Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Who's a Bigger Problem For the Mariners Right Now: Dylan Moore or Jorge Polanco?

Episode Date: June 30, 2025

It's Mailbag Monday! Ty and Colby answer your Mariners questions, including if the club could move on from Dylan Moore and/or Jorge Polanco.DONATE TO OUR FEEDING AMERICA FUNDRAISERCheck out our Patreon!Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11Follow the show on Bluesky: @lockedonmariners | @tdg | @mlbcolbySupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Wonderful PistachiosGet snackin' and get crackin' with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more! Supply HouseJoin the TradeMaster program today at SupplyHouse.com/TM and start ordering plumbing, HVAC, and electrical supplies with just a few clicks. Plus, use promo code S-H-5 for 5% off your first order. That’s SupplyHouse.com! Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONMLB at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA. 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.

Who's a bigger problem for the Mariners right now? Or a Polanco or Dillam Moore? We'll answer that more coming up here on Mailbag Monday. 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 Monday, June 30th, 2025.

This is Tanya Gazzalas and Colby Patnaud for the Lockdown Marys Podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team, every day. This episode is brought to you by, fan duel right now new customers can get $150 and bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. And as always, if you want to hear from me and Colby even more and help support the show, you can check out our Patreon. All you have to do to check that out is click the link in the description of this episode. Let's open up the mailbag like we do here every Monday and answer some of your mayor's questions.

Karen is going to kick us off here. He wants to know you talked last week about how important this tough stretch with no days off is six and four record to start it. How would you assess their performance so far? How do you feel about the rest of the stretch? Colby? Yeah, I mean, six and four is always a good road trip.

You know, the old adage, the goal essentially is to go 500 on the road and do damage at home. So six and four is really good. And when you factor in that, they started their road trip, playing against, you know,

second, third best team in the national league and taking 203. in conditions that do not favor them. That's obviously a really good start. And then, you know, you take a series from a division rival. That's always good. You split a four-game set on the road, which is difficult to do. And, you know, with the last two series,

you secure season series tiebreakers against two teams that are in direct competition with you for that wildcard spot. So there's a lot of positives there just in the wins that they did have. But, you know, there's also some real, I'm not quite sure what the word is, but there's some, you know, six and four is great. It feels like you probably should have gone seven and three. You could have won. Missed opportunities. Yeah, like you could have won at least one more game in Minnesota. You could have won.

It probably should have won game two in Texas. So you had these opportunities to have an amazing road trip and go seven and three. and when you look at that last road trip before the All-Star break, three against Detroit, three against New York, all on the road, like the two best teams in the American League, and it's not close. Every win you can get is huge because it creates that buffer zone for what's probably going to be a pretty rough road trip. So, you know, you get seven more games before the next day off, which stinks.

And it's kind of weird. They do this like day game, night game, day game, night game type of flip there at the end of this. which is dumb, but yeah, it's an opportunity. You're playing Kansas City. You're playing Pittsburgh. Kansas City's not playing particularly well right now, but they are a tough matchup for you.

We know this. Pittsburgh still has some talent, still has some pitching. And Seattle doesn't really play bad teams well at home for some reason. So you never know, but it does feel like you need to find a way to go four and three on this road or on this homestand or better. And if you can do that, then you probably put yourself in a decent position to absorb a rough road trip before the All-Star break. So there's still a lot of work to do, but six and four is a really good start. You know, we said the next 23 games was going to determine pretty much everything and felt like they needed to win at least 11, 12 games to kind of stay in the race.

They're halfway there. So we'll see what they can do here at home. So, I mean, it does feel like they're playing a little bit better baseball, but also they keep leaving wins on the table. And we know how important those wins are. So overall, I'm not going to complain about a six and four road trip. Is there some cause for like, good, but not good enough? Sure. I think there is.

But overall, it's a really good start to a very difficult stretch in their schedule. Yeah, I mean, record wise, it's a success. 6 and 4 is a really nice road trip. But the way they played, though, it's a lot of the same. And that's what ultimately concerns me. Boomer busts offense and even more concerning boomer bust starting pitching. That's going to ultimately the problem with this club right now. I can't rely on the starting pitching.

At the past, and you know, in 2024 and 2023, you could go, well, the least their starting pitching is going to give us a chance on a chance on a night-to-night basis. Right now, every turn through the rotation, I don't know what we're going to get. Logan Gilbert hasn't been good enough since coming back from the aisle. George Kirby has been all over the place since returning. Luis Castillo has probably been the second most consistent starter in this rotation behind Brian woo and even he has had some bad moments and then it's in hancock you you never know what you're

going to get with emerson hancock so with how wildly inconsistent this offense is you need something to be able to lean on and the rotation just hasn't been that it hasn't been what the mariners have ultimately built their team around and on and So that's what makes me ultimately so concerned that this team, the 500 range is going to be inescapable for them. Yeah. You know, and the pitching being inconsistent is also having an impact on your bullpen

because they have to cover innings like how many Mariners, in this 10-game road trip, how many Mariners went six innings? Brian Wu twice, Louis Castile once. So your bullpen is having to cover a ton. I don't know how Bizarro can lift up his arm to brush his teeth. He's pitching in every single game seemingly, and that's a problem. And so the Mariners built this thing on run prevention that is always going to be their identity.

And they're not preventing runs at a good level right now. And it starts and it ends with the pitching. And we could talk about, you know, the injuries. And they certainly have played a role in the Mariners' struggles, no doubt. But, you know, they're here now. their performance is not up to par with what they need to do. And it's impacting everything. It puts more pressure on the offense.

It puts more pressure on the bullpen. And so, you know, it's one of those things like, yeah, the offense is going to be a little streaky. But if you have the pitching, if the pitching is pitching like it's supposed to, it's not that big of a deal. But right now, we're over halfway through the season. And the starting pitching is still a question mark. So as much as we could say, like, well, yeah, but look.

at the past look at the past okay yes you're not wrong but at what point is like this is who they are this year because we're more than halfway through the season at this point yeah why are we just saying like well this is who the pitching is so yeah i get it injuries are definitely a factor here but george has been back for but that's the reality that you have to live with right yeah and injuries might be playing a huge role here and that's totally fair but that might impact this rotation for the rest of the year. They might only be able to pitch the way that they have as consistent as they've been because of that

or not because of that. Who cares? That's just what the situation is. It doesn't really matter what the reason is. What matters is the situation. And the situation right now is like, you can't lean on your starting pitching right now. No. Like, well, I guess the way that I should word that it said is, you can't bank on your starting pitching right now. You can absolutely lean on it still.

like there's still going to be times where you know logan gilbert or george kirby or brian woo is going to lead the charge and he's going to be the main reason you know they're going to be the main reason that you win you know a particular ball game but in general turn to turn to turn through the rotation i just i don't know how much confidence i have right now with how incredibly inconsistent they've been yeah all right we are going to answer more of your questions in just a moment but first a reminder to this episode of the locked down air is pye's is once again brought to you by Fandul. Summer sports are in full swing, and whether you're all about baseball under the lights, golf on the green, or high-stakes soccer action, Fanduel is the best way to make every game even more exciting. I mean,

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to get started. And you're listening to the Lockdown Marrars podcast for instant reactions following every Mariners game. Be sure to tune in to the Marra's postcast with Anderson Hearst and Christopher Crawford available on both the Lockdown Marys YouTube and podcast feeds. Before we get back into your questions, let's give you a quick update on our Feeding America fundraiser. We got a few new donations over the course of the weekend.

Thank you so much. Jacob came through with $5. Perry came through with $20. Anonymous came through with $24. Jay with $25, anonymous with $20, and another anonymous $20 donation to bring us to a grand total, up to this point of $6,925. You guys already kind of know the deal here with Feeding America.

If not, I mean, have you been living under a rock or, hey, maybe this is your first episode of Locked Out Mariners, either in a little while or maybe ever. So if that's the case, welcome. Welcome back. But yeah, we are partnering with Feeding America, which as the name indicates, their goal is to feed America. Over 50 million Americans suffer from food insecurity, including one and every five children.

And right now with school out for the summer, a lot of kids are losing access to the one meal that they can bank on. So we can do our part here to get meals to those in need for, really the best bang for your buck of any sort of a fundraiser we could possibly run here on this channel 10 cents someone in need one meal so a dollar can get 10 meals to people who could really really use them at least 10 meals that's what they say on the website and we really really appreciate all the support that you guys have already shown for this and we have raised a ton of meals for people in need so far.

So let's just, let's keep it going. Let's see how far we can take this thing. We have until the All-Star break, which is still about two weeks away, to see how far we can take it. Again, we're hovering around that $7,000 mark. We'd love to get there by the next episode,

if you guys would be willing to help us out. But if you also don't have the means to donate, Colby and I are donating one meal per every subscriber we add between the start of this fundraiser and the All Star Break. We are over 200 subscribers added on YouTube since we started this thing. So that is over 200 meals raised for feeding America. So if you don't have the means, you can still find a way to donate just by clicking

that subscribe button down below. You can also tell friends, family members, anyone you know, to come subscribe. and that is a meal to someone who greatly, greatly needs it. So thank you for all your support in this endeavor for us. And again, let's see how far we can take it. All right. Let's get back into your questions. Mariner and Joyer wants to know.

Is Christopher Negroen becoming a problem? It seems like he has had more reckless sins than ever this season. I know with a low-scoring offense, he has to take more risks. But some of his decisions this season have been flound. out bad, even if he gets bailed out by a bad throw or something. Part of me wonders, though, how much of this is just an organizational problem? Because Maniacta was also really bad at this. I think this might be an organizational philosophy that they want to challenge arms,

and they want to make guys make throws and make plays at the plate and all that. Yeah. Particularly in left field. They seem to take more shots on their left, which makes sense. Traditionally, right-fielers have stronger arms because they have longer throws. But yeah, it's, you know, Negroans had some really bad sense, like truly awful,

but so did Maniacca. So it's a little tough to know, like, you know, who's who or who to blame for what, what. But, and also sometimes we honestly don't know if a guy got sent or if he just went on his own. Like, you don't always get the replay on the camera that shows the moment. So, you know, some of it's on the players as well. but yeah, you can kind of look at it one or two ways.

Either like, yeah, the offense is bad, so I need to be aggressive or the offense is bad. I can't afford to make outs on the bases, particularly when I have a guy already in scoring position. So yesterday was particularly bad because Cal Raleigh could still score without a hit, right? Like it's one thing if there's two outs and it's like, you know, next guy up, we had to pinch hit Dylan Moore or something. and okay, we'll take a shot here. But, yeah, like if you could still score with a runner, if you can still score without a hit, the overly aggressive send when you have a pitcher on the ropes,

like there's a bunch of stuff that factors into it, but I don't know if it's a problem with necessarily Negrone because, again, Maniakta had a lot of these dumb sins as well. And I don't know relative to the rest of the league, if they're super aggressive on that or not either because I don't watch everybody else. in the league. So maybe they're actually pretty good at this compared to everybody else. But

yeah, it's frustrating, definitely. But I just I'm not quite sure where to land the blame on this. So it's a little bit of a difficult question for me to answer. But yeah, there was a really bad send of Cal yesterday. No question about it. All right. Sean wants to know. Normally B-War and F-Wor

are relatively similar, but in the case of Julio, the contrast is huge. 3.9 baseball reference war versus 2.7 fan graphs war. What's the number and why is the difference so large in this case? If I had to take a stab at this, I guess it's the defense because Fangraphs uses UZR and its war formula, whereas baseball reference uses defensive run save for its war formula.

And Julio, I believe, is second in all of baseball and defensive run save. So there just might be more value placed on his defense by baseball reference than Van graphs if I had to guess. UZR, like, you can't find UZR leaders anymore on the leaderboards on fan graphs. It's just like blank. Like you can find the individual numbers when you go to like the individual pages. But if you go on the leaderboards, it's just blank on UZR. So I don't know where Julio ranks in terms of UZR.

But yeah, again, if I had to if I had to guess, it's just because of the defense and because of defensive runs save maybe just have more pull, I guess, and baseball references. formula. Yeah. Yeah, that's probably what it is. Because OPS Plus and WRC Plus, which is kind of the key difference in their war formula, they're practically the same statistic. Usually it differs by a point or two at most. So, yeah, it's probably the defense.

And I do think when you talk about premium defensive positions, I do think that baseball reference has better war. because like who cares how good of a defensive player a first baseman is like is it nice to have a good first baseman sure does it really matter that much no not relative to center field shortstop whatever so yeah but yeah in general like what do i think coolio like when i've watched his first half and i try to factor it all in where do i think cullio is i think he's been about a three win player yeah two and a half three wins yeah that's where i think i'm firmly in the three side of things over two and a half because the defense has been really good yeah yeah this year. And so, and again, because he plays center field, that defense is really important. So I think he's a three-win player. I don't think he's close to a four-win player, like baseball reference apparently has him at. But I do think that he's solidly of either a very, at the low and a very high two, but I think like a three to three-one, three-two type of player, which we're splitting hairs at that point. But I think he's been a really good three-win player. He's a worthy,

like all-star candidate. I don't think it's a travesty if he doesn't make it, but I don't think it's a travesty if he does. Like he's had a good year. He's had a good year. It just hasn't been an incredible breakout year like we were hoping. But he's been very good. And he's on pace to be, you know, five, six-win player again like he was in his first two years.

So, yeah, I think just defensive value is different in war. And again, for the premium defensive positions, I tend to prefer B-WR. but like for right field, left field, first base, like, yeah, I care more about the bat,

those situations. So, yeah, but the wars usually are relatively close. Yeah. This is a bit of an outlier, though. Peter wants to know who's more of a problem right now,

Polanco or Dillamore is more likely to get DFA'd and Polanco more likely to stay through the end of the year, given his contract. I think both of these guys are going to stay for, for a while. I don't know about through the end of the year. I think honestly, Dimo has a better chance of staying through the end of the year than Polo does

just because Polo's mostly D-Hing right now. And if he's not providing offensive value to you, there's really no path to getting any sort of value out of him. Whereas with Dimo, I think the track record is going to keep him safe for a little while here, even though, God, he's been. He is the worst Major League Baseball player I have ever seen. scene for the last. He's almost he's almost been as bad as I would look at the plate over the last month.

It's, uh, yeah, it's been awful. Like this is by far the worst stretch Dimo has ever gone on in his career. The amount that he is striking out right now is absurd. Uh, and the fact that he has one hit since May 27th is insane. Yeah, a little leader off of Garrett Crochet. So, yeah, uh, yeah, I mean, the at-bats don't even look competitive. Yeah. Honestly, it looks like he's going up there with his eyes closed. You might have a better shot if he actually did. Yeah.

But yeah, I think the positional versatility, even though he's significantly regressed defensively this year, but I think the positional versatility and the track record is going to keep him safe here for at least a little while. Maybe at some point, they just go, you know what? We think Isaiah counterfelefa helps us more, and we're going to trade for him. him and we're going to move on from Dillmore. Maybe there's a team out there that wants to take a shot on DMO at the deadline and maybe you're willing to trade him for a reliever or something.

You know, maybe that's a possibility. But yeah, if I had to guess right now just with the way that those two are going, I'd say Polo's in more jeopardy just because, again, if he continues to not hit, what value does he provide you? None. Yeah, he's been a little better over the last couple of weeks, and I say little. But, you know, it's pretty interesting. I think at the month of June, though, he's running like a 70 WRC plus or something.

What's pretty interesting to me, though, is that he didn't play the last two games. Both against right-handed pitching, they went separate, they went a different direction with the DH. So now one of them was because cow needed a day. So, okay. But the other one wasn't. So I don't know. That's just, did he, you know, hurt the knee or the or the side again? Or is it just like, just give him a couple days to like mentally reset or match out?

I don't know. But yeah, like I still feel better with Palacco at the plate. I mean, even more interesting is that there were plenty of opportunities where it made sense to go to Palacco as a pinch hitter. Yeah. And it didn't. So I don't know. keep an eye on that just in general. But yeah, I mean, he's, he's probably not going to get his plate appearance threshold to max any of the, the, you know, the incentives.

And Dylan Moore is due about a million eight for the rest of this year at this point. Maybe you could wave him and he might clear and he's probably not going to forfeit that salary. But I doubt the Mariners would do something like that. I could see the Mariners try and trade either of these guys as they kind of like they did last year with Ryan And it's just kind of like, yeah, let's reallocate that money and do this. So that's definitely possible that either these guys get traded. I'd be pretty surprised if either of them was DFA'd, although I think I can make a very strong argument that Dillan Moore should be DFAed because there is nothing on the baseball field.

He does better than like Leo, Leo Rivas right now, nothing. So, yeah, I mean, you can't use your, you can't use your speed, Dylan, if you don't get to first base and your defense has not been good this year. So, yeah, he's not a good player. but I don't see the Mariners just, you know, eating $2 million and DFAing him right now. So yeah, we'll see. But I doubt either of them is in any real jeopardy anytime soon. But they probably should be a little bit.

All right. Brandon has our last question of the day. Wants to know what's a realistic prospect package to bring back Gino or Nailer. I think Gino's going to cost more than Nailer. So. Yeah. Because Nailer's first base. and that's not as valuable as third base and he's a bit of a platoon guy.

Like we've gone over the reasons. Be interested in both, definitely. But I do think there's a high probability that either one of them is going to cost a top 100 prospect. So to me, that's an Arroyo. Maybe a name to watch here could be Gerangelo Sanja because Arizona is about to lose a lot of pitching. and Sanja, I don't want to say he's close to the big leagues, but he's not like four years away. You know, it's not, he's, he might pitch in the big leagues next year.

Yeah, I mean, it's funny, you look at his numbers overall, you're like, but when you separate them between right-handed pitching and left-handed pitching, it's been very good as a right-handed pitcher. Terrible is a left-handed pitcher. You'd probably go ahead and end that experiment. But you're talking about giving up something to get something. And the diamondbacks, they have catching, they have some infield depth already built, which is why they might be willing to trade Gino to begin with.

So maybe a royal doesn't make a ton of sense for them. Maybe, you know, Harry Ford doesn't make a ton of sense for them. Las Montes, I know a lot of Mariner fans would have an aneurysm if they traded him. But he's definitely a guy who should be, you know, you should be open to discussing. But that's why I do wonder, Sanja actually comes into play for the Diamondbacks. So that's a name I would watch for either of these guys. I think the difference is probably more the secondary piece between Gino and Nailer because I feel like Gino you're probably going to have to add a secondary piece to your top 100-ish prospect,

whereas Nailer you might be able to get it straight up. So like Nailer might cost you Sanger straight up. Gino might cost you Sanger and like Taipei just because of the positional importance and the lack of the lack of options you have at third base relative to first base. So yeah, but I do think it's top 100 guy. And for Gino, I think it's top 100 plus, which is, you know, maybe a Teddy McRaw, maybe a Tai Pete, like a lottery ticket type of guy with your top 100 prospect. And I do think that St. Joe makes a lot of sense for Arizona.

But yeah, Arroyo, Ford, if they were interested in him, doesn't seem like they would be, but maybe you never know. Las, I think one of those three probably is. is going to have to be involved to get either of these guys. Yeah, and again, I'm willing to pay that. Yes. All right, that's going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Marries podcast for Colby Patnode.

I'm Tiding, Gazzalas. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L.O underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Tading Gonzalez and Colby at CPAT 11. That's C-PAT-1. We're also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB Colby in the show at Locked-on Mariners. You can also find us on Instagram and, TikTok at Lockdown Mariners.

Have yourself a beautiful baseball day, and we'll see you next time. Peace.