Mariners Looking At Corner Infield Upgrades More Than Second Base
The Mariners are known to be looking for upgrades at multiple infield positions this offseason, with shortstop J.P. Crawford standing as their only locked-in starter. The M’s have strong interest in bringing back either Justin Turner or Carlos Santana for a second go with the organization at first base, and they’ve reportedly been exploring their options at both second base and third base. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic now writes that Seattle’s focus is more on third base options than at second base. The M’s currently have in-house options like Ryan Bliss, Dylan Moore and top prospect Cole Young at second base.
As it stands, Moore and recent DFA acquisition Austin Shenton are the most prominent options at third base. Moore and fellow infielder Leo Rivas profile better as utility options, with Moore in particular representing a potential short-side platoon option if the M’s add a left-handed bat.
Payroll stands as an obvious obstacle for the Mariners once again. Seattle ownership anticipates an increase in 2025, but likely not by a notable amount. Following the team’s non-tenders of Josh Rojas, Austin Voth, Sam Haggerty and JT Chargois, Adam Jude of the Seattle Times suggested the M’s could have somewhere in the vicinity of $16MM with which to work. There’s surely some wiggle room there, but it’s unlikely the Mariners are going to cannonball into the free agent pool with a splash for, say, Alex Bregman or Willy Adames. Even if the funds for such a move were there, president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto prefers to operate primarily on the trade market. In nine years with the Mariners, he’s only given a multi-year deal to one position-player free agent (Mitch Garver at two years and $24MM).
Trade options aren’t exactly plentiful, but there are some names known to be on the block. The Phillies have been shopping Alec Bohm around as they look to change up their offense. Bohm isn’t an elite bat and has a mixed-bag of defensive results at the hot corner, but he’s available and affordable enough, with a projected $8.1MM salary (courtesy of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz). Elsewhere in the NL East, former Mets top prospect Brett Baty stands a change of scenery candidate following the emergence of Mark Vientos. Even if the Mets allow Pete Alonso to walk in free agency and move Vientos across the diamond, they could look to bring in a higher-profile third baseman.
Nolan Arenado is also widely known to be available, but he’s owed $32MM next season (plus $27MM in 2026 and $15MM in 2027). The Rockies are paying $5MM of that in each of the next two seasons under the terms of the trade that sent Arenado from Denver to St. Louis, but that’s still a big contract for a team that ostensibly has limited budget space. Speculatively speaking, the Mariners and Twins could line up on a deal for a second straight winter. Minnesota has a crowded infield mix and could consider moving Jose Miranda with both Brooks Lee and Royce Lewis as options to flank shortstop Carlos Correa. Then again, Miranda could just move across the diamond to first base, so it’s not as though he’s lacking a clear opportunity in Minneapolis. The Marlins would probably listen on Jake Burger, but he’s the type of low-OBP, strikeout-prone slugger from whom the Mariners have been trying to move away in recent seasons.
The Mariners’ options on the trade market would surely open up if they were willing to deal from their rotation. However, at season’s end, Dipoto not only indicated that moving a controllable starter wasn’t Plan A or B for the Mariners — he likened the notion to “Plan Z” (link via MLB.com’s Daniel Kramer).
Dipoto and GM Justin Hollander have both spoken openly about their fondness for the Mariners’ excellent young rotation and both expressed reluctance to move on from the group. Still, if Seattle were to make any of Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryce Miller or Bryan Woo available, they’d perhaps be in position to seek similarly appealing young hitters (e.g. Baltimore’s Jordan Westburg or Coby Mayo).
One point worth considering is that the Mariners’ depth beyond the current rotation isn’t as deep as some might think. Former No. 6 overall pick Emerson Hancock‘s stock is down considerably, and he’s viewed largely as a back-end starter. Righty Taylor Dollard has only pitched 8 1/3 innings over the past two seasons. Logan Evans, a 12th-rounder in 2023, significantly boosted his stock with a big 2024 but still hasn’t pitched above Double-A. It’s a similar story with 2021 third-rounder Michael Morales. The Mariners already know they’re not likely to be as fortunate with pitcher health as they were in 2024, and trading one of the current arms only further creates the potential to overexpose some of those inexperienced arms in the event of an injury in the big league rotation.
Mariners Promote Joel Firman To Assistant General Manager
The Mariners announced a handful of front office promotions on Monday evening. Assistant general manager Andy McKay was given a vice president title alongside his AGM tag. Seattle also bumped Joel Firman to assistant general manager. Scott Hunter was promoted to VP of amateur scouting, while David Hesslink received a bump to VP of baseball product development.
McKay and Firman now jointly hold AGM titles. That ostensibly slots them third and fourth in baseball operations behind president of baseball ops Jerry Dipoto and GM Justin Hollander. McKay has spent a decade in the Seattle organization. Initially hired as player development director, he briefly worked on Scott Servais’ coaching staff before getting the AGM title during the 2022-23 offseason.
Firman has been with Seattle for 11 seasons. Formerly an intern with the Yankees, the Washington native has worked his way up the M’s analytics department. According to the team’s press release, he’ll be in charge of overseeing the M’s advance scouting work (game planning for opposing teams) while continuing to assume a key role in the team’s research and development.
Quick Hits: Snell, Orioles, Brash, Cubs
The Orioles had “legitimate interest” in southpaw Blake Snell before he landed with the Dodgers on a five-year deal that became official earlier today, per a report from Roch Kubatko of MASN. Kubatko notes, however, that it’s unclear how advanced talks between Baltimore and Snell’s camp became before he settled on Los Angeles. Previous reporting indicated that the Orioles could get involved in the Snell sweepstakes, but Kubatko’s report is the first confirming Baltimore’s interest.
As the club looks to either reunite with right-hander Corbin Burnes or replace his production at the top of their rotation following his departure for free agency earlier this month, it’s hardly a surprise to hear that the club took a hard look at Snell while he was available. The two-time Cy Young award winner has been even better than Burnes from a run prevention perspective over the past three years, with a 2.82 ERA and 2.98 FIP in 412 innings. Burnes, meanwhile, lags behind in rate stats with a 3.08 ERA and 3.49 FIP, but his 590 innings of work dwarf Snell in terms of volume. That volume figures to be particularly attractive to an Orioles club that has serious health question marks surrounding a number of its starters, including Kyle Bradish as he rehabs from Tommy John surgery that figures to keep him out of action for at least the first half of 2025.
While Burnes seems likely to remain the Orioles’s top choice in free agency this winter, they’ve also been connected to southpaws Max Fried and Garrett Crochet in free agency and via trade respectively. It seems as though they’re also looking at mid-rotation arms as well, however, as they were recently linked to veteran righty Nathan Eovaldi. Eovaldi projects to be much less expensive than Burnes and Fried in free agency this winter, but that affordability comes with a much less impactful track record as the 34-year-old has a solid but unremarkable 3.75 ERA and 3.63 FIP across the past five seasons. The Orioles are quite familiar with Eovaldi, of course, as he spent seven seasons in the AL East with the Yankees, Rays, and Red Sox from 2015 to 2022.
More tidbits from around the baseball world…
- Mariners fans got an encouraging update on the status of right-hander Matt Brash recently, as Adam Jude of The Seattle Times reported earlier this week that the right-hander is ahead of schedule as he rehabs from his early May Tommy John surgery. Per Jude, the Mariners are “optimistic” that he could return to the club’s bullpen by the end of April this coming season, just under a year after he first went under the knife. Brash’s return would surely be a major boost for Seattle, as he established himself as one of the most exciting young arms in the club’s arsenal during a breakout 2023 campaign. After being moved to the bullpen partway through the 2022 season, Brash’s first full campaign as a reliever saw him lead the majors with 78 appearances while posting an excellent 3.06 ERA with an even better 2.26 FIP. He struck out an eye-popping 34.7% of batters faced that year, and if he can post numbers anything like that in 2025 he’ll be a phenomenal complement to closer Andres Munoz at the back of the Mariners bullpen next year.
- The Cubs have yet to announce their finalized coaching staff for the 2025 season, but Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic reported earlier this week that at least one more vacancy has been filled. After assistant pitching coach Daniel Moskos departed the organization to become the Marlins’ pitching coach, the club is promoting internally to replace Moskos by hiring Casey Jacobson. Jacobson has been in the Cubs organization since October 2019 and has spent the past two years as the senior coordinator of pitching development for the club in the minor leagues. Now, he’ll get the opportunity to work on a big league coaching staff for the first time in his career with a number of young arms such as Ben Brown, Jordan Wicks, and Porter Hodge expected to play roles for Chicago next year.
Casey Sadler Announces Retirement
Right-hander Casey Sadler announced his retirement from baseball today on X. In his statement, he thanks many people, including baseball fans, young players, his parents, his coaches and his agent.
Sadler, now 34, was selected by the Pirates in the 25th round of the 2010 draft out of Western Oklahoma State College. He worked his way up the minor league ladder, mostly as a starter, getting some brief big league looks in 2014 and 2015. Unfortunately, he required Tommy John surgery in October of 2015 and had to miss the entire 2016 season. In 2017 and 2018, he was back on the hill and pitching in relief a bit more but mostly in the minors, only getting into two big league games in 2018.
He was no longer on Pittsburgh’s roster at the end of 2018 and was able to become a free agent. He ended up having a bit of a breakout in 2019, split between the Rays and Dodgers. He signed a minor league deal with Tampa for that year and eventually tossed 19 1/3 innings for them, with a 1.86 earned run average. He was designated for assignment and flipped to the Dodgers in July, then posting a 2.33 ERA in 27 innings for his new club after the swap. He finished the year with a combined 46 1/3 innings with a 2.14 ERA. His 16% strikeout rate was subpar but he limited walks to a 6.7% clip and got grounders on 51.8% of balls in play.
In 2020, he wasn’t able to build off that performance in the pandemic-shortened season. He was flipped to the Cubs and later to the Mariners, finishing the year with a 5.12 ERA in 19 1/3 innings. His strikeout rate jumped to 24.4% but he also gave free passes to 14% of opponents.
But an even better breakout than 2019 followed in 2021. He tossed 40 1/3 innings for the Mariners that year with a miniscule ERA of 0.67. He had a 25.5% strikeout rate, 6.9% walk rate and 62.9% ground ball rate. He moved up the bullpen pecking order, eventually earning 15 holds that year.
Unfortunately, he was never able to build on that incredible campaign. He and the M’s avoided arbitration by agreeing to a $1.025MM salary for 2022 but Sadler required season-ending surgery in March, before the campaign even began. He spent the entire season on the injured list and was outrighted off the roster in November. He re-signed with the Mariners on a minor league deal for 2023 but spent much of that year on the minor league injured list and struggled when on the mound.
Per Sadler’s retirement announcement, he recently thought he would require another Tommy John surgery but then found out the problem was mental. His wife had started a pitching lesson business, which she asked him to get involved in. Sadler says that working with the younger pitchers gave him a renewed sense of purpose and improved his mental health, but also reduced his own desire to play.
Injuries prevented him from being on the big stage for long, but he performed exceptionally well when under the lights. Sadler retires with 101 major league games under his belt and a 2.86 ERA in that time. He struck out 104 opponents, recording one save, 22 holds and six wins. We at MLBTR congratulate him on a fine career and wish him the best in all his future endeavors.
MLBTR Podcast: Yusei Kikuchi, The Aggressive Angels, And The Singer/India Trade
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!
Mariners Promote Eric Young Jr., Louis Boyd To Major League Coaching Staff
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.
Marlins To Hire Carson Vitale As Bench Coach
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.
Mariners To Hire Kevin Seitzer As Hitting Coach
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.
Mariners Sign Adonis Medina To Minor League Deal
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.
Mariners Sign Yunior Marte To Minor League Deal
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.