Jameson Taillon, Pittsburgh Pirates.
Scott Servais, Seattle Mariners. (Photo by Dinur via Flickr)
“Aces! Get your aces here! Hey you, GM, step right and get your ace before they’re all gone!” If only getting a Major League ace was that easy. The Seattle Mariners have been longing for an ace of their pitching staff for the past four years.
Pitching aces don’t grow on trees either. Getting a bonafide dominant starting pitcher isn’t an easy thing to come by. They don’t typically hit the free agent market and are typically expensive to acquire via trade. Every now and then, two teams get together to make a trade that involves a highly touted starting pitcher, who goes on to become an ace.
Think Gerrit Cole to the Astros or Tyler Glasnow to the Rays. Both left Pittsburgh as talented pitchers who weren’t “panning out” and then became dominant front line starters for their new organizations.
The 2021 Seattle Mariners have a few big needs on their roster that need to be filled. A dominating, top of the rotation starter is at the top of the list. Sure, the M’s farm system is loaded with prospects, but not all prospects make it. Plus, having too much talent is never a bad thing. Just look at the reigning champion Dodgers.
So, how does the Emerald City’s beloved baseball team solve this issue? Let me lay out a different kind of plan for you. It will take some creative thinking, but that’s what Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto is all about.
Seattle Mariners pitcher Marco Gonzales.
Marco Gonzales has been the Mariners opening day starter each of the last two years. Since he arrived in Seattle, Gonzales has improved as a pitcher. His ERA has gotten better each year, and last year his WHIP was a minuscule 0.95, with a career-best and American League-leading 9.1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. It’s starting to look like the M’s got the better end of the Gonzales-Tyler O’Neil trade with St. Louis.
As great as Gonzales has been, Mariners fans know the team needs a true ace on the staff. A starting pitcher that can go out there, every five days, throw seven or so strong innings while giving up two or fewer runs. That was what the Seattle Mariners had with “King” Felix Hernandez in his prime. Seattle does have help on the way.
Unfortunately, that help is currently in the minors. It’s possible, more likely probable, that he pitches for the M’s in 2021. That would be 2018 first-round draft pick Logan Gilbert. The 6-6, 225-pound, 23-year-old Stetson stud.
Gilbert was a beast in the minors. So far, he’s shown he can be an ace. But even when Gilbert arrives in the majors, Seattle can’t count on him to be vintage King Felix right away. He needs to develop his technique and learn the hitters. The earliest to expect Gilbert as a top of the rotation starter is 2022.
That will be perfect timing for the M’s and GM Jerry Dipoto’s plans for winning the World Series. As the great Mike Tyson said, “Everyone has a plan. Until they get punched in the mouth.” No one’s literally getting punched in the mouth. Metaphorically though, the “punch in the mouth” may be prospect Gilbert not working out. As we all know, not all prospects work out as we think. What’s the backup plan?
Trevor Bauer, Cincinnati Reds.
Certainly, Dipoto has a backup plan. Technically he has two already in the minors (George Kirby and Emerson Hancock), but there are two more options. Dipoto can sign an ace in free agency or go into full-on “Trader Jerry” mode. Here’s a current updated list of the available free agent starting pitchers.
That’s just the high end of what’s available. Bauer is the only one that is still a legit ace. After him, the rest are either too old or not top of the rotation quality pitchers.
It’d be cool to “get the band back together” by signing Paxton and Walker. Cool, yes. A good idea, not so much. The M’s don’t need starting pitching depth quantity. They need starting pitching quality. So, it looks like the free agent market is barren.
There is the reclamation project, Chris Archer. He may be a fix for another issue on the M’s roster, but that’s a different article.
Mitch Haniger, Seattle Mariners.
In my last article, I wrote that one of the options for Mitch Haniger‘s future with the M’s was a trade. Sometimes a player’s best value to his current team is what they can get in exchange for him. This where he gets dealt. Not an easy task because Haniger doesn’t have much trade value at this point. So, how are the M’s supposed to get an ace from a player who has little to no value?
There is one team out there that has already been eliminated from the 2021 MLB playoffs, the Pittsburgh Pirates. Sorry, Bucs fans, that’s harsh, but it’s probably true. Pittsburgh is in a similar boat now to when Dipoto took over the Seattle Mariners.
The team is a mess with only a few bright spots. There isn’t much hope on the roster aside from up and comers such as 3B Ke’Bryan Hayes, 1B Josh Bell, OF Bryan Reynolds, SP’s Jameson Taillon, and Mitch Keller.
This is my suggestion to Dipoto, pick up the phone and call up Pirates GM Ben Cherington to inquire about Jameson Taillon.
A quick look over on Taillon:
Jameson Taillon, Pittsburgh Pirates.
I talked to my diehard Pirates fan friend Todd Glowacki (if he reads this, he may not be too happy with my assessment that his team is already out of the playoffs, ha) about Taillon, the Pirates plans, and who might be available for trade.
Todd’s opinion was, “I think everyone on the team is on the block. It’s tough to say since he has now had two TJ surgeries. But when healthy, he has been in good form, so I think they would ask for at least a top-end prospect and someone close to contributing.”
Haniger fits the bill of “close to contributing,” and the M’s have plenty of high-end prospects they could move. So, what might a deal look like?
Let’s start with the knowns Haniger and Taillon. A straight-up swap is possible, but both GM’s would likely say, “Why trade a player working back from injury for just another? What’s the incentive?”
The NL Central is fairly open, with no dominant team. Sure, the Cubs have talent, and the Brewers have the former MVP, and the Cardinals are always good, but all of them have huge holes in their teams. The M’s would probably only need to include maybe any of the following:
The latest report on Taillon is that he is on pace to be ready for the start of spring training. So, moving Haniger, who may not have a long future with M’s, because of all the young talented outfielders in the organization, for Taillon (not a free agent until 2023) to be our ace would be a smart move.
Due to Taillon’s recovery, his cost shouldn’t be too high, but his return is that of an ace. Taillon and Gonzales at the top of the rotation would be the Mariners best one-two punch since Felix Hernandez and Cliff Lee (even if that was brief). Taillon is the ace the M’s are needing.
What do you think about the Seattle Mariners trading for Jameson Taillon to lead the pitching staff? Let us know in the comments section below or on social media.