Mariners have made Josh Naylor a TOP PRIORITY in Free Agency!

Mariners have made Josh Naylor a TOP PRIORITY in Free Agency!

The Mariners have some key decisions to make over the next couple of weeks, and that includes the arbitration for a lot of the players on this team. Joe and I are going to go over MLB trade rumors and their arbitration projections that they have for what is it like 10 guys on this list. We’re then going to talk about the free agents for the Mariners. 5 days after the World Series, there’s going to be some guys leaving. We’re going to talk about that and none more important than Josh Naylor. We’ll talk about what we think it’s going to cost to bring Naylor back before we give you guys our FanDuel favorites. Thank you guys so much for watching episode 243 of the Hit It Here podcast, part of the Believe Network and presented by FanDuel. And this is the Curtis Crabtree and Nico Tamuran episode of the podcast cuz they’re the only ones that have given us literally anything so far from this press conference, end of the year press conference did that’s normally televised. Guys, Joe and I have been waiting for the last hour and a half to talk about this press conference and nothing has come of it because they didn’t televise it. There’s a lot of thoughts that I have about that. Joe, you know, let’s talk about that first. I just I just got to get it off my chest. Are are they afraid Jerry Dotto’s going to shove his foot in his mouth again? Why would you not after the most techn by by technical standards the most successful Mariners season in the history of this franchise? Why would you not speak directly to the fans? Why? I don’t have a good like you’re if you’re asking me I hope it’s rhetorical because I don’t have a good answer for you. I don’t think that there sure there’s things that he could say that would piss people off but I think he learned his lesson enough. I I hope I could be wrong. Narcissism is a crazy thing. I could be wrong about that. But and it feels like a lot of the like quotes and media facing things are now Justin Hollander more forward as opposed to Jerry Dotto and some of the stuff that Crabtree was posting about like Hollander talking about like how much it meant for them to be in the clubhouse after the loss and like how much it meant for like the guy like like for them to be there for the guys because they know how much the guys cared for it. that being the players obviously talking about how important it was or how like impacted he was by people sending him themselves hugging like friends and family in the crowd after game five. Gino Grand Slam obviously like Hollander had some nice I guess sentiment in that situation. It would I would be hardressed to like assume that Jerry Dotto had things that were not a similar sentiment in the sense that they were celebrating everything like after the clinches and stuff like that. But Colton, you seem to have an update. Yeah. So, Nico Turan just tweeted and this is pretty pertinent for the rest of this podcast. Dotto added that he expects payroll this off seasonason to start where it was at the end of 2025, meaning after adding Gino, Naylor, etc.’s salary. The key word is start. He expects more than that and to be among the highest payrolls he’s ever had. Makes sense. So, I hope so. They they that’s something that they need to do, right? Because as of right now, the Mariners’s payroll, I think, is sitting around like what 130 130 to 140. Yeah, that’s before arbitration figures, I imagine. Or maybe that’s after. I don’t know. Um, but nonetheless, let’s talk about these arbitration figures because there are, you know, a few guys on here that may get non-endered. There’s a few guys on here that hopefully cost less than what it says and some of them may decide to sign extensions with the Mariners instead of going through the arbitration process. So, just going through the list here, Trent Foron at $2.5 million, Randy Rosa at $18.2, 2. That’s the high water mark. Logan Gilbert at $10 million. Gabe Spire at 1.7. George Kirby at 5.4. Taylor Saledo at 1.1. Matt Brash at 1.8. Luke at 1.8. Greg Santos at 800K. And Bryce Miller at 2.4 million. Thanks for calling him Greg. I got you. I got you. Gregory, I think the most the most obvious non-tender on there is Sauce. I think it’s the the one of all the non-tenders, that’s the one that honestly that’s the only one I can see really happening. Interesting. You don’t Okay. I I have two. It’s Sauce and I think Thornton, as crappy as it is with the injury, um he to me is a non-tender just from a business standpoint. It sucks that that’s where we find ourselves at, but there’s some interesting conversation. I Moonlight on Twitter and like America’s group chat talking yesterday a little bit just about where like if if we thought that maybe would be a non-tender candidate. I think he’s tendered, but I don’t ne necessarily know if he’s on the team in 2026, he could be a trade candidate for some bullpen help. And we shared a similar sentiment about Domanzone also being an option to be a trade candidate in that same way just based around positional need on the team. They are redundant for the most part and trading one of them to shore up another part of your team does make sense. But yeah, I think the only two non-tenders for me would be Sedo and Thornton. If it is only one, it’d be S. I I could see them keeping Thornton just in good faith, I think, and having him be your sixth man out of the pen or something like whenever he’s ready to come back. I don’t know how long his Achilles injury will keep him out for. I imagine it’s I don’t know like will he pitch in 2026? I don’t know. And I I don’t know the extent of what the recovery looks like for a baseball like an athlete in general, but I know basketball and baseball’s a very common injury like football it happened to Aaron Rogers. Like it’s just it’s interesting how it matters for different sports. I mean obviously the Achilles is a pretty important part because you’re just using your feet and you’re pushing off with a bunch of leverage, but tell me the numbers. So Adam Wayright when he tore his Achilles in 2015 it was a 12 month 9 to 12 month recovery time. Now that’s not including you know I don’t think anyway that’s not including getting built up and whatnot. He tore it in what July right before the trade deadline. Yeah. No no it was afterwards. It was like it was late I thought. Oh it was right after the trade deadline. You’re right. It was August. Yeah you’re right. um he probably doesn’t pitch in 2026 pro. Yeah. And if that’s the case, you’re right. He probably just gets dendered. There’s no point in carrying him if he’s not going to be able to pitch. Now, maybe if you’re the Mariners and you I mean, they obviously like Trent Thornton. Otherwise, he wouldn’t still be on this roster to begin with. Maybe they decide to extend him, right, for like a three-year deal as good faith where it’s like they’re paying them like $3 million total. Sure. It’s like and then something Yeah. And then when he comes back, it’s like, yeah, it’s a good faith kind of contract. I could see, yeah, I don’t I don’t hate that. I know a lot of people probably would not necessarily want to commit to Trent Thornton that way, but it is a a small margin, I think, as far as what the payroll will ultimately be because that quote from Dota that you said Nico Tine like posted, that could loom large, especially with some of the arbitration figures jumping like we all knew that they would. Logan Gilbert being a double- digit million-dollar man at this point. George Kirby and Logan both I think are a little not low but lower than what I think we all expected when the figures were happening next like last year and then we projecting what they could be for next year. And I do think that a little bit of seasonal regression and not being healthy the entire year definitely impacted that just service time and production in general. So Logan at 10, George Kirby at 5.4, I think those are both fine. Like I don’t have it. I I could see Logan appealing for maybe more. Maybe he goes for 11. George maybe goes for six. And that whole process, they have a hearing for it. But you’ve said it a ton in the past. The mayors are usually pretty good about not having those appeals have to happen. You don’t want to have a lot of hearings because sometimes it can create riffs or tears within the the trust of the front office and the player base in general. I will be I will be curious to see if Brash and Spire both make less than two million because if that’s the case, you’re making out like bandits for your number two and number three heading into 2026 more than likely out of your pen. You’re two setup guys getting paying them both less than two million a steal of a deal, frankly. Yeah. No, I completely agree with that. The biggest one on here obviously Randy Rosena now $18.2 million that’s a pretty heavy payroll. Mhm. I think he’s worth it. He had the best year of his career and yeah, he didn’t perform in the postseason, but Randy was pretty good for this team in 2025. And I think that if you were to look at how much he would be worth just based on like money per war or whatever it would be, he would have been worth closer to $30 million. So, having him around for the next year and and again, that’s a guy that I think the Mariners should just try to extend. They should just try to extend Randy Rose Arena and for like a three or four year deal and give him, you know, if he’s willing to take like 16 to$18 million a year for those years. Sure. I think that’s completely fine. And I think that that is a situation where because the Mariners have have been able to, I guess, delete some of their payroll with Mitch Garver coming off the books and Mitch Haniger coming off the books. That’s something where you could find a way to get that money. But first, a word from our sponsor, Delete Me. Delete Me makes it easy, quick, and safe to remove your personal data online at a time when surveillance and data breaches are common enough to make everyone vulnerable. The New York Times wire cutter has named Delete Meir their top pick for data removal services. And as someone with an active online presence, privacy is very important to me. I don’t want strangers having data about me that I don’t even know that might be out there. Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Delete Me now at a special discount for our listeners. Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to joindeleteme.com/hit. And use promo code hit. That’s hit at checkout. The only way to get 20% off is to go to joindeme.com/hit and enter code hit. That’s hit at checkout. That’s jointdeme.com/hit.code hit. Now, Randy being the highest payroll of the arbitration guys on here, I wouldn’t delete that. Uhuh. I like that idea, having Randy being the highest of all these guys. Logan, like you said, at 10 million, probably kind of a steal. But I mentioned that with the Mariners losing some of the contracts they have, which obviously brings us to our free agents, and the Mariners have some key free agents, the main part of the core still remains. It’s mainly the guys that were added during the season and obviously last off seasonason in Josh Naylor. Duh. In Aueno Suarez, duh. Jorge Palano is probably going to decline his his option more than likely. I would assume he’d be sick if he didn’t, but more than likely. Um, you also have Luke Jackson who’s going to be uh out of here. You have Caleb Ferguson who’s going to be a free agent. And you have Mitch Garver, who the Mariners will more than likely decline his option and he will become a free agent. I believe that’s everybody. Does that sound right? I honestly didn’t know Luke Jackson was, but again, it’s not surprising to me that he doesn’t have like service time and or he has a service time to be a free agent in that situation. Yes. I I the the the main five that I knew were what you had outlined as the last off season and this trade deadline pretty much with pretty key contributors and some guys that would be sick if we exercise the option and one that we really shouldn’t. And you can argue all you want that Mitch Mitch Garver as a backup catcher. Good. Very good. Worth it. Not worth 12 million though is the is the aspect that where yes, having him on your roster is well worth it at the right price. And unfortunately, $12 million for Mitch Garage is simply isn’t worth it when you have Harry Ford waiting behind him. Now, there’s going to come a point in this season where if the Bears do not exercise the option on Mitch Garver, and Harry Ford is struggling mightily. There’s going to be the people that are going to pound the table. They’re like, “We should have brought back Mitch Gar.” I’m full and ready to move on from Mitch Garver. Yep. Truth be told, and no disrespect to him, no discredit to him, whatever. Didn’t work out the way that I think both sides had really intended. And that’s fine. Sometimes you just have to cut your losses. Something that’s interesting with Jorge Palano, could you see some sort of like good faith thing on both sides where like say the Mariners give him four years instead of what the market value is at three years, 14ish million, but the first year of that four-year contract is the $6.5 million salary that he’s supposed to get if he if they exercise the option. and you kind of like middle load like not ne like backloading it but like you go say it’s a four-year $60 million contract but the first year is $6 a.5 million and then you somehow then spread out the money elsewhere where you have to cover 54 million for the next three so it’s like 18 like something like that could be interesting if they do decide to bring Palanco back or they try to I think that there’s definitely mutual interest in that on that side of things of course extending to that fourth year could be a a little bit tricky. And how how well will he hold up? How long is he going to be playing second base? Is he going to be more of a DH? I think fully if Palano is back in whatever capacity in 2026, it’s a 50/50 split, I think, of DH and second base. Whereas, if he tests the market and goes elsewhere, which Foline is right to do, he had a great season. He’s going to get paid somewhere regardless. If he wants to still play second base more often than not, I don’t want to say every day, but 75% of the time, he’s probably going to find that job elsewhere, not in Seattle. Not to say that he couldn’t play 75% of second base for the Mars in 2026. But I don’t imagine them wanting to kind of stiff Cole Young in that way. Not that he’s owed necessarily anything, but it’s it’s an interesting situation with Palano specifically for me when looking at this free agent class. I think that the big thing for Polo is like you said, it’s a good faith contract in you’re giving him an extra year, which is a situation where with how injured he’s been over the past couple of years, makes sense to do in my opinion because he’s going to want to lock up a spot somewhere. This is probably his LA his one and only chance to get like a pretty decentsized contract somewhere. And if you were to sign him to a three or four year maybe a three-year deal with a with a club option or something like that, I think it makes some sense to bring back Jorge Palano. And for me, the hardest part about second base is in my head, second base next year is a combination of Cole Young and Ryan Bliss. Bliss versus lefties, young versus righties. And with Polo, that really limits his ability to be the guy over there at second base. Now, if the Mariners think that Jorge Palano can all of a sudden become a first baseman, then things change, right? He was play, you know, hey, he was getting a little bit of first base time at the end of the year. I don’t know. I could see they are they thought he could play third base. Maybe they think he could play first base. I don’t know. But it’s a situation where if you’re not, you don’t want to necessarily have a full-time DH. And with Palano, you are granted the opportunity to put him at second base if you feel like he’s the hot hand at that at that time. And if Cole Young is struggling or Ryan Bliss is struggling or you know, one of them gets hurt, you could plug Jorge Palano in there and that’s a good safety net for you. And you’re not limited to like having Nelson Cruz or like Kyle Schwarber or someone who can’t play the field. Yeah. It just that’s a situation where if you’re going to have a DH and you’re going to spend that money on Palanco, I think that that is probably a good idea and you’re you’re not going to more than likely the Mariners aren’t going to bring back Gino, which sucks. I absolutely love Au Heno Suarez, one of my favorite Mariners ever. There’s no room for him. And if that’s the case, you’re going to have maybe a little bit of extra money that you wouldn’t have if you were to bring back Gino. So maybe you can allocate that to Jorge Palanco in that scenario. I think before I move to Gino, I guess we should talk a little bit about Luke Jackson and Caleb Ferguson. Yeah. Which is I doubt they’ll be back. Like no, like no discredit to Luke Jackson. Maybe a little bit to Caleb, you know, if I was feeling if I was feeling a little Colton Swansy over here, but uh I don’t think that they’ll be back in the sense that that’s just not how the Mariners typically have operated. And there’s some guys that could fill up bullpen spots on like in the organization. Tyler Cleveland, Charlie Beansson are some names like that likely we’ll see some legitimate innings next year out of the pen. More than likely. Would I prefer a higherend name from the free Asian market? Of course. Would I prefer a big name in the trade market? Yeah. It’s just not the way that the Mars have really operated in the past. So, for those exiting free agents, I don’t really see a role for them in 2025, unless for some reason the Mariners are like really in love with what they saw out of either of them, which I don’t think is necessarily the case. For Gino, market value has him at $15 million annual average, just a little bit ahead of Jorge Palanco, which was at 14.6 over on Spell Track. A two-year contract for Gino could look like 2 years 30 million. I think the one way that Gino finds himself back in a Seattle Mariners uniform in 2026 is he is the DH and sometimes corner infielder. Whether it be third base or even spend a little bit of time playing some first base. I think it’s a very similar conversation to Jorge Palano where if the the the thing with the difference is you’re I think catching Polo potentially where he’s going to plateau and then slide down. Gino’s down the hill. He is sliding down the hill. Of course, careerhigh watermark home runs, 49. Awesome for him this year. Had a great start to the season in Arizona. did not finish the season super well with Seattle. What does that mean for his career going forward? He’s 34. He’s going to be 35 in July next year. I think his role if he is with the Mars in in 2026 fully depends on what they do at first base. If they somehow we’ll talk about Josh Naylor cuz he is the priority. So they say if for whatever reason he is not back in 2026 for the Mariners, I could see them trying to roll Gino out of first base. As crazy as that sounds, I like that to me is not out of the like that’s like behind door number three. Door number one is it doesn’t really make sense. Door number two, he’s the DH and sometimes third baseman when Ben Williams gets a day off, whatever. Maybe even a spot start at first base. Door number three is he’s the 60% everyday first baseman and then Luke plays first base the other x amount of times is not something that I would be totally caught off guard by and you look displeased by that notion. I will never be displeased about bringing back AU Suarez. Uhhuh. I will be displeased if we have to have him at first base. Of course. And I and I think the big detractor there from that I guess third secret option which is the least pleasing of all of them is the fact that you missed on Josh Naylor. You missed on other free agents like Petonozo. You didn’t trade for Yandandy Diaz or like you said Freddy Freeman, Matt Olsson or Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Right. And then you’re like kind of not necessarily I mean you’re settling at that point for Gino in a position that he’s never really played. Mhm. Again, it’s not something that I I’d give that like a 5% chance of that actually happening, but it would it wouldn’t really it seems kind of so Mariners given the fact that they signed Polo last year to be the third baseman and how did that work out? True. You know what I mean? That’s a good point. So, yeah, I think that and this is something we’ve been saying for a while now. Preferably the Mariners bring back two of the three big guys, right? In Naylor, Palano, and Gino. Me and you, the big guys. We We are the big guys. We’re much bigger than them, but the three big bats, which is not us, obviously Josh Naylor is a priority, but if you can bring back Naylor and Polo, awesome. That is fantastic for your lineup. And if you’re if the Mariners are okay with Ben Williamson and potentially even Colt Emerson being the guys over at third base in 2026, I’m fine with that. Same thing that I kind of am at second base. If they think that Cole Young and Ryan Bliss are the guys, then sure, I’m fine with that. Now, once you get to mid-season, if they’re not performing, you have to figure it out and like make some sort of move there. But to to at some point these guys are going to have to get a chance at the big league level. and they’re I mean obviously Emerson hasn’t really played a whole lot um above double A but like still I think that if you you know middle of next season if you think that he’s ready you have to call him up you you can’t just leave him down there and obviously there’s a chance that some of these guys get traded throughout the offseason and that obviously opens up more avenues like if Cole Young gets traded it probably opens up a much bigger avenue for Polo to come back just there there’s moving parts there but assuming that all those guys are back next I think it makes sense to bring back Naylor and Polo more than it makes sense to bring back like Polo and Gino for that because they Yeah. Or even Naylor. Yeah. Yeah. Polo and Gino fill a pretty similar role where we’d probably be putting them at one of them would probably be the starting second or third baseman depending and the other would be probably be the DH. Yeah. So there there there’s some interesting caveats to it, but the biggest one being Josh Naylor. Now there seems to be a mutual desire to return to Seattle for Josh Naylor for the Mars to bring him back. Everything that we have heard from Jerry Dotto, Justin Hollander, everybody has said that he is the perfect fit. He he came to Seattle, he hit. He loves hitting here. He brings a type of baseball like knowledge that nobody has had in a Mariners uniform in quite some time. He brings a just a winning attitude. He He’s Gruff the big grumper, you know, like Wario out there. It’s just a It’s a situation where there has never, in my opinion, been a more obvious guy to bring back after such a short amount of time with one team. And I think that because he seems like he liked it here, he hit well here and he seems like he got along with his teammates and stuff there towards the end. You have to bring him back. And I I What did you say market value was? It was $15 million. Yeah. Just a little bit north of 15. Three-year deal. $45 million is like where Spre has that. I wouldn’t be surprised if the value goes up from that just given his performance and what he kind of brought to the ball club. I will say he I don’t think he’s probably he’s the second first baseman in this class. He’s not the cream of the crop. You know, no discredit to Josh Naylor, but Pete Alonzo is likely going to get a bigger contract than Josh Naylor. Just flat out. Would I pay more money to have Josh Naylor or Pete Alonzo on my team in 2026? I don’t know. Call me crazy. I might pay more money to Josh Naylor. I think he might do more on the intangible side. Of course, Pete’s going to guarantee you 35 to 40 homers and 110 RBI every single season. First base defensively, is it a moot point at some points? Yeah, but I think baseball knowledge and IQ, Naylor had some great defensive plays during the season where maybe the first baseman who’s just kind of like, “Huh, I’m over here at first base doesn’t make that play.” Whereas Josh Taylor’s like, “I’m over here at first base, y’all. Okay, I got it.” kind of a situation. He’s he’s locked in like every step of the way. And not to say that Pete Alonzo necessarily isn’t, but I don’t know. I I just And of course, there could be some bias where we saw what Naylor did in emergency uniform. He hit tremendously in T-Mobile Park. He had nothing but good things to say about the atmosphere, about playing in T-Mobile, about the fans in Seattle, about the team. Had nothing but good things to say. And is that influencing my opinion? Of course. I’d be it’d be silly for me to not be influenced by all of these outside factors that are pointing me in the direction of he should stay in Seattle. And that’s what we felt the entire time when we traded for him. And that’s what we felt probably in two offseasons ago when we said we should trade for him from Cleveland. And then last year when the you know the Diamondbacks got him, we’re like ah we wish we could have done that. Mars definitely could have matched that offer when it was Slate Sakone. Whatever, right? There’s so much mutual interest. It’s not just things that you’re hearing from the front office people. Then the reporters echoing that same sentiment about not only what they’re hearing, but how they also view the perspective of what Naylor and and Seattle and how they fit together as like a puzzle piece long term. I don’t think because he’s going to be what 29 29 20 29 in June I think. And of course first base is a is a tough position as far as value is concerned. It’s one of the least valuable in all baseball just in terms of production as far as war. I don’t think going to four years is unrealistic and I honestly would expect the Mariners to do that as a similar to the thing I said about Horic Palano almost a good faith thing like hey we want you here we want you to be comfortable we want to give you the the paycheck that you deserve kind of a situation I think four years $18 million is like I would go that I might even go up to 20 million truth be told I might pay Josh four years 80 million and be happy as a camper because of I mean, 2.1 more in a third of a season. Of course, is that production going to be repeatable? It’s possible, but it’s not super probable. But I think what he does outside of the production in between the chalk lines, the foul lines, is just brings about a better environment and that tenacity within the clubhouse and can bring out the best in his teammates. full like if if anyone’s not on the bring Josh Taylor back train. I don’t know what you’re looking at. Yep. Can I say something crazy? You gonna say five years 100 million? I am willing to give him a a six figure contract. I don’t think that’s crazy. It’s not ridiculous to say that. It’s not ridiculous to say that. I He’s 20. He’s going to be So at the end of that contract be what? 33 34. Yeah. like it’d be honestly I think that that’s what he’s going to be looking for is a five to sixyear contract in my opinion. I don’t I think four is much too short. Yeah. When you look at the contracts the Mariners have given out to position players or just offensive players in general. The biggest one being Mitch Garver, right? And it was what $12 million a year. It was a $24 million two-year contract with an option. Mhm. They’re going to have to extend themselves well above that if they plan on resigning Josh Naylor somewhere that the Mariners haven’t really been in terms of like and don’t me wrong they’ve they extended Julio obviously they’ve been willing to spend money on certain guys and I think Josh Naylor by every account by what everybody has said is one of those guys and I think that in any other year where you’re not pushing like the Mariners ers were for the playoffs. You probably could have tried to extend him, but because the sole focus was on the playoffs and going to the World Series, I doubt it was even like really brought up. I’m sure it was like mentioned in past like, “Hey, Josh, want to stay?” “Hey, hey, buddy.” Like, yeah, I I I can almost guarantee that figures were never exchanged because I don’t Josh doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy that wants that distraction during the season. And if that’s the case, cuz he’s going to be able to he’s I mean, it’s not just the Mariners. 29 other teams have the chance to offer him money and I wouldn’t be shocked if the Yankees are willing to offer him more. Truthfully, I think he fits that ballpark really well. Yeah. But I don’t think he would I I don’t know. I don’t know if he’d want to go to New York, truthfully. And I think that with how he fit in with the team this year in Seattle, the Mariners have a really really good shot at bringing him back. And if they have to overpay, if they have to give him that extra year, I’m okay with that. because in the in the short amount of time that he was here, I think he earned it. The conversation, I think, is stemming from where the Mariners front office will have to be uncomfortable. They’ll have to get into waters that they’re usually not treading in. And when we started this podcast, the quote from Jerry Dotto that Nicoan posted saying that they expect to start the off season at around 160 million is what because that’s what they ended the season at. I think with I don’t with ARB stuff I think it’s at 140. Okay. with ARB stuff and then with like Munoz’s option it’s at like it’ll be I think around 140 or 145. So, if they’re anticipating being at 160 to start the off season, like where is that 15 million coming from? Or is that just weird wording from Dotto and like that’s where they you know, so it’s tough to say, but you mentioned it last I think. Yeah, it was last podcast. you want the payroll to be 180 million and I think it was yeah I think it was Moonlight as well in just like a like a DM saying that I don’t know there was a post that he had yesterday talking about like Mariners payroll by year and like what the league was like where they ranked leaguewise. So 2025 they were 15th with 164 million. if they to to get to 13th overall in payroll, they’d be around 180 million. So, you’re now entering the top half of payrolls in all of baseball. And talk with with what Jerry’s saying about how it’s going to be the highest payroll in the Marin like I I assume it’s with the Mariners because I mean he was with the Angels before. I don’t know how high the payroll was over there, but we’re just talking about in the reference to the mayor is like the highest payroll that he’ll be operating with or has operated under before. 180 to 190 is not unrealistic. And I think when you’re starting at 140, there’s 20 million to Josh, there’s 15 to Jorge Palanco. Okay, you’re at 175. You have five to 15 million maybe to spend on a reliever or something else like if it’s a position player help that you feel like you need or whatever. The the way that this off season should go is Mars start the 2026 season flirting with $200 million in payroll. Truth be told, because they have the they definitely have the capacity to do so and they have the spots on the roster that need to be filled with the exact players that will get them to that level of, you know, committing payroll, if you will. This is something that we could that we’ll talk about later on in the offseason, but there’s a chance they decide to move on from Luis Castillo with the guys that are coming up, you know, and Kate Anderson, Dangelo Sancha, etc. Those guys coming up, they could decide to move on from Luis Castillo. And if that’s the case, you’re saving yourself potentially like $22 million right there. That’s money that you could allocate to one of these guys. I’m not saying it’s the right move. I’m just saying that if they if they decide that they don’t have as much funds as, which is wouldn’t be the first time we’ve heard that that they don’t have as as much funds as we anticipated, they could decide to move on from Luis. And I think that I don’t think anybody would be that shocked if they decided to trade Luis Castillo. The 2026 MLB luxury tax threshold sits at 244 million. So that that obviously acts as a soft salary cap, right? Where that is like the most that you can spend before you start getting taxed and in the first year you’re taxed 20% on all your overages, etc. Doesn’t matter because the Mariners are never going to get to that point. But if that’s the case, a $200 million payroll for the Mariners after they lost the operating cost of Root Sports. They lost the revenue too, but they lost the operating costs. They are now going to hopefully get a bunch of money from this playoff run. And don’t get me wrong, they still have to play all pay all their employees and whatnot. They’re still going to have plenty left over. They probably made 30 plus million dollars from this playoff run alone. Yeah, they should have the money next year going into the season to have a salary of or a payroll of nearly 200 million. I I don’t see why not. The only way that I see why not is if ownership decides they don’t want to push the their budget that high. And off topic, the other day I was watching TV and there was like, you know, like those ads that are like slamming opposing politicians and whatnot. Sure. There was there was one for a Seattle mayoral candid candidate. I don’t remember who it was. And it said um paid for by this person this person John Stanton, Chris Larson. They spent their money on on a campaign on a political campaign. And I was like, are you kidding me? Spend money on a team instead. What are we doing? But obviously, you know, it’s not necessarily how it works. And they can spend their money however they want. But like, hey guys, maybe let’s just keep your names off of it. If you’re going to do that, keep your names off of it or something. But yeah, so that’s a situation where I was like, what the hell? So hopefully that doesn’t um impede the the Mariners from making any additions this offseason that sorely need to be made. But speaking of the luxury tax, Joe one team way above it. The Dodgers are way above it by like 120 million or something like that. And hey, the World Series starts Friday and we may as well talk about some of our FanDuel favorites for the World Series because there’s actually some interesting things in here for game one. Trey Savage was announced this morning as the starter for the Blue Jays and Blake Snell will be on the mound for the Dodgers in game one. The Dodgers, not shockingly, are favorites in that one. Now, they’re going to be in Toronto. Show Otani is going to Toronto. He’s on a flight. He’s flying there. He’s on a flight to Toronto. The Dodgers sit at minus 154. The Blue Jays at plus 130 in that one. Over under on this one is set at 7 and a half. Um I could see that being over. Truthfully, I I think that might be over just on the Dodgers side of things. I think they’re going to light up Treya Savage. Truthfully, I really do. Team’s good enough to do it. I mean, there’s the Dodgers swept the Brewers in the Championship Series. I don’t know how you want to quantify how close of a series it was for in the division series for them against the Phillies, but they looked like the better team. They won obviously they swept the Reds. Like they look every part of the oh hey we’re the big bad Dodgers. We could potentially be ruining the sport of baseball. Blah blah blah blah blah. Like they look every part of that. And it wouldn’t surprise me if they dropped six on your Savage’s head. He’s a good enough pitcher where I think he also could work on the swing and miss and the the awkward arm angle, the release point for him could play into it. And it’s not a guy that frankly many teams have seen, but also going to, you know, the opposing side for the National League. Like it’s not a a player that the Dodgers have really seen. Whereas Blake Snell, I mean, he was a Tampa Bay Ray not too long ago. How many people how many like players on the Blue Jays have seen him? I mean, sure, it’s like Vlatty, it’s George Springer, but like there’s a lot more tape on Blake Snell, but clearly that that hasn’t mattered because he’s just frankly one of the best pictures on the planet when he is able to go. Colton, you brought to my attention probably the probably one of the funnier props or just bets in general. And remember, do it responsibly over on FanDuel. That’s something that they take pride in. Please do it responsibly. This would be a literal donation when you brought up I think was it Brian Woo or Logan Gilbert throw an immaculate inning or something. That’s a donation, right? Plain and simple. Joe Otani to hit four plus home runs in any single game plus 25,000. You said can do it. I mean, yeah, if there’s anyone that could do it, it’s him. Those odds should be higher, frankly, I think. And that’s a donation. So I if you’ve got $5 to just burn. Hey maybe maybe maybe just send it to us in a super chat and say sure sure the second one on there show Otani to record 10 plus pitching strikeouts and hit two home runs in any single game. The hard part is is you were only going to have what like one maybe two chances for that to happen where he pitch in a game. Um, but again, he did it in the in the championship series. Like, he hit three. So, yeah, it’s Shi Otani is an absolute insane person. And I think that if again, if anybody can do it, it’s got to be Shi Otani. World Series most home runs, Otani sits at plus 200. He is obviously the highest on here. Number two, Vladimir Agurero Jr. at plus 700. And number three, Max, which I find interesting. Oscar Hernandez at plus300 when he’s going back to Toronto where he spent so much time and became a a well-known you know asset to that Blue Jays team. I think I personally think Teao should be higher on this list in my opinion. Nonetheless, we appreciate you guys watching this episode of the Hit It Here podcast part of the Believe Network and presented by FanDuel. And go mirrors.

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The Mariners offseason plan could not be more clear. Sign Josh Naylor. After acquiring the first baseman at the trade deadline this season, Naylor performed extremely well in a Mariners uniform and the team has made it their top priority to bring back Josh Naylor as the club’s first baseman for the foreseeable future.

– M’s Arb Projections 3:27
– M’s Free Agents 11:09
– Naylor #1 Priority 23:37
– FanDuel Favorites 35:55

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