Official Mariners arm-chair GM offseason thread 2018-2019

The Q said:

It will cost them a lot less to land moose

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seahawksfan234 said:

For those of you keeping track, here are the changes due to trades:

GONE:
-Mike Zunino, C
-Guillermo Heredia, OF
-Michael Plassmeyer, LHP
-James Paxton, LHP
-Alex Colome, RHP
-Robinson Cano, 2B
-Edwin Diaz, RHP
-Jean Segura, SS
-Juan Nicasio, RHP
-James Pazos, LHP
-Carlos Santana, 1B

Numbers in parentheses indicate the current ranking the player has in the Mariners farm system by mlb.com.

IN:
-Mallex Smith, CF
-Jake Fraley, CF (#27)
-Justus Sheffield, LHP (#1)
-Erik Swanson, RHP (#11)
-Dom Thompson-Williams, CF (#16)
-Ricardo Sanchez, LHP (#23)
-Omar Narvaez, C
-Jay Bruce, OF
-Anthony Swarzak, RHP
-Gerson Bautista, RHP (#28)
-Jarred Kelenic, CF (#2)
-Justin Dunn, RHP (#3)
-J.P. Crawford, SS
-Edwin Encarnacion, 1B
-#77 overall pick

Few things to note: Crawford would probably be ranked top 3 if he was still considered a prospect. Ricardo Sanchez was acquired for cash. Lastly, the #77 overall pick (using Josh Stowers who was selected #54 who was considered a reach) would probably equate to a prospect who would rank between 10 and 15 in the Mariners farm system.

Difficult to evaluate this all in the aggregate, but the Mariners have substantially improved their farm system along with their financial situation in the mid to long-term.

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• Double-A | Texas League
• MLB Parent Club: Seattle Mariners

• Status: Active
• Full Name: Arthur Frank Warren
• Age: 25 (March 23, 1993)
• Birthplace: Defiance, OH
• Bats/Throws: R/R Ht: 6' 3" Wt: 230
• Draft: Round 23 (2015, SEA)
• School: Ashland, OH

• Status: Active
• Full Name: Nicholas Chad Gordon
• Age: 23 (October 24, 1995)
• Birthplace: Avon Park, FL
• Bats/Throws: L/R Ht: 6' 0" Wt: 160
• Draft: Round 1 (2014, MIN)
• School: Olympia, Orlando, FL
• Relationship(s): son of Tom Gordon, brother of Dee Gordon, nephew of Anthony Gordon

• 2B
• B/T: R/R
• 5' 8/151
• Age: 26

• Ronald Alcides Torreyes
• Nickname: Toe
• Born: 9/02/1992 in Libertador de Barinas, Venezuela
• Debut: 9/13/2015

• Double-A | Texas League
• MLB Parent Club: Houston Astros

• Status: Active
• Full Name: Alexander Thomas Winkelman
• Age: 24 (February 8, 1994)
• Birthplace: Crystal City, MO
• Bats/Throws: L/L Ht: 6' 2" Wt: 180
• Draft: Round 21 (2015, HOU)
• School: Southeast Missouri State

wazzu31 said:

I don’t hate this trade, but something is confusing me and making me not like the Cano/Diaz deal. The Mariners keep handing out money like it’s nothing to get rid of the long term deal contract of Cano. How did it not make more sense just to keep paying Cano since he was very productive and sell high on Diaz or package him with Seager to get rid of that contract not Cano’s.

It’s just confusing trying to keep dealing away Cano’s contract by spreading money on trades while not receiving anything that will help in the future besides one OF prospect. This “rebuild” is just so confusing as they aren’t really setting themselves up for anything other than taking on more bad contracts in 2021.

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wazzu31 said:

I just can’t see these moves being anywhere close to rise in the farm system that all teams that fire sale (outside of the Marlins last year) get. No one can question the system got better but they had set a new bar for the worst farm system in baseball.

And dumping all this salary doesn’t mean a lot if they don’t hit on essentially every prospect they just got or will get from a few moves they will be making by July. Just will be the same going into the 2021 off season where they are piece or two away and will have to overspend. If us as fans have to finally go through a rebuild where there is zero reason to care the goal should be the World Series, not being right back where they were this year where they are shooting for the WC game.

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seahawksfan234 said:

Overall I think I'd give that haul a B- with my thoughts on some of the trades being much different than some of the others. I'm having difficulty finding the article I saw this in, but according to fangraphs the Mariners essentially went from having by far the worst farm system in baseball to being ranked around 15-20 depending on how you evaluate the prospects. If you included J.P. Crawford and the #77 draft pick the Mariners received, the farm system would probably rank around average.

I still believe the biggest tragedy is that the Mariners weren't able to really get much of anything for Jean Segura. I genuinely believe a player of his caliber, age and contract would net us a lot more than we received if it wasn't well known about his clubhouse fight. From everything I've read, it appears that not many teams had interest in Segura.

Had the Mariners moved Segura before that happened, I'm confident the return would've been substantially better.

Jarred Kelenic is the crown jewel out of all of those guys IMO. I'm really high on him and believe that he could develop into a top 10 prospect. Hopefully I'm right.

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wazzu31 said:

I can understand that feeling, and am truthfully not sure where they actually will end up standing. But other bare bones rebuild to win go from mediocre/bad farm systems to top 5/10 farm systems. I know I’m down on him, but he is punting for 2 seasons at a minimum but realistically with the haul Jerry got he needs the team to be so bad that they get 2 or 3 top 5 picks. And if that happens ownership needs to have an intervention where if Jerry gives or receives a call about a trade they need to approve it first.

I just hate hearing from people how they are ok with rebuilding because look what has happened with the Astros and Cubs, or trading away a good chunk of the team like the Yankees. The Mariners aren’t remotely rebuilding to the level the Astros and Cubs did nor did they get half the haul the Yankees did when they just traded their bullpen arms. I’m totally fine with rebuilding as it is something that is 14 years overdue but if we are going to have to sit through this as fans I want to see a light at the end of the tunnel where the goal is the World Series, not just to be competitive like the past few years.

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seahawksfan234 said:

Thanks, you just made me chug my beer.

I'm trying to find the bright side. Maybe after I look at the bottom of another glass I'll find it.

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WindyCityCoug said:

overall, simply Put -
DiPoto is horrible, and he is just a BAD GM.

His Rebuild so far looks pretty much mediocre to bad, when compared to HOU, Cubs, SD, and many of the other major re-builds the past 6 - 8 years.

granted, I applaud them for gutting the team and embarking on this re-build, but too many new questions, too many bad returns, and other than Kelenic (who is a stud) and possibly sheffield they did not Net enough in all these big deals.

The Encarnacion trade was stupid, unless they flip him quickly, but like UlMax stated, that is now unlikely since nobody needs a DH now. So a team expected to finish Last is stuck with an old DH paying him big $$, that is just stupid. That DH spot should be for AAA guys, or for a Vogelbach to see if he can actually hit MLB pitching (likely cannot, but we do need to know), not being wasted on an old Vet.

Only thing that might save DiPoto this off-season - is if he can deal remaining Vets like Seager and others and turn them into better top 75 prospects, and not the AAAA has- been, former top prospects like JP Crawford and Swanson.

DiPoto seems to do his best work from the Vegas hospital, so possibly more Vegas trips this winter for our much maligned GM.

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