Who Would the Mariners Need to TRADE for Brendan Donovan?

Who Would the Mariners Need to TRADE for Brendan Donovan?

The Mariners may have their new backup catcher getting ready to sign a deal. Joe and I are going to talk about Andrew Kizner and what that means about the Mariners search for a backup catcher and maybe even Mitch Garver. We’re going to give you guys our FanDuel favorites and then we’re going to talk about the Mets who signed Jorge Palano to a 2-year $40 million deal and how this affects the Mariners the rest of the way. Could it be Brandon Donovan? Well, a new article from Katie Woo says that is certainly possible. Thank you guys so much for watching episode 258 of the Hit It Here podcast, part of the Believe Network and presented by FanDuel. And this is the Lara episode of the podcast. Lara bought a hat over on our fourth wall shop. So shout out to you, Lara. And speaking of the fourth wall shop from now through spring or to the beginning of spring training, we have a deal where if you use code winter, you get 10% off on your entire order. So, make sure if you guys do want to get some Mariner Mojo merch to use code winter on the fourth wall shop. And Joe is the one who put that together. So, hello Joe. Really good transition. Thanks, man. Yeah, that’s you know, you know how to pass me the baton super super well. Something that I think you’ve you’ve perfected truthfully at this point. A less than perfect because I’m really good at transitions too. less than perfect backup to Cal Raleigh here. Colton is I mean there hasn’t even been like it was in talks like all day on Friday. Nothing has been officially signed as we’re recording this. And whether or not Gizner is the major league backup catcher to Cal Raleigh or if it’s a minor league deal, we don’t even know yet. But my assumption would be he’s probably the major league backup. like that that’s the I think the the trajectory that we’re looking at for Kizner going forward with someone that’s just there to be more like more of a traditional backup catcher. We’re not looking at the Mitch Garver situation where that guy is taking DHA days. He’s taking, you know, putting Cal into DHAs. It’ll just be like Kizner’s going to play like two like three times a week at a maximum and Cal is going to take the brunt, you know, take take the large chunk of the workforce behind the dish once again in 2026. Do I think that’s a good idea necessarily for Cal Raleigh and his long-term health, especially after the year that he hadn’t, you know, caught the most innings of his career, had a long, you know, extra postseason stuff in here? I don’t. And he’s going to be in the WBC that, too. I don’t think it’s necessarily the brightest idea to and again this is all speculation for the most part about whether or not Kizner is a minor league deal or a major league deal if he is going to you know have the the pole position for backup catcher going into spring training. We I we still really don’t know but the indication to me would be that he is and that to me is I think an unwise decision. Of course it just depends on the price point. It depends on the rest of the catcher market. like Danny Jansen went to the Rangers for 2 years, 14 a.5 million or whatever, which I would have been pretty okay with. It’s just 7 million of your off seasonason going to Danny Jansen. Like I I don’t know, especially a position that you seemingly felt pretty comfortable moving someone that felt like they had the position locked up with Harry forward. Like it’s just there’s a lot of moving parts with the backup catcher position. And it’s not overly important, but it is interesting how the wrinkles have kind of changed. Yeah, it’s tough because, you know, a week ago we were talking about trading Harry Ford and being and I said multiple times there’s a good chance that Mitch Garver has a better year in 2026 than than Harry Ford does. If Andrew Kisner Yeah. has a better year than Harry Ford does, I’m going to be shocked. Ker for his career has accumulated one war with a 67 67 OPS plus in 2025. Kizer hit 221 299 299 with a 598 OPS. He caught or he played in 33 games. The nice part about Andrew Kisner and this is I think maybe the only thing that he does well is he doesn’t strike out or swing through many pitches. He he is in the uh if if he had played enough games. He has an 11.4% strikeout percentage which is about half of the major league average. and his whiff percentage was at 19.9%. So, pretty good there. Also, people have noted that he has gotten a lot better at receiving. Yeah. Um and that’s kind of it’s kind of hard to find that stat, you know, on like Savant or something like that, but um with you know, cuz you’ll see guys like a slider and they’ll go with it and they’ll keep going. He’s gotten a lot better at catching and holding, which is important um from a catcher position. But yeah, it’s a weird one, man. I mean, we knew that the Mariners were going to sign one major league catcher, a one catcher to a major league deal, one to a minor league deal with an invite to spring training. If this is the minor league deal with the invite to spring training, completely fine. It’s just Sebie Zavala again is all he is. Like, like that’s all he is. He’s Sevi Zavala 2.0. If this was the minor league deal and then Mitch Garver signs as a major league deal for like, you know, four5 million, that’s completely fine with me. And I think because the Mariners now missed out on Jorge Palano, there’s a chance they have more money to spend than they would have thought previously should they go out there and make some other moves that we’ll talk about here in a little bit. But yeah, it’s just I don’t know, man. Andrew Ker, he he’s really a whole lot of nothing. But I think I know exactly why the Mariners signed him, Joe. Oh. So So you were all high and mighty about you were certain about what the Mariners would do in the rule five draft. And I believe you that if Daniel Susak had got had fallen to the they would have 100% would have taken it but he went what the fifth or sixth or was it fourth pick I don’t remember the top like within the top like 10 picks to the twist. I’m more shocked they didn’t go pick up Christian Serta but yeah which was your second aspect of your calling your shot on the rule five. What is what is the plan here then? Do enlighten. So Andrew Kizner is the backup catcher for Cal Raleigh. Uhhuh. Andrew Kizner graduated from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina. There’s something going on here, you know, like like there’s something happening right now. And I think that that’s what that that was the plan all along. So, I don’t know. I can’t think of any other reason why you would want to sign Andrew conclusion to draw. I know you’re just joking. That is like I a million years would have never been like, “Oh, he’s from Raleigh, North Carolina.” Naturally, never in my life. So I, you know, props to you for doing your your due diligence. You’re really good research there. Yeah, it’s right on the middle right in the middle of his baseball reference page. I mean, not even that the beauty of a Colton I I type in Andrew Ker, I look at the baseball reference page, I scroll down and see a whole lot of nothing. I click out. You know, we had to find a way to make the Andrew Ker signing an entire segment of the podcast, and I think we’ve done enough of that. Now, a word from FanDuel. Thank you to FanDuel for being a sponsor for the Hit It Here podcast. Right now, over on FanDuel, the first baseball prop that’s not, you know, the winner of a division or World Series or a pennant, the first player prop has shown up over on FanDuel. Pete Alonzo home runs. The line is set at 37 a.5. Taking the over or the under can be your first MLB seasonl long bet if you haven’t already put one in for World Series winner or pennant winner. Remember, you can bet $5, you can get $150 in bonus bets if you win right now over on the FanDuel sports book. Remember to gamble responsibly. And back to the podcast. You know, one thing I wouldn’t have bet on this off seasonason was Jorge Palano inking a $20 million a year deal with the Mets nonetheless. Now, the Mariners are said to have made a competitive offer, but they did not match those numbers, which doesn’t shock me. Joe and I talked about Polo making 14-ish million a year. Um, we also mentioned how like the Mariners could do like a third year. they were never going to go four, but they could do like a thirdyear maybe a little bit lower AAV or if they were going to go, you know, the two-year route, it would probably have to be a higher AAV. But truthfully, I didn’t think it was going to get up to 20 million. And the Mets, I I assume, just got real desperate after losing Edwin Diaz and Pete Alonzo in the same day. Like that that’s a tough look for the Mets. And they had already traded Brandon NMO. They needed to get something done. Polo is going to go to New York and be their first baseman, which is interesting. Their first base in DH now that uh Pete Alonzo is gone. Um I mean, good for Polo, man. I mean, I will always cherish the uh that 15th inning walk-off that finally put me out of my misery. Like, I will always cherish that moment. It is one of the best moments of my baseball lifetime. So, shout out to Polo for going and getting his bag. Uh, rumor has it that he his dad lives in New York, so that’s one of the reasons why he chose to go to New York as well. But he said that he was incredibly torn over the decision and Seattle was his number one destination. But yeah, I mean that’s that was the Mariners number one priority the rest of this offseason was resigning Jorge Blanco. They want to run it back. That’s what they said. that has been stated as much by Hollander and Dapoto that the Mariners want to run back the team that they had in 2025 that got them, you know, whatever was eight outs away, 11 outs away from the from the World Series and you can’t do that now. I mean, Jorge Palano is off the board and that was a huge piece. He was one of your most clutch hitters. So, now the Mariners have to figure out what they’re going to do at second base, DH third base, one of that some it needs to be filled some way or another. And I’m not sure I I have an idea of where the Mariners go from here, but overall it’s just a bummer that Polo is not coming back. Yeah, the Mariners are going to sorely miss a 132 WRC plus in the middle of that lineup. That provides them a lot of flexibility with the switch hitting aspect of Polo’s game and the fact that he is competent and good from both sides really, you know, lengthen the lineup in a way that the going into 2026, I think the team is going to miss quite a bit and it’s up to, you know, whoever they bring in and Dan Wilson and, you know, the rest of the coaching staff to kind of adapt and overcome that. Do I think that Polo is gonna put up another 132 WRC plus in in New York? I don’t think so. Is there a possibility that he does? Sure, why not? Like, why why not give that chance? Because if he does, that’s great for him. He’s probably going to be worth the $20 million, two-year, $40 million deal. Like, if the Mariners, as it was reported from Jude, gave a competitive offer. I assume it was probably like 3 years 48. If they did do it, like if it was like for like a mutual third year or something like that, if it was two years, I imagine it was probably closer to like 34 million like maybe give like if it’s really competitive, I have to imagine like the the tear like like him being torn on it and like the decision to go with New York obviously like the family aspect and the amount of money like there has to be a gap, but I don’t think it’s probably a size like I don’t I saw people saying like they probably offered him two years like 30 million 15 million a year. I feel like they probably got north of that given what the conversations were from the winter meetings with what him and his agent were looking for. And I’m curious if we ever find out like what the pirates offer ended up being or what what it looked like. Well, not even not not even like from like a funny standpoint. Like if they offered him like four years, like you know, 48 million. So like 12 million a year, but he gets four years. Like how much the impact of the overall amount that he’s going to be making over these two years. Like it really does impact. And like he has a chance to I guess go into free agency again going into his age 34 season or no, yeah, age 34 age 34 season math. and be able to kind of I think if he does transition well to first base start the path of the one-year 10 to12 million deal that Carlos Santana and Justin Turner just kept they’ve just spammed for the last five years and just be able to kind of be a glue guy wherever he goes or if he just continues to resign with the same team like again great for Polo happy for him am I bummed that he’s not going to be able to rise the ranks of Mariners home runs since 2015 of You know, I’m bummed I’m bummed at that aspect, but I don’t think that the Mariners missing out on paying him $20 million next year is a bad thing. It’s a bad thing that you don’t have what his presence meant for the team, but paying that person $20 million, it was never a guarantee that he’s putting up the same numbers. So, we saw, yes, knee injury impacted that 2024 season. We saw what a fully healthy put fully air quotes but like relatively healthy and getting off his feet enough to play DH like his body should I think adapt well to one being able to DH if he is playing first base as his primary position on the field. I imagine he’s just going to DH though more often than not. They could have Mark Vientos play first base. So like the Mets can get creative. They can do plenty of other things. But if Polo logs, you know, 50 60 games in the field at first base, I think he’s got the ability to do so and do it well. It’s just a matter of where the Mariners go from here. And I think it was Oh, it was either Moonlight or Shawn Collins. One of them. One of those two. I can’t remember. like with the $20 million that we’re not spending on Polo, it’s like go get Andrew, go get Keratini and then a right-handed reliever of some capacity for like the same amount of money. It’s like you’re right in that sense and something that you said like the Mars have more money that they can use or I guess not more money but they are allowed to allocate and spread the money differently than giving Polo if obviously it’s not 20 million if they were giving him 16 million a year. that probably eats into the majority of your remaining budget and only leaves you with say 8 to 10 left to spend. Now you can still divvy up the remaining say 20 to 30 million whatever it ends up actually being and maybe addition through more pieces than addition through one higher volume piece. And of course, right, the the conversation around like who’s available on the market. Like yeah, you could still go sign Kyle Tucker, Lyall, TJ, Marine Layer podcast. You could still go do that. And that’s like the big piece that you could go sign, but like obviously they’re not going to spend that money. So it’s like how much more value can you get out of like like you know an extra piece since you’re not signing Polo? Like it’s tough to say. It’s just they now have to pivot, like you said, to someone else in the second base, third base, DH market. And there have been plenty of guys that we’ve talked about all offseason, like that that spot is not completely vacant of players that should be on the Marish radar. And we we all know where the conversation’s heading. We do. I do want to mention though, this I feel like opens the door for a Gino reunion. Yeah, truthfully, I think that there is now a chance that the Mariners because that, like you said, that DH position is vacantish right now, Gino could now be back in the cards. The Mariners want to run back as much of last year’s team as possible. If they were to go get Gino and sign Mitch Garver, that’s almost your entire team back right there, minus Polo. And I mean, yeah, you’re running it back at that point. So, I don’t think that that’s the worst idea in the world. But like you mentioned, Brandon Donovan, man, I have wanted the Mariners to trade for him for I I swear since we started this channel. I swear. Um, and a new article from Katie Woo of The Athletic says that the Seattle Mariners and San Francisco Giants have emerged as front runners for the St. Louis Cardinals infielder Brendan Donovan. That the Mariners have liked Donovan for a long time and they’ve been interested in him for a while. A source described trade momentum as picking up since the winter meetings concluded. The names that are listed here by Katie Woo are interesting. Joe and I had a conversation about these two before. The names that the Cardinals have inquired on Dangelo Sja makes sense. I think I think in any deal for Donovan, I’m pretty sure SA’s going in that deal. Honestly, I truly do. And then another player that was named was Lazaro Montes, which please for the love of God, no, please. I love Laz. But that is two top 100 prospects that Saint just top 100, right? Yes. Yeah. Okay. Two top 100 prospects that would be going back in that deal for Brendan Donovan, who has two years left on his contract of f estimated about $5.7 million this year and then an arbitration again next year. He honestly, and this is something that Tai put out on um on Twitter, the Mariners are probably a better team with Brennan Donovan than they are with Jorge Palanco. Truthfully, Donovan has just been so much more consistent. He doesn’t strike out. His highest strikeout total was 81 in 153 games. Like sure, he’s not going to hit you 27 home runs like you got out of Polo, but he’s going to hit, you know, 280 and with like a 350 OBP and a little over 400 slug every single year with and put up an OPS plus in like around 115. That’s just who Brennan Donovan has been for his entire career. And he gives you the pos the positional versatility to move around to third base to second base. And again, if you want to put him in the outfield, you can. I think that it just makes so much sense for the Mariners to be in on Brennan Donovan. And in the end, I tr like at this point, I truly believe they’re going to end up with him at the like I I I think that now that Jorge Palano is off the board, that opens up some clarity for the Mariners to now go out there and get Brendan Donovan. All roads lead to Brendan Donovan at this point for a lot of people. And I think it makes sense. The biggest draw for me for Donovan, I think, is his ability to be your leadoff hitter. That is something that I think the Mariners have missed pretty like, yeah, 2023 JP, that’s a great leadoff hitter. There’s a reason why he’s not leading off anymore, though, because he hasn’t been able to replicate that level of consistency with the power, the bat-to- ball skills, and yes, he still draws plenty of walks. It’s just it’s not on the same level. Donovan in in his career, not just like any specific season, in his career, has led off for led off in 182 games. He has a 730 at bats from the leadoff position. It’s not anywhere. It’s It’s not his best spot by any means as far as production is concerned, but when you have that many reps in a leadoff spot, like that shows that you have the capacity to do it. And he’s not necessarily bad at that pos like leading off a 259 average, a 334 OBP, a 399 slug with a 732 ops. It’s not great, but it’s better, I think, that you have someone with, I think, a clarified role as the leadoff hitter as opposed to you’re thrusting Randy Rosa Rain into that position. Are you going to trust Victor Roblace to lead off games? Are you going to try JP Crawford there? Are you doing Julio Almost said Julio Crawford, Jesus Lord, because I just said JP Crawford, Julio Rodriguez in the leadoff spot? Like, I think getting Brendan Donovan to be your leadoff hitter, I think, makes a lot of sense. And He doesn’t have to lead off against lefties. Like against righties, he will. Against lefties, that’s a whole different conversation. Like Randy again, it can just be Randy against it’s fine. But Donovan has production up and down the lineup in in multiple spots. His best spot as far as production is concerned as far as OPS with like a good amount of at bats, like it’s more than like 60 is fifth where he has 211 at bats with an 872 OPS. Like do I think he bats fifth in this lineup? probably not with how it would shake out, but like he’s batting fifth or sixth if Ry’s leading off. And I think Donovan provides you great positional flexibility and versatility. You’ll have him for two more years. You’ll have him for 2026. You’ll have him for 2027, assuming that the lockout does not impact you if there, you know, the lockout that’s looming. It’s not even a confirmed thing, but a lot of us talk about it like it is eminent and it is unavoidable, but you know, we’ll we’ll see where it goes. You have him for two full seasons. He’s getting paid I think arbitration projection was what around five million going into this like you know through this offseason. So like you’re trading Brendan Donovan you’re trading for Brendon Donovan you’re going to pay him 5 million this upcoming season and then in 2027 say he has his standard production he’s probably going to be making around 10 and then you’ll hit free agency. Right? That’s a relatively affordable cost control situation for a productive hitter who has been above average and I think provides you a good bridge to your middle infielder prospects to fully develop or be closer to fully developed. And it’s not it’s going to cost you I think I mean over h like less than half of what you’d pay Polo if you were the Mets, right? Yeah. And you would you would get Donovan for two years basically for the price of one year of polo. And the difference though is that you have to pay for Donovan in prospects and that’s where you lose a little bit of the value. And of course that’s just the the the nature of the business of the game. But the two prospects that Katie mentions being Dangelo Sanger and Lazaro Montes, that’s not I think both of them going in this trade. It’s more so she’s talking about them. I think frontlining the package like they’re talked about as like this is the main piece and then there will be secondary or tertiary pieces included with it and we can look at I think the framing of this trade compare it to the Randy Rosarena trade as far as the years of control are concerned and yes it’s a little bit different because like Randy was making a lot more money than Brandon Donovan is and you know you can look at value based on war of, you know, is Donovan or Randy more valuable? It’s it’s hard to say because Randy provides you has the ability, I think, to be a superstar when he’s at his best. We saw him carry I mean, hit 11 home runs in the month of was it July last year and like carried the Mariners offensively. Does Donovan possess that same prowess offensively? I don’t think so. I think he’s more of a consistent thing the entire year. He’s, you know, going along to the same rhythm. He’s chugging right along. Whereas Randy can be like he can carry you up a mountain the entire way, but then he has to stop there for a while at the peak and just kind of sit and like go dormant for a second. Like Brendan Donovan’s just chugging right along all season long. And so like is there differences there in what it costs as far as prospect return? Like I don’t think that the cost to get Brendan Donovan is as high as a lot of people are saying or at least I don’t think it should be as high. But everything I mean the Cardinals live guy who’s rebranded to MLB Live is on his was on his high horse about Kade Anderson and Ryan Slung. Yes, that is legit insanity. I think SA and Laz both being front run like you know like the top part of this deal one or the other leading the package. I think it’s okay. But there would be a lot of people that would say that the Mars lose whatever trade. I think if those guys go with good pieces coming along with them on either way. Yeah. Um the hard part is is like Mariners are, you know, like you said, trying to win right now. And does Laz help you win right now? No. Does Sage help you win right now? No. Brennan Donovan immediately does. This is the Mariners window of contention before guys start to age out. So when you you have to look at it from like that perspective to realize like why the Mariners would want to do something like this. And yeah, it’s probably going to be a steep package. The the Cardinals don’t have to move Brennan Donovan. They’re in a rebuild, but they still have they can move him at the deadline. They can move him next off seasonason. They don’t have to do it right now. Sure, his value might go down a little bit or it might go up. Maybe he has a really good first half of the season and they trade him at the deadline. Like that’s certainly possible. I think that for the Mariners to start a package, I I really do think Dangelo S is a part of it no matter what. I do. I think that that’s a guy that I have just thrown into every trade package. Even though I I love Dangelo Sanger, I just think that it just with the wave of pitchers behind him and Ryan Sloan and maybe Kate Anderson’s ahead of him, whatever. Yeah. The the wave of guys that are coming up maybe a little bit later than where his projected timeline sits, they’re better, frankly, and that would push Dangelo Sanger out of a spot when you already have, you know, the likes of Brian Woo, Logan Gilbert, uh Bryce Miller, George Kirby, potentially Luis, depending on how long he’s still here. So, you know, it just it’s you start to run out of spots. There’s only five spots you can use those guys. So, I think that if you are starting a package with Dangelo Sanja, I I would really prefer to not include Laz in that. Yeah. But let me run something by you. Go for it. Because the Mariners have said that they want a to to have a guy bat six ahead of Cole Young and Ben Williamson and JP Crawford. They want like a veteran presence in that spot. Brennan Donovan, like you mentioned, is probably the leadoff hitter. Yeah. Do you think it’s possible that the Mariners could expand this deal to include Wilson Contrus, who would be your DH and backup catcher? He’s making $18 million a year this year, $18 million a year next year, and then he has a club option for I think 17 a.5 or something like that. Contrarus has been pretty damn good and especially as a DH and backup catcher, I think he would make a lot of sense. Now, in that deal, if you’re you would definitely be giving up like Sanja and Laz and I feel like, you know, Yeah. Even more like it would be a big deal. Like this would be a blockbuster type trade. Mhm. But I think that with the notion that the Mariners are no longer going to be able to sign Jorge Palano, they have that extra money to be able to eat that money of Wilson Contrarus. Now Contrus is 34. He um you know his best catching days are behind him. I don’t think he caught a single inning last year to first base, but he but he caught 51 games in 2024. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz I think I think he was dealing with he had Tommy John surgery, right? and so like he wasn’t able to throw or something like that. I honestly think that they just transition him to first base full time because like their organizational depth at the catcher position like they prefer like if they’re doing Herrera back there or if it’s pahes like I just I don’t fully know about Contrarus as far as his days catching like if he’s done with it or not. Uh, I don’t h do I think the Mariners could expand this like it’s possible. I would give it like a 5% chance. I don’t view it as super likely. Not that it’s a bad idea. I just I mean Contras is getting 18 million the next two years. Um, so like yeah, you have that money to spend like it’s money you would have spent on Hory Palano. Are we comfortable spending $18 million on a DH backup catcher, backup first baseman, who yes, has a good track record, a good trajectory, more consistent track record than the likes of the boogeyman Mitch Garver as the backup DH or the backup catcher DH that you’re spending, you know, up, you know, in the teens of millions of dollars on on an annual average. Yes, he is much more consistent than Mitch Garver. There’s no odd even year for Contras. It is just a steady like 125 OPS plus every single season. He strikes out a little bit above league average, like a fair like around probably a little bit more than league average. But um yeah, 25.2 like a little bit above from last year. So like do I think it’s I don’t think it’s a bad idea. I think it’s an interesting idea. I just don’t see the Mariners lining up with it personally. That’s fair. I was shocked to find out that Will Scutter put up six outs above average at first base last year. He was in the 90th percentile. What? His first time ever playing first base and he’s in the 90th percentile. Yeah. Over on Savant. His bat speed’s in the 95th percentile. There’s a lot of red on Contraras’s page, but like you mentioned, he hasn’t been catching. In 2024, um he was in the 69th nice percentile um for caught stealing above average, but his pop time was in the 38th percentile. His framing was in the 39th percentile. So it when you look at what Wilson would be for you, he would be that backup catcher. He’s not necessarily a good one defensively, but when he’s only doing it, you know, a couple times a week, then whatever. I I don’t know. It’s an interesting thought because he fills so many roles for the Mariners as the backup catcher, as the backup first baseman, as a guy that can DH for you day in and day out. With that being said, let’s say the Mariners do just trade just for Brendan Donovan. Mhm. Right. There are other people that will say like maybe Nolan Aronado. No, not going there. Makes no sense at this point. You have Nolan Aronado at home right now in in Ben Williamson, a glove first third baseman. If you were to get Brennan Donovan, I think that you need to do more than that. Like we were talking about Polo being the kind of like the last piece and then, you know, running it with Cole Young, Ben Williamson, or Colt Emerson at third base. I think that if you get Brennan Donovan, I I really do feel like the Mariners go out there and try to get Gino on top of that. Okay. Truthfully, to be again, like I mentioned earlier, the DH and what have you. Now, I don’t know how much Gino is going to cost per year, but is your team better with Brendan Donovan and Auano Suarez, who would be batting in the sixth hole in this scenario um than it would be with just Jorge Palano? I’d say yeah, absolutely. And in terms of cost for Gino and again, a lot of people will say, you know, Gino was terrible when he came back, plain and simple, he was not good. But the the clubhouse lost quite a bit by losing Jorge Palano. Yeah. If you lose Gino, too. That’s a huge clubhouse and veteran presence gone. And you I mean I talked about it ad nauseium throughout the season where Gino like he was in control when he was talking to the pitchers. Like he was able to he worked the pitchers through some pretty tough spots. And I think that’s really really valuable. Now is he going to be able to do that from the DH spot? Probably not. But maybe he’s like maybe he’ll go out there and talk to the pitchers instead of Pete Woodworth once in a while. I don’t know. But it’s a it’s it’s a situation where I the DH spot from the DH spot. Um I think that it’s a situation where you could get both of them and still have, you know, Ben Williamson getting x amount of at bats or even Cole Young getting x amount of at bats and you just have you want Cole Young get an at bat one day, you put Gino at third and put uh Donovan as your DH and then vice versa. you want Williamson to get at bats one day, you have Gino DH and Donovan at third at second or third. It doesn’t matter. Like you can move them around. And so I think that in terms of the way that this sets the team up for the 2026 season, I think it would make a lot of sense. I I truly don’t think that if they get Donovan that that is the last bat they add. Yeah, they I think it I mean even when it it was the conversation like you’re saying with it with Polo, it’s not the last bat that they would add. I don’t think that could be relatively impactful. It would be Naylor as the primary move, Polo as the secondary move, and then someone as like a third tertiary situation. If it’s Donovan, what does it mean for that? I I think it I think it was probably actually I I take back what I just said because I think that they view Polo’s switch hitting abilities as not necessarily like two players, but the versatility that that can provide to you. The Mariners without Polo and then getting Donovan, I think will be severely missing a right-handed presence offensively. Like yes, Donovan will be great in whatever role if he is acquired. and Contrarus. If the Mariners did expand that and whatever kind of big blockbustery trade that would look like, that would be a great right-handed bat presence. The Mariners without that and it’s just Donovan. I mean, you’re not really that strong from the right side. Like, yes, you have Randy Rosen, you have Julio Rodriguez, you have right-handed Cal who took a tremendous step forward last year and even the year before. Like, rolace from the right side. You kind of a question mark. You don’t know what you’re going to get. Ben Williamson, obviously you don’t know what you’re going to get. Like there still will be a pretty glaring hole, I think, from the right-handed batters box with Brendan Donovan instead of Polo. And who that person is, I don’t have, I think, a great lean. It could be Au Heno Suarez, though. And that reunion of bringing someone back, I think, is completely within reason. It’s just a matter of what the money is. And if I mean going into the offseason if you would have told me that Polo would get more money annual average than Gino, I would have I would have said you were lying to my face. But with the way that markets seem like they’re materializing and what we’ve seen Polo get, it’s possible that Gino signs for less money annual average than Jay Palanco. Who knows? But let us know in the comments down below which package you would want. Do you want Willis? Do you want Gino? Do you want Nicoer? Let us know in the comments down below. We appreciate you guys watching episode 258 of the Hit It Here podcast presented by FanDuel.

With Jorge Polanco signing with the New York Mets this past weekend, where will the Mariners pivot after their current top target comes off the board. The rumor mill has already churned out an update on the Mariners interest in St. Louis Cardinal, Brendan Donovan.

– Backup Catcher 1:06
– Polo’s mets contract 8:18
– Donovan Uodate 16:22

Some links below are affiliate links
🎥Behind the scenes videos from Mariner Mojo!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfsGiwY3KWUsbGSmolnsB3Q/join

🎙️The Hit It Here Podcast part of the Bleav podcast network!
https://bleav.com/shows/hit-it-here/

FanDuel: Download the FanDuel app or head to FANDUEL.com to get started!
https://www.fanduel.com/

NEW MERCH STORE: https://mariner-mojo-shop.fourthwall.com/

👕SimplySeattle Code “MOJO10” at checkout for 10% off your order! https://www.simplyseattle.com/

👕BreakingT http://breakingt.com/MarinerMojo to head straight to the Mariners specific merchandise!

🪑Seat Geek Code “MarinerMojo” for $20 off https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/teamseatgeek

👕Check out the OFFICIAL Mariner Mojo Merch! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfsGiwY3KWUsbGSmolnsB3Q/store

🐦Twitter: https://twitter.com/MojoMariner

🔗 Linktree: https://linktr.ee/marinermojo

👾 Discord: https://discord.gg/Mg7W7jPRUh

👀Business Inquiries👀 MarinerMojoBiz@gmail.com

FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)