Mariners: Possible trades in dealing away Jake Fraley

Every year, you have to expect that Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto is going to make a handful of deals and be rumored in even more. He has already made a few trades this year. Most of them are minor, but he did net Jake Bauers, who has looked interesting so far and is slowly proving he should have some time in the lineup.

There are going to be a handful of players who get mentioned in those rumors this year. We already talked a bit about Kyle Seager, and will likely do that a bit more as the season goes on. Same with Mitch Haniger. There will be others as well. For now, let’s look at the bearded wonder in Jake Fraley.

I previously wrote about the fact that the Mariners could look to trade away Jake Fraley if the price is right. Again, don’t just give him away, but take the offer if something is strong and helps the team out. Last year, when they gave up Nola, they got a replacement catcher, a bullpen guy who throws 100, a crazy good hitter, and a highly touted and highly traveled, outfield prospect.

The trade seemed like a strong win for the Mariners last year when it happened and still does, if not more so. In fact, according to baseballtradevalues.com, the Mariners received 53.2 compared to 27.1 in trade value. Does this mean that I will only be looking at trades where we are getting twice the value back? Well… yeah, it sort of does. We are just giving away Fraley, after all.

One of the metrics that we are using here to figure out who could need an outfielder is Weighted Runs Created Plus (WRC+). It comes from Fangraphs, and gives you an idea of production so far compared to league average, and includes park factors. We will also be looking at where those teams compare to the rest of the league in outfield WAR on the season. Finally, it’s not just any team we will be making trades with, but ones with high ceilings/strong playoff odds.

Remember, these are similar value-wise to what happened last year in the Nola trade. Am I saying they will happen? No. Could they? Possibly. If you would’ve asked me last year about the Nola deal, I don’t think I would have believed that the Mariners could’ve gotten that much in return.

Let’s start off with the AL East, and take a look at the first of two teams from that division that we could possibly create a trade surrounding Jake Fraley.