Seattle Mariners Trade a Day: Edwin Encarnacion to the Brewers

Edwin Encarnacion continues to hit for the Mariners, but we can assume that won’t be the case much longer as Encarnacion finds himself squarely on the trade block. As “The Parrot” has been one of the lone bright spots for the team, enjoy it while you can as he might be the most likely Mariner to be traded in the coming weeks.

While a National League team seemed an unlikely fit for the aging slugger at the start of the season, Encarnacion’s play at first base has been passable and has opened up more opportunities for the Mariners to find him a new home.

Milwaukee is obviously in playoff contention and has gotten little production out of their infield. Adding Encarnacion’s bat to the middle of the order to go along with MVP candidate Christian Yelich and free agent addition Yasmani Grandal would give the Brewers a formidable middle of the lineup.

The issue with all the possible trade scenarios is the money owed to Encarnacion for the remainder of this year and his $5 million buyouts for next season (unless the acquiring team wanted to keep him for $20 million in 2020). Seattle has clearly shown a willingness to eat money in deals and they will have to do just that in any Encarnacion trade if they want to get a significant prospect in return.

Arguably the Mariners biggest weakness right now is pitching, so in this proposal, the Mariners will be targeting a solid pitching prospect in the Brewers system.

Sending $8 million with Encarnacion might seem like a lot of money to send with someone having a 2.0 WAR season currently, but in order to get Supak, a pitcher close to big league ready, the Mariners have to essentially make Encarnacion free for the rest of the year for the Brewers.

Supak is a 23-year-old right-handed starting pitcher that is currently 8-2 with a 1.91 ERA in Double A. Adding an arm like Supak to the Mariners system would add to the stable of prospects that

General Manager Jerry Dipoto is collecting, and no organization can ever have enough pitching. Having obvious success in Double-A currently, Supak appears to fit the timeline that Dipoto is looking for as this team moves toward contention in 2021.

The Brewers might want to make Supak part of a package to get a bigger named player (maybe someone like Madison Bumgarner) but the cash the Mariners are sending in this proposed deal should entice the Brewers enough to let an arm like Supak go in the return package.

Adding Supak to the system would provide the Mariners with another arm to potentially build a rotation around in the future and one that might be ready for a promotion to Triple-A based off of his success at the Double-A level.