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 Come on down and meet your 2017 Seattle Mariners! Since taking over the reigns at the end of the 2015 season, Jerry Dipoto has done one thing: trade a lot of dudes, I mean holy crap this guy loves trades. Don't believe me?  Hes made a few trades since this graph was made. Hell, he's probably trading someone right now as we speak! Jerry stated in an interview that the team targeted 8 players this offseason, and he "got them all." He won't say who, but I might have a few guesses. Key gains: Jean Segura (acquired from AZ) Drew Smyly (acquired from TB) Jarrod Dyson (acquired from KC) Mitch Haniger (acquired from AZ) Carlos Ruiz (acquired from LAD) Yovani Gallardo (acquired from Baltimore) Key Departures: Taijuan Walker (traded to AZ) Ketel Marte (traded to AZ) Nate Karns ((traded to KC) Seth "Dad" Smith (traded to Baltimore) Dae Ho Lee (returned to Korea, goodbye you large beautiful man) Franklin Gutierrez (signed with LAD) Steve Clevenger (Pulled a Curt Schilling) Manager: Scott Servais  Was an assistant GM for awhile with the Angels and was close with Jerry, hence why he got the job. Was credited for overhauling Nelson Cruz's swing which made him a very good dinger hitter. As a manager? Eh, jury is still out. I don't have any major qualms with him, but he's still learning on the job. Let's get to the lineup!  Catcher: Mike Zunino Mike Zunino remains a sort of enigma. He was one of Jack Z's last major draft picks. He was a model figure for "don't rush position players through the minors" because in the midst of fearing for his job, Jack Z promoted him with less than a year of experience in the minors. It was awful, he couldn't hit off speed pitches and by 2015 he was putting up an OPS+ of 58. When Jack Z got fired, Zunino was immediately demoted to rookie league and focused solely on his hitting. He spent 2016 mostly in AAA, where he mashed, and eventually got called up as an injury replacement. He hit well, and while he still struggles to strike out, he maintained an OPS+ above 100. On top of that, he's an above average defender, and a good  pitch framer . Who knows what version of Zunino we'll see. Acquired from the Cubs mid-season last year for Mike Montgomery, who ended up closing out game 7. He's been mashing in AAA and came up for a cup of coffee. He didn't do so well, but so far has looked decent in spring training. There are concerns about his defense, but mediocrity is acceptable as a first basemen. If he ends up flailing, the team has a backup plan in the name of Danny Valencia. Sidenote, his last name is pronounced "Vogel-back" and not like the famous historical family of musicians. edit: Dan Vogelbach just got optioned to AAA so that's a big egg of my face!  Okay for real: 1st base: Danny Valencia We traded some upper minors guy named Paul Blackburn to get a season out of Valencia. He's been a slightly above average hitter over the past few seasons to the point where you can kind of expect production from him. He can play both corners (though he is very bad at 3B), and the outfield too. For a 1st basemen, his numbers aren't great, but at the very least he won't be a black hole in the lineup, and will probably exist until Vogelbach / DJ Peterson (lol like he would amount to anything) can contribute at the major league level.   2nd Base: Robinson Cano After a real bad 2015 season where he was fighting abdomen injuries, 2016 was vintage Cano and was one of the best players on the team. The question only remains is how many good years he has left. Played for the DR in the WBC and played real well there too!  Shortstop: Jean Segura Was his 2016 a fluke? We'll find out! Obtained through the trade with Mitch Haniger for Taijuan Walker and Ketel Marte. Gave up a lot of potential talent for him. We haven't had a good hitting shortstop since... A-Rod was a Mariner? I mean, Carlos Guillen was okay, but our major starting SS have been Yuniesky Betancourt, Jack Wilson, Brendan Ryan, Brad Miller (who's kind of good now, dammit), and Ketel Marte in the last 7 years. Please be good.  3rd Base: Kyle Seager Kyle Seager had a 6.9 (nice) bWAR last year. He's already in the top 20 for bWAR for Mariner careers. He's the best 3rd basemen in Mariner history.  Center field: Leonys Martin We traded fan favorite relief pitcher Tom Wilhelmsen for this guy. Martin, known for being all glove fielder, ended up developing power and hit a decent amount of dingers. Wilhelmsen, on the other hand, kept his ERA above 10 as a Texas Ranger, got DFA'd, was picked up again by the Mariners, and pitched decently for us down the stretch. This trade was a literal heist, and making it sweeter was that it happened to a division opponent. Anyway, Martin has struggled with injury in the past, but there's 2 center-field capable OFers we've acquired to back him up should he get hurt again.  Right Fielder: Mitch Haniger The other big part of the Arizona trade, and although his 2016 numbers weren't fantastic as a D-back, his *peripherals* were in line with his fantastic AAA numbers. He walks well, can hit for power, and plays plus defense in the outfield. Jerry thinks he found a gem in Haniger, but we'll see if he can translate into the majors well.  Left Field: Jarrod Dyson Traded from KC for Nate Karns. Dyson has always been platooned in his career, and will get a chance to play full time with the Mariners. Base-stealer, amazing glove, doesn't hit for power. Signature quote: "Wherever I go, the champagne flow."  DH: Nelson Cruz When Jack Z signed Cruz to a 4-year deal in 2015 (after he cheaped out and didn't sign him in 2014), everyone relentlessly mocked the deal. Cruz turned around and ended up putting up the two best years offensively of his career, and one of the best offensive performances as a Mariner since Edgar was a player. He's accepted that he's a liability in the outfield (but can play there for a few spot starts should he have to), and embraced the DH role. He still hit some nice dingers in the WBC, so the hope is that his power is still around, even in his age. Rest of the bench: OF: Guillermo Heredia or Ben Gamel: Will probably be Heredia, since he's had better numbers in AAA and in the majors. Both are still fantastic defenders. With Vogelbach being demoted, both will probably make the team. C: Carlos Ruiz: Old dude, but still plays well. Mike Zunino played way too much as a catcher in the last few years, so I'm hoping for a more even split between these two. UTL: Tyler Smith or Shawn O'Malley: O'Malley just had an appendectomy out of the blue in spring training, so Tyler Smith will be the utility infielder. I know nothing about him, but his name is generic enough to assume he's a generic AAAA guy. Starting Pitchers:  Felix Hernandez 2016 was Felix's worst year. He struggled with injury, his fastball velocity was down, and overall didn't look like vintage Felix. The Mariners think it's from a lack of conditioning, mainly in his lower body that was causing it. So this offseason, along with Nelson Cruz, he worked with a trainer named IRON GLENN to bulk up a bit. He's going to have to reinvent himself to deal with his lowered velocity. It's probably safe to say that the golden age of Felix Hernandez is over   Hisashi Iwakuma It's hard to predict how well Iwakuma will pitch this year. He's 36, seems to be losing velocity, and has abandoned a few pitches. Still, I think he's got some left in the tank. He won't repeat his great 2013 and 2014 numbers, but he will still be a good contributor.  James Paxton Several years ago, the Mariners had 3 amazing pitching prospects: Danny Hultzen, Taijuan Walker, and James Paxton. Hultzen's arm got shredded up, Walker never impressed enough and became expendable, and all that's left is Paxton. His fastball hits the mid to upper 90s, and has shown ace potential. But he's always gotten nagging injuries. Will this be the year he stays healthy??  Drew Smyly Jerry's ideal candidate. Flyball pitcher who can strike people out as well. Jerry hopes that the mixture of Safeco being a pitcher's park, and our upgraded outfield defense means he'll thrive. Smyly also pitched extremely well for the USA in the WBC too.  Yovani Gallardo In terms of 5th pitchers, you could probably do better, but you could also do a lot worse. Gallardo wasn't very good in 2016, so Jerry is hoping he's a bounceback candidate. Seth Smith was traded for him, who became an endearing fan favorite as the team dad. If any of these pitchers go down, Ariel Miranda will be the long man in the bullpen and will probably start. Chase De Jong is sitting in AAA as well. Bullpen  Closer: Edwin Diaz Holy hell Edwin Diaz is good. He was a rookie last year brought up midway through the season, and almost immediately won the closer role. He strikes out a ton of dudes and has great movement on his pitches. Closed out some great games for PR in the WBC. The rest of the 'pen: Nick Vincent Steve Cishek (recovering from surgery, will be back in May) Dan Altavilla Marc Rzepczynski (LOOGY) Evan Scribner Some other dudes The verdict: Seattle has aging players, so it appears that this is the year that they go for it. Is the team good enough to compete in the AL West? Who knows. They've raised their floor and have a lot of contingency plans should one of the players get hurt. Jerry built a team around fly ball pitchers and elite outfield defense, so here's to hoping that pays off. seiferguy fucked around with this message at 00:12 on Mar 24, 2017 |
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