Jorge Cantu, Risks And Moves

Taking a look at Cantu you can see that it’s that time of year were teams are starting to become less patient with the team veterans and promoting their youngsters and seeing what they can give them. This is especially true for teams like the Padres who are falling further and further out of the realms of possibility of competing this year.

It’s only June but for some front offices reality is setting in and the plan is to set yourself up to be in the best possible position next year. That makes certain individuals expendable. Players that at one time have shown to have value in some capacity

Jorge at one time was a 3 WAR guy at third base for the Marlins. While his defense has always been below average (that’s a nice way of saying it) he’s produced 4 above average offensive seasons. He’s now free to any team that is willing to lay claim to him.

This is an object lesson in risk and reward.

Keith and I have both talked about ‘what if’ scenerios of the Mariners making a moves to stay in the pennant race. We’ve been of the persuasion that it’s not worth it to burn pieces of the future in exchange for a few extra possible wins and maybe staying in the race longer.

I still don’t think this team is going to legitimately compete deep in the season.I think come August we will be regretful and I think some of the fans with lesser memories are going to be annoyed or even angry that we didn’t make the moves that we could and even should have made in July.

But there is the possibility that they do stay in contention and in an effort to give the Mariners the best chance to go as deep as possible the Mariners are going to need to take some chances. No, not Jorge Cantu. While I wouldn’t mind the Mariners picking up a right handed bat, until they make some moves in the infield (i.e. Figgins, Kennedy, Wilson).

But here is a thought last year the following individuals at one time were designated for assignment.

Hank Blalock
Gary Matthews
Akinori Iwamura
Garrett Atkins
Jeremy Hermida
Chan Ho Park
Dontrelle Willis
Brad Hawpe
Jose Guillen

Now I’m not saying any of those guys are good or that they would be the “difference” makers but at some points they would or could have been upgrades for last year’s roster and this year’s line-up isn’t much better. There are going to be similar players that are going to become available as the season plays out.

We also saw individuals who still had club control such as Jayson Nix and Cody Ross waived in both July and August, both of which would could have been solid additions.

The Mariners may not have the disposable assets to make a move for a Carlos Beltran or a lesser piece such as Aramis Ramirez. But there are going to be pieces available and while they aren’t  all-stars, our team can take on a player with some risk/reward possibilities that could give us the needed push.

This is just an example that we don’t need to trade any of our future assest for mild upgrades an in effort to keep the dream alive. The upgrades will present themselves, the Mariners only need to be patient and keep winning to put themselves in the right position to take a advantage.

As I said previously I don’t know if this team has what it takes to make a play deep into the season but they’ve come this far and maybe with a roll of the dice and some luck… maybe some crazy stuff could happen.