Offensive Upgrade Possibilities - Right Field

[PolarVortex]

Offensive Upgrade Targets – Right Field

Incumbent – Michael Saunders. I've been a big fan of Saunders' in recent years. I have no doubt that he could give us an 80 runs/20 homer/75 RBI season iff he could just stay healtthy ovver an entire season. But, as someone in here recently quipped in another thread, this guy is Guti Part Deux.

Acquisition possibilities:
Yasmani Tomas – Cuban free agent. 23-years-old. Plus power. Strong arm defensively makes him more desirable in RF than LF. He’s going to cost a ton. Maybe as much as $120 million.
Norichika Aoki - 33 years old. Going into his fourth MLB season. Speed and power dropped off in both his 2nd and 3rd year. Only slugged .360 last year. Lifetime .320 hitter against left-handed pitching.
Nelson Cruz - Turns 35 years old midway through next season. With Markakis leaving Baltimore this winter, Orioles will probably make a strong push to re-sign Cruz. I don’t see the Mariners being a strong candidate to land him.
Michael Cuddyer – 36 years old. Stats in recent years have clearly been inflated by the Coors Field affect. Home/roads splits dramatically favor Coors Field. On the plus side, he hits lefties and righties equally well. Injury bug has bit him in three of the last four years. If the Rockies don’t resign him, he might be an interesting backup plan, but should not be the primary target.
Chris Denorfia – 34 years old. Does not have starter talent on a team that wants to contend. Used to have value as being productive against lefties but doesn’t do that very well anymore.
Torii Hunter – 39 years old. The energizer bunny. I keep expecting this guy to feel his age and fade away but in recent years he has actually gotten stronger in the second half. His leadership and clubhouse presence are raved about. Age is still risky despite recent success.
Jason Kubel – 33 years old. Hard to believe this guy hit 30 homeruns just two years ago. But at this point in his career, he can only be considered a reclamation project. Seems like the Mariners have an ‘obligation’ to bring in a reclamation project every year. Sometimes it works out. Russsell Branyan and Mike Sweeney are good examples. More often it does not work out as we saw in Corey Hart, Eric Thames, Milton Bradley, Ericc Byrns and Ken Grifffey, Jr. And who can forget the immortal Brad Wilkerson?
Nick Markakis – 31 years old. Consistently mediocre. No speed and no power. Overrated for most of his career.
Alex Rios – 34 years old. Rangers have a $12.5 million option on him but I doubt if they exercise it. Rios saw a major drop off in speed and power last year. At his age, it is hard to say if his season was just a fluke or the beginning career decline. He might be an interesting choice on a one-year deal. If he hit in front of Cano all year (the seemingly logical place for him in the batting order), his stats would definitely improve.
Nate Schierholtz – 31 years old. This guy has had a couple of productive seasons but ultimately he is a fourth outfielder and not what the Mariners need to fix their outfield woes.
Ichiro Suzuki – 41 years old. We know who and what Ichiro is, and who and what Ichiro isn’t. No point in going down that road again. If the Mariners were still a 65-70 win team, it might be fun to bring him back so he could get his 3000 hit in a Mariner uniform. But, this is a serious team now. We don’t need a deflection from reality anymore.
Dayan Viciedo – 26 years old. Mariners have been linked to him for several months now. And, i don't know why. I’ve never been impressed. He has moderate power in a hitter’s park with a poor OBP. With the Mariners he would not be an upgrade over Ackley nor Saunders.
Justin Ruggiano – 33 years old. Looking at him strickly as a fourth outfielder, he could have value if he can had at a reasonable price tag. He has an .836 career OPS against left handers.
David Murphy – 33 years old. Despite playing most of his career in the best hitter’s park in the American League, Murphy has never been more than average offensively. I don’t see him being an upgrade over what we have.
Marlon Byrd - Trade acquisition. Phillies would be looking to dump the contract and wouldn’t be asking for much in return. 37 years old. Strikeouts have risen dramatically in the last two years as he tries to camouflage declining hitting skills by swinging for the fences more.
Jay Bruce – Trade acquisition. 28 years old. Signed through 2016 for $24.5 million. Acquiring Bruce would be costly. There is no mention of this guy being available anywhere that I know of. But the Reds under-achieved last year and a shakeup is needed there. I can see this guy emerging as a trade candidate. He is coming off of an off-year but in past years was always a 30-homerun threat. But he plays in a division full of bandbox stadiums. I don’t know how his power would translate in the AL West.
Player I’d like for them to get: Yosmani Tomas. Competition for him will be fierce and will come from the big payroll teams like San Francisco, New York Yankees and Mets, Chicago Cubs. But, the Mariners have the resources to reel him in. It just a matter if they will commit the resources.
Player they are most likely to get: Alex Rios. I can see them giving Rios a one-year, $10 million contract with attainable incentives.

 

[gowazzu02]

Rios wont sign for 1 year. He will get more then that

 

[wazzu31]

Denorfia might have liked it here so possibly him but if the Mariners are going to upgrade their outfield it has to be through trade. I can't see (nor would I if I were them) throwing big money at really any of those guys unless it is a 1 year deal which most players won't take one year deals in Seattle since their numbers generally with be worse going into the next offseason.

They do need to do something with Saunders with his body, I don't think he is Guti because Guti was just dumb when it came to his health IMO.

 

[dude82]

Denorfia might have liked it here so possibly him but if the Mariners are going to upgrade their outfield it has to be through trade. I can't see (nor would I if I were them) throwing big money at really any of those guys unless it is a 1 year deal which most players won't take one year deals in Seattle since their numbers generally with be worse going into the next offseason.

They do need to do something with Saunders with his body, I don't think he is Guti because Guti was just dumb when it came to his health IMO.

In what way?

 

[wazzu31]

In what way?

All of his stomach issues IMO were handled stupidly by him. He could've came back where he had the best doctors in the world at his disposal but he waited until it was too late and he has had problems keeping his weight and strength ever since. Just from personal experience I guess it is why I am harsh (and probably overly harsh) on him.

 

[BSUSeahawk]

Saunders. No upgrade needed.

 

[NWinAZ]

Somebody mentioned months back that they might be mad at him for going outside the organization for hitting instructions and I thought that was a bit of a crazy thought. I am starting to think that person hit it on the head. By the comments they put out, it makes sense now.

 

[PolarVortex]

Somebody mentioned months back that they might be mad at him for going outside the organization for hitting instructions and I thought that was a bit of a crazy thought. I am starting to think that person hit it on the head. By the comments they put out, it makes sense now.

I can't believe, refuse to believe that they would be upset with him for weeking out-of-organization hitting advise during the off season. It isn't much different from hiring a personal trainer or a nutrionist. Maybe the organization is pissed because he publicized it. That seems more their style.

"We don't care what you do on your spare time as long s you don't tarnish our image. Publicly implying that we can not train our own players to hit is the equivalent of treason"

 

[wazzu31]

I can't believe, refuse to believe that they would be upset with him for weeking out-of-organization hitting advise during the off season. It isn't much different from hiring a personal trainer or a nutrionist. Maybe the organization is pissed because he publicized it. That seems more their style.

"We don't care what you do on your spare time as long s you don't tarnish our image. Publicly implying that we can not train our own players to hit is the equivalent of treason"

I'd agree up until that point. This organization since the mid 90's has never had an issue with publicly tarnishing a player (Randy Johnson is the prime example) All Saunders has ever been asked is what he has done in the offseason since he was touted as a can't miss 5 tool prospect but struggled badly when he got to the big leagues. The disconnect between the two camps, at least to me to prove my point, that they are butt hurt.

Tell the dude behind the scenes XYZ so then he doesn't get the same question and answer it the same every offseason. Jack says it's up to Saunders to get in the lineup except his resume is better than any outfielder on the roster outside of Jackson's career resume.

In my personal opinion it also could do with Saunders was Bavasi's last big prospect outside of Felix that is left over. With Van Slyke on the staff you would figure that Saunders is the ideal type of player for the organization.