Episode 227: Should The Mariners Go After J.D. Martinez Or Anthony Rizzo? (Mailbag)

[00:00:00] Welcome to episode number 227 of the Marine Layer Podcast. It's a mailbag episode. We'll open it up and answer your guys' best questions. We have an update on the Ryan Bliss injury. We'll go down on the farm and pick out a standout Mariners minor leaguer and we'll close it out with a Russell Wilson umpire of the week.

[00:00:19] You guys, reminder if you're trying to stay on top of all of our stuff, it's all in one spot. Marinelayerpod.com. Everything from our episodes to our merch to our live show events, which by the way, we want to hammer this home. We are just over a week away, you guys, a week away from our next live show. We are fired up. April 19th, Queen Anne Beer Hall, 11 a.m. live show, 12 o'clock watch party, which will be following right after all over Queen Anne Beer Hall.

[00:00:46] Again, if you need a reminder, go over to the website. It's over there. All of our stuff is over at marinelayerpod.com. Stay on top of all of it and follow us across all of social media, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube shorts at Marine Layer Pod. Let's get it rolling.

[00:01:15] And we welcome you to this episode of the Marine Layer Podcast, part of the Just Baseball Podcast Network, recording on Thursday evening, April 10th. When we decided to go to this three episode a week format, I thought it would cause us to have less to talk about between episodes. But Lyle, I cannot believe how much we have missed since we simply sat down and recorded our Wednesday episode. It's been a lot.

[00:01:41] Some good, some not, but yeah. Good thing we didn't have to talk about that Wednesday game. That would have been a, um, how would you describe it? Well, they did win. Oh, they did win. So it was a positive. Not that it was an incredibly invigorating game to watch. Given that through the first, I don't know, seven innings, it looked like the Mariners were fully content on punting the game.

[00:02:09] Dude, Luis F. Castillo's at, what, 70 pitches in the third inning? It's bases loaded with one out. Who's warming up in the bullpen? Nobody. Nobody. They, they had nobody warming up in the bullpen. I'm going to be honest. They said 162 battles. They did in spring training. Did not feel like that game on Wednesday was one of those 162. But you know what? You know what, Lyle?

[00:02:36] Just because it didn't feel like it didn't mean the final result wasn't a positive for the Mariners. They end up winning and they take the series. Yeah. So there is, like, there is actually a positive. As weird as that series was, as wonky as it was, didn't feel sustainable at all. I think the Astros bullpen actually is kind of bad. That's what I took away from this series. I don't think the Astros bullpen is very good. But the Mariners managed to win the game, which is what you should do at home when you give yourself those opportunities. Shout out to Randy Rosarena for that awesome swing.

[00:03:06] Shout out to him for that walk-off walk. Shout out to Julio in the ninth inning for an excellent piece of hitting. Something that we just hadn't seen enough of him in those situations last year. And certainly in parts of his career as well. Like, that was actually really refreshing to see. So that's me, Lyle. Positive. Yeah. Positive. Smile. Positive. Good. I was going to add on. Yes. That is positive.

[00:03:42] That doesn't have to do anything with the players. Players fought back and battled and didn't give up and found a way to win and win that series. Credit to everybody you just mentioned. I'm going to throw one more in. Miles Mastroboni, dude. He, he and both of the wins in that series played a major contribution at the plate late in the game. Shout out to the bottom of the lineup. The bottom of the lineup objectively is not good at all. But the bottom of the lineup is what came up in the ninth inning of that Wednesday game and got the rally started.

[00:04:13] Right. Yes. The players, the players themselves deserve a lot of credit for fighting back and winning that game. You know who deserves a shout out to Casey Lawrence. Yeah. He kept them at bay in that game. That game could have gotten way out of hand. It could have been a 10 to one Astros win if things had really spiraled. Casey Lawrence came up and pitched in the big leagues for the first time in a long time. And he kept them in check. The Astros of all teams too. Here we are on April 10th, crediting Miles Mastroboni and Casey Lawrence for a crucial win against the Astros.

[00:04:43] Here we are. Now, I was sitting here positive, right? And, and we are. They won the series. That was also one of the worst series I've ever watched from both the Astros and the Mariners side. It was bad. At least, at least Christian Walker didn't burn them. Well, you know, he didn't burn them because I'd be sitting here on this episode screaming to start the show if he was. But don't worry. He'll burn them at some point this year. Manifesting. There was, there was some, uh, unless you have anything else about the series. Good thing they won.

[00:05:12] I'm glad that series is over because I don't want to watch any more of that version of baseball. Mariners got some more bad news this week. Ryan Bliss tore his bicep on Tuesday night. Right. He's going to be out four to five months now. So that's essentially the year, or if he's on the early side of that timeline, September. The Mariners will be happy if they get him back healthy before the end of the season. That would be a win.

[00:05:40] And by that point, this is why it really sucks for Ryan Bliss, who we know is such a good dude. But by that point, objectively, just thinking it out here in terms of a range of possibilities, isn't there a world Cole Young's certainly up by that point and has played well enough to just lock down that job, leaving Bliss kind of out of options for a spot? If Bliss comes back and has a spot to play, there's a problem. Because a number of things could have happened.

[00:06:09] Cole Young could have struggled and played himself out of a major league second base spot, at least for this season. He could be hurt, which is also a really bad thing. Or the Mariners have this, for some reason, some drastic need at a different position that Cole Young happens to go play, even though I think he's only going to play second base. Because either way, for there to be a spot open for Ryan Bliss, something has to go really wrong. Or if they try and play Ryan Bliss at third base, which is not his position and shouldn't be his position,

[00:06:38] but they feel like they need to play him over there, something's not right at this point. Which comes back to your point, and is correct, that if he comes back at the end of the year and has somewhere to play, it looks like he's not going to. And if he does, there's an issue. I hate to already start throwing this out there, because it's April 10th when we're recording this, but it is a real world.

[00:07:02] The other possibility for Ryan Bliss to come back and start playing every day is if the Mariners do not do anything, or not enough, at the deadline, and there are still open spots in that infield. Yeah, that's not good. But at that point, are they in it? Probably not. Right. If there's available spots, a number of things, again, have to happen. Like, when Ryan Bliss gets back, they should have another infielder on their infield from somewhere else in baseball

[00:07:32] who's not in this organization, if they're going to win. Right. And this is why it just sucks for Ryan Bliss. Again, such a good dude. Was off to, not like an all-world start, but you saw him putting some good at-bats together. He had the home run. By the way, he hit that double. He stoned the double off the wall with a torn bicep. Well, thank you for cutting me off. But yes, he did. Of course. Oh yeah, that's my job. That's what I was going to say.

[00:07:58] He tore that bicep earlier in the game on that backswing when he hit the catcher, but stayed in, continued to play, hit the double, and made that save on the tricky hop that bounced off a second base to save a run. He was barreling the ball a little bit. If you look at his Savant page, you'll see what he was doing well. He wasn't chasing. He had a good barrel rate. He's always had a good barrel rate. He showed the tools that there are points where he shows he can be a regular big league infielder.

[00:08:28] He provided a little bit of value on defense so far this year. The glove was trying to be a little bit more consistent. It was a bright spot in an infield Lyle that does not have a lot of them. Really. Just look. We'll get to it in the mailbag question because there's a couple of mailbag questions about the Mariners infield common theme, but if you just look around the group, it's not a group that makes you just sort of smile yet, but Ryan Bliss at points had made that happen. He had the home run earlier in the week too, which was great. Stinks, man.

[00:08:57] So what do you do now? What is the next solution? When Ryan Bliss is out, how are we formatting this Mariners infield? I feel like we'll get to a little bit of this in the mailbag too, but if you're talking about just what you do with the guys on the roster, again, this goes back to even what we talked about with the Robles injury, but it's even more magnified now. Somebody is going to be out of position and in an uncomfortable spot,

[00:09:26] whether it's offensively or defensively, especially with Jorge Polanco still only being able to really DH for now. And by the way, another thing we learned this week, he can't hit right-handed yet. Polanco can only hit left-handed and he can only DH. So currently you have Victor Robles out. You have Ryan Bliss out. You have Polanco who can't play the field and can only hit from one side. So essentially this becomes Dylan Moore is going to play a lot of third. Mastro Boney is going to play a lot of second.

[00:09:55] You're going to have Luke Raley hitting against lefties in the outfield, playing right. And there's going to be Dominic Canzone days in there too. Hmm. It's not great. I feel like this is something they could have prepared for. No, it wasn't. TJ, I've already told you get it through your head, buddy. It's not a smart strategy to go sign and acquire players. Like how many times do I have to sit here and tell you that that doesn't make the team better? I have a temporary fix and this temporary fix does not include calling Cole Young up.

[00:10:23] Cause I think that was a very similar, that was a very common discourse. As soon as people see this injury, okay, it's time for Cole Young to come up. He's hitting the ball hard in AAA. You know, we've already talked about calling Ben Williamson up and you have less invested in him as a prospect. And that's terrible to come out of my mouth. Cause I want every prospect to do as great as they can. I want these guys to totally succeed, but the Mariners do have less invested in Ben Williamson as a prospect than they do in Cole Young.

[00:10:52] So in terms of which bat you would call up to that is not ready and you risk. It's, it's a tough word ruining their future development. You put Ben Williamson at third so he can play defense. You move Dylan Moore and you have him play every day at second base. You have JB Crawford every day at shortstop. And then whatever you decide to do at first base, you have those guys there. I guess, right? But even still, do you have more invested in Cole Young and Ben Williamson? Yes.

[00:11:23] Is Cole Young a top 50 prospect? Yes. Ben Williamson was also a second round pick. Now I know he was underslotted a bit. I know it helped him do some different things in the draft that year because that was the year they took all three of the high schoolers in the first round in 23 and it allowed them to do all that. But Ben Williamson was still a second round pick and he's been really good. It's not like you have nothing invested in the guy. And oh, by the way, you're kind of banking on him all of a sudden this year to come up

[00:11:48] and do a certain job because you've already got so many roster problems to begin with. So you cannot, I'm sorry. Like if it's, if it's me, you cannot sit here and call him up on April the 10th or 11th. You just can't do it. That's fine. But if you want a stable third base or second base position at this point, that's going to require Leo Rivas playing almost every day. You're going to need to be comfortable with that. What other options are there?

[00:12:15] Either a prospect's getting yanked up or Leo Rivas is playing a lot or Miles Mastroboni. Look, I'm sorry, but I think it's going to have to be Rivas and Mastro for a while because it is just not fair to the development of these prospects to yank them up right now. Ben Williamson has to prove that he can hit a little bit in AAA. Nobody's saying Ben Williamson has to come up and be a 125 WRC plus hitter, some all-star type third base bat.

[00:12:44] He does have to be serviceable. He's got to at least be a 90 to 95 WRC plus bat because that paired with elite defense or at least plus defense makes out for a pretty valuable third baseman. But if he's up here putting up a 65 WRC plus, that just can't happen. That's what we think should happen. What will the Mariners do? I don't know. Again, I think for now you're going to see Rivas and Mastroboni.

[00:13:13] I'm sorry if that's not the answer that people like. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that the two of us are sitting here fired up about it. But teams, unfortunately, are not making trades on April 10th. I don't think we're going to see a Louisa rise trade this year, which happened two weeks into the year last year. And your prospects aren't ready. The prospect that's going to come up first between those two, by the way, it's going to be Ben Williamson before Cole Young. I think Cole Young, you'll probably see him around the summer. I would be surprised if it's before that.

[00:13:43] Williamson could be earlier. But for now, you're going to have to roll with what you've got. I think the Mariners are going to call one of these guys up early. I think so. They've done it before. This is not a situation that has stopped the Mariners before in doing this with their prospects. It's not right, but the same regime has done it before. So I would not be surprised if we see Cole Young a month or a month and a half or two months before we should.

[00:14:13] I mean, there's already. So we think on the pitching side, for example, there has been a common theme out there of calling up Logan Evans to start next time. We're going to get into that. We will talk about it, but it's the same point, right? And you and I have talked about it wouldn't be the most surprising thing to see that happen. Right. Yeah. Logan will get his piece in this episode, but because he had a good week. Yeah, he did. He did. You get my point, right?

[00:14:42] Do I have to bring up your favorite prospect of all time? Like they've done it. That's what I was going to say. Before we ever started this podcast, were we fired up beyond belief when Kelnick got called up? Yeah, because the offense couldn't get anything going. You thought he had a chance to save it. You thought he had a chance to carry it even as a rookie. Looking back on it now, the way they handled Jared Kelnick was total bullshit. Like let's let's not sugarcoat it. It was. They went through the offseason. They did not add any offense and they were surprised once they got into April and May

[00:15:11] that their offense stunk and relied on their top prospect to save it. After playing six games in AAA, because the minor league season was a month delayed that year. He got a bunch of at bats on backfields in Peoria for the first month of the year, played six games in AAA, got yanked up and wasn't ready. Yeah. Again, I know your roster's crunched. Here's another thing we're going to get into in the mailbag here too. This is why we got so frustrated all offseason.

[00:15:41] You can't predict injuries, but there was some writing on the wall for this. And now we're seeing it 13 games into the year. Two different ways to think about this. There's the depth and then there's the talent. The talent is the off is the offseason issue. You're you go into an offseason trying to add talent to your big league roster, right? Someone who can start at the Mariners had right. A healthy, solidified first baseman over there who's hitting and who's in the prime of his career. That would be productive offensively.

[00:16:11] You would look at the rest and be like, okay, if the first baseman goes nuclear, then maybe offensively it stays together. The defense may perhaps not. It's going to be a lot of moving pieces around there, but we have an anchor over here at first base that can handle us offensively. Mariners decided not to do that. The Mariners first baseman have been the probably the worst hitting group on the entire team so far this season. So you can't even look to that. I think I think we got to. I think we got to cut this off and go to the mailbag because because now we're just talking about things.

[00:16:41] We got to be in the mailbag. But the yeah, that's the first mailbag question essentially. But before that depth, what the Mariners are experiencing right now is a thing of prospects. Prospects are what provides you depth. That's like a cyclical timing thing that the Mariners are just out of sorts in right now or not out of sorts. The timing is just not there because their prospects are a little bit farther back. That makes sense. Yes. All right. I'm ready to get to the mailbag. But before that, a reminder, you guys, again, I said it at the start of the show.

[00:17:10] So our next live show is a week away, technically eight days away when this comes out. But I'm going to call it a week away. And we're fired up about it. We love doing the first one. It was so cool to see all the turnout we got over at Moss Bay Hall back in February. And we're doing more throughout the year. So our next one is in a week. It's on April 19th. It's over at Queen Anne Beer Hall. It's in Seattle. It's during a road game for Mariners Blue Jays.

[00:17:36] So we're not asking anybody to sacrifice going to the game and coming over to the show. We're saying, hey, the team's on the road. We want to do a live show for everybody and then watch the game together. Come on out and do it. Live show's at 11. Watch party will be right after that. It's Mariners Blue Jays, 12 o'clock. Come hang out. We're going to talk ball for, you know, for a while before the game starts. Again, that's going to start at 11 a.m. And that's going to involve you guys a ton like we did at the last show. We're going to take questions.

[00:18:05] We're going to do trivia. It's about getting everybody involved. Like, that's why we love these shows. We want to interact with you guys. We want to take your guys' questions. We want to hear what you guys have to say along with a few topics we'll bring up too. So come on out to it because it's going to be really fun. So again, 11 a.m. Live show, 12 p.m. Watch party for Mariners Cubs. Sorry, Cubs. Mariners Blue Jays. We're all going to stick around. Queen Anne Beer Hall. Watch the game together. So come on out for it. Again, it's April 19th, Saturday. Saturday starts at 11 a.m.

[00:18:33] And if you need some more incentive, plenty of giveaways. Our merch, Beer Hall merch, and some other fun, fun, fun things that you're going to have to show up to find out and potentially get your hands on. So please come out. April 19th, 11 a.m., Queen Anne Beer Hall. Let's get to our first mailbag question. And as we dive into these questions, I'll remind everyone listening, if you would like to be featured on a future mailbag, we'll be doing these every single Friday. We'll be posting across all of our social media channels.

[00:19:00] It's hard to miss of us asking on Instagram, on Twitter, on YouTube. But most importantly, over on Patreon, all Patreon members that sign up get priority on mailbag questions. So if you submit a Patreon mailbag question, your question is going to get answered on a Friday episode. The first four questions all submitted on Patreon. They're signed up to our Patreon so they get their questions answered. If that sounds like something you might be interested in, go check out our Patreon. See if that's something that makes sense for you.

[00:19:29] And you get your question answered by us every single Friday if you have one. If you had a question every single week, we would answer it all the time. So let's get into it. First question is from Robert. And Robert's question is,

[00:20:03] It is. And I'm sure we're going to see Tyler Locklear at some point this year. I would be a little surprised if it's before May 1st unless there's an injury. Usually, often, teams will not move on from somebody, especially a veteran, 13 games into the year. I'm not saying it won't happen, period, if things don't change. But I think you're going to have to sit with this for another few weeks before we see any type of roster construction.

[00:20:31] Tyler Locklear is obviously the guy that makes the most sense because he's right in Tacoma. He's got some big league time. He's still got some potential. So I think we'll see him at some point. And he'd probably be the first guy that gets a chance. But it may still be a couple weeks. I think the Mariners will call up Tyler Locklear. The question I'll ask you, Lyle, do you think they're going to call him up? They're obviously going to call him up out of a need. But they're going to put him in the lineup. How are they going to feel about him? Do they feel like he's ready?

[00:21:00] But if they call him up, they clearly feel like he's a better option than one of the guys are playing there now. Not a high bar. No. You're right. I brought up the point before. They did spend all offseason theoretically trying to replace Tyler Locklear and block him essentially at the big league level. Which is not his fault. He's doing what he can in the minor leagues. And he's doing currently really well in Tacoma to start the season. He has a 9-16 OPS.

[00:21:28] But a 9-16 OPS as a first baseman in the PCL is closer to average than you would think for a player. So we'll see. I hope Tyler Locklear comes up and absolutely crushes it. Because at this point, the Mariners need to try something at first base. They need offensive production at a first base. From whatever they've tried at first base, by the way, somehow it keeps getting worse. Somehow the production keeps getting worse. If it makes you feel, it's not going to make you feel any better.

[00:21:58] If you go check Ty Francis' stats right now. It's not going to make you feel any better. Alright, you're exaggerating a little. He's been a little above average. And Lyle, Mariners' first baseman have been 60% below? Well, yes. That's the difference between probably Donovan Solano last year and Aaron Judge last year. I still would love to see Locklear get some time. And he will.

[00:22:28] Honestly, I hope he comes up and proves everybody wrong. Because this guy had some juice as a prospect before the call-up last year. And then it felt like, okay, he got a few games. And all of a sudden, people have pumped the brakes. And the Mariners know more than we do. They have more information than we do. But, you know, Locklear is still pretty raw and pretty untapped as a prospect. I hope he comes up and totally proves everybody wrong. I think they need it. Because that's one of the only ways in the next couple of months the Mariners get production out of first base, it feels like.

[00:22:56] That's what it feels like right now, right? What are some other options in the future? You think ahead to the deadline, Lyle. A couple of names I've thrown out there. You've mentioned Nathaniel Lowe. Ryan Mountcastle still technically could be available for the Orioles. Their pitching staff is extremely thin. Deadline rolls around. Mountcastle's got one year left of control. I think it's a club option for $8 million next year. That could be an option.

[00:23:23] There's one guy currently sitting out there that's a free agent first baseman. He wasn't good last year. But he's unemployed right now. And that's Anthony Rizzo. Does that make sense? It probably wouldn't happen today. Probably wouldn't happen tomorrow. But given how the first base group looks, if something does not turn around before May 1st and he's still sitting out there, I feel like you have to consider it.

[00:23:52] And he would essentially be what you would think is Rowdy Tellez's replacement. Solano's making a little more money. He can play a couple more positions. So he's got a little more versatility. But as we sit, look, I hope Rowdy turns it around because, again, we've talked about it. He was awesome in spring training. It was really cool to talk to him. He's a really good dude. He's got personality. He's good in the clubhouse. But if the production doesn't change, the production doesn't change. Right now, Rowdy Tellez has an OPS plus of negative 42.

[00:24:24] So I know Anthony Rizzo did not have a great year the last couple years, but it's with context. Rizzo had an 85 OPS plus last year. Before that, it was 91. And to be fair to him, he's been banged up the last couple years. Now, that may continue to be the case because he's getting older and he's going to be 36 this year and entering his age 36 season. But I think it's got to – sorry, he'll be 35, age 35 season.

[00:24:54] But I think it has to at least be worth consideration because that is a 140% jump from where Rowdy Tellez is right now. And I'm not saying it's perfect. But think about – actually, think about this.

[00:25:10] If you call up – sorry, if you sign Anthony Rizzo and he's a 90 WRC plus hitter and then you have Tyler Locklear called up at some point and those guys man first base and Solano starts playing more second or third because you need him in other spots, that is the other thing we haven't mentioned. Solano can play second and third base. He starts to play more in those positions and offensively, maybe you're a little bit better off. A little bit. 90, by the way, WRC plus is where Rowdy was last year when he got cut.

[00:25:41] Right. For context. Anthony Rizzo last year as a hitter was worse than Mitch Garver was by WRC plus. He was. He was also injured, but yes. Yeah. Well, and Mitch – that's a guy with a history of injury too, right? I don't know if it's enough better to sign him. How much is he going to cost? Four million bucks? Yeah, four million dollars for the Seattle Mariners is a lot. Wow.

[00:26:08] Would you rather have Anthony Rizzo or the potential to trade for someone at the deadline? Well, this is where it gets tricky because you're either saying can you hold ground and be 500 at the deadline, maybe, or you're saying figure it out now. Anthony Rizzo is not holding ground. I don't consider Anthony Rizzo holding ground. Well, unless he bounces back. I would love him to. He has given zero indication that he's going to.

[00:26:37] I even just look at 2023. Again, like he was still a – his OPS was 706. If teams thought he was going to bounce back, he'd be signed. Most – Rowdy Tellez netted a deal before Anthony Rizzo. Rizzo's probably asking for more money. Rowdy was on a minor league deal. Rizzo probably wouldn't take that. But I don't know, man. I think you have to consider it at this point. I'm not saying it's a great option, but there are no great options right now. Yeah. You're right.

[00:27:04] Ultimately, the Mariners' first base position right now is a disaster. Mm-hmm. It could be worth thinking about. At $4 million, though, that's a steep price for someone who probably won't even put up positive war. All right. What if he costs – what Rowdy costs? One year, a million and a half dollars. Maybe. Let's see how Rowdy's doing. I hope Rowdy – I don't think Rowdy's going to be negative 42 all season.

[00:27:31] No, he won't, but we've got to see how much better it can get. Last thing before we move on. I would say odds are this year Anthony Rizzo and Rowdy Tellez are probably the same player. Okay. They aren't for their career, but this year, probably. Okay. All right. Question number two. This is from Scott, also from Patreon, and he asks, what is the potential role for Luis F. Castillo?

[00:27:59] So he got optioned down back to Tacoma here on Thursday, as we're recording. Meaning the Mariners will have somebody else start in Kirby's spot until he's back, or they'll just skip a turn through the rotation with the built-in off days. But we'll get to that later. This is more about Luis F. Castillo. What could his role be? Look, you saw some okay stuff, and you know he pitched well in Japan last year. It's not glamorous, but I think he's a depth arm.

[00:28:26] The Mariners don't have a ton of depth arms. They have some, and obviously with Logan Evans now being in AAA, that's certainly another, and a guy that may play a much bigger role than that moving forward. But what could Castillo be otherwise? Again, I think that's his role. You've seen Jonathan Diaz come up and make spot starts. You saw Casey Lawrence get called up for some spot outings. I think that's what we'll see from Luis F. Castillo this year, is he'll get yanked up and down a little bit during the year.

[00:28:56] It feels like a Jonathan Diaz role. That's what it kind of feels like with him. Right. He just doesn't throw enough strikes. Even if his stuff was better, it's not. It's probably not good enough to be a sustained Major League starter. But if it was like a little bit better and he threw a few more strikes, maybe you can make the option. I think the problem is, Scott, and I appreciate the question, is that his stuff is not overwhelmingly good, and he does not throw enough strikes.

[00:29:23] Do you want to know his strike rate and his two starts he had as a Mariner? 42%. That is really low. That is really, really low. The Mariners have some guys who throw enough strikes, but still throw the ball out of the zone enough to get chase. I'm thinking of a guy like Logan Gilbert, for example. He's at 48% of his in-zone percentage for his pitches. That's with all the pitches he throws. Luis F. Castillo is 6% lower than that.

[00:29:52] You could look at a high strike guy like Brian Wu, who's at 61%. Just think of the difference between those guys and Luis F. Castillo. And Luis F. Castillo can't sort of make up for it by being really stuffy and get a lot of chase. That's just not his game. No, it's not. So we'll see what he does the rest of the year. I'm sure he'll be up again at some point in some role, but it's probably not going to be a huge role.

[00:30:17] Let's go to the next question on Patreon from NWFXSEA. Seattle, I assume that is. And the question is, I want to have this conversation before the Bliss situation, so this may be irrelevant now. Then he says, I love the guy, but we need to have a conversation about JP and his everyday play. Is Cole Young solidified at second base, or is shortstop a possibility if they find an alternative option to replace him at second?

[00:30:46] Let's start with the Cole Young piece. I think he's going to be a second baseman. Yes, he played some shortstop early on in the minors. He has mostly been a second baseman otherwise, especially recently, especially down in Tacoma, and I think that's how the Mariners view him for the most part. Cole Young hasn't played no shortstop in Tacoma, but for the most part, he's getting more time at second base. So I think Cole Young is going to be a second baseman, and unless something extreme happens, you won't see him a ton at shortstop. So I would probably rule that out. I get the idea,

[00:31:16] and it makes sense, and the Mariners may be forced to try a lot of things this year, but I'm going to guess Cole Young's a second baseman. He could be an emergency shortstop, but I don't think they want Cole Young long-term at shortstop for any long period of time. If they're going to throw someone else at shortstop, I think they would put Leo Rivas at shortstop, because he's a better defender than JP Crawford is at short. He's probably the best defensive middle infielder you have, period, in your organization at this point. Yeah.

[00:31:46] In terms of replacing JP, it's not going to happen in 2025, you guys, and I understand why the question's being asked, because he had a tough year last year. He's not off to a good start in this year, but there is a reality here, and it's not one that people are going to want to hear. However, I'm going to say it anyway. JP Crawford currently has a 65 OPS plus, and he is the most solidified guy on this infield. Tell me I'm wrong.

[00:32:17] You're not. That's what I had written down too. You look around the Mariners infield, and you're like, okay, what position am I the most confident in? It's shortstop. And it's not even close. It's really not. I really do appreciate the question, and I get the concern. This is a totally different discussion in this offseason. When the Mariners have one year of money left to deal with, they could trade him. They have an offseason to sort of reconfigure their roster

[00:32:47] and think about. Well, the season started at this point, so moving off of JP, this early especially, is not going to happen. And he's not going to the bench either. If he's making this kind of money, he's going to be playing every single day, as long as he's healthy. Yeah. That's 100% right. And you hit it perfectly that this offseason, yeah, there could be a different conversation if something does not change in turnaround. But for the year, again,

[00:33:15] he is your most solidified option on the infield right now. It's a reality. Just think about the option. What if JP's not playing shortstop every day for you? Then who is at this point? Unless you're okay with Leo Rivas starting at short the rest of the season. If you're okay with that, then I guess we can have that discussion. But I'm not okay with that. So, yeah, that's not going to happen.

[00:33:45] Before we get to our next mailbag question, let's hear a word from Game Time. You know, Lyle and I are always out at the ballpark doing our podcast stuff. But that doesn't mean we won't go as fans. I mean, I was out there earlier this week with friends. It was a last minute decision. We ended up finding our tickets really last minute on the Game Time app. It was super cheap. The tickets got sent right to my phone. And it really, it made the experience that much better. Game Time is the official ticketing partner of the Marine Layer podcast.

[00:34:13] They make getting tickets faster and easier. Prices on the Game Time app actually go down the closer you get to first pitch. Let's take a look at this weekend series versus the Rangers. You can get tickets for as low as $12 tonight on Friday, $8 on Saturday, and $5 on Sunday. You can save even more money on zone deals where you choose the section and Game Time chooses the seats. Toggle the all-in pricing feature so there are no surprise fees at checkout. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets

[00:34:43] with Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code JUSTBASEBALL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code J-U-S-T-B-A-S-E-B-A-L-L for $20 off. Download the Game Time app today. Last-minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed. Okay, up next, Graham with a question on Patreon, and Graham asks, were you expecting the lack of depth

[00:35:12] in the current lineup to be at its breaking point this early in the season? 13 games in, no. But again, guys, and Graham, it's a good question. We appreciate the question, and it's a very, very valid one. Guys, why do you think we spent all offseason so mad, me specifically, doing all these rants? You think it was because I just had steam from my outside life that I felt like I needed to just

[00:35:40] outlet here on this podcast and let out to everybody listening? No. We let out all that energy and we let out all that fury because we could see the potential writing on the wall with all of this. What did I say in that last rant we did? What they have done is given themselves no margin for error by the way they've approached this offseason. Well, here's the error. There are injuries, and it's nobody's fault that they're injured player-wise. Injuries happen. But they do not have enough on this roster to make up for that

[00:36:10] right now. So, am I surprised it's happened 13 games in? Yes, I didn't expect two guys to be out for significant periods of time from the starting lineup this fast. But, TJ and I were preparing for this for a while. We were preparing for the potential outcome of this. And it's possible it turns around. It's not to say it lasts forever. But if it doesn't, there's a reason we were so furious this offseason. There's a difference between breaking point

[00:36:39] and disappointment, I will say. Breaking point is to the point where the Mariners are at right now where injuries have sort of derailed the future outlook of this infield in the immediate future of this season. I did think we would realize how bad the infield would be pretty quick, especially if guys like J.P. Crawford didn't come out of the box hot. That was your one hope. You'd say, oh, J.P. Crawford comes back to his 2023 form, he starts swinging it, his defense gets slightly better, and all of a sudden it masks all the other issues on the infield. Well, that has not

[00:37:09] been the case. And now we stare and look at it and like, what do the Mariners do when J.P. Crawford struggling is the most consistent member of that group? It stinks. Graham adds in the end of his question, we need bats in a proactive first base, in my Aussie opinion, all the way from Australia. That's awesome. Awesome, Graham. The bats. So we talked about Anthony Rizzo earlier. We've seen J.D. Martinez floated out there as well, Lyle. Could that be an option? Could. And seriously,

[00:37:39] I want to double down. Shout out to Graham all the way from Australia. That's sick. Shout out to you, Graham. Seriously. That is really, really cool. Hopefully you're at a game at some point. Yeah, it's possible. And you know why this comes up? Because Greg Amsinger and Harold Reynolds brought it up on MLB Network the other day. They said, look, Seattle needs a bat. Could J.D. Martinez be out there? Well, he is out there. And if you were out, TJ, and other people were out on the Anthony Rizzo idea, I'd hope you'd be a little bit more in on the J.D. Martinez idea

[00:38:08] because while he doesn't really have a position where you know Rizzo would play first base, J.D. Martinez has not fallen off a cliff offensively. It's declining and this is what happens when you get older. But he was still an above average bat last year that is not signed. 108 WRC+. So who are we cutting here? I list out the Mariners bench. You gotta let someone go. Someone's off this roster at this point if you have J.D. Martinez on the bench. Garver, Masturbone, Rivas, Kanzone,

[00:38:38] Rowdy, or Solano. Those players all mix in in and off the bench at this point. But they're all currently on the roster. I'm thinking out loud about this. It's not gonna be any of the versatile utility guys because you just you have to have the speed you have to have the versatility at this point. You have to be able to move guys around. You can't have a bunch of DHS. So, but you could, in theory, I mean, you'd have to cut Masturbone, right? They're not gonna do that. Yeah.

[00:39:07] Or you'd have to send Rivas back down. Yeah. They're not doing either of those things because they need the versatility at this point and the speed. You know what? Honestly, my best bet would be here if they were to do this tomorrow, let's say, because again, Rowdy's gonna be around for at least a bit longer to see if he can get this thing right and to see if he can contribute. That's why he's here. They have some belief that he can hit. I would bet you if they signed J.D. Martinez, they would just send Kanzone back to Tacoma because between J.D. Martinez

[00:39:37] and Dom Kanzone, is there gonna be a huge defensive discrepancy if you have to play J.D. out in the outfield in left field or right field? I'm not so sure. Yes. 37-year-old J.D. Martinez, DH J.D. Martinez. Kanzone's just not a great defensive outfielder. At least Kanzone is in his 20s. J.D. Martinez realistically could play about 20 games out there and all of a sudden

[00:40:06] his legs are shot. So again, he'd probably for the most part yes, have to DH. Then your bench would be you would have all on the same bench at some point Mitch Garver, Rowdy Tellez, and Donovan Solano and J.D. Martinez. It's not the most versatile group in the world. Even with the versatility if you keep Leo Rivas and Miles Mastroboni, there's no perfect solution here. He would make the lineup better though.

[00:40:36] I personally, my take on this when I see J.D. Martinez, the idea of it sounds good, but I don't know how from a roster building perspective how it works if he can't play defense. Yeah, talking this through, it would be tough to do. It'd be tough to do that, but again, like what do you do offensively? Suck. This is a real predicament they're in, isn't it? Yeah. They've had no problem being bad on offense before.

[00:41:08] A lot of pressure on that rotation and a rotation that doesn't even have George Kirby yet. Yeah, it would be really difficult to handle that bench. Thank you for the question, Graham. It really got us sort of thinking here with some potential bats. The options right now are not great. No. Okay, couple more questions. We got two to go. This one's from JGKersh16 on YouTube and he asks, does it make any sense to trade prospects for an MLB level infielder

[00:41:37] who can help the offense? Yes, absolutely. I love the idea. I've been pretty, I've been pretty strong in my opinion that they should trade prospects, even guys we love because they need to upgrade the roster. because they have so many prospects in the minors. There isn't, there aren't possibly, there is not possibly a way for them all to be up at the big leagues and play on the Seattle Mariners team.

[00:42:07] It's also extremely unlikely they're all going to be good and pan out. So that's why you take a prospect at their high point and you trade them to a team to upgrade the big league roster. The problem is these trades are not going to be available to you until July. Are the Mariners in contention in July? I hope so. Someone would think there's enough talent to do so, but we don't know that. Not the way they've played so far this season. In the offseason, absolutely.

[00:42:36] They need quality infielders who can hit and upgrade the offense. I'm all in for it. Can I throw out one trade idea? Sure. And I'm not saying it's going to happen. I'm not saying it's likely, but I'm just thinking about potential guys the Mariners could look at. This is not the team saying they are going to give up said player. The one guy that came to mind is Sedan Raffaella from the Red Sox. And I know it's a little complicated because he just signed that extension. That extension though isn't

[00:43:05] really much money, so you're not paying him much. There's an option in 2032. He has not hit. I will say that. There was a point last year where he looked like he was really starting to swing it, but in each of his three parts of separate years in the big leagues, and it's a short, short sample in 25 so far, hasn't been an above average bat. He got that extension because his floor is so good because he's such a good defender that

[00:43:35] he can be a three win player off his defense alone. Here's where Sedan Raffaella plays. Shortstop, center field, and second base. That is not a trio of positions that you usually see a player be able to play with real ability to. And the reason I throw this out, if you're thinking defensively, yeah. Yes. So, thinking this out here, if you're thinking to yourself, well, why would the Red Sox trade Raffaella if he just signed this extension?

[00:44:04] I think people thought Willier Abreu might be on the chopping block for the Red Sox, not to say chopping block like he be DFA'd, but he may be the odd man out. Because in case some of you aren't familiar with prospects around the league or don't keep tabs on that a ton, Roman Anthony is the top prospect in all of baseball right now who is an outfielder and has a chance to be a stud. He is off to a torrid start in AAA Worcester. This guy has a chance to be like a perennial all-star. Eventually, when he gets called up,

[00:44:34] you're not putting him on the bench. He has to have somewhere to play. And then all of a sudden, the Red Sox get into a little bit of a crunch. They are going to have too many position players at some point. Some solution is going to have to be had with somebody. Would the Mariners look at Raffaella? Has control, plays defense, fills multiple positions of need that they'd have, whether it's infield or outfield. He has not hit. Maybe it comes in time. Again, he's still really young, but I think it's a unique idea. And that's in

[00:45:05] season only, right? That's the only way we're looking at this. Yeah, because you need help now. Right. I'm not saying look into the offseason, because in the offseason, remember Salk threw the idea out? It was what? Jaron Duran for George Kirby? That was it, right? See, that's the kind of deal they need at this point. That's the kind of impact they need instead of a below average bat in Raffaella, who will make the team better but not where people want. Well, I guess they need better defense, too. They really need better everything.

[00:45:36] So, in theory, yeah, that would work out. I don't know if the Red Sox are listening to that, though. I don't think so. You would have to really overpay. Yes, you would. You would. But they are going to be in some crunch at some point. Maybe the Mariners swoop in on that. I don't know what his price would be. I'm going to be honest. I don't know what the Mariners' return package would be. I don't know if the Red Sox would take prospects for him. They could just want big leaguers. They say, hey, we have a young big leaguer. We want one back. We have holes on our team.

[00:46:06] We have a pitching staff that needs to be improved. Yeah, and the Mariners aren't going to trade out of their rotation, so it may be a hard trade to make. Right. So yeah, it's tough. Again, it is going to be very hard to pull off a trade right now. He is the one guy that came to mind in my mind, but it's going to be hard. Again, they are in a very, very tough situation right now. I'll say it again. This roster did not have margin for error, and it's staring them right in the face now. They're going to have to figure something out, whether it's just the team they already have

[00:46:36] clicks and improves, or they're going to have to find some way to go out and get some guys. Let's get to our last mailbag question. Keaton comes in hot from YouTube. That's not the username. Keaton comes in hot with a hot take to finish it out. Lyle, tell him, tell Keaton if he's out of line or not. Losing Cal would hurt the team more than losing Julio. By war? Well, Cal had a higher war than Julio last year.

[00:47:05] See, you know what? I'm going to tell him yes, and here's why I say that. Because as I've said, Cal Raleigh might be the most important player on the roster. Julio is the best, and most talented when he's at his best, but Cal, I think, is the most important. Because you cannot find catching production like Cal Raleigh if he goes down for a significant time. That is a real bat in the lineup that you lose. Not to say Julio isn't, but Cal's a real bat, he's a platinum glover defensively, and you

[00:47:34] know how great he is with that pitching staff. And those are some things that don't always get factored in. And not enough, at least. So yeah, losing Cal Raleigh, losing either of them would be detrimental, but if you have to pick, yeah, I would say there is validity to that. losing Julio impacts the lineup, I think, significantly more than Cal. But Cal has more overall impact, because you don't know what happens when Cal Raleigh is not behind the plate for this

[00:48:04] pitching staff for an extended period of time and some of the impact he has on this rotation especially. Julio can't impact the rotation like that, it's just not part of his position in center field. He gets hit maybe 10% of the balls, 15% of balls off the bat, right? Cal receives every single pitch on defense, every single one. And even though Julio's dynamite offensively and his offensive ceiling is significantly higher than

[00:48:33] Cal's, this take is right in line, Keaton. I agree with you. I think Cal would be a much harder pill to swallow than losing. Losing Cal would be harder than losing Julio at this point. Yeah, I'm with you. That was a good first mailbag of the regular season, you guys. You guys brought it. And now, instead of just bringing it once a month, you've got a chance to bring it every week. And a reminder to you guys, if you've got questions every week, we will answer them. Go over to our Patreon. You want to sign up for our Patreon? You want your questions answered?

[00:49:02] Go over there, patreon.com slash MarineLayerPod. We will answer your questions once you sign up. Listen, not to say we're not going to take questions from social media. We did in this mailbag. But if you want priority, as we should say, go sign up. All right. Quick pause. We're going to talk to you about our friends over at Pogaccia's Pub 85. That's over in Kirkland. If you want an awesome spot to hang out with your friends, there's games this weekend. If you're not going to be out at the park and you want to just find a place to hang out and have some food, have some drinks, watch the games, head over there. It's a great spot. It really is, you guys.

[00:49:33] Good people. Like, really cool spot. There's pool. There's darts. There's a cool jukebox. There's happy hour drinks, which, by the way, get over there for happy hour. 2 to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, $3 and $4 drinks. So, again, you want to find a place to play some games, have a good time with your friends, watch some sporting events. There's 20 TVs in that place and get some great deals. It's all over at Pogaccia's Pub 85 in Kirkland. For the first time this season, let's go down on the farm.

[00:50:04] Lyle, who do you got? There's some guys to pick from this week, that's for sure, and there's going to be guys we leave off. But for this week, yeah, I went with our guy Logan Evans because he dealt on Wednesday. Six innings, one run, no walks, seven punch outs, sweeper working. Yeah, we love to see that. Let's go, Logan. And he threw that sweeper more than his other pitches in that outing.

[00:50:33] It was, what, 40% sweeper? Mm-hmm. Right? It was a good mix. He was looking a little bit like Logan Gilbert, I'm going to be honest. Not the same. It wasn't throwing the same volume of the diversity. It was mostly, I think, sinkers and sliders. I mean, it was nasty. It was working. A great bounce back from his first start in Tacoma. Wasn't a perfect first start in Tacoma, but man, he was dialed in in the second one. I'm so happy for him. Yeah, well, he's had three.

[00:51:02] First one, first one, he had some bad luck go against him and I actually don't think he gave up a ton of hard contact. Second one was, you know, a little bit, a little bit off, but yeah, he was, he was dialed in that last start. He really was. We'll raise a glass to more of those for Mr. Logan Evans. Yes, we will. Our guy. Yes. How about felony this week, Lyle? Dude. How about Mr. Selestin this week? This dude at the ripe age of 19 tears off his first, uh,

[00:51:31] first week of play in affiliated ball in the Mariners organization, hitting a cool three 48. No, he had showcased some power. I mean, we're recording today. He's already got another hit today, but this is entering today, hitting three 48, slugging four 78 and eight 26 OPS. The only thing you can really say in five games is he hasn't walked, but otherwise, man, he's swinging. Stay healthy filming.

[00:52:00] And he looks really good on defense playing shortstop dude. That guy, the ceiling for that guy is, is ridiculous. It re it really, really is. If he stays healthy, I mean, dream on the type of year he could have down in the minors this year. Stay healthy. Stay healthy. Stay healthy. Yeah. Stay healthy. I'm going to stay healthy. Yes. Got it. But those are the, those are the prospects standouts this week. There were others we could have picked.

[00:52:30] Laz had a great week. Week. Cole Demerson had a great week. Bunch of guys, but Logan Belnean, you get the first round of awards and they're deserved. So shout out to you guys. Let's get to our Russell Wilson umpire of the week to close it out. Well, who was it this week? Color me shocked. Laz Diaz. This guy, as we continue to mention when we talk about

[00:52:58] him, he's not, he's not CB Buckner. He's not Angel Hernandez, but he's not much better. He is really, really not much better. Earlier this week. Yeah. Go ahead. Okay. No, you go, you go. I was going to say earlier this week, Diamondbacks Orioles, Tyler O'Neal's at the plate in the seventh inning. Big situation in the game. Merrill Kelly's on the mound. He gets Tyler O'Neal to strike out. He gets him to go around on a swing. Clearly went around on a swing. It was egregious.

[00:53:27] Laz Diaz said he didn't swing. It was ended up being ball four, right? It ended up being ball four. I'm pretty sure. And Merrill Kelly's not too happy about it. Tori Lavello's not too happy about it. But Lavello ended up getting tossed in the game. And Laz Diaz decided to engage in the argument after completely blowing the call to the point where the Orioles broadcast. I think it was Ben McDonald. Don't quote me, but I think it was Ben McDonald that said sometime during the

[00:53:56] seventh inning, quote, can you eject Laz Diaz? I mean, you just got to love umpires. They're so good at their jobs and then they're held so accountable by deflecting blame on other people. And ejecting managers out of their game for their own incompetence. It really is amazing. It just is. And the consistency is remarkable. Like, it's, God, it's ridiculous. Yeah. Like, hold them. Again, what's so nice is

[00:54:26] they're held so accountable. They really are just held so accountable. This, you guys, if you haven't seen it, you got to look up this picture. When we say Tyler O'Neill swung, I mean, the bat is past the entire diamond at home plate. Well, the bat was almost straight out in front of him. I mean, didn't ask for help. Nothing. It's like, it's a ball. Nope. No, buddy. Oh, God. Can you eject Laz Diaz?

[00:54:56] That is a banger of a line. You know, that's a rule that should happen in baseball. Managers should be able to eject umpires once a game. Great. Sign me right up. What do you do? Have the third base umpires start umping home? Sure. Well, that's not their job. It's like there's a roster for umpires, a roster of 26 players. Someone gets ejected. You got to find someone to replace them. Great. Yeah. Perfect. All right. That's your Russell Wilson umpire of the week. And that just about wraps up

[00:55:25] this edition of the Marine Layer podcast. You guys know the drill. If you want to find all of our stuff, it's over at MarineLayerPod.com. You guys, one-stop shop. It's our website that has everything on it. Whether you want to listen, you want to watch the episodes, you want to rate and review. If you, again, if you're listening to the episodes, leave five stars. If you're watching on YouTube, like, comment, and please hit that subscribe button. You can find our merch on there. Again, people are buying it. We've seen pictures of it. It's been super cool. Send it out to some of the players. You guys should get in on

[00:55:54] it too because we're fired up to see it. We're fired up that people are liking it. We can't wait to see it around the park. So that's all over on our website. Patreon's over on our website if you want priority on mailbag questions. We'll remind you again, we'll keep reminding you on social media and throughout the next week of podcasts. Live show. Live show, live show, live show. April 19th, that's Saturday. Queen Anne Beer Hall in Seattle starts at 11 a.m. That's the start of the live show. We're all going to stick around and hang out afterwards. Watch the Mariners-Blue Jays game. That starts at 12.

[00:56:24] It's going to be really fun. We really, really do want to see you guys get out there and have a chance to interact with a bunch of you guys because we can't wait for this. So head on out if you're going to be free and available. You want to find us on social media? You can do so everywhere at Marine Layer Pod. That's TJ. I'm Lyle. As always, we thank you guys for tuning in. We'll talk to you soon.