Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Who Is Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Why Do the Mariners Want Him?

Episode Date: November 28, 2023

Colby and Ty discuss who 25-year old Japanese right-handed pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto is, what his ceiling in Major League Baseball is, how real the Mariners' interest in him is, why the hopes of signing him are an infinitely easier sell to Mariners fans than Shohei Ohtani and other big-name free agents, and what signing Yamamoto would allow Seattle to do for the remainder of the offseason.Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @danegnzlz | @CPat11Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!FanDuelScore early this NFL season with FanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook! Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning FIVE DOLLAR MONEYLINE BET! That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – if your team wins! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.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) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

So yesterday we talked about how the Mariners are apparently very in on Yoshinobu Iamamoto. We're going to talk about the possibility, explore what it could take to get him, and what it could be in for the rest of Seattle's off season coming up here on the Locked on Maras podcast. Colby, hit it. You are Locked on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. Ahoy, sailors.

It is Tuesday, November 28th, 2023. hiding as Alas and Colby Panode for the Locked-on Marys podcast. Thank you so much for making us your first listen, subscribe, like, and turn on alerts if you're watching on YouTube, or subscribe and leave a five-star review on your preferred podcast platform if you like what you hear. And if you're part of the crew and rock with us every single day, let us know in the comments below. And if you want to hear from us even more,

please consider signing up for our Patreon. You can now get a free seven-day trial to check out the show. The link, as well as our social accounts, is in the description of this episode. on the show today, we're going to talk about 25-year-old Japanese right-handed pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto. We're going to talk about the Mariners' chances of signing him, and I'm going to tell you why it is infinitely easier for me to envision the Mariners actually signing him than it is with, say, Otani, for example. To quickly recap, before we get into everything, we haven't talked much about Yamamoto, which is part of the reason why we're doing a full episode on him, because initial reports indicated he was really only interested in signing on the East Coast, the Mets, the Yankees, the Red Sox, etc.

Then it came out, he actually has interests on the Dodgers and the West Coast. Then John Morosi throughout the Mariners as a possibility and did so again yesterday on MLB Network. Jason Churchill on the Baseball Things podcast has linked the Mariners to Yamamoto, essentially saying they're very interested in him, that the interest is very, very real. So I started asking around myself because of that and heard pretty much the exact same thing. So all signs from my understanding point to the Mariners being right in the thick of the Yamamoto race. And now, Colby, that begs the question. Why do the Mariners want Yamamoto?

What makes him so good? And why are they targeting more pitching on the high end when, I mean, you look at this roster. Seems like the biggest need is offense. Sure. Well, we tackle the last point first. I just want good players. And Yamamoto is the second best player in this free agent class. And only because Shohei Otani is a unicorn in pretty much any other year, Yamamoto is the guy in a free agent class.

He is arguably the best pitcher in the world. And that might not be hyperbole after his rookie season in Major League Baseball. You're not an ace until you've done it in the league. that you're going to pitch in, but it's, Yamamoto is about as close to a sure thing as being an ace as you can possibly imagine. And again, he's only 25 years old where most free agents don't hit, you know, don't even get a shot to make serious money until 28, 29, 30, 31. He's 25. He's won the Sy Young Award in the MPB three years in a row. He's, uh, won the triple crown. Only the second player ever to do that, by the way, in MPB history. He's won the triple crown, a

pitching three years in a row. He's 25 years old. It is plus command of three double plus pitches. The fastball is 95 to 98. It plays really well at the top of the zone. He pairs that with a beautiful curveball, probably the best right-handed curveball in the world. 77, just a huge drop, a beautiful pitch, gets tons of whiffs. And then his splitter is also the third 70 or better grade pitch that he has. It's really effective, particularly against lefties, but obviously So you can, a 70 grade pitch, it wouldn't be 70 grade if you couldn't also get righties out with it. So he also has a slider or a cutter. It kind of blends into, you know, those two pitches.

Sometimes it's tough to tell them apart. But that's a pitch is solidly average to above average. It's not a bad pitch. He just doesn't really need to use it when you're throwing 95 to 98 at the top of the zone with a hammer for a curveball and just, you know, Felix Hernandez level split change that you're throwing up there. You don't really need the. cutter that often. But when he does throw it, he gets swings and misses.

He gets bad and weak contact off of it. Gomo Moto's been incredibly durable. He's thrown at least 160 innings each of the last three years. Career high of 192. He's, you know, if he throws 100 innings or 190 innings, he's going to strike out, you know, 210 guys, give or take. Doesn't walk anybody. Again, 40 walks in 293 innings.

Then 42 in walks in 192 in 192 innings. And then this last year, in 164, it means 28 walks. Checks the boxes, what the Mariners like. He doesn't walk guys. He challenges people in the zone. He strikes people out. He'll miss bats. And it's a very simple and repeatable delivery,

which obviously helps him throw more strikes and more consistent command. He's 25 years old. The only thing preventing him from, you know, or even the only thing that's preventing people from just calling him a sure thing is that he's 5 foot 10 and about a buck 75. If he was 6 foot 3 and like 210, he probably makes $350 million this winter. Essentially what you're doing is you're getting a shot at like Garrett Cole Prime.

You're getting a shot at that guy. But at the age of 25 and at about a 50% discount, 60, 40% discount, 40, 50% discount somewhere in that range. Yeah. Because he's technically unproven and because he's smaller in size. But Stude is electric. He's arguably, it wouldn't shock me at all. After his rookie year, we're saying he's the best pitcher in baseball.

Like the stuff is that good. The command is that good. Sky's the limit for Yamamoto. And again, he's just 25 years old. That's insane. And everybody knows it. And that's why his, his, you know, he's, I think 17 teams have formally, you know, come out and said that we're interested in signing you.

We want to, we want to have a sit down. He's going through those 17 teams this week through Zoom calls and whatnot. And then next week at the winter meetings, he'll sit down with the finalist. And we should have an answer before Christmas, but probably not any time in the next week or so. Yeah. So yesterday when I tweeted what I had heard about the situation, I, said that I believe that the mariner's are kind of waiting to do the heavy lifting of their off season after they find out if they're going to get Yamamoto or not. And we'll talk more

about what that heavy lifting is and why Yamamoto would have an impact on that later on in the show. But I want to make it clear that I don't think that means that the mariner's going to do nothing in between now and when Yamamoto decides. It's just that if you get him, it does have a very big

impact, which again, we'll talk about later on in the show on what you do the rest of the off season. How do you proceed from that point forward? I also, given what Colby just said, I don't think that it's going to be, I don't think the mayors are really risking the market passing them by. I know that last year they admitted to the market passing them by.

They waited for a market to develop, but that's about the broad market, not developing the way that they thought, not the individual market of one player, right, and just waiting to see if he's going to be a yes or no for them. But yeah, man, it is very rare that a pitcher like this hits the open market. It is very rare that you have a chance to sign an arm like this at 25 years old, already has such an accomplished career under his belt,

and still has some room to grow as a player, right? because we haven't seen it at the major league level. What does the MLB version of Yoshinov Yamamoto look like? Very excited about the possibility of that. And if he were to enter the mayor in his rotation, I think there's a very strong argument. He's the best arm in that rotation. And we're talking about a rotation that has Luis Castillo,

George Kirby, Logan Gilbert. Yeah. Yeah, I don't think it's close. I think he's definitively. the best arm in any rotation that he enters. So now we're going to talk about the possibility of him actually signing in Seattle. We're going to try and craft our sales pitch to Yoshinovo Yamamoto and to you guys who have some understandable doubts about the Mariners' ability to land Yamamoto this off season.

But we're going to talk through all of that in just a moment. But first, a reminder of this episode of the Lockdown Mariners podcast, is brought to you by Fandul. Score early this NFL season with Fandul, America's number one sportsbook. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 money line bet. That's $150 if your team wins.

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him with the Seattle Mariners. It seems like they are very, very interested in him. And it looks like there's a decent chance that they're going to be one of the finalists for him that he ends up meeting with here in the next couple weeks. So before we talk more about the actual possibility, if it's actually realistic that he will, that he could sign with the Mariners, got a question of the day. We're going to start doing the question of the day in the middle of the show now instead of the end of the show because now we're doing premieres.

on YouTube. We have a live chat going on during the show. What's up, guys? Question of the day. This comes from our Patreon show yesterday. Colby, you and I would like to do some merch. We would like to make some merch. It might not be locked on branded necessarily, but we'd like to do some merch. We'd like to make some shirts. We've thrown out some ideas at times. You're on this show. But we'd want to know if you guys would first buy them. And secondly, if you have any other ideas for what would like to see us put on a shirt, catchphrases, etc. from the show.

Sure. So most popular ones so far have been Colby hit it and also Ahoy Sailors. So. Ahoy sailors. Yes. Yes. I've seen that a couple of times.

No love for I'm affable. Not yet. No love for Team Ty or Team Colby either. So we'll see what happens there. They don't want to pick between us. I mean, I think they just don't want to hurt your feelings. Fair, fair, fair. That hurt my feelings.

Good. Okay, so, why should Yamamoto sign in Seattle fully? Money. Okay. That's it. That's my pitch, money. I mean, according to people on Twitter, that's everything. That's all that matters in a free agent negotiation.

And that immediately eliminates the Mariners because they would never spend money, period, despite the fact that, you know, the major investments they have made have been on the pitching side, you know, I'm going to get into that. I'm going to get into that. No, don't worry. So, I mean, I don't know. Do you want me to tell you why or do you have like this whole thing listed out? Because it's, it's pretty self-explanatory. Let's start with the money. Yeah. Like, let's admit, why do, why should we think that the Mariners are willing to spend? Maybe they're not willing to spend more than anybody else, but are they willing to spend enough to get them in the conversation for Yamamoto? The answer. The answer. The answer. is definitively, yes, because if they weren't willing to spend that much, they wouldn't be wasting their time. People know that Yamamoto is going to get 200 million minimum, at a minimum. And if you're not willing to come to the table with $200 million, you're not getting a meeting to begin with. So how do we know that the marriage are willing to spend at least $200 million to get into this conversation for Yamamoto? Because they're in the conversation, period. They wouldn't

beat in the conversation if they weren't willing to put up the money. Are they willing to put up more than the Mets? I don't know. But are they willing to put up enough to get involved? Yes. The answer is yes. Obviously, the answer is yes.

Why would Seattle or why would Yamamoto pick Seattle? Well, you mean besides the most pitcher-friendly ballpark in all of baseball, besides a legitimate chance to win the American League West next year, to pitch in the playoffs, to win the World Series, those are all very realistic things for the Mariners next year, particularly if they go and they get Yamamoto right to sign here.

Um, could it be the other young stars that are, that are pitching, that are playing for the Mariners right now? Is there any draw to playing with Julio? Is there any draw to pitching in the same rotation as George Kirby and Logan Gilbert and Luis Castillo? Yeah. Is there a draw to the city of Seattle, which has roughly 19% Asian population, something that some Japanese players have talked about preferring?

We don't know if Yamamoto prefers that. But again, this is a sales pitch. It's culturally diverse in Seattle, right? And on top of all that, by the way, we have experience kind of working in arms as they adjust to a new baseball, as they adjust to a new schedule. We did it with the Iwakuma. We did it with Kikuchi. We have been open to a six-man rotation.

And we're probably more set up than any other team that's talking to you to go to a true six-man rotation without skipping a beach. if that's what you know you're comfortable with so right when you look at the city it's a good fit in theory if he if he prefers um you know if he prefers things the way that others have some some don't and you know and that's what these meetings are about you have to try and figure out what is it that he's looking for and what can we offer that kind of checks those boxes for him and maybe you can't offer everything and that and that's why you're out but i think you look at the city you look at the ballpark you look at the team that's around him you look at the opportunity to win you look at the

money. Seattle's a strong contender in all of those areas. So if he cares about, by the way, also non-intrusive media, like this is a media that's just going to leave him alone, you know, when he's not on the field, it's a pretty good fan base that wants to win is desperate to win. It's an ability to kind of, you know, create your own legacy by being the guy to take the Mariners to the World Series. And in the back of his mind, maybe this doesn't matter, maybe it doesn't.

But a pretty rich history of Japanese players coming to Seattle and succeeding. Obviously, Ichiro, Kazahiro, Hisashi, Wakuma, Yusay Kukuchi. It's a pretty, there are very few teams that can boast the level of success with Japanese-born players that the Mariners can. So that matters to them. That is another pitch that you can make. So there's a pretty strong case to be made that the Mariners can make to Yamamoto. But the biggest one is the idea that they won't spend money on them. Of course they will.

If they weren't willing to, they wouldn't be in on the meetings right now. So this is going to be partly a sales pitch to Yamamoto from my point of view and partly a sales pitch to our listeners who are understandably skeptical about the team's ability to both convince Yamamoto to sign in Seattle. and spend the dollars it will take to get them. And you've touched on some of these things already. I think firstly, like let's make a very important distinction. The Mariners haven't struggled to attract free agents to Seattle.

They've struggled to attract free agent hitters. It's a big distinction. And some of the reasons hitters don't want to come to Seattle are the reasons pitchers do, right? At least half of your starts on a year-to-year basis are going to be in one-of, if not the most pitcher-friendly ballpark in the sport. Like, all right, take Blake Snell for example, right?

Yeah, Blake Snell wants to play for his childhood team. That's a big reason that he has interest in the mirrors. But he also knows what pitching in Seattle could do for his career. A lot of pitchers do. It's a great place to pitch. And just recently, they've signed Robbie Ray coming off of a Sall Young season. They got Luis Castillo to sign an extension just six weeks. after getting here.

And they signed a Boris client in USA Kikuchi and on a lower level James Paxson as well. So I'm 100% confident. They can attract pitchers of all skill levels and different circumstances and different hurdles that you have to overcome to Seattle because they've done it multiple times. And you don't have to go far back to really see that. And they've built a reputation for themselves as one of the premier franchises for pitching. they have become notorious for getting, you know, the most out of their pitchers and even changing the trajectory of a few careers like Edwin Diaz, Paul Seawalt, Kendall Graemean. They have one of the best, if not the best rotations in baseball already, even without Yamamoto.

So if you have money to spend, and again, despite the understandable skepticism in the fan base, the indication that I've gotten is that they do. and no hitter wants to take your money and the ones that do, you would have to grossly overpay to convince them to come to Seattle. Why do that when you could just further boost your strength at a position where you have a better chance of paying fair market value for a high-end talent

where you make someone like Bryce Miller, essentially expendable, deal him to one of these teams that either loses out on all the starters on the market or doesn't want to pay the money for one, like maybe Tampa Bay. and get yourself a bat that you really, really need, and maybe it's a bat that not many can feasibly acquire

because you have a commodity, they simply don't have. A lot of teams just don't have. And in terms of benefits for a pitcher like Yamamoto, you talked about some of this, you have the ballpark advantage over teams like the Yankees and Red Sox, much more pitcher-friendly ballpark at Team Mobile Park than it is at Yankee Stadium in Fenway. you have one of the best recent track records in baseball with your pitching development.

You have a better pitching staff across the board than arguably anyone that we've heard linked to him. You have one of the best pitching coaches on the game in Pete Woodworth. You have one of the best catchers in the league to work with in Cal Raleigh. And you mentioned this, Colby. You know, perhaps the most underrated advantage the Mariners could have is that they're better suited than anyone in the league to run a quality six-man rotation. and they might do that whether they add another starter or not. And again, why does that matter? Japanese pitchers usually start once every six or seventh day over an MPB.

They're not used to this kind of workload. Yamamoto is not used to this kind of workload. We saw it have an impact on how the mayor is deployed Yusei Kikuchi in his first year with the one inning piggyback starts and whatnot. Kikuchi also talked about how the ball is different in MLB. And that took a while to get used to. So if Yamamoto cares about this, maybe he doesn't care about any, anything I'm talking about right now and just wants to get paid, it's fine.

The Mariners can ease them into MLB life better than anyone can. And like, I know you mentioned it, but have you noticed how, Coli, like, have you noticed how I haven't even talked about the Japanese allure of the mariners yet?

Like, it was the last thing I mentioned. Yeah. Like, I've talked for a hot minute now, and I haven't until now uttered the name each row, or mentioned the strong Asian population in Seattle or that it's closest to home. he could possibly be an MLB.

And that, that is why this is infinitely easier to talk myself into and frankly more believable than Otani. And because Yamamoto is a pitcher and the mayor has actually have recent success negotiating long-term contracts with top-end pitching talent, Ray Castillo, et cetera, I'd even say he's easier to talk myself into than really any big name free agent we've talked about with this team over the last few years. And I kind of feel silly for only realizing it now because it makes sense. so much sense, the more that you really

work it out. Because over the last few days I've really started to think about it. And it makes just so much sense. It makes so much sense. Now, does that mean I think they'll get him? Not really. Like, you know, I'm not going to make any promises. Right. And frankly, the teams we've heard linked to them,

like the Dodgers, the Mets, the Yankees, etc. They're all far more desperate for pitching, for starting pitching than the Mariners are. And can absolutely outbid them if they need to. But I think the Mariners will. if they haven't already, offer him what would be considered

market value, something like $200 million over eight years. So $25 million annually. It'll probably be structured differently. It'll probably be backloaded in some form or fashion. But that's pretty much what it would be on the surface. And you said this. That will be confirmed if we hear the mention

as one of the finalists for him. Because, like, Yamamoto's camp isn't going to waste their time. If they know that, a lowball offer is coming or they just don't know what they're going to get from the mariners and the mariners aren't going to waste their time if they know they're going to offer him something he's likely going to refuse. So like what's the point?

Yep. So it just comes down to if teams are willing to go beyond that point and it's a risk because while Yamamoto is insanely talented and I'm sure he'll translate well to the majors, he's technically unproven. So are you really willing to give someone like that

$230 million guaranteed? Maybe. Maybe. You're listening to the Lockdown Mariners podcast. Thank you again for making us your first listen. What were you going to say, Colway? I was just saying, you know, like maybe the Mets are willing to go 300. And at some point, you're out, like, regardless of how much you like the pitcher. Because, you know, paying any pitcher $300 million is risky.

There's a lot of injuries lurking out there. So, you know, there is a number that it just becomes insanity for the Mariners Stephen continue. Will any team get to that number? I don't know. Maybe. one other factor you might want to consider. And this is, again, note how late we brought this up. There's no state income tax in Washington.

There's pretty hefty ones in California and New York. So yeah, that is something where maybe the Mariners don't have the highest number, but it would be the most take-home pay, essentially. So, yeah, there are some legitimate selling points that the Mariners can bring to Yamamoto's attention. But at the end of the day, it's entirely possible that Yamamoto hears all this. He thinks about it and he says, I want the big market. Like I want New York. I want Los Angeles.

I want Chicago. And that's just not something the Mariners can do anything about. Right, right. So, yeah. So, you know, if the money stays relatively close, in my mind, I don't see any reason for Yamamoto to pick one of these teams over the mirrors other than something, you know, surface level like what you said. Or he just really wants to play for a legacy franchise or he just wants to to be the guy on a team's rotation.

And maybe it's as simple as that. Maybe, but. I mean, maybe he wants to play with, you know, a Japanese player who can kind of show him the ropes of, you know, living in America and, and all that stuff. So there are certain things that the merits, they just can't do anything about. Like, if he wants to pitch for, for an elite, like, you know, a blue blood, like the Yankees or the Red Sox, you just can't do anything about that. You're not a blue blood.

You're never going to be. So you're out. If he wants to pitch in a big market, okay, you're out. You don't have, you can't offer that. He wants to pitch on the East Coast. Like, you're out. You can't like there's nothing you can do about that. So yeah, yeah, yeah.

There are certain things that are just going to be deal break. That could be deal breakers for your mom. And but as I said on the show yesterday, it's become abundantly clear. The mayor is issue with free agents. Some recent years has been their reluctance to hand out, you know, six plus year deals, not because they're unwilling to spend up front. So if you're concerned about that,

don't really think that's a thing because like I mentioned, they signed Ray, they extended Castio, they extended Julio, we know they pursued Trevor Story and Marcus Semyon and Chris Bryant. Divish has said they'd be willing to give Otani $55 to $60 million a year. So all evidence suggests they'll spend, they just don't want to be handcuffed to a high dollar figure on a player well past their prime, but maybe they'll give out a deal like that for someone they view as a unicorn or more specifically someone you can still reasonably project success for in the late stages

of the contract because again the free agents we've talked about that have commanded these deals the marians weren't willing to offer they're all 28 to 30 years old and it's possible if you do hand that contract out you're only going to get the prime of that player

which is what you're ultimately paying for for about 20% of that deal. Yamamoto is only 25. And if you give him an eight-year deal, like I said earlier, you give him that eight-year, $200 million deal and maybe it takes more. But if you give him that, he's only 33 or 34 at the end of it.

Like, so if you think that he's going to be very good, there's a decent chance. That still might be the case once he hits free agency. And I think for even just that reason alone, the Mariners are far more willing to get more aggressive on Yamamoto than really any free agent we've seen in a while. Yeah. It's just so unique.

You know, what's unique about Otani is obviously that, you know, he's arguably the greatest player we've ever seen. Like he's a cyan contender on the mound and an MVP candidate in the batters box. He's a unicorn. What makes, you know,

Yamamoto a unicorn is that he's arguably the best pitcher in the world. and he's available to you at just the age of 25. Yeah. That's what makes him unique. So, you know, and the Mariners are willing to, to extend themselves for unicorns like they did with Julio. So, you know, and by the way, just side note here. When it comes to the free agent contracts that the Mariners have tried to hand hitters, you know, I've heard a few things about some of them. story just didn't want to come to Seattle.

He just, he was out. He did not like the idea. So nothing you can do about that. Simeon apparently tried to extort two extra years out of the Mariners. The Rangers offered five years, I think, and he told the Mariners he needed seven from them to sign. He would have been 38 years old when that contract ended. Wasn't going to happen. And obviously the, what happened with Chris Bryant is the Rocky started to bid against themselves.

Yeah. And paid a stupid amount of money for a not. very good player who was clearly deteriorating health-wise. And the mayors were smart to just be like, well, I mean, we're not going to spend stupid money here. Right. And last year, you know, we saw with the shortstop market how ridiculous like that, like, like Xander Bogart's getting 12 years or 11 years or whatever it was, 13 years, something like that. Trey Turner got like 13 years or 12 years.

Tray Turner was never going to come here. Yeah. You know, it's just. Danesby Swanson was never going to come here. But you're talking about paying a player for what he is now when he is like seven years removed from his prime when you're getting into like insane double-digit numbers like that on the years. And, you know, some teams they, they view that as, you know,

they view what they're going to get in the first five years of the contract as worth whatever happens in the last six years of the contract. And I think there's an actual real debate to have about that. I think there's a very interesting debate about that. But yeah, for one reason or the other, the mariners just don't want to handcuff themselves to something like that. It's the same thing we've heard about Otani from Ryan DeVish on the sea level podcast that they would love to sign Otani to like a, you know,

$55 to $60 million a year type deal, but it's more like a seven-year deal with options. after like year three. Like they just don't want to pay Otani specifically as a two-way player when he's likely going to be done with pitching and hitting at the same time, maybe five years into the contract. So he's just not like over those last five years, over those last five years,

he's not going to be worth $60 million, not even close, right? It's reasonable what the Mariners are trying to do, uh, what their concerns are. with Otani. Those are reasonable concerns. But again, with Yamamoto, right? Not really that many concerns.

Because again, towards the end of the contract, he's only 33, 34 years old. And we've seen, you know, several pitchers, not a ton of pitchers, but several pitchers be able to pitch at a very high level well into their 30s and even inching closer to the 40s. So there is a very good shot, I would say, that Yamamoto could still be very good by the end of his contract and that you're getting the value that you're paying for right now still in year six, year seven, year eight of that deal.

You're essentially buying out his entire prime. Yeah. Yeah. So. So the other factor here is, and we're running late, but I do want to talk about this.

And this is something we've talked about at length in the past. I mean, it's kind of what our offseason plan was built on in a way. Trade one of your pitchers from the rotation. Obviously getting Yamamoto makes, I mean, I don't know.

I said this earlier, but I don't know if Bryce Miller and Brian Wu are necessarily expendable, but there's definitely some excess there pitching wise. And I think it would make sense for them, even if they're going to run a six-man rotation to trade one of those guys.

And it's probably Miller. It's probably Miller. And then you're running a six-man rotation with Wu and Marco to start the year. And then maybe eventually Robbie Ray, you know, is able to join the rotation. And you figure it out from that point forward. But there is definitely going to be at least a couple teams that don't get a seat at the table that need pitching this offseason.

There is quite a bit of pitching out there, starting pitching, both on the trade market and the free agent market. But someone's going to be without a seat at the table. And I think one of those teams could be the Tampa Bay race, who we've talked about a lot as a great fit for the Mariners in terms of bats. and they typically like they spend on Zach Eflin and they're paying Tyler Glass now $20 million right now but they're trying to offload that they're trying to trade him it seems apparently I don't think they're going to pay for pitching

this off season and they need pitching because Jeffrey Springs is going to miss half the year Drew Rasmussen is going to miss half of the year Shane McLean is going to miss the whole year Bryce Miller makes a lot of sense for the Tampa Bay race and yesterday we heard Jeff Passon say that the ideal trade for the, for the raise this offseason

would be to trade Esoc Paredes to the Mariners for one of their pitchers. That can make some sense. I have concerns about Paredes' bat speed and how his hitting profile plays at T-Mobile Park. I think there's some legitimate concerns about that. I don't think it's as much of a slam dunk as a lot of people

I've seen think. But Yanni Diaz, Randy Oroz Arena, Josh Lowe, you've talked about these guys at Nauseum. And so if you sign Yamamoto, that opens the door wide open for you to then trade Miller or Wu to a team like the race to a team like the brewers for the offensive help that you need. And meanwhile, you have what can only be referred to as the FU rotation. Like we're talking about if they added Yamamoto to this rotation, Logan Gilbert is your number four. Robbie Ray is your number five when he gets back.

Yep. We're talking about four legitimate Sayung contenders, Gilbert, Castillo, Yamamoto, and Kirby. This has the potential. I'll just say the potential to be one of the greatest rotations we've seen in a long time. That's going to do it for a show.

Thank you so much for joining us here on the Locktime Marist podcast. Please let us know about the question of the day. please please give us feedback for Colby Pat note I'm Tad Angzales be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at LO underscore Mariners you can follow me at Dan Gonzalez to C-A-N-Z-Z and Colby at C-P-E-N-Z-L-Z

and Colby at C-P-E-T-1-1 you can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode thank you again for making an ass to your first list and have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you next time. Peace.