Seattle Mariners: FanSided Offseason Simulation Day 1 Recap

TRADE WITH THE MIAMI MARLINS

This deal was by far the quickest to complete. From the time it was first conceptualized to when it was finalized, perhaps only 10-15 minutes had passed. We were really excited by the opportunity to not only open up a path for Shed Long to become the everyday second baseman, but also address the outfield logjam in one fell swoop, even though we did also acquire a Major League outfielder in this deal.

However, with Lewis Brinson over Mallex Smith, we get an extra year of club control at a cheaper rate for the 2020 season and get our hands on a player who was once one of the best prospects in all of baseball. Now, while Smith had a disappointing 2019 season, his struggles pale in comparison to the horrific start Brinson has had to his career. To say Brinson is a project would be an understatement, and perhaps he’s beyond fixing, but there’s also a hell of a lot more potential there than with Smith, in our eyes.

In addition to Brinson, we also acquired right-handed pitcher José Ureña. The 28-year-old has been less-than-stellar atop a poor Marlins rotation for the last few years, but could be a nice piece at the back-end of our unit or in the bullpen. For now, our plan would be to start Ureña as our #5, especially if Aaron Sanchez isn’t ready to go, and move him to the bullpen once we’re set to call Justin Dunn back up.

Despite sending the Marlins $7 million to cover a large portion of Dee Gordon’s 2020 salary and adding Ureña’s projected $4 million arbitration salary, we were still able to dump ~$5 million in payroll when you factor in Smith’s arbitration projections and Brinson’s league minimum income. Plus, we wound up traded five years of club control between Gordon and Smith for six between Brinson and Ureña. Overall, we feel very much pleased with this one.