Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - The NL Central Provides the Big-Time Arms and Hitters the Seattle Mariners NEED This Winter

Episode Date: November 19, 2025

Could Milwaukee Brewers ace Freddy Peralta or high-octane relievers like Trevor McGill and Abner Uribe reshape the Seattle Mariners' pitching staff? Ty Dane Gonzalez and Colby Patnode break down the top trade fits across the Brewers, Cardinals, Cubs, Pirates, and Reds, evaluating player value, contract situations, and competitive windows. Key discussions spotlight Brendan Donovan and JoJo Romero from the St. Louis Cardinals, the potential (but unlikely) availability of Nico Hoerner from the Chicago Cubs, and whether Mitch Keller or Justin Lawrence could be had from the Pittsburgh Pirates. The hosts also debate possible moves for the Cincinnati Reds' Hunter Greene and Spencer Steer, examining how these strategic acquisitions could maximize Seattle's shot at a championship in 2026.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!PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONMLB to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.PrizePicks — Run Your Game.Click Link Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONMLBGametimeDownload 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.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA and NFL seasons are here, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.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.

The Mariners are looking to go from AOS champion to World Series winner in 2026, and the NL Central has some pieces that can help them take that next step. 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 Wednesday, November 19th, 2025. listening to the locked on mirrors podcast part of the locked on podcast network now the number one sports podcast network my name is siding is alice and i'm joined as always by my co-coes colby patnode we're two lifelong mayors fans who've been covering the team for over half a decade and today we're going to continue our divisional trade preview series with a look at the nl central that means we're going to comb

through the brewers cardinals reds cubs and pirates rosters for the best trade fits for the mares this winter but before we do i want to shout out our title sponsor today fan duel right now new customers can just $5 and if your bet wins you'll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Download the Fandual app today. So let's start here with the best regular season team

and the entire nationally, the Milwaukee Brewers. They won the Central this past year and then got eliminated by the Los Angeles Dodgers and four in the NLCS. And this is a team that even though they just got that far

into the postseason, they're always kind of willing to trade from their major league roster no matter what their situation is they're kind of like the guardians and the rays in that sense so there's some possibilities here who stands out to you the most on this roster Colby outside of Jake Bowers of course yes the go-go Bowers Rangers will be a thing before the end of his career but yeah I mean really there there's one name

it's Freddie Peralta is the guy who jumps out here. One year club control left. He's got an $8 million option that the brewers have already activated. So you only get them for one year. And the brewers have come out and said like, oh, we don't want to trade Freddie Peralta. No, we're very excited about our pitching and all that, blah, blah, blah.

It's all BS. Jeff Passons already stated that if Woodruff was going to accept his qualifying offer, which he did already, by the way, then the odds that the brewers would trade, Peralta would go up significantly because the brewers can't really afford to spend $30 million on two of their pitchers. Like, that's just not how it works. Like, Peralta is not going to be a brewer after this year. So they need to trade him now.

And it didn't make any sense for them to trade Corbyn Burns when they did, but they did it anyways. And that's where they are with Peralta. Paralta is a good starter. He's, you know, number two, really strong number three. misses a ton of bats. He is going to be a very valuable piece, and he fits the Mariners very well, especially if they want to trade Luis Castillo. Peralta fits extremely well because he's only going to make $8 million.

And right now he's better than Luis Castillo. So you'd actually end up upgrading at that spot. So he's the guy. It's a short-term thing. Yeah, it's going to cost you a couple, you know, good prospects. It'll cost you less than scoble, but it won't be cheap by any stretch of the imagination. But, you know, I mean, honestly, that might be a better comp. for the Woodruff thing than Scoobel, which a lot of people, or a Burns thing,

than Scoobel, which a lot of people have brought up when they talk about Terrick Scoobles. So Peralta's the guy here. He's not the only guy, but like in terms of he's probably going to get traded, he would help the Mariners tremendously, and he's vastly underpaid for what he does, what value he brings. Those are all things the Mariners. And pretty much 20 other teams in baseball are going to be interested in. the Mariners are just one of the few teams that it would be very difficult to outbid if you were

if you were trying to snag Freddie Peralta. So Freddie Peralta is the guy, obviously. Yeah. But there are some others. Yeah. To me, the two that stand out here are Trevor McGill and Nabner, Uribe. The Mariners apparently want to add another high leverage arm to their bullpen. Ryan Divish has wrote that, you know, they'd be looking at potentially guys that are kind of cut from the same cloth as like Yon to

Ron. So that would be Uribe and McGill here who both throw gas. Uribe is more in line with what the merrists typically look for from their high leverage arms. He's sinker, slider guy. But he would probably be more expensive than Miguel as well. So I'd be fine with either. I think both guys are electric and would significantly upgrade this bullpen. So I'd keep an eye on either of those guys. And again, the brewers, even though that they're going to look to compete in 2026 and try to capitalize on the momentum that they had in 2025, they've always been open to trading guys off of their major league roster, especially relievers. I mean, Josh Hater. They're almost always trade a guy in the last year of his deal rather than keep him

and get the draft pick. They're very much the Tampa Bay raise of the National League. Yeah, it's also where Reba has four years of club control. left. McGill has two. Yep. Your rebate would be significantly more expensive, I would think. Yes, very much so. You're not like an Edwin-Diaz type of contract offer that you'd have to put out there for your rebate. So it would be incredibly expensive, but it might be worth it.

Another name I throw out of that out there out of that bullpen, that's pretty interesting. Nick Mears, he is also ARP, too. So you get him for two more years. Big swing and miss stuff there. he's not quite Duran so I mean he's not I mean there's only like one Duran but like he is kind of in that next tier he is I don't know probably roughly the same tier as as Matt Brash so I mean I think maybe just the tier below that maybe but he's also another really solid bullpen arm so there's a lot of pitching for Milwaukee I know some people are really like Bryce Terang the brewers aren't going to trade him he's still too cheap for the brewers to consider that I really don't see much on the offensive side of the ball here that makes sense for Seattle but there's a lot of arms that would make sense

yeah a couple lefties Aaron Ashby Jared Canig we know that the mirrors are also looking for left-handed help in the bullpen DL Hall maybe even so yeah there's some options here in the bullpen for sure and then yeah if they trade Luis then Freddie Peralta makes a lot of sense especially if you're looking for someone that's not going to eat all of the

savings that you make on the on a Castio deal potentially right on a castio deal all right let's turn our attention here to the St. Louis Cardinals who we've talked quite a bit about already this off season obviously Brendan Donovan was in our offseason plan yesterday so you guys know what we think that would cost we had Michael Royo

d'rangelo Sanja and a cop-round B-picked to St. Louis for Brennan Donovan and Riley O'Brien in that in the offseason plan. But there's some other guys here that we've talked about, especially some guys in the bullpen, Jojo Romero, Matt Sonson. I really like Sunny Gray. I know Jerry DePoto loves Sunny Gray, but that just, I don't see how that makes sense with all the money that he's making, even if they do trade Luis Castillo. So anyone else?

Definitely not Nolan Aeronato. No. I'll say that real quick. Yeah. Hard, hard, hard pass. Yeah. Unless he's literally free.

I mean, both from a monetary standpoint and like a prospect standpoint, not interested. Yeah. I mean, Brendan Donovan's obviously the big, big guy here. Again, for two years.

We talked about Donovan. yesterday. No need to dive any deeper into him than that. Lars Neupar is a popular name still, even though he's a little bit overrated. He's still a solid player. I overrate, I mean by fans, at least Mariner fans seem to really like Lars Neupar. But he'd be interesting. You get him for three years. Riley O'Brien, who we've talked about again, Jojo Romero. You get for a year he's a rental, but he's a lefty and a really good one. So that would be a great second lefty out of that bullpen. Alec Burleson doesn't make as much sense now that you've re-signed Josh Naylor.

But, you know, you still have D.H. Appatch you can give, and Burleson is very much a Josh Naylor-esque type of hitter. So he'd be an interesting fit in this ballpark. And then, yeah, you mentioned, you know, Sphonson. So he'd be really interesting. Both O'Brien and Svonson have five full years of club control.

So they'll be, you know, reasonably pricey, but they also don't have the biggest track record in the world. So it's kind of a double edge sword there. One other name I throw out there. Yes, I know Jerry has in the past really liked Sunny Gray, but he's making $10 million more than Luis Castillo this year. So like you said, I don't think that's a real option here. I'll throw the name out there just because, but Nolan Gorman, we've heard him linked to the Mariners in the past, but he's just not been a good big leaguer. But if they think he can play some third, you know, maybe if he comes cheap enough, maybe that's a guy that Jerry looks at and is like, oh, you know, we'll take a shot on that. And we think we can help him.

But he strikes out a lot. Hold on. I did not know that Sunny Gray was making $35 million this year. I think he also said that I was like, wait, and then I looked it up, $35 million? Yeah, if you want to be technical, but still like, Jesus. Yeah, I mean, if you want to be technical. He's making $11 million more. And I believe he has a buyout.

That's $5 million. So in reality, one year of Sunny Gray is going to cost you $40 million. Okay. I like Sunny Gray. Not that much. Not that much. So, yeah. There's some bullpen arms.

Again, it's it's Donovan. It's Neupar. It's Burleson a little bit. Maybe it's Nolan Gorman. If you really think you can help him. reached the ceiling that he's supposedly had the entire time, maybe you might consider that. And then it's Romero, it's Fonson, it's O'Brien. There's a couple guys in this bullpen that makes some sense for the Cardinals.

But, yeah, it's, Donovan's the big prize here. And then I think after that, I think O'Brien and Romero are the two guys that make the most sense for Seattle specifically out of that bullpen. And then again, it's, do you want to take a shot on Newpar? Is he going to be prohibitive in his cost? He might be because people tend to overrate him. Do you want to take a shot on Jordan Walker or do you want to take a shot on, you know, Nolan Gorman, maybe, but the price has to be pretty darn cheap on those guys and just hard to

imagine the Cardinals in a year where they're rebuilding would sell low enough on those two guys that I would be interested. So is there anything on the Cubs, Pirates, and Reds rosters that stand out to us? We'll talk about that in just a moment. But first reminder, this episode of the Locktime Marys podcast is brought to you by both Fandul and Doer. The NBA is back and there's no better place to get in on the action than Fandul, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you miss the start of the game or want to ride the hot hand,

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and also thank you for making the Lockdown the number one sports podcast network. We're doing our NL Central Trade Preview. We just went over the rosters of the Brewers and St. Louis Cardinals for trade fits for the Mariners this winter. Now let's talk about the Chicago Cubs. We talked about a lot about last winner, Colby,

specifically about Nico Horner, who is now in the final year of his contract. Is Nico Horner a possibility again this winter? I don't think so. I mean, you never say never, but Nico only has one year club control left. The Cubs don't really have a logjam of infielders like we thought they did last year because Matt Shaw is just going to play third and Danesby's going to play short and then that leaves Nico free to play second unless they really like Triantos, who they added to. to the 40 man yesterday. There's really not much of a reason to move Nico.

So he's a really good value. He's a three, four win player who's only making $11 million. And even if he was available, they're not going to want prospects for him because they're trying to win the World Series next year. Well, they're trying to give the appearance that they're going to try to win the World Series next year, even though they're going to let Kyle Tucker walk and not even pursue him at all. So, yeah, it's one of those things.

I don't see it, the Luis Castillo thing that we heard last year, that seems like that's dead. I think the Cubs might still be interested in Castillo. They could certainly use some starting pitching, but you're not going to get Nico Horner one year of him for two years of Castillo without some other pieces being involved. So for me, it's really difficult to see Horner in Seattle, you know, meeting up or Chicago in Seattle matching up here on a, on a, trade costs, that would make sense. But sure, if Nico Horner were available, should the Mariners be interested in him? Absolutely. Absolutely, they should.

He's a really good player who would greatly improve their infield defense, which was bad last year. Straight up, bad. Don't tell me what the team's fielding percentage is. It's really easy to not make errors when you can't get to any ball. So you don't have range. You're not going to make a lot of errors. So Horner would definitely help with that.

And he would, you know, give you a real legitimate. you know second baseman and cole young can actually take some time to figure some things out so yeah horner would be a great addition i just don't think he's likely to be available not to seattle anyways it just doesn't make a lot of sense yeah um i feel like the cubs more so just need to focus on building upon the roster that they have rather than subtracting from it they're in a close enough spot obviously they just you know made the wall card but they're probably going to lose Kyle Tucker this winter. But they

just feel like a team that can't afford to go back right now. They kind of just need to keep going forward. So, yeah, I don't see a whole lot else here unless like they're willing to trade Say a Suzuki, which maybe those rumors have been

around for the last couple of years. Yeah. So maybe Ian Hap is the guy like there are certainly players that the Mariners in a vacuum would like to have Hap, Suzuki, Hortner, Michael Bush. There are a lot of those guys that, like, yeah, of course I'd love to have those guys, but the Cubs aren't going to trade them to you.

Also, the Cubs want starting pitching, which sounds like they do, and they need to end up trading for it. They have plenty of ammo in their farm system to go out and get it without, you know, trading from their major league roster. So, yeah, the Cubs, I don't really see much of a fit here. But, you know, Horner should keep tabs on them just in case. and then just a couple like Jordan Wicks if you want to try taking a shot on that

as kind of a starter depth slash maybe the second left out of the bullpen he might make some sense and then you know if you're in the market for a backup catcher Reese McGuire coming off of a decent year yeah McGillamaya

is another guy that they have there but I would assume that they're just looking to have Kelly and Amaya be there catching tandem and then McGuire would be the odd man out there there. So I don't know. We'll see. I just, I don't, I don't think there's, there's many fits here between the Marys and the Cubs. There's not a clean fit here. No.

Yeah. Unless they want to revisit the Luis Castillo thing, but I think at that point, the bearers are going, we want Nico Warner. And if Nico Horner is not evolved, then we're out. Yeah, I mean, there's not even really much in the bullpen right now. That's all that interesting in Chicago. So just not, these are two teams that just, they're not good fits for each Yeah, no. All right, what about the Pittsburgh Pirates who are apparently willing to spend money finally this winter? They were the greatest competitor for Josh Naylor with Mariners before Naylor signed like 12 days after he became a free agent. It's really easy to say, we're going to spend and then throw out contracts, you know have no shot of being accepted.

It'd be like, oh, look, we almost got him. That's right out of the Mariners playbook. like come on you're not going to snow the snowman all right but uh sure i'll believe it when i see it on on the pittsburgh side of things so like are like how much are they willing to subtract from their major league roster if they're actually looking to to buy and kind of build this roster out yeah here's the problem with that the pirates could spend 300 million dollars on free agents this year and they would still be the worst team in this division by a mile and a half like it is ludicrous for them to be like, oh, no, we're just going to go get Josh Naylor and then we're

going to go get, you know, Adolas Garcia when season on Tinder and look at us spend money. And it's like, cool, congrats on your 72 in season. You absolute dumpster fire of an ownership group. So, yeah, Pittsburgh, as you might expect, not a whole lot here, but some, like, I'll throw his name on here just because we haven't talked about him in like 18 months, thankfully. Brian Reynolds, I guess. Oh, God. Yeah, that's where I'm going to say, ooh.

Should have probably traded him when he was a six-win player, huh? The memories come flooding back. Probably should have pulled the trigger on that, huh, Pittsburgh? But it's okay because you've gotten so many winning seasons since you decided to keep and extend him, right? By the way, thank God they never traded for Brian Reynolds. Yeah. Yikes. Pittsburgh saved Seattle from themselves.

But yeah, I'll throw him on there. Reynolds. Maybe a Joey Bart if you're looking for a backup catcher. Sure. Yeah, he's a good year. Yeah, and then it's just arms. Justin Lawrence. He's a pretty interesting guy still.

I'd love to take a shot on Nick Gonzalez. I've always liked him. He flashed this year and then he kind of fell off a cliff. Yeah, I just don't know if he's honestly any better than Cole Young or Ben Williams. I don't need him to be better than Cole Young, but could he be better than Leo Rivas? The fact that I'm not immediately saying yes is concern enough. I mean, but like if it depends on obviously what it would cost, but like if he costs basically virtually nothing, like I'm down. Sure, but that's also got an option left.

Yeah, but that's any player. Oh, I can have him for free. Yeah, okay, I'm interested. Yeah. Unless there's like off-the-field stuff. But, uh, yeah. Anyways, Justin Lawrence, he's RB1, former Rocky. He had a nice year last year when he was healthy.

Dennis Santana, he's ARP 3, so you only get him for a year. He is not a Duran type of addition, but he is, you know, probably closer to Bizarro than Munoz or Brash. So, I mean, he's solid, would be a solid addition. Oviato, out of the, again, if you do, trade Luis, Oviedo would make some sense as kind of that starter, but you can also move into the bullpen. There's some good stuff there.

And then, you know, the big name, Mitch Keller, again, if you trade Luis, Mitch Keller would make some sense. You'd save a little bit of money by acquiring Keller over Luis, not a ton, like you'd save about 10 million bucks, but that could make a difference here. So, yeah, I mean, like, you're not getting Paul Skeens, obviously. you're not i mean i don't know if o'neill cruz was even available would you want to trade what it would probably cost to get o'neill cruise probably not so again there's just not a ton here uh but i would say that uh lawrence and santana out of the bullpen are really interesting and then if you

move louise then oviedo or or Mitch keller uh are two guys that i think make a good amount of sense for you, especially pitching in Seattle. And you're listening to the Lockdown Merris Podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. As always, if you want to hear from me and Colby, even more, and help support the show, we have a Patreon. It's called Control of Zone. And on there, we talk, Marriss, Seahawks, all that good stuff.

For more information, go to patreon.com forward slash control the zone link in the description of this episode. So lastly, as we wrap up our NL Central Trade Preview. Let's talk about the Cincinnati Reds, who technically made it to the playoffs. Very quick trip for them, though. Anything here that stands out to you? Sure. I mean, obviously Hunter Green.

Right. And I put them on the list, but again, that is like, okay, sure, yeah. Yeah, yeah. If they trade Hunter Green, then, yeah, I'm interested, but I wouldn't count on it. um yeah but other than that there there's a few guys here that are interesting would cincinnati move any of these guys i don't know again like you said they made the playoffs technically last year it was the quickest exit we've ever seen like and it was due to like an all-time collapse from the meds right like the the reds are fine like they could add a couple

pieces this winter and be legitimate you know in l central contenders and like they're not a bad team i'm not saying they're a bad team it's just like like they were very clearly they made the playoffs as an 83 one team they were like the participation players of this playoff around but it was just very clear they were going to get smoked by l a which they did they didn't have the the talent that they look like a team that is just a 500 team who snuck into the playoffs and isn't really a playoff team they could get there this year again but they also don't like to spend a lot of money like blah blah blah we know why the reds are the Reds.

So whether or not any of these guys are available, I don't know, but I'll throw them out there anyways. Longtime Mariner, fan, Target, Spencer Steer, had a pretty good year this year. You know, where are you going to play him? I don't know. He plays pretty much everywhere. He's never been very good anywhere, except for this year. I think he actually had an okay defensive year. They stuck him at, I think it was first base.

Yeah, he played 122 games at first base this year. Yeah, and he was fine. So, like, it's first base defense. Again, he's played a lot of left. He's played some third, but you have Naylor locked in. So steer, do you really want to try and mess around with him in the outfield again? I don't know, but. I mean, you need a DH right now.

Sure, sure. So it'd be interesting. We heard that the Mariners went after this guy last year, Gavin Lux, who, again, just played some outfield, played some second. He is ARP 3 this year, so you only get him for a year. He was okay last year. if memory serves, nothing too special, but the Mariners did attempt to acquire him last year. And as we know, as we often say, Jerry loves to circle back.

So maybe Gavin Lux is another guy. Kind of as a lottery ticket, if you want to take a shot on this, Edwin Incarnacion Strand might be interesting. Now, that's taking a shot. That's a flyer on a talented guy who hasn't quite hit with any regularity in the big leagues. Fun little note on Incarnacion Strand, Jerry, Potoh and Scott Hunter drafted him way back when he did not sign with them obviously but they did draft him so there is some like lingering like oh we like this guy out there so maybe T.J. Friedel would be a fun one. He's underrated. He's not spectacular. He's not an all

star but he's good player. So I'd rather have him for example than Lars Newbar. I think that statement would make a lot of people upset for some reason. So Fridl would be an interesting guy. Again, Arb 1, so I kind of doubt he's available, but I doubt most of these guys are available, to be honest. And then from the pitching side of things, Brady Singer. Again, if you trade Luis, Brady Singer, making $11 million, he's just kind of a really solid, low in three, high in four,

former first round pick, lots of upside there. And he had a pretty good year in Cincinnati, which is somewhat surprising. And then out of the bullpen, Graham Ashcraft would be pretty interesting as well. So there's actually some pieces on Cincinnati. It's just are they going to be willing to trade any of them after they got a taste of the postseason? And now they feel like, oh, well, with another year of development, we make a couple smart moves in free agency and in the trade market. We might win, you know, 88, 89, 90 games, maybe win this division next year because we know Pittsburgh's not going to be very good. We're pretty sure the Cardinals aren't going to be good again.

Like the Cubs are losing Kyle Tucker. The Brewers are probably losing Freddie Peralta. And they're kind of fluky anyways. Like the Brewers are a team that could win 78 games next year. So like maybe we can win this division. So I don't know how many of these guys are going to be available. But in terms of like the raw number of players that make sense from this division, it really is Cincinnati and St. Louis that have the most players that would interest the Mariners.

Milwaukee probably has the most like power, like the most impact from what you might be able to get from them. But yeah, Cincinnati is right up there. And as for their trade fit with Seattle, eh, it's not great. But it's not nothing. So, yeah, I'd be interested to see, like,

if Frito was available, if Brady Singer is available after I trade Louise, I would be very interested to have those conversations about those guys. Everybody else is just kind of like, hey, are you moving him? No, okay, like move on. Right. But, yeah, Cincinnati's an interesting team. That is going to do it for our show.

Thank you so much for joining us here on the lockdown Marrars podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. For Colby Pat Node, I'm Tadeng Azales. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L.O. underscore Merrers. You can follow me at Tading Gzalas and Colby at C-Pat 11. That's C-PAT-1. We're also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB Colby,

and the show at Lockdown Mariners. You can also find us on Instagram at Lockdown Mariners. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day, and we'll see you next time. Peace.