Seattle Mariners: A perfect trade for both sides with the Milwaukee Brewers

Last season the Milwaukee Brewers got no production from the third base position. In 215 at-bats from Brewers third baseman, they had a total of just 38 hits and a .574 OPS. As the Brewers are still looking to compete and are in dire need of a cheap solution at third base, the Seattle Mariners have a perfect potential offer for them.

In talking with Review the Brew they said that if the Brewers are to get Seager the Seattle Mariners would have to pay 2/3 of Kyle’s remaining salary to make it work. Seager is set to make $33 million over the next two years if he is traded so the Mariners offer to take on the salary of Avisail Garcia and send over $8 million, which comes out to around 2/3 of Kyle Seager’s contract.

Garcia is in the final year of a two-year deal that will pay him $10,750,000 in 2021 and then he will most likely be bought out of his player option in 2022 for $2 million. Garcia has had an up and down career with the high being his 2017 All-Star campaign with the White Sox, but he has struggled two of the last three years.

Due to poor defense in the outfield, Garcia does not have much value with a career WAR of 7.8 with 4.5 of that coming from his steller 2017. However, Garcia can be a fourth outfielder or a starting outfielder for the Mariners next season while they wait on Jarred Kelenic to come up.

And how about the prospects that the Seattle Mariners get?

The two prospects that the Mariners acquire in the deal are the Brewers’ #7 prospect Antoine Kelly and #15 prospect Payton Henry. Kelly is a 6′ 6″ 21-year-old southpaw who mainly uses his 94-97 fastball to put up numbers like 41 K’s in 21.2 innings in rookie ball in 2019. He has a 55-grade slider but will have to work on it along with his changeup if he is to become a major league pitcher.

Henry is a 23-year-old catching prospect with 50-grade power and great defensive grades. Henry has played 4 years in the minors and nothing above high A ball (of course that would be different if there were a minor league season in 2020). Because of his offense, Payton will most likely only be able to make the Majors as a backup but his defense and arm could keep him in the majors as a serviceable number two catcher.

In talking with Review the Brew they also said that they don’t see Garcia getting dealt with Ryan Braun gone but with Lorenzo Cain back in center and a dire need for a third baseman, I could see this deal getting done. I also don’t think this is the most value the Mariners could get for Seager but there aren’t many teams who have a one-year high salary contract that can cancel out some of Kyle’s salary and a need for a third baseman like the Brewers.