Seattle Mariners: 5 bold trade ideas for this offseason

Seattle acquires Blake Snell for a mix of prospects and MLB starters

Rumors have started swirling that the Rays will listen to trades for Blake Snell. Even though Snell is the team’s ace, this is not an uncommon practice for a Rays team that has traded players like Chris Archer and Evan Longoria in the past.

Snell is still owed $39 million for 3 more years, which is an extremely team-friendly deal with Snell’s talent in the middle of his prime and will certainly make his value higher in trade talks. However, the Rays are a small market team who like I said, love selling high for prospects who are MLB ready or close to it.

While this would be a hefty load for Seattle to give up, it could end up benefiting both teams and would free up two 40 man roster spots for the Mariners. Justin Dunn would be a member of the Rays rotation next season and despite good numbers on the surface, his Statcast metrics for last year were horrendous. Tampa Bay could take a chance on tweaking Dunn’s mechanics to try and unlock his former top prospect stuff.

Trammell is the big piece of this deal as he is the 51st ranked prospect in all of the minor leagues according to MLB.com. This trade would mean 4 different teams in 2 years for Trammell as he was sent over to the Mariners from the Padres last season, after being traded to San Diego from Cincinnati.

The last piece of this deal is Juan Then, who the Mariners got from the Yankees in the Edwin Encarnacion trade. Then is Seattle’s 14th ranked prospect but has not had a season with an ERA over 2.98 across 3 different levels. He was also just added to the Mariners 40 man roster which shows the Mariner’s belief in the 20-year-old pitcher.