The Mariners and outfielder Jesse Winker have avoided arbitration, coming to terms on a two-year deal that will take Winker through his last two seasons of arbitration eligibility before free agency, per the team. The Mariners have no more remaining arbitration cases.
Winker’s deal is worth $14.5MM, per Robert Murray of FanSided (via Twitter). The deal does not change Winker’s trajectory for free agency. He will make $6.25MM this year and $8.25MM next year before hitting the open market following the 2023 season, per Joel Sherman of the New York Post (via Twitter). The deal also includes $400K in potential bonuses next season.
For the Mariners, this timeline makes a fair amount of sense as they wait for their host of young outfielders to establish themselves as big league regulars. Kyle Lewis, Jarred Kelenic, and Julio Rodriguez may own the grass in Seattle’s future, but they’ll need to play Winker off the field in the short term.
Unfortunately, the 28-year-old Winker has yet to find his stroke this season, despite leading the American League in walks. He currently boasts a .214/.326/.308 line through 264 plate appearances while mostly holding court in left field.
Winker was an All-Star for the first time last season, starting the game in left field after a monster first half. Injuries limited him to 110 games, but he still finished the year with a robust .305/.394/.556 line. Despite Winker’s stellar campaign (or maybe because of it), the Reds shipped Winker with Eugenio Suarez to the Mariners for Jake Fraley, Justin Dunn, Brandon Williamson, and a player to be named later that became Connor Phillips.
Interesting. These next two years will define the player who Winker is.
With a negative WAR and a modest $3.15M salary last year, I am guessing around 2 years/$8.5M: $3.78M in 2022, $4.62M in 2023 w/ a $100k signing bonus or something.
You…did not guess well.
No, because he was slated to get $6-7 million this year based on last year. This is DiPoto betting on Winker’s bat to come alive and be a value at $8 million next year.
Or a nod to the reality that everyone gets a raise in arbitration..
And if he has a repeat of last year for the rest of year, he’d climb substantially more than 2M
Wink’s below avg/poor defense is the main source behind that negative WAR… you were just a wee bit off!
Personally I think the M’s are still getting a good hitter for the $14.5m over 2 yrs. I think that Winker’s success, just like the Mariners, is tied into the return of Mitch Haniger and Kyle Lewis. Both of those hitters will lengthen the lineup and more importantly take the pressure off Jesse Winker.
“The 28 yr old Winker has yet to find his stroke”. Someone’s been pondering the fate of Mr. Winkey
Watching him play every day is about to give me a stroke.
We got a guy named Reese that can help him find his stroke. Reese found his in a Tampa Wal Mart parking lot
Reese was looking for relief help , Trying to find car of Louis Head , but got Brad Hand instead.
Family Dollar I believe. Walmart was too bougie
Hey guys , what’s all this stroking conversation ? What about me ?
DeShawn Watson
Uh-huh-huh! You guys said, “Stroke”…
I hear this is a locker room guy and a great leader. He s always looks pissed off. Early in the season Julio called him off on a fly ball. He stood and watched him catch the ball for the third out. When it was caught he went up to him barked at him. With a finger in Julio’s chest. The look on Julio’s face said it wasn’t a joke.
Then he looks Kelenic up there when there is a called strike he jaws with the ump throws his equipment etc. Funny thing is he is usually wrong. I guess we can trade him when Haniger Lewis get back and Kelenic if he proves he can hit MLB pitching. That is my humble opinion could be way off.
I could be completely inaccurate, however, Joey V seems to be one hell of a clubhouse guy. So Winker having that as an example is a positive. I’m interested in that flyball play you mentioned. Managers/Coaches aren’t always right, but the attempt to motivate the team is. Dan Hurley (Uconn Bball) is awesome at this, he is a maniac. He got ejected vs Villanova. https://www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/33350718
I don’t think a few isolated instances are a true reflection of the leader a guy is. Almost all pros get angry with their teammates and umpires, and in 2022 most guys throw equipment and get ejected here and there.
Even JP, who rarely disagrees, got tossed for angrily barking at an umpire a few weeks ago. It happens. There’s a lot of emotion in pro ball. I think we should default to trusting his teammates on this.
Rose- interesting take on Jesse Winker. I saw that interaction in the OF with Julio. Funny, I didnt read his reaction the same way as you. I saw an MLB veteran who took the time to communicate directly with his teammate. A rookie with a dozen or so games experience in the Major Leagues.
I have no idea what he’s like behind close doors but I know Winker has a very dry wit that can easily be misinterpreted. A bit like Kyle Seagers humor in that way.
If you speak with Reds fans- they LOVE the guy’s personality.
I guess to me the finger in the chest was it. If he pulled him in the hall and got on him fine but in front of the crowd was odd. People see things differently if you don’t agree you are wrong. Lol
I’m shocked that Suarez is still outhitting Winker this late in the season
Winker was always an oddball among good hitters. I don’t think this surprises very many evaluators. Still getting that crazy number of walks, which is his primary skill, but no longer getting righty fastballs to crush in a postage stamp ballpark.
Playing his home games outside of GABP now might also be a source of Winker’s decline
Winker was a product of GASP. ( Great American Small Park )
I doubt he will ever match the work he did in Cincy.
Makes no sense to avoid the potential of another arb year, when the guy is hitting .214.
it totally makes no sense. Winker at this point is a BUST and the Mariners ALREADY controlled him for 2 more years thru arbitration. Dipoto is a GOOD GM, but acquiring Suarez and Winker is one of the few deals he made that I have not liked. Suarez is clearly the better of the two acquisitions, but even he is not as good as the guy he replaced, Kyle Seagar. Dipoto wins almost all of his trades but this one proves that you cannot win them all.
Suarez is the same production (high HR, low BA) as Seager, but half Seagers salary! Suarez is handling and even impressing me at 3B with his D. So I’ll take Suarez for half Seagers salary. Suarez has a LOT more proven HR power than Seager
“Half Seagar’s salary”……Obviously you have not read the terms of Suarez’s contract and call me back when Eugenio Suarez puts up 100 rbi, like Kyle Seagar did just last year…….And by the way I actually think that Suarez has been a passable replacement for Seagar, considering what was available.
Geno is home. He’s one of us. We love him
If Winker gets hot — and puts up a second half in 2022 that looks like his first half in 2021 — this deal will look brilliant. And if he doesn’t it’s still only a pretty modest short term loss.
Modest short-term loss? Forget this team was trying for the playoffs, and Winker was the biggest offseason addition. Forget that you gave up a solid pitching prospect to acquire him,.. nah, no biggie.
Williamson for Geno straight up would have made this trade just fine.
Instead we gave them 3 other crappy players and also got Winker
I disagree. Suarez has been very good. I have no complaints about his play. But I have zero interest in playing mental gymnastics to justify an offseason that was clearly Plan B, and has led to a .438 winning percentage. It hasn’t worked out, I don’t know why it’s bad to say that.
Hey, you can call it mental gymnastics. I call it: you think this trade should have magically solved all the depth issues. Not surprisingly, it did not. This lineup is thin, it was last year, and it is this year evidenced by our struggles with two top hitters out; we can’t afford any injuries with this roster. Winker struggling through June does not mean it’s a failed season and a failed trade. That’s as direct as I can be
Lol. It’s June.
Sure, it’s June. There’s 98 games left… lots of time to turn things around. To reach 90 wins, the M’s will have to go 62-36 (.633) the rest of the way.
That may well happen, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
I was addressing Winker with this comment.
Get back to me in September with his numbers
Reds W trade
It obviously still depends on how the prospects turn out, but so far only Suarez has looked like a loss for the Reds out of all the guys they jettisoned over the offseason.
I’m not sure, I think Suarez has been worth Williamson which is the only piece they gave up with a FV of 50 or better. Fraley stinks, Dunn is a pitch away from an injury at all times, and Phillips isn’t that exciting.
You have been on these boards to long to make such an amateur mistake. The small sample size alone is enough that you should have realized this was a bad assessment.
Suarez on his own is out producing Dunn and Fraley in WAR and the other two have never produced at the major league level. In addition to that, I imagine you would agree that Winker, given his youth and track record is going to find his way out of this.
Maybe the Reds will prove to be the winners but months after the fact is far, far to soon.
It’s early. CIN’s better pieces in this trade haven’t pitched in the Majors for them yet.
Reds still took the L here. They took what was most likely a lesser prospect package just to be rid of Suarez. They very likely could have had a better package of prospects from the Guardians, who were highly in on Winker and need to deal prospects to balance their roster, but they prioritized getting Suarez off the books at his lowest value. Instead, Suarez is a guy that right now could be flipped for prospects.
Winker leading the league in walks. Suarez leading the league in strikeouts.
“Winker leading league in walks”……Winker does draw a lot of walks, because that is really all that he is up there to do. Winker’s -.5 WAR versus Eugenio Suarez’s 1.5 WAR says it all. Winker is “leading the league in walks” that NEVER get driven in, because HE was the guy brought in to DRIVE THEM IN.
Ya but Suarez is still managing to be productive; 1.6 WAR/127 OPS+
I would love to see what he could do if he were to cut those strike outs down to the league average though.
I’d take Winker on the Mets, its clear he is a national league hitter and he can’t hit in the american league. JD Davis for Winker, who says no?
Winkler is that elusive one dimensional slugger that Rob Deer,Nick Castellanos mold.
Last year was Winker’s FIRST year with full time playing and the Reds sold HIGH on him, because he is TOTALLY a one trick pony, Rob Deer type hitter. and they apparently knew this……that being said, losing Jake Fraley and Justin Dunn is NO BIG LOSS to the Mariners, because Dipoto has generally done a rather SOLID job of building up the farm and increasing the talent level on the 40 man roster.
It SEEMS you LIKE your capital LETTERS.
YOU SAY THAT LIKE it is a baD ThiNg
No mention in the article of Taylor Trammell in the present/future OF mix? Considering he was Ranked by Baseball America as the Cincinnati Reds #5 prospect in 2017, Cincinnati Reds #3 prospect in 2018, Cincinnati Reds #3 prospect in 2019, San Diego Padres #4 prospect in 2020, and Seattle Mariners #6 prospect in 2021 and is in the lineup almost daily now it seems like a miss. If Kelenic never gets his head right, couldn’t the future outfield be Lewis, Rodriguez and Trammell?
I’d bet a zillion dollars that KLew is never a regular outfielder again.
Not saying he won’t ever get time out there. But he has the knee of a 70 year old. They are going to baby him
Didn’t realize Winker was having such a stinker.
Winker has a BABIP of .250 right now when his career BABIP is .303. Does that mean he’s just had bad luck and will start putting up some good numbers? Not necessarily. His exit velocity is down to 87.5 mph (career mark of 90.0 mph), his hard hit% is down to 33.5% (career – 43.3%), and his line drive% is down to 22.8 (career – 26.2%). He’s been hitting a lot more fly balls with a lot less power this year. Given those numbers, locking in his salary for two years doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.
Well said rct. I hate when people just throw out BABIP numbers and blame it on luck. Thanks for taking the time to show why his BABIP is down.
The exit velo, hard hit rate are all up in the last 3 weeks back up to career normals.
His first month was atrocious; and his numbers still suffer as a result of that first month.
Since Scott put him lead off to get him more fastballs; he’s been much more like himself.
Great points. Hopefully he’s put it together.
No extra years and they guarantee him 14 mill for the 2 remaining arbitration eligible years left? And he’s hitting 200? I’ll never understand some of these signings
Winker is cool. He’s your dad’s hipster. Aiiiieeee!
I think winker is definitely better than he has shown so far, his K to BB ratio is still great and he should be a decent obp and average guy but I do think his power was very dependent on that launching pad in cincy.
I think he is more of a 12-15 homer guy in a neutral park than the mid 20s he has hit last year
Sometimes when players change leagues, they struggle. Matt Olson is a great hitter, but he’s struggling too. Maybe it has to do with getting used to unfamiliar pitchers.
I’ve watched 90% of his AB’s this year. It seems very odd that his numbers are so low. His luck has been so bad it’s ridiculous. He’s hitting the ball hard, taking pitches, he looks totally fine. I expect his numbers to rebound bigly in the 2nd half. Fantasy owners, big target right here, man.