3 Tampa Bay Rays the Mariners should target at the trade deadline

The Rays have had quite the fall from grace since last year. After starting 2023 with 13 straight victories and ending up with 99 wins overall, things have turned sour. They've lost stars Shane McClanahan and Wander Franco (for VERY different reasons) and other pieces of their core, namely Yandy Díaz and Randy Arozarena, have taken big steps back.

With a current record of 47-47, they are 10 games back of the division and 5.5 games back of a wild card spot, so it would be unsurprising if they decided to sell off their highest-value pieces. Which of those would benefit Seattle most?

2B Brandon Lowe - .248/.345/.471

Something in the water at T-Mobile Park has cursed the second base position for Seattle as of late. Adam Frazier, Kolten Wong, and now Jorge Polanco have disappointed during their respective Mariners' tenures. While the first two are now problems of the past, Polanco's lackluster production is a problem of the present.

Lowe, who returned to the Rays lineup in May after spending a month on the IL due to a right oblique strain, has consistently been a plus-bat throughout his seven-year career in Tampa Bay. His 133 OPS+ would be a massive improvement over Polanco's own mark of 70. Lowe also has three more doubles and three more home runs than Polanco in 52 fewer at-bats.

Lowe doesn't have enough plate appearances to be considered qualified but he's already shown great batted ball characteristics. His barrel rate of 13.6% and sweet-spot rate of 38.2% are both in the top quartile of hitters. To compensate for subpar chase, whiff, and strikeout rates, he's got a walk rate of 10.7%, so his plate discipline evens out in that regard.

Lowe does have team options for 2025 and 2026 but it wouldn't be out of the question for him to be traded. The Rays are quite a few building blocks away from competing in the AL East and he would probably bring in more future value than current.

UT Amed Rosario - .303/.328/.415

A valuable plug-and-play kind of guy, Rosario seems to have rediscovered his stride after taking a step back in 2023. Similar to Dylan Moore, he's able to split time between the middle infield and the outfield, specifically right field. This means that he could be a solution to either the Polanco problem at second base or the Haniger hitch in right field.

While he doesn't hit for a ton of power, the key aspect that stands about his playstyle is his high batting average. The Mariners are tied with the White Sox for the lowest team batting average in MLB at .220 - not a recipe for success. Furthermore, they don't need a ton of power with names like Cal Raleigh and Mitch Garver providing home runs at the price of their own batting averages.

He keeps his strikeout rate low (16.8%) but has an awful chase rate (38.4%), a curious combination. He's also a defensive liability, already amassing -7 outs above average and -9 defensive runs saved despite only appearing in 68 games so far.

Like Lowe, Rosario's contract ends with the season. Unlike Lowe, he has no team options and is already on a very affordable $1.5 million deal for the year. No matter whose place he takes on any given day, the Mariners will have to hope that his offensive contributions will be able to outweigh any defensive mishaps he ends up making. Luckily for Seattle, run prevention has been less of a problem than run creation this year so the decision should be, for the most part, pretty easy.