Mariners: Trades they could make to upgrade at First Base

The Mariners are right around .500, with the trade deadline coming up at the end of July. It’s a difficult spot to be in, as it’s hard to figure out if they should be buyers or sellers. If they decide to be buyers, there are a few places they could look to upgrade.

For today, we are going to look at some trades that they could make at first base to improve the team. Yes, they are supposed to have Evan White, but he has both performed poorly and been injured… likely the former affected by the latter.

Jake Bauers has been good at first since he was picked up by the Mariners during the Tigers series but likely isn’t the long-term answer. He would be a great bench/fill-in guy, but when you look at his career up to this point, it’s hard to predict for him to continue this level of play. He is hitting .300 but has just one home run, two doubles, and two walks in 50 at-bats.

As we go around the league, we need to look for teams that fit into one or more of the following categories. They either need to be a team with a bad record, a player that is a short-term rental (making him easier to get), someone who has admitted to wanting out of their situation, or someone who is playing a bit worse than normal which could make them easier to get.

We are going to try and keep it a bit realistic by using the trade values over at baseballtradevalues.com and the simulator they have for trades there. Let’s dive into three potential trades that the Mariners could make at the trade deadline to improve their play at first base.