Mariners Rumors: Seattle may be looking to rob MLB's worst team

With the MLB trade deadline now just a day away, the Seattle Mariners' efforts to land an impact arm for their bullpen are ongoing. According to the latest, they have their eye on three members of the very worst team in baseball.

This is according to Daniel Kramer of MLB.com, who reported Tuesday that the Mariners have "been heavily scouting" the Colorado Rockies bullpen and three right-handers in particular: Jake Bird, Juan Mejia, and Seth Halvorsen.

Underwhelmed? If so, that is fair. The Rockies are 51 games under .500, after all, and their bullpen has the third-worst ERA in the league at 5.15.

The ol' "Coors" defense applies here, however, and it's not the only one.

The Mariners have their eye on the right Rockies relievers

This is actually not the first time that Seattle has been linked to Bird, specifically, and we remain enthusiastic about the possibility of a trade.

The 29-year-old has turned into a late-blooming success in 2025, as his 4.73 ERA comes with 62 strikeouts in 53.1 innings pitched. He can hit the mid-90s from a funky arm slot, and both his sweeper and curveball have whiff rates in the 30 percent range.

Bird's curveball is statistically his best pitch by way of a 38.4 Whiff% and .185 average, yet he throws it only 22.9 percent of the time. Simply escaping Denver could be all he needs to put more trust in it, as the relationship between altitude and spin is famously not a friendly one.

The 25-year-old Halvorsen only has a 4.99 ERA, with fewer strikeouts (36) than innings pitched (39.2). He averages 100 mph on his four-seamer, however, and both his whiff (79th percentile) and ground ball rates (88th percentile) are well above average. Throwing strikes is what he struggles with, and that is where the Mariners tend to shine when they get a new pitcher in their midst.

Mejia is also 25, and he likewise has a good fastball at 96.2 mph. Yet the real star of his repertoire is a slider with a ton of horizontal break, and it sure seems like that pitch is just waiting to be unlocked in another city. He has a 1.72 ERA in 14 road appearances, compared to a 6.64 ERA at Coors Field.

The best argument against trading for any of these three is that none is a known quantity as a relief ace. And it does sound as if the Mariners know they can't screw up this aspect of their trade deadline, as Jerry Dipoto has spoken about wanting to be "aggressive" in going after high-end bullpen help.

Yet more so than, say, a Jhoan Duran or a Griffin Jax, any one of Bird, Halvorsen and Mejia figures to come with a relatively modest acquisition cost. Any one of the three would stand to be a steal just on that account, which is to say nothing of how each is under club control for the long haul. Bird will reach free agency the soonest, and even he is locked up through 2028.

Whether it's with one of these three or someone else, time is running out for Dipoto to address the bullpen. The trade deadline will officially have come and gone at 3 p.m. PT on Thursday.