Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - The Seattle Mariners REFUSED to Trade Cole Young For Ketel Marte?!

Episode Date: March 6, 2026

Ty and Colby are joined by Mariners POSTCAST host Anderson Hirst to recap the Mariners' offseason, including the team's reported reluctance to include Cole Young in a trade for Ketel Marte. Vote for Round 2 of our Top 50 Mariners Moments Tournament Click to learn more about the Everydayer Club! Join the Ahoy, Sailors Discord server! Check out our Patreon! Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11 Follow the show on Bluesky: @lockedonmariners | @tdg | @mlbcolby Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! PlayStation This episode of is brought to you by MLB The Show 26. Visit mlbtheshow.com/lockedon and use code “LOCKEDON” to unlock a pack for use in Diamond Dynasty. Pre-Order now, Available March 17th on PlayStation 5, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch. RATED E FOR EVERYONE. Turbo Tax For a limited time, you can have your taxes done by a local TurboTax expert for just $150 — all in, if a TurboTax expert didn’t file for you last year. Just file by February 28. Take taxes off your plate and get back to your life.  Visit https://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today.  Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONfor $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuel FanDuel is giving you a way to turn that energy into even bigger potential wins with a College Basketball Parlay Profit Boost.Visit https://FANDUEL.COMto get started — Play Your Game.   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.

Was Cole Young really the hang up in a potential Ketelmartay trade for the Mariners? We discussed that and more with Anderson Hurst of the Marra's postcast coming up. 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 Friday, March 6, 2026. You're listening to the Locked-on Marrists podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network now, the number one sports podcast network.

My name is Tiding Azales. I'm a lifelong Mariner's fan. who's been covering the team for over half a decade. And today, my co-coast, Colby and I will be joined by Anderson Hurst of the Marr's postcast to get his thoughts on the mayor's offseason, including that report about the mayor is being hesitant to part with Cole Young and it can tell Marte trade and more. But before we get into that, I want to shout out our title sponsor today. MLB, the show 26. Visit MLB-T-H-E dot show slash locked on and use the promo code locked on.

That's L-C-K-E-O-N to unlock a pack for use in Diamond Dynasty. pre-order now available March 17th on PlayStation 5, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch, rated E for everyone. And be sure to stay tuned later in the episode for our MLB Top 100 highlight, thanks to our friends over at MLB the show, 26. All right, let's visit with Anders. Well, it's been a little while since you've heard from this guy, but he's getting ready for his first full season,

host of the Marriss postcast here on the Lockdown Mariner's channel. It's Anderson Hurst. How's your offseason been, man? Oh, it's been good, you know, doing, you know, doing Mariners stuff in the Mariners season, then I got, you know, hopped onto the Seahawks kind of postcast squad show sort of thing as well. I'd say two pretty good seasons, uh, since they've brought me on to locked on here. So hopefully we can continue that going into, uh, 2026 of the Mariners as well. But it's good to be here, guys. Thank you. Yeah, I was doing the squad show after a Super Bowl victory.

That was pretty cool, right? Pretty fun. Yeah. And, uh, same kind of thing was my first year. And it's one of the best seasons in franchise history. We'll take that for sure. So, yeah, uh, that was a whole, I was a blast, but I am ready to ramp back up into Mariners season. After a pretty long off season, it's felt like to me at least. Hopefully you got a little more magic there for this upcoming baseball season. I hope so. Maybe get the Mariners over that hump in the ALCS. That's right.

That's right. That's right. That's right. So you mentioned it, eight more outs. It was actually a pretty quick off season relatively because obviously the Mariners got deeper into a season than they've ever been. And then the Seahawks went on to do what they did. Right.

So for us Seattle sports fans, like we were. were pretty occupied over the course of the off season. And I mean, the Seahawks only lost once after the Marrars got eliminated. And then the one loss that the Seahawks had like 30 minutes after they signed Josh Naylor. So that was pretty cool. So like every Sunday, most Sundays at least, you know, there was a couple Saturday games in there, Thursday game, whatever. But most Sundays from the point that the Marys were eliminated were absolute bangers.

So that was great. But overall, how was the, you know, like what did you think about the off season for the Marrars? I think obviously it's going to be a pretty common theme, but I think you did what you absolutely needed to do in resigning Josh Naylor, and he did that early, and I was happy about that, kind of took the worst-case scenario out of the picture right away. And, you know, I know we talked about, I've seen you guys' episodes about Brendan Donovan over and over and over again.

It was a constant discussion amongst Mariners fans for, it felt like years at that point. But I do believe he makes this team better. And, you know, if you kind of weigh out losing Gino Suarez and Jorge Polanco, but then adding Brendan Donovan, you know, depending on where you feel those guys will be in this next year, I still think Jose Ferrer is also a very good ad. And I'm excited for that as well. I believe this team is in a good spot. It feels like kind of a run-it-back situation with, you know, kind of retooling a couple areas that, you know, maybe felt like we're kind of falling off towards the end of last year. I'm a big Gino Suarez fan, but, you know, it was pretty obvious that once he got here, it wasn't exactly the same player that he was in Arizona. So I'm as okay with moving on from that and seeing where it kind of goes at third base. There were some other options that you could have done. But I feel like the Mariners always in their eyes, in their eyes,

that doesn't mean in everyone else's, and all the analysts and Mariners Twitter and all that stuff. It doesn't mean that they think that the Mariners did everything that they should have done. But I think in the Mariners eyes, in Jerry Depoto's eyes, Justin Hollander's eyes, they feel like that this team is better in 2026. And it was in 2025. I feel like it's more pretty much the same. You do get a whole 162 of Josh Nader, which is going to be huge. And I believe this pitching staff is going to be healthier than it was in 2025 and hopefully better as well. And, you know, you basically brought back the rest of your core.

So I still feel like it's kind of a run-it-back situation, hopefully fixing a couple keyholes. we'll get you eight more out, so to speak. Yeah, yeah. And maybe the, you know, the, the addition of Jose Ferrer maybe leads you to making some better bullpen decisions down the road. We'll see. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see.

That'd be nice. A full year of Dan Wilson figuring things out in the regular season as well. How about that? So how do you feel about Cole Young, Colt Emerson, some of these young guys that are going to factor in over the course of 2026? Yeah, I kind of go back and forth because I do feel, like betting on youth for a team that's ready now. And I don't believe where the Mariners got last year was a fluke at all.

I believe they were the first or second best team in the American League last year, depending on how it finished up in the ALCS. So they can afford to kind of be like, hey, we're really close, fix a couple holes and kind of move into next year, feel like we have a good chance to go all the way. but you know relying on a cole young colt emerson kind of battle there uh it seems like you're basically filled in all the infield spots except one and that that will kind of be a battle between cole young and colt emerson as of now it's cole young but you never know it can

happen um that can be a little risky in my eyes uh and you know i know a lot of people have been talking about the j p crawford situation as well just wanting to insert Colt Emerson directly into shortstop before ever seeing him playing. Andrews, didn't you know that three-win players, perennial three-win players suck, actually? I don't. I don't understand the thought process behind that. Look, we all agree, and we talked about this going into the playoffs last year. J.P. Crawford's defense is not great right now.

Straight up. But he's still a productive player because of what he brings on the offensive side of the ball. And, you know, we had Joe Sheehan on. I don't know if you guys know who Joe Sheen is a very good baseball analyst on our radio show. And he was talking about, look, when you're the favorite, and we're talking about favorite in the AL West, one of the favorites in the American League, you want to limit variance, right? And you kind of go with the sure thing. You know what J.P. Crawford is. You don't know what Colt Emerson is.

He could be better than J.P. Crawford. But he also could be worse. He could struggle. Maybe he struggles defensively as well, and you get even lower production than you were getting out of J.P. Crawford. So I'm fine with as of now inserting J.P. Crawford into that shortstop position going in to 2026. And look, if it's between Kowong and Kohl-Tamerson, have them battle it out, hopefully one of them kind of clicks. I still believe there's a tool set there for Kowong. I think, you know, even his defense didn't show that great last year.

He had a couple, you know, weeks slash month of good offense to kind of offset it a little bit. and he's still a really young player. I believe he's going to be a big part of this team moving forward. But just anointing those guys as starters without even really seeing what they can be is not where the Mariners are right now. Maybe if they're a perennial 80-win team and really trying to build towards a future, you can do that. But when you're on the verge of competing for a World Series,

then you can't afford to kind of make those assumptions and just slot young guys. guys into starting positions like that. Yeah. Yeah, probably would help a little better. You'd probably be easier to swallow that if you had maybe a better utility option. No disrespect to Leo Rivas, but, you know, like I like Leo, but I want to Ramone Urias because he kind of fit this club perfectly now. I love that thought process.

And, you know, I know you get Rob Reff Snyder, who you kind of is like a lefty bashing sort of utility man. And honestly, Brendan Donovan in his best position is a utility man. But right now he's an everyday starter. So we'll kind of see how that all plays out. Maybe Colt Emerson kind of goes off. And maybe you have to kind of start thinking about putting him into the lineup every day. And then Donovan does turn into that kind of super utility man every single day.

But, you know, we have to wait for these things to play out and just kind of almost resetting to where you were last year, I think is the right move. Yeah. Did a reassign anywhere? Did I miss that? Where are you signed? I don't know. I just saw that he signed it. It wasn't with the Mariners,

and I flew into a, you know, blind fury. Right, of course. Of course. Yeah. I mean, I just protect yourself a little bit. He's actually with the Cardinals.

Oh, yeah. That's right. That's right. That's great. They're in a favorite friend of Donovan to throw on your ears. Yay. Can't wait to talk about that as a trade possibility this summer. Oh, geez.

Yeah. Yeah. And Anderson for Luis. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I can't wait to talk about it. Nine of one players in the clubhouse.

I can't wait for when the mayor is one, Yvonne Herrera. And we're talking about Brian Wu for Ivan Herrera for two months. More from our conversation with Anders in just a moment. But first, a reminder of this episode of the Locktime Marys podcast is brought to you by Indeed and Fandulul. Workplace chaos. Deadlines stacking up, inbox overflowing, and the one position you have to fill still sitting open. When the pressure's on and you need the right hire, this is a job for,

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Fan duel, play your game. And you're listening to the Locktime Marries podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Thank you so much for making us your first listen for all things mariners and also thank you for making locked on the number one sports podcast network baseball is back and you can lock in by joining the everyday or club which gets you add free episodes and access to our group chat on discord go to locked on mariners dot supercast com or tap the link in the description to learn more now back to our conversation with anders well going back to cole young there was this uh article that came out from adam jude uh i don't know a week or so ago that colby and i never touched on uh because we had a lot of

our predetermined content that we needed to put out. But, you know, there was a quote in there. There was a paragraph in there that, from Adam Jude, that kind of sent everyone into a frenzy where he mentioned that, you know, the Marys were talking to the Diamondbacks about a Cote trade and talks never really advanced, partly because they were hesitant to move on from Cole Young and the deal. Now, a lot of people have taken. that article on God, the Mariners wouldn't trade Cole Young for Consult Marte. Look how stupid they are.

But the way that I take that is like, yeah, they weren't willing to, you know, involve Cole Young in this deal that probably also involves Ryan Sloan or Bryce Miller and maybe also a Lazaro Montez or someone like that on top of that. So what did you make of that though? It was kind of a weird quote. I did see that. On the surface, if you, if Cole Young is what's, stopping you from trading for Catelle-Marté. I would be a little questionable about that. If it did involve the Ryan Sloan's Las Montes sort of names, that's what would have stopped me, personally, instead of the Cole Youngs of the world, especially since you would be theoretically getting the, I mean, not replacement for Cole Young, but same position, second baseman slash DH.

You know, the Cate thing has been kind of a thing for a while. That was kind of the big move in my head. if the Mariners were going to make something happen, that that is where they would have turned to. Still a very reasonable contract in Major League Baseball's eyes, maybe less reasonable in Mariners' eyes, than, you know, they would like to pay. And it's worth pointing out that, you know, especially, you know, teams that aren't at the upper echelon of spending,

that you're trading for the contract, not for the player, right? So even though Catel Marte is at this point a far superior player than Cole Young, that, you know, however much you spend on Catel Marte limits you from spending, you know, in the future as well. We all know there's no salary cap. I'm just going to raise over that. The Mariners still will not be spending a ton, like just period, end of story, until, you know, things change in terms of the, you know, possible CBA and all

stuff, but that's a whole other situation. But I, it is kind of weird to me that they, that was what stopped them from making that trade. Because it seems like Cotell Marte would have been kind of a perfect fit to slot in. And if you were going to try and instead of just running it back, if you were going to be like, all right, we need to take another step up. I feel like Cotel Marte would have been a really good kind of supplement to the team that came eight outs away from going to the World Series last year and would have sent you into the conversation of, you know, you still are a world series. series contender at this point, but then it would have kind of put you at the one of the tops of the, if not the top of the list in the American League. So that's my thought on that. But, you know, I understand they're kind of feeling towards, you know, playing the safe route of the Brandon Donovan inside of things as well. So we'll kind of see how it plays out. Hopefully one of the young guys clicks and we don't have to worry about that moving forward.

Colby, what did you make of that article over that paragraph from the article? The idea that the Mariners wouldn't trade Cole Young for Cotel Marte is nonsense. Of course they would have. would they have traded Cole Young and Ryan Sloan and Bryce Miller? Like, no. And we know, we kind of know what the Diamondbacks were looking for. They wanted Young Major League pitching. Right. And the Mariners have a couple of those guys. But, you know, and at the end of the day, would I have traded Bryce Miller for, you know,

Cattel Marte? Sure. Would I have traded at Brian Wu? No. And I don't think you could get Kirby or I don't think you'd get them for Kirby or Gilbert because those guys have less club control. So, yeah, my hunch is, I don't think this is just, you know, hey, it's the Brennan Donovan trade, but you also have to add Cole Young.

I don't think that's what happened here. I think it was like, yeah, we'll give you Bryce Miller. Like, okay, we want Bryce Miller and Cole Young. I can see why the Mariners would say no to that. Yeah, yeah. So I think, you know, it is what it is. You know, this is nobody wants to dig beneath the surface and they kind of just run with the quote. and that's just kind of how content is created these days.

I get it. But like, it's like, do you guys really think that the Diamondbacks were like, we'll take Cole Young straight up for Citell Marte? And the marriage were like, no, oh, no, no, we could never like, that's not what happened. Yeah, but the way it's worded seems like the way I read it, and maybe it is kind of headline grabby in that sense. The way it's worded, though, it makes it seem like it was, you know,

Cole Young. That was the reason why that trade didn't get done. And if it does involve other stuff, I feel like it would have been, oh, I don't want to include Ryan Sloan. I don't want to include, you know, Brian Wu or that. Well, yeah. So let me, let me quickly read specifically the paragraph. So Jude wrote, quote, in December when rumors circulated about the Arizona Diamondback shopping, Cotele, the mayor has explored the market for a potential reunion with the All-Star Second Baseman.

Those talks never advance, sources said, in part because of the mayor's resistance to include Young and a deal. in part it's kind of open-ended yeah i i just think i have to look at the way this team operates yeah and i'm not going to believe that cole young was actually the biggest reason like that that made me the straw that broke the camels back in negotiations but it wasn't like hey we'll take cole young and tie pete and the comp round b pick for that's not what happened yeah it was we want ryan sloan we want brys miller we want kate anderson and we want cole young and a little bit more. And the Mariners are just like, no.

I just. And by the way, if that was the price, someone else would have traded for Contal Marte this off season. So. So I mean, well, I, it is what it is. I, I think the headline or I think the, it's not even the headline. It's just a sentence in the pair in the.

Yeah. It was a Cole Young hype article. That's what it was. Right, right. And so, you know, it's, I like Cole Young a lot too. Yeah. I know the Mariners do, but I can pretty much guarantee that the reason the, you know, can tell Marte is not here is not because the Mariners won't trade Cole Young. It's that they won't trade Cole Young like he's a throw-in piece.

Yeah. To get these really good players because I think Cole Young is going to be a good player. That's a good way to put it. That's a good way to put it. I agree. Yeah, he's not a throw-in. He's a headliner to the Mariners. And I think to the Diamondbacks, they were looking at him as kind of a, you know, a second or third piece in the trade more.

So I think that's probably what ended up happening here. Our conversation with Anders continues in just a moment, but first, a reminder of this episode of the Locked-on Mera's podcast is brought to you by MLB the show 26. This week's MLB Top 100 highlight is brought to you by MLB the show 26, the latest from the beloved video game franchise. Each week, we're highlighting the stars of MLB's top 100 players list. The elite names you'll be controlling, building around, and going head-to-head with into MLB the show. Today, we're spotlighting Julio Rodriguez, who ranks 15th in our top 100. If you're a Mariners fan, you know what Julio can do. We're talking big homers, doubles down the line, tons of stolen bases, and of course, a lot of ground being covered out in center field.

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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 the Zone. And on there, we talk Marrars, Seahawks, all that good stuff. For more information,

go to patreon.com forward slash control the zone. Link in the description of this episode. Now back to our conversation with Anders. So, Anders, I don't know if you saw, but we conducted a fan survey. We've been doing this for the last couple years. Yeah. So did you, did you see the results that we, we talked about yesterday? Are you familiar with that? I have not seen the results. No. Okay, cool. So we'll go over this together then. So we did this on the show yesterday,

but I want to get your answers to all these questions. Great. And then I'll tell you what the, what the winning answer was. So, all right, how excited are you about the current 2026 roster? So it's multiple choice very excited somewhat excited not very excited not excited at all i'd still say very excited i still think in terms of the grand scheme of things i think this is one of one of if not the best team in the american league and i realized that you maybe didn't improve as much as a lot of people wanted to but you were at that place last year and i think you kind of reset and put yourself in the same position to do that again and remember these guys these last couple years they haven't been doing, you know, making their additions and making this team better, which they have gotten

the last couple of years. They've not been doing that in the winter. They've been doing it at the trade deadline. So hopefully they have that kind of same mentality again. And if they're in that spot again, they continue to add and kind of move forward. So I say still say very excited. 71.6% of the vote agrees with you. How do you feel about how the offseason went? thrilled, content, frustrated, slash disappointed, or angry. Content's a pretty easy one here. I think, like I said, you kind of kept yourself

in that same position that you were at the end of last year. And you didn't really make yourself that much better, but you were already in a good spot. So I feel content. Yep. And 79.2% of the vote also agrees with you. How confident are you in the front office? Very somewhat, not very, not at all.

honestly this is maybe i'm being really hindsight 2020 here but uh it's changed a lot recently and i'm winning will change it like it's just kind of the way it goes so i feel very confident in their ability to um continue to make this roster you know in a good put in a good spot maybe it's the rest of the the a west not really being in a good spot that kind of gives me that confidence but uh i still feel very confident And again, in comparison to the rest of the league at where we are and their ability to kind of continue this, you know, trend that we're going right now. 58.7%. Agreeze.

Bears fans. Let's go. I'm feeling confident in you guys. I thought you were much more degenerate than you're turning out to be. Let's go. And there's not an original thinker confirms. Yes, it's it. I followed.

How much faith do you have in the ownership group? A lot, a little, not much, none at all. I'll say a little on this one. Okay. It's, I used to kind of be in the, in the realm of I don't really trust the front office and the ownership group is just kind of adding on to those frustrations. The change in the front office has really helped minimize the issues of the front office as well. But I also, once again, I'm comparing it to the rest of the league. You have a middle of the road payroll.

It's not one of the worst in the league. they do spend money on guys that they feel like that are worth it. I realize that's not a super popular take. I wish they spent more money. But again, if you're comparing it to the rest of the league, I still feel like it's an okay ownership group. I wish they did more, but I feel okay about it. So 49.3% says not much.

33.6% came in second, saying a little. Okay. Just like you. Yeah. All right. Well, the Marin's make the playoffs in 2026. So the answers here, or your choices here are yes, they'll win the division. Yes, they'll win a wild card or just no.

Yes, they'll win the division. I think this will be one of those years. Again, a lot of it's with the rest of the AOS. Maybe the A's take the next step. I don't see that happening. I think the Astros are once again worse than they were in the previous years. It depends on how EMI does, but not having Bregman will be a huge thing. Sorry, not pregnant.

Not having Kyle Tucker and those guys. and the rest of that core is kind of falling apart, it seems like. Framber Valdez is a big loss for them. Payne has heard already. Exactly. So it just seems like they're on the cusp of really being done with that. The Rangers are an interesting one. I feel like they got sort of worse with Marcus Simia,

but then I love the McKenzie Gore trade for them. So it's kind of a weird one. Maybe they're kind of just shifting their focus and from being a super offensively minded team to kind of being more of a pitching minded team. I don't know. We'll see kind of how that plays out. I still feel like the Mariners are significantly better than them. So, yeah, I think they win the division.

And this will be one of those years where, you know, the last few years it's felt like such a roller coaster ride. And sometimes that's what baseball seasons can be like up and down. And you go through these super hot stretches and then you suck and it feels like you're not going to make the playoffs. I think this is going to be one of those seasons where they get out to a good start. And they're not going to play great baseball for all six months. but you kind of will have the confidence and feeling that this team's going to win the division

and be in the playoffs pretty early on and it will start to gather some momentum going towards that point. So hopefully they can do that and kind of have a pretty consistent 2026. Yeah, so the majority agrees with you. Do you want to take a stab at how much of the majority? Ooh, considering you're asking this, I'm assuming it's pretty dang high. So I'm going to say. It's shockingly high. 95% for 1995.

Just. Right. Well, not that high, but 88 and a half percent. All right. I get 90 in my head, but I want to do.

That's a lot, though. That's a lot. Like, I just, you know, Colby and I just feel like there would be more pessimism

because, I mean, that's a big part of Mariners' fandom is being pessimistic. If you look at it on the surface, you lose Gino Suarez, you lose Jorge Polanco,

and you bring in, you know, a utility slash, a lot of people view them as a role player and Brendan Donovan. I think he's, you know, a good player, helps your team. But then that's it. And you feel like, oh, man, what are we doing?

Like, you know, we got worse than two of our big guys that were big producers for us last year are gone. And you didn't really supplement that. I could see where people would think that. So I'm surprised as well that it's that high. Yeah. But, you know, like I said yesterday, I'm like, good. It's about time that we're like, hey, this team is sick. Let's get behind them.

Come on. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. All right. What concerns you most about? the 2026 team.

So there are multiple choices here, but you can also, if you have another one that's not listed here, yeah, let me know. But length of the lineup, bullpen depth, rotation health, and two reliant on rookies. Now, Colby put that together before the Brennan-Donovan trade. Okay. I actually am not super concerned about any of those options. I have three others. Okay.

Number one, manager. Yeah. Seriously. No, I'm like, yeah, yeah. It's not hyperbole. And I think there's multiple parts to managing. I think Dan Wilson does a fantastic job of the day-to-day managing personalities. I don't think it's a coincidence that Cal Raleigh had that season of the first full season that Dan Wilson was manager. Like I don't, and you had a really good year from Julio as well. Dan Wilson is a great job. Something that I think is really good in the regular season of, kind of managing the ups and downs of a personality and going through 162 game season. I think he's excellent at that better than service was. The other part of managing is the in-game decisions, and I think he is very much lacking in that area. And I don't think it's hyperbole to say he kind of is the main reason that you didn't make the World Series. Like, you could say the guys that he put out there, you know, didn't execute.

But, like, it, you were eight outs away. And one decision that he made, I realize it's kind of disingenuous to put it all on that one decision. But, like, when it's that high of a level, and it's not, wasn't just that one decision in the postseason either. There were other ones leading up to that as well. So I think the manager is going to be the main thing I look at, hey, it was his first full year as a manager, period. So maybe he learns from it a little bit. Maybe he relies on, you know, someone else to make the, like, those kind of help, him out with those decision-making process. I don't know. I don't know what that looks like,

but that's going to be something I'm concerned about. Number two is defense, overall defense. You have three guys that are above-average defenders on this team right now. I think you look at Cal, Julio, Josh Naylor's debatable because he wasn't before he got here, but then he was really good once he got here at first base. I guess also first base defense. Yeah, exactly. It's first base. So that's why I kind of half him and then half Brendan Donovan as well because I don't know how he's going to perform at third base because that's where he's going to be. It seems like to start the year. He even admitted himself that he doesn't know what that's going to look like. So that's going to be something that I'm interested in seeing.

So I'll put half Brendan Donovan, half Josh Naylor in terms of the third. But everywhere else, you're below average as of now. Maybe Cole Young gets better at second or Colt Emerson, if that ends up being the case. Maybe J.P. Crawford, his arm strength looks a lot better. we'll see, I don't know. Randy Rosal Raina is a circus in left field. And in right, you got, you know, Luke Rayleigh, Dom Kanzone, you know, Rob Reff Snyder, Richard Robes. I guess if Victor Robes is playing every day, he's above average, but like everywhere else you're not really in a good spot. So that's going to be something that I'm interested to see that plays out. And the third,

I don't know how much I actually believe in this concern, but it's the narrative. Um, it is, you know, how much did we rely on Cal Raleigh's historic season last year? And the inevitable regression that is going to happen, he's not going to hit 60 home runs again. How much is that going to affect, uh, this team? And, you know, maybe you, how do you supplement the, the difference there offensively? I still think that you get better pitching than you did in 2025 overall from both the bullpen and the starters. I think that, um, I honestly could think Julio and Cal could switch swap places where Cal still has a really good season and then Julio jumps into the MVP conversation. Who knows what ends up happening there.

But that's going to be those are the three things that I'm looking forward to. If the Mariners don't get where they want to be in 2026, those are, in my opinion, three of the things that will prevent them from doing that. Well, you mentioned the rotation. So let's talk about the starters. Which starter do you think is going to have the best year? See, now that's a really good question. honestly could think any one of those five. Probably not Luis Castillo.

I still think he's a good pitcher and a very valuable piece. Yeah. But, you know, he's one of those crappy three-win players. Yeah, right, right. Who suck, actually. You probably get rid of him for Ryan Sloan right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, his best ability is availability.

He just makes every start, which I think is so important for this team, especially it was last year. Let's be completely honest with all the injuries. What were we going to say, Ty, sorry? Well, I was just going to say, like, I feel like if Luis Castillo is your best starter, and this is not to say anything bad about Luis, so that probably means something went wrong. Right. Because, like, you know what you're going to get out of Luis. I feel pretty confident about that, that Luis doesn't have this, like, extra gear he's going to get to where, like, everyone else performs relative to expectations and they stay healthy relatively and all that.

And he just, like, he leapfrogs them. Yeah. That's just, that's not going to happen. No. No, I mean, and you look at the age, that's just kind of how it looks. anyway. So it's just he's the rock. And he's probably your fifth starter. Let's be completely honest. But like that's fine. That's really good if he's your fifth starter. That's amazing. That's a perfect fifth starter. So, um, gosh, um, I'm going to kind of go through in my head.

Brian Wood, the best season in 2025. Bryce Miller looked the best towards the end of the season in 2025. I'm still waiting for that George Kirby Cy Young kind of season that the Mariners seem like they think is there. He was game one starter for both series. So actually not the Toronto series, but Dan Wilson's game one starter for the, when you had rest, I'll put it that way.

So that's kind of another one. Logan Gilbert, I think probably is the highest ceiling. And that leaves, who am I missing? He went through everything, everyone. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Logan is the highest ceiling. So, I mean, you can make a big. argument for either one i'm going to say i still am going to believe in logan gilbert especially

considering he's getting close to his contract situation uh i think he needs to kind of redo what he did in 2024 uh and i think he's going to kind of put together a top five siung loading season in 2020 got to get deeper into games for sure um yeah this one was really close so it was 40.2% in favor of woo and then 36.9% in favor of logan and then there was a pretty steep jump off, jump from, from Logan to the third place, which was George at 16% flat. Yeah, it's, I feel like it's still there. I feel like the George, the 2023 George Kirby could come back. And then like even another step above that. Like, I don't know. It's weird. I think that's the guy that if you are going to have a Cy Young winner on this staff, I think it would be George Kirby. Which player are you most confident will bounce back in 2026?

Miller, Luke Rayleigh, or Victor Rubles? Easy Bryce Miller for me. Just because, like I said, he was the best pitcher at the end of the season during the playoffs. So, like, it- Colby will say that you're disrespecting Luke Rayleigh. I'm just going to tell you that now. Well, also picking Bryce Miller.

Yeah. Yeah. No, I actually think a big bounce back for Rick Whaley will happen as well. But I kind of have a different answer for all three of these guys. I think it's going to be Bryce Miller. I definitely can see one for being Luke Rayleigh. I think if it happens with Victor Robles, that will be the biggest determining factor on the Mariners,

like kind of upshute because if he is close to what he was during the second half of 2024, with his defense, as we talked about earlier, that adds another spot where you feel pretty good about. That would be huge for this team. The best version of the Mariners has Victor Robles playing every single day, but that isn't happening right now. We'll see what ends up happening with him in 2026.

I'd be pretty happy if he kind of comes back to that. So which prospect slash young player are you most confident in contributing in 2020? So we already kind of talked about this a little bit earlier on. But so Emerson, Young, Kate Anderson's also on here. I'm going to take the easy answer and say Cole Young. Just because, you know, we've seen this before, guys who have at least some MLB experience. experience tend to come back in their second year and kind of figure it out a little bit more,

a little bit more, a little bit more. Those other two guys haven't done it yet. They are higher rated prospects, so maybe their talent will kind of, you know, take them, hit the ground running, so to speak. But I just, I still believe in the skill set of Cole Young. I think he's the second baseman of the future for this team. And I still think he's going to be like, I could totally see him kind of solidifying his role as an everyday player in 2026.

It's people forget how high he was rated as well. Everyone's looking at Colt Emerson now. And just because Cole Young already kind of graduate, technically not graduated, but basically is already on the MLB roster. That they kind of, all right, now, Colt Emerson's the guy. Like, Cole Young was right up there with him for the longest time. So I still believe in his talent level. Yeah.

So Cole Young slightly edged out Colt Emerson here, 48.4% to 46.3%. Okay. So very, very close. I can see both, yeah, but yeah. All right, who will be the team MVP? Julio, that's just, I am still waiting. Like, again, it sounds like I've been, the way I'm saying this is,

I've been disappointed with him up until now. That's absolutely not the case. He's been a fantastic player in his first five years, sorry, four years. And I still believe there's a pretty significant another level. And part of me is kind of justifying in my head, okay WBC Dominican Republic they really care about it he's going to

kind of really be like all in on that and that's going to kind of exercise his early season demons so to speak because he's starting much earlier then he puts together a full season of Julio and if that happens he's already a top five MVP voting guy now

he will be a like if he puts together a full season of where he usually does in the second half of the season he will be in the MVP conversation like solidified in that spot. So I still think that could happen. And it's, if that happens, that'll be a huge kind of, you know, we talked about Cal's regression and Julio maybe taking that spot. I could totally, totally see something like that. Passing off the baton essentially is actual like real MVP contender. Which again, if he doesn't hit that, like I know that's insanely high expectations to put on him. He's still only 25. If he doesn't hit that, that's okay. This team could still be really good. If he's just the 800 OPS, you know, you. you know, you know, six-war player. Yeah, and then that's completely fine.

I'm not saying that's a disappointment at all. I still think he could reach that next level. We'll see if that has happened. Well, 78.1% are in agreement with you. I was pretty surprised. I was really surprised that it was that much, though, you know, because, I mean, Cal Raleigh literally coming off of being, you know, finishing second nearly winning the American League MVP.

And I think people are a little quick. I guess I'm in this category as well to jump to the next. thing and just assume that Cal Raleigh's not going to do what he did in 2025. I think he's still going to... Which is very reasonable, by the way. It is reasonable, but I still think, I don't think the drop-off's going to be massive. I think he's a 50 home run guy, or 40 to 50. It's not out of the realm that he hits 50 again this year and makes better contact and

improves his defense again. I just, like, he's still going to be an elite, elite player. I don't think he's coming, like, all the way back down, I don't say back down. he's still good before. But he's still going to be in that upper echelon. So he's just not going to be probably in the MVP conversation again. Yeah, I mean, Colby, you said when we were doing our preview of Julio and Cal that you think Cal could even have a better year this year despite not hitting 60 if he, you know, make some improvements in some other areas, right?

I mean, yeah, teams aren't going to pitch to him as much. The off-base percentage should go up. He could make more contact. And the defense could take a leap. forward because last year, you know, he wasn't a platinum glove winner. I mean, he wasn't even a gold glove winner. He was still good, but he wasn't elite defensive catcher Cal Raleigh. And, you know, we know he can't be that. We know that at his best, his ceiling, he is probably the second best defensive catcher in baseball. I think Patrick Bailey probably has

the title to himself there, but he's up there. And so, you know, again, do I think it's going to be like a nine-win season again? No, probably not. But just statistically, could he put up career highs and batting average and on base and still slug 45 home runs and and you know be the gold glove catcher that we know he can be as opposed to just the above average catcher. Yeah, I think he could and that helps you in more areas. Not all of those areas are as easy to kind of, you know, value as he hits 60 home runs. So it might be a little bit hidden and maybe even statistically he may not be as good as he was last year on a war perspective.

But I think, you know, the pitch frame. me, the throwing and, you know, the challenge system. How are you going to accurately, you know, value that for a catcher? We expect Cal to be pretty darn good at that. So, yeah, I think it's possible he has a better year than he did last year. It just I don't think it's possible. He had 60 again, but I didn't really think it was possible he could do it once. So, you know, who knows?

I wonder if we're going to get like a stat for the challenge system on the next of a lot. We have like a plus minus type of thing, I'm sure. Yeah, yeah. Like how valuable is that? you know, is it like when probability added and they just Are they going to add that to work? Yeah, that's what I'm wondering. Yeah, yeah.

All right, so we got two, we got two more questions here on the survey. Which player would you most like to see you get a contract extension? Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, J.P. Crawford, Randy of Rosarano, or if you have any other answers, because there's some other guys like Brian Wu, Cole Emerson. Yeah. That's a tough one. It's between George and Logan for me.

Um, it's really hard for me to choose between those two. George has one more year, correct? Then Logan does. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So he's got three. Logan has two.

Yeah. I think I'm at the point now where I'm like, whoever's willing to take it. Now, my preference would be Logan. Yeah. But I would like to lock one of these guys up long term. Yeah.

I think, I think, and that's probably how the Mariners feel as well. I don't know they like both of these guys. Uh, I feel like Logan's probably more. likely, uh, than George is, um, but I was also in the boat. I don't know why you guys feel about this. It's going to open another can of worms. I was in the boat of when the thoughts of

Terrick Scoobel possibly being available. Yeah. I was in the thought of, you know, everyone was like, oh, you know, throw a bunch of prospects at him. That's not where the tigers were. They were in, they still wanted to win. They just, and they would be willing to pay. They just wouldn't be willing to pay 60 million for, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, tarry scubble. So my thought process was, okay, you trade two years of Logan Gilbert for one year of Terrick Scoobel, one for one, just give him that. And the value would probably line up because Logan would be more likely to, you know, sign a long-term extension at the price that the Tigers wanted.

And the Mariners go and try to win the World Series this year in 2026 with the likelihood of losing him in free agency after that because you're not going to pay him $60 million. So being willing to move on from him probably would make. me think George, but like I'm kind of in the same boat as you tie. Whoever is more willing to. I think both of those guys have a pretty similar outlook in different ways, but in terms of value, um, moving forward for the next five, six years. So yeah, so Logan dominated this one, 86.9% of the vote. Uh, yeah, Kirby came in second and then like JP and Randy, I think had like one percent each. Yeah. I mean, I, I, I wouldn't be opposed to giving Randy an extension if it's

reasonable. And, you know, he would be a perfect, I think, D.H. moving forward, if you figure out kind of what to do in the corner outfield. But I'm, I think as we talked about J.P. Crawford being the shortstop for this year, I think the timeline is just perfect the way it's working out because he play him out one more year, give Cole Temberson that lead in that he possibly, you know, would need. And then you go to him next year. You know what I mean? So that's just It makes too much sense to kind of worry about that long term. So finally, what is the minimum result required that you would consider 2026 a success? A success?

See, in my head, I put success different than just adequate. I would, like, I would not be terribly upset if they made the ALDS and lost in the ALDS. Like, I understand lots of things can happen in the postseason. And if they made the ALDF. Obviously, there's a lot of contacts and nuance that can change your answer. For sure. In terms of success, though, I think you would at least have to make the ALCS again. Obviously, if you make the World Series, that's a huge success more than you've ever done in your history.

But I still would be happy if you made the ALCS again. Kind of perennally put yourself in that contending category. I think you're in that spot if you're in the ALCS again. So I'm going to say ALCS for me. So 44% said, well, actually it's higher than this, but we had to combine some answers for yesterday. But the leading vote getter here was make the World Series. So very high expectations. That's very high.

That's very high. That's very high. Yeah. It depends on how you look at success and all that. I wouldn't be angry if they didn't make the World Series. I even wouldn't be angry if they didn't make the ALCS. Lots of things can happen in the postseason. but like obviously i'd be a little disappointed yeah um it's just yeah it's just how it goes to me on

kind of a more broader scale success would just be not letting what happened in 2023 and 2024 happen again it's a great because it's a great point they end the drought in 2022 you're thinking all right next step is when the division blah blah blah blah blah blah right and then you know you know you know how long it took us to get back yeah so great point and that that would make me eat Like the way you say that makes me even like, I'm okay, like, you know, winning a playoff series. Like, yeah, whatever that looks like. Just continue to normalize.

We're good. Yes. We're going to make the playoffs. Like, that's not a question anymore. It's about, it's about how far can we take this thing, though. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you, you put that in the context of we might not get a baseball season in 2027.

So maybe you have a little more urgency this year, which. was another reason I wanted to trade for Terrick Scoobble just for one year. But anyway, that's just me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, before we let you go, what's on tap for the Mariners Postcasts? Yeah, Chris and I are super excited. We're coming back. It's our first full season.

We're going to be doing, you know, as usual, recaps after every single Mariner baseball game, you know, it's going to be a fun season, I think, like we talked about, it's easy to get behind this team now after doing what they did last year. It's going to be a fun ride during, you know, the spring going into summer, going into fall. Chris and I are super excited to be back. By the way, he wishes he could be there, be here with you guys today. So he gives his best, but he just has a couple other things going on right now, closing out football season and all that stuff. So we're super excited to be back.

I've honestly missed the postcast so much because, you know, watching Mariner games and then interacting with this community every single day was one of my highlights of 2025. So I'm excited to do it again for a full season this time. So hopefully full season of this means the Mariners will be going to the World Series. We'll see. We'll see. Yeah. So March 26th after the Guardians Mariners game, be sure to tune in to check him with with Anders and Crystal. I'll have you covered talking all about that one and talking about every other game.

The rest of the way. And hopefully all the way to the World Series this time around. So looking forward to it, looking forward to tuning in and check it in on what you guys have to say. and obviously we'll cross over from time to time over the course of the season. But yeah, thanks, Ben, for hopping on. Appreciate it. Yeah, appreciate you guys having me. I know I probably talked way too much, but I appreciate being a part of the one and the only Lockdown Marys.

Thanks, Anders. Appreciate it. All right. That is going to do it for our show. Thank you again to Anders for joining us today. And thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Marrists podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast network of your team. every day. Once again, if you never miss an episode, it's time to make it official. Join the

Lockdown Every Day or Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more, all built for our most loyal fans. For Colby Pat Nod, I'm Tadigazolus. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L-O-U-N-Scorrars. You can follow me at Tadigalus and Colby at C-Pat-E-1-1. We're also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB-Colby, and the show at Locked-on Meritors. You can also find us on Instagram at Lockdown Marrers. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day, and we'll see you next, Peace.