Mariners Trade Proposal: Matt Chapman to the Mariners

The Mariners have been preparing for the offseason to begin the last week. They paired down their 40 man roster by outrighting Jake Bauers and Shed Long, lost Ljay Newsome to the Cardinals, and removed other players. This has brought their 40 man roster total down to give the Mariners more flexibility to make a move soon after the World Series ends. One of the biggest current holes that the Mariners need to fill is at third base as Kyle Seager is almost certainly not returning.

This is where the Mariners path to trade for Matt Chapman becomes clear.

On October 27, it was widely reported that long-time Oakland Athletics manager Bob Melvin had accepted a 3-year contract with the San Diego Padres. This came as a shock to the baseball community because Melvin had been in Oakland for more than a decade. Melvin leaving the A’s shows that they may not be expecting to contend as they have been.

Several A’s players are getting further into arbitration and will be more expensive, the cheap A’s ownership may not want to pay for all of the current player’s contracts as they grow. Matt Chapman, Matt Olson, Sean Manaea, and others will only make more money in 2022. The A’s may also be trying to force their way into a new stadium as the current Oakland Coliseum is well known as the worst in baseball and maybe in all of professional sports.

These lead to speculation that the A’s may try to trade players to get payroll down to try to get a new stadium and get younger and spend less money. They could trade their great Matt duo of Matt Olson and Matt Chapman to try to find the next A’s unheralded stars.