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Could Seattle be sellers at the MLB deadline?
TheRoarOfTheCrowd
Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 1,730 
We have relievers and the ace of the staff that we could deal for prospects… i dont think that is out of the question.. jmo..
Comments
I doubt they are dealing any starting pitcher for prospects though. If any of them are dealt it will be for major league offense.
Not exactly, but the core they thought they were building around has fizzled and revealed itself to be mediocre. I wouldn't unload all of it, but two positions desperately need to be upgraded and I'd trade from others to make that happen.
First base is obvious. I thought France would be a consistent . 280-.305 type of hitter with 20 homers...Edgar lite basically. Nope. He needs to go. Too bad he's too unathletic as he would be a stellar utility infielder if only he didn't suck at playing infield.
2nd base is obvious.
RF will be a need for next season too as Teoscar is either getting traded or leaving as a FA.
Murphy has pretty damn good value right now in a sellers market. He's too good to trade if you're contending but Seattle is not.
Gilbert, Kirby, and one of Woo and Miller are all untouchable. I'm keeping one of Miller and Woo, but would part with one for the right offer. Gotta be willing to give up something.
I'd package him with Hancock and a lower level prospect to get someone at either first or 2b.
Sellers for sure now
I like a guy willing to make sacrifices to blow off a little steam. I can relate. I once kicked the ground after booting a grounder in a men's slow pitch game, aggravating a torn ACL and causing a "bucket handle" meniscus tear which required a scope job to get my mobility back. Felt like a damn genius.
The Mariners are good at finding relievers. See what you can get for Sewald, and one of Brash/Munoz. Young, cheap elite strikeout arms in the bullpen are valuable to a lot of playoff teams. Flip Teoscar for whatever we can get. Flip a starter for a bat.
Just get better hitters, preferably with an emphasis on putting the ball in play. We have too many high strikeout players. I’m not sure what the advanced stats say, but good things happen more often when the ball is put in play. The high strikeout guys don’t even walk much either (Suarez the only one that is arguable).
I'm fine with trading bullpen arms and I'd be willing to trade one starter not named Gilbert or Kirby. They don't need to go crazy though. Keep most of the pitching somehow, upgrade at first and second and get a new right fielder and that would suffice.
Maybe I'm just pissy because he's killing my fantasy team.
If I was the GM I'd break the roster into the following groups:
1) Players that can be part of the starting 9, starting rotation, and top half relievers (going to to close out a game) that you can see pitching deep into October
2) Players (same groups as above) that are good enough to get you into the postseason but probably not good enough to get you deep into October
3) Players that can be supporting players on a postseason team (bottom of the lineup starters at best, back end of rotation, lower half relievers)
4) Players that can be replaced by comparable players fairly easily
When you look at the roster right now though, I'd argue that the balance of group 1 is the rotation + Julio + a couple of arms in the pen ... a decent chunk of the roster falls in 2) and 3) and there's a lot more of 4) on the roster than what you'd want to believe. What's very apparent though is that the offense is not good enough (neither is the approach but that's another discussion) ...
I don't see a ton of trade value for this roster at the deadline:
Sewald has the most value in my mind and is probably a prime trade candidate in that he's 33, has 1 more arbitration year before free agency (and a decent raise coming in that arbitration), and probably not a candidate to get extended as him going to market to get the most term/money combo as he can get is probably in his best interest. The Mariners should definitely be targeting a bat back in any deal (or young power pen arm) ... but the biggest thing that the Mariners have to realize is that trading Sewald creates a big gap in their pen for next season to replace. Munoz may be ready to take on being a closer but then you have to backfill Munoz ... and I don't see anybody on the roster able to do that right now.
Teoscar may be able to get you a mid-level prospect but I just don't see a huge market for him given that he's a league average bat leading the league in strikeouts. Maybe you could flip him to someone like Miami that could probably use his power and has a deep enough farm system or Milwaukee who could desperately use a competent OF bat (not a great farm system though). I don't see any way that you extend him or even give him a qualifying offer for draft pick compensation ... so get whatever you can on him.
France you are 100% selling low on if you sell him now and what I have no clue on is whether or not he's playing through an injury or not ... that said we're basically close to a calendar year that his play has basically sucked. He's got 2 more arbitration years left and with the way this year is going I don't think you're looking at him having a huge winning case for a big raise this coming offseason. To me he's more of an offseason trade candidate and/or non-tender if things go really south next year. But the track record is there to think that he can be part of at least a piece to a playoff team ... and there aren't a lot of those on the roster under club control.
I don't know what kind of value that you're going to find for a backup catcher like Tom Murphy in the trade market or what kind of legit prospect that you get other than the most flier of fliers. That said, given where Murphy is in his career, I'd give him the opportunity to join a contender if possible.
Anybody else on the offensive side I'd definitely listen if somebody came calling outside of the obvious candidates ...
Starting pitching I wouldn't trade anybody until the offseason and having a better understanding of what your roster looks like (i.e. can you pull off the Shohei miracle) ... but there's enough SP depth in the organization that you can definitely look at moving somebody.
The Ms are a boring as fuck, fringe playoff team with a core that's proving, after a couple of years of high hopes, to not be the answer.
Fuck the Ms.
Back to regular programming.
I think its going to be more of the same until the Mariners finally decide in 2035 to move in the fences so that big time hitters will decide to come to Seattle instead of avoiding us like the plague, and existing players that we do develop opt out and leave when they become free agents.
They got a guy slightly better than Wong and a prospect with 15 games of MLB service time. That was not a very aggressive way to address the needs you mentioned. It was a non-attempt to get better now. You weakened your bullpen to play roulette on a guy having a horrible year and one who has 15 games of bad hitting for an MLB track record.
Punting in this season given where they were only makes sense in bizarro world. You can't deny that they did that when solid bats on the market were going for middling prospects. They gave up on the season or they're really not smart. I actually think they're smart but fuck them for giving up on the season. They expect people to keep showing up to watch games with that approach?
Dip could have made a bigger splash, but that splash would be Kirby and / or Gilbert exiting...
The saying goes "You trade arms for bats, and you trade bats for arms"...Ray getting hurt killed their chances for a big move with one of those guys. You would go from losing 3-2 to losing 7-6...
I can’t criticize the M’s for the Sewald trade. Bliss is a decent prospect and another body to throw at 2B. This is a fairly heavy return for a good, but not great reliever.
This has seemed to be the case for an extended period and curing this appears to be the intermediate solution to the malaise at the major league level. This years draft seems like a step in the right direction, and paying top dollar for international draft players can also be a short cut to augment and encourage upper level established players to sign with Seattle as free agents ~ currently a real stumbling block for talent acquisition. Obviously improving via free agent signings and trades can be done ~ Pat Gillick did it back in the day but the truth is Seattle will have to establish the reputation of a team committed to a large payroll and sustained efforts to field a sizeable mix of star players that are being paid historic sums.