Former prospect's bad break seals Eugenio Suárez trade as win for Mariners

Whenever two teams (or more) undertake a trade, each side understandably hopes it's them which comes out on top. Well, now comes some news out of Arizona which will have plenty in Seattle insisting the Mariners won the trade they made at the July 31 deadline for Eugenio Suárez.

As reported by Alex Weiner of Arizona Sports, Tyler Locklear has been placed on the 10-day injured list with left elbow inflammation. The first baseman was the key piece of the return package which sent Suárez to Seattle, and this injury is just the latest blow in what has been a tough period for him.

Formerly considered one of the Mariners' top prospects, Locklear was tremendous earlier this season in Triple-A Tacoma as highlighted by hitting .316 with a .942 OPS in 98 games. However, following the trade to Arizona, his ambition to become an everyday first baseman in the majors has not gone to plan.

In the 31 games Locklear played for the Diamondbacks prior to his injury, he hit just .175 with a .529 OPS and -1.1 bWAR. One of the main reasons he was still being rolled out at first base was due to a season-ending injury to Pavin Smith.

Eugenio Suárez now beginning to justify the Mariners' faith

As for the Mariners, the truth is that Suárez looked poor in the early going of his return to Seattle, with two home runs and seven RBI as part of a .454 OPS in his first 17 games. In the 19 games since, however, he's looked more like his usual productive self with seven home runs and 15 RBI contributing towards a .955 OPS.

Now we do appreciate that Suárez is 34 and the odds of him returning to Seattle next year seemingly are against the Mariners, whereas Locklear still has the ability to fulfil his potential. In the here and now, though, it sure seems like the M's got the better end of the trade, which brings us to an interesting observation of how Jerry Dipoto tends to have good instincts with prospect trades:

There will be those who question the above take by Mariners Muse, with Noelvi Marte being a popular example of one where Dipoto did get it wrong. Marte was part of the package which the Mariners sent to Cincinnati back in 2022 in exchange for Luis Castillo, who is now seemingly breaking down and definitely past his peak.

However, we would contend that those saying the Mariners should have kept Marte need to look at the whole picture. The Castillo trade was similar to the Suárez one in that it was about the now, and with Marte and Locklear respectively being the price to pay to help the M's quest to contend for the playoffs in the moment. The Castillo trade worked in 2022 and the Suárez trade is working in 2025.

In any event, we still believe that there is something to Dipoto having good instincts when it comes to his prospects and what to do with them. Certainly Mariners fans will hope this is true, as he must really like his nine top 100 guys given that they're all still around.