Mallex Smith, Seattle Mariners (Photo by dinur via Flickr).
Dan Vogelbach, Seattle Mariners. (Photo by Dinur, via Flickr)
Opening Day is a few days away. The Seattle Mariners are in Houston on Friday, July 24, to begin the 2020 season. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as Major League Baseball and its Players Association failure to come to agree on anything, it’s taken four months to finally play ball.
Seattle has been working out at T-Mobile park for the past few weeks to get ready for the 60-game slate. After some initial days get back into shape, the Mariners have been prepping with intrasquad contests. Everyone is looking forward to meaningful games as the summer winds down. Leading up to Opening Day, Pacific Northwest Sports will be running a series of countdown articles to get fans ready for action.
Sun 7/19 – 6 questions about the 2020 season
Mon 7/20 – 5 impact rookies to watch in 2020
Tue 7/21 – 4 reasons why the Mariners will have a hard time rising in the A.L. West
Wed 7/22 – 3 players who could be in their final Mariners seasons
Thu 7/23 – 2 X-Factors for 2020
Fri 7/24 – 1 big goal for 2020
As much as fans would like to believe, otherwise, baseball is a business. The bottom line should be winning championships, but it’s really about the bottom line itself. Maximizing the financial resources a team has to put out a product their supporters want to see and spend money is the game within the game.
It’s no secret that the Seattle Mariners are rebuilding. And although there aren’t many “veterans” left on the team, there are still a few who are in the middle of the transition. If M’s General Manager Jerry DiPoto can get something of future value in return for one of the players listed below, he will.
Kyle Seager, Seattle Mariners. Photo by Dinur, via Flickr)
Kyle Seager is the longest-tenured Seattle Mariners player, as well as the team’s most expensive. Due to his age and decline, his contract, which runs through 2022, will be hard to move. Hard but not impossible. The Dodgers can afford him, and there have been rumors of a Seager brothers reunion in Los Angeles for several years.
Matt Magill made the most of his opportunity after the Mariners bought his contract from Minnesota in July. The 31-year-old pitched better in Seattle compared his career numbers to that point. He sort of fell into the Seattle Mariners closer role toward the end of last season and is the current favorite to win the job this year.
It’s a catch-22 for the Mariners. If he pitches the way he did last year, DiPoto can flip him to a team that needs a setup man. Then again, it’s not like the team has an abundance of top quality relievers either.
The “Hefty Lefty” got off to a great start last season, which earned him an All-Star Game invitation. Unfortunately, he dropped off like a lemming from a cliff in the second half. With rookie Evan White taking over at first base this season, Daniel Vogelbach is relegated to a part-time DH role. That makes him expendable.
Every year contenders look for power bats at the trade deadline. Vogelbach is inexpensive, under team control for another year before he becomes arbitration-eligible, and only 27. If a team in the hunt needs the left-handed power Vogelbach can supply, he should be easy to move for a decent prospect.
Mallex Smith, Seattle Mariners. (Photo by Dinur, via Flickr)
It has to be very uncomfortable for Mallex Smith, knowing that the Seattle Mariners next messiah, Jarred Kelenic, is on the way, and he plays the same position. After his stinker 2019 season, Smith is literally a dead man walking. He’s one of the fastest players in MLB but doesn’t get on base enough to make his speed work for him.
Smith will make the prorated amount of his $2.35M salary in 2020. He is eligible for arbitration in the fall, which means a raise. The best-case scenario for Smith is he opens the season looking like the player he was in 2018 in Tampa when he leads the American League in Triples. At that point, he has trade value. At worst case, Smith plays the same this year as he did in his disappointing 2019 season, and the Mariners decline to make him an offer over the winter, making him a free agent.
Dee Gordon is very popular among Seattle Mariners fans. If only his production matched his popularity. Over his nine-year MLB career, Gordon has a career OPS of .683. Only twice has it been over .705. He’s played two seasons, 2018 and 2019, in Seattle, posting respective OPS figures of .637 and .663. Some of the worst in Major League Baseball each year among hitters with over 400 at-bats.
This year Gordon will be the M’s “play almost anywhere” utility man. Although he may not start very many games at any one position, Gordon will still see plenty of action in several different spots. The 31-year-old speedster is in the fourth season of a five-year, $50M contract. It contains a $1M team buyout in 2021, he won’t be back.
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