Trade Suggestions For The Seattle Mariners

The Mariners right now are sitting well in both the American League West and Wild Card Standings. They are third in the AL West and are in 2nd place in the Wild Card, so Mariner fans are pretty happy. But right now the M’s have several players on the DL including the consistent Michael Saunders and Justin Smoak.

Smoak honestly, nobody minds having him on the DL, Smoak’s hitting at a dismal .208. But Saunders has been tearing the cover off the ball by hitting an impressive .272 with 4 home runs and 25 RBIs.

The Mariners are in need of a 5th starter as well since Taijuan Walker could be back in about 10 days and James Paxton wont be back until probably after the All Star break.

The Mariners are in need of a right handed bat that could help this team continue to be a Wild Card/AL West contender. The two possible bats that the Mariners need to go after is Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier from the Los Angeles Dodgers.

I know Ethier isn’t a right handed bat but the Dodgers I think are going to be willing to give both batters away for practically nothing. Kemp’s career in LA is done with Puig and possible prospects going to get the call up along with Ethier.

Kemp hasn’t been the same since his career year in 2011 when he hit 39 home runs, batted .324, stole 40 bases, and drove in 126 runs and scored 115 himself. Kemp is currently in his 3rd year of his 6-year $160 million dollar contract, but with his injuries and his inconsistency I do believe that the Dodgers would be willing to accept a trade by the Mariners for perhaps Nick Franklin, and two other prospects.

Ethier on the other hand, is in his third year of a 5-year $85 million dollar deal so the Dodgers maybe willing to trade Ethier for just Franklin or a prospect. Either has been nothing but consistent for the Dodgers in his 9 years he’s hit 20+ homers in of those years and has a career batting average of .287 with LA.

Both of these players are great trades the Mariners should invest in. Now with the 5th starter possibility there’s only one guy I can think of and that’s Chicago Cubs starter Jeff Samardzija.

Samardzija has pitched brilliantly for the Cubs this season the only problem is his team fails to give him run support as Samardzija’s record is at 2-5 record with a 2.72 ERA. Samardzija is in just a 1-year contract so the Cubs could possibly trade him for two minor league players like Jesus Montero and Brandon Maurer could be the players who could be in that possible trade.

One more trade the Mariners should try to invest in is a new shortstop. Lets face it both Brad Miller and Franklin have been two of the biggest disappointments this season after both had somewhat impressive 2013 seasons.

Jimmy Rollins, Ian Desmond, and Brandon Crawford are all possible trade targets in that position that the Mariners could get for cheap or by trading one or two possible prospects.

Right now if the Mariners want to stay in contention for the playoffs they need to make trades and SMART trades. If Jack Z wants to keep his job as the GM then he’s got to pull his head out of his butt and make trades that will help this Mariners team improve and that will really help this team keep contending for both the AL West title and the Wild Card.

The last time the Mariners made a good trade was in……..wait never mind. Bottom line Jack Z needs to do his job correctly and help his ball club get the necessary players that will help them contend.