Power Ranking Seattle Mariners Top 5 Trade Chips for MLB Trade Deadline

4. Domingo Santana

It is easy to think of Santana as a slumping hitter and bad defender. That’s what he’s been recently (although he is 4/10 with 3 walks in the Yankees series). But let’s not forget that despite this, Santana has been a really good player for Seattle.

His .347 OBP and .467 slugging are both above-average and he is currently on pace to end the season with 30+ home runs and 12-18 stolen bases. Santana is an offensive threat that many teams could be interested in acquiring.

Unlike Encarnacion, Santana is young (26), cheap (arb1), and controllable (not a free agent until after 2021), so he does hold value on the trade market. After an injury-filled 2018 torpedoed his trade value this winter, he has shown that 2017 is closer to his real self than not.

If Santana continues to hit as he has over the next 6 weeks, he could be one of the best bats available on the market this summer. The defense will be held against him and prevent the team from getting top-level talent, but Santana could still fetch a 55-grade prospect or two in the right market environment.

Of course, the biggest question surrounding Santana is whether or not he will even be made available. Of course, Dipoto will listen to any offers on any player, but Santana could very well play his way into the Mariners future plans as well.

Remember, the team owns his rights until after the 2021 season so they don’t have any reason to take a discount offer for him. He won’t cost the team much more than $15 million over that time, so there is little to no payroll flexibility to be had.

Santana could be with the team until 2021, the year Dipoto and the Mariners have said they intend to compete. He will be 29-years-old after that season and could be an extension candidate before he even hits the open market.

The Mariners don’t need to trade Santana, so unless a team comes knocking with the offer too good to be true, they could hold onto him this summer.