The Mariners are seeking starting pitching and infield upgrades in advance of the July 30 trade deadline, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. Murray suggests the club sees second base as its biggest area to address, with a right-handed hitter being preferable.
Seattle has somewhat surprisingly hung around the playoff picture all year, entering play tonight 3.5 games behind the Athletics for the final Wild Card spot. Despite having been outscored by 51 runs, the Mariners are six games over .500 at 50-44. They’ll have an opportunity to make up ground when they welcome the A’s for a four-game set this weekend.
The Mariners weren’t generally expected to contend entering the season. While the club has seen plenty of progress as they reach the final stages of their rebuild, much of the roster is still young and unestablished. Despite their place in the standings, they remain a long shot to get to the postseason this year. FanGraphs pegs Seattle’s playoff odds at just 4%.
Thus, it’s not particularly surprising to hear the Mariners front office has indicated to rival teams they’re uninterested in parting with any of their top prospects, according to Murray. Rather than pursuing the top pitching targets on the market, Seattle’s expected to look for stopgap options to aid an injury-plagued rotation. Justin Dunn and Justus Sheffield remain on the injured list, and the team’s reunion with James Paxton didn’t even last two innings before the lefty required Tommy John surgery. That has left the M’s to rely on Yusei Kikuchi, Logan Gilbert, Marco Gonzales and Chris Flexen.
Turning to the infield, each of first and second base have been problem areas for the M’s this year. Seattle’s presumably still committed to Evan White long-term, but the young first baseman won’t play again in 2021 due to a hip injury. At second base, the Mariners have gotten a disappointing campaign from Dylan Moore, who’s hitting just .190/.276/.356 across 243 plate appearances.
It shouldn’t be hard to find an upgrade over that production even if the Mariners are disinclined to part with top players. Speculatively speaking, Jonathan Schoop is having a strong season with Detroit and fits Seattle’s reported target for a righty-hitting second baseman; the switch-hitting César Hernández could be made available by the Indians, as could Josh Harrison of the Nationals.
Of course, there’s still some possibility the Mariners fall out of that solid position in the standings over the coming week. Losing this weekend’s series with Oakland, for instance, might change the calculus. Both Murray and Jeff Passan of ESPN write that the Mariners could yet straddle the line between buying and selling, looking to bolster the roster for this season and beyond while continuing to listen to offers on players like outfielder Mitch Haniger and reliever Kendall Graveman. The M’s don’t seem especially likely to trade Haniger, who’s controllable through next season, but an impending free agent like Graveman seems a more plausible candidate for a midseason move.
Javy and Davies – “comon down”. Package deal.
Time for Jerry Dipoto to do what Jerry Dipoto does.
Make bad trades with everyone but the Mets??
Make trades in general
Segura for Crawford, Then, Campbell, and $45M is salary relief looks pretty good. Austin Nola for France, Munoz, Trammell, and Brash is likely a win at a minimum.
Jerry has actually made pretty impressive trades. Every GM is going to have their duds that don’t work out but overall he has hit more than he has missed. What team have you been watching?
Prepare for next season?
Zach Davies would be an easy acquisition.
Jon Gray will get traded, and the team that trades for him will overlay due to the lack of starting pitching in the market.
Infield wise, I’d be looking at someone like Freddy Galvis and/or Jonathon Schoop.
Ahhh you called Schoop before I could. Hats off to you
Schoop is a major reason the Tigers are playing well and winning. A team leader.
He’s not going anywhere.
Agree. Why get rid of Schoop for nothing? He seems to like it here, and would be a great clubhouse presence.
Seattle is better now since Jerry took over n gutted the team. All their good players are there thanks to Jerry. Haven’t even seen Julio or Marte yet.
You spelled Kirby wrong. We haven’t seen the true top prospect Kirbstomp.
I wonder if good old fashioned money isn’t the best route for Sea –
They have put in good graces on the ledger the last 3 yrs maybe they get the blessing from upstairs to do a little flexing…
Now its still going to cost prospects….but tell Col you will ‘ take ALL Blackmon’s contract and lets get German Marquez in a Mariner uniform by July 31st
Blackmon’s contract is not THAT bad. And he is still performing. Colorado fans would riot if he was salary dumped with Marquez. Especially after the Arenado salary dump earlier.
I think its pretty bad but solid point on the fans – I wouldn’t sell my best asset short but I think its worth the try for Jerry – You just cant find an ace like German
When someone Francisco Lindor is getting $300MM thrown at him. Charlie signed for 2 more player option years at $31 MM is not that bad. He’ll make up that amount just in merchandise and ticket sales, which would not happen with a collection of prospects. But if we are just factoring in on field status, even if he is just league average, which I don’t believe is true, that;s not really that much of an overpay.
They do not need Blackmon. They have enough OF as it is. Haniger, Fraley, Bauers and Kelenic. Long has been good in the clutch, hopefully Lewis will be back by September. And Trammell will be returning. I would like to see them get Nelson Cruz for DH, but Torrens has been great lately there. Move France permanently to 2B and get a 1B with some power. maybe Haniger could be the long term solution at 1B with Lewis/Kelenic/Fraley/JuRidriguez/Trammell patrolling the OF.
Not about Blackmon –
Would still cost prospects App just less
Cap they could eat Blackmons salary and retrade him for more prospects. Classic dipoto.
I love Haniger, and he’s finally back to normal and teams are noticing. Here me out, but we have Lewis/Kelenic/JRodriguez as our future…and Haniger is a luxury after 2022. Atlanta was going to liquidate their Farm System on Haniger, prior to the testicle issue.
Blackmon & Marquez “could” be a play “if” Dipoto then flips Haniger for restocking up on prospects. I don’t think Seattle would have to give up a ton of top prospects “If” we are taking on salary for the Rockies. And the prospect haul for Haniger could make it worthwhile.
Just my thoughts
If they’re going to give away Marquez for taking on Blackmon, hey, I’m suddenly all for bringing Charlie to Atlanta. Lol. Colorado would never do that, though.
If I were an owner, I would immediately fire any GM that quoted a Fangraphs playoff percentage to me.
LOL total peeve of mine also
agreed
Cleveland could offer McKenzie and Hernandez, but you’re not getting McKenzie for scraps.
A small-market, budget-conscious team built on developing starting pitching is going to trade away a cheap, controlled, young starting pitcher?
No harm if the mariners pick up a few guys on expiring contracts for not much. This is still a below .500 team that’s been fortunate and doing anything that can hurt them long term to go for it in 2021 is a mistake. This is going to be a tough division for years moving forward and focus probably is on how to be competing for a division title in 2023 and beyond.
Send them Dansby Swanson AA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’ll sign up for that.
Emerson Hancock heading to Pittsburgh
No chance.
Lol never EVER going to happen
Frazier and Anderson can be on plane tomorrow for the right price
I was thinking the same thing.
Ms need to offer hanniger seags and maybe Hancock do a major package deal.
There’s no reason that they would even want to do that, but why do you think they NEED to do that?
Good thing you’re not a GM because you’d be fired on the spot why would you trade the two guys that are producing runs for you and a first round pick from last year’s draft
A lot of people had Hancock penciled in as the number one pick in the draft before he had an injury. And why do we need to trade them? Thanks for showing us how clueless you are. Go back to Facebook kiddo
We have a influx of outfielders. We do NOT need hanniger. Love the guy but he is at the peak of his return we can get a nice pretty penny for him. Take something w have a abundance of and try and trade it for something we need…not to sure I understand why people can’t see that. Also. Seager is batting like 220. He is not worth much and esse tially a throw in. I wasn’t saying Hancock in particular but we have tons of depth pitching and throwing in a number 1 guy w hanniger and seager will get us a major blockbuster trade back and we didn’t mortgage the future. Some y’all are just dumb and can’t see the logic.
Upgrades at 2b, 1b and would be nice as long as the cost is minimal. These won’t be huge trades but a team out of contention might be willing to shed payroll for a low level prospect.
Starting pitching will cost more.
Shed Dunn and Williamson for Story and Marquez. I think that’s the right 2’fer to go for. Story for 2B for now, Marquez for now and the future.
Lol And what drugs are the Rockies on where they were ever consider that?
See, it is this kind of stuff I just do not believe. In my view the Ms are not in the market for a 2B. They have post hype breakout player Moore and young guy Long. No, neither have hit great, but Moore has played much better lately and they have run him pretty much all year. Why move from him now that he is starting to play better? If they wanted to jettison him, then why not try other guys at 2B along the way? The truth is they haven’t, it seems they believe in some of these guys and want to let them work through their issues. The Ms are not winning this year w or w/o Schoop and definitely won’t win with Galvis. If the Ms did anything with 2B, I think it would be for a young core piece they could build around in a Haniger trade.
The idea the Ms want a 2B is based on speculation based on Moore and Long’s current batting averages and I bet is nothing anyone in the Ms front office has said, because the decisions on the field suggest to me something different than this wild speculation.
On MLB Network radio last week, Dipoto said he is looking to acquire a second basemen and preferably one that is a right handed hitter.
I’m with you, what is the goal this year? Trade some young players to maybe get into a play in WC game? Just stay the course and let’s see what Kelinic, Moore and Cal do the next two plus months and keep all your young talent. Then spend big in FA in the offseason and go all in for 2022.
What about the fact that they tried to sign Wong throughout the winter? The fact that the M’s want a second baseman is not based off speculation. It’s based on facts. DiPoto said we are in the market for a second baseman. That would mean that they want a second baseman. Please riddle me how him saying we want a second baseman is speculation?
Whitt Merryfield and Kyle Kendricks. This is a no brainer really.
Would be great, but I would bet heavily against that happening. My guess would be Pineda and whoever requires the lowest return between Schoop and Harrison. Nelson Cruz would he awesome, but I think it’s better long term to keep both Torrens and Raleigh in the lineup everyday.
Mariners currently have a hole in left, center, 2nd base, 1st base, catcher and need starting pitching. Plus, they could use an upgrade at 3rd base. They have no chance at the playoffs and need to trade Haniger, Graveman and any of the the relief pitchers for anything they can use in the future. Not doing so should get Jerry fired.