Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - The Third Base Conundrum + Is Bryce Miller the Mariners' Best Starting Pitcher Right Now?

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Mariners head down to Texas for the final road trip of the year. We'll get you set for that. Plus go over a couple of offseason items that are on our minds. 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 Friday, September 20th, 20, 24.

Starting point is 00:00:28 This is tighting as honest and Colby Pat. Note for the Locked-on Marers Podcasts, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. The mayors are back at it tonight against the Rangers still trying to win games and hoping they can get some help across the league. We'll talk about that. We'll also talk about some positives. We're taking into the off season from what we've seen as of late. And also discuss perhaps the biggest question the mayors are faced with this off season. What the hell are they going to do at third base?

Starting point is 00:00:55 But before we do that, shout out to our title sponsor today. Fan duel. Now through September 22nd, so you have until Sunday, all fan dual customers can bet $5. and get a three-week free trial on NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. Visit fanduel.com to get started. And if you want to hear from me and Colby even more and help support the show, check out our Patreon. The link is in the description. And you can sign up for a free seven-day trial.

Starting point is 00:01:22 So it seems that the baseball gods have refused the olive branch that I extended on last night's show. The angels wound up losing to the Astros three to one. So the Mariners are still fly back in the AL West heading into this weekend. Now there's still an outside shot here. That of the Mariners can take care of business down in Arlington. And the Astros lose 203 that the Marriers can go into that series with the Astros with a chance to take control of the AOS by the end of that series. It's not a likely shot, but there is an outside shot.

Starting point is 00:02:05 So, final road trip of the year, we are winding down to the end of the season, Colby. How are you feeling? Roughly where I was about 10 days ago, the realization that this thing's over, you toasted yourself, like, you dug yourself this hole. And so sitting here and hoping that everybody else is going to help you out is absurd. And oh, by the way, they've gotten plenty of help. They really have over the last month, even when things were bleak, they got plenty of help. The Minnesota twins were a disaster this month. And unfortunately, yeah, you ran off a nice little run there at the beginning of the month,

Starting point is 00:02:44 but you really haven't taken advantage of the twins falling flat on their face. And you've done it because you found a way to essentially snap. You eventually, you found a way to lose games that you have no business losing. Like it's not like, oh, you know, we just ran into this really tough pitcher. Oh, you know, we just, no, you played really poor. situational baseball in this month. And it's a bummer, but it's the reality. And it's why you can't afford to put yourself in a position where you need things to go right.

Starting point is 00:03:17 Because typically, every year, there's maybe one team that catches fire at the right time. And they, you know, get into the playoffs and that's how they get in. And that's not every single year. So, you know, to expect there to be multiple teams to do that, it's just not realistic. And you haven't played well enough to earn that, right? like at a certain point we can sit here and and talk about oh you know well yeah this and that and that team was 13 games over 500 if they had just played 500 ball from June until today they'd still be in first place like so at the end of the day like team has nobody to blame but

Starting point is 00:03:51 themselves you can't get annoyed that you know oh well uh you know the angels aren't helping us or oh no you didn't help yourself so you're right where you deserve to be uh over the course of 162 games that's kind of the beauty of the baseball season. It'll tell you who you are. And what we know about this Mariners team, as we're getting ready to wrap up this season, is that they're about a 500 team. They're pretty mediocre.

Starting point is 00:04:16 And, you know, I came to that realization a couple weeks ago, and I'm standing by it. We'll see maybe a miracle happens. And maybe we're singing a different tune next week. But basically the way it is right now, we're just entering a period where you have to win the next six. like I don't see any way that you're going to make the playoffs if you don't sweep these next two series. So essentially you're playing elimination baseball every single night.

Starting point is 00:04:44 That sucks. But that's a situation that this group of 26 dudes put themselves in over the course of the last few months. It wasn't a one bad week, doom dust type of thing. You were bad for, you know, three months. And now you're trying to scramble. You're trying to do everything you can to keep your head above the water. And it's too late. You already drowned.

Starting point is 00:05:03 you know you have one last one last gasp here you can try and sweep the seven games or sorry sweep these six games and then see what happens in that final series but you kind of have to sweep the next two series to even be in a position where that last series couldn't mean any so bummer but you know it's it's where I've been for the last few weeks so I'm right where I was a few weeks ago again the ideal outcome here is you you sweep the Rangers and and the angels take two of the next three against the Astros, which again, very unlikely, but that at least gives you a shot to head into that, to that Astro series where if you swoop them, all right, now you're in first place because you have the tiebreaker heading into the final series of the year.

Starting point is 00:05:48 And, you know, the A's are going to be a tough customer, but also the Astros have to play the Guardians to wrap up the year. So anything can happen over those final three games of year. You know, and so if you're able to get into a spot where, all right, maybe even if you're not in first place heading into that final series, but at least you're one game back, there's a shot. Right. So we'll see.

Starting point is 00:06:14 But yeah, you know, it all starts tonight. I mean, you got to take care of business. Like obviously you need outside help, but you can't really worry about that right now. You got to just play your, your game and win these next three against the Rangers. and, you know, see what happens once you get to Houston. See what things look like once you get to Houston. So it's going to be George Kirby tonight against Jacob de Grom. Tomorrow it's going to be Emerson Hancock against Max Scherzer.

Starting point is 00:06:41 And then Sunday, it'll be Brian Wu against Andrew Heaney. So any thoughts on any of those pitching matchups? Their score runs, particularly the Hancock start. Yeah. You know, and it's, it's, Again, it's a real bummer. And if had you just won the game you should have won against the Yankees the other night, then the Hancock start might be a little bonus.

Starting point is 00:07:07 You would have been, you'd be four games back today. And we'd be talking about one game back of the wild card. And it's like, hey, you know, yeah, you have to start Hancock at least one more time. But it might be okay. Like, you might be able to drop that game. And unfortunately, you can't. So now you need Hancock to go out there and throw the ball well. You have no off days till Thursday.

Starting point is 00:07:25 So next Thursday. So the bullpen, you know, management is going to be pretty important here. And unfortunately, none of the starters in the Yankee series really did a lot to help you out there. I mean, Miller went six and that was the most. So, yeah, it's going to be a rough couple days. But you need Kirby, you need somebody to step up and go seven strong one of these nights and allow you to kind of reset the bullpen. And, hey, you know, what else would be great? If you could have a five or six run lead in this first game here so that you can go out there and you can throw, you know, Diaz and Bizarro.

Starting point is 00:07:56 out there and give Munoz, give Snyder, give Taylor a day before you start this gauntlet. So, you know, we'll see what it is, but they have to score runs. I mean, at the end of the day, it's pretty simple. You know, they need to score runs. They're in a good hitting environment. They're facing, you know, some good arms, but arms that are, you know, coming off the IL, and they're fresh off the IL, and they're not likely to go deep in these games. And so you can attack that Texas bullpen.

Starting point is 00:08:23 So, yeah, you got to score runs early. You got to put pressure on these guys. get the starters out of it and then get to the bullpen as soon as you can and on the flip side. Somebody in this rotation needs to go seven innings in this series. And you just can't, you know, even if it's crunch time, you can't roll out Andres Munoz five days in a row. You know, so at some point you're going to have to try and find a four or five win victory. So, yeah, score as many runs as you possibly can.

Starting point is 00:08:53 Actually have a good game plan against these pitchers. it's Scherzer and de Grom, fine, whatever, but this is 2024 Shurser and Grom. Like it's not prime Shurzer and DeGrom and they're both going to be working on some kind of pitch count or some kind of innings limit. So get to these guys early, get their pitch count up, get to the bullpen, feast on that bullpen. Avoid the guys in the back, if at all possible. And, you know, you said to play clean baseball. You cannot make mistakes.

Starting point is 00:09:21 Yeah. So we're in a weird spot right now as content creators covering this team. on a day-to-day basis because again there is that outside shot that they can't make the playoff still but it does feel on most days like off-season talk is the more interesting conversation to have so our minds are kind of in two separate places at once especially over the last few weeks and so we're going to get into some of that off-season discussion yesterday I mentioned one positive that I'm taking into the off-season from what we've seen as of late.

Starting point is 00:09:57 I'd want to get into some others potentially here in just a moment. But first, a reminder of this episode of the Lockdown Marys podcast is brought to you by eBay Motors. Passion, drive, and patience. What brings home the winning trophy is also what keeps your ride or die alive. eBay Motors

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Starting point is 00:11:12 All you have to do to find that is search the word mergers. So yesterday, I mentioned that Troy Taylor is a big positive that I'm going to take into this off season. What we've seen out of him, obviously what his development has meant for this bullpen, which has dealt with several injuries, big-time injuries to Gregory Santos, Matt Brash, and obviously a couple of disappointments from guys that you were hoping to get more out of,

Starting point is 00:11:38 like Ryan Stannick and Gabe Spire, et cetera. So I wanted to get into some more of those, you know, potential positives that we're taking into the off season from what we've seen as of late from this team. So Colby, do you have any? Yeah, obviously, Luke Rayleigh has been a huge, you know, boom. to this team, not only this particular team, but also he kind of gives you a lot of flexibility in terms of how you want to attack this offseason because I think going into next year, you feel pretty good about this guy producing at some level.

Starting point is 00:12:15 Like maybe he's not an all-star, but maybe he is, you know, a 120 WRC plus guy. I feel like we're pretty comfortable that this guy's going to be an above average. He's done it for two seasons now. Right. And, you know, you could split it up any way you want, blah, blah, blah. It's more like a season and a half, but whatever. Yeah, kity, yackety, whatever, right? He's proven he can hit at Team Mobile Park.

Starting point is 00:12:35 We know he can hit Ritey's. He runs well. You know, he bunts, hits home runs. We're not doing that again today. I know. Yeah, he strikes out, fine, whatever. Okay, fine.

Starting point is 00:12:47 You can have guys who strike out in your lineup. You just can't have a lineup full of guys who all strike out a ton. So, but what he does is, A, he's not making any money next year. He's still going to be making the league minimum. he's not arbitration eligible yet. But B, because he can play first base and because he can play all three outfield spots, what he allows you to do this winter, he allows you just to go get the best hitter you can afford. Like it's not like, oh, well, we don't really have room in the outfield because we have Robles and Julio and, you know, Randy and Rayleigh.

Starting point is 00:13:21 It's like, no, Rayleigh can play first base and now you have the DH open or Robles can find the bench and you can use like. So the best bet you can go get as a first baseman, fine. Rayleigh can D.H. Rayleigh can play all three outfield spots. You can rotate those guys through. Not a big deal. The best bet you can get as a corner outfielder, fine. Not a big deal.

Starting point is 00:13:38 Rayleigh can play first base or Robles can DH. And like there's a lot of ways you can work it. So the fact that Luke Rayleigh is controlled, club controlled. He's going to be making the minimum next year. He is a pretty safe bet to be at least a productive player, not somebody you're looking to, you know, actively replace, actively improve on, you know, and the fact that he has that versatility, that is a big positive heading into this off season because it's one less question you need an answer to.

Starting point is 00:14:09 Rayleigh is probably going to be in your opening day lineup next year. And it can be in one of, you know, three or four spots. And that gives you a lot of flexibility as you enter this off season. So that's that's a big positive development. for the 2024 and 2025 Seattle Mariners. For me, the guy that I immediately think of here with this exercise is Bryce Miller. I think since the All-Star break, especially, we've seen Miller turn into a legitimate dude, like capital D dude in the Mariners rotation.

Starting point is 00:14:44 Now, I thought that even beforehand, but I think he's really submitted that status here over the last couple of months. I think you can make a solid argument that he's been the mayor's best pitcher in their rotation since the all-star break. He is six in ERA since the all-star break. He is 12th in FIPP. He's got one of the lowest walk rates in league. And what we've seen from his arsenal this year in particular, just as a whole, not even since the all-star break, just as a whole, we've seen that that pitch mix really take a jump we've seen his secondaries really take a jump and the splitter is a legitimate offering we're seeing him and we talked about this a couple weeks ago we're seeing him turn himself into an actual complete pitcher now we're starting to see that transformation I don't think he's completely there yet but we're starting to see him make that transition into just an all all around well rounded pitcher sub 200 batting average against two of his

Starting point is 00:15:49 offerings. 192 batting average against his four seamer. 154 against the splitter. The splitter is very, very legit. It's basically the same thing we saw from Logan Gilbert last year. It's happened again here with Bryce Miller and his splitter. 154 batting average. Like I said, 183 expected batting average as well.

Starting point is 00:16:09 Opponents are hitting just, are hitting the ball hard just 34% of the time against that pitch. He's putting away hitters 21.7% of the time on that pitch. and he's getting them to whiff 28 and a half percent of the time on that pitch. That's the highest whiff rate of any of his offerings in his arsenal. So just continuing to hammer away at his secondaries over the course of this off season is going to be huge. And I think really sky's the limit for Bryce Miller with what we're seeing right now. There's, I mean, we've seen him just flat out dominate, especially against some really good lineups.

Starting point is 00:16:48 He had a great start against the Yankees a couple of days ago. He's showing that he can go toe to toe to toe with really anyone and go toe to toe to toe with any lineup on any given night. And we haven't even seen him hit his ceiling, in my opinion. That's very, very exciting. And so as excited as I am about Brian Wu, and I've talked about on this show, how Wu is my favorite pitcher to watch right now in the Mariners' rotation. But I also kind of feel like Miller's kind of the forgotten man in this rotation right now. And again, I think you can make a strong argument that he's been,

Starting point is 00:17:18 the mayor's best pitcher in the rotation at least over the last couple months yeah i mean and the thing to keep in mind is that this guy uh has only been throwing the splitter for about a year uh so i mean like the the odds of that pitch keeps getting better uh pretty good pretty high so um you know miller obviously a big development brian woo also a big development uh yeah the nice thing about miller is that you feel really good that he's going to post he's going to make his 30 starts he's going to go 170, 200 innings, like you feel really good about that and Wu's not quite there yet.

Starting point is 00:17:54 But I would say on that that a positive to take into this off season is that we have seen Wu get deep into games as of late and he hasn't reported any issues. Right. So he's found a way to work through that. He's routinely going seven innings now or into the seventh now.

Starting point is 00:18:09 He's routinely throwing 100 pitches. So that is a positive. But yeah, Miller is definitely somebody you're banking on now. Um, you know, hopefully he survives the winter, uh, because, uh, my, my thing where I'm at, uh, with those two arms is that I'm not trading them. Uh, so it makes no sense. It makes no sense because, you know, with the, the spending habits of ownership, right? You have two, you know, pre-arb starting pitchers who are mid rotation quality already in hand. That makes no sense to move off of those guys. Right. I mean, again, there's always the caveat. It's like, well, what if you can get, you know, their equivalent as a hitter? Like, fine. Like, I guess if you can go get five years of Riley Green or Corvin Carroll for one of these guys, like, fine, whatever. You can go get superstar like Jose Ramirez for one of these guys. Like, fine, I guess, whatever. But, you know, the whole like, oh, trade up for Lars Neup Bar thing. Like, I really hope we retire that, like that level of player. I hope we retire.

Starting point is 00:19:16 I hope we retire that this winter because these guys clearly are they're their core players. They're not ancillary players. These guys have worked themselves into being part of the core. And they're just they're just so important to the future roster builds of the team going beyond 2025 again because of how affordable they are right now. So third base. It's a big question mark heading into this off season. We've talked about it a lot on our Patreon show. We talked about it a little bit here.

Starting point is 00:19:46 what was it last week last Friday when we did that show talking about the off season and how you know they might have to trade Luis Castillo and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah and we went down the list of free agent third basement and it was bare aside from a couple of names

Starting point is 00:20:02 so we've had more time to think about it we've had more discussions about it again on our Patreon show so we're going to talk about that a little bit here in just a moment but first a reminder this episode of the lockdown air is podcast is once again brought to you by Fanduel.

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Starting point is 00:20:50 That's L-O-C-D-O-N to download America's number one sportsbook. And you're listening to the Locked-on Mariner's podcast. Once again, you can catch all the action between the Mariner's and the Rangers site on the Marriss Home Town Broadcast with SiriusXM via the SXM app. All you have to do to find that is search the word Mariner. So again, we have talked about this a lot on our Patreon show. We talked about it a little bit last week on this show. where we ran down the list of free agent third baseman and found,

Starting point is 00:21:23 yeah, there aren't many. I believe I saw today that there were only, what was it, 17 or 18 qualified third baseman in all baseball this year, and one of them is Jazz Chisholm, who didn't even start playing there until after the Yankees acquired him. So this isn't just a Mariners exclusive issue. There just aren't a lot of third basement right now in a league,

Starting point is 00:21:46 a lot of quality third baseman. And more specifically, there aren't a lot of third baseman here that actually provide third base quality bats right you want power output out of your third baseman right now the mirrors aren't getting that

Starting point is 00:22:01 out of Josh Rojas right the idea heading into the season was all right we're going to sacrifice power at third base where we're hoping to make that up at a position that typically doesn't produce a lot of power at second base with Hori Polanco that hasn't really panned out of course and it seems like they might have to do that

Starting point is 00:22:19 again this off season right coley yeah i mean there's just not a lot of options out there um you know there are like Alex Bregman's out there and i know that some publications say that oh the mariners are a top contender for Bregman they're not my Alex Bregman's not going to be a Seattle mariner we can just stop that uh right now obviously chapman's off the board now uh i don't think Seattle was going to be interested at that price anyways but he's off the board so that's no longer an option. So when you really start, you know, looking for third baseman, which he kind of realizes that either Seattle's going to have to trade for one.

Starting point is 00:23:01 And again, there's not a lot of them out there. Or they're going to have to sign a shortstop or a second baseman and move them to third base or they're going to have to take Cole Young and convert him to third base. And then obviously, you know, you still need a second basement at that point. And power is still an issue, blah, blah, blah. So basically, like, which you kind of come to realize is that the Mariners aren't going to have a power hitting third basement next year. Like it's very unlikely unless one happens to pop up or you take a shot on a guy like a Yohan Moncada who coming off a big entry, he'll be a free agent. You'll probably get him pretty cheap.

Starting point is 00:23:41 You want to take a shot on a Glaber Torres bounce back while he's learning a new position. Like that's a possibility as well. And does Glaber want to sign to a situation where he's playing? a new position. Right, in Seattle, you know, a place that is traditionally not a good, you know, you know, rebound spot for a bat. So yeah, you're in a real tight spot here. So honestly, it feels like if you're going to fix third base or improve third base, I should say,

Starting point is 00:24:07 you're going to have to do it via the trade market and not a lot of options out there. So you look at some of the classic names we've talked about before. Jonathan India is a natural third baseman. like he has played second his entire career he's not very good over there so moving him to third maybe you get better defense uh but india's like a 15 home run guy like so and he's been really bad here in the second half so that's that's that's better than josh ross right and that's that's the whole thing right is that you know you're not going to find like an all-star third baseman probably we could be surprised you never know uh but you need somebody who is at least an everyday bat kind of regardless of how they do it

Starting point is 00:24:47 to play third base. And then you're just going to have to make up the power from hopefully next year's center field, Julio coming back and hitting 30 plus home runs. That would help a lot. You know you're going to make up some of that power at catcher. And then you're going to have to make up some of that power at, you know, DH or first base.

Starting point is 00:25:03 So, you know, and the Mariners don't need to. The Mariners hit enough home runs, right? They need to get on base more. They need more doubles, blah, blah. So, I mean, they do need to slug more,

Starting point is 00:25:12 though. They need to slug more, yes, but that doesn't necessarily mean they have to be home runs. Right. If they are great. And you know, you'll have Randy a Rosarena for an entire season in theory, in theory. So that should be, you know, more home runs from.

Starting point is 00:25:24 It shouldn't be on theory. Right. So, but yeah, you kind of start looking around the, the landscape here for third basement. And there's not a lot. And so what it seems like is either you're going to go out and you're going to acquire a player who hasn't quite proven that they're, you know, an everyday big leaguer yet. at, for example, Nolan Gorman, a possibility there. You're going to acquire somebody who has some red flags, most likely to their health. For example, Max Muncie could be a possibility there.

Starting point is 00:26:04 Or you're going to go acquire a prospect who doesn't really have any big league time, and you're just going to hope that he can kind of, you know, roll into his role here and be a viable big leaguer from day one. Or I guess you can go get a failed prospect. I mean, I don't even want to call it that, but like, can you go get no LV Marte back? The Reds have a lot of infielders. Like, can you go get Noel V. Marte and see if that works.

Starting point is 00:26:33 So, yeah, you know, I've been circling looking for third base opportunities. Like Matt McLean would be a fun one. He's missed this entire year with injury. Are the Reds going to trade him? Probably not. Spencer Steer, you want to take a shot there? Probably not. And the one team that I found that might have a couple, actually a couple of options for you at third base, neither of them perfect.

Starting point is 00:26:54 But the Minnesota twins do have a couple of guys who can play third base who, you know, the twins have infield depth. And this is what makes the twins kind of perfect. They have in field depth. They aren't going to add payroll. Really, it's already, they didn't do it at the deadline. Reports are already out that they're going to have roughly the same payroll as they had. last year, next year. So they're going to have to, you know, save some money or they're going to have to

Starting point is 00:27:21 improve their roster with guys who aren't making money. And so they have some infield depth that they can trade. And the two guys that stand out right away are Willie Castro, who has one year left to club control. He's going to be making about $6 million next year, $7 million. And also Jose Miranda, who doesn't hit for power, not a very good defender at third base, but hits for a lot of average, gets on base a good amount,

Starting point is 00:27:45 makes a lot of contact. So, yeah, a couple of guys there for the twins. And so they might be the team most likely to give the Mariners, who will end up being their starting third baseman, uh,

Starting point is 00:27:58 on opening day. Yeah, I mean, is there a shot there where you could trade Miller, Wu for Royce Lewis? Do you even want to, though? Do you want to?

Starting point is 00:28:10 Do you trust Royce Lewis to stay healthy? because I don't. He's already are eligible too because he's super too. He's going to start making more money. Do you want to trade Miller-A-Woo for Brooks Lee?

Starting point is 00:28:26 Who's got a little bit of major league seasoning but doesn't have success at the big league level yet but is a very good prospect. Maybe. Can you get the twins to eat a ton of money on Carlos Correa and get him to wave his no trade clause and have him play shortstopper third base for Seattle.

Starting point is 00:28:45 Like there are, what about Julian? I might be working on that for our offseason plan. He's Patreon.com slash control the zone. But yeah, I mean, even Julian, a guy who had a really good rookie year. Didn't have a good year this year. It doesn't hit lefties at all. Strikes out a good amount. But he's got power.

Starting point is 00:29:06 He takes a lot of walks. He actually hits for a decent average. He's a pretty good athlete. It's from Canada. Yeah, sure. The Minnesota Twins are a team to watch here. But particularly when I look at what they have in their farm system and what they need to replace from free agents and all that stuff,

Starting point is 00:29:24 I kind of look at this and I go like, it feels like Willie Castro is the guy I kind of, just because he's going to make some money so you can ease some of that payroll restraint on them. And most, a lot of their young prospects who are close to Big League Ready, they are outfielders. So, you know, it seems. like they're probably not going to be too interested in any of your outfielders. And really the only one that would make sense for the twins next year would be Luke greatly because he's also making league minimum.

Starting point is 00:29:53 Yeah. Castro is really interesting. And you don't have to be beholden to starting him at third base either because he is a great defender at basically everywhere on the field. He's a super utility through and through. But if you did play him. Oh, gross. If you did play him at third base, though,

Starting point is 00:30:15 that's another example of you're not going to get a ton of power. I'll print from him. So, but you're going to get stolen bases. You're going to get really good defense. You're going to get the ball being put in play a lot. So there is, yeah.

Starting point is 00:30:31 So there's, there's definitely a lot of value that Castro brings. I would acquire Castro with the idea that he is going to be my super utility and then depending on how the rest of the off-season shakes out, maybe he ends up being in the third baseman and still plays a little bit elsewhere over the course of the season.

Starting point is 00:30:49 I can give you one name to watch for the third base thing. And he's never played third base before. He may not be available and he probably doesn't have the power you typically want from your third basement either.

Starting point is 00:31:05 But we talked about him this summer. Jerry circles, we don't know for sure that they were all that interested in this guy, but they were very interested in his teammate. We know they were. And they put out an aggressive offer for his teammate. If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm talking about Boba Chet,

Starting point is 00:31:20 who has one year left to club control for the Blue Jays, has had just a terrible year, lots of injuries. He just returned from injury and immediately fractured his finger. Yep. Yeah. So Boba Chet, I mean, I guess we could throw a glad out there too. He's played some third base this year. but Bichette probably more likely to get traded and also quite a bit cheaper, I would imagine, in trade.

Starting point is 00:31:46 But yeah, there's just not a lot of third base options out there. So I don't know. If you guys have any ideas for third base, real ones, right? Not trade for Raphael Devers, not, you know, trade for Fernando Tatis Jr. Put him at third base. None of that garbage. Trade for Otis. Play him at third base.

Starting point is 00:32:04 Yeah. If you have any real ideas, let us know in the comments. but yeah third base is going to be the position that it's connected to second base because like it feels like col young probably going to end up playing one of those positions for most of next year yeah and ideally it would be second base but that out that extra infielder maybe it's cole young at third and you trade for brana low

Starting point is 00:32:29 sure or maybe that's right allow is a third baseman yeah but that maybe that's how you make up for the lack of power is you you know you get someone like Lowe who has shown the ability to hit for like 30 bombs in a season from second base. Third base is going to be the most important and most difficult position for the Mariners to fill this winter. One thing they absolutely cannot do is they cannot just roll it back with Josh Rojas and like Dillamore as a platoon there. Doesn't work. Not going to work. It does not.

Starting point is 00:33:02 That's going to do it for a show. But before we get out of here, a reminder that Lockdown has launched the first. several national sports 24-7 streaming channel on YouTube, but now it's also available on Amazon Fire TV and the free Fire TV channels app. Lockdown Sports Today is here for your 24-7 covering the top sports stories of the day with experts of Lockdown, plus our national shows covering every league. Find Lockdown Sports Today now available on the free Fire TV channels app. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Merars podcast for Colby Pat.

Starting point is 00:33:28 Pat Note, I'm Tadang-A-Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L-O-U-U-U-U-Urars. You can follow me at Tidei-A-Gz-A-L-E-E-E-C-Pat-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-C-A-T-1. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day and a beautiful baseball weekend. And we'll see next time. Peace.

Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - The Third Base Conundrum + Is Bryce Miller the Mariners' Best Starting Pitcher Right Now?

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