Seattle Mariners: 5 Offseason Predictions


KYLE LEWIS WILL NOT BE TRADED
You’re probably wondering right about now, “Ty, why do we have to do everything in free agency? We could probably get something pretty nice for Kyle Lewis.” Well, let me just give it to you straight: Kyle Lewis doesn’t have the value in the trade market that you think he has.
In addition to his knee issues, Lewis has posted relatively average numbers at every level in the Minor Leagues up to this point and has already found himself outside of MLB Pipeline’s top 100 list after debuting at #28. At this point, I doubt he could even net you the return Tyler O’Neill brought back in Marco Gonzales. He may not even be the best prospect to realistically headline a deal for the Mariners right now, with Evan White starting to turn more heads after a strong 2018 campaign.
Jerry Dipoto also mentioned Lewis’ name as one of the prospects we could eventually see called up in the second half of the 2019 season. They seemingly see a future with him, despite his struggles. Though GMs do that a lot with their prospects then trade them shortly after, I feel that if Dipoto were to deal Lewis, he would have done it by now. Lewis’ value has never been lower and it just isn’t worth it to deal him at this point.
I still hope Lewis develops into the player we expected him to be, especially if he does get a shot at the Major League level at some point this season. That doesn’t feel very realistic at the moment, though.