Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Why the Mariners Shouldn't/Won't Sign Cody Bellinger

Episode Date: November 22, 2022

The Seattle Mariners' pool of potential free agents just got slightly bigger. On today's episode of Locked on Mariners, Colby and Ty discuss the three players the team non-tendered and who amongst the other non-tenders could make sense for the Mariners? What about Cody Bellinger? Plus, some guys changed numbers, Matt Brash is apparently working on a cutter and Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times says the team is shopping Jarred Kelenic? All of this and more on today's episode of Locked on Mariners.Be sure to follow or subscribe to Locked On Mariners wherever you prefer your podcasts! For questions and other inquiries, email: [e-mail] the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @danegnzlz | @CPat11For more of Ty and Colby, check out their Patreon: patreon.com/controlthezone/BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts! 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.

Many new free agents hit the open market as the non-tender deadline passed on Friday night, including a couple notable names from the Mariners. We're going to talk about Seattle's recent departures in which of these new free agents could land on the team's radar here on the Lockdown Mariners 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. It is Tuesday, November 22nd, 2022.

This is Tiding Gonzalez and Colby Patnode for the Lockedon. The Mariners 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 want to hear from us even more, please consider signing up for our Patreon. The link as well as our social accounts is in the description below. On the show today, we'll be talking about the three players the Mariners parted ways with on

Friday in which of the many new free agents that just hit the open market could appeal to them. And yes, we will discuss Cody Bellinger a little bit. But before we get to that, Colby, Luis Terens, Luke Weaver, and Brian O'Keefe are all now officially free agents. The Mariners parting ways with them on Friday. Let's talk about Terence here. First of all, he's the most notable name here. You're a big Luis Terence guy. I know that the Mariners have some interest in bringing them back on a minor league deal.

We'll see how that goes. Of course, he was waived at one point during the season, did not get picked up, reverted back to Mariners' AAA. team and then was brought back to the major league roster and was actually able to contribute a little bit there towards the end of the season. But to me, I think this says a lot about how they feel about Cooper Hummel, who they just acquired from Arizona and the Kyle Lewis deal. Does it say the same to you? It says to me that they're cheap sons of guns who didn't want to pay the best catcher in baseball, $1.1 million. And the best two-way player in baseball. Yes.

Move over. Show. Showy Otani's never gotten away. and caught on the same day. That's all I'm saying. But yeah, I guess it says something about Hummel. I don't know. It's interesting because they also, you know, non-tendered O'Keefe, which O'Keefe wasn't Arb eligible. So basically they weren't willing to pay Brian O'Keefe League Minim, which seems like a mistake.

You can never have enough catcher depth. And right now, you know, it's Cal Raleigh. It's Tom Murphy, who, you know, just a picture of health himself. and Cooper Hummel who has like a 45% strikeout rate in the big league so they're going to have to add somebody uh you know to the catcher depth uh it's it doesn't have necessarily be a major leaguer it'd be great if it was but you know it's it there's not you know 32 good catchers in major league base or 30 good catchers right now let alone 60 so it's going to be tough I like the the combo they have right now and Hummel is fine if he's your

third guy, but they do need to add somebody. And I just thought, you know, paying Louise Turenz a million bucks to be your emergency guy, or at least going to spring training as as a shot to be, you know, a third catcher or whatever. I thought that was worth the gamble, but the Mariners disagree and we'll see. I mean, if I were a team like, you know, like Pittsburgh or Oakland, I would certainly give Louis Terenz a major league deal because I don't really care about his defense. And I want to see if he can hit. and I still think Louis Terrence can hit. Yeah, it's interesting that no one picked him up when he was DFAed during the season.

We were pretty surprised about that, that the Mariners were able to hang on to him. Maybe that changes this off season, but it doesn't seem like the league is really high on Terence. Maybe a little bit of that changed after his final stint with the Mariners at the end of the season. But we'll see, you know, the Mariners go from five catchers to three. and with, you know, some uncertainty about how Tom Murphy is going to return and, you know, who knows where you're going to get out of Cooper Hummel, if anything. I do feel like they're, they're going to need to add some catcher depth here, like you said, but it seems like that's probably just going to be through the minor leagues, that it's going to be minor league depth.

And potentially Terenz will be one of those guys. Now, let's move on over to Luke Weaver, who the Mariners claimed off of waivers a few weeks ago. and you know we said that he's more likely than not going to you know eventually be df aed and sure enough he ends up getting non-tendered but why claim a guy if you're just going to non-tender him a few weeks later that seems weird right uh it's more about just covering your bases um you know for example if the mariners had been able to trade chris flex and marco gonzalez already um then you say well you know we have We have Luke Weaver right now as the number five, you know, or competing for the number five. It's just about having depth and, you know, you just always kind of want to carry the best 40-man roster you possibly can.

So Luke Weaver made the 40-man roster better on October 30th whenever he was claimed. So why not? And it didn't cost the Mariners a dime. So, you know, it's just one of those covering your bases. You never know how the first few weeks of the off-season are going to go. Weaver's going to be interesting. I'd be pretty surprised if he could get $3 million guaranteed, which is I'd think about what he was due to make in arbitration.

The Mariners didn't mention wanting him back, but I find it hard to believe they would claim a guy who they didn't like. So we'll see how the market for Weaver kind of develops here. But I wouldn't be shocked if Seattle brought him back on like a one-year, $1 million with some incentive type of deal. But we'll have to see what we were here. can get. But yeah, it's just about, you know, trying to make sure you have the best 40 man

you possibly can at all times because you never know what's going to happen, even in the offseason. And the other thing to consider, too, is that, you know, before or, well, at the time that they added Weaver, they didn't know that they were going to be able to add guys like Easton McGee and Gabe Spire. So, you know, that changes things as well. They probably just like those guys more and also $3 million on Weavers a lot. Again, know, it kind of like, you should probably know what those projections are going to be, what he's likely going to make an arbitration. So again, it just seems weird to add that guy if you know that like you're not going to pay him $3 million, but whatever. So we'll see if they reunite with Weaver because he is interesting.

You obviously like him quite a bit. We'll see if they circle back on that. But this is just kind of the natural roster turn of, you know, mid-November as we go into December and as the winter meetings start to, uh, approach. And the Rule 5 starts to approach because, you know, who knows, maybe there's a guy in the Rule 5 draft that the Mariners really like maybe a pitcher, right? That's the place that the, the Mariners have gone to in the past for pitching, particularly in the bullpen. And maybe there's someone that they have their eye on that would fit more than Weaver, who was out of minor league options, would have had to make the Major League roster and likely

through the Mariners' bullpen. So, yeah, same with Torrance, by the way. Yeah. that's definitely a factor. The Mariners like versatility, you know, not just on the field, but, you know, in terms of like roster flexibility. So being able to send a guy down up and down a couple times throughout the year is a bonus. And neither of those guys offer it. And so, yeah, we'll see what the Mariners decide to do. They do have three open spots now.

But it does also go to show you that the Mariners do not have a 40-man crunch whatsoever because they've added everybody they needed to add. They dropped three guys and none of those three guys are making anybody crumble to the ground and pain except for me. Yeah. Sorry, buddy. One fell swoop, both Luke Weaver and Luis Terrence.

I caught that foul ball that Luis Terrence hit in the playoff clinching game, so I'll always have that. Yep. It's true. That's true. You'll always have that. The other thing too, right, you talk about the roster crunch all that or lack of roster crunch.

I mean, there's still guys like Brennan Bernardino 110, Alberto Rodriguez, who could, you know, make room on the 40 man as well. So the mariners are not, the mariners don't have their backs up against the wall when it comes to the 40 man roster whatsoever. So they still have levers that they can pull that are not going to leave anyone in pain.

Unfortunately, unlike Colby. Sorry, buddy. It sucks. But yeah, when I saw that come across on Friday night, I was like, ooh, Colby's going to take this one a little hard. All right. So, Luis Tran's, Luke Weaver and Brian O'Keeford, not the only ones hitting free agency. 29 other teams in Major League Baseball also released quite a few notable names. So we're going to go over some of those, how they might appeal to the Mariners, all that good stuff in just a moment. But real quick, a reminder of this episode of Lockdown Mariners is brought to you by. by BetOnline.

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We're always the fastest and easiest way to get your betting fix. Head to the website today or use your mobile device to learn more. Betonline is where the game starts. you're listening to the lockdown mariners podcast. Thank you so much for making us your first listen. So plenty of notable names that have suddenly hit the free agent market.

Now that the tender deadline has, or non-tender deadline has passed as a Friday night. Let's start with a guy that I think you and I are both out on, but is making a lot of news right now. Cody Bellinger, former National League MVP, as expected, was non-tendered by the Dodgers. He was due like something like $18.6 million, something like that. No way with the way he's played over the last couple of years were they going to pick that up. And there are quite a few teams that have been reported to express interest in Bellinger,

including the, including the Blue Jays. and it seems like every fan base in Major League Baseball right now once Cody Bellinger because of who he has been in the past but the last couple years have been dreadful for Bellinger. 47 WRC plus last year, 83 WRC plus

this year. He's just not the same dude. Why should the Mariners avoid Cody Bellinger? Colby. He sucks. I mean, yeah. Need I say more? Like the dude can't hit.

The last two years, shows that he can't hit. Like, it really is that simple. And 2020 wasn't all that good in either. So, yeah, you know, there's Cody Bellinger is like a really cool like turn of the century house. And it's got all this history and it's got great bones and all that stuff. But it needs a complete tear down and you have to build it up again. And you don't buy that house to renovate it if you don't, if you're not like a skilled carpenter, right?

or if you can't hire somebody to do it, you don't do that because that's just, that's, the foundation is shot. Like you're going to collapse. You have to build Cody Bellinger from the ground up, essentially is what you have to do. I don't think the Mariners are in a position where they can take that shot.

Even last year would have made more sense for Cody Bellinger. But no, the Mariners have broken their playoff streak. They're thinking about competing for a division title. They have to, um, you know, they have to have some certainty with the guys they bring in.

you always want to chase upside. Upside is very important. But for the Mariners, so is floor. And the Mariners need somebody who is at least going to produce at an average level. And you can pretty much bank on that. That's not Cody Ballinger. Like I said, there's a complete tarant. And there's going to be good teams that are interested in Bellinger, but that's because they have the shot to give.

The Mariners can't take expensive shots like this and build out the rest of their roster. It's just not there. So if the Mariners can get Bellinger to sign. with them for $5 million guaranteed with like a bunch of performance bonuses, fine, but somebody's going to beat that deal. There's really no reason for Bellinger to pick Seattle, and Seattle needs more upside. If Bellinger is the fourth, fifth outfielder, and you're only giving them $5 million guaranteed, fine, whatever. But honestly, you kind of already have a Cody Bellinger on your roster. His name's Jared Kellnick, and he's not going to cost $5 million. They're both guys who just,

right now, they're not major league hitters. They are pretty good defenders. Like that's who Cody Bellinger is. Yeah. And the thing that we have to mention here, right, is like after the 2020 season, which was the last decent-ish season for Bellinger, 112 WRC Plus, nowhere near what he was doing the last three years before that. He had shoulder surgery on a dislocated shoulder. So, and ever since then, the swing has looked really out of whack.

The strikeout numbers have gone significantly up, 26.9% in 2021, 27.3.3%. 3% this year, which is a career high. He's slashed 210, 265, 389. And, you know, he was worth 1.7 F4 at the end of the year, but most of that was defense and the fact that he hit 19 home runs. He stole 68 RBI and stole 14 bags. But other than that, like, he's more or less been useless at the plate. he's not necessarily Joey Gallo, but he's getting closer to Joey Gallo by the minute.

And that's just not someone that because look, I think that because of the name and because of the upside that I think at least some teams think is still there, he's still going to be a 10 million-ish dollar guy when this is all set and done, whatever he signs. And there's probably going to be incentives based on that that probably get him to the $18, 19, 20 million dollars that he was going to end up making in L.A. I think that's probably what he ends up looking for. The reports right now say that he just wants a one-year deal so he can kind of, you know, recuperate value and reshape his market for next off season.

But I mean, this is a huge risk. And for the Mariners, I just don't think that they're in a position right now where they need another corner outfielder. I just, I don't want them to go out and get a question mark, even though that, you know, maybe the upside is really high here, you know, that there is some ceiling here. He's not going to be the NL MVP again, which by the way, outside of 2019, he never was that guy, right? He was like a four-win player before 2019. Then he exploded for 7.7F4 slash 305, 406, 629, 161 WRC plus. Before that, his career high WRC plus was 138. And then the year after that, 120. And then after the 2019 season 112,

than 47, then 83, like he hasn't been that MVP caliber guy. So, you know, even if he does improve upon where he's been the last couple of years, you're not going to get someone that's hitting for a 160 WRC plus. You're not going to get that guy. At most, you're probably going to get a 120 WRC plus guy, which is fine. That's really good, like, especially with his defense. That's going to help someone. And I'm sure, you know, the Astros are going to swoop in here and sign Cody Beliger

and he's going to be that guy for them. and be a major contributor for them. And it's going to be really frustrating. And Mariner's fans are going to be very agitated by that. But it's just the risk to me outweighs the reward here. Because all signs point to him just being who he's been the last two years. And I don't see that changing. Now, he's just as likely to be a 75 WRC plus guy as he is to be at 120.

Yeah. And that's let the Texas Rangers take a risk on that. It's somebody who, if Bellinger sucks and, you know, you don't win as a result, like, well, that's okay. We were a year away anyways. But if he hits, then maybe we can fast forward our timetable a little bit here. That's the type of team that should be taking a chance on Cody Bellinger, you know, or a team that's basically done. Like, you know, they're already a World Series caliber team and they just have a roster spot to give them. And that could be the Astros.

Yeah. Or the Astros, yeah. Yeah. So that's the type of team we should sign Ballinger, not the Mariners who are trying to make the next, who are trying to take the next step. Yeah, the Mariners need certainty because what is the thing that they have lacked, especially this past season, certainty, right? That was my biggest complaint about what they did after the Castillo deal at the deadline was they just added more question marks. They added guys with injury history and all that. Just look at what they've done so far. They've removed Kyle Lewis from the roster who is as most uncertain player you can possibly think of. And the reason Mitch Hanager isn't here on a qualifying offer right now is because you can't rely on him.

Now, those are injuries, not performance, although a little bit of performance, but mostly injuries. With Bellinger, it's just performance. But still, it's the same idea. Right. You need reliability, availability and reliability. Yeah. And again, because of Bellinger's shoulder thing, it's impacted his swing clearly. And it's led to some really, really concerning signs.

So, yeah, I just, I'm out. I would rather have someone like Max Kepler and bank on maybe his upside because I think there's quite a bit of upside there. Max Kepler. We're going to be talking about him on our Thursday show, I believe, on our Thanksgiving show, which we're actually going to be recording after we record this. But so we'll dive into that a little bit more. But yeah, I just there's a lot of different names out there that I would bank on rather than Cody Bellinger. I think Bellinger is more so a fit for someone like the Orioles. someone like that or you know like you talked about the astros or whatever i don't think that he's a fit even for the blue jays i especially like if it's either brandon memo or cody belliger for them that makes no sense to me uh yeah so the like teams that are in the position that the mariners the blue jays etc and they they should steer clear of cody belliger in my opinion uh so let's talk about some of these other guys who else that uh just hit the open market stands out to you and uh who do you like for the Mariners?

I'm a big, let's see, it's a little bit different because you say, who I like for the Mariners? I like Shamir Candelario quite a bit, the player. He's coming off of an absolute horrific year in Detroit, but hey, you know, so is the entire Detroit Tigers organization. That's one of the worst offenses I've ever seen. And Candelario was no exception, but you look back just a year before,

You know, he was sitting 270, 280 with really good on base skills. You know, not a ton of power, but I believe he led the American League in doubles in 2021. You know, 15 home run power, give or take. Not a terrible third baseman. But there kind of in lies the problem is that he's a corner infielder. Mariners are pretty set there with a Eugenio Swartz. He's not an upgrade over Gino or Thai France. He's not a guy who has any experience in the outfield or really,

second base. So there's a kind of a lack of versatility here to get him in the lineup enough for that to be worth it. I think Candelario's probably a guy who's going to get like a one year four or five million dollar deal and he's going to end up hitting 270, 340, 420 with, you know, 30 doubles and 15 home runs and, oh, that's a really useful player. You know, he's going to be a three, three one player and then he's going to be a bargain. But I don't know how he fits with the Mariners. He's, I'm intrigued enough that I almost don't care, just sign him and then figure it out. And it's not like you couldn't probably trade them at the end of spring training

if you just can't find a fit. And you never know. Thai France gets hurt a lot. Gino, we'll see if you can repeat what he did last year. But that's a guy I really like. In terms of like specific for the Mariners, I'd like to see him take a shot on a guy like Alex Reyes,

former top prospect for the St. Louis Cardinals, just injury after injury after injury. Again, you're taking a shot on the guy. He might only get a minor league deal. but I bet somebody gives him a major league deal, very little guaranteed money. You know, that's the type of arm you want the marriage to take a shot on. And if he doesn't work, no problem. If he gets hurt again, it doesn't matter.

He's just a bonus. That's how you kind of build around Alex Reyes. But if he does hit and the mariner can turn him into, you know, what his upside is, that's, you know, a back of the bullpen type of arm that can get some big outs for you in some big situations and probably do it for a million five. or something like that. Yeah, I really like the Reyes call because that's just loud stuff.

And I mean, you get this pitching development staff working with him, you know, who knows what could happen there. Obviously, the Mariners are kind of developing a reputation for themselves as being able to pluck, you know, major league, you know,

high in major league relief talent out of thin air. So, yeah, that would be an interesting flyer to take. I also like Candelario call. I just don't know how it would fit with the Mariners roster in particular for all the reasons that you laid out. So before we hop off the show here, there's a few other things, some minor things that I want to touch upon.

Real quick, some minor news here from the Mariners that came down just a few minutes before we started recording. The Mariners, two Mariners players have changed their uniform numbers. Well, one has picked their uniform number and the other has changed their uniform number. Luis Castillo is going from number 21. to number 58, which was Ken Giles' number earlier this year. Castillo has worn 58 for, I believe, his entire career in Cincinnati, but wore 21 when he came over in the trade. And then Teosker Hernandez, who wore 37 in Toronto, is wearing 35.

He was just one number off from a 34 Hernandez jersey. But alas, we will not get that. He will be wearing 35 with the Mariners. weird choice by Cassio to go from 21 to 58 though I'm sure it probably has some meaning or something like that but to me 21 is a better number sure but hey you know what obviously Luis came over he said you know it's been 21 years since we made the playoffs

I'm that guy I'm going to get us there give me 21 it'll be a reminder of what I've ended and the next year I'll go back to my number 58 so yeah Kudos to Luis for thinking of that. A smart guy, that Louise Castile. Very smart guy. Very, very much indeed. Yeah.

And by the way, just a couple other non-tenders. Just, I mean, none of these guys are super sexy, but Raphael Ortega is kind of an interesting guy. As a fourth outfielder, got some speed, got a little bit of pop. Gets on base, you know, 331 on base last year. It's above league average. He's pretty interesting. I mean, Luke Voigt. again, just a really tough fit there,

unless you want a full-time DH, which the Mariners don't. But he's kind of interesting, right-handed power. Dom Smith has kind of been like a guy that prospect guys have liked for a long time. And the Mets just could not figure out how to get him on the field. He's coming off of a bad year.

But there's still a ton of bat and power skill there. If the Mariners, if the Mariners actually view an opening on their roster in the, in a similar light as what they gave to Carlos Santana this past year and maybe Jesse Winker gets traded whatever. Then Dom Smith Luke Void maybe those guys actually make

some sense. Dom Smith is really interesting to me. I think that he just needs another opportunity just to get out of New York first of all. I know change of scenery the whole thing but whatever. Like I do think that there's actually some talent there in Dom Smith's bat though. Right.

And I think that's more about just opportunity to play every day than it is, you know, just can't handle New York. You know, he just, he's not, he's not an outfielder. They tried to put him out there. He's pretty bad out there. He's pretty decent first baseman, but, you know, there's this guy Pete Alonzo. And before this last year, they didn't have a DH spot to put him in. So that's, that's a bit of bad luck. If you're a guy who's obsessed with lefties out of the bullpen, you know, Jake Brent's, is a pretty interesting guy from Kansas City, you know, over strikeout printing, 10.6K per 9 in his last fully healthy year,

does walk some guys. So 5.2 based on ball per 9. So, you know, if you're looking for another Ryan Buraki type of shot, there's that. And then if you're looking for some rotation depth and possibly some bullpen depth, this guy we talked about quite a bit, Ryan Yarbrough, also non-tendered.

You know, I think that's a guy maybe throw $3 million to and see if he wants to start. But for some reason, Ryan Yarbrow just seems like he's destined to be a Minnesota twin. I don't know why, but that just feels like he'll go to Minnesota he'll throw up a 39-fip and you know 2.5 F-4 and people were like oh how does he do it and so I don't know he does it every year except for last year but yeah so there are some interesting

guys who got non-tendered I don't know of any of them have a great fit in Seattle one other guy I throw out there is Brian Anderson but again the same kind of issue just where where's the fit on the Mariners roster none of those guys are outfielders yeah also had some injury you know woes the last couple years so there's a reason those guys were non-tendered They didn't just fall out of the sky. So, yeah, yeah. All right. So last night, I'm scrolling through Twitter and I saw something that shook me to my core.

Colby, oh my God, Matt Brash is learning a cutter. Oh, boy. He's been at Drive Line learning a cutter. Colby, Matt Brash has one of the most disgusting sliders in the game, but what could a cutter do for him? Drive line's going to ruin Matt Brash. He's going to ditch the wipeout sliders. for the cutter. It's all right there, black and white. I think the cutter is a direct response

to his Brash trying to prove that he can start. The cutter is the weapon against lefties, or at least that's what he's going to try and make it, because Brash really doesn't have that. I mean, the lefties lit up Brash pretty good this last year. He just, he doesn't have a change up, right, to get them out away. So he has to have something. All his breaking pitches, you know, run right into the lefty loop power zone or whatever it's called. You know, the fastball doesn't have, doesn't create enough value on its own to just, you know, throw fastballs by lefties.

So he needs something to get left-handed hitters out. Maybe it's the cutter. You can bury it in off the inside corner, get it on their hands, and then try and back door a slider or something on the outside corner. So I think that's, you know, Brash trying to work on a pitch to get lefties out. And I think if he could get lefties out,

if you had a pitch, a legitimate weapon against left-handed hitters, he would have a better shot to stick in the rotation. So I think that's what that is about. You know, we'll see if he can offer up anything remotely close to a majorly quality cutter in a few months. But I think that's a direct response to like, hey, you're probably going to get starts in spring training. We want to see you have a pitch that we feel like can get left-handed hitters out. And I think the cutter is probably his answer because the change-up, he just doesn't seem to try. trust it. There were times where the changeup was pretty good

in the miners. I don't know why he won't throw it, but I guess the cutter is his solution to the the platoon split problem. Finally, Ryan DeVish of the Seattle Times read an article last night about outfield options for the Mariners, and there was an

interesting excerpt that you DM me last night. Divich said, quote, some baseball insiders believe that if the Mariners don't sign Mitch Hanager to a contract, they will instead go the trade route, which to Poto has often found more productive and open to possibilities.

He could move packages of players, including Jesse Winker, right-hander, Chris Flexen, along with prospects to acquire an outfielder. Seattle shopped Kellnick, Jared Kellnick, extensively at the deadline as well. Now, Colby shopped is

a lot different than being open or listening in on or what have you. Receiving offers. Receiving offers. Yeah, shopped. And I mean, when you combine this with how much the mariners clearly like Kate Marlowe. They obviously like Taylor Trammell quite a bit.

They have very openly said we would like to add another corner outfielder. What does this mean for Jared Kellnick's future in Seattle? Clearly it means he's about to be traded along with Emerson Hancock and Dylan Moore for Brian Reynolds. Chills. I mean, clearly that's the obvious line to draw. I mean, Brian Reynolds was mentioned in this article as well. So, I mean, like, just connect the dots. It's really any idiot can do it.

Chills. Yeah. No, this doesn't surprise me all that much. I think the team's frustrated with Kelnick. And I think Kelleck's probably frustrated with the team. It's pretty much, it's very similar to the Kyle Lewis thing. Lewis's frustration was more about injuries and the Mariners was lack of communication here. you know for vergerid kelnick it's it's not a work ethic thing it's not he's not trying it's not

any of that stuff um it's just about you know how much how are we going to keep giving this kid at bats at the major league level because he can't do any more at the minor league level he has to work through this stuff at the major league level but we can't give him those opportunities if he can't be at least an average major leaguer we can't afford it's the same cody bellinger thing right we can't afford to just give uh you know a black hole in our lineup 500 plate appearances and hope he figures it out. So I'm not all that surprised that they shopped him. They didn't trade him. So I don't think this is a situation where they're just going to give him away like Kyle Lewis. I don't think they're going to trade him for, you know, roster fringe.

It just doesn't make sense to do that. So I think they're open to moving him, absolutely. I really don't think a team is going to value him the way the Mariners would want him to be valued in order to move him. So I really don't think anything comes from this, but, you know, it is something different than we heard. We had heard that teams were asking about Kelnik a lot, which, I mean, I suppose the mariner, the phrasing's a little weird. Divish could, could maybe clarify that, like, were the Mariners calling out about Kelnik or were teams calling them and they were receptive to it? Because shopping seems to imply that they were making the calls, not the other way around. So it's kind of an important distinction there, but yeah,

I'm not too surprised by that, by Kelnick, you know, being bundled in trade package ideas and stuff like that. I think it makes sense for a player and team. Yeah, shopping to me says, you know, they're calling the other team saying like, hey, we would like to trade for

Luis Castillo, right? And being like, you know, we're open to dealing Jared Kelnick. Are you interested in him? Are you interested in him in a package for Castillo? Whatever, right? That's what it's seems like to me. So assuming that they were open to doing that a couple months ago, I would assume they're doing that once again now, especially with the emphasis on adding

another corner outfielder and with Cade Marlowe coming up with Taylor Chamell still in the organization, uh, with Sam Harriety and Dillam Moore, all that. So it's to me, if that's, uh, if that's what's going on here, then I don't know. Seems like maybe we'll, uh, when we get opening day, Jared Kellnick will be playing elsewhere. But and, you know, honestly, that might be the best thing for him too as a player because if they do add another outfielder, I mean, his path to playing in Seattle is, is pretty murky. And, you know, it's possible that he could get leapfrogged by Cade Marlowe and Intramel.

And so, you know, it might be best for him to go elsewhere while he can still salvage his career because he's still really young. still really young still a lot of time for him to figure things out but he needs to you know get on the horse here sooner rather than later so if that opportunity presents itself elsewhere for him then then good for him and if the mariners are able to help facilitate that then great but you know of course the mariners are going to need to get something useful in return for him as well they're not going to give them up for nothing so we'll have to see how that all works out but that is going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Mariners podcast. For Colby, Pat,

I'm Taday and Gazzalas. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at LO underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Dan Gonzalez. That's ZA&E, G&ZLZ and Colby at C. Pat 11. That's C-PAT-1. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. And thank you again for making us your first listen. Now for your next listen, check out the Lockdown Sports Today podcast featuring the biggest stories of the day, plus instant reactions, big game recaps, and the take of the day. It's available on the honesty app, at YouTube and wherever you get your podcast just like us. And with that, have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you tomorrow. Peace.