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Seattle Mariners: FanSided Mock Off-Season Day Three
It was a long, intense 3 days that was also a lot of fun. We wrapped up our tenure as Seattle Mariners GM’s by trying to go big game hunting in free agency and the trade market.
In case you missed what has happened in our off-season simulation, you can read about some of our moves by clicking right here. But needless to say, the Mariners have been one of the busiest teams in the simulation, as we expect to be the case in the real off-season.
Entering Day 3, we had made already made 6 trades and signed 1 free agent. Of course, we could have called that a wrap and still been one of the most active GM’s. But come on guys, where is the fun in that?
Instead, we went bargain shopping in free agency to try and fill our remaining needs at catcher, second base/ first base, the bullpen and left field. Here is what we left the final day of the simulation with.
Sign Jed Lowrie, 3 years $30 million
So this signing was not a part of our original plan. In all honesty, we really thought that Robinson Cano would be our second baseman, and Carlos Santana would share 1B/DH duties with Jose Martinez. But after our trade for Santana stalled out, we took a peek into the free agent market, and found what we thought to be good value.
In fact, if Lowrie is 80% of what he was in 2017 and 2018 over the course of this contract, it is a bargain. After slashing .267/.353/.448 with 23 home runs in 2018, you would think Lowrie would have a more robust market. Especially when you consider his 11.5% BB rate and well below average strikeout rate.
But at 34-years-old, the market in our simulation for Lowrie was almost non-existent. By snagging Lowrie for the price we did, we also eliminated the need to get a true utility man. Lowrie plays a decent second base and got some time at 3B in 2018 without managing to completely embarrass himself.
He has experience at SS as well and can cover the spot for a few innings if anything happened to Segura in game. Lowrie is a great blend of versatility, control the zone abilities, pop, and veteran presence to add to this team after the loss of Nelson Cruz. But at the end of the day, he is simply our new second baseman, sending Robinson Cano to first.
Sign Michael Brantley, 4 years $45 million
Boom. You want to talk about insane value, look at Michael Brantley. Consider that Bryce Harper got $480 million in our simulation and that we were the only team to bid on Brantley. THE ONLY ONE. I don’t know what these other yahoos were thinking, because Michael Brantley is a stud.
In 2018, Brantley slashed .309/.364/.468 with 17 home runs, 12 steals, 36 doubles, and a 124 wRC+ in 143 games. Yes, Brantley, who is entering his age-32 season, has a history of injuries. But when he plays, he is one of the better players in all of baseball.
Brantley is also mediocre at best in LF. So I guess I can understand why he’s not a sexy player, but to let him go $11.25 million AAV is just insane. We had some concerns about what to do in LF after trading Ben Gamel and talked about various trade possibilities until we realized that the market on both Brantley and A.J. Pollock were basically non-existent.
In the end, we “settled” on Brantley over Pollock simply because he was a lefty, who brought better balance to our lineup. Pollock was eventually signed to a 3-year, $48 million contract which makes Brantley the better value over time.
Brantley slots into the top half of our lineup perfectly, and could easily hit leadoff, second, or third without any hesitation on Scott Servais‘ mind. Brantley was just the best fit for us in LF, and since we had cleared some significant payroll earlier, we had some money to splurge.
However, we couldn’t be done yet. After all, we still needed a catcher.
Sign Robinson Chirinos, 1 year $2.5 million
After a failed attempt at signing Yasmani Grandal, being ignored in our attempts to acquire Austin Hedges, and our inability to come to terms with the Reds regarding Tucker Barnhart or Curt Casali, we once again turned to the free agent market.
In the grand scheme of things, had we been forced to roll with James McCann and David Frietas at catcher, we probably would have been just fine at catcher, but without any depth. As the simulation drew to an end, we realized that one prominent catcher was still unaccounted for.
We at Sodo Mojo have been fans of Chirinos as a backup option since before Mike Zunino was traded, and remain fans of him becoming the new starting catcher. Defensively, Chirinos is fine. Offensively, you get a little less power than Zunino, but a little more of everything else.
After a breakout 2017, Chirinos returned in 2018 and slashed .222/.338/.419. I admit it doesn’t sound great. But when compared to Zunino’s .201/.259/.410 2018, it seems really quite good. Again, Chirinos is a downgrade from Mike Zunino. But how significant is it? Not all that much.
Losing an established catcher is hard. Heck, finding a catcher in baseball is hard enough. But Chirinos’ career 103 wRC+ along with his slightly-average defense is exactly what our simulation roster needed. Now the Mariners have a bit more catching depth in the organization and an everyday guy who has a chance to replicate Zunino’s value.
So now we have our starting lineup all filled in, but we still needed one more reliever to compliment the bullpen.
Sign Joakim Soria, 2 years $12 million
Quick! Which pitcher led all of baseball in the lowest average exit velocity in 2018? Edwin Diaz? Andrew Miller? Aroldis Chapman? Jacob deGrom? Nope. It was actually Joakim Soria. Yes, the 34-year-old reliever was the hardest reliever to square up in 2018.
Soria had a fantastic 2018 season, posting a 2.44 FIP, a 5:1 K/BB ratio, and a 1.8 fWAR in just 60.2 innings pitched. Interestingly, Soria evolved from a ground ball heavy pitcher in 2017 to a flyball-heavy pitcher in 2018. Even at his age, Soria is still missing bats and doing so with excellent command.
Soria relies on his 93-mph fastball and changeup to get batters out, and he incredibly effective at it. There is nothing “sexy” about Soria’s stuff, but he continues to get guys out without getting blasted in the process.
Soria rarely surrenders home runs, posting a minuscule 6.2% HR/FB rate. He dominates RHH and is still solid against LHH as well. He is a perfect compliment to Alex Colome and Edwin Diaz (who we were unable to trade in this sim) and can close if needed.
In short, Soria is a really good pitcher who somebody will get tremendous value on this off-season. So, at least for this sim, it may as well be us who benefits.
dark. Next. Day 1 of Off-Season Simulation
Well, there you have. The complete list of moves we made on Day 3 of our sim. In the coming days, we will provide a complete rundown of all our moves, including payroll figures and some deals that almost came to fruition but didn’t quite make it. We hope you enjoyed this series, and look forward to continuing our coverage of the Mariners with a bit more realism going forward!