Based on Jerry's words, name the M's 1B, 2B, 3B next year.

[Seattle or Bust]

What Jerry said:More or less said the OF is set. They aren't trading from the rotation. JP will be back at SS. They will re-work the infield outside of JP.

This leaves 1B, 2B, 3B as positions the M's need to upgrade and will likely look at upgrading.

DH will likely be shared somewhat between the outfielders, Raley, and Garver... depending on dexterity... so I'm axing that position.

In this thread, propose a 1B, 2B, 3B to acquire either via trade or free agency. Lay out the trade, including players swapped. Pick a free agent and the years/$$ you'd pay.

Here's an example:

Mariners sign 1B Christian Walker to a 1-year $15 million deal.

Mariners trade 2B Ryan Bliss, RHP Logan Evans, OF Dom Canzone to the Cardinals for 2B Brendan Donovan.

Mariners trade RHP Emerson Hancock, 3B Ben Williamson to the Dodgers for 3B Max Muncy.

[HawkandMariner88]

What Jerry said:More or less said the OF is set. They aren't trading from the rotation. JP will be back at SS. They will re-work the infield outside of JP.

This leaves 1B, 2B, 3B as positions the M's need to upgrade and will likely look at upgrading.

DH will likely be shared somewhat between the outfielders, Raley, and Garver... depending on dexterity... so I'm axing that position.

In this thread, propose a 1B, 2B, 3B to acquire either via trade or free agency. Lay out the trade, including players swapped. Pick a free agent and the years/$$ you'd pay.

Here's an example:

Mariners sign 1B Christian Walker to a 1-year $15 million deal.

Mariners trade 2B Ryan Bliss, RHP Logan Evans, OF Dom Canzone to the Cardinals for 2B Brendan Donovan.

Mariners trade RHP Emerson Hancock, 3B Ben Williamson to the Dodgers for 3B Max Muncy.

I'd throw maybe a 2-3 year deal at Walker with maybe a slightly higher AAV. 2B/3B No idea but to me anything is an improvement over what we have. As long as their SO & swing % numbers are lower then what we have. Unless you can swing a deal for Marte again (I don't care what it takes), I'd be fine with Donavan, just looking at his numbers on Fangraphs. If you could somehow swing a deal for Bregman that'd be great.

[Sports Hernia]

Keep Bliss. He’d be a pesky speed 2 hole hitter with Robles leading off. 1st, 3rd, SS and DH or where the incoming good bats need to go . I’m done with JP at short.

[Seattle or Bust]

The point of this post is for people to put a little thought into their fandom.

I get that it's easy to post surface level stuff and not use critical thinking skills, but please try harder.

Questions for you to answer in your post:

Why Bliss over other 2B's that might be available?

Who would you replace 1B and 3B with?

Ok, so you don't like JP. What is your idea to replace him?

[harmony]

Would anyone trade one year of Mitch Haniger at $15.5 million for Cincinnati third baseman Jeimer Candelario, who has two years and $30 million remaining on his contract?

Candelario is a soon-to-be 31-year-old switch hitter who this year posted a negative 0.4 fWAR in 112 games after posting 3.2 fWAR over 140 games for the Washington Nationals and Chicago Cubs in 2023:

https://www.fangraphs.com/players/jeime ... osition=3B

This year the nearly 34-year-old Haniger posted a negative 0.6 fWAR in 121 games after posting a negative 0.7 fWAR over 61 games for the San Francisco Giants in 2023:

https://www.fangraphs.com/players/mitch ... osition=OF

Baseball Trade Values assigns Candelario a value of negative $22.7 million and Haniger a value of negative $15.6 million.

Cincinnati can trade from its infield depth:

https://www.fangraphs.com/roster-resour ... harts/reds

[Seattle or Bust]

Would anyone trade one year of Mitch Haniger at $15.5 million for Cincinnati third baseman Jeimer Candelario, who has two years and $30 million remaining on his contract?

Candelario is a soon-to-be 31-year-old switch hitter who this year posted a negative 0.4 fWAR in 112 games after posting 3.2 fWAR over 140 games for the Washington Nationals and Chicago Cubs in 2023:

https://www.fangraphs.com/players/jeime ... osition=3B

This year the nearly 34-year-old Haniger posted a negative 0.6 fWAR in 121 games after posting a negative 0.7 fWAR over 61 games for the San Francisco Giants in 2023:

https://www.fangraphs.com/players/mitch ... osition=OF

Baseball Trade Values assigns Candelario a value of negative $22.7 million and Haniger a value of negative $15.6 million.

Cincinnati can trade from its infield depth:

https://www.fangraphs.com/roster-resour ... harts/reds

I would.

The Reds wouldn't.

[Big_Maple]

This isn't fully gestated - but here's a quick plan:

Trade 1: Tyler Gough (RHP) and Tai Peete (SS) to the TBR for 1B/3B Yandy Diaz.

Nothing too original here - many proposals have been made to obtain Diaz. He's a stud - he makes good contact and he doesn't strike out a lot. He had a down year last year, but I think he's good for an uptick next year, and could bat over .300 The drawback is that he only has about 2 years of control, and he is starting to get expensive (reasons why the penny pinching Rays would want to get rid of him).

In return, the Rays have always shown a willingness to trade established players for promising prospects to bolster their farm system. They could benefit from acquiring a high-upside pitcher in Gough and a developing player in Peete. Both Peete and Gough have the potential to be valuable players for the Rays, aligning with their organizational strategy of developing talent from within.

These are 2 top 20 prospects - without trade values, I don't know if this is an overpay or underpay.

Trade 2: Ryan Sloan (RHP) and Ben Williamson (3B) to the Cubs for 2B Nico Hoerner plus $10MM.

This is a high risk, potentially high reward trade. The upside is this: Hoerner is definitely an amazing player. He gets on base (OBP .335), he doesn't strike out, he is really good defensively, he steals bases (31), put up an OPS+ of 101 last season and 3.7 WAR. He got 2 more years of control. He's just a good, solid second baseman - better than any codswallop we've trotted out since Robbie Cano.

The risk is this: he just had right flexor tendon surgery, and his prognosis is unknown. He could be back for OD 2025. He might take a little longer. But it's weird since this seemingly came out of left field (pardon the pun). He played 151 games last season without missing any time due to that injury, and he still put up nearly 4 WAR. So we'd be betting on a bounceback. He slashed .273/.335/.373 last season with 7 homers (yeah, he's a contact guy and not a power guy).

The Cubs are likely motivated to move him, and they would likely eat some of his contract to make it happen. They have 2 prospects who are nearly MLB-ready who are blocked by Hoerner. The Cubs even have a little positional flexibility with Dansby Swanson who could move to 2B if they decided to take a run at Willy Adames. Also, Hoerner does not have a no-trade clause which means that if the Cubs want to open up roster spots, they can move Hoerner easier than Happ, Suzuki and Swanson (all of whom have no-trade clauses).

Sign: Justin Turner (DH) 1 year, $4MM.

I think there's still gas in that tank. That dog will still hunt. A veteran presence in the clubhouse.

Third base? Go with in-house options, I guess.

So yeah - based on Jerry's words, we upgrade 1B, 2B and hold pat at DH. 3B is meh. But we only trade prospects to upgrade positionally, we don't add a huge amount to payroll, and our OF and starting rotation remains intact.

[D-train]

Take a look at Turner's OPS trend since 2017. Also he has the slowest bat speed in baseball. I see him in the .650-.675 range next season 1 year older.

[Big_Maple]

Take a look at Turner's OPS trend since 2017. Also he has the slowest bat speed in baseball. I see him in the .650-.675 range next season 1 year older.

Pretty slim pickens with DHs these days. Assuming Joc Pederson elects FA, he'd be good, but he'd want a multiyear contract at about 5 times the cost.

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/free-agents ... ract_value

None of those guys get me very excited. Most of aging or washed up or both. We may be stuck with a rotating DH...

[bpj]

Take a look at Turner's OPS trend since 2017. Also he has the slowest bat speed in baseball. I see him in the .650-.675 range next season 1 year older.

Pretty slim pickens with DHs these days. Assuming Joc Pederson elects FA, he'd be good, but he'd want a multiyear contract at about 5 times the cost.

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/free-agents ... ract_value

None of those guys get me very excited. Most of aging or washed up or both. We may be stuck with a rotating DH...

With their outfield plus Raley, at least it's not as bad as in the past.

The biggest problem imo is if they're still going to act like Garver's an option at DH. Backup catcher, fine. But DH? Get outta here.

They need to get the best 1B/DH type bat they can get their hands on.

It's funny how Jack Z supposedly stockpiled 1B/DH types, and now they best we can fine is Ty France? Such a waste of 1B.