Mariners' Brendan Donovan trade throw-in already looks like one that got away

Even allowing for the news that the Nationals have optioned Harry Ford to Triple-A Rochester, the fear is real for the Mariners that he will turn out to be a really good Major League player. Now duplicate this fear in respect of Ben Williamson, someone else who the M's traded away during the offseason.

The Mariners knew the haul it would take to land Brendan Donovan would be nothing to sneeze at, and the result was giving the Cardinals the No. 7 and No. 11 prospects in their farm system, as well as the 68th overall pick in this year's draft. However, the M's ended up having to also trade Williamson to the Rays in order to get the deal completed, and the signs are already there that he could end up being the one who got away.

Ben Williamson has found his bat in Florida and is lighting it up

Critics said at the time that the Mariners gave up too much to acquire Donovan, with it being suggested that including Williamson specifically was the move which took it into this territory of an overpay. The justification was that his excellent defensive upside was not enough to make up for a subpar bat, but so far in spring training he's been lighting it up at the plate.

Williamson has hit .371 with a 1.007 OPS in 14 games for the Rays in Florida, and has stepped it up even more in the past seven contest with a .500 batting average and 1.395 OPS, helped by two homers and eight of his nine RBI this spring. It's also noticeable that he's hitting the ball pretty hard, with his exit velocity of 91 mph up from 88.2 mph last season.

In fairness to Williamson he did bat a solid .253 in 85 games for the Mariners last season, but if he's now able to also become more of a scoring threat then you really will have something in Tampa Bay. Especially if you pair this with his potential as a Gold Glove-level defender.

Rays committed to taking full advantage of Ben Williamson's superior defensive skill set

On the subject of Williamson's high defensive ceiling, the Rays are doing their best to take full advantage of this skill set, as we wrote about last month. While the Mariners seemed focused on him being good enough to make the third base job his own, the plan in Tampa Bay is to turn him into a utility player; something which we're surprised Jerry Dipoto, Justin Hollander and company didn't want to focus on.

It was already clear what Williamson could do at third base, but now he's also improving his defense at second base and shortstop. As per MLB TV host and sideline reporter Ryan Bass, Rays manager Kevin Cash has been full of praise for how well the 2023 second round draft pick has picked up playing two new defensive positions.

To be clear, we would rather (and are happy) the Mariners have Donovan instead of Williamson, but it would have been even better if they could have had both players. On one level you can totally picture Williamson as Dylan Moore 2.0, but the real fear in Seattle must be that the 25-year-old has the genuine potential to be an even better version of "D Mo."