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Mariners Rumors

MLBTR Podcast: Yusei Kikuchi, The Aggressive Angels, And The Singer/India Trade

By Darragh McDonald | November 27, 2024 at 9:49am CDT

The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Tim Dierkes of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

  • The Angels having an agreement in place with Yusei Kikuchi (2:00)
  • The Royals trading Brady Singer to the Reds for Jonathan India and Joey Wiemer (10:30)

Plus, we answer your questions, including…

  • For the Juan Soto sweepstakes, will agent Scott Boras just ask each club for its best offer? Or tell each club what others are offering to try to spur a bidding war? (20:45)
  • The Athletics are reportedly trying to have a $100MM payroll in 2025. Please come up with a plan to help them spend that money. (25:05)
  • It seems that third base is going to shape the destiny of the 2025 Mariners. How soon will they get over themselves and sign Alex Bregman or another top free agent? (29:40)
  • What do you think of the Nationals’ decision to non-tender Kyle Finnegan? (34:15)
  • What do you make of the recent reports that the Tigers and Tarik Skubal discussed an extension but didn’t get close? (38:20)

Check out our past episodes!

  • The Rays’ Stadium Plans, Diamond Sports, And Some Offseason Rumors – listen here
  • Roki Sasaki, Gerrit Cole’s Non-Opt-Out, And Cardinals Rumors – listen here
  • Breaking Down The Top 50 Free Agents List – listen here

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

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Cincinnati Reds Detroit Tigers Kansas City Royals Los Angeles Angels MLB Trade Rumors Podcast Oakland Athletics Seattle Mariners Washington Nationals Brady Singer Joey Wiemer Jonathan India Kyle Finnegan Yusei Kikuchi

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Mariners Promote Eric Young Jr., Louis Boyd To Major League Coaching Staff

By Darragh McDonald | November 26, 2024 at 3:35pm CDT

The Mariners announced their full 2025 coaching staff today. Most of the names are either holdovers from 2024 or were previously reported, though there were a couple of new names. Eric Young Jr. has been promoted to first base coach with Louis Boyd promoted to major league field coordinator.

Those two additions are part of a larger shuffle. Kristopher Negrón was the first base coach, but he will move over to third base coach. Last year’s third base coach Manny Acta will transition to bench coach. Brant Brown was the bench coach and offensive coordinator going into 2024 but he was fired back in May. Director of hitting strategy Jarret DeHart and assistant hitting coach Tommy Joseph expanded their roles to compensate for Brown’s departure, though DeHart was fired in August and Joseph recently hired away by the Orioles. Boyd is taking the role that Carson Vitale had last year, though it was reported this week that the Marlins are hiring him away. Adam Jude of the Seattle Times (X link) relayed the shuffling prior to the official announcement.

Young was with the M’s last year, working in the system as baserunning coordinator. He will continue working on baserunning but now gets promoted to the first base coach position in the big leagues, though it’s not his first time in that job at the MLB level. He was the Nationals’ first base coach for the 2022 and 2023 seasons. Prior to coaching, he played in the majors from 2009 to 2018.

Boyd gets a major league coaching job for the first time. He has been in the Mariners’ organization for the past six seasons, working in the minors. Most recently, he was the minor league field coordinator for the past two seasons.

Acta has been on Seattle’s staff for many years, but has shifted around to various roles. He was third base coach in 2016 and 2017, then became the bench coach for a couple of years. He went back to the third base job from 2020 to 2024 but now returns back to the bench coach gig once again. He has worked as a coach or manager in the majors since 2006, working for the Expos, Mets, Nationals and Cleveland prior to coming to Seattle.

Negrón played in the majors from 2012 to 2019 before transitioning into coaching. The M’s hired him as the assistant to the director of player development in 2020 and he served as manager at Triple-A Tacoma in 2021. He then got promoted to first base coach at the big league level for the 2022 season.

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Seattle Mariners Eric Young Jr. Kristopher Negron Manny Acta

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Marlins To Hire Carson Vitale As Bench Coach

By Steve Adams | November 26, 2024 at 9:27am CDT

The Marlins are set to hire Carson Vitale away from the Mariners to serve as new manager Clayton McCullough’s bench coach, reports Daniel Kramer of MLB.com. Vitale has spent the past seven seasons with Seattle, including five as their major league field coordinator.

Vitale, 36, was Seattle’s minor league field coordinator before joining the big league staff in 2020. Prior to that, he was the Dodgers’ international field coordinator for two seasons (2016-17) and spent several years as a hitting coach and manager in the Angels’ minor league system. The Victoria, British Columbia native was drafted in the 38th round as a catcher out of Creighton University by the Rangers back in 2010 and played parts of two minor league seasons before setting a course down a coaching path.

Miami still has a ways to go in terms of filling out its coaching staff. The Marlins gutted their entire coaching staff after Skip Schumaker’s departure as manager, and McCullough’s hiring has only been official for two weeks. Miami has also reportedly hired former Giants assistant hitting coach Pedro Guerrero to serve as their new hitting coach, but he and Vitale are the only known hires to date. Both coaches have ties to Marlins assistant GM Gabe Kapler; Vitale worked with both Kapler and McCullough in Los Angeles, while Guerrero was on Kapler’s coaching staff in San Francisco and in Philadelphia when he managed the Giants and Phillies.

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Miami Marlins Seattle Mariners Carson Vitale

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Mariners To Hire Kevin Seitzer As Hitting Coach

By Anthony Franco | November 25, 2024 at 11:28pm CDT

The Mariners plan to hire Kevin Seitzer as hitting coach, reports Daniel Kramer of MLB.com. Edgar Martinez, who finished last season in that capacity, will remain with the M’s in an overarching role. Kramer writes that Seitzer will report to Martinez, so it seems the franchise icon is still the team’s lead hitting voice. Martinez is not expected to regularly travel with the team on road trips, though he’ll be involved at Spring Training and during the majority of the club’s home games. Adam Jude of the Seattle Times tweets that Martinez’s official title will be senior director of hitting strategy.

Additionally, Kramer reports that the M’s are hiring Bobby Magallanes as assistant hitting coach. The 55-year-old spent the last four seasons working under Seitzer as an assistant hitting coach with the Braves.

Seitzer brings two decades of hitting coach experience to Dan Wilson’s staff. He’d worked in that capacity with the Diamondbacks, Royals and Blue Jays before being hired by the Braves during the 2014-15 offseason. Seitzer spent 10 seasons as Atlanta’s hitting coach. The Braves have been contenders for most of that stretch.

The development of Ronald Acuña Jr., Austin Riley, Ozzie Albies and Michael Harris II into star players has obviously been an instrumental part of the Braves’ success. Seitzer was fortunate to work with a lot of talented hitters, but he certainly deserves some amount of credit for overseeing a lineup that trails only the Dodgers in scoring over the last five seasons.

Still, the 2024 campaign was a mixed bag. The Braves’ offense floundered for a few months after Acuña’s season-ending knee injury. They finished the year 15th in scoring with a .243/.309/.415 team batting line. They were in the top 10 in slugging but right in the middle in both batting average and on-base percentage. That was below expectation for a team with as much star power as the Braves possess. Atlanta fired Seitzer, Magallanes, and catching coach Sal Fasano shortly after being eliminated from the playoffs.

It’s the latest shakeup to Seattle’s hitting infrastructure. The Mariners have struggled for years to field even a league average offense, which would probably be sufficient to get to the postseason given the strength of their starting pitching. The M’s hired Brant Brown as offensive coordinator last offseason. They fired him two months into the season in an effort to spark the lineup. That didn’t work, and the M’s dismissed hitting coach Jarret DeHart along with skipper Scott Servais three months later. Assistant hitting coach Tommy Joseph left the team at the end of the season to take the same position with the Orioles.

Martinez joined the staff when his longtime teammate Wilson signed on as manager. He had previously been reluctant to assume a full-time coaching position because of family considerations. It seems they’ve settled on an unconventional role that’ll allow Martinez to remain actively involved without spending much time away from Seattle.

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Seattle Mariners Edgar Martinez Kevin Seitzer

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Mariners Sign Adonis Medina To Minor League Deal

By Nick Deeds | November 23, 2024 at 10:34pm CDT

The Mariners have signed right-hander Adonis Medina to a minor league deal, as reported by Matt Eddy of Baseball America. The deal presumably comes with an invite to big league Spring Training next year.

Medina, 28 next month, first signed with the Phillies out of the Dominican Republic and made his pro debut back in 2014. A starting pitching prospect at the time, Medina spent the early years of his career climbing the minor league ranks and was a consensus top-100 prospect in the sport after a strong showing at Single-A in 2017. The right-hander struggled a bit over the next two years, however, and his prospect star lost some of its shine as he struck out just 17.5% of opponents while allowing a 4.94 ERA at the Double-A level back in 2019.

Those struggles didn’t stop the Phillies from calling up Medina for his big league debut during the abbreviated 2020 season, however. In a spot start against the Blue Jays on September 20, Medina got his first cup of coffee in the big leagues. He performed solidly enough, surrendering two runs on three hits and three walks while striking out four in four innings of work, but was quickly optioned off the club’s roster. He remained with the Phillies for the 2021 season and performed well in the majors in a small sample while shuttling between the big leagues and Triple-A. Despite his 3.52 ERA in four appearances at the big league level, however, Medina struggled badly in the minors with a 5.05 ERA and a lackluster 18.4% strikeout rate at Triple-A.

Medina’s lackluster performance in the minors led the Phillies to place Medina on waivers, where he was promptly claimed by the Pirates only to be traded to the Mets the following month. The right-hander converted to relief full time in his new organization, and his results at the Triple-A level improved slightly (4.65 ERA in in 31 innings) after the role change. That step forward did not translate to the major leagues, however, as Medina was shelled to the tune of a 6.08 ERA in 23 2/3 innings of work across 14 appearances in Queens that year. While some peripheral numbers, such as his 3.89 SIERA, were more bullish on his performance, that wasn’t enough to keep Medina on the roster as the Mets designated him for assignment that September.

That led the right-hander to depart stateside ball for South Korea, where he signed with the KBO’s KIA Tigers. His new club tried to convert him back to starting, but that experiment did not go well as he struggled to a 6.05 ERA in 58 innings of work across 12 starts. Unlike his time in Queens, Medina’s struggles on the field were now reflected in his peripheral numbers as he struck out just 13.4% of batters faced while walking opponents at a 10.8% clip. Medina’s rough performance led to him being released that July, and he didn’t catch on with another club until he signed with the Nationals on a minor league deal in February of this year.

While Medina’s time with D.C. didn’t ultimately result in a return to the big leagues, he did show off the best results at Triple-A of his career after converting back to full-time relief with the Nationals. In 49 relief appearances, Medina posted a 3.76 ERA in 64 2/3 innings of work for the club’s affiliate in Rochester. He struck out a respectable 21.9% of opponents faced while walking 9.5%, the best ratio he’s flashed since his days as a top prospect in the late 2010’s. Now, Medina has latched on with a Mariners club that figures to give him the opportunity to earn a spot in the club’s bullpen out of Spring Training or act as non-roster depth in the minors should he ultimately not make the Opening Day roster.

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Seattle Mariners Transactions Adonis Medina

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Mariners Sign Yunior Marte To Minor League Deal

By Nick Deeds | November 23, 2024 at 5:59pm CDT

The Mariners have signed right-hander Yunior Marte to a minor league deal, according to a report from Francys Romero. Romero adds that the deal comes with an invite to MLB Spring Training.

Marte, 30 in February, signed with the Royals out of the Dominican Republic and made his pro debut back in 2013. He worked his way up the minor league ladder with Kansas City until he reached minor league free agency following the cancelled MiLB season in 2020, and eventually signed a minors pact with the Giants prior to the 2021 season. The right-hander spent two years in the Giants organization and pitched well at Triple-A despite the inflated offensive environment of the Pacific Coast League, prompting Marte’s promotion to San Francisco in April of 2022.

In the majors, Marte collected 48 innings with the Giants across 39 appearances. He posted a lackluster 5.44 ERA during that time, though his peripheral numbers (including a 4.38 FIP and 3.80 xERA) were solid enough. He struck out just 20.6% of opponents while walking 10.3%, but helped make up for that by generating poor contact, as evidenced by an impressive 48.6% groundball rate and a microscopic 3.5% barrel rate. That performance was solid enough to earn Marte a spot on the club’s 40-man roster throughout the offseason, but he nonetheless found himself traded to Philadelphia that January in exchange for southpaw Erik Miller.

Philly would serve as Marte’s home in each of the next two seasons, though his struggle to find results at the big league level continued. While Marte impressed with a 1.80 ERA in 20 Triple-A innings in 2023, his time in the majors told a different story as he surrendered a 5.03 ERA with a 4.68 FIP across 39 1/3 frames. While Marte’s strikeout, walk, and grounder rates all improved, opposing hitters began to find more success barrelling him up and that led to a spike in homers, which perhaps isn’t especially surprising given he moved from Oracle Park in San Francisco to the Phillies’ homer-happy home of Citizen Bank Park.

2024 turned out even worse for Marte, as the 29-year-old pitched to a 6.92 ERA with a 5.63 FIP while posting the worst strikeout rate, walk rate, groundball rate, and home run rate of his major league career. The disastrous results even carried over to Triple-A this season, as he surrendered a 6.88 ERA in 17 innings at the level. That led the Phillies to outright Marte off their roster earlier this month, and he subsequently elected free agency. The right-hander has now found a new home in Seattle, and he’ll have the opportunity to try and find his footing in an organization that boasts one of the best pitching staffs in the majors. That strong pitching staff could mean that Marte faces an uphill battle in trying to secure an Opening Day roster spot this spring, and barring him securing that roster spot he’ll likely open the season as non-roster depth for the Mariners in case of an injury.

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Seattle Mariners Transactions Yunior Marte

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Mariners Non-Tender Josh Rojas, Three Others

By Darragh McDonald | November 22, 2024 at 7:05pm CDT

The Mariners announced that they have non-tendered four players: infielder Josh Rojas, infielder/outfielder Sam Haggerty, as well as right-handers JT Chargois and Austin Voth. Haggerty’s non-tender was reported earlier by Ari Alexander of KPRC 2 (X link).

Rojas, 30, has had an up-and-down career thus far. With the Diamondbacks in 2021 and 2022, he slashed .266/.345/.401 for a wRC+ of 106, indicating he was 6% better than league average over that span. He also stole 32 bases while bouncing around to the three infield positions to the left of first base as well as the outfield corners.

But his performance dipped badly in 2023, as he slashed .228/.292/.296 in 59 games for the Snakes that year. The Mariners then tried to buy low on him, acquiring him as part of the July 2023 trade headlined by Paul Sewald.

Initially, it seemed like the buy-low move might have worked, as Rojas slashed .272/.321/.400 for a 105 wRC+ in 46 games after the trade. The M’s gave him a $3.1MM salary for 2024 and hoped that he could keep it going, but this year’s line of .225/.304/.336 led to a wRC+ of just 91. He still stole 10 bases and bounced all over the diamond, but the club has decided to go in a different direction. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected Rojas for a bump to $4.3MM next year, though the M’s clearly weren’t willing to bring him back at that price point, sending him to free agency instead.

It’s been reported that the Mariners are looking to upgrade their infield and this further cements that desire. They had already declined a club option on Jorge Polanco and traded away Ty France. Deadline acquisition Justin Turner hit free agency. That means shortstop J.P. Crawford is the only stable portion of the club’s infield mix at present. Luke Raley could get lots of playing time at first base but could also be in the outfield. Players like Dylan Moore, Ryan Bliss, Austin Shenton, Leo Rivas, Samad Taylor or Tyler Locklear could be involved next year but the M’s will surely be looking for external additions in the coming months.

Turning to the others, Haggerty has been a useful part-time players for the Mariners in recent years but he only played eight games in 2024 due to a torn achilles. Voth and Chargois were each entering their final season of club control, so there was no long-term benefit to rostering them in 2025. Voth had a solid 3.69 earned run average this year but with a .236 batting average on balls in play. Chargois had a 2.23 ERA this year but is a journeyman who’s about to turn 34. Haggerty was projected for a salary of $900K, Voth $2.2MM and Chargois $1.7MM, but the M’s have balked at all of those prices and sent those players into free agency instead.

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Seattle Mariners Transactions Austin Voth J.T. Chargois Josh Rojas Sam Haggerty

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American League Non-Tenders: 11/22/24

By Darragh McDonald | November 22, 2024 at 6:10pm CDT

The deadline to tender a contract to arbitration-eligible players is tonight at 7pm CT. Here’s a rundown of the players on American League teams that have been non-tendered today. This post will be updated as more decisions are revealed. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected salaries for all players eligible for arbitration last month. All players who are non-tendered before this evening’s deadline go directly into free agency, where they’re eligible to sign with any of MLB’s 30 clubs.

Onto the transactions…

  • The Angels announced that they have non-tendered left-hander Patrick Sandoval, infielder Eric Wagaman, as well as outfielders Jordyn Adams and Bryce Teodosio. You can read more about those moves here.
  • The Astros tendered contracts to their entire arbitration class.
  • The Athletics announced that they did not tender a contract to right-hander Dany Jiménez, who was projected for a $1MM salary. He posted a 4.91 in 25 appearances for the A’s in 2024. He struck out 21.4% of opponents but gave out walks at a 16.2% clip.
  • The Blue Jays are planning to non-tender righty Dillon Tate, per Ben Nicholson Smith and Shi Davidi of Sportsnet (X link). Tate was just claimed off waivers at the start of September and had a projected salary of $1.9MM. He’s a former fourth overall pick with some good numbers in his career but he missed most of 2023 due to injury and then posted a 4.66 ERA in 2024. The Jays are also non-tendering righty Jordan Romano, which you can read more about here.
  • The Guardians have non-tendered outfielder George Valera and right-hander Connor Gillispie, per Paul Hoynes of cleveland.com (X link). Both players were designated for assignment earlier this week.
  • The Mariners are going to non-tender outfielder Sam Haggerty, per Ari Alexander of KPRC 2 (X link). He was limited to just eight games in 2024 due to a torn achilles. He was only projected for a salary of $900K but the M’s have decided to move on. They also non-tendered infielder Josh Rojas and righties Austin Voth and JT Chargois, moves that are covered with more depth here.
  • The Orioles plan to non-tender right-hander Jacob Webb, per Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner (X link). Webb was projected for a salary of $1.7MM next year. The righty tossed 56 2/3 innings for the O’s in 2024 with a 3.02 ERA and 24.5% strikeout rate, but an 11.4% walk rate.
  • The Rays announced they have non-tendered outfielder Dylan Carlson as well as left-handers Tyler Alexander, Colin Poche and Richard Lovelady. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times relayed the news (X link) prior to the official announcement. Carlson once seemed like a building block in St. Louis but his offense has declined for three straight years now and he was projected for a $2.7MM salary. Alexander was projected for $2.8MM and had a 5.10 ERA this year. Poche had a solid 3.86 ERA but was projected for $3.4MM. Lovelady was designated for assignment a few days ago.
  • The Rangers tendered contracts to their entire arbitration class.
  • The Red Sox announced that right-handers Bryan Mata and Isaiah Campbell were both non-tendered. Those two had been designated for assignment earlier this week.
  • The Royals tendered contracts to their entire arbitration class.
  • The Tigers announced that they have non-tendered infielder Eddys Leonard as well as right-handers Ricky Vanasco, Brendan White and Wilmer Flores. Three of those four were designated for assignment earlier this week. Flores, the lone exception, is the younger brother of the same-named Wilmer Flores of the Giants. The younger Flores was once a notable pitching prospect but was injured for most of 2024.
  • The Twins tendered contracts to their entire arbitration class.
  • The Yankees have non-tendered infielder Jon Berti, per Robert Murray of FanSided (X link). He was projected for a salary of $3.8MM. He was injured for much of the year and only got into 25 games. The Yankees also announced that they have non-tendered left-hander Tim Mayza, who was projected for a $4MM salary but had a 6.33 ERA in 2024.
  • The White Sox will non-tender first baseman/outfielder Gavin Sheets, which MLBTR covered earlier today. The Sox later announced Sheets and also that they non-tendered right-hander Enyel De Los Santos as well. De Los Santos was projected for a salary of $1.7MM but posted a 5.20 ERA this year.
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Baltimore Orioles Boston Red Sox Chicago White Sox Cleveland Guardians Detroit Tigers Houston Astros Kansas City Royals Los Angeles Angels Minnesota Twins New York Yankees Oakland Athletics Seattle Mariners Tampa Bay Rays Texas Rangers Toronto Blue Jays Transactions Austin Voth Brendan White Bryan Mata Bryce Teodosio Colin Poche Connor Gillispie Dany Jimenez Dillon Tate Dylan Carlson Eddys Leonard Enyel De Los Santos Eric Wagaman Gavin Sheets George Valera Isaiah Campbell J.T. Chargois Jacob Webb Jon Berti Jordan Romano Jordyn Adams Josh Rojas Patrick Sandoval Richard Lovelady Ricky Vanasco Sam Haggerty Tim Mayza Tyler Alexander Wilmer Flores (b. 2001)

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Mariners Showing Interest In Carlos Santana

By Steve Adams | November 21, 2024 at 11:01am CDT

Mariners general manager Justin Hollander already confirmed earlier in the offseason that the club has discussed a potential reunion with Justin Turner, and they’re also weighing a reunion with another former Mariner. Adam Jude of the Seattle Times reports that the M’s have spoken to free agent first baseman Carlos Santana, who spent part of the 2022 season in Seattle. Jude cites multiple sources in adding that interest in bringing one of the two back to Seattle is strong enough that it’s considered a “likelihood” the Mariners will close a deal with one of them.

Santana, 39 in April, is fresh off his best year since 2019. He spent the 2024 campaign in Minnesota, serving as the Twins’ everyday first baseman and winning a Gold Glove for his defensive efforts there. He also slashed .238/.328/.420 with 23 homers in 594 plate appearances. That’s good for a solid 114 wRC+ (indicating he was 14% better than league-average at the plate), but setting aside a catastrophically poor first three weeks of the season, Santana hit .253/.342/.460 (129 wRC+, or 29%  better than average) after connecting on his first homer in late April.

That type of production would appeal to just about any club, particularly when coupled with excellent defense and a stellar clubhouse reputation. That latter factor is also a key part of the Mariners’ interest in both Turner and Santana, per Jude. At the end of the season, president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto voiced a desire to add some veteran voices to help lead a young clubhouse, Jude writes, specifically name-dropping both Turner and Santana as examples of players who’ve played key leadership roles during partial seasons in Seattle.

There are other reasons to think both players fit the Mariners’ roster. Both Turner (17.6%) and Santana (16.7%) struck out well below the 22.6% league average in 2024. The Mariners’ collective 26.8% strikeout rate was the worst in MLB. Whittling that number down should be a priority, and either veteran first baseman would help the club take strides toward that end.

Both Turner and Santana are also natural fits to pair up with Luke Raley at first base. Turner’s right-handed bat makes him a logical platoon partner at first, and he hits righties enough to take DH at-bats even when Raley draws a start in the field. Santana’s glove probably would push Raley to a primary DH/corner outfield role, but the veteran switch-hitter is much better from the right side of the plate. For a Mariners club that hit only .213/.300/.363 against southpaws last year, Santana’s .286/.356/.578 slash against lefties has to look especially appealing.

Either Santana or Turner should be available on a one-year deal. Santana will surely command a raise on last year’s modest $5.25MM salary, whereas Turner could be in line for a cut from last year’s $13MM rate of pay. Again, for a Mariners club that’s expected to increase payroll, but perhaps not by leaps and bounds over the roughly $145MM mark at which they finished the 2024 campaign, that makes either veteran a logical target. RosterResource currently projects the Mariners for a $150MM payroll, though that figure could change in the next 36 hours based on non-tenders and/or potential trades of non-tender candidates.

The Mariners haven’t been shy about their desire to add infield bats this offseason. Dipoto and Hollander have voiced confidence in an outfield mix of Randy Arozarena, Julio Rodriguez, Victor Robles and Raley. They’re looking to add a bat capable of spending some time at first base and either a second baseman or third baseman — with Josh Rojas and Dylan Moore standing as candidates to platoon at the other spot. Turner or Santana would check one box and do so both affordably and while improving the club’s overall contact rate.

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Seattle Mariners Carlos Santana Justin Turner

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Mariners Trade For Austin Shenton, DFA JT Chargois

By Leo Morgenstern | November 19, 2024 at 7:52pm CDT

As announced by both teams, the Mariners have acquired infielder Austin Shenton in a trade with the Rays. Seattle will send cash considerations to Tampa Bay in return. To make room on the 40-man roster, the Mariners designated right-handed pitcher JT Chargois for assignment.

Shenton began his professional career with the Mariners, who selected him in the 2019 draft. Though he was never a highly-ranked prospect, the flexible defender quickly worked his way up the minor league ladder, hitting well at every step along the way. In 120 games across four levels in Seattle’s system, he hit .299 with 46 doubles and 19 home runs, good for a .940 OPS. While he spent most of his time at third base, he also took reps at first base, second base, and both outfield corners.

Ahead of the 2021 trade deadline, the M’s dealt Shenton to the Rays in exchange for right-handed reliever Diego Castillo. Funnily enough, the other player Seattle sent to Tampa Bay in that trade was none other than Chargois. (After brief stints with the Rays and Marlins, Chargois made his way back to the Mariners at the trade deadline this past summer. But more on him in a moment.) Injuries cut into Shenton’s playing time in the Rays system in 2021 and ’22, but after his strong 2023 season (1.006 OPS in 134 games between Double and Triple-A) the team added him to the 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 draft.

Shenton wasn’t as dominant with the stick in 2024, but he provided above-average offense for both Triple-A Durham and the Rays over a handful of games with the big league club. In his first MLB season, he slashed .214/.340/.405 across 50 plate appearances, good for a 120 wRC+. Those are decent numbers for a lefty bench bat, but nonetheless, Shenton was the casualty when the Rays needed to free up an extra roster spot to protect a pair of promising pitchers from this year’s Rule 5 reaping. He was DFA’d yesterday evening.

Despite his solid offensive production, it’s not hard to guess what the Rays might have been thinking. While his bat has real promise, Shenton will be 27 years old next season, and he comes with his fair share of flaws. Although he has played several positions, he might not be capable of regular MLB playing time anywhere other than first base. As for his offense, he has enticing power and a good eye, but strikeouts could be his downfall against the highest level of competition. He has also had dreadful splits against same-handed pitching in two of the last three seasons. On top of all that, he has often had trouble staying on the field; he spent time on the IL in each of his first four professional campaigns.

Regardless, the Mariners must have liked what they saw (and what they remembered) of Shenton, and there’s little risk for Seattle in taking him on. He still has two minor league option years remaining, so he won’t get any playing with the big league club unless he earns it. Moreover, it’s not as if Chargois was going to be a key player in the M’s bullpen next season. Rather, he seemed to be a likely non-tender candidate ahead of this week’s deadline.

Chargois, 34 in December, is a journeyman low-leverage reliever who has bounced between the Twins, Dodgers, Mariners, Rays, and Marlins throughout his big league tenure. He also spent a season with the Rakuten Eagles in Japan. The veteran righty has never been a flashy name, but his career 3.35 ERA and 3.84 SIERA over 231 1/3 innings are impressive numbers. Durability and injury concerns (he has never pitched more than 53 2/3 innings in a season) could prevent him from signing anything more than a minor league contract this winter, but his sparkling 2.23 ERA and solid 4.18 SIERA from this past season should help him find a new place to pitch in 2025.

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Seattle Mariners Tampa Bay Rays Transactions Austin Shenton J.T. Chargois

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