Dissecting Alex Bregman’s Reported ‘INTEREST’ in Joining the Seattle Mariners

Dissecting Alex Bregman’s Reported ‘INTEREST’ in Joining the Seattle Mariners

Alex Bregman is reportedly interested in being a mariner. Or well, he’s willing to consider being a mariner, but probably not. Or maybe, but probably not. Right, Colby? 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 Friday, December 12th, 2025. You’re listening to the Lockdown Maris podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, now the number one sports podcast network. My name is Tutting Gazales and I’m joined as always by my host Colobby Patnode. We’re two lifelong Marers fans who’ve been covering the team for over half a decade. And today we’re going to talk about Alex Bregman. you know, there haven’t been many, you know, out of nowhere things reported about the mayors, not just this winner, but in recent winners. There really hasn’t been any local reportings uh about, you know, the biggest free agents on the market when it comes to the mayors. Nothing from the Seattle Times about like, hey, the the Mars might actually be able to land this guy or this guy. So when Adam Jude wrote on Wednesday that Scott Boris has quote initiated discussions with the Mariners to express Bregman’s willingness to consider Seattle and free agency. I know it’s it’s a mouthful. Uh that obviously blindsided me and and blindsided a lot of Maris fans cuz this off season in particular has been very straightforward. So we’re going to talk about it. It’s far more interesting than a lot of the things that we’ve talked about this off season. Uh we’re going to talk about why it’s probably leverage, but maybe not in the way you think. We’ll also talk about the off chance that it’s actually true and Bregman is indeed interested in being a mariner. What would that look like? Uh we’ll talk about what we think the Mariners are overall getting up to right now. But before we get into all that, I want to shout out our title sponsor today, Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use the promo code locked on MLB. That’s LC K D O N MLB for $20 off your first purchase. So yeah, this Bregman stuff, Colby, um, pretty sure it’s a leverage play, but I’m not totally bought into the idea that this is just 100% Boris, considering the source of where this was reported, of where this report is coming from. It’s Adam Jude of the Seattle Times. It’s not John Haymon. It’s not Mark Feinand. It’s not a national nonJF Passen reporter. Because if it was, then I’d go, “Oh, yeah, that’s just 100% Boris pulling strings.” But because it’s specifically Adam Jude of the Seattle Times, I think this actually might be coming from the Mariners. Now, I know that Jude wrote uh that this is coming from an industry source, which kind of makes it sound like it’s from outside the organization. Again, I’m not 100% sure that this is coming from the mayors. I can’t say that. But I can say with full confidence that the whole industry source thing doesn’t mean that it’s not from the mayors. It could absolutely mean that it’s from the Mars. So that part to me that doesn’t matter. I do think that this is coming from the Mars. And if so, it it makes sense, right? Because um there’s still this pretty wide gap being reported between them and Jorge Palano. Palano wants a guaranteed third year, maybe even a fourth year. Uh the Mariners seem like they’re holding pretty firm on this two-year offer that they have on the table for him. They also have a lot of irons and different fires on the trade market. So saying like, “Hey, yeah, Alex Bregman has reached out to us and you know, he’s interested in considering us possibly, maybe whatever it was like that does in theory, you know, throw another option out there that does give them a little bit of an advantage, right? They can use that to their advantage. And Scott Boris can also use this to his advantage because it doesn’t seem like Breman’s market has really developed at all. Nope. So, yeah, I do think that this is a leverage play. I just don’t think it’s a leverage play in how most people assume that it’s just, you know, it’s just 100% Boris just pulling strings and doing what he always does. I think this is also the mirrors a little bit make of it. It’s pretty clear that this uh again the the initial reaching out like that’s Boris is trying to drum up business because he told Bregman that he was going to have all these great offers and very clearly he doesn’t. um at least not right now. Uh you look at the teams that have been heavily rumored to Bregman uh this year, Detroit, uh the Cubs and the Red Sox. Well, the Red Sox are, you know, kneede in these Marte negotiations. Uh the the Tigers and the Cubs really I mean the the Cubs have kind of gone out of their way to say like we need to spend a little less money than we have been spending. Uh that’s why they’re not even remotely considering go trying to retain Kyle Tucker. Uh so they have their own problems. And the Tigers, they, you know, they haven’t really been spending a lot of money recently. So right now they’re kind of focused on the whether or not they’re going to trade Terk Scubble or not. So you know, there’s just not a lot of buzz around Bregman right now. And you know, I I this happened last winter as well. Uh there was a lot of thought that Bregman was going to get, you know, six to seven years with 180, $200 million, something like that. Don’t uh that he was going to get something like that. And he ended up having to take a a three-year deal with an opt out after year one. And now you kind of wonder Breman’s sitting around being like, I probably shouldn’t have opted out, you know. So, we’ll see what the case is, but uh very clearly that is, you know, Boris trying to drum up business for his client. But I think what’s probably also happened here is the Mariners are like, “Look, Boris has tried to use us as leverage in the past with other free agents and he’s, you know, dropped the mystery team nonsense. Even though his players never end up signing with the mystery team, it’s always the team that you expect and all that.” And this time around, I believe the mayors have looked at and been like, we’re going to use this to our advantage and we’ll tactically leak this and this will, you know, polo and this might push some of the teams that were kind of negotiating trades with to be like, hey, you know, we do have this other option we might be willing to pursue. Now, is that actually going to work? No. Because I I don’t think anybody I don’t think anybody who cares is or anybody who matters in this case is that stupid that they would be like, “Oh, the Mariners are absolutely going to try and go get Bregman.” That’s not going to happen. Like, the Cubs aren’t going to be afraid of this. the the you know the Diamondbacks aren’t going to be freaked out that the Mariners might go trade for Bre or sign Bregman and then not want to trade for Marte or whatever it is, right? Like that’s not going to happen. Uh so it’s kind of silly when front offices and when GMs and you know agents kind of play these games where like oh I’m going to I’m going to create some leverage here. And it’s like only if you think like the people who work in these front offices are as stupid as the people who you know leave comments on Twitter. Like it it’s just one of those things where I don’t think this has ever actually worked where you’ve actually drumed up so much business but yet they keep doing it. So I don’t know maybe it does work and we just don’t know it. But yeah, more than anything this is just Boris being like uh this is not great. I’m going to fail this guy two years in a row and that’s going to be a shot on my fantastic reputation which already should be pretty, you know, dinged up by now, but whatever. Um, and so a couple players have already, you know, they’ve already ditched Boris over the last couple years. Yeah. Um, Cal being one of them, right? And, you know, keep in mind is that Boris is a guy who used to like run everything and now he’s not. He’s still like the biggest agent, but he is not the super agent who owns every great player. Um, and that reputation continues to take hit after hit every winter. And uh, yeah, this could be another one. So, he’s very clearly trying to drum up some business, but the the Mariners, you know, to their credit, have been like, look, we’re going to use the Star advantage. Like, screw you and your advantage. We’re going to use the Tars. Uh, so it actually does benefit the Mariners in that way. But yeah, uh Bregman not going to happen. Uh it just it doesn’t really make uh too much sense based on how the Mariners have operated and how they’ve said they’re going to operate. And well, and also, you know, they they leaked last year. They didn’t feel like Alex Bregman was a fit for the ballpark, right? And by the way, when you look at the the data, all of his powers to the pole side, really doesn’t go oppo that much. uh he doesn’t hit the ball that hard either. Never really has in his career. Uh so he’s not going to slice through the marine layer and all of that uh as well. So it’s kind of one of those things where it’s like look, he is a little bit of an odd fit like in terms of his profile to the ballpark. And Bregman’s talked about, you know, how ballpark factors matter to him and and like he wants to play in a good hitters park so he can put up his numbers and that’s really all he’s done in his career. He’s played in Houston, he’s played in Boston. Those are two ballparks that are pretty tailor made to his swing where he hits a lot of fly balls out to left field, but they’re not especially hit hard. Uh so, you know, he kind of needs those short porches uh or the tall wall to take advantage of. So, yeah, there are a lot of reasons why Bregman doesn’t make sense. Uh there are some why he does and we’ll get to that in a minute. But uh just overall this is a a a story that is attempted to be a tactical leak by um by Scott Boris to kind of drum up business for his client, but really isn’t going to have the desired effect he hopes and is actually only going to end up benefiting the Mariners. Uh although I doubt that benefit is honestly that great. Like I I really don’t get when these teams are like, “Oh well, sure. this too might be interested and it’s like we know they’re not we know we know they’re not well I I think what they’re trying to do with here specifically with Jerry Palano is going like look we have a deadline like you need to decide soon you know Jerry at the winter meeting saying like we would like to add a hitter within the next seven days they’ve openly you know had it uh they’ve let it be reported that you know they’ve been talking to the Cardinals about Brennan Donovan and you know there’s been some other names that have been floated out Obviously, the Catel Marte stuff hasn’t necessarily gone away, even though Adam Jude and Ryan Dish reported that it’s highly unlikely that they get something done with the Diamondbacks for Marte. Um, so I think really what this is about is getting Polo to finally decide cuz uh I believe Divish told uh Jason Pucket uh the other day on Puck’s show that um that he believes the the Pirates have that third guaranteed year and maybe even have a fourth guaranteed year. But does he really want to go play for the Pirates? Mhm. You know, is the the extra year, extra two years, maybe a little bit more money on the AAV, is that worth going to play for a bad team when you could go play for a contender and stay where you know you’re comfortable? So, I think they’re trying to force his hand. That’s what I really think is going on here. Ultimately, I really do think that Polo’s their number one priority right now. Sure. But I I just think it’s very easy for Polo’s agent to look at the Mariners and understand who they are and how they operate and be like, “Okay, you might be trying to line up fallbacks and all that, but we Alex Bregman is not a fallback for you if you don’t get Jorge.” Let’s be honest. Like there’s no way he’s like, “Oh, well, we don’t sign soon.” They might go give your money to to Bregman. That’s not a thing. I I guess I guess the way that they would try to characterize this is like, “Hey, Alex Bregman might be falling into our laps.” Like, look at that. M but you’re at least a month and a half away from even considering that possibility. Like if Bregman’s floating around out there in late January and you can you know you built out the rest of your team. You’re like oh I mean heck we get him for well three years and like an option like maybe. Yeah. Well now there’s like this little like back and forth going on between them and the Red Sox, you know, like hey we might sign your guy now. The Red Sox today it’s reported by Chris Catillo like the Red Sox are very much interested in Jorge Palano still. So, it’s like, “Hey, I’m going to sign your guy.” It’s all just stupid silliness schoolyard thing. And it’s it’s it’s wild that like it almost feels like sometimes GMs and agents are just bored and so they’re like, “I’m going to stir up some drama just for the fun.” And it’s just like falling for this. What are we doing? Wouldn’t you though? You’re an agent of Yeah, definitely. I I respect the hustle, but like Yeah. It’s just it’s one of those things where it’s like, do you really think that that anybody believes that the Mariners fall fallback plan to Jorge Palano is Alex Bregman? That’s really what you want us to believe. No, sorry. Nobody is buying that. Not Polo, not his agent, not Alex Bregman, not Scott Boris, not Anybody listening to this show should not be falling for that. But I appreciate them doing it because it gave us free content and that is always good. Like free water. always take it. Always use it. And on that note, we’re going to talk more about this Bregman thing. And we’re actually going to look at it from the perspective of, hey, this is true. He actually does want to play for the Mariners. What would that look like? We’ll go over that in just a moment. But first, a reminder, this episode of the Lockown Maris podcast is brought to you by Game Time and Dure. The World Cup is coming back to North America for the first time since 1994. And with 48 teams for the first time ever, it’s going to be massive. But let’s be honest, getting tickets is usually the hardest part. That’s why the Game Time app is clutch. Finally giving fans a real advantage when it comes to snagging seats. 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That’s shopd.com/lockon seattle for 15% off. shopdoer.com/lockedon seattle and you’re listening to the Lockdown Mariners podcast part of the locked on podcast network your team every day. Thank you so much for making us your first listen for all things Mariners and also thank you for making Lockdown the number one sports podcast network. You already live your team every day. Now take it up a level and go ad free. Join the Everydayer Club today and get locked on Mariners with no interruptions. membersonly Discord access and more. All for just $5 a month or $50 a year. Go to lockdownmariners.supcast.com or check the link in the show notes to learn more. All right, Colobby, we’re going to do your favorite thing here. We’re going to pretend that Alex Bregman is actually interested in joining the Mars. I know you love doing things like this. We’re going to talk about what that would look like. why Bregman actually does make some sense for the Mars, which he does, uh what that contract could look like. And I actually want to start there because like if he’s not drawing up enough interest here, the the assumption here is like he’s going to get like four to five years, about $25 million a year, right? That’s roughly the assumption. But if he’s not drawing up enough interest, could that number drop to a point that is a bit more reasonable for the Mars? cuz like right now, you know, they they traded for Ferrer. They checked off one of their biggest items off of their to-do list for no money added. Um the Naylor contract is weird to look at from the mayor’s perspective because like how does the signing bonus affect how they view payroll for 2026 if at all? You know, how should we like account for that? Like should we just account the signing like should we include the signing bonus when calculating payroll even though it technically doesn’t count towards payroll blah blah blah blah because right now they’re at I think $143 million if you don’t account for the signing bonus. So in theory like if $170 million yeah they could sign Alex Bregman for $25 million a year. That would be like the only other thing they could do but also kind of seems like they only want to add one more bat and a reliever for the rest of the offseason. So, is it really that much of a difference? Not really. Um, but yeah, so maybe the contract could get to a more reasonable place for the Mariners if Bregman uh just doesn’t get enough interest. Maybe he winds up signing another like oneyear kind of deal with options. But in general, like is there a place where you think the Bears would actually feel comfortable exploring a Bregman deal? Because like again, they already leaked last year. they didn’t really feel he’s a fit for the club or for for the ballpark rather like what do you think this where do you think this gets to where the Mariners go you know what actually we will take that shot yeah um to get there probably no more than three years maybe four uh probably no more than I don’t know 20ish AAV and like Bregman’s worth that and and and then some. Uh so like I’m not saying that he’s not worth more than that. He is. It’s just that for the Mariners specifically, we know how they feel about guys over 30. Uh you know, giving them long-term deals. We know that, you know, Bregman’s like actual offensive profile doesn’t fit all that well with Seattle. Now, the good news is is that his home run power is exclusively pullside. like he’s not he doesn’t rely on you know right center field to left center field hitting those bombs out there. Uh so that that’s you know a benefit to him whereas Oscar Hernandez that’s where a lot of his home runs hit and that’s why the ballpark kind of killed him. Uh Breman’s power is more pullside power but also that’s kind of a negative because you know you look at where he’s played his home games in his entire career. It’s the short porch out in left field and in the Crawford boxes and it’s the tall wall out at Fenway where he can just, you know, bang routine fly balls off of the wall and and get doubles out of them. That’s where a lot of his slug comes from. So, uh, when you look at the profile, he doesn’t hit the ball that hard. Never really has. He doesn’t have tremendous bat speed. Um, which isn’t always a negative. I mean, Polo doesn’t have great bat speed either, and he hits just fine. Uh, but he doesn’t have great bat speed. He doesn’t hit the ball that hard. Uh he does, you know, make a lot of contact. He does draw a lot of walks. Like I’m not saying he doesn’t fit at all, but you just kind of look at the pro. He does hit the ball hard. The pole power is questionable in a normal ballpark, especially, you know, I mean, T-Mobile’s not even normal, but it does play a little more normal down the lines, but just not a really a great fit. And again, the age uh is going to be a factor. I really don’t think the whole he’s an Astro or or you know, the cheating thing matters. That doesn’t matter to the organization. No. And it’s not going to matter to the either at least not to the front office. It’s not going to matter to the clubhouse either because they’re going to look at Breman like this guy’s 451 player and and like yeah you live you don’t now Stanton and you know ownership they do care about like how does the player fit in the community and stuff like that. So maybe because they feel like the the the fan base won’t receive him well maybe that is a hangup for ownership. It’s not going to be uh the hang up for ownership will be writing the check as we know. Well I mean that’s the main one. Yeah. Right. So yeah, I think yeah, I think the the circumstance to get to where this is even remotely feasible is late January, early February, right around spring training, right around pitchers and catchers reporting. He’s still unsigned. The market hasn’t developed uh like at all. And you know, I think honestly it would take like Boston getting Marte and and the Cubs just being like, we’re not interested uh because you know, we’re not spending money this winter. Yeah. I I think you you would almost it would be very much a hat and hand situation at that point to hold all the leverage. Also, did um you know, Glabber taking the qualifying offer in Detroit, did that kind of eliminate that as a possibility? They might have. Um plus, you know, Detroit was mentioned last year as a potential landing spot for for Bregman. And they made a pretty sizable offer and Bregman turned them down. and then when it got time to get, you know, back later into the year, uh, the offer wasn’t on the table anymore. So, I wonder how much of like Detroit’s reported interest was from last year instead of new interest this year. Um, so look, it’s more like trying to connect dots rather than actual information. Yeah. Right. So, yeah, I don’t think he’s going to get, you know, the the six years and the $180 million like he wanted last year. He’s certainly not going to get that this year. He’s going to be 32 right around opening day. So, you’re paying for his age 32, 33, 34 season for a guy whose bat speed isn’t great. So, it’s going to go down. He doesn’t hit the ball that hard. So, there’s a shot that at T-Mobile Park, he’s more average. Still a very good defender. Uh, still probably going to be a four- win player even if the offensive numbers were depressed a little bit. Uh, so he’s still absolutely a solid player and you should be happy if the Mariners actually were to sign him. But the circumstances in which he would sign with you are so unlikely that it’s not even really worth having that much of a discussion about right now. Again, we get a month from now and Bregman’s not signed and we’re hearing more about like, you know, he might have to take another one or two-year deal or three-year deal with options and all that. He might have to take that, then maybe we could start to have a real conversation about this. But right now, I mean, if you’re if you’re Bregman, like Seattle is probably near the bottom of the list of teams that you would find acceptable because of the ballpark. Uh, and you’re probably looking at that going like, well, I mean, if they want to give me the 6 and 180 or the 6 and 150 or whatever it is, right? Then, yeah, but the Mariners are not going to do that. And I don’t really think they I really don’t blame them for not wanting to do that. Yeah. Well, he checks off a lot of their boxes. You know, he squares the ball up, so he creates a lot of quality contact. Um, you know, he doesn’t chase, he doesn’t whiff, you know, he controls the zone. Uh, if he loses, but he doesn’t hit the ball hard. He doesn’t hit and he doesn’t barrel the ball up. Yeah. He’s also still a pretty good defender, though. Y and obviously he plays a position of need. Now, obviously the the Bregman stuff was reported in an article that said that the Mariners not really interested in adding a third baseman, which I think is kind of BS. I don’t think that I don’t think the Mars are stupid. I think the Mariners are content with, you know, rolling out Cole Emerson eventually, you know, Ben Williamson to start the season. I I think like if push comes to shove, yeah, they’ll do that. They’re fine doing that. But I don’t think they’re stupid. And like, yeah, we’re just going to cut ourselves off completely from this market because we have Ben Williamson in the same article where they’re trying to use Alex Bregman to leverage. Why would we believe them when they say, “Oh, we’re not even remotely interested in a third baseman.” More leverage like because like here’s an example, and we’ll talk about Brendan Donovan here in a little bit uh at the end of the show. Like they’re not going to get Brennan Donovan, you know, let’s say they trade for him. They’re not going to get Brennan Donovan to play him over Cole Young instead of Ben Williamson. They’re not going to get Ben Williamson runway over Cole Young. Like if they get Brennan Donovan and he’s now Donovan might DH some if they acquire him, but like if they acquire Donovan, they’re probably going to primarily play him at third base when he’s playing in the field. Like I just cannot imagine that they’re going to give more runway to Ben Williamson over, you know, a guy that just graduated from being a top 100 prospect in all baseball, right? I mean, you could flip it. If if Colt Emerson runs away with a third base job, then they’ll definitely give uh they’ll give Donovan, you know, the reps over Cole Young at second. Yeah. So, yeah. Um, again, just to go back to Bregman, it makes like in a perfect world, just you don’t have to worry about contract and long-term fit and all that. Like Bregman would be very high on our list of priorities. Uh, but again, you have to factor in what he actually wants, what he said he’s valued in the past, where the Mariners are at in their payroll, and how we know the Mariners operate when players are over the age of 30 and they’re not in their organization. Like the Mariners are going to be much more willing to give a guy an extension when they know they know him and they know how he plays in the clubhouse and they know what kind of works he put what kind of work he puts in. They’re going to be much more likely to give that guy significant money than they are somebody they’ve never had and they they don’t really know how to you know how he operates. So very risk averse. And by the way if you if they did sign Alex Bregman because I I I know what people are going to bring up here. Well, if you sign Bregman, then you’re going to block Colt Emerson. No, cuz then Colt Emerson can go actually play his natural position of shortstop and I can move JP Crawford to second base. Or I could just stop assuming that 20-year-old Colt Emerson is definitely going to be major league ready in 2026 and is definitely going to contribute then. And by the way, but but in terms of just giving him runway, allowing him some runway to start, right? Like I can just move JP Crawford to second base or you can just move second base, which is where he needs to be. And it’s really for JP then yeah just move him to second base. Yeah. Oh no. I have too many middle infielders. A sentence nobody has ever said in their entire like don’t worry about it. And then longterm JP’s gone after 2026. It’s just a reality. You should start to accept it. And Emerson’s a short stop. So even if you sign Bregman, you still maintain flexibility to give your young guys some playing time. Plus Bregman could probably use some more DH days at this point in his career. Yeah. So yeah, he gave us a chunk of last season. So yeah, so Bregman, even with the concerns about how the bat would play at T-Mobile Park, I would say he fits. Yeah. Um I’m super down for this. I And I I don’t care about the whole he was involved in the Astros cheating scandal thing. I don’t care about any of that. I want good players on my baseball team. Alex Bergman is a good player. And on the off chance that he is actually interested, I don’t think he is. Again, let me preface by saying that, but on the off chance that he actually is interested in being a Mariner, I would like for the Mariners to seriously consider that to explore that and try and make that happen. Sure. I don’t think I’m all that interested in seven years, but you know, three, four year uh contract at market value, then fine. Do I think the mayors would give that to him? No. And even if they did, do I think Bregman would take it? Not unless he literally had no other options, but you might be in that place. I mean, his other options might be another, you know, one-year deal with a couple of Yeah. with a couple options, which that might be the only way that the mayors, you know, just to go back to the start of this conver conversation, that might be the only way that the Mars wind up being being interested is like Polo went to Pittsburgh or he went to Boston. Donovan ended up getting traded elsewhere. Now it’s February and Bregman’s still out there. Maybe they do it at that point. Um, yeah. So, it’s interesting. Bregman is a guy that we’ve talked about in the past. Like, regardless of money, let’s say the Mariners would be willing to just spend however much money, who’s the best fit in the free agent market, it’s probably either Kyle Tucker or Alex Bregman. Yep. And given how bad third base is around the league and given that like yeah Ben Williamson good defender but he really can’t hit at least as far as we know like third base probably the most pressing need on the Mars roster right now. Y uh so yeah Breman might be like regardless of money the best fit for the Mariners on the free agent market. So yeah. So again, if we get to a month from now, Bregman’s still in the market, we might revisit this topic, but consider him talked about and asked and answered like he is. This is a leverage. Basically just did a whole episode about him. So there you go. This is a leverage ploy. He’s not coming here. We have no reason to believe he’s going to come here right now as we record this. Could things change in four to six weeks? Maybe. It’s possible. Do I think it’s likely? Six to seven weeks, Colobby. four to six. Uh, no. Yeah. So, we’ll see what happens if we get down to it. But, uh, yeah, honestly, the Bregman thing was not the the big news that came out of the little Wednesday news dump that we didn’t get to talk about yesterday because Tai had family obligations. Who has family oblig obligations around Christmas time? What a nerd. So, yeah, we’re going to talk about the actual big news or well, rumor, not news. little little nugget. Yeah. And by the way, there isn’t enough stuff for me to do a final out episode. So, this is kind of going to be like the final out episode in this next segment coming up. So, we will talk about Brennan Donovan. Again, teased that earlier. We’ll talk about Donovan. We’ll talk about what we think the Mars are just getting up to right now overall in just a moment. But first, a reminder, this episode of the Lockdown Mars 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. With FanDuel, you can place bets as the action unfolds. Every drive, every momentum swing, every highlight moment. Live betting is best when the game starts to shift, a receiver gets hot, a defense tightens up, or the momentum flips after a turnover. FanDuel lets you jump into the moment as live spreads and money lines adjust instantly and player props update as guys heat up. You can bet next touchdown scores, drive results, totals, and more. It keeps you locked in to every snap, every drive, every possibility. So, 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. FanDuel, the game moves fast and so can you. And you’re listening to the Locked on Maris podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. As always, if you want to hear from me and Colobby more and help support the show, we have a Patreon. It’s called Control the Zone. And on there, we talk Maris, we talk Seahawks, we talk all that good stuff. For more information, go to patreon.com/control the zone. Link in the description of this episode. So, starting next week and until the start of February, we’re going to be on a three schedule or three show a week schedule here on Lockdown. Uh, so we’ll be posting Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Obviously, like if something happens, you know, a trade is made on a Tuesday or Thursday or on the weekend, we will do an emergency show for that. Or if, you know, we just have to move things around, we might post on a Tuesday rather than Monday or on Wednesday, whatever. You get the point. Uh, and then the Patreon shows will be happening on the days that we’re not recording locked on. So, if you’re a member of our Patreon, expect episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays during that time. And then when February rolls around, we’ll be back to our regular schedule. Five shows a week here on Locked On all the way until mid December again. So, yeah, it won’t be that long until you get us back on a regular schedule, but uh, going to take a little bit of a break here over these next few weeks. All right. So, I mentioned earlier that Ryan Doish was on Jason Pucket’s show after the winter meeting. So, I think he was talking to him from the airport, actually. And on there, he talked a little bit about um Palanco, which I I mentioned the Palanco stuff earlier, how he thinks that Polo is getting that guaranteed third year from Pittsburgh, maybe even a fourth year and whatever uh Pittsburgh is offering. Uh he also mentioned though more interestingly that uh if the Mars did land Jorge Palano that they would still be very much involved in the Brennan Donovan trade discussions which is kind of counter to what our belief has been for the last few weeks this offseason that it’s probably only going to be one more bat and then they might add a reliever and that’s kind of it. But also keep in mind here, Brennan Donovan gives them a lot of flexibility, plays multiple positions, and he’s only projected to make $5.4 million this year in arbitration. Really isn’t a whole lot. Um, you know, we still don’t really know how much money Jorge Palanco is going to make. You know, the report from uh Divish and Jude uh earlier this week was that he’s looking for somewhere more than $12 million a year. Then Jeff Pass reported that he thinks he’s probably going to get about 15 to$18 million a year. So, it’s kind of all over the place right now. So, we don’t really know how much that would actually eat up uh the mayor’s payroll. But, it is interesting to see that uh or to to hear that the Mariners, even if they did get a Jorge Palanco, they would still be looking to add another legitimate offensive piece and someone like Brennan Donovan. Uh they also uh you know Jude and Dish mentioned that if they lost out on uh Palanco that you know maybe they could turn to like Willie Castro or Luis Renhifo and then trade for their big bat that they would like. So you know Renhifo or Castro would just be a bench piece. You know they would like spend some money that way to just add a bench piece that they like. Uh which is also cool because we we would really like to see them beef up the bench and you know beef and beef up the the depth of this uh the offensive side of things on this club. So, uh, but yeah, so just going back to the to the Donovan thing, that’s nice to hear, right? Yeah. I mean, honestly, it’s the ideal outcome. Uh, because obviously, you know, Polo hypothetically would DH. He’d be your primary DH. Donovan would probably be your primary second baseman. Uh, unless, you know, Ben Williamson wins the third base job, quote unquote, then, you know, Donovan’s starting for you either way. And then you also get Donovan next year uh probably for $10 million or less and you have an opening in left field because Randy Rosarena is probably going to leave. So you kind of eliminate something you have to do next winter if you get Donovan done this winter. My thing is is that like I would hope that Donovan is is they see Donovan as so valuable to them that this would apply with not just Polo. Like for example like let’s say they don’t get Polo. It’s like, okay, well, what if they get Brandon Laauo? Are they would they still go after Donovan because he still makes sense even with Lao? And Lao’s probably going to end up making a little bit less money this year than Polo. So, I really hope the Donovan thing is like they like him so much that if they can get him, they’ll add, you know, they’ll add him regardless of who this other bat is and not just like, well, if they don’t get Polo and they get Donovan, then they’re fine. Like, no, use the extra money. Like, like you said, Donovan’s only making $5.4 $.4 million this year. So, if you can get the other bat for, you know, 10, 11, whatever you thought you were going to play pay polo, then you could still do both. So, I really hope that’s the plan here. If they miss Polo and they end up with Brandon Laauo, they should still be in on uh on Donovan. So, I really hope that’s what’s actually happening here, that Donovan is is somebody they like so much that they view him as if he’s available, we’re in regardless of what the rest of our roster looks like. Uh, I think that’s kind of the the big play here because we talked about this like if they just got Polo that’s just running back the offense. Is it better than it was at the end of the year? No, it’s not because you you don’t have Gino like you’re you’re hoping Ben Williamson and and also you got to factor in regression like is Domone actually, you know, a 300 hitter probably not going to hit 65 home runs. Yeah. No. No. Uh, so yeah, I mean is I mean keep in mind like Josh Naylor was, you know, on a generational run with the Mariners for 54 games. Can he do that over 162? I don’t know. Probably not. But maybe. But you kind of have to factor these things in. So just by the way, even if they brought back Polo, like is Polo going to be as good as he was last year? Because I know we think 2024 is more the outlier, but Polo’s also got a long injury history. He could regress all the way back to 20 Polo’s typically not been a 130 WRC plus guy, so there’s probably regression there. He’s been more of like a 115 to 120 guy. So, right. So, yeah, you have to factor all that in. And so, just bringing back the exact same offense as last year was a recipe to have an offense worse than you had last year. And and by the way, that’s why that’s why I’ve said in the past, I think like if I had to pick one of these guys, Donovan or Palano, I’m picking Donovan because I think Donovan’s just the overall better player because Polo has to hit. he has to hit in order for him to be valuable. And if he’s not going to be that 130 W wrc plus guy and he’s more of a 115 and 120 guy, well, that’s what Brennan Donovan is. And Brennan Donovan is a better defender on top of that. And he’s cheaper. Now, obviously, I have to I I’m going to have to pay something nice to get him prospects. Uh but like overall, yeah, and that gives me more flexibility, not just in terms of, you know, where you can put Donovan positionally, but financially as well. like that. Like adding Donovan and not Palano, you know, just that $5.4 million that Donovan’s projected to make that now that allows me to go get another offensive piece or that allows me to go spend real money on another reliever or, you know, whatever to, you know, still fit in that budget that they have. Sure. Again, I I would have really liked, you know, to be able to ask Ryan like, “Hey, is is Donovan like do they like Donovan so much that they want him regardless of what the rest of the offseason looks like?” like if they don’t get Polo, would they still be willing to add another bat plus Donovan? Uh if if the market, you know, should dictate that they can afford him? Um because I think that’s a big deal because you’re talking about adding two bats who are both, you know, everyday players who are both well above average hitters uh to your lineup instead of one. And that’s significant because one more everyday bat is not going to fix this lineup. two more makes you one of the more formidable lineups in all of baseball. If I had to guess, the answer would probably be not via trade, at least not for a significant bat because, you know, you you just spent Harry Ford to go get Ferrer. You’re probably going to have to spend at least one top 100 guy to go get Donovan. It would probably be, you know, the next guy would have to come via free agency and then obviously that’s kind of a tight window. That would be my guess on the answer. Yeah, because god forbid we give up Harry for Angela Sanja, Tai Pete and Teddy McGra to get Brandon Low or Blow Jose Ferrer and and Brennan Donovan. That would just be terrible, wouldn’t it? Uh so yeah, we’ll we’ll see what happens. I I think I suspect you’re probably right, though. But uh you shouldn’t be like the Mariners should be very willing to get aggressive here. Uh and again, like Donovan, you get for multiple years. Uh, so yeah, we’ll see. But to me, that was the biggest takeaway from the whole like mini rumor dump we got on Wednesday, shortly after we ended our shows. Yeah. Um, is that the Mariners might be willing to get two bats if one of them is Donovan. Uh, and that I think would significantly improve the team. Uh, would leave no doubt that this team is better than they were last year, which right now I have serious doubts about whether or not they’ll get to that. Um, and then, you know, it still sounds like they really want to sign another reliever, particularly a right-handed reliever, and it does kind of seem like that’s trending more towards free agency. Uh, so we’ll see what will happen. Um, I don’t know about you, but I’m getting the the the vibe, at least that I’m getting from the Mariners right now, is that like they’re just kind of in a wait and see mode on the bats. Like they’re waiting to hear from Polo. I think they’re kind of waiting for I think they feel confident enough that they’re going to that they can get something done and quickly that they’re that they feel like we can just kind of sit back now and just watch what happens. Well, I think right now they’re waiting for Donovan’s market to actually be like crystallized because still talking about like, oh, we’re still scouting all the blah blah blah blah blah and all that nonsense. Uh because let’s be very clear about this. Donovan’s a very good player. You have no business expecting to get elite prospects for Brennan Donovan. You can get very good prospects, but you’re not getting Kate Anderson. You’re not getting Colt Emerson. You’re not getting, you know, Bryce Miller or Brian Woo like some morons out there have suggested. Yeah. Uh but he’s he’s Bloom’s best trade chip right now. So, you know, I expect him to, you know, exhaust all options and all. Sure. I’m not I’m not saying he shouldn’t be out there. you you aim, you know, you shoot for the stars, but yeah, uh doesn’t mean you’re gonna get them. You’re not going to get them. And I think the Mariners are at a point where they’ve probably said like, “Look, this is what we’re willing to do. You do your self scouting. You let us know how close we are, and we’ll go from there.” And I think they’ve done something similar with Catel Marte. This is the offer. This is what we’re willing to do. If this isn’t good enough, okay, that’s fine. Uh if you know, if you come back to us, then, you know, we can have the the discussion. I think they’ve made their best and final offer to Jorge Palano. Uh, I imagine they’ve had talks to some degree about Brandon Laauo and they kind of know what that’s going to cost them. Like I think the mayor I’m pretty sure they’ve had talks with the Cubs about Nicoer again as well because there was a report yesterday I think that there’s been some interest shown in Nicoer. Wow. I wonder who that is. Yeah. So, yeah, it’s just one of those things where I think the Mariners are kind of waiting out the the market because I I think they’ve made their offers to all the bats that they’re interested in and now they’re just kind of waiting to see which one they end up with. Uh, and so I think if the Mariners do make a move here before Christmas, um, which I’m I’m I would say they probably do. I think they get something done in two weeks. I think it’s going to be for the reliever, the second reliever that they’re looking for. Uh, and then we’ll have to wait and see how the bats fall. Uh, cut to, you know, 20 minutes after this episode comes out. Polo is signed with the the Pirates and Bregman is signed with the Red Sox again and this entire episode was a waste of time. But, uh, things move fast. Things move fast. But, uh, yeah, to me the easy big rumor was the two bats uh, possibility. Well, that is going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Mariners podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day for Kobe Patode. I’m Tiding Azales. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at l_mariners. You can follow me at tidingalis and colobby@pad1. That’s cpat11. We’re also on blue sky. You can follow me at TDG Colby at MLB Kobe and 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.

Scott Boras has reportedly signaled to the Seattle Mariners that free agent Alex Bregman is interested in signing with them. Ty and Colby discuss why that report is likely being used as leverage, but perhaps not in the way most would assume, then they assess Bregman’s fit in Seattle and what contract the Mariners would feel comfortable handing out.

Read Adam Jude’s report on Alex Bregman and the Mariners’ third base situation: https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/mariners/why-the-mariners-arent-likely-to-make-a-free-agent-splash-at-third-base/

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Seattle Mariners, Mariners, Mariners Rumors, Mariners News, Locked On Mariners, Alex Bregman, Jorge Polanco, Brendan Donovan, Ben Williamson, Colt Emerson, JP Crawford, Josh Naylor, Dom Canzone, Randy Arozarena, Harry Ford, Bryce Miller, Bryan Woo, MLB Free Agency, MLB Trade Rumors, Scott Boras, Seattle Mariners Podcast, MLB Offseason, Seattle Mariners Updates