Seattle Mariners make room for Keon Broxton by trading Kristopher Negrón

Oh, Jerry Dipoto made a trade? Sweet, I can’t wait to see who we got for…

…Kristopher Negrón? Well, alright. Who knew that Negrón actually had some faint hint of trade value (spoiler alert: no one did), especially to the current best team in baseball? But that’s exactly the case, as Negrón received word on his departure to the Los Angeles Dodgers after the Mariners walked off the Tigers Sunday afternoon.

After putting up great numbers for Triple-A Tacoma this year, the 33-year-old Negrón spent 10 games with the Mariners’ big league club, slashing .217/.280/.217 with one RBI during that time. The Dodgers needed to add some utility depth to their roster with Chris Taylor and Enrique Hernández both landing on the IL recently.

In return, the Mariners get utility infielder Daniel Castro. The 26-year-old is an above-average defender, but is an offensive liability. He has some MLB experience, spending time with the Braves and Rockies in 2015, ’16, and ’18. In those 98 games, Castro slashed .210/.240/.265; however, over that time, he posted a +5.6 defensive WAR per FanGraphs.

Ultimately, Castro is just a throw-in. He may get some time at the Major League level with the Mariners this year, but don’t expect much. What this deal really boils down to is that it opens up a spot on both Seattle’s 25-manfor outfielder Keon Broxton, who was recently claimed off waivers from the Baltimore Orioles.

Broxton is expected to join the team tomorrow in Arlington where the Mariners will take on the Rangers, and he most likely will make his debut given that Seattle only has one other healthy, natural outfielder on their current roster. This will be Broxton’s third team this season, having started the year with the Mets and later making his way to Baltimore.

While he’s been absolutely putrid at the plate no matter where he’s gone, he’s by far the best defensive outfielder the Mariners have had all year. In just 190 innings for the Brewers last year, Broxton posted an insane 13 defensive runs saved. Of course, he hasn’t been nearly as good this year, but is still significantly better than the majority of outfielders the Mariners have run out there this season.

There is some potential in his bat, however, even though it’s been, both figuratively and literally, swing-and-miss for the last three seasons. But Broxton is just two campaigns removed from a 20 home run season (albeit he posted a .299 OBP that same year), and three removed from posting a 1.7 fWAR while slashing .242/.354/.430.