Episode 205: Reacting To The Mariners Re-Signing Jorge Polanco

[00:00:00] Welcome to episode number 205 of the Marine Layer Podcast. Jorge Polanco is back! We'll react to the Mariners' newest edition at third base and what it means for this upcoming season.

[00:00:30] You can follow us across all our platforms at Marine Layer Pod. Let's get it rolling! And we welcome you to this episode of the Marine Layer Podcast, part of the Just Baseball Podcast Network,

[00:00:53] recording on Thursday evening, January 30th, and the Mariners have a third baseman. Yes, I said that correctly, Lyle. The Mariners have a third baseman in the form of Jorge Polanco. I'm gonna channel my inner Skip Bayless here for a second. All right, all right. Here we go. It's a parade inside my city. Yeah! How did I do? That's the most excited anybody has been about this Polanco signing.

[00:01:24] I really do like Jorge Polanco. I'm happy he's back. I am happy he's back. He's a really, really good dude and genuinely we'll get into all this. I think him, like Garver, has a pretty good chance of bouncing back. The deal for Polanco's $7 million for this year. There's a vesting option for next year. There's a buyout attached to it. So it's a little bit under $8 million guaranteed.

[00:01:49] Let's, so like, let's lay out the baseline of this. Is this the most exciting acquisition in the world? No. I would say the perfect way to describe this Jorge Polanco signing is I am perfectly whelmed. That's what I am. I'm whelmed. I'm not underwhelmed. I'm not overwhelmed. I'm whelmed. I'm at least pleased that there's going to be a ball rolling down to third base and somewhere, someone will be there to field it.

[00:02:18] That is a positive aspect of this. They did need to make a move at third base. And if you actually look at it in terms of who was, who's left and then all the guys who moved this offseason at third base and then you look at how Jorge Polanco stacks up to them. So it's really not the worst thing in the world. I would just say this is a very on brand Mariners move for this offseason.

[00:02:42] That's what it feels like. Feels like the band is just back together and they're going to try and fix what whatever went wrong last year with a new regime, a new approach, and they'll hope it works out. So just so people know, it's a mutual option, I believe, for next year. So there is the opportunity and chance in the Mariners cards to bring him back if he has a good year. That's in the contract, I believe. Do I have that right?

[00:03:12] Yeah, vesting mutual. Vesting slash mutual option. So I think it's guaranteed if he hits a certain amount. Yeah. So Mark Fineson reported that and he said one year deal for Polanco and $750,000 buyout if they get to that point. But yeah, $7 million base salary. So in other words, there is an option for him to come back if he has a good year.

[00:03:38] Before we get to the actual baseball aspect of this, let me read what else was reported in this Jorge Polanco signing. What team did the Mariners beat out for Jorge Polanco? They beat out the Houston Astros, who were reported by Chandler Rome that they were pursuing Jorge Polanco, seriously pursuing him with plans to play him at his primary position of second base. And Polanco decided to come to Seattle and play third. Now that is not something you read every day.

[00:04:08] A free agent chooses the Mariners over chooses the Astros. The Astros, it sounded like, were going to make him enough of a priority where they were going to move Jose Altuve to the outfield for him. Not for Alex Bregman. For Jorge Polanco, they were going to move a franchise icon and a Hall of Famer to left field. But he instead chose the Mariners. That's wonky. I think he liked it here more than people probably want to believe.

[00:04:39] I do. This isn't, look, this isn't all world, like everything combined into one type context here. But you are talking about a guy who spent a decade in one organization, had to move to another last year. Maybe he finally felt settled in Seattle. Maybe he feels like it's now a park that he knows, a clubhouse that he knows, a situation that he's comfortable with. Plus, we know, you and I know Polanco's agent a little bit.

[00:05:07] So him and Julio have the same agent. And he lives in the Seattle area. I don't know if that's the end-all be-all for Jorge Polanco. I'm sure all in all it was about who was going to pay him the most money and the situation that was best for him. But all those things combined, there's clearly a relationship there between client and Mariners. And there's clearly a relationship between player, Jorge Polanco, and the rest of the clubhouse. Because it's a clubhouse that doesn't look that different from last year.

[00:05:35] Him and Julio spend time in the offseason together. And they've spent a whole season together now. So if Jorge Polanco is a person of, I want to feel like I'm in a place where I'm going to be comfortable. I'm going to feel settled. It's a place that I know. So he's going back to a place that he knows. Is Houston a better hitter's park in every way, shape, and form than Seattle? Yes. Are the Astros looking like the significantly better team than the Mariners at this point? On paper, yes. But there could be more to it than that.

[00:06:03] And there may be a comfortability factor that he's happy with to stay in Seattle. Those first-second-half splits back up what you said of him getting more comfortable in the situation. You can look at his WRC Plus from first half to second half last year. Went from 71 to 114. His strikeout rate dropped by 7%. It was still a little bit high. High for him, especially at about 25% in the second half. But it was better than he was doing in the first half. His isolated power went up. And his hard hit rate went up 11%.

[00:06:31] It was more like the Polanco we know. And it's not a guarantee that with 81 more games or however many games he's going to be healthy for at T-Mobile Park, he's just going to figure out how to hit there. Because guess what? There's a lot of guys who can't figure out how to hit at T-Mobile Park because apparently it's really difficult to step in the batter's box and be good. But the bar isn't extremely high for Jorge Polanco. I mean, they take his past production.

[00:06:57] But at this point, for Jorge Polanco, you want him to do what you thought you might get out of Josh Rojas last year, which is net about two wins while being more productive offensively. Josh Rojas couldn't get that. I did see some people in our comments saying, well, I would have rather had Josh Rojas in this position. And I would ask you. I was like, okay, that's not like a terrible argument value-wise. It's close at third base for next year. Rojas would bring more of his value on defense.

[00:07:26] Vince Polanco would bring more of his value on offense. Which one do you trust now? Which one would have a higher war? Lyle, which one would have a higher war next year? Between Rojas and Polanco? Yeah, third base. Truthfully, it's probably close. And the Mariners are in a position right now where they need offense. Right. So that's the selling point. That's the selling point. You hope Perry Hill takes Jorge Polanco, who was really bad at second base last year. It was a tough watch out there, watching him field out at second base.

[00:07:55] We know he's hurt. Definitely affected his range. Especially going to his right, which will benefit him, I would say, a little bit at third base. There's less room you have to go right. Therefore, he's going to be going left more times than not. And hopefully mitigate a little bit of that. So you hope, with the healthy knee, he had knee surgery, as we talked about after the season was over. That he's going to feel more comfortable playing on his feet every single day.

[00:08:23] And it's not going to affect him as much in the batter's box or in the field as well. Because if the Mariners spent nearly $8 million on Jorge Polanco for him to do what he did last year again, then this is like, what are we doing here? At that point, you go to Jerry DiPoto and say, now, first, it's bad pre-process and bad process once you've decided what you're going to do at this point. So there is a little bit of pressure on this. Sure.

[00:08:54] Absolutely, there's pressure on the front office. I think there was pressure on the front office already. There's no doubt about it. I will say this, though. In terms of upside with the war between Polanco and Rojas and who can eclipse the higher war, the upside is absolutely Polanco. Because similar to how you and I are now sitting here talking about a world where Mitch Garver can bounce back in 2025. Really? Which I think he can. You think so? You think the upside is higher with Polanco? I do because Rojas just cannot hit. You can't put up a 550 OPS for four and a half months of the year.

[00:09:24] You just can't do it. But if Polanco, so you threw this out to me before we started recording, and Polanco was, what, sixth percentile outs above average last year? You said, what if he gets up to 20? He was second. I was saying, yeah. He was second. Sorry. Second percentile outs above average last year with eighth percentile arm strength. Bad, bad. You said, what if he gets up to 25th? Well, I'll tell you what.

[00:09:48] But even like a 110, which would be a massive success, WRC Plus for Jorge Polanco next year, I don't think that would net him two wins if he was 25th percentile. And Rojas was two wins last year without hitting. I mean, baseball reference had Polanco at 1.3 last year with all the struggle. Doesn't account for defense. I mean, it counts a little bit. Baseball reference does not count defense. It has 0% defense? Yes. It doesn't.

[00:10:17] Baseball reference doesn't account defense at all into their war? That doesn't sound right. No. Baseball reference doesn't have a defensive stat. They have DRS and stuff on there. It's not their stat. It's a fangraph stat. Are you sure 0% calculates war? I'm pretty certain. Remember when we talked to Joe? Jorge Polanco and Jose Lopez had four less career wins on fangraphs because they accounted for his defense? All right. Well, fine.

[00:10:47] Jorge Polanco was worth 0.3 wins on fangraphs. So yes. On fangraphs, he's much lower. Anyway, I still think if he just improves his defense a little bit and goes back to the way he was hitting his final couple years in Minnesota, yeah. Because I think there's a world Jorge Polanco could be a 2.5 win player and Rojas is a 1.5 win player. 1.5 win player. If Rojas hits the way he continues to hit with the White Sox, which by the way, Josh Rojas is an awesome dude.

[00:11:16] This is not a knock on him. We're just looking at who he is as a player and the organization he's now in. You trust the Chicago White Sox to help Josh Rojas have a bounce back season? No. I think there's absolutely a world Polanco can be a full win better than Josh Rojas. If not even slightly. I mean, if not just slightly better. So yes. Upside, I do think Polanco is the higher war guy. Even with Rojas being the better defender. Because if Polanco bounces back and he hits, that's how his war goes up.

[00:11:45] Ultimately, with the signing though, we're not chasing wins above replacement. We're chasing runs scored. And guess who's going to add more runs scored between Rojas and Polanco? You hope it's Jorge Polanco. Right. That's what you're expecting. And the final couple years he was in Minnesota, he put up a WRC Plus of 118 in 2022 and 117 in 2023. So he wasn't the Jorge Polanco that mashed 33 bombs back in 2021.

[00:12:12] I don't think he's going to hit 33 bombs playing in a Mariners uniform. But do I think he could be a 117 WRC Plus hitter? Yeah. And guess what? If he gets back to doing that, put it on a silver platter. I would be over the moon. And this is not selling low on Jorge Polanco. This is talking about the Mariners offense and saying, if there were more players hitting like a 117 WRC Plus guy, this team's going to the playoffs.

[00:12:41] How you judge this move will come in one of a few ways. You could think last year was an outlier based on the injury he had. Oh, he's not going to be hurt this year. Therefore, he'll bounce back and be better. You could view it as Jorge Polanco needed a season to adjust to T-Mobile Park. Which you could also say, all right, he might be a little bit better next year. But he still has to play in the same ballpark. Therefore, my expectations of him won't be as high.

[00:13:07] Or you could say he's starting to decline in age like Colton Wong was when he was here and then got cut midseason. Which bucket are you in? I think there's a real world that after a year of getting adjusted to T-Mobile Park, he could really adjust to it and bounce back and be the hitter that he was traded here to be. Is that fair? So is that the bucket you're choosing? Of the two? There's three.

[00:13:38] Declining. Injured. Adjusting to the park. Oh, actually, I'd put chips in the second and third bucket because the injury absolutely played a factor. You could see it by the end of the year. The idea seems to be that Polanco was not healthy for most of the year and obviously was playing through it. And I think that hampered him. Because if you're playing through an injury for the majority of a season, obviously it's really hard. But man, remember what he looked like toward the end of the year? I mean, he could barely move out there.

[00:14:07] He could barely move. Now he's had the surgery. He's healthy from all the reports. He feels good. And if that's the case, then yeah. Between being injured and between having a season at T-Mobile Park, I think there's a world now where he'll be a little bit adjusted and figure some stuff out. There is a world where Teoscar Hernandez figures things out in year two at T-Mobile Park. This is not me parading and campaigning the idea that the Mariners should have brought back Tao.

[00:14:34] But I'm just saying, had he played another full year here, he might have figured some stuff out. There have been a lot of guys that the Mariners have tried to trade for and have only stuck around one year these days. Between Winker, Frazier, Colton Wong, etc. Let's keep going. They didn't figure it out because they tried to hit there for a year. Just weren't good enough or couldn't adjust to the park. And then they went elsewhere. Polanco's now going to have another year. And with a year under his belt, yeah, I think there's a world where he figures out,

[00:15:02] alright, I know what it's like to hit here now. Let's figure out what works for me. I'm a little shocked, though, that he was willing to come back and risk a lot with another season. If he puts him another season like he just did, playing in T-Mobile Park, like let's say he does the exact same thing he did in 2024, does he get a big league contract next year? In 26? He'll get a big league deal. He'll get a big league deal somewhere. It might not be big, but he gets something.

[00:15:32] He did the same exact thing. Somewhere as a bench player. Bad defense and 92 WRC+. He's had such a track record that somebody would take the chance. Yeah, that's my take. He wouldn't start. He'd be on someone's bench. Probably would not start. So it's a risk, right? Because his anticipation is I'm going to have a good year in Seattle, put myself back out on the market, and secure a three-year deal into retirement. Sure. I would imagine.

[00:15:59] Which, again, is what brings me back to beyond the numbers, beyond looking at baseball savant. There's a human side to this. And I genuinely think Jorge Polanco is a dude who values the idea of familiarity and comfortability. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that's fact. It's not like we've read his whole life story. But it's just the sense I got from being around him a little bit, just from talking to people,

[00:16:24] that there is a comfortability side that he likes and that he values. And that he may feel like not having to adjust to a new organization again for the first three months of the year, like he might have had to do if he was in Houston, might have played a factor again. Rather than if he's in a place where he's comfortable and has a solid year, which, by the way, you don't have to put up a 900 OPS in T-Mobile Park. Nobody's looking for him to do that.

[00:16:51] And there's advanced stats now, obviously, things like WRC Plus that are park-adjusted, that show this is how I'd hit and how I'd play anywhere. He has a decent year. And yes, he will set himself up to get paid next year. Who would bring more production offensively next year? Ha Sung Kim or Jorge Polanco? Fucking Christ, Ha Sung Kim. Why are you even bringing that up? You're going to get my gears going on a day where we're trying- Simple question. Who's bringing more offensive production to the Mariners lineup next year?

[00:17:21] Ha Sung Kim or Jorge Polanco? Who would have? Offensive production. Not full production, but just offensive. Correct. Kim was a little under a league average bat last year. It was a little bit of a down year for him offensively. Him and Polanco are both coming off injuries. And Ha Sung's going to miss the first month. So he's going to be starting slow. I feel like the answer-

[00:17:50] It's not like Polanco's going to have an awesome on-track offseason either. So, to be fair. The easy answer here is to say Ha Sung Kim, but I do feel like there's a world that can be Polanco. If you want the easy answer, I'll say Kim. But you're getting Polanco for half the price, given what you've allocated for yourself. Right. Now, Ha Sung, as we've talked about, provides value in a number of different ways that Polanco will not provide value in. Jorge Polanco's in Seattle next year to hit.

[00:18:19] He's not going to be great on the base paths. He's probably not going to be the best defender on the team. He very well might be the fourth best defender on the infield. But if he can hit, that's where this is a win. Based on what you have allowed yourself to do. I still think you're a bad friend. Trying to bring up Ha Sung Kim in a time where you know I was pissed off about it. In a time that you know I'll get on a tangent about it. It's like, let's bring up Ha Sung Kim.

[00:18:49] Let's put some sunshine and roses into Lyle's life. God, I was so pissed off when that signing happened. We wanted a third baseman. You know, they could have signed both. They've got a third baseman. They could have. You're right. And probably should have at this point signed both. Dude. All right. All right. 30 seconds on Ha Sung Kim. 30 seconds and then we'll move on. I'll mute myself. Go ahead. What a fucking disgrace of a signing dude. What a literal fucking disgrace. I don't care about your budget.

[00:19:18] I don't care about any of that. The dude had a two-year deal signed. Duh. Two years with an opt-out after one. Oh, we're the Mariners. We don't want to give out big contracts. We don't want to pay aging free agents. Bullshit. This is a two-year deal. For a team that says they want Nico Horner and might have to give up Luis Castillo to do it. Well, let's actually then not sign Ha Sung Kim, the similar player where you only have to give up money and not Luis Castillo.

[00:19:48] No, let's let him go to Tampa. Sad. All right, that's your buzzer. You're done. All right. Thank you. How's the rest of the Mariners infield going to look now, Lyle? I wouldn't imagine there's going to be Donovan Solano at third base now. It looks like it would be Solano and Rayleigh at first. I'm guessing Ryan Bliss is your opening day second baseman. And then JP's your shortstop. Is there any pushback? So the positive side, believe it or not, there is one to Ha Sung Kim signing with the please.

[00:20:18] Hang on. Hang on. Could this free up the ability for the Mariners to potentially trade for Brandon Lau? And now you have a second baseman. You need to clear money. Fuck that. Eat the money. But they're not going to. It's like five million dollars. They are not going to.

[00:20:45] Then you're not in the right business if you can't eat an extra five million dollars. But we already know that. I'm not saying, okay, now go sign Pete Alonzo, do a seven-year deal. You can't eat five million dollars for Brandon Lau? They won't. Okay, if the answer's no, then you're not. They've told us that loud and clear. Then the people running this team, not front office, we know who this is about. Then you're not in the right business if you can't eat five extra million dollars. I think I would actually entertain this idea, though.

[00:21:15] The offseason grade I give the Mariners right now is still not high, really at all. They go trade for Brandon Lau, it's not going to be high. But I could give them a C-plus grade for the offseason if they go get Lau. Then you have a real infield. What is it without Lau? It's like a D and D-minus still. Yeah, that's about right. Okay, but how would you clear that five? You would have to clear it.

[00:21:42] Trade Mitch somewhere and say you'll eat 10 of his 15 million dollars. Okay. Call it the Marlins. Great. There you go. Shouldn't have to do that. But if you can trade Mitch Hanegar for literal cash considerations to the Marlins and get some money back and say we'll eat 10 million dollars and then go trade for Brandon Lau. Yeah. I love diversity of thought when talking about baseball and especially baseball prospects.

[00:22:11] It's very interesting to me. Prospects especially since they're such an unknown. Within the last week, we've got from two different prospect evaluators, two totally different 2025 outcomes for Cole Young. Last week, Joe Doyle was here on our podcast or two weeks ago.

[00:22:31] Within the last couple of weeks, Joe Doyle was on with us talking Mariners prospects and he said Cole Young is who he's most excited to watch for this year and thinks he can be an extremely productive Mariners everyday player. It's great. Keith Law was on Brock and Salt today and said I would trade Cole Young right now. Because this is about as good as he's going to get. Wow. Very interesting.

[00:22:58] I think Keith Law is more on the side of how he does his prospect rankings in the sense of he looks at upside and superstar potential. For example, there's a reason outlets like Baseball America have Belding Celestine right now in the 70s. People that say, look, the guy's got crazy upside, but he just hasn't played. Hasn't played enough games. He hasn't gotten above Arizona yet. But Keith Law has Belding at 22 right now. I think there's a difference in how people grade these prospects.

[00:23:26] I'm sure Keith Law looks at Cole Young as somebody who's probably not going to be a superstar player. Where you look at Joe, and I'm with Joe on this, who says, sure he's not going to be Jose Altuve. Can he be a top 10 second baseman from being a two-war guy every year? Yeah. And that is something you can sign up for. That being said, why push pressure on Cole Young in 2025? Let him come up, develop in time.

[00:23:52] He can be a guy that's on the bench slash starting to play a few times a week when righties are on the mound. Once he gets called up, get him acclimated. But guess what? You have Brandon Lau in the fold while he's there. Then in 2026, let Cole Young hit the ground running. What you're saying is so logical. It is so logical. Let's see what the Mariners have done with all of their top prospects. Every single one of them. Yeah. We like to say how passive they are. They threw Kelnick right into the fire.

[00:24:21] Julio is a starting center fielder on opening day. Cal Raleigh, to be honest, I'm glad he succeeded. But that dude was literally thrown to the wolves as a prospect. They said, our catches are all hurt, Cal. It's either you or nobody. So this is what I'm getting at. You say they're aggressive with their prospects. I was going to say, yeah. And how's that going so far? Even with Julio, for the first six weeks of the year, he couldn't hit. Now he got screwed at the plate left and right, but he couldn't hit.

[00:24:51] But they're not even aggressive on purpose. They're aggressive out of desperation because they don't have enough players on the roster. Because they don't operate that way in the minors. In the minors, they take these guys along as slow as possible. Correct. So that makes me think Cole Young instead of Brandon Lau will be playing second base this year for the Mariners in June. If he's here in June, that's fine. It's probably about the timeline he'd be ready.

[00:25:18] But is he going to be ready to be an everyday player in June? Which if he gets called up, I would imagine he's going to do. Or it would be him and Bliss tag teaming at second. So again, trade for Brandon Lau. Making a lot of sense. Let's call up the VP of Common Sense and see what he thinks. Call up Divish? Yeah. Oh, he didn't pick up. Sorry. I just tried to call him. And he said, I'm still not talking to you after your insane Roki Sasaki takes.

[00:25:50] I'm kidding. I'm totally messing around now. I did not actually call Ryan Divish right now. One of these podcasts will do it. Just a mess with him, live call, just put him on speaker. Hey, you're on the pod. I don't have anything to say. I mean, seriously, could you trade Mitch Hanager to free up this money to go get Lau? Yes, that is a real possibility. Because I still don't think we're going to see Mitch Hanager end up being on the roster by the time opening day rolls around. It just feels unlikely.

[00:26:20] But I'll say it again. Fucking eat the $5 million and deal with it. Stop acting like your pockets are going to be picked by an extra $4 to $5 million for having to trade for Brandon Lau. Go trade for him. I'm just saying from my perspective, they've shown us so many times that they won't do that. It's like me saying, you know, Sidney Sweeney would date me if I'm a 15 out of 10.

[00:26:46] I should just go up to 15 and there we go. It's that easy, Lyle. No, well, here's the thing. That's out of your control. What the Mariners are doing or more so not doing is totally in their control and they refuse to change their mindset. You can only look the way you look. You can change things marginally, but you can't for the most part just totally change the way you look.

[00:27:14] It's a metaphor based on how they've told us they're going to operate. Well. And clearly, baseball is shown you cannot change ways teams operate without selling it. Well, the way they operate is fucking sad. This is not about Jerry. This is not about Justin. We know who this is about. What's next? What's next? What's next? What are they signing next? If it's not trading for Brandon Lau.

[00:27:43] Do you know what they need more than Brandon Lau? Reliever. A bullpen arm. Mm-hmm. You know, I was looking because we were going to talk about something else today before Jorge Polanco signed. If you were to guess, so Mariners set a pretty good bullpen at home. You want to guess where they ranked on the road? Oh, it's probably anywhere from middle of the pack to somewhere in the low 20s. 23rd in ERA. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Despite throwing the fewest innings of any bullpen in baseball. Yeah.

[00:28:12] And Dan Wilson said yesterday that Matt Brasche expects to be back midseason, which now we're getting conflicting reports because Jerry and Justin said they think he could be back by late April. Dan saying midseason. I don't know what to expect at this point. I will say the midseason thing feels more realistic, but we'll see. Jerry also said they were going to add impact this offseason. Well, all right. So.

[00:28:39] I will say if Brasche is really going to miss that much time, then yeah, you're going to need guys that you can rely on. I really hope Andres Munoz stays healthy. I really hope he doesn't get overworked or anything like that. But then you need Santos to be healthy. You need Troy Taylor to continue to develop and progress well. You need somebody like Shintaro Fujinami to work out who you signed to a minor league deal. Because one of these minor league deals will work out. It's just how it goes with the Mariners every year.

[00:29:08] You need him to work out. You need Colin Snyder to be something similar to what he was last year. And then you're probably going to need some help from the Miners too. I don't know exactly what the plan is going to be for the Mariners and our guy Brandon Garcia. But there does seem to be some belief he could pitch out of the bullpen this year. And you may need somebody like him to be in that role for 2025 as an example to further help this bullpen. If you're not going to sign anybody else, they should sign somebody else.

[00:29:36] But everything I just laid out, while it could go right, you need a lot to go right in that bullpen. You laid out a lot of hope. Hope's not a strategy. No, it's not. Just like the lineup. This whole Mariners experiment in 2025 is a lot of hope. I would feel a lot better if they went out and signed a reliever. And I really hope they're not going to justify their signing of Ryan Stanek in spring training last year as a reason not to pay relievers. You know when you need to pay relievers?

[00:30:05] When you look at your bullpen, which you could argue cost you the playoff spot last year, not your offense. Your bullpen did. And go, no, we're just not going to pay relievers anymore. Even if it's a glaring knee. Which I think would be a flawed process. Because there are still good relievers out there that you can pay and they'd be worth it. You don't have to pay Josh Hayter. You can pay good relievers. We talked about Jeff Hoffman, right?

[00:30:34] Before he signed with the Blue Jays. Some suspect medicals. Dude's a stud. It was a three-year deal. I don't know if the Mariners would go that high with a reliever signing. Because Hoffman did cost a decent amount of money. But, here's an example for you. Because their roster is so unbelievably loaded, the Dodgers just had to DFA Ryan Brazier, who had a sub-2 ERA last year in about 60 innings of work. There's one right there. Right now go sign that guy.

[00:31:03] And he fits within the budget. He's only making $4.5 million. There you go. Now, that might take Lau out of the equation. Sadly. But, that might take him out of the equation. I'd rather have someone like Ryan Brazier than Brandon Lau. So, then. So, you're banking on Bliss, Rivas, etc. Play to your strength. Play to your strength. Like, what do you feel like is the offensive difference between Bliss, Young, or adding to the...

[00:31:32] Let's just focus on second base. What's the offensive difference in T-Mobile Park between the two young guys and Brandon Lau? I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm just asking you the question. You are okay with Bliss, Rivas, eventually call Young playing second as opposed to getting Lau and not having a reliever? Well, I'd rather have everybody because that's what a contending team should do. But, within the self-imposed budget the Mariners have put on themselves based on what they have available and what the strengths of your team and ballpark are.

[00:32:01] Yeah, I would rather just double down on the bullpen. Have an incredible pitching staff. Make your pitching staff better on the road by just getting better players on your roster. And then you won't have to rely on your offense as much. Right. Sure. Yes. Crazy to even say two more relievers? I'd be all for that. You cannot have enough bullpen arms. Like, there's just a point with this offense that, again, we'll talk about some of this stuff later because I have a little bit more to say on the ballpark.

[00:32:31] Maybe we'll talk about it Wednesday. That'd be a good topic for Wednesday. About some more ballpark thoughts. But you're never going to defeat the ballpark. You're not just going to add a bunch of good hitters and say, well, we defeated it. We're no longer last. No, guess what? Let's throw this factoid in there. In 2001, Lyle, where did the Mariners, where did T-Mobile Park rank in Park Factor? In 2021? 2001. 2001.

[00:33:01] I'm going to guess somewhere in the bottom three. It was last. Yeah. There you go. They led the league in runs, and it was last. You can't defeat the ballpark. No. But you can play into its strengths. And adding good bullpen arms does that. Yes, you can. And that's why it would be for adding a bullpen arm. Yeah. Let me add one last thing, and then we'll wrap this up. But just one other guy, if we're talking about the bullpen, just to give a shout out to another

[00:33:29] one of our guys who I actually believe can bounce back this year is Gabe. I actually think Gabe Speyer could really, really bounce back. And why do I say that? I just think he might have gotten to the point last year where he was a little overworked, and that could be where the injury stemmed from. I don't know that for sure, but man, they used him a lot in 2023, and he was awesome. And he was awesome in that first month of 2024. But I think fatigue might have been a real thing.

[00:33:55] And he hasn't thrown that many innings since that injury dawned on him in May of last year. So do I think after enough downtime that he could be back and firing on all cylinders in 2025? I do think there's a world that can happen. And if that happens, well, then the Mariners have a dominant left-handed reliever who throws a ton of first pitch strikes and can get some swing and miss and ground balls out of the bullpen. So don't sleep on that. I really, I'm sure people are not thinking about Gabe Speyer right now, but thinking more about it, I think there's a world that can happen. Let's hope so.

[00:34:25] I hope we're going to see him down there in spring training in about a month, healthy, ready to go, thrown hard. Yeah. Let's hope so. Yeah, I hope so. Which, oh, speaking of that, a couple things. We will be down in spring training. I don't know if we've said it to everybody yet, but we'll continue to talk about it. But last week of February, we will be there February 24th through March 1st. We'll be down in Peoria. So if you are down there, obviously, as hopefully you know by now, don't hesitate to flag us down. Come say what's up. Come talk. We want to talk ball with everybody, as always.

[00:34:54] So if you're down there, please let us know. Please let us know in advance. Send us a DM. Anything. Real quick, let's take a pause. We're going to talk to you about our friends over at Pogaccia's Pub 85 over in Kirkland. You guys know it's an awesome spot to hang out. You want to spend a night out with your friends. You want to go watch some games. You want to plan something for the Super Bowl coming up here in a little over a week. Head over there because they've got great food. They've got games. Awesome environment. There's more than 20 TVs and great happy hour deals.

[00:35:22] Happy hour ranges from 2 to 6 p.m., so long happy hours. And drinks are three and four bucks. Yeah? You like the sound of that? I do. I bet you do. So go head over there. Take advantage of it. Plan a night out with your friends over at Pogaccia's Pub 85 in Kirkland. All right. That just about does it for this edition of the Marine Layer Podcast. You guys know the drill. If you want to listen to the full-form podcast, you can do so wherever you get your audio pods. Make sure to download if you're listening. Make sure to rate and review. Please leave that five-star review.

[00:35:51] Please also hit subscribe if you're watching on YouTube. That is the single best way you can support us. Just click that red subscribe button. It takes one second. It's easy. All that. Hit like. Drop a comment. And then follow us all across social media at MarineLayerPod. Oh, one last thing. One final time. Our announcement about our live show. We'll say it again. Thursday, February 20th, 6 p.m. at Moss Bay Hall. We hope to see you all there. That's TJ. I'm Lyle. As always, we thank you guys for tuning in.

[00:36:20] We'll talk to you soon.