Grading Seattle Mariners Trade Proposal from the Fans

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.