tehmc's Offseason Plan

[tehmc]

I'm not new to MarinerTalk, I'm just not as active. I've been around since the Seattle Times days.

1. Sign Anthony Santander

He's a switch hitter that provides much needed pop (28+ hr's last 3 seasons) that can be the DH and be rotated around through LF/RF/DH and occasionally 1B so that we don't need a dedicated DH. He also provides insurance in case Robles regresses after putting up career numbers this year.

2. Trade Bryce Miller to the Orioles

Trade 1.png (19.23 KiB) Viewed 289 times

The Orioles may be motivated to move Westburg and/or Mountcastle to create room for top prospect Coby Mayo, if thats the case we have the chance to grab a young infielder capable of playing 2B/3B. We can replace Miller with Hancock or a low cost SP FA, yes our SP staff goes from 5 good starters to 4 good starters and an average arm but the goal is to improve the offense.

3. Pick up Jorge Polanco's option

He was playing injured last season, I'm not saying he's going to bounce back to .800+ OPS next year but he can be a stop gap until Ryan Bliss or Cole Young take over.

RF/DH Robles
CF Julio
LF Arozarena
RF/DH Santandar
C Raleigh
1B/OF Raley
3B Westburg
2B Polanco
SS Crawford

[Big_Maple]

I'm not new to MarinerTalk, I'm just not as active. I've been around since the Seattle Times days.

No worries. I know you're an older timer than I am. I just liked your plan, and thought it should get a thread of its own to carry a discussion.

[D-train]

Two good ideas but you ruined it with Polanco.

[D-train]

The fact that an injury prone player just had surgery increases the appetite to bring him back is beyond ironic....

Thanks for the plan. Just need to find a healthy productive 2B or just go with Bliss....

[Seattle or Bust]

Santander is going to demand somewhere in the $20 million range.

Dipoto said the payroll would go up but I doubt they're going to add $20 million in one player unless they swap out bad money elsewhere.

I'm also just not sure about signing 30 year olds who struggle with contact. It was his best year power wise for sure, but his worst year with .235/.308 avg/OBP splits. To me he just screams 2021 Mitch Haniger. Once the power diminished, he had nothing.

If Polanco wants to come back on a prove-it deal... sure. But he won't do that in Seattle. I bet he hated his time here. No way the M's pick up that expensive of an option.

I also don't really get trading Miller for Westburg. Is Westburg good? Yes. Elite ceiling like Miller has? No.

Appreciate the thought out and organized post though. Took some effort and that's always a great thing on this message board.

[GL_Storm]

Santander is going to demand somewhere in the $20 million range.

Dipoto said the payroll would go up but I doubt they're going to add $20 million in one player unless they swap out bad money elsewhere.

I'm also just not sure about signing 30 year olds who struggle with contact. It was his best year power wise for sure, but his worst year with .235/.308 avg/OBP splits. To me he just screams 2021 Mitch Haniger. Once the power diminished, he had nothing.

I agree with this. I don't think Santander is the type of player the M's would sign. He's a good-not-great player that had a good-not-great season, and they've already made clear that multi-year contracts for free agent hitters is something they try to avoid. Somebody will pay him, but it probably won't be the Seattle Mariners.

[tehmc]

The fact that an injury prone player just had surgery increases the appetite to bring him back is beyond ironic....

Thanks for the plan. Just need to find a healthy productive 2B or just go with Bliss....

Polanco isn't a hill I'm going to die on, I'm fine with running with Bliss, Rivas or Rojas or platooning them for 2B or better yet if we could swing a trade for Lowe too but that would be adding additional money.

[tehmc]

Santander is going to demand somewhere in the $20 million range.

Dipoto said the payroll would go up but I doubt they're going to add $20 million in one player unless they swap out bad money elsewhere.

I'm also just not sure about signing 30 year olds who struggle with contact. It was his best year power wise for sure, but his worst year with .235/.308 avg/OBP splits. To me he just screams 2021 Mitch Haniger. Once the power diminished, he had nothing.

I agree with this. I don't think Santander is the type of player the M's would sign. He's a good-not-great player that had a good-not-great season, and they've already made clear that multi-year contracts for free agent hitters is something they try to avoid. Somebody will pay him, but it probably won't be the Seattle Mariners.

The type of player the M's would sign isn't going the be the type of player they should sign. They should go after Soto and Alonso and Bregman which would make them instant contenders but they won't.

If they are going to steer clear of multi-year contracts for free agent hitters you are going to have to rely heavily on either your prospects to progress and pan out or on trades and if you're trading for an impact bat you're going to have to give up something painful in return. Like it or not at some point in your rebuild if you plan on contending you're going to have to augment your young players that you drafted and/or traded for with Free Agents to fill the holes you have.

Mitch Haniger and Mitch Garver are both off the books in 2026 which makes a signing of Santander more palatable.

[GL_Storm]

Santander is going to demand somewhere in the $20 million range.

Dipoto said the payroll would go up but I doubt they're going to add $20 million in one player unless they swap out bad money elsewhere.

I'm also just not sure about signing 30 year olds who struggle with contact. It was his best year power wise for sure, but his worst year with .235/.308 avg/OBP splits. To me he just screams 2021 Mitch Haniger. Once the power diminished, he had nothing.

I agree with this. I don't think Santander is the type of player the M's would sign. He's a good-not-great player that had a good-not-great season, and they've already made clear that multi-year contracts for free agent hitters is something they try to avoid. Somebody will pay him, but it probably won't be the Seattle Mariners.

The type of player the M's would sign isn't going the be the type of player they should sign. They should go after Soto and Alonso and Bregman which would make them instant contenders but they won't.

If they are going to steer clear of multi-year contracts for free agent hitters you are going to have to rely heavily on either your prospects to progress and pan out or on trades and if you're trading for an impact bat you're going to have to give up something painful in return. Like it or not at some point in your rebuild if you plan on contending you're going to have to augment your young players that you drafted and/or traded for with Free Agents to fill the holes you have.

Mitch Haniger and Mitch Garver are both off the books in 2026 which makes a signing of Santander more palatable.

I get your point. I just think they've made it pretty clear they won't extend themselves financially for a free agent hitter. And having another year of Garver on the books probably reinforces that perspective.

More broadly on Santander, I wonder if he'll even get that much money. He's peaking at 3 WAR the last two seasons and going into his age 30 season there just isn't that much to dream on. With the RSN money drying up for most teams, I could see him signing something relatively modest like 2 years, 36 million with a 3rd year option.

[D-train]

Santander is going to demand somewhere in the $20 million range.

Dipoto said the payroll would go up but I doubt they're going to add $20 million in one player unless they swap out bad money elsewhere.

I'm also just not sure about signing 30 year olds who struggle with contact. It was his best year power wise for sure, but his worst year with .235/.308 avg/OBP splits. To me he just screams 2021 Mitch Haniger. Once the power diminished, he had nothing.

If Polanco wants to come back on a prove-it deal... sure. But he won't do that in Seattle. I bet he hated his time here. No way the M's pick up that expensive of an option.

I also don't really get trading Miller for Westburg. Is Westburg good? Yes. Elite ceiling like Miller has? No.

Appreciate the thought out and organized post though. Took some effort and that's always a great thing on this message board.

Good points on Santander. Rooker is better and 5% of the salary. Far more likely they go that route.