Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Why Are the Mariners Ignoring the Outfield Market?

Episode Date: January 29, 2025

On paper, the Mariners are more than solidified in their outfield with Julio Rodriguez, Randy Arozarena, Victor Robles, and Luke Raley. But with Raley's ability to play first and the designated hitter spot open for a rotation of the four aforementioned names, Seattle could make another outfield addition work. So why haven't we heard anything about the M's exploring the outfield market, especially when they've seemingly hit multiple dead ends in their attempts to land impactful infield help? Ty and Colby discuss that, as well as how Ha-seong Kim signing with the Rays could impact things for Seattle.Check out our Patreon!Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11Follow the show on Bluesky: @lockedonmariners | @tdg | @mlbcolbySupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelSuper Bowl 59 is here, And there’s no better way to make every play more exciting than with FanDuel Sportsbook. New customers can bet just FIVE DOLLARS, and if you win, you’ll score TWO HUNDRED BUCKS in Bonus Bets. Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started.  Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of Super Bowl Fifty-Nine. 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 (T Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

So the mayors have obvious needs in their infield, right? But, you know, the way their roster is set up right now makes it possible for them to add impact on the outfield instead. So why aren't they doing that? Will they look to do that? We'll discuss that of more coming up here on the Lockdown 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. Oh, Hoy, Sailors. It is Wednesday, January. 29th, 2025. This is Tedding Gazzalos and Colby Patnode for the Lockdown Marys podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team, every day. Today, we're going to tell you why the Marers should pivot and start looking at the outfield market, or rather, why they should have been doing that this whole damn time. We'll also discuss what Hassan Kim signing with Ray's could mean for the Marers and

why they weren't in on Kim themselves. But before we do that, quick shout out to her title sponsor today, Fandul. Super Bowl 59 is here and there's no better way to make every play more exciting than with FanDuel Sportsbook. New customers can bet just $5, and if you win, you'll score $200 in bonus

bets. Download the app or head to fanduel.com to get started. If you want to hear from me and Colby even more and help support the show, check out our Patreon. All you have to do to check that out is click the link in the description of this episode. So the strengths of the Mariners

position player group is obviously catcher one with Cal Raleigh, but also the outfield, right? They have Victor Robles. They have Julio Rodriguez. They have Randy of Roserana and also Luke Rayleigh and they have the DH spot open to rotate those guys through. And you know,

Colby, there's been a lot of rumors about the Mariners this winter. We've heard them link to a lot of players. We typically don't hear stuff like that as frequent as we have. This offseason about this organization.

They've been, for the most part, leak proof, but that hasn't seemed to be the case this year. Yet, while we've heard them connected to a ton of players, we haven't heard them really connected to any outfielders. And so that brings me to a point that I've made time and time again over the last few weeks here is that the Mariners are approaching this off season in a way that just doesn't align with what the meta of the market is. The mayors want to try and trade prospects straight up for major league talent.

And most teams, probably 26, 27 teams don't want to do that right now. So you're in a position right now where the teams that want your prospects don't have the major league infielders that you want. And the teams that have the major league infielder that you want don't want your prospects. However, the teams that do want your prospects, or at least theoretically would want your prospects, do have a couple of interesting outfielders. White Sox have Luis Robert Jr., who we've talked about a lot, and we heard the mayor is connected to during the season. Marlins have Jesus Sanchez. And you have the ability here with Luke Rayleigh to move him to first base. And therefore, you would need to essentially replace Luke Rayley's role that he's currently serving in, or at least that he's

served in in 2024. So you could easily make it work. And at this point, where it seems like you were hitting brick wall after brick wall after brick wall on the trade front, doesn't it make sense to just pivot and try and get, you know, better by any means necessary,

no matter the position, because right now the way your roster is structured, you can make it work. Yeah. It's one of those things where, you know, early on in the off season, you have a plan you want to try and stick with it fine whatever but we are 20 like 20 days away from

the cactus league season starting we are two weeks from pitchers and catchers like your plan didn't work you have to pivot now there's still options out there and free agency uh that you can you know go get and improve your infield are they potentially impact like you know middle of the order type of guys no no they're not um but you're probably not going to get that at this stage but if you wanted somebody who had the opportunity or the possibility to be middle of the order type of guys, then yeah, Luis Robert makes a ton of sense. And Hesu Sanchez against right-handed pitching at the very least makes a ton of sense. So, you know, to me, I don't understand why you would rather roll into a season with, you know, Donovan Solano as your everyday first baseman when you could just go sign, for example, Austin Hayes just signed with the Reds for $5 million. Why not have Rayleigh move Rayleigh to first?

Hayes is kind of the fourth outfiter slash DH and then Solano is free to move around a little more and do other things. So like why not add a bat like an Austin Hayes just because he doesn't play in the infield. It doesn't mean that you shouldn't be interested in that type of player either. Of course, you could always shoot higher like Luis Robert. There's certainly risks there, but that's one of the only reasons he's available at a reasonable price, we think, this winter is because there's risks there. and Robert, you know, kind of rotating through the outfield and everybody else, the other three outfielders rotating through the DH kind of on a daily basis and

Rayleigh primarily playing first base, allows Salano to play some second and some third right now. And it pushes, you know, either Ryan Bliss or Dillmore to the bench roll, which they're much more suited for. So it just makes a lot of sense. You can just push one of the outfielers into the DH, push Rayleigh back to first base. And then all of a sudden, you have Donovan Salano who can, play second and third, like theoretically stand there.

At the very least it's another option, your lineup is deeper. You need a deeper lineup right now, regardless of where those players play. So why aren't they interested in Robert or Sanchez or even like a Mark Kana type guy? Like why are they seemingly dead set on trying to acquire players who aren't available, like Matt Beirling and Alec Bohm? I don't know.

It doesn't make sense. It's bad, it's just bad team building to sit here, say the team has to look like this. Otherwise, we're not interested. That's what bad teams do. That's what bad front offices do. You have to be willing to adapt. You have to be water and find the cracks in the market right now, particularly, again,

when we're two weeks away from pitchers and catchers reporting. Like, what you wanted this off season to look like, you failed. It's over. You failed. Okay. So you have to go into the season with a shot. And that means you have to add more talent to your lineup. And if that means the best way to do that is to go get, you know, take a shot on a Yon Moncada and then go get, you know, Hesu Sanchez and Rayleigh's the everyday first baseman now, then that's what you have to do.

You do it. Like, don't be dead set that you need two infielders. Okay. Go get an outfielder and an infielder and make it work that way. You have the abats to give a fourth outfielder, give them to. And oh, by the way, it's a nice little bonus feature by getting another good outfielder that you have a little bit. of Victor Robles insurance in case he craters, which is totally a possibility. So yeah, yeah, it just makes way too much sense.

And the Mariners don't even seem to be willing to entertain the idea, let alone, you know, actively, uh, you know. And that's because of Mitch Hanigar, right? It's because of Mitch Hanigar, right? I guess. But again, it shouldn't be. It shouldn't be. But it's, it's probably because of Mitch Hanager.

Yeah. Which DFA McChanniger. He's not, he's not. He brings. no value to this club, not zero, zip. He was literally a negative value player last year. He can't run. You can't field.

You can't hit. Not having Mitch Hanager on the roster might be money better spent. That's $17.5 million better spent than having him on your roster, frankly. And like I get it, you know, the clubhouse presence, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's not worth $17.5 million. That's not worth essentially burning a roster spot and limiting my options on the market for. it's not at all so yeah and like you mentioned the other thing that's really frustrating about this is that it seems that they're just assuming yeah victor robles is just this guy all right maybe he's not like

the fringe MVP candidate that he basically was since he joined the mariners last year but yeah we've we fixed him he's going to be like a three-win outfielder this year like they're just seems like they just have that locked in and i'm i'm just i'm not there with them like i'm open to the possibility. Yeah, they fixed him and this is like Victor Robles is just really good now. Like totally. But there's the chance that what we saw was just an anomaly

last year. If Victor Robles isn't an everyday outfielder you're kind of screwed. Like that's the place you set them. He doesn't have to be a star like you was last year, but he has to be good. And frankly, your roster is just not good enough

to make assumptions like that. It's not. It's not. It's, I mean, You're already banking on Ryan Bliss and Dylan Moore and J.P. Crawford bouncing back. And you're already banking on a lot to happen. And probably the least likely thing that you're banking on to actually happen is for Victor Robles to be an everyday player. Because he's only really ever done it once in his entire career. It's the reason why major league for major league trades don't even make that much sense for you. Might be in a year or two, but it's not this winter.

And that's the only winner we care about right now. So yeah, the Mariners are kind of like box themselves out of the market by refusing to adapt. And I mean, it's it already, they were already pretty much, you know, out of it with the ridiculous budget. But the front office has done, you know, has hurt them themselves even more with the restricted budget by not being willing to adapt to what the market says the market is. And, you know, the market always is what the market says. You don't get to dictate the market. sorry, the market gets dictated to you and you have to adapt to it. That's how it works in professional sports.

And they pretty much by all reasonable standards have refused to adapt to the market. That's on them. So kind of related. There was a trade idea that you wanted to talk about involving Luke Rayleigh that we're going to go over in just a moment. And also we're going to talk some Ha-Song-Kim or Ha-Song-Kim rather. But first, a reminder of this episode of the Lockdown Marys podcast is brought to you once again by Fandul. All right, folks, Super Bowl 59 is here. One game, two teams, inless possibilities.

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score $200 in bonus bets. That's fanduel.com. Bet with Fanduel, official partner of Super Bowl 59. And you're listening to the Locked on Marrers podcast. So kind of related to the discussion that we just had. Colby, you texted me last night that you got a trade idea from someone that you actually wanted to talk about. So tell us a little bit about that. Yeah. I got a text from a friend of a friend, I guess, is the best way to word.

The friend of the friend works in the industry as in baseball. and yeah and he just wanted to know what I thought about this he knows I obviously do a Mariners podcast he wanted to know what I thought of the idea of the Mariners acquiring Jake Croninworth and eggy Rosario for Luke Rayleigh the idea of being here is that the Padres need to shed salary we know that they don't want to trade king or cease if they can help it but they do need to shed salary. They've hit a bit of a roadblock with Luisarize. The offers aren't nearly what they thought they were going to be, and they're having trouble finding a suitor for him. And the Mariners need infielders. And the idea is that Croninworth plays second base. Rosario plays third base. And, you know,

you still need a first basement at that point. But Solano, you know, in theory, covers that for a little while at the very least. So, yeah, essentially the Mariners take on. salary to acquire a prospect who can help the Mariners, in theory, in 2025, and kind of kill two birds with one stone. But you are leaving first base open. It would mean finding another outfielder would be pretty important as well. But this might be where Mark Kana comes into play. We can play first as well as the corner outfield spots.

So, yeah, I think the idea itself is pretty interesting. I don't think it's something the Mariners would do. but I think it's something that it's an interesting idea and we kind of discussed this on Monday we had a listener sent us a question for the mailbag about like hey could the Mariners

take on a bad contract to get a better player blah blah blah this is similar-ish to that sure and so yeah I just thought it was it was pretty topical and hey what else are we going to talk about sure Robert again and again

and again yeah I think this is dead for two reasons that are basically connected to one another. One, we talked about this before when it comes to Corona Worth trades. I just don't think the, the Marys are going to sign up for a guaranteed six years on that contract. Even though they should be able to trade that again if they want to get out from it, but I just,

I think it's dead on arrival for that reason. It's $11 million a year. Like, it's not anything outrageous for a player as good as CoronaWRourth is. Yeah. And then on top of that, you're trading an above average strong side platoon hitter who's still pre-arb for this year. Right. But you're also getting an above-average defensive second baseman who's at least an average hitter. It's from the left side.

He would be the best second baseman you've had since Canoe. Like I feel really confident in that. Yeah. At 10 million bucks for this year. And then you take a shot on a guy like Rosario. I mean, yeah, you'd rather have Rayleigh. but Rosario can theoretically play third base. He's got a couple cups of coffee in the big leagues.

They haven't gone extremely well, but he has performed in the minors. So it's one of those things where it's like, okay, that's kind of interesting. I think the Mariners would be more interested. Obviously, if they could get the Padres to take on, you know, Garver or Hannager, but then that kind of defeats the purpose.

The Padres aren't necessarily looking to save money long term. although that's a bonus of trading a rise, or sorry, of trading Croninworth. They're kind of more interested in saving money short term. So I think at that point, it's dead from the Padreys perspective. I think it's possible that the Mariners,

if they could do this for like prospects, like if this is like, hey, we'll give you Harry Ford and we'll give you Ty Pete and we'll give you, you know, whatever. Logan, doesn't matter, right? Like, if you can do that, then we'll take the $10 million hit on Corona worth this year.

and we'll take Perez because sorry we'll take eggy because essentially what you're doing is right is you're kind of buying an extra player by helping the Padres out because they need to cut payroll and theoretically you can still add payroll so I thought it was an interesting idea I think like you said I wonder how like committed the mayors would be to or how interested they would be on committing six years of this now there could be money paid on the back end like there are details that make this trade work a little bit. But I think at the end of the day, it's an interesting thought because the Mariners, you know, if the meta is to trade from your major league roster, well, the Mariners, in theory,

have some outfield depth. They certainly have more outfield depth than they do anywhere else. And Rayleigh is going to be interesting to a team like the Padres. They need a left fielder. Rayleigh could play left. And obviously he's, you know, making the league minimum. So they would save $10 million. And so in exchange for that, you get, you know,

you get a I mean maybe it's a 4A player I don't know but you get another shot at finding a third baseman one that has some upside one that I'm if I'm not mistaken it could be wrong but I'm pretty sure we got told that the Mariners were

interested maybe in Rosario I can't remember for sure but I know that we got asked about it I just I can't remember in what context but sure so yeah I think I think it was pretty interesting but I was like I think a problem

falls apart a little bit. I think maybe there are avenues you could take to kind of get there. But as it was presented to me right there, I said, I don't think the Mariners would do that. But I think they should consider something like that if they can find it. If it makes sense for them money wise and long term. But yeah,

I just thought that was an interesting idea. Taylor Rogers to the Reds just happened. All right. Hey, so, Hot-sung Kim, veteran infielder, who spent the last few seasons with the Padres, just signed with Tampa Bay Rays on a two-year, $29 million deal. Kind of an interesting player when it comes to the mirrors for a multitude of reasons. That's why we're talking about him today. One, obviously, Kim is coming off of an injury.

He's coming off of surgery. He's not going to be able to play until at least May, which, on the surface considering how limited the mayor's front offices budget is you would think that's a that's a no-go spending what would basically be the rest of what they have available to them on a guy that's not going to be able to play on opening day is going to have to spend you know the rest of the year playing catch-up essentially whenever he does eventually get back right but on the other hand they also tried to trade for for Nico Horner. They were very aggressive on that. Nico Horner is also not going to be able to start the season healthy. So I think we've already talked about this before on lockdown. At least we've talked about it on the Patreon show. But I would assume that the difference there is just like,

well, obviously they were also going to trade Castillo in the Horner deal. They would have saved more money. That would have allowed them to do more stuff. Whereas, you know, Son and Kim would basically be it for the rest of the off season, you would think. And also they might just like Nico Horner more than Ahs on Kim. But still, it's an interesting contrast in that regard. Sure.

And like I pointed out today on Twitter, it's kind of hard to make a case for and against Kim when it comes to the merits. Because like on one hand, yeah, you would be essentially spending the rest of your budget on a guy that's not going to play right away. Again, it's going to be playing catch up, et cetera. but on the other hand, are you actually able to do something better with that money at this point? I don't know. I don't know. It's like because I'd probably,

I don't know. It's like, would you rather take a shot on Kim or would you rather go get like Moncada and Iglesias and maybe like another player? Yeah. Now, we don't know the exact breakdown of this trade in terms of what he's going to make in year one or this deal. we don't know what he's going to make in your one.

So obviously it's topical with the Mariners and needing infielders. And Kim, probably the most expensive infielder left on the market, obviously aside from Bregman and Alonzo, who they have no shot at because they choose to not have a shot at them, but whatever. So yeah, that's interesting.

But I mean, immediately to me, like my first thought was like, wow, that's kind of weird. But also are the rays all of a sudden going to be more realistic in trade talks with some of their infielders? Yeah.

because you know Kim's going to come back in May they hope you have Cabbiero there Caminero is going to be the third baseman like you already have Cabiero you have low you have Mead you have Pelasios you have you know walls like do you have a lot of guys who play second and and shortstop in theory so like yeah could they I mean maybe yeah I know obviously Brandon Lau is the guy that stands out the most here but I know you've been a big Curtis Mead guy. So do you want to refresh the people on that or, you know, if people haven't heard that idea from you before,

just tell him a little bit about that. Yeah, Curtis Mead is, you know, kind of a former top 100 prospect. He's only 23, 24, so it's not like he is super old or anything like that. And he just aged out. He's gotten some run at the major league level. It's gone, okay. but he hasn't gotten any consistent playing time at the big league level. Third base might be a bit of a stretch for him.

He's played some second as well. But I think a lot of people assume he's going to end up at first base. But again, if you're the Mariners, you're probably willing to take the shot on him playing second or third for you this year at the very least. He's just a very, you know, kind of just good hitter. He hits the gaps very well, lots of doubles. He's probably going to hit for a high average, gets on base. The power, you know, probably 15, 20 home run power.

Nothing amazing, but it's certainly playable, particularly at second, even at third. He'd be fine. So, yeah, I like Curtis Mead. He's cheap in terms of salary. And, yeah, basically any deal we've talked about with the raise, I have been eager to attach Curtis Meade to that deal to try and get the Mariners another option at third base. Like, I would rather, like, I think Curtis Mead is a significantly, better chance to hit than Ryan Bliss, for example.

So that is a move that I would like to see them make. Yeah, I mean, it just kind of seems like me just slowly keeps on getting pushed further and further down the depth chart. Obviously, Camerro is the third baseman and then with Lau and with Bellacios and with Cavalero. Like all those guys gets involved. Right. Camden will be the shortstop. but all those guys will shift over to a second base and just like, okay, they're not going to pick,

you know, and they have, what's, Xavier Isaacs, I think is his name, first base prospect. He's going to be up probably at the end of this year. At first base,

they still have Yondi on that roster. There's just not a lot of room for Curtis Me to get up at bat. So I wonder if that's a guy that the merits can go get. He is certainly one of those like, you know, hey, let's give him the opportunity type of guys. And you hope that it's not necessarily a change of

scenery guy, but it's just like, hey, this guy kind of got squeezed out of his last spot. Kind of a Thai France thing? Yeah. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. That's a very similar idea to tie France. Yeah. And honestly, I think pretty similar hitter to what France was when he came over.

So now that Kim's off the board, not that we were really thinking that he was an option for the Mariners. But now that comes off the board, Bregman's still the guy that seems to be, you know, the mergers are obviously waiting on. seems to be, you know, other teams are also waiting on and other free agents might be waiting on as well. But after Bregman, what's left? Well, I mean, like, I would personally be talking to the race right now about Brennan Lowe before I would talk about any of the other free agent options. Just because, you know, Lough just seems like a mariner, right? He has for a couple years now.

And again, you talk about guys getting pushed out. well, Lowe's making $10 million bucks this year or whatever. Like you have plenty of second baseman like we've talked about. And obviously you probably want to get out of that now. He's a little bit older. He's been hurt a lot. So I think of our Seattle, I'd be pushing pretty aggressively for Lowe in terms of free agents that are available. Yeah, you know, I think you're looking at the usual suspects.

Brennan Rogers is still out there. Jose Iglesias is still out there. Yohan Moncata is still out there. been linked to the Mariners. Like he probably the first player that we heard linked to the Mariners all off season was Moncada. He's still out there. Paul DeYoung is still floating around out there.

You just want some power and good defense. You don't care about on base or average or whatever. Like you do worse than Paul de Young at their base. You're currently doing worse than Paul DeYoung at third base. So yeah, I think it's just the usual suspects. I don't think there's anybody that, you know, reagent-wise. It's a glacius.

Rogers, D. Young, and then just kind of a bunch of like minor league-ish type of guys, minor league signing type of guys. So yeah, I would, if I were Seattle, I'd be pretty aggressive on the, that would be pretty aggressive on the Brandon Lough front. But based on some of the things I've heard

about their asking prices for some of their players, I wouldn't be too optimistic about that. But Lowe probably is going to be cheaper than some of the other players. The Mariners have talked to them about in the past. But yeah, Curtis Mead is absolutely a guy. Like, I'd rather go get Curtis Mead and give him a shot at third base than Dylan Moore and Paul DeYoung and Ryan Bliss, like anybody that the Marrish could reasonably have.

But yeah, I think, like, I would say it seems likely that Moncada is going to be their guy at third base this year. But they haven't signed him yet. And I don't know, like, if they haven't signed him yet at this point, I don't know. Yeah. So it's interesting. interesting. Go get Brandon low.

And you're starting to run out options. You're getting, you're not at this point yet, but you're getting closer to the point where you're like, all right, is this guy really that much better than just letting Ryan Bliss play second base? You're getting close to that point,

which is like the ultimate failure for you this off season. No disrespect to Ryan Bliss, but yes, 100% yes. Yeah. yeah like i don't willy castra still out there guys and i know like oh the twins probably it's not going to make it work find a way to make it work uh go get willy castra go get brandon low and then you know let the third base be the the position where you go for some upside and you go

like you know let's get curtis meet a shot or hey let's let's see if montata bounces back like that's where you try that but go get like somebody who solidifies one of the infield spots at the very least and then take your shot on the second guy and i think the guy who solidifies the infield is probably on the team right now. So you're going to have to go trade for that guy and then finish off the infield by giving Moncada a couple million bucks. I don't know what he's going to make this year. But sure doesn't seem like it's going to be more than $3 or $4 million.

Yeah. All right. Well, on that note, that's going to do it for us. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Locktime Marriss podcast for Colby Pat Nowd, I'm Tadon Gazzalas. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L.O. underscore Marrers. You can follow me at Tadigalus.

Colby at C-P-11. that's CPAT 1-1. We're also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB Colby, the show at Lockdown Meritors. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day, and we'll see you next time. Peace.