Who had the best plan from the mariners podsters

[Donn Beach]

I'm looking at high leverage arms I'm looking at TB & Milwaukee among others. If your dealing Castillo anywhere it might as well be one of those 2 teams. I'm asking for Cleavinger or Uceta from TB & Megill or Uribe from Milwaukee. Kade is not gonna need that much time, August at the latest. So at least someone to hold down the fort for a few months.

I can't see TB or Milwaukee taking on Castillo's contract, Detroit perhaps

[D-train]

On the podcast they put out, they are resigning Mitch Garver. If that is not a clown move, I don't know what is.

FWIW Spotrac assigns Mitch Garver a market value of $3.6 million annually:

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/player/mark ... tch-garver

Not on my bingo card but defensible. FanGraphs projects Garver with 0.6 WAR and a 94 wRC+ in 57 games next year:

https://www.fangraphs.com/players/mitch ... ition=C/DH

The Locked On Mariners podcasters said they would prefer Jonah Heim or Luis Torrens at that $3 million salary if Heim or Torrens were non-tendered.

Wow, Heim was good in 2023 but just fell of the table with two very bad seasons in a row....

[harmony]

Mitch Garver will obviously find a job somewhere. It'll be a one-year deal, probably at $2 mil or something like that.

Get past the $24.mil contract rage, he could be a decent bench piece along the lines of how the mariners used him the past season.

Yep. He has value as a backup. No question he'll get a job.

Mitch Garver must've been an oversight on this MLB.com columnist's analysis of the free agent class:

https://www.mlb.com/news/tiers-of-mlb-f ... -2025-2026

Garver will land a job unless he retires.

[harmony]

St. Louis fans react to the Locked On Mariners podcasters'' proposed trade of Michael Arroyo, Jurrangelo Cijntje and a Comp Round B draft pick to the Cardinals for Brendan Donovan and reliever Riley O'Brien:

https://thecardinalnation.com/forums/to ... ost-296165

[D-train]

M's need to bring back Polanco. He does so many things for this lineup.

If the M's are intent on re-signing Suarez, then I wouldn't say no. But I wouldn't break the bank for him. And I certainly wouldn't offer him a multi-year deal with Colt Emerson, Ben Williamson, and Cole Young waiting in the wings.

They still need to acquire high leverage arms for the bullpen too, which will cost money on the open market. Or they could trade prospects for one. Trading Castillo's huge contract would free up a ton of space on the yearly budget.

They could also trade one of our starters plus a prospect package to acquire Skubal or a high leverage reliever. Logan Evans and Emerson Hancock could pitch every 5th day until Kade Anderson is ready. Some scouts say he could be ready by mid-simmer, maybe sooner.

Yandy Diaz is a better option for DH imo. Polanco is due to have another injury riddled year. He has never played 120+ games two years in a row.

[GL_Storm]

St. Louis fans react to the Locked On Mariners podcasters'' proposed trade of Michael Arroyo, Jurrangelo Cijntje and a Comp Round B draft pick to the Cardinals for Brendan Donovan and reliever Riley O'Brien:

https://thecardinalnation.com/forums/to ... ost-296165

They seem to have an elevated opinion of what Brendan Donovan will get them in a rebuild. Personally, I'm losing interest in Donovan. He seems like a very average player to me, probably an overachiever. If they start the year with Cole Young at 2B and Ben Williamson at 3B, I would say that isn't ideal but not the end of the world. But really, it shouldn't be Donovan or nothing. There are other options out there. Also, there's Leo Rivas on the roster already who can back up both JP and Cole Young.

[D-train]

Mitch Garver will obviously find a job somewhere. It'll be a one-year deal, probably at $2 mil or something like that.

You would think he would just retire. I can't imagine he enjoyed his job much the past two seasons. Has plenty of money.

[D-train]

I'm looking at high leverage arms I'm looking at TB & Milwaukee among others. If your dealing Castillo anywhere it might as well be one of those 2 teams. I'm asking for Cleavinger or Uceta from TB & Megill or Uribe from Milwaukee. Kade is not gonna need that much time, August at the latest. So at least someone to hold down the fort for a few months.

I can't see TB or Milwaukee taking on Castillo's contract, Detroit perhaps

Man if we could trade Castillo for Skubal that would be perfect. I doubt they do it though unless we really sweeten the pot with top prospects. Jerry hasn't traded any top prospects though yet so that would be a first.

[D-train]

St. Louis fans react to the Locked On Mariners podcasters'' proposed trade of Michael Arroyo, Jurrangelo Cijntje and a Comp Round B draft pick to the Cardinals for Brendan Donovan and reliever Riley O'Brien:

https://thecardinalnation.com/forums/to ... ost-296165

OBrien is another reliever that we just gave away for nothing but cash considerations. He was lights out with a 2.06 ERA last season.

[GL_Storm]

Mitch Garver will obviously find a job somewhere. It'll be a one-year deal, probably at $2 mil or something like that.

You would think he would just retire. I can't imagine he enjoyed his job much the past two seasons. Has plenty of money.

All of these guys are trying to get a full 10 years so they're fully vested in the pension plan. Even when they've made millions of dollars, it's totally a thing for major league players to try and hit that mark. It's like a badge of honor or something. Garver is at just over 8 years service time, and so probably he'll keep going for at least two more seasons, if he can, which shouldn't be a problem since the bar for backup catchers is so low.

But beyond getting the service time and the fully vested pension, I think these guys like to stick around for the simple reason that this is what they do. Baseball is literally all they know. They've worked at it since they were kids and now they have this small window in their lives to play at the very highest level. You and I may look at these average or lesser players and think "meh", but this is the major leagues and everybody at this level is an elite player. And once this chapter is over, what's next? What do you do?