Episode 236: Could The Mariners Trade For Any Of These Pitchers? (Mailbag)

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[00:01:00] Welcome to episode number 236 of the Marine Layer Podcast. It's our mailbag episode. We'll open up the mailbag and answer your guys' best questions. The Mariners have won their seventh series in a row now. We also have some more injury issues to talk about with Dylan Moore and Luke Raley going on the IL. Your guys' reminder before we start the podcast, make sure you're staying on top of everything. If you want to do that, make sure to go over to our website,

[00:01:25] www.MarinLayerPod.com. Check out everything, audio episodes, video episodes. If you want to subscribe to our Patreon and go join over there, we'd love to have you. That's over at our website. You can go get your merch all over at our website. All that's over at www.MarinLayerPod.com. Stay on top of that and follow us everywhere on social media at Marine Layer Pod. Let's get it rolling.

[00:01:59] And we welcome you to this episode of the Marine Layer Podcast, part of the Just Baseball Podcast Network, recording on Thursday evening, May 1st. Does seven sound good to you? Is seven a good number? It's almost like it's better than six. It is. What about eight? Are we going to hear eight on Sunday? Yeah, we could. I think there's a decent chance we hear eight. Did you see my reply to Brock? Yeah, but tell the people.

[00:02:29] Okay, so Brock posted a photo with... God, who did he post it with? How am I blanking on this? Do you want me to tell you or are you going to remember? Who did he post with? It was with DJ Khaled. Gotcha. So Brock Heward on Sunday tweets out a photo with him and DJ Khaled and says, The Mariners win another one. So I responded to Brock and I said, If the Mariners win eight in a row, you need to get a picture with Pitbull.

[00:02:59] I thought that was funny. I thought we'd get a reaction out of Brock, but he might have not seen my tweet, unfortunately. But I think other people liked it. I know you would have given a voice of support. And I think Ryan Divish would have gotten a voice of support, too. That's really a storyline we haven't talked about enough. The Mariners have just started winning and winning and winning since Ryan Divish took his sabbatical off the beat. They got swept to the first series and have not lost a series since.

[00:03:28] I mean, you can say it's all Divish's fault. Maybe some people are saying he shouldn't come back. We're not saying that. We're not saying that. What if they get to August whenever he comes back? Yeah, whenever the date is. I don't know the exact date. Whenever he does come back. And they haven't lost a series since then. Well, then that's the day the season crumbles, isn't it?

[00:03:55] And then we'll have the People's Beat reporter to report on the greatest collapse in baseball history. Team does not lose a series throughout the entire summer. Loses out to finish the season. What's hilarious is we'll all joke about it. But you know there will actually be people that start adding Divish on Twitter saying this is all his fault. And he's going to get furious about it. You jinxed it. You jinxed it. You jinxed it. You jinxed it. He did jinx it. How much do we think he pays attention?

[00:04:24] Oh, he's paying attention. I think he is too. And I will note this because I know our listeners know we have somewhat of a relationship with Ryan Divish. But we honestly have no idea. I have not talked to him since he got back to Montana. So honestly, I would have no inside information. I do feel like he does check his mentions. I feel like he's there looking and knows that, you know, there are a few people a day that will at him and say something.

[00:04:53] He's not on Twitter all the time these days, I'd say. But there's no way he's not peaking. He's definitely looking. And I'm sure Jude keeps him in the loop. And Tim Booth. And all the columnists like Matt Calkins, front of the pod. Like, I'm sure all of those guys are keeping him in the loop too. But yeah, he's probably not thinking about that. He's probably thinking about what his strategy is for the next time he yells at an umpire. What should I insult?

[00:05:21] There's no way he goes the whole season without getting thrown out of a game. There's just no way. I think the over-under is like three and a half. Yeah. How many games do they play? I don't know. Forty, maybe? Yeah. Three and a half. It's about one every ten games. If you hit the over. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Some people might say two. But I'd believe four. I think it'd be good. He does need to blow off steam somehow.

[00:05:50] So, you know, coaching's pretty stressful. So, I'd say he could shoot for four. I think that would be a really fun number to get to. Do you know what else was really fun, Lyle? So, we record on Monday for Wednesday's episode. And we spent a little bit of time talking about Jorge Polanco and his home run happy weekend. And his American League Player of the Week. And we just think, ah, what could happen on Tuesday's game? What could really happen on that Tuesday game?

[00:06:19] Well, Jorge Polanco then took it up another level and turned it to Barry Bonds. We joked on the Wednesday episode. I don't think we've played that clip enough for the Barry Bonds satchel page clip for Jorge Polanco. Only to tweet it out twice in that game because he hit his two home runs. Shout out to Jorge Polanco, man. If you're ranking MVP candidates right now in the American League, is he not second behind Aaron Judge? Yeah, he's second.

[00:06:49] I don't know how you would do it. I don't know how you would argue against that. Yeah, he doesn't play in the field. And he only hits against righties. It's worked pretty well. I gotta say, thank goodness he re-signed and he re-signed in Seattle. Because do you remember how deep those talks got with him in Houston? Could you even imagine the discourse right now and the shape of the AL West had he signed with the Astros and he's doing this in Houston?

[00:07:18] Could you imagine not only what the standings look like, but what the narrative around the fan base would be right now? If he had finished last year with his sub-700 OPS, he goes to Houston and he looks like an MVP. I wish I had a good answer for you, but the only logical thing I could come to is that there would be an immense outrage. And think of what the windfall that would happen right now.

[00:07:43] Because then you look at the Mariners roster with all of its current injuries, who would be DH-ing? Probably Garver. Yeah, you think people would be excited about that? Well, this is a reasonable fan base. Sure. Seeing Mitch Garver get his DH opportunities back because there are no other options.

[00:08:11] Because it would be him or, I mean, you could put Ryland Thomas at DH. Yeah, maybe that's a good segue. Because that's who came up now in the absence of Luke Raley, who's going to be out minimum six weeks. That was a tough blow. And BP too. They showed the footage on the Root broadcast. I don't know how many people saw it. I guess they showed it during the game, so people probably saw it. That did not look pretty. I got to tell you. I mean, he takes one pretty hard swing and all of a sudden he's immediately grabbing at his side.

[00:08:41] And he's got to immediately walk off the field and go down to the trainer's room. Like, you could just tell when he got that swing off that it did not look good. It really didn't. And I'm not shocked to hear the news from Justin Hollander on Thursday, or rather on Wednesday, that that's the result. Because, again, it didn't look like some minor thing. It's six weeks, I think, before he can even start thinking about coming back. Because the thing about obliques, as they were describing, is you need to totally rest it.

[00:09:11] You can't work your way back slowly. You can't really play through it. It is something that you need to be really delicate about. And especially for a guy like Raley, who's going to use it to swing a lot. But that's where it affects guys the most. I'm worried that even when he's healthy and he comes back, that the oblique is still going to be bugging him at some point throughout the season. And it's going to hamper his offensive ability. On top of the fact he's already going to miss roughly two months to come back from that injury. I mean, that's an injury the Mariners really couldn't suffer.

[00:09:39] However, they could suffer one injury in the outfield because they had four essentially full-time outfielders that they started the season with. Randy, Julio, Robles, and Raley. Even though Raley was at first base. Four essentially full-time outfielders that you had on your roster. Now you have two full-time outfielders, big league outfielders, I'll say, on your roster. Samad Taylor's up now too. I think he's going to get the majority of the reps in right field. He's hit really well in Tacoma that we've talked about on past mailbag episodes.

[00:10:08] And he can play all over the field. He's got some pretty decent tools. But he's not Luke Raley, unfortunately. The Mariners put Miles Mastroboni in right field on Tuesday. And I don't think that's going to be the last time we see him or someone else of his caliber out there in right field. If it be a Ryland Thomas or it be someone else. That's a huge drop-off. Right field is supposed to be an anchor position for your lineup and for your defense. And it's worse than having Mitch out there right now.

[00:10:38] Speaking of Mitch, somebody who has also suffered an oblique injury. I was curious what he did when he came back from that oblique injury. Remember when he got it in 2017? He dove back into the bag at first base, I believe in Detroit. And he had to miss nearly two months with that oblique. Remember all that? Yeah. So I pull up his numbers because he was red hot to start that year in 17. He was hitting .342 with a .1054 OPS in the month of April.

[00:11:09] He comes back from that oblique. In June of that year in 17, he hits .231, two homers, .721 OPS. In July, he hits .177, .512 OPS. August, he hits .211, .724 OPS. And then he had a really hot month of September. So not every injury is the same. Not every oblique injury is even the same. But if you need some type of comparison, that says even when Mitch Hanegar got back, it took

[00:11:37] him a long while to get his feet back under him. At least with a Dylan Moore injury, it sounds like it's going to be a 10-day minimum and he's going to be fully ramped up, ready to go by the time he gets off the injured list. That's great. So are we putting Dylan Moore back full-time in right field? It feels like the best option. At this point, it feels like you have to. But as we know, when Dylan Moore plays too much, he gets exposed. I'm not saying they have a better solution right now, but he may be your best right fielder.

[00:12:06] As you said, you could say the same thing for Leo Rivas. You could say it for Masturboni. I mean, it could get to the point where you say that with Ben Williamson, if he gets a lot of at-bats and people and pitchers adjust to him and his hitting style. That's it's going to be a common theme once you start digging into the depth of this roster. And that's really unfortunate for the Mariners who have continued, even despite these injuries in the series, to mash the baseball. I mean, look at these stats Buster only tweeted out.

[00:12:33] Despite all these injuries, the Mariners, since August 1st of last year, among the American League, American League teams are second in runs, second in home runs, second in steals, second in walk rate, and second in WRC+. Despite all that, they continue to match the baseball. I mean, they put up nine runs on Wednesday. We'll see how long it can last because they cannot take another injury in this lineup.

[00:13:01] There is not an up-depth there to make it through months and months of a Major League Baseball season and continue to see sort of this level of offensive production, in my opinion. Is there anything they could do solution-wise? Could they go acquire somebody? In July. You don't think there's any way they could make any trade right now for anybody? No. You'd have to trade with a team that doesn't realize the trade deadline and all the leverage

[00:13:31] is in July. Like the Marlins last year with Luis Arise. I have no idea what the Marlins did when they traded Luis Arise. Because they would have gotten twice the package back if they just waited until the deadline to trade off someone they didn't need on a losing team. That's why teams don't trade now. Because you don't have any leverage. You know what leverage you have in July? Oh, the deadline's in a few hours. Make us the deal we want or you don't get them. That's literally the leverage. For someone who could actually come in and impact the Mariners lineup,

[00:13:59] that, like, right now, teams don't even want to trade position players when the trade market's the best at the deadline. You could trade back for Jared Kelnick. Oh! Now that's not going to help the lineup, but it will definitely help the content. So I approve. What if he finally has his resurgence this time? Finally after, this would be try, what, so,

[00:14:29] three times with the Mariners, Braves was four, so this would be fifth time. Yes. Can I count that? Yeah, I counted that right. I'm down. If he wants to turn back into the top prospect, he was, at age 25, in a second stint with the team that brought him up, sure. That'd be really fun. Give us a lot to talk about. Make you happy. Do the Mariners even get to the point where,

[00:14:59] speaking of bringing old friends back, they give Mitch another contract and ask him to play for a league minimum and come back? Nope. Samad Taylor is better than Mitch Hanegar right now. Probably. I was just throwing ideas out there. Could they go after somebody like, I think Michael A. Taylor's still a free agent? If guys are free agents right now, they are a free agent for a reason. I know, but you need, you need more bodies in the outfield right now. It can,

[00:15:28] I doubt these players are better than what they currently have. Like, you need someone to go out there and not be a negative war player. That's what we would call a success right now. Michael A. Taylor could probably be a negative war player. Mitch is definitely in the outfield a negative war player right now. I'd say you just roll. You got to roll with what you got. Because that's, that's just kind of how, kind of how this point of the major league season is. If somehow someone DFA's a Victor Robles again, and you luck into that, great.

[00:15:57] But, at this moment, it doesn't seem like that's available. Sorry, Michael A. Taylor's with the White Sox. He's not a free agent, but. Okay. Yeah. You would need a Victor Robles situation to sort of save yourself, like last year. And that opportunity could present itself. The time's coming up where a month into the season, teams could be sick of what they're seeing from someone who made their opening day roster. But that's going to be contingent on someone else, essentially, you know, cutting a player. And that's something the Mariners have no control over right now.

[00:16:26] What they do have control over is the guys in their organization who they can put out there in right field and just, hopefully they're fine. Hopefully they're fine. Cade Marlowe, Samad Taylor. Cade Marlowe's on the 60 day injured list. Oh, nevermind. He's not going to play for a while. So it's going to be Samad. Samad needs to stay healthy. And at some point, Canzone may come back up. Not, not great timing for this lineup. They will hopefully keep hitting, but it is not the,

[00:16:56] the depth of this lineup is, is going, is thinning out really, really, uh, really quick. So we'll see. And they've shown, at least on Wednesday, they could score runs with, you know, the backup players. They've managed to, they managed to put the pressure on the angels in the, the seventh inning on, um, on Wednesday where they go, you know, infield single, bunt single, past ball, soft office office, uh, opposite field single from JP Crawford at the bottom of the lineup with none of the

[00:17:26] guys. JP presents an offensive threat, but the guys in front of them don't really present much of a major league offensive threat. And they still managed to kick off an inning and score a bunch of runs anyway. So it's like, it's possible, but that also relies on the angels continuing to mess up. So we'll see. This is going to be something they are going to have to really, you know, work around as the season goes along. A lot of reliance on Dan and on Kevin sites are getting the most out of the players they have on the roster. Um, because you know, the major league talent is waning,

[00:17:57] but in all that, in all that being said, they're still hitting. Yeah. Somehow, somehow they continue to do it. We're a month in and they're really, really, really good hitting team. I hope we can say the same thing. Four months from now. I hope you and I will sit here on this podcast, August 1st, if we're recording on that day, and say that this is a really good hitting baseball club. I will say though, all the injuries aside,

[00:18:26] it's really only affected two positions. There's been a lot of injuries, but they've all been in right field and second base. So if you want a glass half full thing, you're not having to fill a flurry of positions. You are having to find a lot of depth, but it's not across the field. It's all been in second base and right field. Third base too. Cause you're opening day. Third baseman is now your DH. I'm not so sure how long Polanco would have lasted out in the field. Anyway, to be honest, like, is he not better off just DHing?

[00:18:56] Would he be hitting this ball in the field? He is way better off at third base, but they did also tell us that Jorge Polanco is the starting third baseman. You mean he's better off at DH. He is better off at DH. Yes. But the Mariners told us going into the season that Jorge Polanco was their starting third baseman and they prepped their roster as if he was the starting third baseman. Yeah. I'm still not sure how long that ended up. That would have ended up lasting. Exactly. And perhaps that was a massive oversight on their part. Not under,

[00:19:23] not fully grasping where his knee was at and how he was defensively. But you know, the plan I don't think was for Ben Williamson to be up instantly to take over third base full time. I don't think that was the plan. It works out that he's a really good defender at third base and he's hit really well to start, but I think they wanted to get at least something out of Polanco. Sure. Yeah. Cause I don't think they saw him hitting like this, right? And if he hits a little bit more like he did last year as a DH, that's not very valuable. All right.

[00:19:52] We're about to get to the mailbag here in just a minute. Before that, let's take a pause. We're going to talk to you guys about our friends over at Pogaccia's Pub 85. That's over in Kirkland. You guys know if you want to plan an evening with your friends, whether you want to go get some good food, watch some games, you want to play some pool or some darts, it's a good spot to just hang out. It's a really cool friendly neighborhood or neighborhood bar over in Kirkland. Yeah. It's a great time. I've been a bunch. You can plan time with your friends. If you go during happy hour, three and $4 drinks, two to 6 PM happy hours,

[00:20:21] Monday through Friday. Again, three and $4 drinks, all of that over at Pogaccia's Pub 85 in Kirkland. Prices keep going up these days. It feels like being on an elevator that only goes up. But not at Metro. We're pushing the down button. We've lowered prices. Get one line of 5G data for $40, period. That's 20% lower. And you get a free 5G phone when you bring your number. Only at Metro.

[00:20:51] Five-year guarantee on eligible plans. Exclusions apply. See website for details. Not available at Metro with T-Mobile in the past six months. Tax supplies. Live on DAZN Worldwide, May 2nd and 3rd, Garcia versus Romero and Canelo versus Skull. Friday from 6 PM Eastern, Garcia returns in a history-making Times Square takeover. 24 hours later, Saturday from 7 PM Eastern, King Canelo faces undefeated Skull for the undisputed crowd. May 2nd and 3rd,

[00:21:19] a knockout weekend of boxing. Pick one or go all in for only $90. Exclusively on DAZN. Buy now at DAZN.com slash boxing. Let's get to our first mailbag question. This mailbag question comes from Scott on Patreon. Scott, thanks for sending it in. And a reminder to all the listeners, if you want mailbag priority, the best place to go to get mailbag priority is to sign up for our Patreon. Sign up for our Patreon, you're at the top of the list when it comes to mailbag questions every week. So if you have stuff you want to ask us,

[00:21:49] that's the best place to do it. Patreon.com slash MarineLayerPod. The question from Scott is, who would you target as starting pitching depth? Scott throws out Spencer Turnbull, a trade, someone who gets DFA'd, for example, Kenta Maeda on Thursday today, right before we hit record, got DFA'd today. Who would make sense? Wyle. I have heard the Spencer Turnbull name thrown out a few times, and I get it, because in a short sample last year, he was really good,

[00:22:20] and he can throw a pretty good breaking ball. Like, the run value on his breaking ball last year was really high. Why he's still out there, I'm not sure. Maybe people have concerns about his durability. I would also say that the fact the Mariners have not signed a veteran starting pitcher yet probably tells you what the organizational vision is, and that's, they don't feel like they need it. They're fine with using the guys they have, and the guys currently in their rotation, and the guys in their farm system. I'm with you,

[00:22:49] and in terms of, I don't think the Mariners need starting pitching depth, but that's not the question. So let me answer Scott's. If they were to go acquire depth in the starting pitching, in the starting rotation, Turnbull, in theory, makes sense, but despite him pitching really well for the Phillies last year, they didn't offer him a contract. This guy's dealt with injuries year over year, over year, over year. He's only thrown over 100 innings once, and this was, you know, pre-pandemic was the last time he threw over 100 innings in a season as a starter.

[00:23:20] That's not the most reliable thing in the world, and when a team doesn't offer you a contract because you can't stay healthy, you know, that's pretty tough. The other name that Scott mentioned was Tristan McKenzie. Tristan McKenzie, a couple years ago, would have been a great target to fill a rotation. Tristan McKenzie, just accepted his outright from the Guardians to AAA, and I'm looking at, but he was terrible this year. He had an ERA over 10 as a bullpen arm for the Guardians. His fastball velocity as a starter is

[00:23:50] 91 miles an hour on average. It's one of the worst pitches in baseball by run value. I look at his savant page and I look at his stats. I know. No. I could not do Tristan McKenzie. I legitimately think he's cooked as a starter. I have seen nothing from Tristan McKenzie that offers some value for him. So I would say no on him. There's a couple other names too. Tyler Anderson, who the Mariners just saw, I'd imagine he'll be available at the deadline. Eric Fetty as well with the Cardinals.

[00:24:20] If they have long-term rotation issues, then maybe they'd target an arm like that. But it's hard to imagine they're using their resources at the deadline for starting pitching because they're going to need offense and they may even need bullpen help. We'll see. And we have another starting pitching one too that we'll get to in a second. But just to put it in perspective for people, if the Mariners get to the point where they need to trade for a starting pitcher based on what they currently believe, if they also need to add a big league starting pitcher,

[00:24:50] there's like a couple things that needs to happen. They either need to not believe in Emerson, Hancock, or Logan Evans, or either of them, or both of them. They don't believe in either of them and they need someone to fill that rotation spot. Or the Mariners need to get up to three injuries in that rotation. They're at one right now. They need three IL stints. That would not be great. I'm not counting George Kirby because I'm anticipating him back in the near future at this point. But that's where the Mariners would need to be if they were to have to trade

[00:25:19] for a starting pitcher. Because even if they get someone else on the injured list, they have Emerson Hancock who threw a quality start on Wednesday. Shout out Emerson, our guy. And then Logan, who dealt in his major league debut on Sunday. So that's just kind of the situation the Mariners are in. They've had three good starts in a row at Emerson Hancock. It's been really cool. And his VLO's up too, like we've talked about a little bit. This is not, look, I'm not saying he's the exact same guy right now that he was and was projected to be when he was drafted

[00:25:49] out of Georgia or anything like that. But VLO's up, he's missing some more bats. Like you're seeing some growth out of Emerson Hancock, a guy who's still only 25 years old. You know, still so early in his career. Most of the damage done to him on Wednesday was a lot of dinking and dunking. It wasn't a ton of hard contact, which is good. And let me just say this in terms of some free agent names too. You mentioned that you think Tristan McKenzie's cooked, which is fair. I think the exact same thing about Kenta Maeda. I would not be interested in him at all.

[00:26:19] He had over a six ERA last year. He doesn't have, he doesn't really have any value to his pitches anymore. Just doesn't make a lot of sense. He was pitching out of a bullpen this year, by the way. Yeah. So he's not even a starter. Right. Yeah. And yeah, we're not signing any of these guys to be relievers. No. I'd rather, I'd rather trade for Ryan Helsley. That would be a lot better. Oh, you can sign me up for that. All right. Second question. This is from Xander. Like you said, also on Patreon, he had a similar question about some starting pitching depth.

[00:26:49] He said, I am preparing for the worst case scenario for Logan Gilbert. If that happens, could they trade for Andrew Heaney, who's currently with the Pirates and through a few starts to the 250 ERA? I really like the idea of trading for Andrew Heaney. This is someone I would trade for. He's not going to blow you away, but he can pitch. He's mixed it up in his career. He's done some out of the bullpen. He's done some in the starting rotation. He was on the Rangers World Series team in 2023,

[00:27:18] and he pitched decently well in that. And he's been pretty durable. He's made over almost 59 starts in the last two years. So you know he's going to go out there and pitch. The fastball's okay. The slider's a little bit better. He's productive, which is the most important thing. But the only way, again, you trade for someone like this is if someone's hurt or you don't believe in Emerson Hancock and Logan Evans. Because if you trade for Andrew Heaney, who's making $5 million this year, he's going in the starting rotation and he's starting

[00:27:48] the rest of the season. You're not taking him out. And that's why it doesn't make a whole lot of sense because if it's just going to be a couple more weeks with Kirby and if it's going to be a month or so with Logan Gilbert, then eventually in time you are going to get your rotation back. And by the way, as we have continued to talk about, Logan Evans and Emerson Hancock threw some limited samples. Looked really solid. Looked really good. So I don't really see I don't really see this one happening. Again,

[00:28:18] going back to the fact that if the Mariners are going to use resources to make a trade, it would probably be for offense. I think you would really have to see another starter go down for a significant amount of time like you mentioned before they actually start to consider this because right now I don't know who the next starter in the farm system would be to come up for a long period of time. It would probably be Jonathan Diaz and I would guess that is where the Mariners would get to the point and say, all right, we got to look externally a little bit. And the prospect

[00:28:47] Xander threw out there to trade for an Andrew Heaney, it's not going to cost a ton to get a starter on a one-year contract. Xander said, Jared Sundstrom, it could be anyone probably ranked from 20 to 30 in the Mariners organization. They send one prospect away and get half a season, two months of Andrew Heaney back and worry about it there. But I don't think the Mariners are going to do this. But I appreciate the question, Xander. This would be a target that I think a lot of teams in baseball are going to look at for starting pitching

[00:29:16] as they get down the stretch and these injuries pile up and teams need rotation arms. And this is given that Andrew Heaney stays healthy, by the way. He stayed relatively healthy for his career, but this would be something to keep track of as the season progresses on. Let's get to our next mailbag question. Let me add one more quick thing. Sure. We may see Jared Sundstrom this year. Yet another reason why the Mariners may not be inclined to make this trade if this is the hypothetical package. I'm not saying

[00:29:46] it's an unreasonable package, but when you need outfield bats and Jared Sundstrom, who by the way, I think has a little more prospect juice than the general public probably knows right now. I'm not saying he's going to be Johnny Farmello, who we'll talk about later or anything like that, but he's off to a really nice start in double A at a good spring training. He's currently rocking an 804 OPS. Now he hasn't played that much time above A ball, but he's nearing 25 years old or sorry,

[00:30:15] he's 24 years old. So he's a little bit on the older side as a prospect. And if he gets enough good at bats under his belt in Arkansas, you may see him because you look at the options right now in the rest of the farm system and I'm not sure anybody has a higher upside than Sundstrom. So I think the Mariners may opt to go with that option rather than trade him for Heaney. And yeah, it could get to the point where they might want to see him instead of Ryland Thomas, for example. Right. And they make that decision. Jared Sundstrom has currently played

[00:30:45] 20 games above A ball, so it's not a lot. But as a 24-year-old prospect who's hitting, if it gets to 50 games or maybe gets to 40 games and they give him a couple weeks in AAA, don't be shocked. Yeah. Give him a shot at that point. Once you get older, it's the same thing as Ben Williamson. Once you get to a certain age, the teams are like, all right, let's see what you got. Otherwise, we'll, yeah. What's up? Yeah, you are who you are. Yeah, you are who you are at this point. Let's see it or we're going to try someone else.

[00:31:15] Let's get to the next mailbag question. This comes from Matthew on Twitter and Matthew asks, since both Brandon Williamson and Logan Evans were drafted in 2023 and have already made their major league debuts, what would you guys choose as the best Mariners draft in the Jerry DePoto, Scott Hunter era? I think you mean Ben Williamson. Did I say Brandon? Yeah. Ah, damn. Ben Williamson, both B-wills. Yeah. Where does that draft class rank?

[00:31:44] So, I think it's fair to say you can't put 2023 at the top. Yet, in four or five years, it may be far and away at the top. Because what, what consists of that 2023 draft class right now is ridiculous in terms of potential. Colt Emerson, Johnny Farmello, Ty Pete, the three first rounders, Ben Williamson, who's already in the big leagues, Aiden Smith and Brody Hopkins, who were used to trade for Randy and Rosarena,

[00:32:14] Logan Evans and Brandon Garcia. That's a ridiculous draft class when you look at that potential. That is crazy. But, at the same time, none of those guys have prolonged big league experience yet. So, it's just not there yet in terms of solidified status of top of the pedestal. It's just not. But it could get there. It's the draft class that has the most prospect juice that I can remember. Top to bottom. So,

[00:32:44] we have our two finalists for this. Neither of these classes had as much prospect hype as the 2023 class did. You forgot Jared Sundstrom in that class too, Lyle. In that 2023 class. Yes, it was pretty loaded. Definitely the most stacked prospect class they have had in terms of one singular draft. My answer to this question comes down to two options. You can do the 2021 draft where the Mariners drafted Bryce Miller in the fourth round, Brian Wu in the sixth round.

[00:33:14] They also drafted Harry Ford in the first round of that draft and they drafted Edwin Arroyo in the second round of that draft who was a key piece of sending to the Cincinnati Reds for Luis Castillo. The second option is 2018 and I only need to say two names for that 2018 Mariners draft. It's Logan Gilbert in the first round and it's Cal Raleigh in the third round. When you have two stars like that in a draft class that makes it a banger. So Lyle, which one would you choose? It's so close but I went with 18 because you look

[00:33:43] around the rest of the league there's not a better battery than Logan Gilbert and Cal Raleigh. You look at the other best catchers in baseball who by the way I think all rank behind Cal at this point because I think Cal is the best catcher in the game. William Contreras doesn't have an ace in his rotation like that. Adley Rushman doesn't have an ace in his rotation like that. It just doesn't exist. So when you look at the game's best catchers I don't think you can find a better battery. You could argue Will Smith in one of those Dodgers arms but I don't think

[00:34:13] it surpasses Cal and Logan. So when you get two guys like that one who's now become a cornerstone of your franchise in Cal Raleigh with the extension and one who's a top 10 to 15 pitcher in the sport in Logan Gilbert yeah that draft class is going at the top for me. Great pitch. You almost sold me. You almost did. In terms of development though I think 2021 takes the cake for me. The Edwin Arroyo part of trade for Luis Castillo I think puts it

[00:34:42] over the top for me. I will wash out Bryce Miller, Brian Wu, Logan Gilbert, Cal Raleigh. What the Mariners did with Bryce Miller and Brian Wu in the 4th and 6th rounds they might never do that again in their franchise history. Think about that in terms of the quality of pitcher you get out of a 4th and 6th round pick in the same draft class is absolutely insane. And what's to say Harry Ford could come up and be a quality big leaguer at some point whenever he figures it out in the minor leagues. It's pretty

[00:35:12] those are two pretty insane draft classes. I'm gonna have to go with 2021 though because it's pretty good. It is that good I think. Yeah that's a really good class. It is hard to find starting pitching that good that late and develop it that well. So sure perfectly good pitch. You can make an argument for either one and actually I'm curious to hear from you guys listening. If you had to pick between those two classes do you go 2018 or 2021? There's no

[00:35:41] wrong answer. I'm just curious which side people are leaning. Yeah and hopefully we could say another one of the classes in the future besides 2023 would be the best because then we get to the point where the Mariners are probably having a ton of success because without those two draft classes the 2018 and 2021 draft classes Mariners are not where they are right now and they view things a lot differently the team is probably not as good as they are right now and perhaps we'd be answering some different questions

[00:36:11] at this moment. Lyle before you get to your next mailbag question let's hear a word from game time. Now let me check with you Lyle just making sure we are going to the Blue Jays series next weekend. Oh we'll be there. Oh yeah we'll be there with the friend of the podcast Johnny Junta coming down from Canada it's going to be a lot of fun Mother's Day is that weekend I hope the Mariners are still in first place at that point that sounds like a pretty good pitch to go see a baseball game. If you guys want to come hang out with Lyle and I at the ballpark next weekend

[00:36:41] I have a suggestion for you game time I have to keep an eye on tickets the next few days as well just keeping track of myself because of Mother's Day and my mom usually likes to go to the games on Sunday of Mother's Day I'm going to be using the game time app because tickets get sent right to my phone in a simple and easy process you guys can do the same exact thing that's why game time is the official ticketing partner of the Marine Layer podcast they make getting tickets faster and easier prices on the game time app actually go down the closer you get to first pitch

[00:37:10] let's check out the tickets for next weekend you can get in for $13 on Friday $22 on Saturday and $22 on Sunday right on the game time app save even more money with zone deals where you choose the section 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 with game time download the game time app create an account and use code just baseball for $20 off your first purchase terms apply again create an account and redeem code

[00:37:40] 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 so do I think I think it helps players a lot when you only have

[00:38:10] one thing to focus on and that's not to say when Jorge Polanco is taking batting practice or rehabbing his right handed swing he's not thinking about side of this and say it's not the fact he's just swinging left handed Lyle it's because he only has to face

[00:38:40] right handed pitching with a platoon advantage hitting gets a lot easier when you only have right now because you see a lot more righties in the game than lefties he wouldn't be playing a lot if he was only facing lefties so yeah

[00:39:09] well and we saw him his one at bat against a lefty yeah so let me say this Jorge Polanco for his career is better as a left handed hitter than a right handed hitter it's not by a crazy margin but he is better from the left side do I think it's helped the start of his season sure because that idea of zoning in on one thing where you say okay I know I'm not going to play the field I know I'm not going to start the year hitting righties I'm focused on this one thing I'm focused on making some stance

[00:39:40] changes that's helped the knee feel a little bit better helped tap into my power a little back and he starts facing both sides of the plate again when he's at his best he's at plenty of years where he hits righties really hard you

[00:40:21] but I think he will be best served when he gets back to hitting from both sides I agree so he can play every single day sure but yeah I wonder what the we

[00:40:51] well that it's really helped him out a lot I wonder if it's going to be the same from the right side I guess we're just going to have to see because I've not seen him hit right handed in yeah I

[00:41:21] and he's our best middle infielder lovely O'Rivas the real he's on the roster the real he's contributing the real that he's really helped anchor the bottom of the lineup a bit but we've talked about this with Dylan Moore a lot right that when he plays too much he gets overexposed and his value is not the same than when they're playing his strength it's one thing I worry about same idea with Leo Rivas

[00:41:51] he has certain strengths they've used them well but if you're playing him like an everyday player I feel like that's where you get yourself into some iffy territory just in terms of getting the best out of Leo Rivas he has only played 56 career games in the big leagues I love what he does on defense I love what he's doing at the bottom of the order and you can throw him into the bucket

[00:42:20] with you said Dylan Moore you could put Master Boney in there Ben Williamson could be in if they're not big leaguers if you spend too much time hitting you're going to get exposed to that point if you're not like a

[00:42:50] big league quality hitter and let me preface this point Rivas has had some very good at bats in that seventh inning on Wednesday he did a great job in helping generate that inning and he's been very fun so far this season when he's been up in the big leagues but there is a limit to what Leo Rivas can do you could look at his savant page you can look at his minor league numbers he

[00:43:36] the big league level and that's fine if you're an elite defender I think the Mariners believe Ben Williamson is an elite defender Leo Rivas at the big league level has not graded out as an elite defender in fact he's graded out below average as a big league defender so you play him in spurts you let him use his speed he's a switch hitter so it allows you more versatility he's a little bit more stable than some of the other options you have you've had especially in the middle infield past couple of seasons but

[00:44:07] he shouldn't be playing every day especially since JP Crawford picked up the bat and started hitting and you don't need anyone else to spell him at short stop yeah I think that's about right so again in Leo Rivas his best role he plays in samples and plays a nice role for the team so which is totally fine not everybody is a bonafide everyday player and that's okay because guys play roles on the team he's one of them okay last mailbag question this comes from Instagram from Jacob he says

[00:44:37] where would you rank Logan Evans goggles on a top five Mariners accessories list of all time shout out to Jacob because this is arguably the most I've ever had to think about a mailbag question I'm trying to think what accessories in Mariners history so the first thing I went to is goggles so Logan's got his glasses hyphen wore glasses Ryan Roland Smith there's some other ones too

[00:45:07] that I wrote down let me know what you think none of these are in order by the way we can we can do a top like three because I don't know if I can list five John O'Root's helmet that he wore when he played on defense I consider that an accessory Logan Gilbert's bag of toys and then a couple of suggestions from Jacob who once he asked this question I'm like all right I'm blanking I need some help here he suggested Ken Griffey Jr.'s backwards cap as an accessory

[00:45:36] he also said each row sunglasses said they were classic the couple others I wrote down those are all good were Fernando Rodney's hat not that it was current time with this 2025 roster Randy Rosarena's chain I don't know what he spent on that I can't imagine it was cheap

[00:46:06] because that chain is big it's flashy and it looks like it would cost somebody a pretty penny so yeah that's going should we double up on hats I kind of want to put Fernando Rodney on there sure yeah I mean that was a classic that was half of what he was known for

[00:46:36] I don't think Ichiro's sunglasses qualifies for this or not that it doesn't qualify I don't think it that's actually what I was going to put at three that was pretty iconic he played for an elite team really good career and not many

[00:47:06] people wear helmets out in the field unless you're Kike Hernandez pitching when you're winning so sure I'll put Olrode at three all right so Griffey won Rodney two Olrode three that's our list yeah yeah I start off by going down on the farm who is your standout Mariners minor leaguer of the week

[00:47:36] shout out Johnny Farmello welcome back first of all to see him get back from that ACL injury in less than a year and back to playing center field and back in the lineup this week for the aqua socks awesome seriously awesome but what he's done in his first two games at the time of recording this well he hit a home run in his first game back so talk about a welcome back moment that was awesome what's up it was a

[00:48:06] tank oh it I gotta tell you Colt Emerson is the top prospect in the Mariners system and Celestine is probably right behind him with his upside potentially being greater this is not me just going off a

[00:48:47] two between Felmin and between Johnny Farmelo to get that guy back is a big deal I can't wait to see what he does and to think where he would be if he didn't get hurt we can play the what if game all all season long but the most important thing is that Johnny is back and that

[00:49:20] they fully trust him they will put him at DH they will try and keep Johnny Farmelo as healthy as they possibly can to get him back to the best version of himself I'm so happy for Johnny to be back so exciting to watch watch him play because he would have been in double A this year if he didn't get hurt which is a bummer for him but we're glad he's back another guy we're happy to have back I feel like he still could get to double A this year I

[00:50:09] I mean it could be two DH days two days in center depending on how they feel so that might be how they start it so we'll see another guy we're hard to have back my guy for on the farm is Mr. Michael Morales he got injured in spring training do you remember what the injury was specifically well it wasn't it wasn't in spring training funny enough he got injured it was all the way back at high performance camp I believe and it was right right right right right yeah so we saw him at spring training and

[00:50:39] he was not throwing at that point he thought yeah he was he was optimistic about his timeline but it turned out that he wasn't going to be able to come back now until May 1st where he makes his debut today recording here on Thursday May 1st he goes three shutout innings he strikes out two he walks two allows two hits great to have him back Mariners co-minor league pitcher of the year last year it's it's we talked

[00:51:21] had he not been injured he might be he might be even on a shorter list of call ups than what you're describing because again they just don't have a lot of remaining arms close to the big leagues right now that would be ready for a call up now if Morales had started healthy maybe he's a little closer regardless though I

[00:51:50] good work down in double a awesome like the rails for Michael Morales great to see him back I also want to give a shout out as the Mariners announced their minor league players of the month Tyler Locklear and Laz Montez won hitters of the month our Michael

[00:52:20] Hobbs mustache no I haven't should I see it it's it's Raleigh fingers no joke Raleigh fingers on reference oh it is yeah oh my god yeah we need to meet this dude where's he pitching oh he's in double a double a okay well do you want to go to Arkansas that's a long trip

[00:52:51] yeah it is a long trip the mustache might be worth it well maybe he'll just be in the big leagues at some point this year who knows yeah that's yeah that's true that's true we'll shout out

[00:53:21] season third ever it's Nick Lentz in yesterday's Royals Rays game he was 100% perfect Lyle let's give it up give it to everyone we don't miss when they do something positive we acknowledge it rarely but yes well yeah perfect umpire perfect game

[00:53:52] I just mean even if an umpire has a good game behind the plate and it's not a perfect game we don't usually acknowledge it because what's the fun in

[00:54:22] we'll check in with Divish and see if he can get himself tossed this week for this segment for content purposes yeah yeah for content purposes it's like the Kent Murphy video where he actually fills in and coaches in a in a select baseball game in one of his videos and after about four innings he's had it he's had it with everything and somebody asked him hey Kent you going back out to coach first base no I'm going to get myself kicked out of this game it's like that's

[00:55:00] going way to put it the worst balls and strikes caller to ever do it legitimately chills yeah put them in hall

[00:55:47] of worst umpires to ever do it angel hernandez cb buckner las diaz that should be a fun group the problem is we don't have enough information in the old days to

[00:56:24] constantly throwing it like a foot off the plate and the dude behind the plate is like you're out it's if you look it up on twitter or on youtube i'm sure you could find it like marlin's playoff game bad umpire all right it's like it's bad i mean i'm serious whoever was catching i forget who was catching would line up in the other batter's box boom strike three at least they're held accountable oh yeah well

[00:56:53] yeah technically what a group all right that just about wraps up this edition of the marine layer podcast you guys know the drill if you want to stay on top of all of our stuff you can do so wherever really wherever you want to consume our content but if you want one spot for it all it's all over on our website you guys marinelayerpod.com you can watch our episodes you can listen to our episodes you can rate and review if you want to sign up for our patreon which again we really encourage you to we love to have

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