The Mariners have non-tendered outfielder Domingo Santana and infielder Tim Beckham, per a club announcement. Both players are now free agents.
These moves open a pair of roster spots for the M’s to work with. It’ll also save a bit of salary space. The former projected to earn $4.4MM in his second-to-last season of team control, while the latter might have commanded $3.0MM in what would have been a walk year.
It rates as something of a surprise to see Santana cut loose. He has had his ups and downs over the years but generally turns in solid offensive output. The situation with Beckham is more one of disappointment. He had been playing well in Seattle before a performance-enhancing drug suspension cut short his 2019 campaign.
Santana could potentially be a candidate to be claimed, though obviously the M’s were unable to achieve a trade return. He was off to a big start with the bat in 2019 before running into elbow problems that drove his numbers down and ended up costing him a big chunk of time.
Still just 27 years of age, Santana owns a .259/.343/.453 career batting line. He was right at that level last year as well. Unfortunately, Santana has never quite found his footing in the field. He graded terribly last year.
Beckham isn’t ever going to be the kind of player that was hoped when he went first overall in the 2008 draft. But he has settled in as a generally useful middle infielder with a league-average bat. He might well have been worth the projected arb value but for the PED suspension.
Not surprised at all to see them non tender Santana. Horrible defensive OF with huge K issues.
My initial reaction, wth!!? But it actually makes sense. No room for Santana with Haniger, Smith, Lewis, Fraley, Bishop, and Vogelbach skated to take up all of the OF/DH at bats.
Dipoto loved to collect these bat first guys w no defensive capabilities. Getting rid of them is a good thing. Healy, Vogelbach, Santana, Beckham—none of them is worth anything in the field. The team will be better by simply not having them on it. (Except Vogs, but you do have room for 1 DH)
Jbig, with exception to Vogelbach, most of the bat-first types were brought in as stop-gaps. Santana could (can) play right field respectably enough, but even he was probably never seen as a long-term piece. Leonys Martin was an excellent defender. Dyson and Gordon were excellent defenders. Haniger was obviously seen as both an offensive and defensive core piece.
Jack was another story. He brought in all kinds of bat-first/no-defense players that he thought could blast their way into the postseason.
Shed Long was brought in for a future utility role, though he might end up being the second baseman. But everywhere else, the future looks pretty good defensively. White at 1B, Crawford at SS, Seager at 3B (for now) and possibly Marte down the road, LF could be Lewis or Kelenic, CF could be a platoon of Fraley and Bishop (or Kelenic, or even Haniger), with Rodriguez or Haniger in RF and Raleigh/Murphy/Nola behind the plate.
Obviously this is speculative and a lot could change, but most of those names come with average or better defensive skills. I know you’re suggesting that ditching Santana and Healy, for example, was a good thing and that the team will be better without them. But the point is that it was never about ignoring defense and it’s worth noting that most first basemen lack defensive skills, so it’s not really fair to lump in guys like Healy (or Lind, for that matter). Ironically, Healy was never a really a great hitter. Beckham was obviously a stop-gap for Crawford .whom they hoped could slide into a utility role if he could hit. Things didn’t work out, but he was never an important piece.
Gordon was brought into play CF. A position he never played before. Jerry did not care about defense. The Mariners were not rebuilding until before last season. He tried to slap together a winning team with defensively limited guys. It didn’t work. He’s figured that out now. Shopping Narvaez and non tendering the rest of the poor defensive junk is the right thing to do. Will make them better moving forward.
Jean Segura was never known for his glove; he was brought in to be the SS. They also added Healy, Vogs, Gordon to be a CF.
Simply adding a bench piece like Dyson and 1 position player like Haniger doesn’t change that. He did not emphasize defense. I don’t buy that at all. Even as early as last year he was dealing for guys w years of control who were not defensively strong players.
Mallex, Narvaez, Santana all came w years of control. All terrible to below average defenders.
I’ll give him a pass on EE or Santana as they were just salary moves. Domingo Santana was a very small trade also. If you want to give him a pass there, that’s fine. But even at that, you have to have some bias here to claim he was emphasizing defense on his ML teams in the past.
Does he now? Looks to be. Which is good. But he sure as hell didn’t.
The M’s are taking a $24 million risk with White, I’d take a flyer of $4 million with Santana.
I don’t think they’re high on Voglebach anymore, but I think there’s a good chance we see DH duties rotated in the near future. That would help give Haniger and Lewis a break from the wear and tear from fielding daily while simultaneously giving Fraley and Bishop both a chance to see if they can handle regular roles.
Reds sign Santana to play SS at 4 yes $71m.
Lmfao
Someone definitely will take a flier on Domingo, I wonder if it will be major or minor league.
Chicago WS or Cleveland would make sense. Maybe Tampa. Maybe even KC.
Domingo Santana either to the Indians or the Giants seems like the best fit for him.
Domingo Santana needs to be a DH wherever he goes. He’s an abysmal defensive outfielder. But he’s not going to be anyone’s DH either if he’s only hitting around 5% better than league average like last season. Just not very valuable.
If you haven’t realized how the market values non elite bat only guys yet I don’t know what it’ll take.
I think you’re just saying that because of Carlos Santana
The Indians make a little bit of sense offensively (even though he strikes out waaaaay too much), but on defense it would be a nightmare.
He and Franmil Reyes (since they seem dedicated to letting him earn the right field job) would make a terrible defensive outfield.
Not only a terrible defensive outfield but they’d also form a 250+ strikeout tandem in RF.
I might have been interested in Santana a few months ago, but with Franmil also there I wouldn’t go anywhere near him
Yep, Too similar. Franmil is the better/cheaper version of Domingo. Doesn’t make sense to have the both of them.
If he takes RF or Dh’s. LF isn’t an option.
Marlins should add this dud as well
And just like the the M’s are a much better team
Just like the the M’s are a much better team.
And just like that the Mariners are a much better team.
Took you 3 tries but well done
easy for you to say
I remember both these guys were the early 2019 MVP candidates and now they are both free agents crazy man
Should have flipped him at the deadline for anything.
Do you think Dipoto had a bunch of offers but decided to keep him so they could non tender him in the winter?
It was acknowledged that he had offers, but obviously those offers were underwhelming and he didn’t expect Domingo to crater in the 2nd half. I’m not freaking out about it, just sucks to take an L on a guy who was balling early on.
Source?
They did.
I meant that they did try to flip him before the deadline. He had a bum elbow on top of bad defense and high k’s it didn’t add up to something people wanted to trade for.
Almost everyone here seems to have forgotten how good domingos stats were looking after the first half, he just completely fell off a cliff after June
This is why they need to wait in signing Evan White until after the new year. White takes up a spot, and now they can’t re-sign Santana to a smaller contract without losing a spot for a rule 5 draft pick.
If they delayed the White signing, it would have given them time to trade Dee or Omar to open a spot, with the flexibility to re-sign Santana or not.
Ouch
surprised the M’s couldnt find a trade for Santana.
The Rays will sign Santana for pennies and he’ll be an all-star
Angels should take a flyer on Beckham
Wouldn’t shock me if the Jays added him to the list of mediocre outfielders in their system.
I could see the Rays taking a shot at Domingo Santana. He would be cheaper than Avisail Garcia and has the offensive potential to split time at DH.
Suprised they non tendered Santana.. True, he may have defensive issues, and k’s often, but he actually has one of the best eyes in baseball. He had an .OBP of .329 last year, which is close to getting on base 1 out of 3 times. every game. Even having him at the bottom of the lineup helps. You could probably get him fairly cheap too. Plus he has pop. Reminds me of Tesocar Hernandez, but that’s the guy that really strikes out a lot, I think at least at 33% rate, and his plate disipline is average, whereas Domingo has great disipline and some swing in miss 25%-33% rate. I hope we can get him as a Padre, not a platoon thou, that just hurts players in the long run. That way we spend money on better pitching.
Dude…
Another No. 1 draft pick bust courtesy of Tampa
White Sox should take flier on Santana as OF/DH depth
I used to play against Beckham growing up. He wasn’t really much of a prospect until out of no where his Sr year of high school everyone jumped the bandwagon and were dying to have him. I’m pretty sure, he didn’t even have many college offers before then. Suddenly he’s the first pick and I’m sitting here wondering what the heck all this hype was for. He wasn’t good, and I knew a lot more players that were way better. But once your waste a first pick on a kid, got to force him through the system don’t you.
He turned out better than I though he would, but I could have warn the universe that this kid was not that good.
Have you seen the 2008 draft? It’s one of the worst in recent history.
Beckham was a guy who was raw, but had significant upside, in avdtafyvwhete the best player was Posey, who was seen as a difficult sign at a position where top picks fail routinely.
Yea I mean, maybe. But there were quite a bit of really good first rounders in that class. Cole, Posey, Hosmer. etc etc… I think there were better safer options out there. Upside was pretty much projected because he was fast and skinny. Lol that’s it…. obviously not a ton changed
Beckham i understand after the PED but wouldnt getting SOMETHING for Domingo have been better than just cutting him loose?