Jeff Passan Thinks the Mariners Could Take the BIGGEST RISK of Jerry Dipoto's Tenure This Summer

JP Crawford's expected return this weekend has turned into an If instead of a win but if he's able to make the trip to Baltimore how will the Mariners arrange their lineup plus Jeff passon thinks the Mariners are more than capable of making a Big Splash in the trade market this summer and he even mentioned a pretty big name to keep an eye on we'll discuss all that and more coming up here on the lock on mirers podcast Colby hit [Music] it you are locked on Mariners your daily Seattle Mariners podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team everyday Oho Sailors it is Thursday May 16th 2024 this is tiing is Allis and kobby patod for the locked on MAR podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day on today's show we'll answer one of the most common questions we've received over the last few weeks what do you do with the batting order once JP Crawford returns to the lineup that is of course if JP is able to return this weekend as expected after being hit by a pitch in the hand/ wrist area in Tacoma last night we also tell you what ESPN reporter Jeff passon had to say about the mirers in the trade market the other day it's pretty interesting but before we do that a quick shout out to our title sponsor Game Time download the game time app create an account and use the promo code locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase that is l c k d o n MLB for $20 off your first purchase terms apply and also if you want to hear from me and Colby some more and support us along the way check out our patreon the link is in the description and you can check it all out for free with a 7-Day trial so kby I have a bone to pick with you you jinx JP Crawford yesterday during the show you said if something bad doesn't happen to JP tonight and lo and behold something bad happened to JP Crawford last night getting hit in the hand and it looked pretty bad he threw his helmet down he immediately basically took himself out of the game so you need to atone for your sense on today's show kby no well lucky for you we do have some good news from Daniel Kramer mlb.com reporter for the mirors update on JP Crawford he says sounds like the Mayors have low concern with his right hand/ wrist after tonight's hit by pitch at AAA Tacoma how that impacts his status to be activated this weekend remains unclear but he appears to have dodged a significant injury so that's good news and it did seem like maybe it wasn't broken when you look like he was able to use his hand to take his batting gloves off and all that um but it still looked pretty scary when it happened especially the video from our friend Chris Egan over at King five sports uh where we didn't really have a close-up look at JP that was just a video from the stands and again JP spiked his his helmet into the ground and immediately walk to the Dugout so obviously you're you know you can't help but think of the worst in that moment but it seems again like Kramer said the the Mayers have dodged a pretty significant bullet here but we'll see if that means that he is able to still make the trip to Baltimore so if not uh do you think they stick with Leo revas do you think they do something different where's your head out with that yeah um when you watch the replay from the broadcast it appears that the top of his hand uh not the not the bone right there which is usually the Troublesome you get hit in the wrist that's usually pretty bad you get hit in the finger that's pretty bad right here is interesting now again it's not the highest quality it's tripa a you know you're not going to see the same uh closeup and slow-mo and all that stuff but it did appear that it hit the top of his hand which I guess is probably best case scenario if you're going to get hit in the hand wrist finger area but still not great um it's for what the Mariners would do I I would assume they just go with the roster as is I mean they're they're not using revas anyways and so what they're gonna call up somebody else to not use for two days uh until JP joins the team on Sunday if he if there's even a delay at all like no I think they would just keep Ras um what's interesting is is that uh you know obviously they can travel with a taxi Squad member but that guy can't be on the 40 man so you know we'll see who goes on this trip with them it's a 10day road trip so they're definitely bringing somebody with them uh and just based on the injuries right now you would assume it'd be a position player uh just because garver's dealing with stuff Pano's dealing with stuff and now you don't quite know uh What uh what's going to happen with JP although I'm sure the Mariners by this stage have a really good idea uh we just don't know uh what what they're going to decide to do there so my guess is that they would just bring revos with them if they need JP for a few more days if they think they want to keep them out for a few more days uh but yeah I mean I think the position player going with them um you know 10 days is a long time so yeah maybe it's Brian Anderson maybe it's Jason fosler a veteran somebody like that uh going with them on the trip but uh I I would say that you know I think if they do have to delay JP for a couple days and they would just keep the roster as it was on uh Wednesday you know unless of course they get not good news about or not good updates on uh Crawford and palanco then maybe they would make a move there but yeah I think revos is just here until JP's recalled yeah we'll we'll have to wait and see we'll probably not get an update today probably have to wait until tomorrow on that and if there's any swelling on the hand you kind of have to wait for that swelling to go down before you can really assess the uh the injury there but uh at the very least it doesn't seem like anything that's going to be too much of a setback for JP which is very very good news and we'll just uh we'll see how long it takes for him to to get back hopefully it is tomorrow because again if they get JP back tomorrow they will have their opening day position player group back together again and so that creates for some interesting uh conversations including what do you do with the lineup which is a question a lot of you have had for us for the last few weeks so now that we're at the very least on the doorstep it seems of JP returning we're going to answer that question in just a moment but first a reminder this episode of the lock on mirors podcast is brought to you by game time game time is now an authorized ticket Marketplace of Major League Baseball which makes getting tickets even faster and easier prices on the game time app actually go down the closer it gets to first pitch and I get to see the view of every seat in the house so I know exactly what I'm buying game 's last minute deals give you up to 60% in savings buying last minute for sports music comedy and more and to avoid any surprises at check out you can turn on they're all in pricing to see the full cost fees included take the guest work out of buying tickets with Game Time download the game time app create an account and use the promo code locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase terms apply again create an account and redeem the promo code locked on MLB that's LC k d o n MLB for $20 off download the game time app last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed and you're listening to the lock locked on Mariners podcast you can catch the Mariners upcoming series with the Orioles tomorrow night on the Mariners Hometown broadcast with SiriusXM via the sxm app all you have to do to find that is Search the word Mariners so once we get to Baltimore lineup might look a little bit different especially if JP Crawford is able to make his return tomorrow Colby this has been your favorite question to answer over the last few weeks what are the mirors going to do with the lineup what are they going to do with JP and Josh Roop etc etc etc so what do you think they're going to do uh I don't think they're going to move Josh Roos down significantly uh but I do think that JP is the leadoff guy Roos has slowed down a little bit uh on that home stand uh particularly in the uh in the last series there not that he was bad but you know he wasn't getting multiple hits in the game he wasn't driving the ball out of the B had a big RBI yesterday yeah sure I mean like I said he's still helping he's still going like One for four one for three with a walk like he's still doing those things he's just not driving the ball like he doesn't look like the best player on the planet which he was for like a 10 game stretch there which you know we knew wasn't going to sustain itself so you know you you caught you caught lightning in a bottle pretty much he was a leadoff hitter when he was at his hottest and that was great uh but I think it's time for JP to to come back and reclaim that spot and uh I don't think because roas is still you know swinging the bat pretty well I don't think they're going to drop him back down to was he 7 eight n or whatever he was yeah previously so he needs to be in the top half of the lineup it's just where is the question sure the the interesting thing here though is that the Mariners are facing two lefties or they're scheduled to face two lefties uh in this series tomorrow and Saturday we know that the Mariners don't give roas at bats against lefties so uh it'll be interesting to see you know do they do they give them one game against the lefties uh and a lot of this is going to be based on panco too uh because if panco is healthy enough you certainly want in there against left-handed pitching he's a little bit better from the right side so uh but I think in general you know it again the two lefties back toback kind of changes everything but I think against a right-handed pitcher which you're going to see 65 70% of the time the Mariners would probably prefer to do something like uh I would say JP leading off I could see them going Roos too I know Scott likes to alternate left right left right uh and do that so I guess that would make roas hitting three uh but I I think you just want to Stack as many good hitters as you can in front of Julio and Cal and hope that you know that allows them to see better pitches you know with guys on base and pitchers pitching from the stretch so I think you're looking at JP Roos probably Julio they can move him down but there's just not a lot of great options right now you don't have enough good players hitting so I think you're probably looking at something like JP and then it'll be Roos Julio or Julio Roos uh they'll be hitting two or three and then I think it's probably should be Cal hitting four against righties uh Ry hitting five uh playing right field and then six is probably Garver hanar whichever one you have uh in the lineup that day uh and then seven would be canzone eight would be France uh and then n would be well I guess no I'm missing panco palanco probably sorry Pano's probably still gonna hit five ahead of reallyy even though that doesn't really make sense so it probably goes palanco five reallyy six uh canzone seven France eight uh and then whoever I haven't said any nine I didn't write this out in front of me so I'm losing track it's fine it's fine um you mentioned uh reallyy though you know mentioned hanar and we've talked about it once this position player group gets fully healthy again this would be a great opportunity to start to use reallyy more and give hanar more off days do you think they're actually going to do that though it's kind of the big question it's like they should do it but will they I don't think they have a Choice uh like I don't ideally I would like to see outfields of Dom canzone Julio Rodriguez Luke brayy on most nights and then hanar primarily plays against lefties and gets the occasional DH day against righties yeah yeah I think that's how they should try to deploy them and I do think that was originally their plan but they got spooked by reallyy slow start which is just stupid of them I mean let's just call it what it is I mean I know the Mariners is know more than us but that's doesn't mean that they're perfect it doesn't mean that they don't make mistakes apparently they were also trying to get him to work on some things sure but not giving a guy an at bat for a whole week like I don't care what you're trying to work on that's not a sustainable game plan particularly when you're running a 33y old out there who has like broken half the bones in his body seemingly like you're not you're not doing anybody any favors uh by running hanar out there as much as they were so they absolutely should uh I I think you know call me crazy but maybe they should deploy the team how they plan to deploy it when the front office put it together over the winter because we really haven't seen them do that for any extended period of time this year and part of that is because of injury uh sure they lost kzone pretty early but uh you know a big part of it is that they just ran away from their game plan because Mitch hanar hit a home run on opening day and I guess that means he's got a playing the next 15 straight like regardless so regardless of how he's swinging the bat so uh you know again kzone getting injured kind of threw a wrench into their plans sure whatever and then JP a few you know what a week later or whatever that also didn't help but we never really saw this team stick to their convictions and give you know this roster a chance to perform like it was designed to perform they they made a lot of tweaks and changes early uh so I you know hopefully that they they correct that and and you know the front office folks are pretty smart too they're pretty smart baseball people and maybe if you give their lineup that they put together a chance to function in a way that it was designed to function maybe it will in fact be better so uh you know hopefully this means less of hanigar um you know and then obviously right now that there's kind of some x-factors out there like Garver and palanco are they ready to go you know they haven't played the last two days so you know are they ready to go particularly with lefties on the mound tomorrow uh so we'll see but I do think that you know we talked about this a lot during the winter it's it's not hard to give you know Mitch hanigar and Garver like it's not hard for those guys to coexist uh so long as you're willing to you know be smart with how often you use both of them and frankly the mar have used both of them a ton it makes a lot more sense for Garver since he's only dhed but I'll never understand the the idea of running hanar into the ground uh even with the the early injury to canzone that just didn't make any sense to me and it doesn't now and so hopefully the Mariners don't look at the last you know two or three games where hanar had some pretty decent at bats and be like oh he's back he's figured it out no uh and again with the lefties on the mound this week I imagine he'll be out there uh in some capacity which is fine which that's fine right again like I would like to see him primarily play against lefties and then get the occasional day against righties and preferably in the DH spot against righties um but yeah you know overall this lineup has been better in the month of May the numbers have been better there's obviously been some you know bumps on the road like Minnesota they only scored one against the A's um you know they weren't great in the Royal series though they had a pretty solid day yesterday despite the the lack of hard hit balls uh we talked about that uh We've also seen Edgar has been around the team helping out with the hitters recently whenever the team's been in Seattle uh according to Aaron Goldsmith he helped Mitch with his hands recently uh and you know Mitch has been hitting the ball better the last couple days so hopefully that's a sign of of things here and you know Ty France has been elevating the ball a little bit more so hopefully that's a sign of good things to come so you know there there is a path here where this offense can actually be more than competent uh consistently yeah um of course nothing would help them get on that path faster and stay on it than you know Julio Rodriguez remembering is good at baseball but right uh you know you just kind of have to wait for that to happen you can't force it uh and in the meantime you know you have to play and deploy your players in a position that gives them the best chance possible to succeed and therefore help you win games so that means you know Luke rley is we're we're in a cavernous Outfield and even though there's a lefty on the mound like I want Luke ry's Outfield defense out there he's going to start against the Lefty you know versus hanar today because The Outfield defense matters and all that stuff so my guess is that in some order the first three when we get to a righty right-handed pitcher which I don't think is until Sunday if I'm remembering how they had their rotation lined up uh I think on that Sunday and even then I assume seies of Alla will probably be catching so we're not going to see like the full versus right hand until New York more than likely uh but I would guess in that instance the top three are going to be in some order JP Roos Julio uh and I NE I'm not pounding the table for Julio to stay in the top three either I just don't know if you have really any any choices right now I I guess Luke rayley but do you want to go three lefties in a row I don't think that's something Scott would ever consider right so the mayor is going to Baltimore tomorrow and we all know how stacked that Baltimore farm system has been with all those bats and you know now a lot of those guys are starting to graduate a lot of those guys are at the major league level and ESPN's Jeff passon says the mar might actually be building or have built something pretty similar in their farm system we'll talk about what he had to say about the m and the trademarket in just a moment but first a reminder this episode of the locked on mirers podcast is brought to you by FanDuel it's winner take all time in the NBA and NHL and fanduels giving you a shot to bring home a big win of your own right now new customers get $150 in bonus Bets with any winning $5 bet that's one 150 bucks to bet on spreads money lines player props and more visit fanduel.com lockon that's LC k d o n and make every playoff shot count FanDuel America's number one sports book and you're listening to the locked on Mariners podcast once again you can catch the Mariners upcoming Series in Baltimore on the Mar's Hometown broadcast with SiriusXM via the sxm app all you have to do to find that this weekend is Search the word Mariners so Jeff passon joined 710 Seattle sports a couple of days ago and talked about the trade market talked about the Mariners farm and had this to say quote they don't have to make an uncomfortable decision with their starting pitching they don't whether it is cold Emerson who I think the industry believes is the best Prospect in the organization or Harry Ford who's really good but kind of blocked by Cal Raleigh and you could potentially move Harry Ford to another position he's enough of an athlete where he doesn't need to be a catcher Lazaro Montes has taken a big leap for this year and people love him Bon ceston and Johnny farello 2o and I think once the Orioles prospects graduate past Prospect status and they still got a few of them left there's an argument to be made that the position playing prospects in the Mariners organization are the best in Major League Baseball and so if you want to win now trading from that farm system is a pretty good way to go out and do it so what do you think about that statement it's pretty big statement that the Mariners arguably have the second best position player group in their farm right now in baseball do you agree I don't know enough about other teams position groups uh to really dictate I think about the Mariners and the Mariners only I have no side mitches uh that I pay attention to Sure uh in this regard but uh I will say this uh first things first yeah Colt Emerson is the best Prospect in the Mariners system if somebody is telling you otherwise they don't know what they're talking about leave their website leave their podcast they don't know what they're talking about Colt Emerson's the best it's not close uh second of all Harry Ford's blocked by by Cal Ry not really he he he did he did he did also mention that you can play Harry Ford another position I know but still like that's not a thing like oh he's blocked by Cal Ry like okay we don't know if Harry Ford's even going to be good I mean he's he's not on the doorstep of making his debut yet so you can't really say that he's blocked by anyone no matter what position he's playing he's blocked by his own skill level right now but let's not get hung up on semantics here Captain semantics uh first of all semantics are everything sure uh but second of all I'm just saying like position like prospects being blocked by Major Leaguers it's not really a thing uh especially when you're as good of an athlete as Harry Ford but anyways yeah so here's the deal it's not that you couldn't trade from your starting pitching staff uh you shouldn't but it's not that you can't right it's just that you don't have to because the Mariners have a very good farm system and while it's not going to crop up and a lot of people's like oh it's a top five farm system hey that doesn't really matter for anything other than content like you make lists so people click on it that's what Prospect rankings matter that's what farm system rankings matter they're not that valuable and pass's right like Colt Emerson could you just cold Emerson could headline just for just about any trade you could possibly imagine Emerson is a viable headliner uh you know Harry Ford is turning into a a viable headliner like right now Harry Ford is probably about as valuable as noeli Marte in trade talks like you know Mar he's a very good piece now is he like can he get you an elite player for four or five years no but I mean what Elite player is available for four or five years that's on the trade market right but he's but he's really hitting right now in in an upper level of the miners and he's showing that he can at least play a premium position at an average rate right average-ish yeah a very like the bad is so much better like if the bad is as good as it's shown then he can be a 40 gr catcher and still be an everyday catcher which is insanely valuable in this league uh but yeah L Montes is a guy who's just continuing to take off like his Bat is going to be coveted and yeah Johnny farello is probably a guy that not a lot of people talking about uh a lot not a lot of Mariner fans are talking about because they don't think there's a ton of value to be gained from farelo who's only played like what 30 games in the professional level Scouts are gonna love Johnny far I guarantee you they already do love farel because he's a freak athlete he's already showing power and hit tool and all that stuff and he's what 18 years old you know and there's a there's a pretty good shot that he ends the year and Everett like the Mariners have more than enough to trade from their Farm uh without touching their pitching staff and still get an impact bat passing's 100% right on that doesn't mean the teams won't ask like oh we'd sure love to get Brian woo yeah click yeah like okay well try again later like it's not happening so yeah the Mariners can absolutely make impact trades by only trading from their farm system or is there maybe one or two guys that might crop up and be available where they would have to give up wo to get involved sure I guess I I can't think of anybody off the top of my head where that would be the case uh but for the most part no if the Mariners want something they can get it done with just prospects so one of the names Jeff passon mentioned the Mariners could use said prospects to acquire this summer is white socks outfielder Luis Robert Jr so what do you think about trading for Robert what do you think about passing mentioning Robert by name Robert is probably the guy who has the most star potential that is almost certainly going to get traded this summer so makes sense that passing would bring him up my issue with with Robert isn't even so much that he's not going to play center field for you because that's kind of irrelevant in trade talks because the white socks aren't going to care about that yeah that doesn't matter to the white so let's make that clear that that matters to the mirors and that's going to affect how they value Robert but the white socks don't care about that at all no the bigger issue with Robert is that he's not available availability is a massive issue with Robert uh he's had one full season in his entire career and even this year he hasn't played in a game since like April 5th yeah he's only played seven games this year hip is year right so I think he had a hip thing a few years ago too so that might be a chronic issue and again you can't go out and you can't pay even if even if we pretend that you can get Robert for like Harry Ford and Tyler laer and you know Tai Pete or whatever which you probably can't but even if we assume like a really favorable trade package for the Mariners you still need that guy to perform you need that guy to be healthy and that guy doesn't walk a ton he's striking out a little bit uh like you said the center field defense thing like not really that big of a deal for Seattle not that they couldn't use an upgrade in right field and not that you know Elite right field defense isn't valuable it's just not valuable as not as valuable as center field defense and you don't know how often this guy is going to play if he's only going to play 80 90 games a year for you for the next four years the contract and the club control they're meaningless they don't mean a thing so you have to be really certain that this guy's can play you know 140 times a year and when you add on top of that that the Mariners are already expecting a lot from Mitch hanar and Mitch Garver and Jorge palanco all guys who have missed significant times in their career it's a huge risk to take and you might honestly be better off going out and getting a worse player and you know what the Layman will say you know being cheap and going out and getting a guy who's going to play every day that's an upgrade and spending a little bit less on Prospect Capital than going out and you know what will almost certainly be giving up three of your top five or six prospects to get in the conversation for a guy who you have no idea how often he's gonna play it it's such a huge risk I'm pretty much out like obviously there there's a certain point where you just go okay that price is too good to give up and and that or that could even be just like Colt Emerson could be in the package and you're like okay well I mean that's still such a good deal I think you have to take it but where what the Robert deal is going to hurt you is with the secondary pieces and the tertiary pieces like we're not talking about the secondary pieces being you know uh Aiden Smith or or we're not talking about it being Jonathan CL we're talking about the secondary yeah right we're talking about the secondary piece being it could be Harry Ford like it could be L Mones that's the second piece that you have to give up that's not even the headliner uh so to me no I'm not a fan of the Robert idea because I don't trust him to stay healthy and I think the Mariners can go out and they can get similar impact that will cost less cost less and it has a higher uh floor than Robert does because the floor on Robert is that he he plays 65 games a year for you and he's basically byon buckton and now you just you just leveraged a significant portion of your farm system to go out and get this guy that who cares if he's got three years of Club control left he's only going to play in 162 games over that entire threeyear stretch so who cares you basically got him for one year so I I'm not really a big fan of the Robert idea yeah there's at least not at the price that I'm assuming it's going to cost yeah there's a lot of risk involved here and the the Byron bucks in comparison is actually pretty accurate uh I would look elsewhere if I were the Mariners and again because the white socks are going to put such a premium on Robert is not only uh you know a high upside hitter who has multiple years of Club control he's also a Prem premium defensive center fielder and that just doesn't apply to the Mayers and that does boost the cost and if you're the Mayers you're just not going to want to pay for something that again doesn't apply to you right there's an old rule one of Billy Bean's rules uh in trades uh is uh you can always recover from the deal you didn't make but you may never recover from a deal you made at the wrong price and leveraging significant portions of your farm system uh to go out and get Robert if he plays 130 140 times a year for the rest of his career or for the rest of his Club control for you home run of a deal pretty much no matter what you give up because he's that good of a player sure if he doesn't you may have shortened your window and we know how much Jerry cares about his window you may have shortened your window significantly without any ability to recover uh you know that what you gave up to get the player so and when you look at that you say okay well you know isn't that worth the risk maybe if the risk was 50-50 but you go look at Luis Robert's career and you tell me what is more likely that he suddenly figures out how to play 145 games a year or that he continues to miss significant portions of the Season as he gets older as he gets more wear and tear on his body it's a gamble but there's still odds right it's not just a 50-50 coin flip there are odds being laid on this and and you have to be smart you have to be the card counter at the blackjack table you have to kind of look at the board around you and say is this the best move I can make maybe the Mayors think it is I don't think they're gonna I don't think they're gonna see it that way though but um yeah if I'm if I'm the May is that I'm going to spend that kind of Prospect Capital I think I'm more into the idea of eso parus who obviously has his own concerns right with like the bat speed how is the bat going to apply to playing in T-Mobile park for half of the Season Etc but that's someone I think I'm a bit more comfortable uh trading that kind of uh or make you know paying that kind of price tag for uh just again given all the concerns with Robert given the fact that again a big part of his value doesn't apply to me all that um I think there's just a better way to extract value from the kind of prospect package that would take MH agreed or at least a more safe way to extract value out of that proc ECT package because because again like you hit on Robert if Robert does play you know 150 games a year for you over the next you know three and a half or three years right than home run like there's no one that you could possibly get at this trade deadline that would be more valuable to you if you get that player if they did it okay cool fine great like I'm I'm into it like it's I'm excited but yeah there's there's a lot of risk there's a lot lot of concerns that come with that there are a lot of red f it would be Far and Away the riskiest move Jerry depoto has ever made not nothing would come close yeah agreed agreed all right that is going to do it for our show but before we get out of here a reminder that lockon has launched the first ever National Sports 24/7 streaming Channel on YouTube and now it's also available on Amazon Fire TV and the free Fire TV channels app locked on sports today is here for you 24/7 covering the top sports stories of the day with the local Experts of locked on plus our national shows covering every League find locked on sports today now available on the free Fire TV channels app thank you so much for joining us here on the locked on Mar's podcast for kobby patod I'm Tien Gonzalez be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at Lor Mariners you can follow me at tiang Gonzalez and call me at cpad 11 at cp11 you can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you next time peace

Channel: Locked On Mariners

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Id: 1Nauh5MXhlc

Length: 32min 28sec (1948 seconds)

Published: Thu May 16 2024