Rumor: Mariners 3B Kyle Seager garnering interest from “multiple teams”

There are things you hear every MLB off-season that make you raise your eyebrows. And then there are things that you hear that make you stop dead in your tracks. Well Mariners fans, we have the latter.

After tame winter meetings in which the Mariners made just one addition to their 40-man roster via a Rule 5 selection, we thought the rumors would subside for a bit. Man, were we wrong. Last night, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic published a story that sent shockwaves through Mariners fandom: Kyle Seager may be tradeable after all.

In the article, which you read by clicking the link (subscribers only), Rosenthal says a Major League source has told him that thanks to the thin third base market, “multiple teams” have shown interest in Mariners 3rd baseman Kyle Seager.

Long thought to be untradeable, thanks in large part to a “poison pill” that turns the team option for 2022 into a player option if he is traded, teams are reportedly willing to work around that to snag the one-time All-Star.

Seager, who had a decent 2017 and an abysmal 2018 season, remade his body last winter, dropping weight, adding flexibility, and changed his diet to make sure 2018 didn’t happen again. And after a hand injury late in Spring Training derailed the first half of his season, Seager came on strong in the second half of 2019.

In his final 280 PAs last season, Seager slashed .260/.339/.524 with 13 home runs and 13 doubles, along with his usual great defense. The strong second half helped him finish with a 2.4 bWAR and a 2.9 fWAR in just over 2/3 of a season.

This turnaround, combined with the rapidly developing third base market, have led enough teams to consider Seager a trade option. Seattle will likely have to eat money to facilitate a deal. We still don’t know which teams are interested or what their level of interest actually is.

Rosenthal speculates that the teams interested may include the Nationals, Braves, Rangers, Dodgers, and Twins. This is a developing story and we will follow it right along with you guys. Stay tuned.