Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Will the Mariners Trade For an AL Central Star Like Luis Robert Jr. or José Ramírez?

Episode Date: November 3, 2023

Colby and Ty continue their look around the league for potential Mariners trade targets by combing through the AL Central. What do the Guardians, Royals, Tigers, Twins, and White Sox have that Seattle could covet? All that coming up on the today's episode of Locked On Mariners!Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @danegnzlz | @CPat11Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!FanDuelScore early this NFL season with FanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook! Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning FIVE DOLLAR MONEYLINE BET! That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – if your team wins! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It's time to look at the AL Central for potential trade targets for the Mariners. Colby, hit it. You are locked on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. Ahoy, sailors. It is Friday, November 3rd, 2023. This is Tedding Gonzalez and Colby Patnaud for the Lockdowne Marries podcast brought to you by Fanduel.

Make every moment more right now. New customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 money. line bet. That's a $150 if your team wins. Visit fanduel.com slash locked on. That's O-C-K-D-O-N to get yourself started. Thank you so much for making us to your first. Listen, subscribe, like, and turn on alerts. If you're watching on YouTube or subscribe and leave a five-star review on your preferred podcast platform, if you like what you hear. And if you're part of the crew and rock with us every single day, let us know in the comments below. We'd love to hear from me. And if you want to hear from us even more, please consider sending up for our Patreon.

You can now get a free seven-day trial to check out the show. The link as well as our social accounts is in the description of this episode. So real quick, before we get into the meat and potatoes of our show, apologies for no episode yesterday. We were hoping to be joined by former MLB reliever Trevor May, but unfortunately he was experiencing some technical issues and could not make it. We're working on rescheduling that as soon as possible, although just going to be real with you.

Communicating with this camp has been, let's say, difficult. So we'll see. No promises is essentially what I'm saying right now. So anyway, today we're going to continue our division-by-division trade preview with a look around the AL Central. And we're going to start here with the Cleveland Guardians. Colby feels like a waste of time to just, you know, dream about Jose Ramirez.

But the guy here for, I think, both of us, is Josh Naler, right? Yes, no. Like, aside from Ramirez, who obviously, you know, would be the prize of pretty much any roster. Right. You know, for you, you'd be your second best player, which is a great luxury. Amazing. Yeah.

Because I mean, Jose Ramirez is arguably like a top 10 player in whole baseball. Yeah. I mean, who could have possibly have two top 10 players on their roster at the same time and like not go to the World Series or even. make the playoffs like that would be insane um but anyways uh yeah he's probably not getting traded uh so next up on on this list would be naler who's you know a really solid fit first base dh only so that's not ideal but whatever you have the abats to give there anyways uh left-handed hitter um really good average guy as a batting average guy doesn't strike out uh has tremendous raw power that's starting to show up in games uh he's a really good player you can you can

get him for two years, which is nice, obviously. We know Jerry likes club control, and he's a pretty good fit for the ballpark. So in general, yeah, Nailer is a guy who checks a lot of boxes for Seattle, but doesn't make sense for Cleveland. I don't know, because Cleveland's in this weird spot where the Central's bad. The Twins are pretty good, but the Central overall is bad. The Guardians just won, what, 90-some-odd games a year ago? not this year but last year and they can get right back there.

I think with another good off season, they have a couple easy explanations for why their season didn't go the way they wanted it to. Stephen Kwan took a step back. Jimenez took a step back. They had some injuries in their rotation. So I think they could easily paint themselves a picture that like with a good off season, we can win 85 games or 90 games and get right back into the playoffs. So would they trade Nailer?

Possibly. Cleveland, you know, they don't spend a ton. and Naylor's starting to get a little expensive, but I honestly feel like it's more likely they extend Naylor to a team-friendly deal than it is that they trade him. But yeah, on this roster, he's the guy that makes the most sense, but there are a couple other names that also could intrigue Jerry. And Seattle, just a matter of finding whether or not you're a fit,

because I think if you're the Mariners, your best trade chip is like Bryce Miller or Brian Wu. Cleveland, really good at developing their pitching themselves. they likely feel like they have the answers to their rotation woes in their system. Doesn't mean they won't be interested, but also you're not trading six years of Bryce Miller for two years of Josh Naylor. Right. We'll see how it all works out. But Naylor would be like the number one target if you took Ramirez off the board.

But it's not a crystal clear path to find a deal that works. Yeah, the Scardians roster is kind of a mess. I just, I don't really know what they're going to do and what they should do. I think, you know, looking at this roster, they should just go for it again this offseason. But going for it for the Guardians is a lot different than going for it if you're, you know, the Texas Rangers, for example, right? Jimenez, like you mentioned, he's, he took a step back this year, kind of a disappointing year for him offensively. Still really good defender. Still making an impact on the base pass, of course.

hitting a few home runs, which is not something that you're going to get out of a lot of second baseman. He just signed an extension recently, so I don't think he's an option. Stephen Kwan, I've heard you mention him a little bit in passing over the last few weeks, but I don't really think that's much of an option, especially for what the guardians are likely going to ask for him,

because he's a good defender in a corner outfield spot, that is. But he's a good defender, but he's a league average bat, and he didn't really build off of that strong record campaign the way you would like to see him do so there just aren't like a lot of obvious fits here aside from nailer um i really like nailer nailer's a good player man uh good hitter uh but he's again he's a first base slash d h type and it seems like the mariners are wanting to you know let this thing rock again with with france so how valuable really is in naylor to i mean he's a great hitter don't get me wrong, but like, is that necessarily the best use of your resources if you go after him?

But again, he's coming off of a great year at the plate 308, 354, 489, 128 WRC plus. That's two and a half one player, 13.7% K rate. He doesn't strike out at all. 6.7% walk rate, 17 home runs, 97 ribs. Also just a very electric personality. He, you know, from the outside looking in would seem to be a pretty good fit for the culture there in Seattle. The other guy that I want to ask about, though, is, look, we've talked about, you know, the idea, of course, of trading Miller or Wu and then, you know, to get the bats that you need and then go in and signing a pitcher like Blake Snell or Sunny Gray or Michael Walker or whoever. What if they traded Miller or Wu for the bat or bats that they need and then traded for a pitcher like, say, Shane Bieber, who's entering the last year of his club control in Cleveland?

and I think the guardians have missed their opportunity to extract as much value as possible out of, out of Bieber. He's still going to be valuable, but he's coming off of a good, not great year, 380 ERA, 396 X-FIPP, 387 FIP.

He was worth 2.1 F4. He hasn't been able to stay healthy over the last few years. Just 21 games started this past year, 128 innings pitched. What do you think about Beaver if the Mariners did trade one of their starters? I mean, as long as you're not paying for what he was, you're paying for what he is. It's fine.

It's only one year of him. But you have to be careful here. This is not a five-win starting pitcher. This isn't a guy who's going to compete for Sy Youngs. This is a guy who hasn't been that durable the last few years. His numbers have steadily declined. I mean, he's still good. But he's much closer to a number three, number four starter than he is the ace that he was.

for a couple of years. So you have to be careful not to pay Ace prices for number three. And again, you know, he's only got one year. I think he had missed a lot of time this year. I think it was an elbow. So that's a little concerning. I'm interested, but probably not to the extent that somebody else would be. So I just don't see a bidding more ending favorably for Seattle on the Bieber front.

You know, the good news is that, you know, he doesn't walk a lot of guys. That's something we know the Mariners really like. But I don't think that's all that likely. I just think it's going to cost a little too much. And you could just go out and get a, you know, a mid-rotation guy. You just go sign like Michael Waka and get roughly the same production, I feel like. Right. Yeah.

So I think it's either nailer or nothing from the Guardians, unless they're actually open to trading Jose Ramirez for something that you can afford. Sure. Is there anyone else you want to talk about? I mean, Eli Morgan is a relief arm that I like quite a bit. Really good change up there. You know, there's some bullpen guys, but nothing really to write home about. I really like Tristan McKenzie, but again, I don't think the guardians are going to trade him.

And also, he has his own injury issues. So, yeah, not a ton here, not nothing. But there's a few guys, a few role players that could make sense. but not a ton. If they decide to tender him, they probably won't, but Ramon Luriano as kind of a fourth outfielder might make some sense,

but he's more likely to get on tender than traded. So not a ton here on the Guardians roster. Yeah, Trevor Stephens, another arm out of the bullpen that could be interesting for the Mariners, but overall, there just isn't a lot here. Oh, no, no, no, thank you.

Dude, you might get on Tinder. Not at all. All right, so we're going to look at the Royals, Tigers, twins, and White Sox see what those guys have that the Mariners could be interested in just a moment. But first, a reminder of this episode of the Lockdown Marys podcast is brought to you by Fandul.

Score early this NFL season with Fandul, America's number one sports book. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 money line bet. That's $150 if your team wins. If you've been thinking about joining Fanduil, there's no better time to get in on the action. The app is so easy to use, and there's a wide range of betting options, including spreads, player props, over unders, and a whole lot more.

And yeah, the Mariners might not be playing right now, but the Cracken and Seahawks are. So whether the action is on turf or on the ice, you can bet on it all with Fanduel. So visit Fandual.com slash Lockedon. that's L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N and kick off the NFL season. Again, that's Fandul.com slash Lockdown, Fandul, official partner of the NFL. And you're listening to the Lockdown Marys podcast. Thank you again for making us your first listen

as we dive into the AL Central here and look for potential trade targets for the Marys. We just talked about the Cleveland Guardians. We're now going to talk about the Kansas City Royals. And Colby, this is another team where I look at their roster. It's a couple of names that I'm kind of interested in. But overall, I don't feel like there's a lot here. No, the Royals are kind of an ascending team.

They certainly could use the young pitching that the Mariners have. But then what are the Mariners getting in return that makes it worth it? They're obviously not getting Bobby Wood Jr. So you kind of look around the rest of the roster. And I mean, Mikel Garcia is an interesting guy. I do like M.J. Melendez, but he's more of a fourth outfield, you know, type of shot player, not an established guy, but he had a really good second half. Can squat behind the plate, but I wouldn't say he's a catcher, if that makes sense. Not much of a defender in left field either, so you're banking heavy on the bat there.

One guy that I think does make some sense for Seattle who didn't play a lot this year because of an injury is Vinnie Pasquitino. left-handed first base only, huge power, has had, you know, nice stretches in the bigs, hasn't exactly broken through quite yet, but certainly has that upside and carries a lot of value. So that's a guy that I think makes a lot of sense, or could make a lot of sense for Seattle. Brady Singer is kind of an interesting name. I did not have a great year. The Mariners touched him up a couple times this year, I believe twice. But, you know, first round pick.

We know how much Jerry likes the formerly highly rated prospects. He likes to take shots on those guys. And there's some things to like here with the breaking ball and the fastball. So Singer is a guy to look at too. But yeah, not a ton of obvious upgrades to be found on this Royals roster. But they definitely need pitching, which you have. And they have some bats that are interesting. I just not sure if you can craft a deal that makes a ton of sense.

you. So the tigers. I don't know a lot about this team, but somehow they won 78 games this past year. I know that their pitching was really good in the second half of the season. There isn't a lot here that I see that I'm like, yeah, that could work for the Mariners, that the tigers who seem to be ascending at least a little bit would be willing to actually part with. Like one guy that I could see is Andy Abanya, as someone that can play, you know, third, second, first. He's hit a little bit, put up a 103 WRC plus this past year. 264, 312, 433. It's worth 1.6 out for.

He's got club control. He doesn't strike out really that much. A little bit of pop there. But overall, yeah, there aren't a ton of options here. I think, like, if the Mariners were to make a trade with the Tigers, it might be for a bullpen arm. It might be Will Vest. Mariners legend, Will Vest. a reunion there.

I just, I don't see a lot here that, that speaks to me on the Mariners front. What about you? No, um, Jason Foley is kind of an interesting bullpen arm. Um,

but yeah, there's, there's just not a ton. They don't line up very well. Um, you know, it, it,

it just kind of look like, I'm, I bet the Mariners really like, uh, Carrie Carpenter would be my guess, but yeah, hard to imagine a team that, you know,

needs bats as badly as the tigers do. that they would trade, you know, their best one. So, uh, Javi Baez, no, get out. Don't even bring that to the conversation. No. Yeah. So I don't see a ton here. Spencer Turnbull is a guy, but, you know, he's dealt with a ton of injuries.

And he's, he's, he's a lottery ticket type. So yeah, I think, you know, laying fully vest pretty much what you're looking at here. If you could, if they were open to moving carpenter, then I would be very interested in that. but I just don't see that as remotely likely. So, yeah. And then, and they're not going to, I mean, they might trade school, but they're not going to, like the Mariners aren't going to trade for school. That's just, yeah, there really isn't any point in getting that aggressive on a pitcher.

Yeah. Andy Abagnos is a guy that we've talked about in the past. And he's, you know, kind of right-handed Josh Rojas, I think is kind of what you're hoping to be. So that's kind of interesting. But the Tigers are a team that needs to add more so than sell. And the Mariners just really don't have the bats to give. Like they both are looking for kind of the same thing, like proven bats to hit in the middleish back end of their lineup.

And they have pitching to give. And they have pretty good bullpen. And they have a pretty decent farm system. So the two teams just don't line up that well for a trade. Yeah. I could see the Tigers being one of those teams that's kind of sneakily active. like very active and free agency. Oh, we know they'll spend money.

Yeah, yeah, we know that they'll spend money sometimes in very, very stupid ways, but they'll spend money. So, you know, uh, I wouldn't be shocked to hear that they put it put in an aggressive offer on like a Cody Bellinger. Yeah. Um, yeah. Yeah,

they were my dark horse a few years ago to sign Corey Seeger. Uh, they ended up signing Hobby Baez instead, which. Right. Oops. Show Hey, Otani to the Tigers. I know I wouldn't go that far but yeah I wouldn't be shocked as like if one team was going to throw like Lord Iscariel 25 million a year it'd be the tigers yeah yeah that actually makes a lot

of sense yeah I could I could legitimately see that happening uh all right so the uh the Minnesota twins there is one guy on this roster who you all know we we would love for the marriage to trade for and that's that's max Kepler of course aside from Max Kepler. No, no, full disclosure. Max and I have a previous relationship. Right. He threw me a foul ball in June.

Unfortunately, I had to do the right thing and give it to a kid because I'm an adult. I don't need a baseball. I can go spend $9 on a baseball. But, you know, we connected in that moment. And it was awesome. And so, you know, Max and I. Just like Julio and I. No, this was real.

Because he threw the ball right to me. Like there was no kids around me. threw it right to me so clearly but Julio and I made eye contact and he spoiled obviously so I didn't have to fan girl over Kepler to get him to notice me so just saying right but no max he did pick up uh the team did pick up his 10 million dollar option as expected he had a great year uh he's still the guy like that's the guy I want I just don't know how to get him so that's the unfortunate part here but yeah Minnesota's got some some guys some interesting pieces um mostly I don't want to say depth guys, but like role players,

um, or you know, if you want to take a shot on Jorge Polanco is the guy that I like to play second base. That's who I was about to mention. Yeah. Polanco is kind of the obvious name here. Kyle Farmer is interesting.

Just kind of a league average player. Uh, but you know, can play multiple spots in the infield. There's some value there's got some right handed thumb. Uh, and then yeah, like, it's,

it's kind of a weird team. They're built, very similar to you, which is not exactly conducive to making deals. So, yeah, I think when you look at this roster, you say, for me, like Kepler's number one, then Powell Farmer's interesting. Polanco's probably number two for me. And then, you know, I still like Byron Buxton, but like, I just, I can't. I can't do that.

I can't trust him to stay healthy. And then, you know, Brock Stewart. worked out of the bullpen, but this is a team that wants to compete next year. So you kind of have to find a lateral trade if you're going to make one with this team. And like I said, they're pretty much built. I mean, not exactly the same, but they're very similar. They pitch well. They have good bullpins.

They strike out a lot. They play pretty solid defense. They hit home runs. Like it's pretty much the same formula. So you're listening to the Lockdown Maris podcast. Thank you again for making us your first listen as we come through the AL Central for potential trade targets for the mirrors. We're talking about the twins right now.

And Colby, the twins might lose Sunny Gray this off season. Could this be an option for Bryce Miller, Brian Wu? The problem with that would be like, what are the mirrors getting back? What are the twins trading for one of those guys? But do you think that could be a potential landing spot for one of those suits? No. No. You don't see it.

Well, because like, who would it even be, right? Would it be Julian? like what would the Mariners want from the twins probably Julian but like no maybe Royce Lewis like yeah and Lewis obviously had a huge September and October um you know and he's a former top prospect uh and he kind of can play third base which you're kind of looking for right now uh so yeah I think Miller for Lewis would be a really fun deal but Minnesota's not going to do that, I don't think. And I think Seattle's probably looking for somebody a little more established if they're going to trade Miller.

So, yeah, I think it'd be, I think it almost have to be Lewis. Like, you're not trading those guys for Kepler. You're not trading for Perea. You're not trading for Buxton. I mean, unless you're trading one of them for Joe Ryan. And it's like, wouldn't you just rather have Miller or Wu? Like, Ryan's a good pitcher. Don't get me wrong, but three years of Joe Ryan versus six years of Miller.

Like, he's not that good. So yeah, I think it'd almost have to be Royce Lewis, which again, would be fun. If we woke up one day and there was just a tweet from Pass and saying, the marriage have traded Bryce Miller to the twins for Royce Lewis, that would be fun and exciting. Oh, yeah. That would be awesome. It would be awesome. But also it'd be a little risky.

It would be a little risky. Sure. But no, I don't think there's anybody on this roster that you're going to trade. your big guns for. Like I said, I would be aggressive on, on Kepler. I really would, but not Miller or Wu aggressive. So yeah, it just, the rosters are awfully similar, which makes it kind of hard to find deals. Yeah, I think Kepler is a great fit.

And I think Polanco is a really interesting guy to, to check in on. I mean, 255, 3354 this year. That's 118 WRC Plus. You can play second. You can, you know, fill in a third as well. stand at shortstop If you can stand at shortstop For a couple innings

Yeah I wish I wish Thai France was coming off Of a better year Because France France in a prospect For Polanco Would make sense

But he's not So it's a bummer But Polanco might be getting squeezed out By Julian Lewis and Correa So we'll see All right So the white socks

Good Lord This team is in a dark spot there isn't a whole lot here I look at it and I go yeah the Mariners should want that I mean Louis Robert obviously Yeah I know they could take a very big swing here But do the mariners I mean obviously the marries could afford it

But do they want to That's that's the question Because like here like I'll throw my best offer I think Like could reasonably get it done Because here's the deal. The White Sox have a brand new regime, right? New president, new GM. Like, it's not Kenny Williams anymore. They've moved on from that.

And Kenny Williams was there for like 20 years. Brand new regime. We have no idea what their plans are. Do they think that they're one or two ads away? And, you know, just naturally they fix the culture a little bit. They bring in some fresh new guys. And all of a sudden they, bam, it's 2020 again. They are not one to two guys away.

Well, I think it's more about like fixing the culture type of thing. Right. We know how bad that culture is with the White Sox. But also the White Sox are cheap. Like not the way that the Mariners get called cheap, although that's totally justifiable. But like Chicago's like the second biggest market or third biggest market in the country. And the White Sox continue to act like their, you know, bottom 10 payroll, regardless of how good they get. So that's not a well-run baseball team.

team. It starts at the top. Ownership is terrible. Uh, so I don't know. It's, it's just tough to, you know, really get a feel for what I think they're going to do. Uh, I think they could be delusional enough to think like, yeah, this was just, uh, we'll flush it. This year was just bad all around. We'll bounce back next year. It'll be fine. We'll add a couple smaller pieces. I think the biggest contract they've ever handed out, by the way, was, is Monty Granddoll. I thought it was been a tent. Oh, yeah, $75 million over five years. like they should hit the reset button here.

Now you don't have to trade Robert even if you do hit the reset button but yeah no Robert like if you're a new GM though right like that's yeah like don't you want to well and also don't you want a piece like Louis Robert to build around

rather than like I know you're going to get a haul for him like an absolute hall for him but we have to keep in mind Robert's only playing a hundred games or more once in his entire career. And it was like 125, right? Oh, it was this year.

No, it was this year. He played like 140. No. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, he played 145. I was asking if he had played 125, but yeah. Yeah. So it's just you have to be careful.

You know, if you're going to acquire, also, you know, Robert isn't as valuable to you as he as other teams just because you have a center fielder and you're not moving Julio off of center. So other teams are going to treat him like a center fielder and they're going to pay as much. much and you'll have to do that too like Chicago's not going to be like oh he's a left fielder for you so we'll take less from you like right that's yeah naturally well and also when

you when you if you were to acquire him you are naturally diminishing the value that robert brings obviously he's going to be you know in theory an elite defensive corner outfielder sure but that's not as valuable as you know being an elite defensive center fielder which robert i think is so an elite defensive corner outfielder isn't as valuable as an average, slightly above average center fielder. So yeah, you're definitely diminishing its value. But I think, you know, I think you have the pieces if you really wanted to try that. And I don't know, maybe you push Julio to right.

I doubt it. I think Robert. All right. So you were, you were going to throw out an offer. Sure. Uh, Julio Rodriguez, straight up. Um, I was thinking it's something like Miller or Wu. Right.

Plus Ford. Okay. Uh, plus Kelnick. to kind of get the ball rolling. And I think it costs, I think Kelnick has to be involved because if I'm the White Sox GM, right, I'm new. Like,

good news is I don't have any baggage, right? Like everything that the last regime did, that's on them. But do I want to be the guy who trades Luis Robert? I don't know. But it's a much easier sell if I get six years of like a mid-rotation starter in Miller and I get somebody with high upside who produced this year in Kelnick.

It's much. and I get a top prospect who's pretty well known in baseball circles now because of the WBC. Like I can sell that to my fan base as like, yes, it sucked. But look at we got help. We got players that are going to help us right now, two of them. And we think Carrie Ford can help us at the end of the year or at the beginning of next year. And so, yes, we may have traded a five-win player, but I think we've got, you know, a three-win player this year, a two-win player this year. And we got them for 10 years as opposed to four years of Robert at five wins.

like we we came out way ahead on this deal and I think that's what it would take um which is also why i don't think it's it's likely um agree but there are other options on the white socks question of the day for you guys who would you rather have Jose ramirez or Luis robert not just for the marriage just strictly like just comparing the player against the player who would you rather have louise robert or Jose ramirez let us know down in the comments below that's going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Marrars podcast. For Colby Patnode, I'm Ty Angzalas.

Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at LO underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Dan Gonzalez, this D-A-N-ZL-Z and Colby at C-Pat 11. That's C-P-A-T-1-1. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. And thank you again for making us your first listen. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day, and we'll see you next time. Peace.