Should the Seattle Mariners pursue the recently released Eddie Rosario?
News broke yesterday that the Twins put Eddie Rosario on outright waivers. Should the Seattle Mariners try to sign the recently released outfielder?
While it was announced yesterday that one of the Twins sluggers Eddie Rosario was placed on waivers, it was also announced earlier today that he has cleared waivers. Despite impressive offensive stats, the Twins came to the decision to place Rosario on waivers since they could not find a team to trade with and do not want to have to go into arbitration with Rosario who is projected as high as $13 million in his final year of arbitration.
Rosario, if he does not take a deal later today with the Twins, will hit the open market and be a prime target for every team. Rosario had a hitting line of .257/.316/.476 in 2020 which adds up to a .792 OPS. He had a 115 OPS+ as well playing in 57 games last season. In his 6 year career, Rosario has 119 home runs and a .788 OPS.
So, Should the Seattle Mariners pursue Eddie Rosario?
If they could get him at a good price I would say why not? But, the problem is he won’t get to the right price. Rosario will get a deal from someone that will be close to what he was set to earn in arbitration as teams are always in the market for a big bat like Rosario.
However, for the Mariners’ sake, Rosario is a similar talent to Mitch Haniger and for the price that he will go at it’s not worth it with the crowded outfield of Lewis, Haniger, Moore, Ervin, and prospects. The Mariners were also the worst team in the league last year against left handed pitching (.609 OPS vs LHP), and Rosario, who is a left-handed batter, has better splits in his career against right-handed pitching so he would not help the Mariners in that territory of need.
Haniger has similar splits vs LHP and RHP in his career so he will help the Mariners in that regard, but paying Eddie Rosario a price around $10 million to only play vs. right-handed pitching, or be a 4th outfielder, is not something that the Mariners will do.