Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Will Ryan Bliss Be the Mariners' Starting Second Baseman?

Episode Date: March 3, 2025

It's Mailbag Monday! Ty and Colby answer your Mariners questions, including if Ryan Bliss is winning the team's second base competition over Dylan Moore.Participate in our Mariners preseason survey!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!Wonderful PistachiosLooking for a snack that’s both delicious and nutritious? Get snackin’ and get crackin’ with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more. SelectQuoteGet the right life insurance for you, for less, at SelectQuote.com/LOCKEDONMLB.  FanDuelRight now, new FanDuel customers can get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if 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.

Another weekend of Spring Ball is in the books. Let's kick off the new week by opening up the mailbag. 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 Monday, March 3, 2025.

This is Taddy Gazzalus and Colby Patnode for the Lockdown Marys Podcasts. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. We'll be opening up the mailbag and answering your Marys questions like we do here every Monday. but before we do, quick shout out to our title sponsor today. FanDuel, right now new FanDuel customers can get $150 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. Download the app or head to fanduil.com to get started. And 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.

Ross wants to know, just for fun, which marriage starter would be the biggest monster out of the pet? Brian Wu Yeah Yeah the fast balls You need a strikeout I'd probably go with Brian Wu I mean you need a dominant pitch Coming out of the bullpen right

And the best pitch in this Mariners bullpen Or in the Mariners rotation Is probably Brian Wu's fastball Not Bryce Miller splitter Not Logan splitter No I said what I said So yeah I think Brian Wu Plus you know Wu is is

already throwing like 95, 96, 97. Like if you just went full reliever and you added some violence to the delivery, who knows what he might hit, you know, 102 with that movement. So yeah, probably, probably woo. And, you know, this is something to keep in mind if the Mariners get into the playoffs where, you know, the shorter series, they're going to move some of their starters into the bullpen. And I imagine that that would probably be woo anyways. So yeah, it's, I think

I think any of them could do it pretty well. But I just feel like Wu is is best equipped right now to just kind of be like a shutdown reliever, especially since you only need them to go for an inning. He can just kind of let it all go. Yeah, I think Bryce would be really good at it too with that splitter and cranking it up on the heater. Yeah.

But like you said, anyone could probably do it very well. J-Rod's show. Junkie 44 once so. Do you guys personally have any prospects you deem untouchable in trade talks and if so who? The answer is no. Now there's obviously some guys that would be particular about who I would trade them for. Cole Emerson is the closest to untouchable that I would say. But even then I would consider trading him if the right piece was available.

Sure. We're talking like untouchables for like a rental. then yeah it's like emerson young um you wouldn't trade young for like a really good rental you wouldn't trade young for a couple months of lad no a couple months of kyle Tucker no really uh yeah no i think uh well that's because you hit cole young confirmed uh but yeah uh in terms of like multiple years of a player no nobody's untouchable you just have to be pretty smart about the return that you'd get. So like we could say that Colt Emerson

is pretty much untouchable. But if the guardians come to you and like, hey, you want Jose Ramirez? All of a sudden, everybody's on the table now, isn't it? Yeah. Just one of those things where it's like, technically no. I think Emerson is about as close to untouchable as you can realistically get the game because nobody is coming to you and being like,

hey, you want mooky bets. We'll get, you will take Colt Emerson for him. Yeah. That's not happening. and so like anybody who we reasonably think could be traded I don't think that I would trade Colt Emerson for them as things stand right now. Yeah, who is a multi-year guy right now?

Specifically a multi-year position player that we think is going to get traded in the next year or two. I can't think of really anyone other than Louis Robert. Yeah, and he's not going to cost you that. Yeah. Maybe Devers. Maybe Devers, yeah. Yeah.

But with that money, the Barons are not even going to true no no and that's the other thing too right is is that yeah uh yeah i can't think of anybody uh but you know that that's fine like imagine a year ago today being like yeah the we're going to say the blue jays should trade blad junior you know and uh here we are so you never know these things change but as things sit right now no there are no true untouchables i don't think there ever really are um not with prospects anyways but in a very practical sense Emerson's pretty much it, I would say, as the most untouchable. And then everybody else, it's all on a spectrum.

It's all sliding scale. But yeah, I'd say Emerson is the closest thing too untouchable. But no, he is absolutely not. If the right deal comes along, you can trade him. If you had to rank like your top five, would it be different than your top five actual prospects? Like the top five guys, I work really hard not to trade right now. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, Sanger's probably in that top five. Like, I would rather trade, I think I'd rather trade young than Sanger just because of where the pitching's at with this club. And obviously, Logan and George,

you know, who knows what's their future is going to hold with the club. But Emerson would be in it. Yeah, probably would because, like, I'm open to trading Feldman, like even for not a star player,

just because he's so far away. because your top five was Emerson Young Seleson, Farmelow and Arroyo. That was your personal top five. I would I would trade any of the five

but I think I'd rather trade Arroyo or Felman or even Formello than I would like Sanger. But again, that's just because of proximity and positional value and all that stuff. Yeah.

No, I think Emerson is the closest thing and even I would trade Emerson for like multiple years of a you know five six one player yeah I would I would trade him for that we are going to answer more of your questions in just a moment but first reminder this episode of the lockdown mirrors podcast is brought to you once again by fan duel when the game tips off the NBA action is just getting started and there's no better place to get in on it the fan duel America's number one sports book with

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Just visit fanduel.com to join today. That's fanduel.com for your shot at $150 in bonus bets. Make every moment more with Fandul, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. And you're listening to the Locked On Marys podcast. It is Mailback Monday. Let's get back into your questions. Oh, boy. All right.

Ty Dangerous Gonzalez at I Love Thank you. Not Thanksgiving. Thank you. If you could choose one current Mariners prospect and see until the future and know exactly how their career plays out, which prospect would it be and why? Easy answer. Fellon at Selleaston, right?

He's got the highest up side, right? Yeah. And he's got actual legitimate trade value right now. And if you could see into the future, no, he was going to be a bust. You trade or if he was just going to be okay. You trade him now. or you'd trade him, you know, in a year. I guess you would see his whole career, so you know exactly when to trade him.

But he also has that star potential. So if you trade him, you know, before he realizes it, then you're probably not going to do that well in that trade. And so, yeah, I think Falun is because there's just such a wide variety of, or there's just a wide variance of what he can do in his career. Like, you don't want to accidentally trade away Francisco Lindor, but you might have to. But, hey, you know what? maybe you're on maybe you're just trading away carloskeon who's pretty good still but like he's not francisco lindor or maybe you're just trading away you know a 20 year old who who flames out at a who knows so yeah elman is the easy answer for me yeah he's the easiest answer uh i'll also throw

in las montes i'm just really curious of how that dude's career is actually going to turn out um is he actually like carlos pagerro or is he yorda unalvarez or is he somewhere in the middle which is probably the likeliest outcome Yeah, I think I think he's pretty clearly Seconds. And I think third probably is Michael Arroyo.

Royo or Emerson for me. Yeah. Yeah, like these teenagers that have this wide variance of what they could be and their ceiling is maybe superstar and their floor is never getting to the big leagues.

Like those are the guys. I mean, might as well throw in your hair Bratisa as well. Yeah, yeah, definitely. You know, maybe maybe Ryan Sloan like in the top five. or so. Yeah.

Yeah. But, you know, for guys like Sanger and young, you just kind of feel like, have a pretty good grasp with what they're likely to be.

Parmello is a sneaky answer here too. Yeah, yeah, could be. Yeah. But yeah, Felon's number one. Yeah,

Feldman for sure. And then I go Lazz 2 and then either Emerson or a royal through. Yeah. Got to also mention Ty Pete. Yeah. D.

Panky wants to know, is your confidence level on the infield defense even lower than the bullpen based on what you've seen so far this spring compared to your expectations going in. JP and Bliss had a combined five errors and only 27 chances prior to Sunday's game. The infield is my biggest concern with this team independent of defense.

It was heading into the off season. They obviously didn't do a whole lot in the off season to address it. So, yeah, therefore it is still my biggest concern with the team. I mean, to his credit, Miles Master Pony is on some kind of like solo mission. to completely change that narrative. But, yeah, no, I'm not concerned about J.P. Crawford or Ryan Bliss's defense. I'm not really concerned about Luke Rayleigh's defense or even Donovan Solano's defense. Or Dylan Moore's.

I'm pretty concerned about Jorge Polanco. That is a premium position. And we haven't even seen them yet, you know, take the field yet. He's deaching today. So, yeah, to me, I am more worried about the, the infield than I am the bullpen right now. The bullpen seems to be trending in the right direction. The infield, I just, I don't know.

I don't know what you think, but I'm not, my concerns with the infield is not J.P. Crawford and Ryan Bliss defense. Like, well, the bullpen, even if it is a problem, that's an easier fix, a much easier fix midseason than, than the infield. So, and that's not to say that they, they will fix the bullpen,

but it's just there, there's a much easier path to fixing the bullpen. there would be with the with the with the infield if it does prove to to to be a major problem for them right I mean plus you know the bullpen right now it's like you're getting inspire back hopefully you're getting Santos back hopefully and you know and you're hopeful hopefully getting brash back like there's you're getting in theory of everything goes well you're getting three high leverage quality arms that you didn't have for most of last year back in the infield you're basically running it back minus your your best defensive plus player.

So, yeah, I get it. But, yeah, my concern for the infield has very little to do with defense, except for at third base. But I do have legitimate questions about how that infield offense is going to, JP's got questions, Demos got questions, Polanco. You know, so, yeah, I'm more concerned about the infield than I'm the bullpen. Nothing to do with defense, up the middle, at least. Yeah, it's just.

generally the position group. And we're going to be talking about it tomorrow. So. And you're listening to the Locked on Marreras podcast. Got a couple more questions to go over here. We got one from Max. What are the chances Ryan Bliss or Miles Master Boni can win the starting second base job over Dillamore? If you had it your way, who would you want your starting second baseman to be out of those three?

Zero percent chance that it's Miles Master Bonney. Zero. Maybe he makes it to him. But he's not taking the starting second base job from either Bliss or more. I think maybe Bliss could actually win this thing. He's looked pretty good in spring, but I also don't want to overvalue spring performance here, especially when, you know,

on the complete opposite end of the spectrum is Dillamore right now. I don't think he even has a hit yet in the spring. So I don't want to overreact too much to the spring numbers, but Bliss does look pretty good so far. And, you know, if Bliss was the starting second baseman, then you could get more back into his preferred role. just playing a little bit of everywhere, though he would probably still get most of his

innings at second base with the way that the roster is currently constructed. But yeah, I would still say, like right now, if I had to put money on it, more is still going to be the starter at second base on opening day. But I wouldn't be surprised if Bliss winds up there before it's all sitting done. You feel in the same way? Yeah, I think, yeah, Master Boney, no shot.

I think you would want Bliss to be the second baseman. I don't know if there's really a path for him to take that job from Dylan Moore right now. It's, I would say the odds are that Dimo is a starting second baseman on opening day. I'd say 80%. That feels about right to me. and Bliss at 20%. I really don't think there's all that much that could happen short of, you know, obviously,

Dylan getting hurt. That is going to change that up. So I would just be relatively surprised if Bliss won the second base job. But yeah, I think Master Boney is a 0%. I think at this stage, Cole Young, he hasn't even played the field yet. He's obviously at zero now. It's just not going to happen for him.

So what surprisingly, I would be less surprised if Ben Williamson made the opening day roster than if Cole Young did, although I don't think Williamson has a much of a shot to do that either. So I think it is going to be Bliss. It is going to be Bliss on the bench. And I do think it's going to be Demo as the second basement,

at least to start the year. How long they go with that? I don't know, but I do think Bliss is going to play a little bit early on as well. I think they'll kind of rotate those guys a little bit. No mention of Leo Rivas, interestingly enough. Miles Mester Bonney's jumped Leo Rivas? interesting.

He might have. Yeah. Not a huge Rivas. When was the last time Rivas played? I can't remember him. Well, does he hurt? I don't think so.

But also, you know, don't overlook the possibility of a of a late spring trade. It won't be for, you know, you're not going to get Nico Horner,

but you might get like another Dillmore or another Ryan Bliss, even, who kind of factors into the equation here but yeah it's I think you want it to be bliss I don't think there's

much Bliss can do to actually force the Mariners hand to give him the job and move Demo back to what he's best at yeah if you guys know when the last time Leo Rivas played this spring let us know in the comments below honestly I feel like it might have been yesterday

wasn't that game wasn't streamed so maybe I don't really keep an eye on it so i mean you also didn't watch the white socks annihilate the mariners so true too good on you yeah which yeah i didn't either to be fair i was out in about all afternoon but so it's possible that i just missed it and he played like two days ago or a day ago you feel like we would have heard it does feel like the mariners are having a uh surprisingly

healthy camp so far fingers cross knock on wood etc etc last question of the day comes from jamy which current free agent do you think the mayor should consider signing? For the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, how many weeks it's been now in a row? Jose Aglaecius, that's my answer. For all the reasons that we just talked about with Jorge Polanco and the infield and all that stuff, go sign Jose Iglesias right now. Just go do it. It's better than Miles Bastroponi at the very least.

I mean. Or Leo Rivas, whoever is going to make the team. Yeah. So a little surprise Whitmerfield hasn't been assigned to a minor league deal. That's Jerry circles back and we know he's tried to get Merrifield a couple times. That is not my answer. I'm just saying. I think the league might be retiring.

I think so too. But I'm just saying, you know, yeah, Adam Duvall is kind of interesting as well. You know, Robbie Grossman's still floating around out there. Calvoli is pinch hitting for Horace. Polanco right now and he just went yard oh my god you can't make this up oh boy so Jorge got his two at bats though so but I've never seen a starter pinch hit in spring I mean you know it's it's a nice handy way to get both guys at bats today yeah but yeah I mean why not give those that bad it'd be so funny if they take him out after this you know what I saw I did see Cal Raleigh on the roster today

and I thought that was kind of weird uh-huh because he wasn't the starting catcher and there was like two other catchers and I was like why is cow on the roster? They should just take them out after this come in and hit a dog. Oh, it was off a seawalled. Oh. It was off of Paul. That's so funny. But yeah, they should just take them out after this.

Just have them come in, hit a dong and days on. You just needed to hit a home run off of Paul just to let him know. Like, yeah, Paul. We see you. We don't miss you at all. Oh, that is wild. Watch can't zone go yard. They're going to pinch hit Ryan Bliss just to.

They're going to call over Josh Rojas from White Sox camp. Anyway. Anyway, where were we? Yeah. So, you know, Kyle Finnegan would have been a really interesting one for this, but he is just recently signed. Yeah, I feel like it almost by default is Iglesias. I don't really like Alex Verdugo is still out there as well. and Verdugo is fine, but I don't see the fit here.

So it does feel like it's a glacius. I'm a little surprised that nobody has given Whitmerfield or Nixon Zell, a minor league deal as of yet. That's really all they could hope to get. And then, you know, there's Duval, Grossman, David Peralta. You know, there's some, like, D.H. candidates, but it does feel like the Mariners kind of picked Rowdy-Tiles over all those guys.

So, and I doubt J.D. Martinez is signing a minorly deal. Now, to be fair, Gleuzeus wouldn't either, but yeah, I think Jose Gleis is the pretty easy answer here. He fills a need. He pushes people back to where they need to go. He's not going to, I mean, the Mets even put, they ruled out magical for the year. And they still were like, yeah, we're not, we're not going to sign Jose. So that door is closed. At least it sure seems like it. So I don't know what a glis is for. I don't know. I don't know. I don't. I don't. It was such a big part of their, their house culture, though, last year. Yeah, but is maybe there's something below the surface we didn't see because it is weird that, like, they brought back. It seemed like everyone in that clubhouse loved them. Yeah. So, I mean, I don't know. But, yeah, Glacis is the answer here. Yeah.

And then, yeah, there are a few other interesting, but like the only guy I'd give a major league deal to right now who's still floating around out there. I'd give one to Iglesias. And if I could move off of now, even then, I was like, if I had like a D.E. dh spot to get i would consider jd martinez but he wasn't great last year and you know you kind of want the d hd hd hush to be more open he's basically it's basically like signing mitch hander only he's still pretty good he's better than mitch henniger yeah offensively but it's the same like roster construction flaw so yeah it's a glacius yeah glacius just makes the most sense um especially if you're currently planning on running out either leo rivas or miles master bony it's one of your bench guys yeah

Lacey's is better than those guys. Even if he significantly regresses from where he was last year, which is going to happen. That's absolutely going to happen. He's not going to be a 139 WRC plus hitter with good defense like he was last year. 137, whatever it was. But could he be a 100 WRC plus hitter with pretty good defense and can play, you know, second, short, third?

Yeah. I feel like him and Victor Robles in the same clubhouse. Either that would work out great. Yeah. That would work out great. you'd have like two factions kind of like two too many vibes yeah like i don't know man you put randy and you put hulio and you put robles and then you throw in there there is no such thing as too many vibes i feel like those four guys though if they add a glacius that's like the best

boy band ever and boy boy bands always break up keep that in mind so yeah uh yeah glacius is the answer uh all right before we get out of here colby do you want to talk a little bit about Seth Martinez. The mayor has claimed off of waivers yesterday. I mean, not the reliever I wanted them to claim, but it totally makes sense. The Mariners are like trying to corner like the sidearm slinging, you know, relief types who throw like in the hash slinging slasher. Kind of. Yeah. I mean, Martinez is a multi-ending reliever. He's pitched for the Astros over the last few years.

You guys probably recognize him. He's kind of their mop-up guy, but also, you know, you need pretty good in 2022 for the assholes. Yeah. I mean, like, look, he's got an uphill battle himself. He's out of option. So he either has to make the team or he's going back on the waiver wire. But I think he's got to show you.

He gives you a guy who can go get you five, six outs. He has a lot of the traits that the Mariners tend to look for in guys like Legamina. guys like Seawald where he is kind of a side armor, a true side armor. You know, might they try and, you know, the fastball up is kind of their go-to whenever they have one of these sidearm guys. The idea usually with a side armor is you want to go sinker, slider, and work down and get ground balls and get guys to chase. The Mariners have kind of turned that a little bit on their head, and they often ask these sidearm guys to like, hey, throw the fastball up in the zone, like at the letters. and it changed Paul Seawald's entire career. They hope they do it again with Legamina, Colin Snyder.

They did something pretty similar with. So, yeah, these, I don't, supernators, I believe is the technical term, these sidearmors, they seem to like to have a couple of these guys around in their camp, and they really think that they can help these guys. And Martinez at least has a major league track record of success. Justin Lawrence was placed on waivers, the other. other day, who was the guy, I believe we talked about this winter a little bit as kind of a classic. We've talked about him a bit over the last couple years. Yeah, like he's a side armor. He had a

pretty good year with the Rockies in 23, I think. He was awful last year. But yeah, he's a, he's a true side armor and he throws more stuff than production with lights. Right. And it's just kind of one of those. But he was claimed this morning by the pirates. And I wonder the Mariners maybe had interest in that. And they just didn't get the opportunity to sign him. By the way, If you guys are wondering what's going on with my camera right now, the sun is like hitting it directly. And we're towards the end of the show. So I'm going to go fix it.

Yeah, it looks like smoke is filling the room. Hey, you know what? Since you're making waiver claims, guys, go claim Stone Garrett. He actually has options left too. So, yeah, no, that's fine. You don't have to listen to what I'm saying. I have my headphones on. Yeah.

Okay. It's interesting, right? Martinez, again, he has to make the team. That's not a for sure thing. He's out of options. The Mariners have a handful of dudes in their bullpen who are out of options. So, you know, could they maybe get away with this for a little while? Yeah.

I mean, we haven't seen Troy Taylor yet. We don't know how far behind he is. But obviously, we are 24 days away from opening day. And he hasn't, I don't even think I've seen him throw a bullpen yet. So seems like Taylor's probably not going to be ready for opening day. Yeah. But, I mean, with Bizarro, with. you have Bizarro, you have Martinez who are out of options, Thornton's out of options,

spires out of options, Vargas is out of options. Like, yeah, the Mariners are going to have to make some choices here. And that's why I also wouldn't roll out a trade. Because I think Seth Martinez, I think the role you're kind of hoping is that he's Trent Thornton, but not 2024 Trent Thornton, like 2023, Trent Thornton, when he wasn't being asked to cover high leverage innings consistently. I think that's what you're hoping for. So, yeah, Martinez is interesting.

And again, one of those sidearm slingers, can go five, six outs, and we'll see what the Marrars want to do to try and unlock something from him. I assume it has something to do with the elevated fastball, though. All right. That's going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Marys podcast for Colby Patnode. I'm Tading Azales. Be sure give us a follow on Twitter at LO underscore Marrars.

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