So it begins, The official Hot Stove League Thread 2024-25 Offseason

[Hasslecracked]

With Goldy and Naylor gone, kind of feels like Santana or Turner our only options

Wrong!

LOL...

Well now the M's are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Unfortunately Dipoto will feed shit to people and they’ll buy it. Like that guy who said Garver and Haniger both bouncing back this year in here

[Seattle or Bust]

Wrong!

LOL...

Well now the M's are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Unfortunately Dipoto will feed shit to people and they’ll buy it. Like that guy who said Garver and Haniger both bouncing back this year in here

If I had the money, I'd take out a full-page ad in the Seattle Times every day until opening day telling fans to boycott going to games.

[Hasslecracked]

LOL...

Well now the M's are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Unfortunately Dipoto will feed shit to people and they’ll buy it. Like that guy who said Garver and Haniger both bouncing back this year in here

If I had the money, I'd take out a full-page ad in the Seattle Times every day until opening day telling fans to boycott going to games.

If Dipoto and ownership don’t care, then why should I?

[harmony]

So we can't afford a $12M one year deal for a 3.0 fWAR player. My God I knew they were bad but this is next level horrible.

Perhaps Paul Goldschmidt, like many free agent hitters, refused to consider a Seattle offer.

Would anyone trade Mitch Haniger to Milwaukee for first baseman Rhys Hoskins?

The Mariners would be taking on money because Hoskins is owed $18 million in 2025 plus a $4 million buyout of a 2026 mutual option. Haniger is owed $15.5 million to $17 million next season in the final year of his contract.

Steamer's 2025 projections for Hoskins include a 106 wRC+, 26 HR and 0.8 WAR in 133 games (FanGraphs projects 27 HR and 1.1 WAR):

https://www.fangraphs.com/players/rhys- ... #dashboard

Steamer's 2025 projections for Haniger include a 95 wRC+, 15 HR and 0.0 WAR in 105 games:

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

Baseball Trade Values suggest the trade would require cash or another piece from Seattle:

https://www.baseballtradevalues.com/trades/180410

Would the Brewers be interested in Tyler Locklear?

With Hoskins at first base, against righthanders the Mariners would have Luke Raley in right field and Randy Arozarena at DH while against lefthanders Arozarena would move to right field with Mitch Garver at DH.

In 2024 Garver, a career .858 OPS hitter against lefthanders, posted a .763 OPS against lefties in his worst season. Even without ball park adjustments, the league average OPS against lefthanders was .701; the league average for designated hitters against southpaws was .722.

Steamer projects Garver, who suffered a 2024 BABIP of .216, with a 2025 wRC+ of 104 and 0.6 WAR in 74 games:

https://www.fangraphs.com/players/mitch ... #dashboard

The unsexy move would not address the lingering questions at second base and third base.

[D-train]

With Goldy and Naylor gone, kind of feels like Santana or Turner our only options

Wrong!

LOL...

Well now the M's are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

They are in one of the machine at auto wrecking yards that reduce entire cars into blocks of metal the size of small refrigerators.

[D-train]

So we can't afford a $12M one year deal for a 3.0 fWAR player. My God I knew they were bad but this is next level horrible.

Perhaps Paul Goldschmidt, like many free agent hitters, refused to consider a Seattle offer.

Would anyone trade Mitch Haniger to Milwaukee for first baseman Rhys Hoskins?

The Mariners would be taking on money because Hoskins is owed $18 million in 2025 plus a $4 million buyout of a 2026 mutual option. Haniger is owed $15.5 million to $17 million next season in the final year of his contract.

Steamer's 2025 projections for Hoskins include a 106 wRC+, 26 HR and 0.8 WAR in 133 games (FanGraphs projects 27 HR and 1.1 WAR):

https://www.fangraphs.com/players/rhys- ... #dashboard

Steamer's 2025 projections for Haniger include a 95 wRC+, 15 HR and 0.0 WAR in 105 games:

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

Baseball Trade Values suggest the trade would require cash or another piece from Seattle:

https://www.baseballtradevalues.com/trades/180410

Would the Brewers be interested in Tyler Locklear?

With Hoskins at first base, against righthanders the Mariners would have Luke Raley in right field and Randy Arozarena at DH while against lefthanders Arozarena would move to right field with Mitch Garver at DH.

In 2024 Garver, a career .858 OPS hitter against lefthanders, posted a .763 OPS against lefties in his worst season. Even without ball park adjustments, the league average OPS against lefthanders was .701; the league average for designated hitters against southpaws was .722.

Steamer projects Garver, who suffered a 2024 BABP of .216, with a 2025 wRC+ of 104 and 0.6 WAR in 74 games:

https://www.fangraphs.com/players/mitch ... #dashboard

The unsexy move would not address the lingering questions at second base and third base.

I would do it but the Brewers probably wouldn't unless they focus on Locklear's success in AA vs. everything that happened after he was promoted to AAA MLB.

[harmony]

So we can't afford a $12M one year deal for a 3.0 fWAR player. My God I knew they were bad but this is next level horrible.

Perhaps Paul Goldschmidt, like many free agent hitters, refused to consider a Seattle offer.

Would anyone trade Mitch Haniger to Milwaukee for first baseman Rhys Hoskins?

The Mariners would be taking on money because Hoskins is owed $18 million in 2025 plus a $4 million buyout of a 2026 mutual option. Haniger is owed $15.5 million to $17 million next season in the final year of his contract.

Steamer's 2025 projections for Hoskins include a 106 wRC+, 26 HR and 0.8 WAR in 133 games (FanGraphs projects 27 HR and 1.1 WAR):

https://www.fangraphs.com/players/rhys- ... #dashboard

Steamer's 2025 projections for Haniger include a 95 wRC+, 15 HR and 0.0 WAR in 105 games:

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

Baseball Trade Values suggest the trade would require cash or another piece from Seattle:

https://www.baseballtradevalues.com/trades/180410

Would the Brewers be interested in Tyler Locklear?

With Hoskins at first base, against righthanders the Mariners would have Luke Raley in right field and Randy Arozarena at DH while against lefthanders Arozarena would move to right field with Mitch Garver at DH.

In 2024 Garver, a career .858 OPS hitter against lefthanders, posted a .763 OPS against lefties in his worst season. Even without ball park adjustments, the league average OPS against lefthanders was .701; the league average for designated hitters against southpaws was .722.

Steamer projects Garver, who suffered a 2024 BABP of .216, with a 2025 wRC+ of 104 and 0.6 WAR in 74 games:

https://www.fangraphs.com/players/mitch ... #dashboard

The unsexy move would not address the lingering questions at second base and third base.

I would do it but the Brewers probably wouldn't unless they focus on Locklear's success in AA vs. everything that happened after he was promoted to AAA MLB.

Then again, Steamer projects versatile free agent first baseman Ty France with a 2025 wRC+ of 107 and 0.7 WAR in 81 games:

https://www.fangraphs.com/players/ty-fr ... #dashboard

Perhaps Edgar Martinez could work wonders with Ty France.

Or not.

[Seattle or Bust]

Perhaps Paul Goldschmidt, like many free agent hitters, refused to consider a Seattle offer.

Would anyone trade Mitch Haniger to Milwaukee for first baseman Rhys Hoskins?

The Mariners would be taking on money because Hoskins is owed $18 million in 2025 plus a $4 million buyout of a 2026 mutual option. Haniger is owed $15.5 million to $17 million next season in the final year of his contract.

Steamer's 2025 projections for Hoskins include a 106 wRC+, 26 HR and 0.8 WAR in 133 games (FanGraphs projects 27 HR and 1.1 WAR):

https://www.fangraphs.com/players/rhys- ... #dashboard

Steamer's 2025 projections for Haniger include a 95 wRC+, 15 HR and 0.0 WAR in 105 games:

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

Baseball Trade Values suggest the trade would require cash or another piece from Seattle:

https://www.baseballtradevalues.com/trades/180410

Would the Brewers be interested in Tyler Locklear?

With Hoskins at first base, against righthanders the Mariners would have Luke Raley in right field and Randy Arozarena at DH while against lefthanders Arozarena would move to right field with Mitch Garver at DH.

In 2024 Garver, a career .858 OPS hitter against lefthanders, posted a .763 OPS against lefties in his worst season. Even without ball park adjustments, the league average OPS against lefthanders was .701; the league average for designated hitters against southpaws was .722.

Steamer projects Garver, who suffered a 2024 BABP of .216, with a 2025 wRC+ of 104 and 0.6 WAR in 74 games:

https://www.fangraphs.com/players/mitch ... #dashboard

The unsexy move would not address the lingering questions at second base and third base.

I would do it but the Brewers probably wouldn't unless they focus on Locklear's success in AA vs. everything that happened after he was promoted to AAA MLB.

Then again, Steamer projects versatile free agent first baseman Ty France with a 2025 wRC+ of 107 and 0.7 WAR in 81 games:

https://www.fangraphs.com/players/ty-fr ... #dashboard

Perhaps Edgar Martinez could work wonders with Ty France.

Or not.

I don't think the M's let France go solely b/c of poor performance.

I think they let him go because he was aloof and seemingly didn't care as much as he should have.

[D-train]

He was more agoof than aloof....

[Seattle or Bust]

If the M's were thinking about 3/60 for Walker...

5/$125-$135 wouldn't be too much of a stretch for Alonso who is 3 years younger.

I'd much rather give Alonso $25 million a year who has a chance at 40+ homers and a .850+ OPS season than $12 million to someone like Santana.