No Movement on Nick Franklin Means There is Nothing to be Mad About

Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

Can we just take a minute to think about this whole Nick Franklin thing? For weeks we’ve heard that a move to New York, or Baltimore, or Detroit, was inevitable. Yet, here we are, just over a week out from Opening Day, and still no movement.

While the Mariners certainly can afford to deal Franklin or his compatriot, Brad Miller, it’s not necessarily a bad thing that nothing has happened yet. Everyone is waiting on a big trade, Nick Franklin certainly has potential to bring some decent talent to Seattle, but at least we haven’t been disappointed yet.

Has it really come to this though? Has the Jack Zduriencik era really jaded us so much that we’re just waiting for the next bad deal?

We just don’t trust it anymore. Every time Jack makes a move everyone gets super pissed about it and we lose faith all over again. (FYI, this is just a snippit from a fantastic rant).

It’s a common sentiment, we all expect so much out of Nick Franklin, he showed flashes of greatness last season, and for a few days he was even mentioned in the AL Rookie of the Year race. I can hear it now “he’s so good! If we had room for him we would keep him, but we can’t so lets get something good!”

This may actually be working against the Mariners. After last season’s impressive showing we are all pumped up about how good he could be, because of that our expectations of trade return are skewed. Take a step back and think about it for a second, one season does not make a superstar. The reality is that the Mariners may actually get a handful of prospects back instead of the blockbuster deal we think he is worth.

The problem with Nick Franklin is that everyone can afford to wait out the Mariners. After the acquisition of Robinson Cano, it was inevitable that the M’s were going to be selling someone. Dustin Ackley, Miller, Franklin, all of those guys were immediately on the market. At some point the Mariners are going to discover that they simply need to trade someone, and the price will continue to drop.

I’d love to see Franklin thrown into a deal to bring another big name to Seattle, I think he’s worth it. But what I expect is something completely different. Colin O’Keefe over at Lookout Landing suspects the Mets might be offering prospects Juan Lagares or Rafael Montero and some padding for Franklin. No matter how good those prospects are (Montero is a top ten prospect for the Mets), they pale in comparison to what Mariners fans expect for Franklin.

After the Mariners came out and signed Cano to a quarter billion dollar deal they told us “We aren’t done yet.” We’ve been waiting for a next level deal, something to make us even more excited. But alas, some injury-rebounding fielders and a spattering of aging pitchers is all we’ve gotten.

In the mean time, we still hold on to Nick Franklin. He’s our hope that the front office can strike a deal. He’s the guy who Mariners fans are willing to part with, but we want a lot in return. When it doesn’t happen we’re going to be upset and we’re going to be reminded of a franchise that would make deals like this: