Buster Olney on How The #Mariners Can Become AL Favorites Next Season | Seattle Sports

Buster Olney on How The #Mariners Can Become AL Favorites Next Season | Seattle Sports

[Music] Well, hot stove is a burden already, Brock. We’re not even at Thanksgiving. Winter meeting still a couple of weeks away, but uh we’ve we’ve had some great conversations. Tons about Josh Naylor and then where do you go from here? And then what, a week or so ago, Buster just kind of blew our mind open a little bit when he dropped that TKO note and threw the Mariners into the mix. And so, uh we knew we had to talk to Buster. We’ll do it right now. Good morning, Buster. How are you? I’m doing great. Yeah, I was uh texting a friend uh that after the the news came down about nail the other day that no matter what the Mariners do for the rest of the offseason’s been a good winner for them, right? Yeah, let’s start that because there’s so much of the team that’s in place. How we really came to love this guy last year, the media, the fans, the players. I I mean, I know he’s been on what, four, five, four or five organizations, but man, he he just was like a dream come true as soon as he showed up here, which is part of the attraction to him, I think. You know, he’s got some scar tissue. He’s got uh he’s got some experience and that showed I really felt like in October. Um look at the end of the postseason ESPN you know sent around uh a a note asking us for you know best postseason performers and the best first baseman was Vladimir Guerrero Jr. He was unbelievable but Josh Naylor was number two and he he demonstrated you know down the stretch and into October that he can hit good pitching on the biggest stage. He was terrific and he was a great fit in terms of uh you know where he is in the lineup is that guy who’s going to make you pay if you work around Julio Rodriguez and Cal. Uh he’s that guy. It doesn’t matter if they bring in a lefty, you know, a righty who throws hard. He’s going to find a way to hit a line drive someplace. And I do think he’s gotten better, you know, defensively certainly on the bases. His time in Arizona seems to have been instructive where he’s he’s a smart player. he can look for opportunities to to run. Um, and after this deal went down, I reached out to, you know, executives with other teams and asked about, hey, what do you think about this? And across the board, everyone was saying, good deal for a good player and they thought it was a good move by the Mariners. It feel like there was to get done this early and to get a fifth year, was there some pretty good competition, Buster, from what you could feel around the league for his services? I don’t know. I I mean, let’s face it, first baseman are are probably it’s one of the positions that typically gets left behind in this era of analytics. Uh teams generally speaking, you know, don’t want to pay uh for that position. Pete Alonso is finding that out firsthand. He did last winter when he wind up settling for what was, you know, turned out to be a one-year deal with the Mets. Um but Naylor is such a unique player in this era of such big swing and miss. I think that if it had played out fully, um, yeah, you could see other teams that their winners are are are, uh, you know, are sort of playing out, jumping into that and saying, “Yeah, we’re interested in that guy.” And I think that’s probably part of the the Mariners thinking on this. Look, every winner, we see the Atlanta Braves, who I think are one of the better organizations. They get their deals done early. Like they they take guys off the board. Risel Glacius, for example, last night, they signed him. to make a trade for uh shortstop Mauricio Dubon. There’s probably other stuff coming like they move quickly in the off season. I don’t know why more teams don’t do it because as with the Mariners now you have a big piece set in stone and you have some cost certainty and you can move from there. Yeah. It’s almost like the eBay buy it now price, right? Where it’s like, yeah, we could go through the auction or just buy it now for this amount. Okay, let’s just buy it. Let’s just be done with the with messing around and and they get that done. It doesn’t look like it’s going to go that way with Jorge Palano nor with Aoheno Suarez. Do you have a sense as to the market for either or both of those two guys? Not in terms of all the teams that are going to be involved. As I say, I I think you know, Jorge probably is going to be someone who uh for some teams depending on how the early winner plays, he might be, you know, their number two or number three or number four item uh on the board. uh he might have to wait a little longer for his market to to play out unless the Mariners do what they did with Naylor and say look we really value the player we value the character the guy um you know just haven’t been around the Mariners for a lot of their postseason uh I mean he is a perfect fit with this team and maybe there’s a price at which where Palano says you can take it down and you can you can get this done um with Suarez I I I think I mean there are more options at third base he’s competing against guys like Alex Bregman. And given the age, I think that’s going to play out a little bit longer. Buster, you’re a Vermont guy, right? Vermont guy. Maybe farmer. Yeah. Oh, yeah. He says. So, I’m going to imagine you’ve seen a hot stove, you know, back in the day in in Vermont a time or two. Do you think this stove is going to be cooking this off season? Oh, big time. Um, first off, I I you know, you start out with the fact that the the guy you make case, the best pitcher on the planet, Terry Scooel, the Tigers are going to be listening to offers for him. Uh, and appropriately so because he’s a Scott Boris client. He’s eligible for free agency next fall. Um the Tigers, you know, they’re in a position where they know because he’s a Boris client that he’s going to he’s almost certainly going to go to free agency and to keep him, they would have to pony up $350 million plus, maybe 400 million cuz teams like the Mets are going to be lined up, the Dodgers, the Yankees, the big market teams, you know, will take a shot at him. A and I do think probably the small smart long-term play if you’re the Tigers is look this guy has extraordinary value right now in the trade market a and so you go to teams like the Mets maybe like the Mariners with their loaded farm system and say okay we’re open for business what would you give us for him um and you know there’ll be some teams I think absolutely will try to take advantage of that I think the Mets will I think in the Mariners case it is really because of their you know payroll size is different than a team like the Mets. I I think it’s a legitimate debate where you feel like, okay, do we want to pay the price for what’s essentially going to be one year of Carrick School in all likelihood or do we play the long game, keep the prospects, keep the years of control with those young guys? Um, you know, and what we saw at the at the deadline was the Mariners making moves in an attempt to win the World Series. And we’ll see if that’s what they do here with Scooble because my god, you put Scooble on the Mariners, man. That that would be fun to watch. Yeah. I mean, they they would be one of the favorites certainly in the American League, I would hope. And they already are, right? They would build on that. Yes. So, what is it? So, what does that take? I think that’s the it seems really hard to come up with what the market is for an ace pitcher of his, you know, his pedigree, but with only one year of control. I I can’t get a sense as to how much you’ve got to give up to get that. Are there good past comps? Well, yeah. I mean, Corbin Burns, you know, a franchise pitcher was traded uh from the Brewers to the Orioles with one year of team control two years ago, but even him and he went out as a free agent and, you know, got a whopper contract last winter to sign with the Diamondbacks. I don’t think it’s a perfect comp because as great as Corbin Burns is, he he’s not TK school and and you know, the prospects that the Brewers got back or the players the Brewers got back help them, you know, and they’re good good players. I still think the price would be steeper. Uh and you know, the Tigers where they at and if you’re going to trade school and you’re going to try to contend in 2026, you would want a pitcher to anchor the deal. Jim Bowden uh works with the Athletic suggested today Bryce Miller in the center of a deal. Um I I I tend to doubt that because the injury history I think the the Tigers are going to want a healthy young major league ready pitcher. I think the Mets match up really well in that regard. Obviously, you know, if you’re the Tigers and you’re asking for the Sun and the Moon, you’re starting with Brian Woo, the Mariners saying no and then you move on to potentially other names. But the the the Mets certainly with uh you know Nolan Mlan um and Jonah Tong and some of the other young guys who’ve already pitched in the big leagues, they could be positioned. But I mean beauty is in the eyes of the beholder if the the Mariners have guys that they’re really interested in with the with the with the Mariners. Uh if the you know if the Tigers have guys that they really like in the Seattle farm system, they can identify those and then it’s up to the Mariners say yes or no. talking to Buster Only, of course, of ESPN, you know, The Voice. Um, one one challenge it feels like the Mariners are are having this off seasonason, and they’re not alone, is trying to balance the consistency of the players that got them there last year, who who really did a lot of good stuff for them, the desire to upgrade and get even better so that they get over the top and actually get to the World Series next year, and still find ways to bring up some of the young players that they are really high on. and we saw how effective that was for Toronto this past year as well. Do you have a sense around baseball kind of what are there is there a rule of thumb of how to best balance those three things when you’re starting to get close to being a World Series team like this? Well, the late great Dave Johnson who just passed away recently, you know, I remember, you know, him saying to me, you got to have young guys. You always want young guys in the mix because young guys bring your energy and and the great thing about the Mariners is they have it feels like a you know a flood of those guys in options and players who in spring training early in the year are going to push their way to the big leagues and they’re in a good spot there and and I do think and you know if you do trade for a guy like Scooble as I said you are announcing to the worlds we are trying to win the World Series in 2026 but there is a sound argument to be made to slow play it to keep the prospects because when you look at the landscape of the American League West, I mean, the Astros who dominated it for a decade, they clearly have come down and and they’re going probably into a period of some rebuilding ahead, uh, you know, as Robert Valdez goes out the door as a free agent. The Texas Rangers are going to spend this winter managing their payroll, and they’re two stars, you know, Simeon and and Seager, they’re older now. Um, we should look at the A’s as being like a version, American League version of the Rockies. You’re not going to get free agent pitchers to go and pitch in that ballpark in Sacramento because it’s a disaster. So, as good as their lineup is, they’ve got issues there. So, there is real opportunity for the Mariners. And if you were to tell me a decade from now that 2025 was sort of their introduction into a long wave of dominance in the American League West, that would not be surprising. So, I do think that you you can um you know pay guys like Naylor, not necessarily at the top of the market, but you’re keeping a good player. You got Cal Raleigh in a good contract. You’ve got Julio Rodriguez locked up and then bring along your young guys around them. Buster, you mentioned your proximity to this organization through the playoffs, and it was great. It was great to see you and and and this team and this organization get the national exposure for the first time in in a long time in this kind of way. I’m curious what that proximity taught you. Did it change any of your perceptions as you got around Jerry and Justin and this fan base and this team, you know, just as you got closer to it than maybe you had in a decade? So, I think that it reinforced what I, you know, witnessed and saw in the 90s and early 2000s. I loved going to Seattle, like the home ballpark. You know, I covered a bunch of games in the King Dome and the it felt like a pinball machine, right? Uh with the offense and then when they moved into Safeco, it became one of my favorite ballparks. And so to go back there at Team Oval Park um and witness games there and see the passion of the fans, that is a great baseball city. Uh and you know, I know it was frustrating for the fans in in recent winters to, you know, to have the payroll reduction. Um I I got to believe that they move past that and and now going forward with this uh you know terrific farm system they built up with the young pitching that they as I said I think there’s a chance that they keep this going for a while. I mean, think about it. A year ago when, you know, they’re entering conversations with Cal Raleigh about a long-term contract. Um, and Cal’s asking them, “Hey, what what are your plans?” And clearly, he bought in and he’s a great guy to build around. And Julio is a great guy to build around in terms of personalities. You could see that culture that they have within the organization fully supported by the fan base there. I mean, it it really does feel like that for, you know, the next five or six years at least, we’re going to be talking about the Mariners being contenders year in and year out. Brock, do you know the only US president born in Vermont? Tafted. Not Tafted. I I know Buster knows, right? Well, they’re actually two. Are there two? Well, I’m shocked. I only knew Calvin GBT didn’t do it for you this morning. I knew Calvin. No, it’s not chat GBT. Like I didn’t go to the Calvin Coolage birthplace in fourth grade on our Vermont Odyssey trip. Brock, I’ve been to Calvin Kulage’s birthplace in Plymouth, Vermont. I don’t even want to hear. Who’s the other? Who was the other? Chester A. Arthur. Arthur. Yeah. Or is he wind up being a He wind up being a a representative in this, you know, coming out of the state of New York and was involved in some scandals, which I won’t get into here. Oh, yeah. No, my my history teacher in in 12th grade used to only refer to him as Chester A. I’m a bad president Arthur. That was his that was his nickname. We don’t talk about that in mind. That’s why I only knew about Calvin Kulage, Silent Cow, because we went there and then we had to go to a dairy farm where they were making uh cottage cheese. And to this day, Buster, I won’t eat cottage cheese cuz it’s the worst smell I’ve ever come across. Oh my god. Cotties. And I’m guessing you went to Billings Farm. I must have been. I don’t know. I was I was, you know, 8 n 10, right? Yeah. And just for the record, I’m actually I live in Montana now. I’m looking at at the skies of Boseman. Uh but my whole family’s back in Vermont and and yeah, been to both birth places for because we don’t get to claim a lot. Carlton Fisk and the two presidents and and that’s about it. Wow. I didn’t realize you were in Bosezeman. That’s a whole another conversation for another day. Great spot to be. All right, Buster. Thank you so much. Good to catch up with you and uh thanks for there’s a ton of great stuff here that we will be talking about for a while as this hot stove burns and we’ll see how it goes. Thanks so much. We appreciate it. It’s it’s going to be fun. Great to talk with you guys. All right, there you go. The great buster only from ESPN. Well, I didn’t real

ESPN Senior MLB Writer joins Brock Huard & Mike Salk (Brock & Salk) to discuss the Mariners signing Josh Naylor, the possiblites of a Tariq Skubal trade and more!

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0:00 – Josh Naylor’s contract
4:55 – What a Tariq Skubal trade might look like
8:50 – Balancing contending for a World Series with player development
11:15 – How postseason experience will help the Mariners

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Listen to The Brock & Salk Show weekdays from 6 a.m. – 10 a.m. on Seattle Sports 710 AM or on-demand wherever you listen to podcasts.
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