB TV on my phone as I'm, you know, eating Dick's driving or something like that. So that's my hope. But, you know, it doesn't always work out like that.

And obviously you're just happy to get in any way you can. but I really, really want to be at the stadium when they get the 27th out. And like that, that's one of those moments you talk about forever. And so I hope I get that opportunity. But Baltimore's not cooperating right now. So we'll see how it works out. They are not playing particularly great baseball at the moment, which I mean, good for the Mariners. I mean, you took that screenshot, right?

And it was like all five wild car, all four wildcar teams are four and six in their last team. Yeah. Yeah, it's a race to mid. Yeah, no one, no one wants it. Everyone's having a mid off right now. And, you know, it's just, it's, it's really weird, man. Because, like, you see some of the struggles that the Mariners are having and it's like, okay, well, that's just a Mariners thing. Well, not necessarily because, like, you look at bullpins right now in baseball.

Bullpins are awful. It's like, it's like, it's like there's something contagious going around here with, with Major League Bullpins right now. So, yeah. Hopefully the quality of play just generally speaking around the league ramps back up here Specifically for the mirrors it would be nice to see them You know, rattle off a few wins here and and you know go into the postseason on a heater and Last night like you said was a I would say a pretty decent start to that there were still you know it wasn't great But they were able to limit the Rangers to just one run they went three to one they were able to get some timely hitting at times and other times not

as much. But yeah. Pull pen look good. Yeah. I mean, you give them a pass because it's Martin Perez and yeah, scoring three runs off of Martin Perez and seven inies. Not bad. It's not bad. So we'll get into that in just a moment.

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Mariner's podcast. And thank you for making us your first listen. So, Jerry Depoto hopped on Brock and Salk today and had a few things that I want to talk about. But the first one, Gino Suarez is apparently playing

third base tonight. Thoughts, Colby? Surprising? Yeah. that that that's uh one way to put it to say the least yeah the way they made it sound it sounded like there was just like no shot he was going to play third at least in the regular season um and then when you see like they're playing in Thai france there at third like yeah it's like they're prepping for yeah gno to not be able to maybe tonight is like the test which

doesn't seem like a good idea for me but whatever you know there i mean couldn't you test that out like, you know, just during Yeah, like playing catch. Hey, Gino, does it hurt? Go stand over at third base. Does it hurt? Okay, then no, we're done. So, yeah, it's surprising.

I mean, there's no way around it. It's certainly a, you know, just the way that it made it sound was like, we're not going to see him at third base this year, like period. And if he can't, like, even if he's only able to play it for, you know, six or seven innings or whatever or, you know, only once or twice a week, like, that's still incredibly helpful for the Mariners because he is your best third baseman. And again, it kind of lets you play matchup and you can kind of pick and choose when you need Suarez to DH and when you need him to play third. I do wonder if maybe we might see Gino get a start at first base somewhere in the next, just because maybe he can't make that throw consistently.

But, you know, first baseman don't have to make a lot of throws. And he had a first base glove on him in Oakland, right? Sure. Yeah. And so I think you probably could do that. And so it's not ideal, but maybe you, you know, maybe there's a situation where you need Gino, you know, off the bench and you don't want to lose the DH. So you say, hey, Gino, can you play first base? And yeah, I can play first base. Or maybe it's, you know, hey, my finger's a little, you know, it's not great right now. But, you know, we want to get Carlos Santana in the lineup or whatever, right? Jesse, whoever it is. But the only way we can do that is if you're in the field. So can you play first. first base. I think we might see that. I wouldn't say it's likely, but I think it's definitely a possibility, but we'll see how tonight looks, right? I think first ground ball hit to Gino, everyone's going to hold their breath. And, you know, if the first ball sails on him a little bit, like, who, yeah, it's, there's going to be panic at the disco. So it's just one of those things where you try your best to not have a panic attack every time something happens. But Gino is, is that important to the team. You know,

he's your right-handed power source. He had a great game yesterday. Didn't look too hesitant on those swings now, did he, Ty? No, he did not. He did not. He did not. Boy, Ty, you just took so many Ls yesterday. All right.

Maybe, maybe, though. Hold on. Maybe you're Lai Lane Gonzalez. Maybe I was just what they needed to get going. You know, they talked about, you know, let's just do a show and go game, you know, show up late to the ballpark. We're not doing BP. We're not doing any sort of run through.

Is there anything like that? Just show up and let's play and all that stuff. I think it was actually me who contributed to the win last night. I think it's what I said last night. It fired up the players. And, of course, was everything that they needed to get going here. It was all me. Me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me.

Okay, well, I still say that Marco Gonzalez should get some at-bats over Mitch Haniguer. By the way, I was. was so like Mitch had that that sacrifice fly the line drive yet and I was like that is a great sign straight back up the middle hard hit 100 and then he went in he struck out like he did and I was like well there goes that optimism right out the window like I'm so desperate for Mitch Hanager to be good again that it's like hey that's that's a line drive straight up the box RBI that's perfect and then I watched the rest of his at bats and um you know Yeah.

Andreas Munoz had a great inning last night, though. Yeah. My God. That slider was, I mean, that was 80 grade slider right there. He threw six in a row and he got six whiffs. Simeon couldn't do anything with it. It was like, you almost felt bad for him, but also screw him. So like.

Yeah. He wanted the seven years to not play in Seattle. So, yeah. You chose not to play in Seattle. That's your fault. I don't care. You could be playing for the postseason right now, Marcus. I'm just saying.

You could. You could. So it's just one of those things where I'm like, the, you know, like, oh my God. Like,

what do you even do with that? But also, you know, screw you, Marcus. Like, that's what you get. You pay for media.

You get paid to play for media, media, mediocrity. And that's what you get. You get to face greatness. And yeah, those are, they were all like 92 to 93 miles an hour to.

Like, like there's just not. And then you, you have to, you have to keep in the back of your mind, like, is he going to pop 102 on me? Like, is he about, is he about to throw me five sliders in a row and then pop 102 at the top of the zone? Nope. Don't need to. So I was, I was watching the game last night with, with Maddie after we recorded Seattle Overload.

Mattie F. Brown, my co-hosts on Seattle Overload. If you're a Seacox fan, check it out. We, but he, he loves Andres Munoz. He's like a massive Andres Munoz fan. He can't name most of the people on the team, to be fair, but he can, he knows Andres Munoz, and he told me, if he would buy any Mariners jersey, it would be an Andres Munoz jersey. He loves Andres Munoz. What number is Andre Smoonios, even? 75, which I feel like that's something that probably changes going into next year. I feel like 75 is just kind of a placeholder number. But we'll see. We'll see. It's not a great baseball number, if we're being honest. Andres, maybe. maybe switch it up maybe go go down about 50 digits or so uh so yeah so gino playing at third is um surprising like you said to say the least uh i didn't expect that whatsoever as well i thought

for sure like he's d-hing and you know the reason that they have tie france playing so much third is because they're trying to get him ready so i don't know i guess you know this is uh you know team doctors basically, you know, said like, he's good to go. He can at least try it, you know, see what happens. So just hopefully he doesn't reagravate it, you know, in the field tonight. And we'll see how they goes. And if it's, you know, if it's not great, then look, I think that they have at least a plan in place to survive without him having to play third. It's not particularly great because Thai France is not.

Yeah, the plan is not. Yeah, the plan is not fantastic. But they do have a plan. They do have a plan. Yeah. So we'll see how that goes. All right. So let's talk about the other thing that Jerry talked about on the radio today.

He was talking about the Luis Castillo extension and how that kind of came to be. And he basically, I'm going to paraphrase here. I don't have the exact quote in front of me. But he just to paraphrase, he basically said, you know, we were talking to. or we reached out to Castillo's agent about a potential extension right before we were about to finalize the Julio deal and the agent

got back to them and said like I'll talk to Luis and then about 48 hours later after the Julio deal got done and was reported Castillo's agent got back to Jerry and was like Luis is pumped up he wants to get this done right now let's do it he wants to be here

he sees that this team wants to win and he's just excited about and just wants to get the son and be here for the prime of his career, basically. So you and I talked about this on our Patreon show yesterday and how these extensions and how the Julio extension may change how the rest of the league and how free agents potentially and just other players view Seattle as a destination. And, you know, we talked about how, you know, rare this is for a guy that had only been here for about seven weeks to decide, you know what?

And, you know, and again, not have any connection to the city, to the organization, really, and go, you know what? This is, again, where I want to spend the rest of my prime as a major league baseball pitcher. So that's huge, right? Like, what is this, you know, now kind of going off of what Jerry has said today, what does this say to you about just this team as a destination for other players that might want to come here as free agents this winter and beyond. Yeah. First of all, I like to say yesterday's Patreon episode is free available on our

Patreon.com. Forward slash forward slash control the zone. Yeah, go check it out. It's a free episode. We don't do those that often. But I think you guys will enjoy it because we did talk a lot of free agency and a lot of offseason stuff. But yeah, you know, we did mention that Julio is a, uh,

an attraction for lack of a better word. He is a human being, but he is also an attraction. Not just to fans, but to... And not just to me. Yes. Or the other ladies of Seattle, but it is... Okay. They shared a moment.

They shared a moment, okay? We made eye contact, guys. It was in Toronto. He looked at me. He smiled at me. We had a connection there, folks. We had a connection there, folks. We have something special, Julio.

and something that cannot be explained on this show. Well, you have 18 years to make that work. So there you go. But no, we did talk about the impact of Julio. And when, you know, we talked about the Luis Castillo extension on this show earlier this week, we mentioned that, you know, this is possibly, we might have just seen the first, like, quantifiable impact of the Julio extension based on when Castillo actually signed this. Because we assumed that it was going to be in the winter or maybe even leak into next year.

but he did it really early compared to what we thought in season, which is highly unusual. And we had guessed that, you know, maybe this is the first quantifiable impact of the Julio Rodriguez extension. And then you read this today and it sure seems like that was the case. Like the Mariners are serious. And when you kind of look at like the whiteboard of reasons not to play for the Seattle Mariners, a lot of them don't exist anymore. You have a beautiful ballpark. You have a young superstar to build around in Julio.

You have three or four legitimate all-stars who are just starting their major league career. You know, Kirby who, Kirby, Cal, Gilbert. You have really good role players like Thai France and A. E. E. E. E. E. Hineos-Warres. You have this elite bullpen. And now you kind of start knocking off all those reasons. Well, they don't win. They're winning.

well, they haven't been to the playoffs in forever. They're going to the playoffs this year. Well, are they willing to spend money? They've committed like $750 million to three players in the last year. Like, well, you know, can they win the World Series with you? Yeah, we can. And so really the only thing left on like the whiteboard of doubt is the travel. And I know travel is a big thing for a lot.

of people like people like tie and I but for major leaguers when winning and money is there travels way down the list so yes there are going to be people who just don't want to play in Seattle still that's going to happen there's nothing you can do about that but the other reasons like well will Seattle spend money yes can't Seattle win the world series yep are they going to be a consistent playoff contender yeah do they have players to put around me so I'm not trying to do everything by myself yep yeah are they locked in long term yep They are. So every reason for doubt kind of gets wiped out.

Every reason that the Mariners can control. Yeah. Started to get wiped away with the Julio extension. I mean, it happened before then, but to other players, like outside of the organization and those who aren't paying attention in the Mariners,

the Julio extension was like putting our foot down. We're in. Like we're coming for it. And if you don't want to play here, then you're the one that's missing out. Yeah. You want to play for us. We don't want to we don't need you you need us like the the tides have shifted

Yeah Amongst the players and you and I talked about this yesterday how you know it It doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to be in the Aaron judge sweepstakes But it maybe opens the possibility where he actually would be open to come into Seattle Right where players of that caliber might actually consider you maybe if you're willing to come to the table now I don't think the Mariners are even going to seriously like go after Aaron judge or someone like that. But we were talking about Freddie Freeman as well, you know, with, you know, last year, like last year a lot of people, you know, a lot of Mariners fans, one of the Mariners to go after

Freddie Freeman, they of course didn't because that wasn't possible. But now that, you know, you have a playoff berth under your belt that now that you're not necessarily the seller-dweller of the major league baseball and you're not just a laughing stock of major league baseball and you're actually showing, you know, with results that you are serious about this, that maybe, you know, if someone like a Freddie Freeman was on the market this year, that that would actually be like a 1%, 2% possibility. You know, so that just really what this does is open doors for all of these certain possibilities. And again, like you said, there are other things that the Mariners cannot change that are not within the Mariners control. That is going to turn people off, you know, that is going to turn players off from the city of Seattle from just the location in general because, you know, geography, right?

Like, that's just, it is what it is, you know, that you're naturally going to travel the furthest distance every single year for any major league baseball team because of just where you're located. And now with the fact that you're going to play all 39 other teams every single year, now the travel is going to get even worse naturally. So, yeah, so, you know, that still has to be taken into account here. But at the end of the day, you're showing that you're serious about winning as an organization. you are taking care of your own. You are willing to go out and trade pieces to go get, you know, elite talent like a Luis Castillo. And you're willing to not only go out and acquire those via, acquire those kinds of guys via the trade market, you're willing to lock them down long term as well. And so players are going to notice that.

Players are going to take notice to that. And they're going to take notice to the fact that you have still one of the best farm systems in baseball, even though that it's taken a great hit with Kirby graduating and Julio. graduating all those guys still a really really strong farm system a really healthy farm system that is still going to pump in talent over the next few years to the major league roster so the major league roster is not only going to get better outside of the organization but from within as well and then you just talk about the growth of some of these guys Julio hasn't even for as good as Julio has been Julio still hasn't even reached his ceiling and for as good as George Kirby's been George Kirby hasn't reached the ceiling Logan Gilbert may you know there might still be more

in Logan Gilbert's game as well. You know, like you have so many pieces that can still, that still have so much room to grow that it's just the upside in Seattle is really unmatched. There are very few organizations that can match the upside that Seattle has as a destination. If you want to win and you want to get paid and, you know, hopefully John Stanton and folks are willing to fork over the money for guys that are outside of the organization, they've already, you know, they've of course done it for guys within the organization, but outside of the organization on top of the Robbie Reyes and et cetera,

will they continue to spend? That is the question, but they theoretically have all the money in the world to spend right now. They're still very far off of where they have historically been in terms of yearly payroll. So if you want to get paid and you want to compete for a World Series, it's hard to top what Seattle has to offer right now. So that's really exciting. That should excite Mariners fans for the offseason to come whenever that does come. And hopefully that doesn't come for a while, right?

Hopefully the Mariners make a run to the World Series as unlikely as it is. But, you know, hopefully we don't have to talk about this until November. But once the off season does come, I think it's going to be a very, very exciting time. I think the possibilities are not necessarily endless, but there is a lot more opportunity for the Mariners to get better than I think in any year over the last 20 years. Yeah. Even if you just look at like where they're at payroll, payroll wise, right? Like, they're in great shape.

Still, even with these big contracts that they've signed, they can easily add, you know, a couple more. Like, it's just not going to be that big of a deal. So I, the Mariners, I don't think the Mariners have ever been in a better spot as a franchise. and that includes the 90s when they had Griffey and Arod and Randy like was that team more talented well I mean there's I just named you know four Hall of Famers so yeah probably but we have an ownership group that's that I guess you can say is willing to spend I'm still a little on the fence but obviously what they've done lately is a great sign right there's no denying that's a great sign they have a general manager who knows what he's doing they have a player development system that knows what it's doing and they have so much momentum that, you know, they can build. And I think the possibility is there. I don't, I don't think the Mariners are ever going to be the Dodgers, right? Like, that's never going to happen.

And that's fine. You don't even be the Dodgers or the Yankees or the Red Sox. But I think what you can be is, I think you can be the Cardinals. I think you'd be the Cardinals West. I think you could be the Atlanta Braves. I think you could be the San Francisco Giants. Like, those teams one world series. Those teams have all one world series more recently.

than the Yankees. So I think you can be that type of team, that kind of like mid-upper-mid market team that just consistently because they know how to develop and because they make shrewd moves and because they're not afraid to spend, maybe they don't spend on the mega free agents, but they're not afraid to spend.

You look at what St. Louis is doing. They traded for Paul Goldschmidt in his contract. They traded for Aeronado in his contract. Like they will spend money. But they're not going to go out and they're not going to give, you know, Albert Pujolz $300 million, even though that's

their guy. They're like, nope, we're fine. We'll replace Albert Pujols because we're not going to give mega money to those guys, but they still spend, right? It's not about, you're not cheap because you don't get Aaron Judge $300 million, right? You might be cheap because you don't want to give Brandon Nimmo $500 instead of $5 and $90 to get that over the finish line.

But okay, like if that happens, then call them out on it. But they're not cheap if they don't give, you know, Dansby-Swanson $215 million. when they think he's worth 170. That's not cheap. That's smart. So the momentum is all lining up really well. Hopefully they get in the play.

Well, they're going to get in the playoffs. Hopefully they can make some noise in the playoffs too, because I'm telling you what, if this team goes to like a CS or something like that, or even if they push, say, the Yankees to five games, the momentum we have now is only going to go up even more because every playoff game you play is national exposure.

It's players who haven't even thought about you for a decade, all of a sudden going, Wow, I want to be a part of that. I want to play in that ballpark. I want to play in that energy. I want to play with Julio who's ball in on national TV. It all helps. And also, you know, think about it.

Like if you were able to make a run like close to the World Series, it's like, well, we can do this without you. Now think about what we could be with you. You know, that's a hell of a sales pitch right there. That's like, you know, if we had you on this run, we could have gone to the World Series. We could have won a championship. You know, think about being able to say that to like Brandon Nemo, right?

Or Xander Bogart's or Trey Turner or whoever, right? Like, look, we got the money. We can put our money where our mouth is. And we have this great opportunity for you to get a ring. Like, that's the, that's kind of the double whammy here that not a lot of teams have to offer right now. So that kind of puts you in a unique position. That puts you in that upper echelon of teams where, yeah, you know, you're not going to go get Aaron Judge, right?

You're not going to go get that guy, mostly because of the yearly commitment that I think it's going to take with Judge. But now I think this comes to a point where, like, if someone asks us, like, hey, could the Mariners sign Aaron Judge? I'm not going to laugh at it. Like, I don't think it'll happen, but, like, it's not one of those situations before I'm like, that's unrealistic. Like, get out of here with that.

They could do it. They could do it. I don't think they will, but they could do that. You know, this is, things change. When you're a team like this, when you're a playoff team, when you're a team that is well on the rise, when you have all these pieces, all these things that we just listed, theoretically speaking, you can go get anyone that you want. So this is a very exciting time to be a Marius fan. And like you said, I agree with you. I think this is the best that this organization has ultimately been set up because it's not, this is, I mean, this is what you and I have been talking about on this.

podcast and all of our other podcasts for the last four so years that you and I have been you know talking mariners together that what jerry depoto and company we're building is something that can be sustained and built upon over a decade's worth of time rather than a small two to three year window and this even right now with how emotional this season has been and how you know all the accomplishments that the the mariners are going to have once this season finally comes to an end whenever that is, that's still only the beginning. And so, you know, like, Julio Rodriguez is 21 years old. He won't turn 22 until December.

And that guy is going to get a lot better, a lot better than what he is right now, which is still a superstar. And so, and you have him for 17 years, like you said, he's an attraction. That's going to help you get guys. Guys are going to want to play with Julio, especially if he becomes like the face of baseball. I mean, look, we've seen it time and time again with other players around the league. Guys want to play with good players. So that helps you a lot.

We are well over time, but I enjoy talking about this. So I have no issue going over time, but we might get yelled at by the year. Better not rat us out, guys. Exactly, exactly. all right so that's uh that's going to do it for a show thank you so much for joining us here on locked on mariners and uh little programming note part two of our uh what the mariners making the playoffs means to you will be out tomorrow uh and we might be doing a bonus episode on top of that i'm going to be interviewing gary hill uh later today um so that might come out tomorrow or maybe saturday we'll see and we're also trying to figure out what to do if the mariners do claim this weekend and what we'll be doing for a show and all that stuff. So keep your eyes peeled. But this is probably going to be a little bit of a bigger week for us, obviously, with everything that's going on. So there might be more shows to come beyond tomorrow. So be on the lookout for

all that stuff. But for Colby Pat node, I'm Taday Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L.O underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Dan Gonzalez, the C-A-N-Z-L-L-E and Colby at C-Pat-E-E-E-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. Now make your second listen, the Lockdown MLB podcast. MLB expert Paul Francis Sullivan brings humor, passion, and unique perspective on every team. And the biggest stories around the league. Follow the number one daily leaguewide podcast, Locked on MLB 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 tomorrow. Peace.