The Seattle Mariners’ NEXT MOVE Might Be Right Around the Corner
The Mariners’s next move might be right around the corner. Colobby, hit it. 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 Thursday, December 4th, 2025. You’re listening to the Lockdowns podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. now the number one sports podcast network. My name is Teddy Gazales and I’m joined as always by my co-host Colobby Patnode. We’re two lifelong Maris fans who’ve been covering the team for over half a decade. And on today’s show, we’ve got some new insights into what the Mars might be working on behind the scenes right now. Thanks to Adam Jude of the Seattle Times, he’s posted a couple articles over the last 24 hours that have detailed the mayor’s interest in a few position players and their hopes to land a new reliever in the coming days. We’ll talk about all that, including the player names he’s dropped in those articles. But before we do, I want to shout out our title sponsor today, FanDuel. If you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit fanuel.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. So, we’ve heard a great amount of detail about which position players the Mars are interested in. Obviously, there is tons of chatter about wanting to bring back Josh Naylor. The Mars outright said that they wanted to bring back Josh Naylor. They got that done. They’ve said outright that they want to bring back, you know, Jorge Palanco and Aueno Suarez. There’s been, you know, a lot of reports about that as well to corroborate all that. Uh, but we haven’t really heard anything about the Mariners and relievers, even though that’s according to the Mariners themselves supposed to be a pretty big part of their off season this winter. They would like to add two relievers. They would like to add someone to the high leverage mix. They would like to add a lefty. We we know that, but we haven’t heard any specific names until today. So, we’re going to start with the second of the two articles Jude has posted over on the Times, uh, detailing the mayor’s interests in a few relievers and how they are quote unquote hopeful, uh, to land at least one of the two relievers they would like to add this winter before the end of the winter meetings next week. Uh so Jude first reported uh that the mayor has actually had quite a bit of interest in Phil Mton who’s a guy that we’ve liked and we’ve talked about quite a bit here on the show over the last few months u even before the trade deadline. Uh they had interest in him before he signed a 2-year 14.5 million deal with the Chicago Cubs a few days ago. Um, so that gives us potentially a better idea of which shelf the Mars are shopping from, at least in terms of the free agent reliever market. Now, three of the five guys that uh Jude later went on to say that the Mars are considering right now would have to be traded for. Uh, four of these five guys are lefties. Uh, but the three guys that you would have to trade for all lefties, Matt Stum of the Phillies, Jojo Romero of the Cardinals, and Jos Ferrer of the Washington Nationals. He also mentioned free agent lefty Hobie Milner, who we talked a bit about, and uh, righty submariner Tyler Rogers, the righty of the Rogers Twins. And we’ve talked about four of those five guys, Colobby, but we haven’t really talked about Rogers. So, let’s start there. Tyler Rogers. That would be a a definitely a different look in the Maris bullpen. I mean, yeah, he is a true submariner. If you guys, you know, are into arm angles and whatnot, he throws he throws his pitches from a negative 61 degree arm angle. So, negative 90 is straight underhand. So, uh he’s he’s pretty close to straight underhand. Uh yeah, and it’s it’s a sinker slider. He doesn’t throw hard. He only throws 82 to 84 miles an hour. Uh but obviously because of the uniqueness of his arm angle. Uh it it works fantastic. You know, he’s 100th percentile in base on ball percentage. He’s 100th percentile in barrel. He’s 95th percentile in hard hit. He’s 98th percentile in ground ball. Uh 99th in in average exilo. And he’s gets some whiffs or he gets some chases too. Uh 63rd percentile in uh chase percentage. He’s not going to miss bats like that. That’s not what he’s trying to do. He’s out there trying to induce contact and soft contact and he’s very very good at that. It’d be a very different look uh from anything we’ve seen from the Mariners recently. and uh would definitely be a a uh you know, I mean, it it’s it’s so different from what the Mariners have right now out there, which is I mean, it’s the same it’s the same pitch mix, sinker slider, but again, everybody on the Mariners is throwing from, you know, low 3/4 arm slot roughly. And this guy is practically throwing underhand. Uh and so, yeah, he’s very good uh reliever. He’s not going to miss bats. Again, that’s not part of his game. He’s not trying to. It’s pretty good against lefties and righties last year, so there’s really not a splits issue here. Uh, and it would be arguably the most unique delivery in Mariners history. Uh, I mean, I can’t remember the last time they had a true uh, you know, submariner. Um, CEK probably the closest in recent memory and he was just sidearm. So, uh, yeah, he he would be a nice ad. Uh I would hope that he would be the second arm uh that they would add because again I think the Mariners need more whiff in their bullpen. Yeah. And he’s not going to be that guy. But in terms of a guy who hey we just need the the seventh inning. We just need a clean seventh and you know we’re up by one or two and and we just need a couple ground balls here. Fine. He’s just not the guy you’re going to go to with runners on second and third and one out when you need a strikeout. He’s not that guy. Uh but uh yeah, I mean he’s he’s really good. The numbers don’t lie. Uh, in this case, it’ll be interesting to see how much he cost. And if the Maton thing, if they were in on Maton, maybe we’re looking at the Mariners not wanting to spend more than, you know, seven and a half, eight million bucks max on on their relievers, which, you know, kind of in line. That’s about where I figured they would be. Yeah. Yeah. The the idea that they were ever going to be on in on like the Devin Williams or the Ryan Hley types, but not gonna happen. It was not going to happen. Uh, and you know, if you thought it was, you’re kind of lying to yourself. So, this is what the Mariners do. They shop at like, you know, not the elite price range, but they shop at the the tier below that or maybe even the tier below that, depending on how you want to look at it, particularly in the bullpen. Uh, so yeah, Rogers, how much he wants is going to be a big part of this. But he would certainly be interesting because he is, we’ve talked about, you know, wanting unique looks out of the bullpen and we’ve talked a lot about that in terms of like pitch mix like, hey, let’s get some curve ball guys. Let’s get some change up guys out there in the bullpin. Well, Rogers throws the sinker slider, but he might as well. It’s very different. Yes, it’s very, very different. And, you know, and his sinker is basically a change up. It really is. I mean, and so, yeah, it’s it’s very different. It’s unique. Uh, and so I’m I’m intrigued just because of of the difference. But again, I would really like the Mariners best reliever that they had this winter to be a guy who can miss some more bats than Rogers currently can. Yeah. Well, let’s talk about Matt Stum, then. That’s a guy that misses a lot of bats. He is the guy of these five that were named by Adam Jude that stands far among the rest to me. Yeah. Uh, one year left on his deal. Um, $7.5 million, but he is with the Phillies who are a contender. Dave Dumbrossski hasn’t been very realistic with his asks according to reports over the last year or so. Apparently, there was, you know, Logan Gilbert mentioned for Alec Bal and Mason Miller also mentioned for Alec Balm last year, which is insane. Psycho. Uh, but Stum, he’s one of the best relievers in baseball. Uh, regardless of handedness. Um, and he’s actually like he’s been good against lefties. He’s been very good against righties, though, which is what makes him very intriguing to me. Yeah. Uh, you know, to put it in very quick terms, Stum’s a daddy and the Mariners bullpen needs that daddy. So, uh, he gets out lefties, he gets out righties, he misses bats. uh he’s, you know, probably a little bit better than Gabe Spire. Uh which I mean, if you add a second Gabe Spire to this bullpen, like that that now you’re cooking. And so, yeah, he’s going to cost something probably pretty significant, but it is only one year of a reliever. So, maybe not quite, you know, as uh expensive as some other players might be just because his return, his value is limited in the fact that he’s only going to throw 70 innings. So, uh, yeah, the Phillies, they also have other pieces that make sense. So, maybe there’s a kind of a a package deal here. We talked about the Phillies a few weeks ago. Um, talked about them again fairly recently. There’s Sosa and Boom and, you know, some other bullpin arms uh that need or that uh the Mariners could use and and the Phillies have a need in the corner outfield where the Mariners have a little bit of a surplus. uh the particularly left-handed hitting corner outfielders. Uh they desperately need catching help. Well, you know, I don’t know if if Stum cost Harry Ford one year of a reliever for Harry Ford, but you know, if you can add a couple pieces to that, maybe maybe this is where Harry Ford comes into play. But yeah, Stum is is the best guy of the the players that Jude mentioned because he misses bats. Uh he’s very good against lefties and righties. There’s no real platoon splits that you have to worry about. Uh and he’s just reliable. He’s been very very good for the last three years. Uh, and at $7.5 million, that’s a bargain. Like that, that’s perfect. That’s right about the most you’re willing to spend on a reliever. And for that much money, you’re not doing much better than Matt Stro. Yeah. Now, he doesn’t get a ton of whiffs, but he gets a ton of chases and he gets a ton of strikeouts. Um, so he was 93rd percentile uh in chase percentage this year, only 37 percentile in whiff rate. Um but 10.11 case per nine this year, 11.35 case per nine last year. Um the funny thing is he doesn’t keep the ball on the ground at all. It was a 21.2% ground ball rate this year, which was by far a career low. He’s typically in the 30ish range. That’s really bad. But look, you need more swing and miss in this bullpen. And your defense was not good last year. So, uh, keeping the ball on the ground doesn’t really help the Mariners a ton. And they already have guys who who do that. They need to be able to miss more bats. And at the very least, in their bullpen, it’s a ton of ground balls. And at and at the very least, uh, you know, when when hitters have been able to lift the ball against him, they’re not putting the ball over the wall that much. Only 5.4% home run to fly ball rate this year, 5.7% last year. So, at the very least, like he’s counteracting the low ground ball rate, the extremely low ground ball rate with not that much damage being done to him on balls being hit into the air, right? And keep in mind that’s, you know, pitching half of his games at Citizen Banks Park where, you know, that that’s more of a band box than it is uh here at T-Mobile Park. And uh yeah, the marine layer actually coming up with the win on a few uh extra fly balls. So you could see Stum’s home run to fly ball rate actually go down a little bit. I I’m not worried about the fact that he doesn’t get grounders. Again, if you really need a ground ball, I have Matt Brash. I have Bazardo. I have Gabe Spire. I have Munoz. They all get a ton of ground balls. Carlos Vargas. Yes. So, not really worried about that. I need the guy who misses bats. I need the guy who gets strikeouts. I need the guy who’s really good against lefties and righties. Uh and a guy with a long track record of doing all those things is even better. Oh, and I get him for below market value. Yeah, sign me up. Yeah. Uh, Stum against lefties this year, 233, 289, 384 or lefties against Stum, I should say. But righties against Stum, 196, 265, 320. And that is in U 172 played appearances. Yeah. Yeah. So, and he did this last year as well. So, it’s not LA last year righties hit 133 against him. 133, 2011, 245, basically unhitable. Yeah. So, yeah, Stum’s a guy for me. Uh, but we’ll talk about these other three guys that we haven’t really talked about yet. I mean, we talked about them in our, you know, trade preview series, but we’ll talk a bit more about them in just a moment. But first, a reminder, this episode of the Longtime Airs podcast is brought to you by Game Time. 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Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use the promo code locked on MLB. That’s Loc KD O N MLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, download the app, make an account, and use the promo code locked on MLB. That’s LOC K MLB for $20 off. Swipe, tap, ticket, go. Game time. And you’re listening to the Lock Mirrors podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Thank you so much for making us your first listen. and also thank you for making locked on the number one sports podcast network. So again, Adam Jud of the Seattle Times reporting that the Mars are hoping to land at least one reliever uh before the end of the winter meetings next week. Uh he mentioned five guys that the Mars are at least doing some digging on right now in that regard. Uh we talked about in the first segment the two guys that you know kind of most perked up our ears uh and Matt Strom and and Tyler Rogers, but uh let’s talk about these other three guys who we’ve talked a bit about uh over the last few weeks. Uh that’s Hobie Milner, that’s Jojo Romero, that’s Jose Ferrer of the Nationals. Uh all, you know, all three pretty interesting guys. All three lefties. Uh but all three also kind of come with with some caveats as well. Um, Ferrer to me would be the most expensive guy uh of the three. Um, well, obviously Milner is a free agent, so that would just be money. Uh, but uh between Ferrer and Romero, I think he would Ferrer would cost the the greatest return. Uh, because he’s he’s the guy in the Nationals bullpen and he’s like their only guy. So, it kind of feels like they would like to try and capitalize on that. And also, they don’t really like need to move him even though that, you know, the Nationals are not good. So like a good reliever to them is really worth nothing in terms of onfield production. So uh but still I I think that’s going to cost a little bit there if the Mars were to trade for Jose Ferrer. So what do you think about him? I mean he’s pretty good. He gets a ton of ground balls. In fact, I don’t think anybody in baseball gets more ground balls than he does. U you know 64% so maybe one or two guys. Uh but there’s not a lot of swing and miss here. It’s not bad. It’s it’s about league average in terms of the whiffs and and the K percentage and the chase and all that. Uh but he’s a lefty who really is just sinker. Like he is almost exclusively a sinker. Uh he doesn’t really throw the slider all that much. He throws to righties he’ll throw change ups as his primary. To lefties, he’ll throw sliders as his primary. Uh, and what’s interesting about that is the data says that actually the the change up and the slider are both pretty good. Like he gets whiffs on them. Uh, there’s not a lot of damage done off of those pitches. Uh, when he does decide to throw them, he just doesn’t throw them that often. I mean, the sinker, he’ll throw uh, you know, he threw the sinker, let’s see, 70.6% of the time last year and opponents hit uh, 309. Now, they only had a 420 slug because again, lots of ground balls and all that. So, that’s all well and good, but 309 is pretty hefty average. And then you look at what they did against the slider and the change up. The change up, they hit 221 with a 324 slug. And that pitch had a 47% whiff rate. Uh the slider had a 52% whiff rate last year. Mhm. Uh and opponents only hit uh one or sorry 105 with a 158 slug. So could there be a path where this guy gets more whiffs and more strikeouts if he’s willing to throw the sinker less? Maybe. And maybe that’s what the Mariners want to do with him. But well, I mean that’s what the Mariners do, right? They they look at something that maybe you’re not doing enough of. They identify like a really great tool that maybe you’re underutilizing and they’re like, “No, just throw that more.” That’s all you need to do. We don’t need to mess with your arm angle. We don’t you don’t we don’t really need to mess with your mechanics. Just throw that pitch more. Like I said, the change up he threw about 22% of the time. The slider he only threw about seven. So obviously there’s some kind of like you can tell a guy to throw a pitch more, but obviously that doesn’t mean that the pitch will be better just because you throw it more. Like there’s confidence and all that. So, how much is Ferrer really going to trust the change up and and the slider when he’s basically been a a sinker guy for his entire career, but the change up and the slider have really good metrics on them. Like, they look like they could be legit swing and miss pitches. And so, I don’t know, do you maybe also introduce a four seam fast ball? Like, he’s still going to be sinker heavy. He’s still going to try to get ground balls, but like can you jump up the the whiffs and the K’s and the chase a little bit? uh you know with by just asking him to throw these off speed pitches a little bit more 5% more 10% more maybe. Uh so that’s kind of my thing with with Ferrer. It does feel like he’s more of a you know maybe bizardo type than he is a brash type and and I think the Mariners could really use a Matt Brash type of guy. I mean heck if they get another Bazardo nobody’s complaining. But I also think that this is a guy who’s got four years of club control left. And I worry that you’re going to end up paying more for the club control than you are the actual impact of the reliever. Yeah. Uh that you’re getting. And I think that’s a really dangerous thing to do when you’re talking about relief arms in general. So agreed. Pereira is interesting because he actually has more swing and miss in his in his arsenal than the numbers would suggest when you dive a little deeper. It’s just can the Mariners get to that? Uh, and I think this guy because he has four years of club control left, I think you’re talking about a Harry Ford uh, type of guy and and I just for rare if if he, you know, was missing if he was striking out, you know, more than a batter per in I might be more interested in that. He’s close. Like again, it’s not like he doesn’t get any swing and miss. He doesn’t get any strikeouts. He’s just not getting top tier strikeouts uh from a reliever. And that’s kind of where I would want the Mariners to uh to attack this. Well, and out well and outside of Stum, that’s kind of the theme here with all these guys that Judas mentioned. And it’s like, hey, Mariners, you guys realize you don’t have like Bobby Whit Jr. and Michael Garcia behind your pitchers, right? Like, you kind you kind of need to miss more bats. Like, it’s it’s all great if you want to, you know, induce a ton of ground balls, but if you have a below average infield defense, that’s uh you do. Yeah, which you do. What were they negative? like the the the Mariners I think they were like negative 30 and yeah field run value. Yeah. Yeah. Uh and I mean it’s not even like their elite out in the outfield with Randy Rosena getting most of the reps out there in left. So uh I think that was their overall defense by the way 30. Most of that came from the infield. Yeah. Although they ran out some real duds out in right field while they were trying to get Victor back. So yeah. and Luke. Yeah, don’t don’t need the low lightss of Dom can zone again. Woof. Um, but yeah, you know, swing and miss would be better, more preferable. Uh, and so that’s why Stum is easily the guy for me uh out of this group. Carrera, again, interesting because there might be more swing and miss there. There might be. Yeah. And if there’s not, you’re still getting a pretty good reliever. It’s just I don’t think you’re getting a guy that’s worth trading the cost that would probably be associated with acquiring the player because just because he’s got four years of club control left. I don’t want to overpay for club control, especially on a reliever because if he’s bad enough, there’s a chance you’re not even tendering him a contract in two years or three years anyway. So, you’re not even getting the full four years of club control if he’s bad enough. Hobie Milner is the guy of these five that I I want the Maris to avoid because he’s a a true left- onleft guy. He’s a very good one. You know, he’s a but he’s a lugie and those guys obviously have pretty clear limitations placed upon them now with the three batter minimum. Yeah. Um Milner this year 208 uh or lefties hit 208 226 300 against them. righty’s hit 295, 375, 445 against him, and that’s been a constant in his career as well. Yeah. Do I trust Dan Wilson to be able to press the right buttons with Milner and find the right lefty pockets with Milner? Absolutely not. So, yeah, I’m not I’m not giving him that option. Milner to me is just like like, okay, you add Milner as your big Dan Wilson defender Kobe Patode coming through. Uh uh if you add Helby Milner as like your second lefty, okay. But the first guy you add needs to be a a daddy. Like that that’s how you can’t just go get like if you want to go get two dogs like you know the Bazardo type of dogs and like fine that could work. But Milner is just a dude. And I believe in memory serves he really struggled overall in the second half of last year especially. So like to me Milner is the guy I I really have very little interest in. Again it could work if you get him and then you go get like I don’t know Pete Fairbanks then it’s like okay yeah Milner 708 RA 584 fib after the trade deadline. Yeah. So, I don’t know. To me, that’s like a two $3 million guy. And it’s like, hey, you want to take a shot, see if you can get back on track, fine. But like, he has to be the second best bullpen arm at best. Ideally, the third best. Uh, which we don’t think the Mars are bringing in three guys. So, no, they’re bring It seems like they want to bring in two. So, yeah, Milner, that’s just I I’m out. I just I don’t think that’s be disappointing. Uh, I don’t I don’t think that’s a lever that the the mayor should give Dan Wilson to bull, frankly. So, I can just see that going sideways very quickly. Uh, and then there’s Jojo Romero, the Cardinals. You’d have to trade for him. He’s got one year left of club control. I don’t know what his R projection is off the top of my head. I think it’s five. Yeah. But, uh, he’s been pretty good against both righties and lefties uh, this year. Uh, righty’s hit just 220, 327, 315 against him and 151 played appearances. Lefties hit 211, 287, 244 against him. So, um, pretty pretty close to being the same guy against both handednesses. Um, obviously a bit better against lefties, but uh, but yeah, um, Romero to me probably the probably my second preference behind Stum of the five guys that were presented by Jude. It’s either him or Rogers. Yeah, I think Ferrer is it’s because of the cost of Ferrer. Yeah, it’s because what I assume the cost will be to acquire him. Yeah, what I assume the cost to be. I should say if Romero and him were going to cost roughly the same, I would prefer Ferrer, obviously. But yeah, I think he’s going to cost significantly more just because of the club control. And honestly, Romero and Ferrer are pretty similar pitchers. Like they have some swing and miss, but it’s not the biggest part of their game. Uh they get a ton of ground balls. They’re pretty good at avoiding hard contact. Romero is more is sinker is his pri or slider is his primary pitch, but it’s still a sinker slider pretty heavy. And then the change up he’ll throw 23% of the time. So it is a pitch that you do have to respect uh from Romero, the change up. Um but yeah, you know, it’s it’s fine. and he was not as good as he’s not as good as Gabe Spire, which I mean to me I would think the point would be to try and bring in a lefty who is at least on the same level as Gabe Spire and that would be Stro who’s probably a level above uh Spire and Romero’s probably just a level below. But uh yeah, I mean again there’s probably some more swing and miss here although not as much as Ferrer has shown when you look at the data. Uh but Romero is because he’s going to be cheaper uh than than you know the other trade options. Uh we assume uh I think that he is probably like the safest acquisition just because I don’t think he’s going to cost all that much both in terms of prospects given up and you know salary and all that. Uh and I just think he’s probably got the not the highest floor. for strong si’s floor and ceiling, but like I’m not worried about Romero blowing up next year really at all. Whereas with Milner, I’m very concerned about that. And even with Ferrer, I’m a little bit concerned about that. Uh but yeah, Romero is just kind of like in the middle here. But yeah, Stum is easily the number one uh without question. So let’s wrap up on this. Um, if they do acquire reliever uh by the end of next week and it is one of these five guys, who do you think it is? I mean, statistically or like you’re just playing like the odds, Milner is the one who’s most likely to be because he’s the worst one and he’s the cheapest one. Yeah. Um, if you want to like actually get like outside of the analytic analytical part of it, it feels like Romero would probably be the guy. Uh, just because, you know, that we know the Cardinals are going to sell. We know the Mariners have already had conversations with the Cardinals repeatedly over the years. Uh, and it just feels like that’s the guy. Ferrer, maybe he’s next up, but the Nationals don’t aren’t don’t have to move him this winter. So, they could afford to wait and kind of see if they get anything. Whereas Romero is going to get traded this winter. Stum again, it’s just like I would love it for it to be Stum, but you have to deal with the crazy that is Dumbrosseski. And so, it’s kind of like a is he going to be ready to move this guy at a good reasonable price by next week? I kind of doubt it, but it would be awesome if he was. So, my guess would be Romero is probably the if, you know, had to pick one of the five. Like, again, if you’re just laying odds, Milner gets the highest odds of being that dude, but I’m going to bet on Romero if they do get something done by the end of the winter meetings. Fingers crossed for Matt Strom, though. That’d be great. I mean, you could get Romero and Stum. You can have three lefties. Yeah. Like, nothing wrong with that. Well, especially when Stum is better against righties as well than he is lefties. I mean, look, if your if your three lefties are Hobie Milner’s, that’s bad. If your three lefties are Gabe Spire or better, like that’s pretty freaking good. So, yeah. Uh, yeah, don’t worry about handedness all that much if the all the guys are good. But, uh, yeah, I just Hobie Miller to me would just be like, all right, let’s switch gears here. Let’s talk about the, um, position player leaning article that Adam Jude put out yesterday on the Seattle Times. go over that in just a moment. But first, a reminder, this episode of the Longtime IRS podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. NFL Sundays move fast. One big play and suddenly everything feels different. That’s what makes live betting with FanDuel so exciting. You’re not just watching the game, you’re reacting to it in real time. 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And on there, we talk Mariners, Seahawks, all that good stuff. For more information, go to patreon.com/controlthezone. Link in the description. So, uh, the reliever article is not the only article, not the only interesting article Adam Jude has dropped over the last 24ish hours over on the Seattle Times. Uh, yesterday morning he put out an article about Jorge Palanco and some other position players uh, regarding the Mariners uh, with some uh, some interesting little nuggets. So, uh, he said that Palano, uh, there might be some more clarity on his market, uh, by the winter meetings. We’ll see. Uh, but that he’s kind of the mayor’s priority and he’s kind of prioritizing Seattle, but they not really close on a deal. So, who knows? Time out real quick. Future Tai here. Just wanted to quickly interject and and clear something up here because I was editing and listening back to this part of the show and I realized I kind of mischaracterized what uh Adam Jude said about the Blanco situation cuz I was more so trying to remember what he said off the top of my head when recording this rather than actually reading the article back during the show. So what he said more so was that, you know, the the Mars have made their interests in Palanco and bringing him back wellknown, which we already know about, and that Seattle is believed to be uh Palano’s preference. So that’s a little bit different than the Mariners are prioritizing Palanco and he’s prioritizing them. So just wanted to make that clarification real quick. All right, back to the show. Bye. still kind of feels like that’s where things are going to end up though, that they’re going to bring back Cory Palco, that they’re going to come to some sort of agreement. But he does have interest from other clubs uh as well. But you can only wait so long. You can only wait so long. We talked about this. Yeah, we talked about this. You got to you got to be able to act. And you know, look, like like I talked about on top five Tuesday last week, like there aren’t that many fallback options either if you whiff on on Polo. So yeah, you kind of have to get after it. So, uh, Jude mentioned some of those fallback options. Uh, Brandon Laauo is one guy. Uh, these are, according to Jude, these are all guys that the Mars are actually doing some level of of work on right now. So, Brandon Lao, he’s got one year left. Tampa, we’ve talked a lot about him. Brendan Donovan, we’ve talked a lot about him. And then Catel Marte. So there is a report from one of the most reputable beat writers covering the Mariners saying that the Mariners are at least doing some sort of work on Catel Marte which is better than I expected frankly given the whole contract situation even though it’s it’s not egregious. It’s not an egregious contract or anything like that is very very reasonable especially for the player that could tell Marte is but you know I’ve vared my concerns about that just based on how the Mars have operated. Uh, so that is nice to hear and I will once again say that Catel Marte shouldn’t be the fallback if you lose out on or Palanco or Palanco should be the fallback if you lose out on Catel Marte. Yep. Mhm. So M Marte again to me that’s the guy this off season. He is the perfect fit for what the Marers need right now. Yeah. I mean, we’ve talked about this a ton. Like, he is the dude. Like, he is the the one that changes the conversation. Uh, if the Mariners were to acquire Catel Marte, um, pretty much regardless of what it costs, they would probably be the favorite in the American League. Uh, now Toronto is certainly going to have something to say about that and obviously the Yankees are, you know, whatever. The Red Sox are loading up. like it wouldn’t be a cakewalk but like on paper if the Mariners acquired Catel Marte they would be the favorites to go to the World Series. Uh so like that’s the kind of you know shift changer that Catel Marte is like he is that dude. Um, and so yeah, he should be the posit he should be the the priority. And you know, it’s one of those things where it’s like, look, if we get Catel Marte and then like in January or whatever, Palano’s like, “Hey, I want to sign still.” Like, you figure it out. Like this, you can make that work, right? Yeah, you can. But if but if they’re only going to add one more bat the rest of the off season, which has kind of been the indication that they’re only going to add one more at least significant bat, then to me has to be very much at the top of the list with a bullet. And there has to be a pretty big gap between him and number two. Yeah. And he’s the best hitter who’s probably going to move this winter. Uh like I mean some people might be screaming Kyle Tucker, but like Kyle Tucker wasn’t very good last year relative to expectations. So, uh, you know, it’s it’s one of those things. He had a really weird second half. Uh, mostly, I think, because of a wrist injury, if I’m remembering correctly. I mean, he was still 136 WRC plus game. He was basically I think he was worth the same amount of F4 that that Marte was. I think they were both four and a half, but Marte has been more cons but Marte isn’t coming off of an injured year. So, maybe you could argue Kyle Tucker is the better choice because it’s easy to explain why he struggled in the second half. Uh, and I believe the struggles were almost exclusively power related in the second half because I know he went like a month and a half without hitting a home run. But look, Kyle Tucker, he only had he only hit 22 bombs last year. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, look, but also Marte Marte missed more time than than Tucker did last year. You’re missing time. If you’re in the lineup and you’re not producing, you’re practically missing time. So, I I think here’s the deal, right? Like, you’re not going to get Kyle Tucker, right? Kyle Tuck, it’s not that Kyle Tucker isn’t available to you. just we know the Mars aren’t going to spend that. At the very least, Marte is by and large the best. He is available talent that you could realistically get, right? It’s not a waste of time to talk about Katel Marte. It is kind of a waste of time to talk about Kyle Tucker if we’re being honest. Yeah. Um I’d love to be wrong on that. That boy wouldn’t that be fun to wake up to like, oh, the Mariners spent $380 million on Kyle Tucker. Like, oh snap, not going to happen. So, Catel Marte is the best bet you could feasibly walk away with. uh at at this deadline. And and you know, he does have one other thing that really works well is is he does have some versatility to him, you know, and and while he’s not, you know, a defensive wizard, uh he has played a lot of second base, he has played some shortstop, he’s even played some outfield. And when you talk about, you know, hey, how do the Mariners fit these guys on the roster? Well, Jerry Dotto talked about it last week, uh or two weeks ago, last week, I think it was. He’s like, “Hey, you know, you kind of have to give a premium to flexibility. You have to be open because we want to play these young guys. You have to be open to moving some other guys around to make it work. You could tell Marte could start the year at second. He could play some third for you. Heck, I bet he could figure out left field pretty quick. Uh so, you know, it’s just one of those things where Marte just checks all the boxes. He’s the guy who moves the needle the most that the Mariners could realistically acquire uh this winter. and you can still make other players fit. Like you figure it out. If if you have an opportunity to get Catel Marte, you do it. And then if you still want Polo and you get to January or whatever and the deal’s really favorable and and you’re like, man, we didn’t think we were going to we didn’t plan to have both of these guys on the roster. But if we can, why wouldn’t you? You’re trying to win the freaking World Series. Yeah. So, you know, Marte, like the focus right now should be on Marte until Marte is traded. It doesn’t mean you can’t work on other things. Obviously, you can have split focus, but like he should be the priority, not Polo. And so, it’s without any hesitation, without any question, Catel Marte is the guy the Marin should be focused on right now. 100%. And you know, we’ll see. You know, doing doing some level of work isn’t exactly like they’re exchanging names, but like, you know, it’s probably But again, but again, it’s better than I thought. I just I figured like, you know, contract, we’re not going to sign up for, you know, for five guaranteed years to a guy who’s already 32 years old. Like, but again, for all we know, like they’re saying public or they’re saying they’re leaking here like, “Yeah, we’re in on Marte or we’re interested.” But they’re not really like they’ve kind of already made their mind up. We don’t know. But yeah, you know, we do know Jude’s level of of contacts, uh, when he’s, you know, throwing around names. Uh, and that’s not something that you should ignore. When Adam Jude lists a name, you should pay attention to that. Yeah. So, when he listed Donovan Marte and Laauo in the article, he says, “Here are other options the Mars are exploring in the infield per sources with knowledge of the club’s plans.” So that’s coming from someone someone that higher up I would expect. So yeah, I think we know who it’s coming from. We’re just not going to say it. So yeah. Yeah, exactly. You guys can fill in the blanks there. So yeah, uh the other thing that Jude said in that article that was kind of interesting. Uh Michael Royo, one of the Mariners’s top prospects, is going to play some left field in the Colombian winter league. Now a Royo, that’s kind of been the biggest knock on him is like where is he going to play? He’s kind of without a position right now. Dude can hit, but where are you going to put him on the field? Because you’re not just going to exclusively DH him. At least not right away. Not right out of the gate. Uh so left field. That’s kind of interesting. Um to me, I’ve been saying this for a while now. Uh I mean, this was pretty expected from from my point of view. Um that if he sticks in the organization, he’s probably the Randy Rosarena replacement in 2027 when Randy probably walks in free agency. Maybe they bring him back. Maybe they extend him. But maybe I doubt it. If I had to put money on it right now, think Randy is probably playing somewhere else in 2027. And at that point, yeah, maybe a Royo is the the guy. Sure. I mean, isn’t a Royo’s comp kind of Randy Rosarena like 2020. Probably not going to be a great defender, but he’s a pretty good athlete, you know, and hit. We’ll see about the over the wall power. Yeah. How that translates to the Majors. I think he’ll I think he’s probably going to tap out at around 20 would be my guess, but maybe there’s more. Uh he’s still a young kid, but it’s but it’s also possible he might only hit like 12 to 15. It is, but again, he’s also what 21? Just turned 21. Like he’s a young kid and he’s probably going to start next year in double A, but maybe AAA. Uh my I assume he’s going to play. I feel I feel like we’re going to see him at some point. If he’s still in the organization, which he might not be here in a couple months time, but um but if he’s still here in the organization, I think we probably see him at the major league level at some point in 2026. Yeah, at least for a cup of coffee. Um I think you know, you were talking about like prospects most likely to be traded. He’s probably second or third. So, there’s decent odds that he’s not with the or uh Colombia qualified for the uh WBC. Okay. So, so you think he might be uh involved? He might be playing for team Colombia uh this spring and not in camp, which would potentially complicate things, but also Yeah. He’s not going to That also that also might give him more, you know, advanced reps, right? Right. So, it’s kind of a, you know, good and bad type of situation, but he wasn’t plan he’s not a plan to start on the opening day roster or be a part of it really for the first couple months. So, I assume the Mariners are fine with that. Uh, and yeah, he he’s definitely he can hit. I I really like Aoyo. He’s a very good prospect. Left field was always going to be the move. Uh, I feel like uh because like he can stand at second, he can stand at short, he could stand at third, but he’s not really going to be good there. He’s never been good in those spots. He’s always been okay to to, you know, mediocre at best at those spots. So, left field was always the move. The bat profiles just fine in left field. Uh, and yeah, you know, I guess the next thing hopefully we hear is that Harry Ford’s doing a little bit of it himself. Uh, playing a little bit of left or right field, getting those reps in at some point uh this winter. That would be great to hear as well. And again, you know, assuming those two guys survive the winter uh in the organization, which they’re probably the two prospects most likely to be traded uh you know, in the organization, at least the two impact prospects most likely to be traded in the or they probably will factor in to some degree in 2026 along with Colt Emerson. Obviously, the Mariners have not been shy about making that clear that they expect Colt Emerson at some point uh seemingly early in 2026. So going to be a lot of young players fighting for playing time and you know like Justin Hollander said last week you know like hey it’s really tough to ask like three or four rookies to to be in your starting lineup. So we’re kind of trying to navigate that. We want to give these guys opportunities, but it’s really, really difficult to rely on three, four, you know, rookies in your to be everyday players for you. Justin said all the right things this winter. I got like everything that he said, I’m like, “Yeah, yes, that that’s what you say. Even if you don’t mean it, that’s what you say.” Yeah. So, yeah. I mean, we’ll see how they all work out, but yeah, a Royal Planes left field. Not a surprise at all. uh it’s where he’s supposed to play I think ultimately and you know Harry Ford right now he’s the the backup catcher but again the more you can do right and you know you just can’t have Harry Ford sit on the bench 10 days in a row and have and justify having him up at the big league level he needs to get at bats from somewhere and in order to do that it means he needs to play other positions as well yeah well and I mean like you know if those elite on base skills actually translate to the major league level like you want that guy in your lineup consistently Only way you’re probably going to be able to do that justifiably so is by having him learn another position or a couple different positions. Like Cal Ry DH 38 times last year. Like cool. If he does that again, you can’t you can’t, you know, justify giving Harry forward 38 starts over 162 game season, right? Like you’re not doing him any favors by having him at the big league level. Well, and especially if you got Polo back in the fold or you know you trade for Marte or whatever, like you might be giving that are going to be limited. Yeah. Yeah. DH preps are probably going to be going to other guys. So, yeah. All right. That is going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Maris podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day for Colobby Patnode. I’m Titan Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at l__s. You can follow me at Titan Gonzalez and Colobby at CPAD1. That’s CPAT11. We’re also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG, Colobby MLB Colby on the show at Lockdown 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.
Ty and Colby react to a pair of articles written by Adam Jude of the Seattle Times, detailing the Seattle Mariners’ hopes of adding a reliever before the end of the Winter Meetings and what fallback options they’re considering if they don’t bring back Jorge Polanco.
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Seattle Mariners, Mariners Rumors, Mariners News, Locked On Mariners, Jorge Polanco, Josh Naylor, Eugenio Suarez, Phil Maton, Matt Strahm, JoJo Romero, Jose Ferrer, Hoby Milner, Tyler Rogers, Gabe Speier, Randy Arozarena, Harry Ford, Michael Arroyo, Colt Emerson, Brandon Lowe, Brendan Donovan, Ketel Marte, MLB offseason, Mariners trades, Mariners bullpen, Mariners podcast, Seattle baseball
2 comments
How about both Marta and Polo.
Tyler Rogers would be so sick. I love crazy deliveries!