Mariners Acquire Jorge Polanco from Twins.

Chuck and Anders break down the latest deal the Mariners made as they acquire Twins 2B Jorge Polanco in exchange for Justin Topa, Gabriel Gonzalez, Anthony DeSclafani, and Darren Brown.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Stove. What a kind of nameis that you? Oh? Here,

(00:22):
we are assembled again and Hurst ishere. My name is Chuck Powell.
That is time for another episode ofStove, our Mariners only off season podcast,
and we've got stuff to talk about. It's been a couple of weeks
since we've assembled the two man teamhere. Uh and excited to be back
on with and Mariners Baseball. Yeah, Chuck, thanks so much for having

(00:46):
me back on of course, anduh yeah, we took a little bit
of a break, but so didthe Mariners from their off season editions.
But they're back on it now,that's right. Yeah, they they're the
only team along with the Dodgers,that are making So I'm saying, we're
all of a sudden, we're thesecond most act team in baseball now.
So yeah, it's it's great theylisten to us once again. You know,
I take credit for this, Yes, we will think. I think

(01:07):
we put the idea into Jerry andJustin's mind that you know, we needed
a second basement with a little bitof pop switch hitter help lengthen that lineup
a little bit. Maybe maybe alittle bit of a liability defensively, but
the Mariners if you haven't heard.I'm sure you have by now if you're
any sort of tuned into the sportsscene here in Seattle. The Mariners have

(01:29):
acquired infielder from the Minnesota Twins,Jorge Palanco, who mister Chuck Powell has
been clamoring for for for months.So initial reaction to the acquisition, well,
obviously, I'm happy to have himon the team. I think he
does help the team win. Now, I've always been a pretty big fan

(01:49):
of his. I agree he canhit from both sides of the plate.
He hit thirty three home runs oneseason, but that's not him. We
just had Dan Hayes on our radioshow, who covers the Twins for the
Athletic this week, and he BuckyASTI point play, how many home runs
do you think he's capable of hitting? He's spuck, you would ask that,
yeah, exactly, he said twentyfive. I think that's generous,

(02:12):
especially in this ballpark. I thinkhe's probably a fifteen to twenty home run
season as long as he's healthy,which we'll talk about coming up on the
podcast. But he's a line drivehitter. I think that could be you
know, eighteen home runs with thirtyeight doubles, yeah, five triples,
and he's a contact guy, doesn'tstrike out a lot, and you're right,
doesn't play great defense. But Iwatched Perry Hill turn Gino Suarez from

(02:38):
a bad defensive third baseman into damnnear a gold glove in the third baseman.
So I don't think he'll turn Polancointo a gold glover. He's not
going to become Roberto Alomar, butI think he'll make him better. Yeah,
and he is a second baseman.You know this is not adding to
the log jam of utility players.Yeah, he's a starting second baseman.

(02:59):
He is a top third of theorder hitter. He hits from both sides
of the plate, so you neverhave to sit him against a tough lefty
or a tough righty. Line drivehitter. Warrior really plays physically. One
of the reasons for his injuries isbecause of how hard he plays, and
sometimes they got to tell him tolighten up a little bit more. Hey,
But I think he's a really goodaddition. It's one I wanted to

(03:20):
make all off season long, andso I'm glad that they went out.
Now, did they give up alittle too much? You know? Anders,
I think if I think in Minnesota, if you're doing a podcast today,
you're happy about the trade. Hopefullyyou're not calling it stove. I
mean, not that we have sortof copyright infringement or anything, but hopefully
you got your own creativity in Minnesota. Yeah, but you probably think that

(03:43):
you got a pretty good deal.Yeah, I honestly think I've been looking
at this. I think this isa win for both sides. To be
honest, I think Gabro Gonzalez isnot nothing to give up. It's one
of the top prospects in the Marinersystem. He's a top one hundred guy.
He's third in the Mariner system afterHarry Ford and Cole Young. That's
right on the short stop. Soit's it's not it's not nothing. But

(04:06):
I do think this was necessary inorder to get Polanco. And you know,
you never know what prospects are goingto turn out to be. I
think for it's going to be prettygood. So luckily you didn't have to
give him up. But I mean, what are the what are the chances
that Cole Young or sorry, GabrielGonzalez when he gave up, turns into

(04:26):
what Jorge Polanco is now in termsof an offensive asset, and I think
it's you know, not a slamdunk that that's going to happen. So
you're getting the sure thing that youknow that has been productive at the major
league level, and even though youmay only have one year of him,
you have a chance to have twoyears of him, and if you really
like him, you can extend himafter that. Yeah, I agree,

(04:46):
I agree with all of that.I mean, on the surface, giving
up a top one under prospect inthe sport for a player with an injury
recent injury history who is on it'sa one year deal. You're right,
you could extend him, you couldpick up the club option, but he's
gonna have to have a really goodseason. Twelve and a half million dollars
is actually pretty ice salary for astarting second baseman, so he's going to

(05:10):
have to perform this year. Butto make that, you know, a
no brainer to pick up at theend of the of the year. So
on the surface, you know,I think that I felt you could get
Polanco for a lot less than that. Okay, when I've been talking about
him in past episodes of Stove,But where are you as an organization?
You know, the Twins are trimmingpayroll. Nearly everybody in the sport is

(05:33):
trimming payroll right now. So theTwins are trying to compete while trimming payroll.
Mariners are trying to compete while notexpanding their payroll. But this is
an organization that I criticized heavily.You did as well at the trading deadline
for not recognizing that they had aviable playoff contender and not making a go
for it move. Not all in, but a go for it, let's

(05:56):
get into the playoffs and see whatcan happen kind of move. So for
all the us included that have beenwaiting for some sort of win now move,
this is it. This feels likea win now move. And he's
not He's not a great player,right, He's not a superstar, but
it's something this team needs. Buthe definitely is an everyday player. It's

(06:16):
not some platoon situation. And youcan hit him, as I said,
in the either one, two,or three in your order and he I
mean he was hitting third for theTwins in the playoffs. At the end
of the year. It's a playoffteam and had a good playoffs too,
really good. And Rocco Baldelli isI mean, he missed most of the
season, missed the entire first halfof the season with injuries because he tried

(06:39):
to come back too quickly. Butonce Baldelli got him back, he was
like every day, you're playing everyday, And they went thirty and twenty
over their next fifty games and reallymade their push to get into the playoffs.
So good player, good ad.And yes, maybe the Twins made
a good trade too, but that'sokay, Yeah, that's the game.
Yeah, they're in a stute organization. They know what they're doing over there,

(07:00):
so you don't have to dominate everytrade that you make. If they
got something good and you got somethinggood, good, good for both teams.
Well, And that's the reality ofhaving to uh improve your team via
trade is you're gonna have to givesomething up in order to get something in
return. You're not just gonna beable to get this player for nothing,
you know. I mean, thereare very few deals where you know,

(07:21):
teams are obviously just trying to shedpayroll and you can give up a pretty
low asset because you're taking on alittle bit of money, and the Mariners
aren't even in the situation to bedoing that right now. So, uh,
it's it's it's something that I think, like you said, is a
win for both sides in terms ofvalue. I think, uh and I'm

(07:42):
excited to see what he's gonna dobecause I, like you said, he
plays hard. That's something I thinkthis team needs a little bit, especially
after losing a Jared Kelnick. Theyneed a little bit of that kind of
juice. Yeah, exactly, that'sjuice. It's a great term to use.
Let's go over what we gave upin order to get him. So
we already talked about Gabriel Gonzalez kindof the main piece of it. A

(08:03):
prospect in the Mariner's system, atop one hundred guy, so a pretty
valuable commodity the Mariners have also justinTopa and Anthony de Sclafani. Am I
missing anything there? I think thoseare. There was another minor leaguer,
but it's a lower It's like aClass A twenty three year old. Okay,
you don't have a real bright outlookif you're a pitcher and you're still
in low A baseball at a pointtwenty threears ago. So uh so we

(08:26):
won't we won't focus on that part. But top one under prospects, a
top one under prospect again, I'llreference Bucky. He's not at six four,
two eighty five, Bucky. He'snot real impressed by five ten one
seventy five and thinking that that's goingto be a future stud in your in
your lineup. But obviously he hassome skills. I've not watched him play

(08:50):
before, but I do when youdo see him repeated on all the lists,
and these prospect rankers that do thisfor a living, they get better
at this every year, they getmore accurate. So when you see him,
you know, on a lot oflists, then you know you gave
up. You gave up a piece. I don't see Disclaffani as a piece
that we gave up. I meanhe was going to be a seventh starter

(09:13):
at best long reliever for you,and you got to dump some of that
salary. So you're really only spendingeight million on Polanco for this upcoming season
because of the Disclafan some of theDiscleffani money you got to move and then
topa. I like he's a goodpitcher. His movement was ridiculous, I

(09:33):
mean sick, the impression that hemade with the movement on his pitches.
Great sinkerballer. But if there's onething everybody should agree on that the Mariners
are good at, that is findinga live arm and handing him over to
Pete Woodworth, and Pete Woodworth turnshim into a really, really valuable bullpen

(09:58):
piece. They do but every singleyear. And so, yeah, you
got rid of Topa, But myguess is they'll find somebody else, or
two guys or six guys that they'llthrow out there in spring training, and
one of them will emerge and pickup the slack where Topa's leaving off.

(10:20):
So I consider that at all timestrading from depth when you move minor leaguers,
Isaiah Campbell not gonna miss him.Justin Topa good could miss him.
But I do believe it's the strength, believe it or not, this organization.
They do it this better than anybodyelse in the sport, and that
is finding a live arm and thencoaching him up, figuring out what he

(10:41):
does best, and attacking opponents withit. And so I don't lose one
wink of sleep over whether or notwe can find another Justin Topa. Yeah,
and a lot of people were pointingout in the reaction to the trade,
yesterday that you know, maybe thiscould spanned some roles for people who
maybe would have had a kind ofmore diminished role in the bullpen, someone

(11:07):
like a Prelander Burro who has alot of upside definitely kind of you know,
kept on the down low for mostof the season last year. But
you know, with Justin Topa movingon, this leads a spot for someone
to fill in the bullpen. So, like you said, they're they're really
good at finding these these players kindof out of nowhere. It seems like
a lot of the time that justend up dominating in bullpens. So I

(11:30):
mean, that's what happened with PaulSeawall, That's what happened with Justin Topa
himself, That's what happened with youknow, Matt Brash. Matt Brash is
another great one. Throw in onthe Padres deal. Yeah, that's right.
I mean that wasn't supposed to happenright now and now, I mean
that's that's the hard thing to findis the ninth and the eighth inning guys.
And I feel I don't know aboutyou, but I feel really good
with Brash and moon Yos and soyou know, you got kar who you

(11:54):
added from the Royals. He throwsa hundred just the type of arm that
they like to you like and mold, that's the right word. And then
Vargas, who they got in theGeno trade, right, another one hundred
mile per hour thrower who has somemajor league experience and just the type of

(12:15):
lump of clay that you hand overto beat Woodworth and let him, let
him do his thing. And they'renot done. Now we're gonna talk more
about what's left to do. ButI mean there are still one hundred free
agents out there. Yeah, andand so they still have a lot of
different ways to add to this bullpen. Now that you've subtracted Topa, Yeah,

(12:37):
and you know, before we getto you know what's next for the
Mariners. I you could argue thatthe bullpen's almost better at this point than
it was last year because of thosecouple other pieces that you add, even
though you're losing Topa, who's whois a known commodity for us. But
you could easily just get another onefrom those three or four editions that you
got and what would have seemed likekind of throwing to the other parts of

(12:58):
previous deals in the Geno trade andand so on and so forth. So
I am excited to see how thisbullpen kind of shapes out because we're gonna
have a lot of new names onthere. And uh, you know a
lot of people go back to theSeawall trade last year and like, oh,
you know, after Seawall left,but the bullpen was not nearly as
good. I don't trust Munyo Senatorda I think, yes, we did

(13:20):
lose a little bit when we tradedPaul Seawald away, but I still trust
this bullpen. And a lot ofpeople don't realize that every other bullpen or
every other fan base feels that wayabout their bullpen. They don't trust their
bullpen at all. It's always goingto be stressful. It's just the way
it is. At the end ofthe game. I think we still have.
But there's been one Marian Rivera Yeah, okay, you know yeah.

(13:43):
And then and by the way,just to correct those yeah, apparently are
revisionist historians. Right. They wereoutstanding the month they were after Seawald.
What caught up to them is munjokshad never been used that much, right,
and so Munyok's was bad in September. Yeah, Brash never was right
Brash actually got better as the seasonwent on. True, But but you're

(14:07):
right you pointed out Baroa. Imean Trent Thornton, yep filled a role
this past year and an off seasonworking with Woodworth, So they'll find somebody.
I'm not worried about that to worryabout on this roster. I'm not
worried about them finding bullpen pieces,especially since you have eight and ninth kind

(14:28):
of sealed. Yeah, and oneother kind of fallout. I guess you
could say of this Jorge Polanco dealis now I think you have Josh Rojas
and Luis Reus in the role thatthey should be in, right, And
it seems like as of now,Jorge Polanco is going to be your everyday
second basement and then those two aregoing to platoon at third base. That

(14:50):
is what the platoon was meant for. It is not for. It is
not meant for a position where,oh, we don't really have anyone here,
so we're just going to platoon andhope we get the best out of
two different guys. That's not reallywhat's going on here. Those are two
decent players that probably shouldn't be playingevery day, but one's a lefty one's
alrighty, both play decent defense.I still think Rojas will play better defense

(15:11):
at third than he did at second, and then you could actually kind of
get the most out of both ofthose players in the right situations. That
is what the platoon was meant for. I know a lot of people get
a little scared about when we talkedabout platoons at the Mariners, as we
did it with a dh last coupleof years. But I don't get that.
I mean, these people, whatdid you think the Jerry Depoto invented
the platoon? It's been around sinceLeo Flippin' de Rochio. I mean,

(15:35):
the Los Angeles Dodgers do it toa fault, and they're the most successful
team in the last ten years.The Tampa Bay Rays have a budget of
fourteen dollars and win every year,and you want to know why they put
platoon everywhere? Yeah, So thisis not some mirror some concept like some
snake oil salesman that Jerry Depoto's tryingto sell to Mariner fans. This has

(15:56):
been around for a long time.So Number one, I just completely just
dismiss the platoon anger that took placehere in the last year. Now to
your point though about third base,it certainly is a position that automatically you're
thinking, how do we upgrade that? Yeah, and you'll be doing that,
I think all season long, andif this team's in playoff contention,

(16:18):
that's probably the first place you're goingto look totally. Is there a third
basement on the market that we couldtrade for so we don't have to platoon,
But we also don't have to platoon. This is kind of a platoon
plus because you're right, this couldbe Ureus from the right side, and
it could be row Us from theleft side. And but you could also

(16:40):
use this as fuel, like I'dsend them both down on spring training as
a competition. Competition is wide open. Boys. We are giving you an
opportunity like you've never had before.And if one of you wrestles away more
playing time from the other and becomesthe everyday regular, so be it.
And oh, by the way,don't sleep on Dylan More and don't sleep
on Tyler Locklear who ripped up theFall League this past year. So neither

(17:06):
one of you has a safe job. Now. I don't have to say
that, I don't have to bethat aggressive with it, but I am
going to give them the speech ofthis is probably going to be a platoon
to start with, but you're goingto dictate whether or not it remains that
way. The two of you goout there and out play the other,
go out there and have a season, and force us to put your name

(17:29):
in the lineup more frequently. Soit certainly is going to I mean,
it's the nine hole right now.That's your ninth place hitter right now in
the lineup, and that automatically,if you've got a platoon at the nine
hole, that's the first place you'regoing to look in season two, where
can we upgrade this team? Butthink about that. I mean I just

(17:51):
saw a mock lineup on MLB Networkthis morning of the Mariners lineup. Now,
you don't have the outside of HU, you don't have the Superstar aircraft
carrier, as Dan O'Dowd likes toput it, you know, like the
Astros in their gold they have likethree of those. Yeah they do,
we have one. H But youreighth place hitter, according to this mock

(18:14):
lineup is Mitch Hanniger. Yeah.Take it back a year and a half
ago. He was hitting third,Yeah he was okay, Yeah, so
eighth place hitter, and your lineupis potentially Mitch Haniger with Rojas and Ureus
hitting ninth. Yeah. I meanit's not a great lineup, but that's
a pretty deep lineup with some depthbehind them behind them, yeah as well,

(18:36):
which you did not have at thebeginning of last year. Otherwise,
Tommy Listella is not starting for youon open it totally. That is one
hundred percent something I agree with.So this is something to look forward to
for next year. Now there isan exercise I want to play here with
kind of the incoming and outgoing players. The Mariners have made it like exercise.

(18:56):
Yes, So I kind of posedthis question to Softian Dick on the
radio show yesterday and heard of them. Yeah, I haven't either. I
don't know. It's weird. Soas of now, I think you can
kind of put out the marginal namesleft and right, like the Justin Topas
and others. But there's been fourmajor incoming players and then four major outgoing

(19:19):
players for the Seattle Mariners this year. I just want you to choose which
group of four you would want onyour baseball team. Okay, you have
ti Oscar Hernandez, a, HenioSuarez, Jared Kelnick and Robbie Raight.
Okay, that's one group, andthen you have Luke Rayley, Mitch Garver,

(19:41):
Mitch Hanneger, and Jorge Polonco.Which group of four would you rather
have on your baseball team? Ithink the first one. Yeah, if
i'm it's close. It's close.But obviously whether we like it or not,
and whether we buy it or acceptit. Yeah, as the truth.
Obviously, this organization was told byits ownership you can't spend money and

(20:08):
if you want to keep, ifyou want to add to this team,
then you're going to figure out somecreative ways to do that. So from
that standpoint, like the way thatthey manipulated this thing, because nobody else
in the sports making trades, nobodyelse signing free agents that the Dodgers,
No, the way that they hadto manipulate everything, it's not quite as

(20:32):
cut and dry as those four.Because that's what twenty three million in ray
it would have been twenty in Tao, Yeah, it would have been eleven
eleven, you know, So what'sthat that we're up to twenty three forty
three, fifty four and then Jarednothing, so fifty five million, yeah
for that versus Garber twelve, Hanneger'sseventeen. That's twenty nine. Sorry,

(20:56):
sorry, podcast listeners. I'm doingall this off da amadad Well, I'm
doing even the numbers. I'm tryingto come up with you the top of
my head. So that's twenty nine. Polanco that's twelve, twelve, forty
one, and Rayley's nothing. Sothat's fourteen to fifty million dollars difference difference
in there, so that that playsin. It shouldn't have to. I

(21:18):
wish it didn't play in, butit obviously did play out. So do
you think it was an option forJerry Depoto to do nothing? And like
in terms of ownership, do youthink we could have rolled out the same
exact payroll as last year with thesame team. Was that an option or
did he have to trim something?I think it was, But I think

(21:41):
as they said in the press conferencebefore the pooh hit the fan about the
salary, before fifty four percent wasuttered, Yeah, what was stated was
we had a problem this year andthis is absolute truth, getting runners home
from third base with less than two, not scoring, with runners in scoring,

(22:02):
not putting the ball in play.So they add to their goal was
to put a lineup out there ofguys who put the ball and play more
frequently and without sacrificing getting on base. Now they're going to sacrifice some power
in that. Yeah, you know, Mitch is not going to hit as
many home runs as Tao and Urreus. Polanco's not gonna hit as many as

(22:23):
Gino. Polanco's not going to hitas many as Gino, And I don't
even think Rayle will hit as manyas Kalnick. Yeah, this year,
I agree. So something had tobe sacrificed. But they what they did
is they dropped the payroll and theyadded four hitters that fit the model that
they felt they had to go to. Yeah, so a few eggs had

(22:45):
to be broken to make an omelet. Yeah. So I do understand kind
of the way that they went aboutit, and it's maybe not as dangerous
a lineup, but it is goingto put the ball in play, yere
and it is de Yeah, youknow what they've assembled here, and I
think it has the chance to bebetter. I still expect the starting pitching

(23:07):
to be even better, yeah thanwhat it's been the last couple of years.
Because everybody's so young and they're developing. Yeah, and they're still developing.
So so yeah, I think thatit's very strange because if you're just
asking me to compare Pool A toPool B, I think your Pool A
was a more talented great age players, but Pool B might actually give you

(23:29):
a better chance at winning baseball game. I think the best way that I
can describe it is Pool A ismore volatile. Right, you could have
some career years from those guys andthat could take a team over the top.
But they could be also twenty twentythree where you have a down year
from Tao. You know, youhave Kelnick who has an amazing April,
a decent May, and then kindof falls off a little bit, especially

(23:51):
with his injuries. You have Gino, who you know, he's gonna come
out every day, strike out twice, but maybe he hit a double or
a home run every single day,Right, So it's it's all or nothing
with those guys. I think thisgroup that we have now is like kind
of what you were mentioning, morebuilt for what our baseball team is,
and it helps us win and havea more stable baseline, and then we

(24:18):
can kind of build off of that. Maybe maybe you know, Julio somehow
develops into an even better player,maybe Polonco, you know, and he
will develops into some more pop intohis game. Yeah. I think it's
weird because, like you said,it's more talented with the group that is
outgoing. But I think with theguys that we have now, it's more

(24:38):
suited to what this baseball team istrying to do and how we win baseball
games. Well, that's five hundredand seventy strikeouts, Yeah, going out
the door. Luke Ralely does strikeout a lot though, Yeah, understood.
But the idea of having okay,so it's okay to have one Tao
Hernandez, if you have two Tayoher Nanza race, you've got's four hundred

(25:00):
strikeouts. And it's so they havefive hundred and seventy going out the door.
And then what else is interesting aboutyour list that I would point out?
You have one list that has threehitters and a pitcher who's not going
to be available right until the secondhalf of the season versus four hitters.
Yea, And what were we sayingall year lest year one bat short,

(25:21):
so we added a bat. Soyou've added a bat yep. And now
it doesn't feel even though they couldstill improve at the corner. Yeah,
they could still improve in a lotof area. Yeah, but it doesn't
feel like there's some gaping hole.I completely agree. I Actually that is
kind of what I was going toget to. Next, is this group
we did exactly what we hoped.They traded from a position of depth starting

(25:42):
pitching, and they added to aposition of need, whether that's second base,
whether that's outfield. However you lookat it. The one kind of
caveat I have, and you couldsay this for both of each of the
players from the group. A RobbieRay is not going to be available for
half the year, so that takesa lot of value away from one of
those sides. But you didn't tradeaway any of your young guys though.

(26:03):
Yes, But Mitch Hanniger also isa very very very big question mark for
how much he's going to play thisyear. Well, that's the negative part
of all of this, is theeven though we added these four interesting,
more complete offensive performers compared to theirpredecessors, Yes, they also all four

(26:26):
of them have injury histories, recentinjury histories. They have had an issue
with availability, and I think someof that can be managed. Yeah,
Mitch Garver's not gonna catch, butI'll bet he doesn't catch ten games now,
and I'm thinking more like five.Ye. I don't think he's gonna
because you're gonna have three catchers onthe roster. Yeah, and I don't

(26:48):
want to hear about that either,because Garver's going to be your primary DA.
He's gonna be almost every day Ithink DH. Yeah, so you'll
be not putting him behind the plate, you know, because he you know,
twenty five fifty times a year likehe did with the Texas Range.
How many games did he catch lastyear? I don't even know, But
not having him behind the plate,even though he can catch on occasion for

(27:08):
you in an emergency or probably likeI said, five to ten games,
Uh, hell, he can fillin it first some he's going to d
H most of the time, andbecause you have depth on your bench,
you can give him a few daysoff here in there, so I think
you can manage him better. He'she's probably gonna go on the i L
at some point, but at leasthe won't spend half the year on it.

(27:30):
Okay. Rayley has got some injuryhistory too, Yeah, and really
only had one good year and evenand even that has never been a full
time player, right, so there'sgonna be some sort of platoon. I
don't know if that's him and DylanMoore, uh to start the year about

(27:52):
don Can zone or well, Idon't think they're gonna go left. He
left you in a play. Maybemore with the Mitch Haggerty. Maybe he
hits Haggerty hits right. He's betterthan Dylan Moore, which is a little
secret that nobody apparently wants to pointout. So Haggerty's still around there as
well. And then and then you'vegot Polonko. I'm just gonna roll the
dice and think to myself, allright, flukey injuries. He missed this

(28:17):
past season. He had a knee. They couldn't figure out why it was
swelling up. Yeah, so hewas on the injured list longer than he
should have been. And then herushed back and heard his hamstrings when he
wasn't ready to come back yet.So I'm just going to chalk that up
as I'm a little worried about it, but I'm not going to label him

(28:37):
as much of an injury risk.Yeah, thirty years old. And you
also, because I mean talk aboutdepth at second base. You got fifteen
people on this roster. They couldplay second base, more Haggarty, rojas
Urius. I mean, ty Franzhas even played second base in the past.
So you should be able to givePolonko a DH day a day,

(29:00):
some days off, just to makesure he doesn't wear himself out. Based
on what we heard from Dan Hayesfrom The Athletic, he said that you
almost have to put restrictions on him. That Rocco Baldelli was so excited about
having him back for the second halfof the season that he played him every
day and he should have never donethat. Yeah, and so there will.

(29:22):
I think they'll be smart about notover using him. So I'm not
going to look at him as aninjury risk. I don't either, to
be honest. Yeah, but thenthere's anagar Yeah, and we've talked about
this on the podcast. Who Ijust don't I don't even think he'll play
sixty games. I just don't haveany faith at all. That's why I
think they still need another outfum atleast. You can't bank on him playing
six. I mean, maybe he, you know, surprises you. I

(29:45):
am open to being surprised. Iam as well, I totally am,
but he can play. Yeah,I agree, and I think that's one
of the reasons why, I meanthey still are. They are high on
dom can zone. I don't knowwhat it is. I think that could
end up being a platoon I agreeor not. I agree. I think
that's going to be something to watchgoing in the next year. Uh So
that kind of brings us to what'snext for the Mariners. Are they done?

(30:06):
Can they do one more thing?Will they do one more thing?
And where might that be? Well, you just gave away some bullpen a
bullpen piece. Yeah, we've alreadycovered that. I think they can make
up for that, but it's stillone down. They love adding bullpen arms.
Yeah and that, and that's gonnabe found and the way they do
it, they'll find it cheaply,so there's nothing to have to budget for,

(30:26):
right, they'll find I think theycan find somebody. They just lost
a little bit of starting pitching depth. I don't think Disklaffani was going to
be anything but that for this team, So they just another Marco a little
bit of I don't even think hewas that good, really, I don't
even think he's that good. Okay, but Okay, good comparison a righty
Marco. Fine. Yeah, injuryconcerns there as well. So I mean,

(30:52):
you you know you're going to gothrough eight to twelve starting pitchers in
a season, so they probably needa little bit of starting piget but again,
doesn't have to be that back guycostly because your plan is to go
with the five. And then Istill think they need a corner outfielder as
protection against Hannager. I agree.And so you've got three weeks before spring

(31:19):
training, you got one hundred freeagents still out there. I don't know
if they'll make another trade. Ithink they may have spent their last asset
that they want to. Yeah,but I guess they're still involved in this
Dylan c stuff, which I don'tunderstand. So that, yeah, let's
let's kind of let's open that upa little bit, because I did see
a lot of rumors that the Marinerswere involved with with Dylan cease, and

(31:42):
you know, that kind of opensthe door to you know, what would
they be giving up for him andyou know what else could we be getting
in return? Is because I sawa lot of things about a three team
trade between the White Sox the Cubs, and the Mariners yesterday, and I
thought that's what the news was goingto be, but it ended up being
the Longko deals. So I justdon't see how this works and why they

(32:05):
would even entertain this unless unless they'repicking up they're really picking up a bat.
But if we're going to give upsaid Pitcher, and I don't even
want to speculate who that might be, then we'd have to replace him with
Ceas. So if that's like athe it doesn't make any sense to bring

(32:30):
on a guy knowing this organization doesn'twant to spend any money that as maybe
two years, I think it's justone, and then he's a free agent.
Two. Let me look, whywould you trade a Woo or a
Miller with five years of control betweenwith both of them and you spend more
and they're coming off better seasons thanwhat he is, and then you got

(32:52):
to turn around and extend Dylan seesin order to know That doesn't make any
sense to me. So one moreyear of ARB after this year in twenty
twenty five, and then he's freeagent. Yeah, okay, so yeah,
so two years, oh, twentytwenty four, twenty twenty five,
and then twenty twenty six. He'sa UFA all right, so two years
good. He's a very good pitchhe's a very talented pitchure. He's much

(33:14):
more talented than he is good.Yes, he's not the toughest between the
years guy that you're ever going tosee, but he's got maybe the filthiest
slider in the sport now and hethrows ninety five ninety six miles perud good
stuff. So I mean, ifyou added him, yeah, I want
Dylan Ceas on in my rotation.Well, I'm not going to give up

(33:35):
Miller and Wu with all that controlfor him, because I mean he wasn't
even as good as they were lastyear. Yeah, and they're going to
get better. The only thing isthat I can think of is if it's
a one for one, it doesn'tmake any sense, right because you're giving
up a well apparently they're asking forthe moon and the stars for Dylan Ceas.
Yeah. Yeah. The only wayit makes sense to me is if
you had a bat into that situation, like if you add an Eloy Jimenez

(34:00):
or something like that, or ifyou traded one of your top three guys
pitchers. Yeah, and now you'reflipping if like you moved a because they're
not interested in steal a rebuilding.If you moved A Gilbert or a Kirby,
I don't even I'm whispering this becauseI don't even want to say it
out loud. You moved one ofthem, and then you're saying, Okay,

(34:22):
we want Lewis Robert. Yeah,and we are also having to give
up an offensive or pitching piece,so we need to cease too. Okay,
so give us both of them,and now we'll entertain a Kirby.
And so let's let's let's pose thatquestion. Would you would you want that?
As a Mariners fan supporter, We'llsay, Logan Gilbert or George Kirby

(34:45):
take your pick, and probably oneprospect for Dylan Seas and Louise Robert.
Yeah, you take it. Yeah, I would too. I think Kirby's
amazing. Yeah, but I thinkRobert's amazing and Cees, you know,

(35:05):
fills the gap he does. Idon't think he's as good as Kirby,
but i'd make you a better baseball. I'd be clamoring to try and to
have it be Gilbert. And Ilove Logan Gilbert, but I still think
George Kirby's that guy. But yes, same here. Yeah, but I
don't know. I mean, that'sthe only way that I can even imagine
that this has a foothold out there, that if some reporter out there got

(35:28):
a little snippet maybe from Dylan Ceese'sagent. Yeah, but the Mariners,
if it's not a bat and it'snot a big monster deal that includes Dylan
Ceese to make up for the losttalent that you have to give up in
order to get Lewis Robert, thenit doesn't make sense to me to add
him to this rotation. I'm nottrading any of the five guys I have

(35:51):
straight up for Dylan Cees. No, I'm not either, and Miller I
agree. I'm not throwing him into get Dylan Ceese and just have him
for two years, yeah, andthen fight like mad to try to pay
him. If by some way,reason, somehow that you end up making
a deal of that nature and youget you lose maybe a Kirby or a

(36:15):
Gilbert, and you get Dan Ceaseand Louise Robert, I think that puts
this team over the top. Tobe honest, I think that puts you
into the world series conversation that's howtalented this group would be. I would
see that puts probably your biggest hole, as you were saying, in a
corner outfield. And you can livewith the platoon at third base. You
still have a A plus pitching staff. You now have what you were calling

(36:38):
earlier another aircraft carrier in Louise Robert. And yeah, and you had four
years four years, Yeah, whichis while since I've talked about him.
Yeah, it was hurting too much, I know, but I think yeah,
I think it is four years.Yeah. And and that dude can
play center field like you can playthe outfield. He's not just like a

(37:00):
bat first guy. Really defensively,Wow, that surprising me because I think
Julio's amazing. He is he is. That's not taken away from Julio.
That's just Louise Roberts. That good. How good Louis Robert is defensively?
Yeah, I'm with you, man. I I think you make that trade
that is that is a tough oneto swallow because that is one of your
big assets. But that would bethe reason why you're talking to Dylan Ce.

(37:23):
It's the only one I can comeup. Yeah, if it is,
if it if Yeah, if itrequires you in order to get the
big bat, and he really onlyhave one worth getting. Yeah, in
the entire White Sox organization, Imean at the major league level, MNS
has unbelievable power. But he's justa fool, and he's a full on

(37:44):
dh Like he doesn't play the field. Yeah, it doesn't even want to.
Yeah, doesn't even try to.No, you know, this is
a guy. Here's I guess I'lltell this. Let's go. This is
Eloy Jimenez. This is a twohundred and fifty pound power hitter who thought
and going to go catch a ballover the wall that he could hang there
on his elbow like Vince Carter onthe rim tore out his entire shoulder.

(38:08):
Like, this is what you're dealingwith. Any lawyer. Yeah, probably
shouldn't have mentioned that, but peopleneed to know. We don't want eloyan
in it. But Lewis Robert isa completely different story. Oh that's it
feels like we're in fantasy world here. But I'm trying to make sense of
why. Yeah, the Mariners wouldbe engaged with Dylan se That's the only
reason I can think of, tobe honest, if you're adding a bat

(38:28):
onto that the value you're giving upwould be somewhat recuperated because you're getting Dylan
CEA's as well. So I mean, we can dream. We can dream
because I really don't think. Imean, as much as they love their
young, controllable arms and they haven'ttraded it for a piece that we think
we should have earlier, it makesno sense why they would just be doing

(38:49):
that for Dylan Cees unless they reallyreally like him. But even then,
I still think they keep their guys. Yeah, I would too. So
just to we can close to this, Yeah, just to address like something
that you said here earlier, ifyou make this trade, now we're talking
about a World Series contender. Ithink that you make that kind of trade
and that makes you that gets theanalyst to talk about you being a World

(39:09):
Series contender. You know, I'mgoing to say this, I think this
is a World Series contender right nowbecause this this is this is not You
don't have to have a top fiveoffense when you have this good at pitching,
and once you get into the playoffs, pitching carries the day. I

(39:29):
mean, the Arizona Diamondbacks came withintwo games for goodness sake of the World
Series because Brandon Fought turned into anumber two starter right in time for the
playoffs. Okay, And so Ithink that they're a playoff team with this
Polanco trade. Can they challenge forthe division? Can Can they win the

(39:51):
American leaguass next year? Because Ithink the Rangers just go look at their
starting rotation with John Gray as theirnumber one starter right now. It wasn't
even in their rotation at the endof the year last year. So I
think and and their bullpens miracles inthe playoffs last season. They can hit,

(40:13):
they can absolutely hit, and they'reprobably not done. They're probably going
to sign a free agent from theremaining pool. But yeah, I think
the they're not peerless, you know, as a team. And the Astros
are again a little bit worse thanthey've done this steady decline for three years,
four years in a row, gettinga little bit worse. So yeah,

(40:37):
yeah, but I really do youknow, I really feel this way
about this sport in particular. Justget into the dance and then they're built
to make the postseason, and theywere last year. And you just have
to ask yourself, had Colton Wongjust been bad, not awful and not
the worst player in the league.You didn't even have to duplicate three and

(41:00):
a half. You have to beone and a half. He could have
been twenty twenty two Adam Fraser.That team is in the playoffs. They're
in the playoffs by a couple ofgames. And now we're talking about a
dangerous team in the postseason. Andand so there's no excuse for not getting
in a year ago. But theway they've kind of restructured this thing,

(41:22):
you know, health is going tobe a huge concern because of the four
pieces that they've added. But theydon't have to be a top five offense.
They just have to be eight totwelve. They just can't be bad
offensively. They just can't have stretchesof two months without being able to hit.
They can't have that. And Ithink that the lineup is going to

(41:45):
be deeper, it's gonna put theball in play more, and it's going
to create a little more havoc.And as long as you as long as
that creates runs, who cares howthey come because the pitching staff doesn't need
much. They don't And one thingI'm going to be looking out for this
is how I'll end up My thoughtsBut one thing I'm really going to be
looking out for next year is howthey start in the first couple of months,

(42:06):
because the last three years it's justbeen just sluggish out of the gate.
You've been just crawling and just thenyou're trying the entire rest of the
season to crawl your way back intoit. If they can be a front
runner for once, that would beso much better. It would give fans
so much more hope the first couplemonths this season. Then you kind of
get that monkey off your back fromthe last year's pr nightmare. Thank you.

(42:30):
So that was the one question Iasked at the famous infamous fifty conference.
I think I asked too that.Yeah, yeah, but I asked,
are you guys going to do anythingdifferently in your preparation to avoid this
horrible start that you've gotten off tothree years in a row. And Scott
was angry. Scott got angry withme. He leered at me, if

(42:51):
nobody know, he leered at me, We're not changing anything, Like we
didn't get off of that. Wewere kind of playing well in May,
Like, no, you weren't.You didn't start playing well until July.
Yeah, again, I agreed,No, so, no, You're absolutely
right, and I'm and if I'man organization, I'm turning every eg stone.
Why is this happening? No?Are we really gonna blame this as

(43:14):
an organization on the friggin marine layerbecause we're not hitting on the road either,
No, and teams that come hereseem to hit fine. Yeah,
So you know, you may notwant to admit to maybe we're doing something
wrong in our preparation, but I'dlike to have the discussion because I,
if I'm running the organization, Iam tired of being ten games under five

(43:36):
hundred heading into June. Agreed.So whatever we're not doing in April and
May is probably because we're not doingsomething right in February and March. Let's
fix it. Let's turn over everystone so we can figure out how to
at least be a five hundred baseballteam heading into June. And to be
fair, I actually think a lotof that has to do with what we

(43:58):
were talking about earlier, with thevolatility of the last couple of years team
where you have like some high endguys, but you know they can go
through some slumps and if they doit all kind of collectively, that's what
kind of leads to those slow starts, and maybe for those types of players
it's harder to kind of get outof the gate, and then you kind
of get into a roll of thingsin the middle of the season with a
more contact heavy lineup, put theball in play that creates, like I

(44:22):
said, more of a baseline,so you can hopefully at least not have
those deep valleys that you had lastyear. So I think in terms of
roster construction that this team, hopefullywe'll see hopefully is not vulnerable to such
a slow start out of the gate. I think any baseball coach, yeah,

(44:44):
would tell you that, Dick,you know, a team that puts
the ball in play more consistently,an entire collection of players on a roster
is less prone to prolonged slumps.Agreed, No, And so if you
a team that you know is moving, Look, you're right, Luke Ready's
gonna strike out this year. Juliois gonna strike out this year. They

(45:06):
still have strikeout guys in the lineup. That's it's all over the sport,
but it's gonna be knocked down considerably, and I'm hoping that that means there
aren't as many of those prolonged trouts. I agree. Where you can't get
a win, you know, that'sthat's because you just need a little bit
of offense because you're pitching will carryyou the rest of the way. All

(45:27):
right, that'll do it for thisepisode of Stove. Thank you Anders.
Yeah, good to get back togetherand talk about a real juicy trade with
a lot of layers to the layers, multiple layers. It was like a
lasagna tararge. I was gonna goparfay. Yeah, I'm a little more
savory. I'm getting ready for lunch. Okay, So we'll do it again
next week. Thank you for listening. Of course, be listening to Sports

(45:49):
Radio ninety three point three kJ RFM from six a to six thirty p
Monday through Friday. You can hearBucky Ashley and myself from six to ten
Monday through Friday as well. Uh, we're almost the spring training the Stove,
but we got a lot of otherWe've got burners still on, yeah,
we do. There's an awful lotof recipes that can still be cooked

(46:12):
up. So we'll talk to youagain next week. Thanks for listening.