MLB Insider CONNECTS Seattle Mariners to Tarik Skubal, Plus AL West Trade Options Explored

MLB Insider CONNECTS Seattle Mariners to Tarik Skubal, Plus AL West Trade Options Explored

One of the top MLB insiders says the Mariners will indeed be interested in Tigers ace trick Scooble this winter. Also, we’ll look at the AO West for the best trade fits for the Mariners this off season. Colby, hit it. [Music] You are Locked On Mariners, your daily Seattle Mariners podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Ohoy sailors. It is Wednesday, November 5th, 2025. This is Tutting Gazal and Colby Patnet for the Lockdown Merrors podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. This episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if you bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Download the FanDuel app today. We’re going to kick off our division by division trade preview with a look at the AL West today. They will comb through the rosters of the Angels, A’s, Astros, and Rangers for potential trade fits for the M’s this winter. But before we do that, we have a rumor to talk about. Buster only vPN saying today that the Mariners will be one of the many teams interested in Tigers ace TKO if he does wind up becoming available. And it seems like the likelihood of that happening is growing by the day. The more we hear about Scooble and the Tigers, it seems like they’re at least going to listen to some trade offers on Scooble. So, we’ve talked about this. I’ve said that I very much want the Mariners to be in on Scooble. Uh we’ve already kind of talked about what the the cost would be or at least what we think the cost would be. Uh what we would be comfortable uh trading for one year of Scooble. Uh, so now we have word from one of the top MLB insiders that the Mariners are going to be in on this. What do you think? The scoop thing is is really interesting because the Tigers are stupid for like entertaining and not just paying the guy. Like, let’s be clear about that. Um, but also like based on what we’ve heard their previous offers were to Scoo, it sounds like they have no interest in actually paying this guy. And so why would you keep a guy just to lose him in free agency, but also, you know, you’ve gone to the playoffs in back-to-back years. You’ve been eliminating the ALDS in back-to-back years. And this is your last shot with the second best pitcher in baseball, best pitcher in baseball, however you want to. Why would you trade him? So, it’s it’s a weird thing just in general to think about the trick school trade because a playoff team and well, we don’t know that it’ll have be this way next year, but like a kind of even field American League where there is no dominant team uh and you have the best pitcher in the American League and you’re going to trade him, like why would you do that? But there are a lot of, you know, rumors and and whispers and and smoke to the idea that they’re willing to trade Scoo. So, uh, just starting there, that that’s weird. Uh, it’s a weird thing to have this pop up. But, um, as for, you know, the Mariners’s interest, good. They they should be interested. Absolutely, they should be. If Scooble is available, the Mariners should be interested. Um, you know, it’s not a guarantee that they win the World Series if they trade for Scooble and it’ll be expensive and you’re only going to get him for a year. You’re not going to sign Scooble to an extension. It’s just not going to happen. Uh, I don’t even think you want to, quite frankly. Uh, because we’re talking about what, eight years, $350 million, like something like that. Um, for a guy who, you know, has had a couple surgeries already, he’s thrown a lot of innings over the last few years, he’s going to be over 30. Like, there are some red flags there. Um, but he is a generational pitcher. So, I’m not surprised. I’m more surprised that the Tigers are entertaining trading Scooble, which by all accounts they are. I’m more surprised by that than the Mariners being interested. Now, how much are they interested in Scubble? I don’t know because that is, you know, a couple of great prospects at minimum to go out and get one year of a guy and that has just not been the Mariners’s mode of operation. And so, it it’s a very interesting topic. There are a lot of different avenues we can go down, but ultimately at the end of the day, your goal should be to win the World Series in 2026. And does Gerangelo Sanja and Laz Montes help you do that? No. Does Trick Scubble help you do that? Yes. Yeah. A thousand% yes. Uh, plus also just keep in mind, it’s not a for sure thing because there’ll be a lockout, but if they keep the qualifying offer system or some version of it, you’re going to get something back when Scoo signs elsewhere this winter if you trade for him during the winter. Uh, if you trade for him in the season, you get nothing. So, although the price will be lower. So, yeah, there’s a lot of different, you know, avenues we can go down on this one. But a, you know, assuming the Tigers are actually willing to trade Scubal, and it sounds like they are, the Mariners should be interested to some degree. Uh, and really the whole conversation comes down to how aggressive do you want the Mariners to be because it is going to cost quite a bit to get even just one year of this guy. Look, you have a very good rotation, one that I think is is better than the one that we saw over the course of this past season because of all the injuries that they sustained and they were pitching through. uh you might have very well the most balanced rotation in all of baseball. Mhm. That said, you don’t have an absolute demon in your rotation. And that’s what TKO is. He’s one of the few true true aces in the game. And if you have the opportunity to go get that guy when you have World Series aspirations, you should go do that. Frankly, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. The one concern that I have here though is that while the Mariners can, you know, just from a pure farm system standpoint, they can outbid anyone in theory, do worry about their lack of pitching prospects, high-end pitching pro prospects with proximity to the big leagues. Like I’m talking about they could start opening day in a major league rotation. Kate Anderson isn’t going to do that. Dangelo Sanja isn’t going to do that. Ryan Sloan isn’t going to do that. And we’re not talking about prospects like Logan Evans and Emerson Hancock here. We’re talking about guys at a at a in a much much higher tier. So, is that ultimately going to be the hangup? Whereas, like the Red Sox have some guys that they could offer that could be in the Tigers rotation tomorrow. It’s the same thing as the the Don uh negotiations where you just didn’t have a Mick Ael. It’s the same thing as the Griffin Jacks negotiations where you just didn’t have a Taj Bradley. So, that’s the one hangup that I could see here in negotiations with the Tigers if the Mariners are going to not only be interested but aggressive in trying to acquire him. Uh, but other than that, like I’ve said in the past, I wouldn’t trade Emerson. I wouldn’t trade Anderson, but anyone other than that is on the table for me prospectwise. Now, you might get into a situation here where Tigers go, “Give us two years of Logan Gilbert for one year of Tercoel,” which I think is an interesting conversation. I wouldn’t do it, but I do think that’s an I do think that’s an interesting conversation, but I I think where this could come into play is you trade hypothetically. I My hunch has always been is that if the Mariners trade one of these guys, it’s going to be George Kirby. Yeah. If they traded George Kirby to, I don’t know, let’s say the Mets, right? Just because you trade George Kirby to the Mets. Well, maybe you use the package that you get for Kirby as part of your scubble offer. Yeah. Do you get like Jonah Tong, right? And then you say, “Okay, well, so let’s say you get Jonah Tong and and I don’t Brett Batty I whatever it is, right?” It’s like, do you then go to the Tigers and be like, “Okay, well, now we have Tong and now we can give you Farmelo and blah blah blah.” And so now it’s basically a three-team trade without it actually being a three-team trade. Uh so I think that is one possible path they could go down. They could also, as you’ve mentioned, uh on the Patreon show, uh you could also trade one of your young prospect bats for a young arm and then take that arm and flip him to Detroit in a deal. So there are like semi three teamam deals that aren’t technically three-team team deals. My my idea on that was Cole Young to Pittsburgh for Hunter Barco and then Barco to Detroit, right? And maybe you could do that with Harry Ford, maybe you could do that with Cole Young. Uh there are some possibilities there as well. So just because the Mariners don’t have the pitcher right now doesn’t mean they lack the ability to go get one and then flip him for scubble. It just there are more hoops to jump through. uh you know, if the Tigers want that young pitcher and and it’s not the easiest thing in the world to to go out and get a young pitcher, even if you do have the young offensive counterpart, teams typically prefer to have the arms. So, uh it’s one of those things there are a lot of hang-ups here, but it is worth exploring every single one of them because Scubble could be the difference. Like, if you had Scubble this year, do you win the World Series? I think you probably do. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, the biggest hurdle between you and the World Series, frankly, was your rotation. Yep. Bryce Miller was your best guy, which I mean, Bryce was great. Like, I mean, even even if the starting rotation did show up a bit more than it than it did, Bryce still might have been your best guy because of just how well he pitched. But, you know, considering that he was your worst starting pitcher of the five of your five main guys over the course of the year, that was a bit of a problem. And obviously Brian Woo wasn’t healthy enough to pitch out of the rot like to actually start a game in the playoffs and Logan Gilbert was a disaster in the ALCS. So yeah, if you had a you know school now obviously the Blue Jays smoked almost everyone in their path so who knows and obviously you beat school twice or you at least overcame school twice. So who knows? But still like yeah if you had school in your rotation for this postseason run I mean I feel pretty good about the statement that you uh you win the World Series. How many starts did the Mariners get from their rotation this year where the starter got more than 15 outs? Uh don’t know off the Bryce got six. Oh, you’re talking about the postseason run. Yeah, I thought you meant the whole season. Oh, no. I mean, not as many as you would like from that either, but yeah, innings from your starter. I think maybe twice. And we saw what that did. you had to go to the bullpen more frequently. You had to, you know, use guys three, four days in a row against teams that had already seen him for three, four days in a row. Like those things add up. And if you have a Scooball who you feel really good can dominate in a playoff start and go seven strong and do all that, then it it there’s a trickle down effect there. So Scooball is well worth the discussion. He is well worth the price that we think they’re going to pay. It’s just does that particular price line up with what you have to offer? I don’t know. That’s the biggest hurdle to me because I I would say the biggest hurdle is the Tigers actually trading Scubal, but man, it it seems like all the smoke we’re seeing and and all the the stories we got about the disrespectful offer that the the Tigers made to Scubble last winter, it all just points to a team that’s like, “Yeah, we’re ready to move on from this guy. We’re going to try and cash in.” So, we’ll see. But, uh again, just just brace yourselves. It’s going to be pricey no matter what the the situation is. All right, we’re going to switch gears here and comb through the AOS for the best trade fits for the Mars this winter in just a moment. But first, a reminder, this episode of the Lockdown Merrors podcast is brought to you by Price Picks and Doer. You and I make decisions every day. But on Price Picks, being right can get you paid. Don’t miss any of the excitement of this sports season. 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Link in the description of this episode. So, we are kicking off our division by division trade preview today uh with a look at the AL West. We’ll do the AL Central tomorrow and then, you know, we’ll work through some of the other divisions over the next few weeks. something that we do every single off season. Uh we’re going to start with the uh the athletics. Are they the Sacramento athletics now or are they just still the athletics? I know they’re getting a Sacramento jersey. We’ll just go with the athletics. Yeah. Uh can’t imagine that this team is going to be looking to uh trade off from their roster that much. This seems like a team that is going to start to build towards competing again. You know, the the A’s do that thing where like for three to four years they’re competitive, then for three to four years they’re non-competitive, and now it seems like they’re back on that upward swing into being competitive again. It’s the A cycle and it usually culminates with them going all in on one year and then they lose in the first round and then they just sell off everybody. Like remember when they traded like six years of Lazardo for two months playoffs and then they traded Olsen and and Murphy in that winter. They do it. It’s usually a fiveyear cycle. Five years they’re four years they’re good, one year they’re great potentially World Series caliber. They lose. They trade everybody away and then they start the cycle over again. Five years they’re bad or three years they’re bad. Two years they’re, you know, they’re on the upswing. And that appears to be where they’re at right now their cycle. So, yeah. Yeah. So, I don’t know if there’s anyone outside of the bullpen that you want to talk about. Is there? Yes. Okay. Brent Rucker. Rooker. Yep. 100%. Brent Rucker. Yeah. I would call the A’s like every Monday until the end of Brent Rooker’s contract or until he sucks and just be like just checking in, Brent. Maybe. Okay. Yeah. Uh but also, you know, it it doesn’t really fit all that well just based on where the Mariners are at. But I have always been intrigued by JJ Blade, uh who is coming off of a really bad year this year. Got sent down, got demoted, but he was really good in 2024. He can play all three outfield spots. He’s a left-handed hitter. He’s an athlete. Uh which is something I would like more of in this uh organization. I think he’s only supposed to make about three million bucks. It’s one of those lottery tickets that you stick in the corner outfield and you see if it’s better than than Robas or Kzone. Uh he also had a solid second half. Had 252 306 495 115 WC plus. Now he did strike out 30 and a half% of the time though. So Right. So again, it’s not a perfect player, but he is a a player who I would I would rather take a shot on him rebounding than like Victor Robas. Mhm. Uh would I rather take a shot on him than like Luke? Similar, I would say. So again, it’s not it’s not the cleanest fit in the world, but uh I like Beday as a player and I think Seattle can get more out of him. Uh so I I would just, you know, keep an eye on that, but other than that, no, maybe some kind of challenge trade for Zack Gellof, but yeah. Yeah. You know, just pretty much roll with Cole Young if you’re interested in Gellof, I think. So, uh, yeah, there’s not a ton there offensively, but, uh, BL is somebody I would, you know, maybe if I can get him cheap enough. Uh, and again, I would just be constantly asking about Brent Rooker. Yeah, I know he signed the extension, blah, blah, blah. That doesn’t matter. Yeah. So, I feel like if you’re going to make a trade with the A’s, uh, this offseason, it’s going to be for a bullpin arm. Like, if you’re getting an actual major league piece from them, it’s for a bullpin arm. Uh, the guy that I really like is U. Justin Sterner. We we saw him um a few times, especially early on in a couple of those earlier uh A’s Mariners series. Uh you go to his baseball font page, a lot of red. It’s a four seamer, it’s a sweeper, it’s a cutter. Um sweeper has generated a 46.4% whiff rate last year. Uh so I’m I’m interested in that profile. Uh I think the Mariners would also be pretty interested in that profile. So, he’s the guy that stands out for me in this bullpen. Uh, anyone else? No, not really. Um, I like Luis Severino. I think he would be an incredible fit for the Mariners in the ballpark. Uh, but he’s making Luis Castillo money and so you trade Luis Castillo and not save any money and trade for Severino. Just a little too messy for me. But no, it there’s not a ton on Oakland or the A’s. uh that I think is likely to be moved that I would have interest in as a Mars fan. Again, there’s a couple Beday and Gellof if you’re kind of looking for lottery tickets. Uh and then Sterner is is kind of the big guy out of that bullpen. And then Severino, I guess there’s like a one in a thousand shot that the post or that the offseason goes down a very particular path where I would be interested in trading for Severino who I’m sure wants out of Sacramento and I’m sure Sacramento wants out of Luis Severino. uh in that deal. So, no, not a ton uh for for the A’s, which it’s going to be a theme for I I assume the next team we’re talking about. Yeah, I mean the other guy in the bullpen that I would just mention here, I don’t think the A’s would be willing to move on from him, but uh former Mariners prospect, they got him in the Rowanas Aaliyah steel with the Nationals a long time ago. Elvis Alvarado, uh he finally made his way to the bigs and he looked pretty good. uh he throws gas and he generated a 37% whiff rate on his four seamer and a 41% whiff rate on his slider uh last year in his cup of coffee in the big. So yeah, I don’t know if if they’re open to it, I would I would be super down to take a shot on Alvarado. Sure. Uh all right, so uh who did you want to talk about next? I thought the Astros. Yeah. All right, let’s do it. Let’s talk about the Astros. So obviously this is a team that’s going to look to to retool to, you know, go back after its ALS crown. Uh now you’re getting chased by the Astros after you’ve chased them for for so long, which is uh it’s nice. It’s a nice reversal of roles here. Uh can’t imagine that the Mars and the Astros are going to line up on on most things here, though. No, they’ve traded in the past, but I don’t think they’ve made a trade since the graveman trade, so it’s been a while. Yeah. Um, yeah, I think that was the last one. It’s been a while. I don’t think the front offices wouldn’t make trades with each other if there was a good fit, but looking at this roster, it’s not a lot of good fits. You know, most of the guys in the bullpen are making serious money. The ones who aren’t, Houston’s not going to trade for trade to you. Uh, so the bullpin’s kind of out. You kind of look at, you know, obviously they’re not trading Altuve. They’re not trading Pñena. you’re not trading for Korea, you probably don’t want that contract anyways. Yordon’s out. Uh so yeah, the rotation, the Astros kind of need to keep their rotation arms because half of them are going to end up getting Tommy John and it’s fine. They’ll replace them with somebody better. Uh because that’s just what the Astros do. But when you really look at it, this roster, you kind of you kind of go, is there anything that the Mariners could use? And yeah, like Ramona Reus maybe coming off the bench kind of replacing Dylan Moore. Eh, but even he’s going to make $4.5 million. I mean, it’s not bad, but like whatever. You’re probably not getting Mauricio Dubon. Uh, Jesus Sanchez is just Luke, but more expensive. So, that’s not really a fit there. Uh, Hayden Wesneski would be pretty cool. I like him, but when’s he going to be healthy? Yeah, that’s the thing. I don’t know when he’s going to be healthy. Uh, and then yeah, it’s like it’s pretty much it. I mean, Chaz McCormick, but he was just, you know, rel put on release waivers, so don’t have to make a trade for him. And he’s been pretty bad for the last couple years, and he’s going to make $3 million as kind of that, you know, fourth outfield type. So, yeah, I just don’t see a lot with the Astros that makes a lot of sense. Some bench players maybe, but you kind of go through the the fits and and what the Mariners need and what the Astros need. I just I don’t see it. Yeah. Uh what I’m most curious to see here, and this doesn’t pertain to the Mars though, uh is just how this whole Paradus Korea Altuve Yordon thing works out. Like right now, uh Roster Resource has Paris as the full-time DH and Yordon playing left field. Like, okay, in Houston with the Crawford boxes, you can make that work, I guess, but anywhere else, like, how how is that going to work? It feels like one of those guys is going to have to be on the bench, right? Yeah. I mean, Yordon and Altuve should be DH like the both of them, but obviously only one person can. And Pedes is probably the best defender of the three, but obviously they’re not going to, you know, bench Kareah. They just traded for him. So yeah, that that’s kind of an interesting, you know, situation they have to navigate. I don’t think there’s obviously Yordon and Altuve aren’t going anywhere. So it would be Paris would be the odd man out, but they’re not going to trade you Paredes. And if even if they did, you want to pay a premium for a guy who’s a kind of weird ballpark fit. Yeah. No, in general though, I I kind of wonder if they do trade Parus somewhere. Yeah, I could see it. All right, we’re going to look at the Rangers and the Angels to wrap things up here on our AL West trade preview in just a moment, but first a reminder, this episode of the Locked Ones podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA is back and there’s no better place to get in on the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you miss the start of the game or want to ride the hot hand, FanDuel has live bets on everything from who will score next to fourth quarter comebacks. Plus, you can even combine your live bets into a same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. It keeps every game exciting, especially when your team is making that late push. Right now, FanDuel is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So head to fanuel.com to sign up and play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA and you’re listening to the Lockdown Mariners podcast. Before we get back into our ALOS trade preview, gone too long without mentioning the fact that Jorge Palano has officially declined his player option. we were all wondering what was taking so long because it was a you know pretty obvious decision it seemed for him to decline the option uh given the year that he just had. Uh we were planning on actually making that part of our show today. Uh talking about like hey are they maybe you know working on an extension behind the scenes or something like that and then right before we hit record boom John Haymon tweets yeah Palano’s declining his option. So there you go. Uh Polo is officially a free agent. Uh the mayors I’m I’m sure are going to have a lot of interest in bringing him back just like Josh Naylor maybe Au Henio Suarez to a certain degree but we’ve talked about that it’s Naylor and then Polo and then I think a pretty large gap before anyone else. Uh but yeah, there you go. So everyone we expected to be a free agent for the Mariners is a free agent now. Uh and they can freely uh negotiate with other teams starting tomorrow, I believe. So, yeah. All right. Uh, let’s wrap things up here on our ALOS trade preview uh with the Angels and the Rangers. Starting with the Angels. And this is I mean probably a pointless thing to do here because the Mars and the Angels haven’t traded with one another since Jerry Dotto landed in Seattle. But, uh, for the sake of the exercise, we will come through this roster, talk about some guys that we like. I think we should start with Taylor Ward because like he’s been our guy. He’s been specifically your guy, but I also really like him for years now. He’s Mitch Haniger. Yeah, it’s pretty much it. Mhm. But still good at baseball. Yeah. Not not current day Mitch. He’s like 2019 Mitch Haniger. Yeah. Uh potentially 2021 Mitch Haniger. Um, not 2018 Mitch Haniger, which it was my favorite Mitch Haniger, but whatever. Um, yeah, the the frustrating thing about the Angels is that they make a ton of sense for the Mariners. Uh, and the Mariners actually make a ton of sense for the Angels. The Angels need to rebuild a farm system. The Mariners have the pieces to help with that. The Angels you know, or the Mariners probably want to trade Luis Castillo, but they need a team who’s willing to eat a chunk of the contract and would, you know, value Castillo. And the Angels certainly help with that. Like, the Angels are a team that needs starting pitching. They’re going to spend in free agency. We know this. They’re going to spend stupidly, but they’re going to spend in free agency anyways. and some kind of Luis Castillo for Taylor Ward swap makes a ton of sense for both teams. Uh, and the Angels won’t even engage with the Mariners. Now, maybe that changes. I don’t know. Manassians, you know, in the last year of his his deal and and they’ve made it clear that this doesn’t go well. You’re getting fired by the fact that they gave their manager a one-year contract. Like dumpster fire organization. We’ll keep dunking on them forever. Uh, but like Taylor Ward for Luis Castillo, at least a package centered around that or maybe just that straight up makes so much sense for both teams. Like it’s nuts how much sense it makes. And yet we can’t even really discuss it all that much. Like we can’t even talk about it in our offseason plan prep because we just have to kind of say like, yeah, no trades with the Angels. Um, yeah. And there are other guys on this roster who make sense for the Mariners, too. But Ward is is the guy. Like if you put Taylor Ward in right field with Randy in left and and Julio in center, that’s one of the best outfields in baseball. It’s a ton of home runs. Is there swing and miss? Sure. Is Ward, you know, an on base uh guy? No, not really. Is Ward going to, you know, hit for a decent average, hit 25 homers, play decent enough defense in a corner, and is he going to lengthen your lineup? Yes. And you only need him for one year. That’s all he’s got left on his contract. If you swapped him for Luis Castillo, you would save about $10 million uh this year and then obviously the 24 next year. The Angels need starting pitching. They need innings eaters. They need veterans. Uh and Luis Castillo, by the way, would fit well in that ballpark because that ballpark is a pitcher park, especially at night. Yeah. It all makes so much sense. And the Angels probably won’t even consider it just because Jerry Dotto is the one calling them and that sucks. Yeah. Um there’s some guys in the bullpen that I kind of like. Um I mean Reed Demurs is probably going back into their rotation, but Demurs is someone that I would really like for the Mars bullpen. Yeah. I mean, I wouldn’t mind giving him a shot in the rotation for a year. You and I both really liked Robert Stevenson um when he was a free agent and then he got hurt. Um and then he he landed on the IIL again at the end of the season with right elbow inflammation. So yikes. U but he was he was really good in his time with the uh with the Rays and um yeah we were all about that. Um I don’t know maybe like if they if they did a Castillo deal and money needed to be swapped maybe Stevenson could be that guy. Also Travis Darno would be a guy to swap salaries with in a Castillo deal. Uh he wasn’t good last year but he’s been a very good backup catcher. one of the best backup catchers in baseball. More of a a 1B type of guy and you’re losing Garver and if you were to trade Ary Ford, you would need a guy and Darno’s pretty decent bounceback candidate who you feel comfortable starting games like there are a lot of I mean even Joe Adele to a certain extent makes some sense for the Mariners uh as well. So, there are lots of options here. Unfortunately, they’re hidden behind the um wall of stupidity that is the Angels ownership. Yeah, Joe Adel had such a weird year. Like, he finally broke out kind of, but he was also only a 1.2 F word player. He was a bad defender. He got on base at a he got on base at a three at a sub 300 clip. like, but he also hit 37 bombs. Like, yeah, weird year weird year for Joe Odell. All right. Uh, let’s uh look at the Rangers here. Uh, this is the most intriguing team to me. Uh, especially because it looks like they might be shedding payroll. There’s some rumblings about that going around. Could they actually trade Marcus Simeon or at least look to try and trade Marcus Simeon uh this off? But yeah. Yeah. Uh, not to the Mariners, by the way. Uh, yeah, that’s just in general. Could they look to trade Cory Seir? Maybe. Not to the Mariners, obviously, but in general, could they be hilarious if they did, though? Maybe do that. Yeah, we’ll see. Um, but yeah, this is a team that might go through a bit of turnover uh this off season. Uh, Adoulles Garcia is all but guaranteed to get non-tendered. Uh, Jake Burgerer might be done after one year in Texas. Uh, so yeah, so some changes could be incoming here. I mean, Josh Young is another guy that they might just move on from. That’s a guy to watch. Yeah. And I think that’s the guy that we should start with here for specifically the Mariners. Now uh the Mariners and the Rangers haven’t made uh too many trades. Uh but uh we know that they talked uh to one another about Nathaniel Low deal last year. The Mars were apparently pretty aggressive on that before Low wound up getting traded to Washington. So they’ve talked. Um so I don’t know, maybe they finally pushed something across the finish line this year and and maybe it’s for Josh Young. Maybe it’s taking a shot on him. Mhm. Uh Young doesn’t sound like a guy or Yeah, Young doesn’t sound like a guy who you would trade if you’re trying to cut salary, but it’s not just a salary with him. He’s going to make about $3 million AR one this year. Um, but the Rangers are reportedly I don’t want to say fed up, but like they’re kind of disenchanted with with Josh Young. They they kind of are done with that experiment. He keeps on getting hurt uh and all that and and it’s been pretty well thrown out there that like yeah, they they would consider moving on from him and and going a different direction at third base. They also have uh you know kind of the emergence so to speak of uh of Josh Smith who can certainly play third base for them. Josh Smith would be an awesome ad for the Mariners. I don’t think he’s actually one of the guys they would trade so not going to really spend much time talking about him. Uh but the Mariners don’t have a third baseman right now. Uh Young has shown that he can be a productive big leaguer in spurts in his big league career so far. Uh, and there’s certainly upside uh, with this play. So, I think he is kind of a a really, you know, ideal fit and and I don’t know what it would cost. It it’s kind of a tricky situation. It’s a three-year club control, but it’s a guy who’s been hurt a lot. It’s a guy who’s been whose production has been inconsistent, let’s say. Uh, so yeah, it’s kind of a tricky trade proposition. I don’t think, you know, again, they’re salary dumping $3 million really doesn’t do much for you. So, I don’t think you’re going to get quite a discount there, but I also don’t know like, let me just throw this out there, Tai, and this is just off the top of my head. Uh, maybe I’m forgetting something. I don’t know. Would you trade Harry Ford for three years of Josh Young? No. Would you trade Cole Young? No. Would you trade Michael Aoyo? No. Then you’re not getting you’re not getting Yeah. Yeah. No, I think I’m good on that. Yeah. It’s the on base that’ll kill you. Like that’s the one skill that I’m most worried about. Yeah. Yeah. It’s that it’s the injuries. Um Mhm. Yeah. Like if I’m able to take like a flyer on him, if I’m able to get him for like Teddy McGra and another dude like What if you get him for like Tai Pete? Yeah. Tai Pete and Bazardo. Not Bazardo. No, Ty doesn’t want Josh Young. That’s the the long and the short of it, which is fine. Yeah. Yeah. But that’s the guy that jumps out to me. Uh yeah. So outside of um outside of Young, I mean, there’s some guys in the bullpen like would they trade Robert Garcia? Yeah. Yeah. Because if so, I’d be down. Um, Josh Spores coming off of the injury that he is. I mean, he was pretty good before he got hurt. The tricky thing with the with the Rangers is that most of their really interesting guys are all free agents. Yeah. Maton, Kulom, Armstrong. Yeah. Like they just they’re all free agents and so probably going to get non-tittered, right? Yeah, I think so. I’d be interested in him as a backup option once he hits once he hits free agency. Yeah. I mean, yeah. You’re probably because they want to cut payroll. There’s probably not a way for you to trade for him and just tender him a contract because you don’t want to spend six million on a backup catcher. Yeah. Especially when you have Harry Ford still. So, yeah. Um, Jacob Webb uh put up a career year if he doesn’t have to face the Mariners. Um, yeah. Yeah. So, I I’ll throw this out there. It’s again, there’s payroll-wise, like if they want to dump payroll, they’re going to clear up like $18 million just by non-tendering him and and Garcia. So, that should help. But payroll-wise, there’s only really one name I see that makes some sense for Seattle. And it doesn’t even make sense right now, but he could. It’s Nathan Evaldi. Yeah. So, if the Mariners trade Luis Castillo, Evaldi would be near at the top of my list for a replacement. Now, there’s age concerns, there’s injury concerns. He’s also going to eat up pretty much all of the money you saved. Actually, I think he costs a little more than he has to. Yeah, he he’s he’s making 25. Yeah. So, but the stuff is so good. He’s a really good arm. I trust him. Uh he would be an upgrade. I’d pay a little bit extra to have Valdi, but again, I just I mean, he might he might be the best pitcher in the Mayor’s rotation if he’s all Yeah. Yeah. So again, I I don’t see that as very likely at all, but I think Josh Young is interesting. I think Ezekiel Durant, I know he hasn’t been good for a minute, but he can play a lot of spots. Uh he’s still young. He’s a right-handed hitter. You need that platoon guy off the bench. It could be him. Or that uh utility guy off the bench. It could be him. Web uh is a guy again, Garcia, once they’re non-tendered is more of my speed than trading for them. Uh Jake Burgerer, possibly a guy that you could trade for, but you know, we know why the Mariners didn’t really go We saw what the Mar what it would have cost the Mariners last winter and we didn’t hear for even a second that the Mariners sniffed around on Jake Burger. So that I think we know how they feel about him. Uh and then I’ll just throw this name out there. Ham Swagerty reunion. Yeah. Yeah. He is under contract for one more year with him. utility guy bring some speed right-handed hitter that’s where you want to use them is against lefties like I you know maybe but it does feel like a lot of what the Rangers have to offer you you could just wait until tomorrow and get them for free you know so well not tomorrow but you know whatever the non-tender is uh so when is that deadline I think it’s like November 19th be tendered they have to I don’t Let me look that up. But um but yeah, so not a lot really in the ALS. I mean, mostly cuz like two of the teams you just don’t really line up well with. Um specifically because of where they are right now in their roster build and then one because you literally have never traded with them. Yeah. Before. Uh, so really it’s the Rangers and the Rangers just don’t have a ton. There’s some guys like we talked about under contract if Yeah. Naton if Kulom if those guys were all under contract still we’d have a lot to talk about but they’re not. So uh the non-tender deadline is November 21st. Okay. So two and a half weeks. Yeah. All right. That’s going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdowns podcast with Colobby Patnode. I’m Tony Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at l_mariners. You can follow me at Tedangalis and Kobe at CPAT1. That’s CPAT11. We’re also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG Colby and MLB Colobby and the show at Locked On Mariners. You can also find us on Instagram at Lockdown Mariners. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we’ll see you next time. Peace.

In today’s episode, Ty Dane Gonzalez and Colby Patnode jump into hot offseason rumors and kick off their Division-by-Division trade preview, focusing on the AL West!

🚨 Breaking Mariners Rumor: ESPN’s Buster Olney reports that the Mariners are one of the top teams interested in acquiring Tigers ace Tarik Skubal this winter. Ty Dane Gonzalez and Colby Patnode break down what it would take to land one of the best pitchers in baseball, possible trade scenarios, and why the Tigers might actually move their star despite their postseason window.

🏟️ AL West Trade Preview:

Are there trade fits on the Oakland A’s (or should we say Sacramento Athletics)? Brent Rooker, JJ Bleday, and some intriguing bullpen arms are discussed.

Could the Mariners and Astros possibly match up? Not likely—but what about a surprise move with a player like Isaac Paredes?

What are the odds of a Mariners/Angels deal?

Colby Patnode is all-in on Taylor Ward, but stubborn front offices might block the fun.

Is Josh Jung a realistic fit from the Rangers, or are there bullpen arms to target when the inevitable Texas payroll cuts begin?

Plus, stick around for the latest news on Jorge Polanco, who’s just declined his player option and is now a free agent—will he be back with the Mariners? The guys give their quick reactions.

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👇 Drop your thoughts in the comments:

Would you make a big offer for Tarik Skubal?

Who’s the best AL West trade target for the Mariners?

Any dark horse fits we missed?

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