Winter Meetings Thread

[D-train]

I have no idea what Dipoto is going to do. Frankly, the winter meetings this year have been about as interesting as Bob Dole on quaaludes.

Literally the only thing that makes Jerry Dipoto interesting is his propensity to trade anything that isn't bolted to the floor. This year...? Nada.

IMHO, getting Sasaki would be a coup for two reasons: first, it's addition by subtraction. The dude is lights out - even after you adjust for him learning to pitch in America, he's still going to throw a baseball through a barn door. He's been compared to Skenes. He throws harder than Yamamoto. In high school, he broke the record for velocity set by Ohtani. And he has a stupid splitter that that has a whiff rate of 57%. He's going to be amazing, and I would rather have him pitching for us, than against us. If we don't get him, someone else will. Why would we not pull out all the stops to land him? He's cheap, and he's going to automatically be a TOR pitcher for whoever lands him.

Second, we don't have to have a 6 man rotation. That's insane. This gives us the luxury of dealing one of our starters. The front office says we aren't touching the rotation, but all I have heard is how likely we are to deal Castillo. So yeah, land Sasaki and deal a guy who is losing velocity on his fastball and who is due a lot of money. We are back to a 5 man rotation with a bunch of young, amazing, talented, cheap, controllable and dominant pitchers. And by dealing our weakest link, we get some positional offensive upgrade.

Do I think it will happen? Likely not. There's a lot of moving pieces that have to fall into place. But should it happen? Absolutely. We don't have to limit ourselves to linearly assuming we would just fold him into the existing rotation.

I agree on taking a flyer on him cause he won't cost us much right now which is a good thing, but as the reports say - he's far from a finished product. He's probably 2-3 years away from being one - his innings would be limited in the 140-150 range this year and then next year you gotta build on it. Good thing is the M's seem to do a good job with pitchers - we will get him in tip-top shape only to have him hit FA and bolt for 500mill hahaha.

LOL not a finished product my ass. He is 23 yo starter with a career 2.02 ERA and a 11.4 K rate 0.3 HR rate. And that includes his season when he was a teenager.

[D-train]

Good news is the Crochet trade is one of the shoes that needed to drop before a Luis Castillo trade.

Mariner's equivalent solely based on Top 30 prospect rankings
#4 - Harry Ford
#5 - Felnin Celesten
#11 - Tai Peete
#14 - Teddy McGraw

Felnin Celesten is the only one I would be hurt to see go but would still have made the trade for Crochet.

Agreed. Then trade Castillo + Evans + Bliss for Suzuki and Nico. And we are just 1 3B and one LH reliever away from a happy meal.

[Pharmabro]

Having 6 really good starters is a complete waste. It literally does nothing to improve the team. You would just be starting Sasaki every six games instead of one of the other 5 while running out Dylan Moore, Bliss and Rivas at 3B/2B.

I don't know why this is a talking point at all. Just leap-frog Sasaki and you could have a 6-man pace with him and normal rest days with your other 4. No problemo!

Please demonstrate how that would work from March 27th to April 30th:

https://www.mlb.com/mariners/schedule/2025-03

Game 1 Sasaki
game 2 Kirby
game 3 Gilbert
game 4 Miller
Game 5 Woo
game 6 Kirby
Game 7 Sasaki
game 8 Gilbert
game 9 Miller
Game 10 Woo
Game 11 Kirby
Game 12 Gilbert
Game 13 Sasaki

It does not look like some hurdle that couldn't be cleared

[Lamda]

I have no idea what Dipoto is going to do. Frankly, the winter meetings this year have been about as interesting as Bob Dole on quaaludes.

Literally the only thing that makes Jerry Dipoto interesting is his propensity to trade anything that isn't bolted to the floor. This year...? Nada.

IMHO, getting Sasaki would be a coup for two reasons: first, it's addition by subtraction. The dude is lights out - even after you adjust for him learning to pitch in America, he's still going to throw a baseball through a barn door. He's been compared to Skenes. He throws harder than Yamamoto. In high school, he broke the record for velocity set by Ohtani. And he has a stupid splitter that that has a whiff rate of 57%. He's going to be amazing, and I would rather have him pitching for us, than against us. If we don't get him, someone else will. Why would we not pull out all the stops to land him? He's cheap, and he's going to automatically be a TOR pitcher for whoever lands him.

Second, we don't have to have a 6 man rotation. That's insane. This gives us the luxury of dealing one of our starters. The front office says we aren't touching the rotation, but all I have heard is how likely we are to deal Castillo. So yeah, land Sasaki and deal a guy who is losing velocity on his fastball and who is due a lot of money. We are back to a 5 man rotation with a bunch of young, amazing, talented, cheap, controllable and dominant pitchers. And by dealing our weakest link, we get some positional offensive upgrade.

Do I think it will happen? Likely not. There's a lot of moving pieces that have to fall into place. But should it happen? Absolutely. We don't have to limit ourselves to linearly assuming we would just fold him into the existing rotation.

I agree on taking a flyer on him cause he won't cost us much right now which is a good thing, but as the reports say - he's far from a finished product. He's probably 2-3 years away from being one - his innings would be limited in the 140-150 range this year and then next year you gotta build on it. Good thing is the M's seem to do a good job with pitchers - we will get him in tip-top shape only to have him hit FA and bolt for 500mill hahaha.

LOL not a finished product my ass. He is 23 yo starter with a career 2.02 ERA and a 11.4 K rate 0.3 HR rate. And that includes his season when he was a teenager.

lol by that I meant he's not ready to be pitch every 5th day as you suggest and go 200 innings - he's basically a new prospect in that regard in that he is going to have to grow into that over a few years.

[Donn Beach]

Sasaki himself through his agent has stressed the development angle. I don't see what the debate is, that's the reality of the situation.



From an article describing what his agent has had to say.
Would seem odd to be attracted to the media circus that's the dodgers. Be interesting if in the end he ends up there.

Yeah, absolutely," Wolfe said. "I think that there's an argument to be made that a small or mid-market team might be more beneficial for him as a soft landing coming from Japan, given what he's been through and not having an enjoyable experience with the media. It might be … I'm not saying it will be, but I don't know how he's going to view it, it might be beneficial for him to be in a smaller market. But I really don't know how he looks at it yet because I haven't had a chance to really sit down and discuss it with him in great detail."

Wait, what's the situation with the media in Japan?

"The media in Japan has been very tough on him, and he's not had a great time with it," Wolfe said. "My personal opinion is that it's been a bit unfair, and it's affected him mentally a little bit."

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.foxspo ... ree-agency

[Donn Beach]

Here the mariners are projected as the number one fit, match made in heaven. I think it be a good idea to have ichiro talk to him

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/m ... 924181007/

[D-train]

If we sign Santana we don't have room for Suzuki so then get Paredes instead. Then the offense is set.

Robles
Julio
Raley
Cal
Randy
Santana
Parades
Nico
JP

[Donn Beach]

Suzuki doesn't want to dh

"It's a small universe where Seiya would consider going," his agent, Joel Wolfe, told Rogers while also making it "pretty clear" that the right fielder does not want to be a full-time designated hitter going forward

[D-train]

I don't know why this is a talking point at all. Just leap-frog Sasaki and you could have a 6-man pace with him and normal rest days with your other 4. No problemo!

Please demonstrate how that would work from March 27th to April 30th:

https://www.mlb.com/mariners/schedule/2025-03

Game 1 Sasaki
game 2 Kirby
game 3 Gilbert
game 4 Miller
Game 5 Woo
game 6 Kirby
Game 7 Sasaki
game 8 Gilbert
game 9 Miller
Game 10 Woo
Game 11 Kirby
Game 12 Gilbert
Game 13 Sasaki

It does not look like some hurdle that couldn't be cleared

That is worthless because you don't have off days. You are going to get the other five starters out of whack because of some Japanese Bullshit pitching philosophy. Hard Pass.

[D-train]

I agree on taking a flyer on him cause he won't cost us much right now which is a good thing, but as the reports say - he's far from a finished product. He's probably 2-3 years away from being one - his innings would be limited in the 140-150 range this year and then next year you gotta build on it. Good thing is the M's seem to do a good job with pitchers - we will get him in tip-top shape only to have him hit FA and bolt for 500mill hahaha.

LOL not a finished product my ass. He is 23 yo starter with a career 2.02 ERA and a 11.4 K rate 0.3 HR rate. And that includes his season when he was a teenager.

lol by that I meant he's not ready to be pitch every 5th day as you suggest and go 200 innings - he's basically a new prospect in that regard in that he is going to have to grow into that over a few years.

Woo didn't pitch a lot last season either. He can be spelled by Evans and Hancock.