Grading Seattle Mariners Trade Proposal from the Fans

As we wait for the World Series to begin, we took to social media to ask Seattle Mariners fans what trade they would like to see happen this off-season.

Reaching out to social media for Mariners’ trade ideas is a risk. You never really know what to expect in these types of things but let’s have some fun and see what we get. The object of this exercise to look at other people’s ideas and offer tweaks and ideas off of their original concept.

In a way, this is a bit of a Mariners fan think tank. Keep in mind that just because we say we don’t like a particular trade, doesn’t mean it is ridiculous or totally unreasonable. But we are here to offer our honest opinion of the ideas, hopes, and dreams that the masses can come up with.

We have gotten quite a few ideas already, so this article will likely need to cover a few parts, but let’s just dive right in with our first Mariners trade proposal:

So right off the top, Mariners Twitter is coming through with a banger. Erik Swanson, Justin Dunn, Juan Then, and Dom Thompson-Williams are additions to the Mariners organization in the past calendar year and in this proposal, they are all headed out of town to Milwaukee for Zach Davies and Alex Claudio.

Davies just wrapped up his third season in the Brewers rotation and thus far, he’s been okay. In 111 starts, he has posted a 3.91 ERA, a 4.22 FIP, a 6.36 K/9, and a 46% groundball rate. That has all equaled a 7.8 fWAR in his career.

Claudio may sound familiar to fans, having spent 3 full-seasons with the Texas Rangers. A soft-tossing, submarining lefty, Claudio was a bit of a disappointment for the Brewers in 2019, posting a 4.92 FIP in 83 games.

Durable and a groundball machine, Claudio is a solid option in the 6th and 7th innings, or in a key spot against a lefty, but he isn’t a “relief ace”.

Overall, I find this deal interesting. I’m not opposed to trading away a highly ranked prospect and some depth for MLB help, despite being in the midst of a rebuild. However, there are cheaper ways to acquire a #4 starter and middle-innings help.

Davies has three years of club control remaining and Claudio has 2 years left. Mlbtraderumors.com projects Davies to earn $5 million in arbitration and for Claudio to take home $2.2 million this winter.

As I said, I’m not opposed to trading prospects for controllable pieces. But Dunn’s relatively high floor as a high-leverage reliever makes him more valuable than Davies (at least for Seattle) and the depth portion is probably more than I’m willing to give for Claudio.

Overall, I’d give this trade a 50 (20-80 scale) on valuation but a 65 on creativity. So, not too shabby.

Mariners Trade Proposal #3

Let’s wrap up part one with a special offer. This one comes to us from the site head of our FanSided sister site, Halo Hangout, the website that covers the Los Angeles Angels. Interestingly enough, there seems to be a bigger group of the “trade Marco Gonzales” crowd in our community than most other Mariners communities and here we have a question about him. Wonderful.

So let’s start with the two prospects being offered: Jahmai Jones and Kevin Maitan. Jones is a 22-year-old, second base prospect who is a bit more athlete than a baseball player. Jones has flashed average or better tools across the board, with plus speed, but he hasn’t quite figured it out in the upper minors.

But Jones has two things working for him, aside from his athleticism. First, he earns high praise for his work ethic. Second, he has begun to change his swing, ditching a high leg kick for a quieter lower half, and the results in the Arizona Fall League have been promising.

Dipoto typically prefers to acquire MILB producers over athletes (of course he’d like both), but we have seen swing changes completely change the profile of many a player.

As for Maitan, well he’s a pretty textbook case of a prospect who has struggled to adapt to pro ball. One of the big prizes of the 2017 international amateur class, Maitan signed with the Braves for $4.25 million before he was forcibly released after the Braves were hit with major sanctions.

The Angels scooped him up and the buzz for Maitan was off the charts. But reality hasn’t lived up to expectation, and now Maitan is in danger of falling off the radar completely. Still, he doesn’t turn 20 until late February and the tools could still be there to be a solid third baseman in a few years.

So, this deal is really interesting to me because it kind of points out something I’ve come to expect. I believe Marco Gonzales is more valuable to the Mariners than he is to any other team, which is why we haven’t even caught a whiff that Dipoto is listening to offers for him.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with Vincent’s offer. I’d give it a nice 55. But if Billy Eppler called Dipoto with this offer, I think Jerry would treat it like a 40-grade offer. I think the Mariners want to keep Marco around, at least for another year or two.

And since Marco has 4-years of club control remaining and won’t start making real money until after the 2021 season, they have no reason to trade him unless they’re blown away.

I think Vincent’s offer is solid and at least in the ballpark for how most of baseball would view an arm like Gonzales. But for Dipoto and the Mariners, it just won’t be worth it.